n spite of all the nonsense about dragons and the chimera with wings
and claws that has somehow interwreathed itself with his image.
Perhaps he is a little biased by patriotism or other ethical aims;
and thinks the saint a good social ideal. Perhaps he knows that
early Christianity, so far from being a religion of pacifists,
was largely a religion of soldiers. Anyhow he thinks St. George
himself a quite sufficiently solid and historical figure;
and has little doubt that records or traces can be found of him.
Now the point is this; suppose that man goes to the land of
the legendary combat; and finds comparatively few or faint traces
of the personality of St. George. But suppose he _does_ find,
on that very field of combat, the bones of a gigantic monster unlike
every other creature except the legendary dragon. Or suppose he only
finds ancient Eastern sculptures and hieroglyphics representing maidens,
being sacrificed to such a monster, and making it quite clear that
even within historic times one of those sacrificed was a princess.
It is surely clear that he will be considerably impressed by
this confirmation, not of the part he did believe, but actually
of the part he did not believe. He has not found what he expected
but he has found what he wanted, and much more than he wanted.
He has not found a single detail directly in support of St. George.
But he had found a very considerable support of St. George
and the Dragon.

It is needless to inform the reader, I trust, that I do not think
this particular case in the least likely; or that I am only using it
for the sake of lucidity. Even as it stands, it would not necessarily
make a man believe the traditional story, but it would make him
guess that it was some sort of tradition of some sort of truth;
that there was something in it, and much more in it than even
he himself had imagined. And the point of it would be precisely
that his reason had not anticipated the extent of his revelation.
He has proved the improbable, not the probable thing.
Reason had already taught him the reasonable part; but facts had
taught him the fantastic part. He will certainly conclude that
the whole story is very much more valid than anybody has supposed.
Now as I have already said, it is not in the least likely that
this will happen touching this particular tale of Palestine.
But this is precisely what really has happened touching
the most sacred and tremendous of all the tales of Pal