_To illustrate this memorial, which is first addressed to the Friends
of the Beautiful, and whose object is to touch the heart, we give a
sonnet of M. Edmond Rostand. It is entitled, "The Cathedral," and will
show that pride may be taken by the victim of violence, and that a
crime against the beautiful diminishes only the brute who commits it:_
Nought have they done but render it more immortal! The work does not
perish that a scoundrel has struck. Ask Phidias, then, or ask of Rodin
if before bits of his work men no longer say, "It is his!" The
fortress dies when once dismantled, but the temple shattered lives but
the more nobly; and our eyes, of a sudden, remember the roof with
disdain and prefer to see the sky in the lace work of the stone. Let
us give thanks, since till now we lacked what the Greeks possess on
the hill of gold--the symbol of beauty consecrated by insult! Let us
give thanks to the layers of the stupid cannon, since from their
German skill there results for them--shame; for us--a Parthenon!
No. 3.