ther's Bible; and like enough, the little prince, to
have stayed her hand at this bright leaf of it, the Lion-leaf, bearing
the symbol of the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

You cannot, of course, see anything but the glittering from where
you sit; nor even if you afterwards look at it near, will you find
a figure the least admirable or impressive to you. It is not like
Landseer's Lions in Trafalgar Square; nor like Tenniel's in 'Punch';
still less like the real ones in Regent's Park. Neither do I show it
you as admirable in any respect of art, other than that of skilfullest
illumination. I show it you, as the most interesting Gothic type of
the imagination of Lion; which, after the Roman Eagle, possessed the
minds of all European warriors; until, as they themselves grew selfish
and cruel, the symbols which at first meant heaven-sent victory, or
the strength and presence of some Divine spirit, became to them only
the signs of their own pride or rage: the victor raven of Corvus sinks
into the shamed falcon of Marmion, and the lion-heartedness which gave
the glory and the peace of the gods to Leonidas, casts the glory and
the might of kinghood to the dust before Chalus.[30]

[Footnote 30: 'Fors Clavigera,' March, 1871, p. 19. Yet read the
preceding pages, and learn the truth of the lion heart, while you
mourn its pride. Note especially his absolute law against usury.]

That death, 6th April, 1199, ended the advance of England begun
by Alfred, under the pure law of Religious Imagination. She began,
already, in the thirteenth century, to be decoratively, instead of
vitally, religious. The history of the Religious Imagination expressed
between Alfred's time and that of Coeur de Lion, in this symbol of the
Lion only, has material in it rather for all my seven lectures than
for the closing section of one; but I must briefly specify to you the
main sections of it. I will keep clear of my favourite number seven,
and ask you to recollect the meaning of only Five, Mythic Lions.

First of all, in Greek art, remember to keep yourselves clear about
the difference between the Lion and the Gorgon.

The Gorgon is the power of evil in heaven, conquered by Athena, and
thenceforward becoming her aegis, when she is herself the inflictor of
evil. Her helmet is then the helmet of Orcus.

But the Lion is the power of death on earth, conquered by Heracles,
and becoming thenceforward both his helmet and aegis. All ordinary
architectural lion