The New York herald., 1875-12-12
ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.
LECTURE ON MYTHOLOGY By REV. MoScuRE D.
CONWAY.


CONWAY
lecture delivered last night, at Masonic Tenn
pie fTwepy third street and Sixth avenue by
Rev. honcure d. Conway on "st George and the
Dragon" The lecture was much wider in its scope
than could have been surmised from the title, which
the learned lecturer simply made the peg which to
hang vast amount Of NEUROLOGICAL lore Of an analogous
kind
He began IN a dry, facetious way, by saying that
every had his dragon. Among others he cited
Thackeray, whose dragon q asuperabundance Of in
ytations TO dinner and VINO was, presumably, killed
by the persistent hospitality Of those who wanted his
wit at their tables After few more similar remarks
he plunged into his subject, and took the audience
straightway to the cradle OF the human race. He
traced the idea OF the dragon back 70 the
earliest times, and showed from Assyran monuments
that the dragon held In the mythology OF the family Of
Nimrod much the place that did in Greece and
still does among the Japanese and English The real
dragon, the lecturer contended is simply creation OF
the human mind Turner is credited by Ruskin, in
the most eulogistic terms, with having en-
bodied the dragon in its greatest perfection.
But the lecturer records that Turner being
asked by admiring friend where he could possibly
have found the for so magnificent conception
replied that he had got IL at childrens Christmas
pantomime at Drury Lane Theatre. The dragon must
and q spiked tail The lecturer explained at some
length how thus II simply the myth Of the storm.
essential feature The serpent looked upon as the
guardian Of all the wealth concealed in the
earth Of all that In this regard the dragon
plays much the same part as Pluto whose name IN
Greek means wealth. Pluto is supposed 70 guard all
the wealth OF Hadcs OF tho regions. The
fable OF Pluto and Proserpine simply aegory or
floral myth II was supposed these myths that ser
pents opposed to the ram clouds and sun,
tending TO rob the unseen rulers Of the world Of
fhAm unalth hu tha nf olsa0
ground, that they took wings, flew up and tried TO
swallow the sun The learned lecturer here
long pathological dissertation about the dragon hunt
ing hIm through the various Eastern languages, until
he at last landed him in the Greek echSdnc
and in the Latin angas, from which, he main
tanned, get our word anguish. From all the
analogies of language he held that the
dragon at all times and among all people simply
the imaginative embodiment of the adverse powers Of
trying circumstances; that really the various
other forms which had grown out OF these antique
myths could be traced 10 them and that our Aryan an
cestors, when they spread themselves the north
and west took with them this notion Of the dragon Of
which fact something will be said later.
He stated that the highest form of worth, as exem
pliled in the pagan gods. consisted in killing
monster of the dragon species Hercules and Apollo
duly discussed in reference to the attentions be-
slowed by them upon their respective monsters
Apollo originally very Insignificant deity, but
politics finally made him more important than even
Jupiter himself All the gods of any account
were supposed to have killed dragon. But of
all the Greek monster slayers Bellerophon by far
the most important, nasmuch he killed the
chim@ra Here politics. for the first time, palpably
laid hold of these myths. The chimara has three
heads-one that OF lion, one that of serpent and
one that of goat The beard CT the
goat represents the barbarian the hon strength
and the serpent cunning The Church took hold of this
dea and having to the barbarians who had all
these deities who had killed Dragons must of necessity
have the same Thus it came that st. George killed his
dragon and ST. Patrick banshed his snakes.
The lecturer handled St George very severely said
he Capadocan, bacon seller to the army and a
scamp. He finally became converted made a
bishop got into trouble in Egypt put into jail and
killed by Egyptian mob The fanatoism of the Chris
tians, who imagined that bishop could do nothing
wrong, made saint OF him. 50 he is represented as
Staying the dragon, probably typical of martyrdom
Here the lecturer devoted five minutes to Mr. Ruskn 8
enthusiastic admiration for St George and the dragon
the gold coin Of England, of which Mr. Ruskn has
great DEAL and 1t Is but fair to say that Mr. Conway
took his scalp
Mention next made of the Japanese myth the
Oldest known in Japan and from this and other
was deduced the reason why the dragon has been so
frequently taken for the of royalty and nobility
Various very curious legends recounted by the
speaker notably those OF ST. Colombo and St. Patrick
in which the dry sparkling wit and keen sar-
casm of the lecturer showed 20 great ad-
vantage. Perhaps the best of all was the
Iambton legend, which would however take too long
10 recount The main features knight clad in an
arraor of blades and an immense serpent which
os to pieces IN attacking the knight An eloquent
application Of all these myths 10 life brought the lee
ture a a close.