Such is the legend of the patron saint of England,—­a legend reproduced in Spenser’s poem of the “Faery Queen,” wherein St. George appears as the Red Cross Knight, and the Princess as Una, the mystical maid, who, after the overthrow of the dragon, becomes the bride of her champion.

Need I recall to any student of classic story the resemblance between this sacred romance and that of the Greek hero Perseus, who rescued the fair Andromeda from the fangs of the sea-monster which would have devoured her?  Or whose divine favour it was that directed and shielded the Argive champion; whose winged sandals bore him unharmed across sea and land; whose magic sword and helm armed and defended him?

With all these symbols the name of Hermes is indissolubly connected.  His are the Wings of Courage, the Rod of Science, and the Helmet of Secrecy.  And his, too, is the Sword of Power, the strong and steadfast Will, by which the elemental forces are overcome and controlled, and the monsters of the abyss bound in obedience,—­those spiritual dragons and chimeras that ravage the hopes of humanity and would fain devour the “King’s Daughter.”

For Hermes—­Archangel, Messenger of Heaven, and slayer of Argos the hundred-eyed (type of the stellar powers)—­is no other than Thought:  Thought which alone exalts man above the beast, and sets him noble tasks to do and precious rewards to win, and lifts him at last to shine evermore with the gods above the starry heights of heaven.

All the heroes are sons of Hermes, for he is the Master and Initiator of spiritual chivalry.  The heroes are the knights-errant of Greek legend.  Like St. George and his six holy peers; like Arthur’s knights; like the Teuton Siegfried, the British Artegal, and many another saintly chevalier “sans peur et sans reproche,” the heroes of yet older days—­Heracles, Bellerophon, Theseus, Jason, Perseus—­ roamed the earth under divine guidance, waging ceaseless warfare with tyranny and wrong; rescuing and avenging the oppressed, destroying the agents of hell, and everywhere delivering mankind from the devices of terrorism, thrall, and the power of darkness.

The divine Order of Chivalry is the enemy of ascetic isolation and indifferentism.  It is the Order of the Christ who goes about doing good.  The Christian knight, mounted on a valiant steed (for the horse is the symbol of Intelligence), and equipped with the panoply of Michael, is the type of the spiritual life,—­the life of heroic and active charity.

All the stories about knights and dragons have one common esoteric meaning.  The dragon is always Materialism in some form; the fearsome, irrepressible spirit of Unbelief, which wages war on human peace and blights the hopes of all mankind.  In most of these tales, as in the typical legend of St. George, there is a princess to be delivered,—­a lady, sweet and lovely, whose sacrifice is imminent