The Romanesque seems to have preserved from its Oriental origin an element antedating the Birth of Christ; prayer seems to rise there to the implacable Adonai rather than to the pitying Infant, the gentle Mother.

The Gothic, on the contrary, is less timid, more captivated by the two other Persons and the Virgin; it is the home of less rigorous and more artistic Orders.

Bowed shoulders are straightened, downcast eyes are raised, sepulchral voices become seraphic.

It is, in fact, the expansion of the spirit, while the Romanesque symbolizes its repression.

At least, to me, that is the interpretation of these styles," Durtal repeated to himself.
"Nor is that all," he went on.