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II
GOTHIC CONSTRUCTION IN FRANCE
71
vertical height gives the triangle, a, b, c, in A, and not the square, a, b, c, d, in B in the same figure.
FIG. 36.
No single feature could be chosen which would exhibit more clearly the essential principles of Gothic construction. It exhibits, in fact, its governing characteristic, upon which, more than upon anything else, every other characteristic depends. And in view of this hardly any one can fail to see the error that even so learned an authority as Sir Gilbert Scott commits when he remarks that the stilting of the clerestory arches did not arise from any necessity, but was effected merely to afford greater space for clerestory windows.
