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. _Moby Dick_
.
<<Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda- indeed, by some
supposed to be indirectly derived from it- is that famous story of St.
George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale;
for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled
together, and often stand for each other. "Thou art as a lion of the
waters, and as a dragon of the sea," said Ezekiel; hereby, plainly
meaning a whale; in truth, some versions of the Bible use that word
itself. Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the exploit
had St. George but encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead
of doing battle with the great monster of the deep. Any man may kill a
snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in
them to march boldly up to a whale. Let not the modern paintings of
this scene mislead us; for though the creature encountered by that
valiant whaleman of old is vaguely represented of a griffin-like
shape, and though the battle is depicted on land and the saint on
horseback, yet considering the great ignorance of those times, when
the true form of the whale was unknown to artists; and considering
that as in Perseus' case, St. George's whale might have crawled up out
of the sea on the beach; and considering that the animal ridden by St.
George might have been only a large seal, or sea-horse; bearing all
this in mind, it will not appear altogether incompatible with the
sacred legend and the ancientest draughts of the scene, to hold this
so-called dragon no other than the great Leviathan himself. In fact,
placed before the strict and piercing truth, this whole story will
fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, Dagon by
name; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse's head and
both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the stump or
fishy part of him remained. Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp,
even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; and by good
rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most
noble order of St. George. And therefore, let not the KNIGHTS of
that honorable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever
had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never
eye a Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woollen frocks
and tarred trowers we are much better entitled to
St. George's decoration than they. >>
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