The rebuilding of the choir stimulated the[{254}] desire to carry the entire work to a finish, and a sort of second foundation-stone was laid by Frederick William IV. of Prussia on September 4, 1842, when the newly restored choir was also reopened.
In 1848 the nave had sufficiently progressed to allow of its being consecrated; which ceremony took place at seven o'clock in the morning of August 14th, six hundred years after the commencement of the choir. High mass was celebrated by the archbishop, in the presence[{255}] of Archduke John, King Frederick William of Prussia, and a host of other notables.
Within the next twenty years much progress was made in the work of completing the southern nave, the west front—with those enormous pretentious towers—the transepts, and the triforium and clerestory of the nave and transepts.
In 1863 the wall between the fragmentary nave and the choir was removed and the structure opened from end to end.
Before 1870 the western towers were spired, though the final touches were not given to them until quite 1880. Now that they are finished, there is an undeniable elegance and symmetry which cannot be gainsaid, though they were certainly heavily massed in the early views one sees of the cathedral in its unfinished state. One still remarks the apparent—and real—stubbiness of the edifice which, as Fergusson said, would have been alleviated if the overhanging transepts had been omitted. Why they should have been omitted it is hard to conceive, and the criticism does not seem a reasonable one, in spite of the fact that a certain sense of length is wanting.
The nave is undoubtedly very broad, but[{256}] it has double aisles which satisfactorily accounts for this.
Professor Freeman draws a significant contrast between the outline of the cathedrals at Cologne and Amiens.
"Amiens has no outline," says he; meaning that there is a paucity of the picturesqueness of irregularity in its sky-line. "Only at Cologne," he continues, "is this outline seen in its perfect state, and Cologne is a French church on German soil, just as Westminster is a French church on English soil."
Indeed, among all the great cathedrals it is only at Cologne that we find a pair of western towers with any kind of dignity and proportion.