Still, is it not horrible to think that the Hottentot taste of a few bawling old men can pursue the Virgin even in Her sanctuary with such musical insults?
Ah, there is the rain again," said Durtal with vexation, after a short silence.
"Well, here we are.

We can take shelter in the church, and study the interior at our leisure." They knelt before the Black Virgin of the Pillar; then they sat down in the deserted nave, and the Abbe said in an undertone,-- "I explained to you the other day the symbolism of the outside of the building.

Would you like me now to inform you in a few words as to the allegories set forth in the aisles ?" And on seeing Durtal agree by a nod, the priest went on,-- "You are, of course, aware that almost all our cathedrals are cruciform.
In the primitive Church, it is true, you will find that some were constructed of a circular form and surmounted by a dome.

But most of these were not built by our forefathers; they are ancient temples of the heathen adapted by the Catholics, with more or less alteration, to their own use, or imitated from such temples before the Romanesque style was recognized.
"We need then seek in these no liturgical meaning, since that form was not a Christian invention.

At the same time Durand of Mende, in his _Rationale_, asserts that a building of rounded form symbolizes the extension of the Church over the whole circle of the universe.