[Illustration 41:  THE BODY THE ARCHETYPE OF SACRED EDIFICES.]

[Illustration 42:  THE VESICA PISCIS AND THE PLAN OF CHARTRES.]

At certain periods of the world’s history, periods of mystical enlightenment, men have been wont to use the human figure, the soul’s temple, as a sort of archetype for sacred edifices (Illustration 41).  The colossi, with calm inscrutable faces, which flank the entrance to Egyptian temples; the great bronze Buddha of Japan, with its dreaming eyes; the little known colossal figures of India and China—­all these belong scarcely less to the domain of architecture than of sculpture.  The relation above referred to however is a matter more subtle and occult than mere obvious imitation on a large scale, being based upon some correspondence of parts, or similarity of proportions, or both.  The correspondence between the innermost sanctuary or shrine of a temple and the heart of a man, and between the gates of that temple and the organs of sense is sufficiently obvious, and a relation once established, the idea is susceptible of almost infinite development.  That the ancients proportioned their temples from the human figure is no new idea, nor is it at all surprising.  The sculpture of the Egyptians and the Greeks reveals the fact that they studied the body abstractly, in its exterior presentment.  It is clear that the rules of its proportions must have been established for sculpture, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that they became canonical in architecture also.  Vitruvius and Alberti both lay stress on the fact that all sacred buildings should be founded on the proportions of the human body.

[Illustration 43:  A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL THE SYMBOL OF THE BODY OF JESUS CHRIST]

[Illustration 44:  THE SYMBOLISM OF A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL FROM THE ROSICRUCIANS:  HARGRAVE JENNINGS]

In France, during the Middle Ages, a Gothic cathedral became, at the hands of the secret masonic guilds, a glorified symbol of the body of Christ.  To practical-minded students of architectural history, familiar with the slow and halting evolution of a Gothic cathedral from a Roman basilica, such an idea may seem to be only the maunderings of a mystical imagination, a theory evolved from the inner consciousness, entitled to no more consideration than the familiar fallacy that vaulted nave of a Gothic church was an attempt to imitate the green aisles of a forest.  It should be remembered however that the habit of the thought of that time was mystical, as that of our own age is utilitarian and scientific; and the chosen language of mysticism is always an elaborate and involved symbolism.  What could be more natural than that a building devoted to the worship of a crucified Savior should be made a symbol, not of the cross only, but of the body crucified?

[Illustration 45:  THE GEOMETRICAL BASIS OF THE HUMAN FIGURE]

[Illustration 46]