Over the door: 'I am the door;--by me, if any man enter in,' etc. Put
to the right of the tower, you see, fearlessly, for the convenience of
staircase ascent; all external symmetry being subject with the great
builders to interior use; and then, out of the rightly ordained
infraction of formal law, comes perfect beauty; and when, as here,
the Spirit of Heaven is working with the designer, his thoughts are
suggested in truer order, by the concession to use. After this sculpture
comes the Christian arts,--those which necessarily imply the conviction
of immortality. Astronomy without Christianity only reaches as far
as--'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels--and put all
_things_ under His feet':--Christianity says beyond this,--'Know ye
not that we shall judge angels (as also the lower creatures shall judge
us!)' [Footnote: In the deep sense of this truth, which underlies all
the bright fantasy and humour of Mr. Courthope's "Paradise of Birds,"
that rhyme of the risen spirit of Aristophanes may well be read under
the tower of Giotto, beside his watch-dog of the fold.] The series of
sculptures now beginning, show the arts which _can_ only be accomplished
through belief in Christ.