Chapter I: Front Matter

PERSEUS

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW SERIES

_DÆDALUS, or Science and the Future_
By J. B. S. Haldane

_ICARUS, or The Future of Science_
By the Hon. Bertrand Russell, F.R.S.

_THE MONGOL IN OUR MIDST_
By F. G. Crookshank, M.D. _Fully Illustrated_

_WIRELESS POSSIBILITIES_
By Prof. A. M. Low. _With four Diagrams_

_NARCISSUS, An Anatomy of Clothes_
By Gerald Heard. _Illustrated_

_TANTALUS, or The Future of Man_
By F. C. S. Schiller

_THE PASSING OF THE PHANTOMS_
By Prof. C. J. Patten, M.A., M.D., Sc.D., F.R.A.I.

_CALLINICUS, A Defence of Chemical Warfare_
By J. B. S. Haldane

_QUO VADIMUS? Some Glimpses of the Future_
By E. E. Fournier d’Albe, D.Sc., F.Inst.P.

_THE CONQUEST OF CANCER_
By H. W. S. Wright, M.S., F.R.C.S.

_HYPATIA, or Woman and Knowledge_
By Dora Russell (The Hon. Mrs. Bertrand Russell)

_LYSISTRATA, or Woman’s Future and Future Woman_
By A. M. Ludovici

_WHAT I BELIEVE_
By the Hon. Bertrand Russell, F.R.S.

_PERSEUS, or Of Dragons_
By H. F. Scott Stokes, M.A.

_THE FUTURE OF SEX_
By Rebecca West

_THE EVOCATION OF GENIUS_
By Alan Porter

_AESCULAPIUS, or Disease and The Man_
By F. G. Crookshank, M.D.

_PROTEUS, or The Future of Intelligence_
By Vernon Lee

_Other Volumes in Preparation_

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

PERSEUS
OR
OF DRAGONS

BY
H. F. SCOTT STOKES, M.A. (Oxon.)

New York
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue

Copyright 1925
By E. P. Dutton & Company

_All Rights Reserved_

_Printed in the United States of America_

_If Jones of Chelsea should bedeck
With virgin’s head a horse’s neck,
And decorate this monstrous birth
With limbs of all the beasts on earth
And many-coloured wings, would you
Contain your laughter at the private view?_

Horace, _Ars Poetica_, 1–5.

CONTENTS

_Page_

Preface 3

Introduction 13

I. Of Dragons in General 16

II. Of Dragons in Classical Antiquity 23

III. Of Dragons in Early Christendom 29

IV. Of Dragons in Modern Europe 43

V. Of Dragons in Ancient Egypt 57

VI. Of the Birth and Death of the Dragon 63

Epilogue 72

PERSEUS
OR
OF DRAGONS

OF DRAGONS