THE TWELFTH-CENTURY GLASS                143
more to the glassworker whose business was to excite his illusions. An
artist, if good for anything, foresees what his public will see; and what
his public will see is what he ought to have intended — the measure of
his genius. If the public sees more than he himself did, this is his
credit; if less, this is his fault. No matter how simple or ignorant we
are, we ought to feel a discord or a harmony where the artist meant us
to feel it, and when we see a motive, we conclude that other people
have seen it before us, and that it must, therefore, have been intended.
Neither of the transept roses is treated like this one; neither has the
effect of a personal ornament; neither is treated as a jewel. No one
knew so well as the artist that such treatment must give the effect of a
jewel. The Roses of France and of Dreux bear indelibly and flagrantly
the character of France and Dreux; on the western rose is stamped
with greater refinement but equal decision the character of a much
greater power than either of them.
No artist would have ventured to put up, before the eyes of Mary
in Majesty, above the windows so dear to her, any object that she had
not herself commanded. Whether a miracle was necessary, or whether
genius was enough, is a point of casuistry which you can settle with
Albertus Magnus or Saint Bernard, and which you will understand as
little when settled as before; but for us, beyond the futilities of unnec-
essary doubt, the Virgin designed this rose; not perhaps in quite the
same perfect spirit in which she designed the lancets, but still wholly
for her own pleasure and as her own idea. She placed upon the breast
of her Church — which symbolized herself — a jewel so gorgeous that
no earthly majesty could bear comparison with it, and which no other
heavenly majesty has rivalled. As one watches the light play on it, one
is still overcome by the glories of the jewelled rose and its three
gemmed pendants; one feels a little of the effect she meant it to
produce even on infidels, Moors, and heretics, but infinitely more on
the men who feared and the women who adored her; — not to dwell
too long upon it, one admits that hers is the only Church.  One