In point of fact," said Durtal to himself, as he took the _Christian Iconography_ of that writer down from the shelf, "in point of fact, according to him, our stone pages ought to follow in such succession that, beginning with the opening chapter on the north, they would end with the paragraphs on the south.

Then we should find the narrative in the following order: First of all the genesis, the Biblical cosmogony, the creation of man and woman and Eden; and then, after the expulsion of the first pair, the tale of man's redemption by suffering.
"'Whereby,' says he, 'the sculptor took occasion to teach the hinds of La Beauce how to work with their hands and their head.

Here, to the right of Adam's Fall, he carves under the eyes and for the perpetual edification of all men, a calendar of stone with all the labours of the field, and then a catechism of industry, showing the works done in the town; finally, for the labours of the mind, a manual of the liberal arts." "Then, thus instructed, man lives on from generation to generation, until the end of the world, set forth in the images on the south side.
"This treasury of sculpture would thus include a compendium of the history of nature and of science, a glossary of morality and art, a biography of humanity, a panorama of the whole world.

Thus it would very really represent the _Mirror of the World_, and be an edition in stone of Vincent of Beauvais' book.
"There is only one difficulty.

The Dominican's _Speculum Universale_ dates from many years later than the erection of this cathedral; also, in developing his theory, Didron does not take into account the perspective and relations of the statuary.