太子爷小说网 > 英语电子书 > the hunchback of notre dame >

第40节

the hunchback of notre dame-第40节

小说: the hunchback of notre dame 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!



n this time replied; 〃I believe that he is。〃

It was the hour when no stranger could remain in the cloister。  The two visitors withdrew。  〃Master;〃 said Gossip Tourangeau; as he took leave of the archdeacon; 〃I love wise men and great minds; and I hold you in singular esteem。 Come to…morrow to the Palace des Tournelles; and inquire for the Abbé de Sainte…Martin; of Tours。〃

The archdeacon returned to his chamber dumbfounded; comprehending at last who Gossip Tourangeau was; and recalling that passage of the register of Sainte…Martin; of Tours: ~Abbas beati Martini; SCILICET REX FRANCIAE; est canonicus de consuetudine et habet parvam proebendam quam habet sanctus Venantius; et debet sedere in sede thesaurarii~。

It is asserted that after that epoch the archdeacon had frequent conferences with Louis XI。; when his majesty came to Paris; and that Dom Claude's influence quite overshadowed that of Olivier le Daim and Jacques Coictier; who; as was his habit; rudely took the king to task on that account。




CHAPTER II。

THIS WILL KILL THAT。



Our lady readers will pardon us if we pause for a moment to seek what could have been the thought concealed beneath those enigmatic words of the archdeacon: 〃This will kill that。  The book will kill the edifice。〃

To our mind; this thought had two faces。  In the first place; it was a priestly thought。  It was the affright of the priest in the presence of a new agent; the printing press。  It was the terror and dazzled amazement of the men of the sanctuary; in the presence of the luminous press of Gutenberg。  It was the pulpit and the manuscript taking the alarm at the printed word: something similar to the stupor of a sparrow which should behold the angel Legion unfold his six million wings。 It was the cry of the prophet who already hears emancipated humanity roaring and swarming; who beholds in the future; intelligence sapping faith; opinion dethroning belief; the world shaking off Rome。  It was the prognostication of the philosopher who sees human thought; volatilized by the press; evaporating from the theocratic recipient。  It was the terror of the soldier who examines the brazen battering ram; and says:〃The tower will crumble。〃 It signified that one power was about to succeed another power。  It meant; 〃The press will kill the church。〃

But underlying this thought; the first and most simple one; no doubt; there was in our opinion another; newer one; a corollary of the first; less easy to perceive and more easy to contest; a view as philosophical and belonging no longer to the priest alone but to the savant and the artist。  It was a presentiment that human thought; in changing its form; was about to change its mode of expression; that the dominant idea of each generation would no longer be written with the same matter; and in the same manner; that the book of stone; so solid and so durable; was about to make way for the book of paper; more solid and still more durable。  In this connection the archdeacon's vague formula had a second sense。 It meant; 〃Printing will kill architecture。〃

In fact; from the origin of things down to the fifteenth century of the Christian era; inclusive; architecture is the great book of humanity; the principal expression of man in his different stages of development; either as a force or as an intelligence。

When the memory of the first races felt itself overloaded; when the mass of reminiscences of the human race became so heavy and so confused that speech naked and flying; ran the risk of losing them on the way; men transcribed them on the soil in a manner which was at once the most visible; most durable; and most natural。  They sealed each tradition beneath a monument。

The first monuments were simple masses of rock; 〃which the iron had not touched;〃 as Moses says。  Architecture began like all writing。  It was first an alphabet。  Men planted a stone upright; it was a letter; and each letter was a hieroglyph; and upon each hieroglyph rested a group of ideas; like the capital on the column。  This is what the earliest races did everywhere; at the same moment; on the surface of the entire world。  We find the 〃standing stones〃 of the Celts in Asian Siberia; in the pampas of America。

Later on; they made words; they placed stone upon stone; they coupled those syllables of granite; and attempted some combinations。  The Celtic dolmen and cromlech; the Etruscan tumulus; the Hebrew galgal; are words。  Some; especially the tumulus; are proper names。  Sometimes even; when men had a great deal of stone; and a vast plain; they wrote a phrase。 The immense pile of Karnac is a complete sentence。

At last they made books。  Traditions had brought forth symbols; beneath which they disappeared like the trunk of a tree beneath its foliage; all these symbols in which humanity placed faith continued to grow; to multiply; to intersect; to become more and more complicated; the first monuments no longer sufficed to contain them; they were overflowing in every part; these monuments hardly expressed now the primitive tradition; simple like themselves; naked and prone upon the earth。  The symbol felt the need of expansion in the edifice。 Then architecture was developed in proportion with human thought; it became a giant with a thousand heads and a thousand arms; and fixed all this floating symbolism in an eternal; visible; palpable form。  While Daedalus; who is force; measured; while Orpheus; who is intelligence; sang;the pillar; which is a letter; the arcade; which is a syllable; the pyramid; which is a word;all set in movement at once by a law of geometry and by a law of poetry; grouped themselves; combined; amalgamated; descended; ascended; placed themselves side by side on the soil; ranged themselves in stories in the sky; until they had written under the dictation of the general idea of an epoch; those marvellous books which were also marvellous edifices: the Pagoda of Eklinga; the Rhamseion of Egypt; the Temple of Solomon。

The generating idea; the word; was not only at the foundation of all these edifices; but also in the form。  The temple of Solomon; for example; was not alone the binding of the holy book; it was the holy book itself。  On each one of its concentric walls; the priests could read the word translated and manifested to the eye; and thus they followed its transformations from sanctuary to sanctuary; until they seized it in its last tabernacle; under its most concrete form; which still belonged to architecture: the arch。  Thus the word was enclosed in an edifice; but its image was upon its envelope; like the human form on the coffin of a mummy。

And not only the form of edifices; but the sites selected for them; revealed the thought which they represented; according as the symbol to be expressed was graceful or grave。 Greece crowned her mountains with a temple harmonious to the eye; India disembowelled hers; to chisel therein those monstrous subterranean pagodas; borne up by gigantic rows of granite elephants。

Thus; during the first six thousand years of the world; from the most immemorial pagoda of Hindustan; to the cathedral of Cologne; architecture was the great handwriting of the human race。  And this is so true; that not only every religious symbol; but every human thought; has its page and its monument in that immense book。

All civilization begins in theocracy and ends in democracy。 This law of liberty following unity is written in architecture。 For; let us insist upon this point; masonry must not be thought to be powerful only in erecting the temple and in expressing the myth and sacerdotal symbolism; in inscribing in hieroglyphs upon its pages of stone the mysterious tables of the law。  If it were thus;as there comes in all human society a moment when the sacred symbol is worn out and becomes obliterated under freedom of thought; when man escapes from the priest; when the excrescence of philosophies and systems devour the face of religion;architecture could not reproduce this new state of human thought; its leaves; so crowded on the face; would be empty on the back; its work would be mutilated; its book would he incomplete。  But no。

Let us take as an example the Middle Ages; where we see more clearly because it is nearer to us。  During its first period; while theocracy is organizing Europe; while the Vatican is rallying and reclassing about itself the elements of a Rome made from the Rome which lies in ruins around the Capitol; while Christianity is seeking all the stages of society amid the rubbish of anterior civilization; and rebuilding with its ruins a new hierarchic universe; the keystone to whose vault is the priestone first hears a dull echo from that chaos; and then; little by little; one sees; arising from beneath the breath of Christianity; from beneath the hand of the barbarians; from the fragments of the dead Greek and Roman architectures; that mysterious Romanesque architecture; sister of the theocratic masonry of Egypt and of India; inalterable emblem of pure catholicism; unchangeable hieroglyph of the papal unity。  All the thought of that day is written; in fact; in this sombre; Romanesque style。  One feels everywhere in it authority; unity; the impenetrable; the absolute; Gregory VII。; always the priest; never the man; 

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的