XI. THE PLACE OF DRAGONS 375

signify by the linked names of Martha and Mary; and Plato has expressed it fully by the respective functions assigned in his ideal state to philosophers and guardians. The seer “able to grasp the eternal,” “spectator of all time and of all existence,”-you may see him on your right as you enter this chapel,-recognizes and declares God’s Law: the guardian obeys, enforces, and, if need be, fights for it.

214. St. George, Husbandman by name, and “TropaioforoV,” Triumphant Warrior by title, secures righteous peace, turning his spear into a pruning-hook for the earthly nature of man. He is also to be known as “Megalomartur,” by his deeds, the great witness for God in the world, and “twn aqlhtwn o megaV TaxiarchV,” marshal and leader of those who strive to obtain an incorruptible crown.* St. Jerome, the seer, learned also in all the wisdom of the heathen, is as Plato tells us such a man should be. Lost in his longing after “the universal law that knits human things with divine,” † he shows himself gentle and without fear, having no terror even of death.‡ In the second picture on our right here we may see with how great quiet the old man has laid himself down to die, even such a pillow beneath his head as was under Jacob’s upon that night of vision by the place which he thenceforward knew to be the “House of God,” though “the name of it was called ‘Separation’ § at the first.”|| The fantastic bilingual interpretation of Jerome’s name given in The Golden Legend, standard of

* These titles are taken from the earliest (Greek) records of him. The last corresponds to that of Baron Bradwardine’s revered “Mareschal-Duke.”

† Plat. Rep., VI. 486 A.

‡ Ibid., B.

§ Luz. This word stands also for the almond tree, flourishing when desire fails, and “man goeth to his long home.”

|| In the 21st and 22nd Cantos of the Paradise, Dante, too, connects the dream of Jacob with the ascetic, living where “è consecrato un ermo, Che suole esser disposto a sola latria.” This is in a sphere of heaven where “la dolce sinfonia del Paradiso” is heard by mortal ears only as overmastering thunder, and where the pilgrim is taught that no created vision, not the seraph’s “che in Dio più l’occhio has fisso,” may read that eternal statute by whose appointment spirits of the saints go forth upon their Master’s business and return to Him again.

[Version 0.04: March 2008]