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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.
任何人都会打死一条蛇，可是，能够鼓起勇气、勇往直前地冲向大鲸的，却只有柏修斯、圣乔治和科芬。
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.
我们可别上那些描绘着这种场景的现代绘画的当；因为尽管那个古代骁勇的捕鲸人所攻击的动物给含糊地画成一种半鹰半鹫似的怪兽，尽管战斗的场面给画在陆地上，那个圣者骑在马背上，然而，鉴于当时是个十分愚昧的时代，艺术家们对于大鲸的真实形象，一无所知；鉴于柏修斯也是这种情况，圣乔治的那只大鲸，说不定就是从海里爬到海滩上来的；鉴于圣乔治所骑的那种野兽，也许不过是只大海豹，或者是只海马；总之，记住所有这些事实，就不见得完全会跟神话和这种场景的最古老的草图发生矛盾，而且可以认为，这种所谓龙的东西，不外乎就是大鲸罢了。事实上，把这整个传说放在千真万确而透彻的事实面前，就会成为那种叫做半人半鱼的神，象非利士人（非利士人——古代巴勒斯坦西南岸的古国，是犹太人的强敌。这里所提事实，参阅《旧约·士师记》第十六章二十三节及《撒母耳记上》第五章二至五节。）的鱼、人、鸟的偶像那样的东西了，这种神，一竖在以色列人的方舟前面，它那马头和两只手掌就会掉下来，只剩下一个残肢，或者是半个鱼身了。
