assembly
because you have willed that truth should proceed out of the mouths of
the humble, and I will say: 'Change these penguins to men. It is the
only determination conformable to your justice and your mercy.'"

Several doctors asked permission to speak, others began to do so. No one
listened, and all the confessors were tumultuously shaking their palms
and their crowns.

The Lord, by a gesture of his right hand, appeased the quarrels of his
elect.

"Let us not deliberate any longer," said he. "The opinion broached by
gentle old Hermas is the only one conformable to my eternal designs.
These birds will be changed into men. I foresee in this several
disadvantages. Many of those men will commit sins they would not have
committed as penguins. Truly their fate through this change will be
far less enviable than if they had been without this baptism and this
incorporation into the family of Abraham. But my foreknowledge must not
encroach upon their free will.

"In order not to impair human liberty, I will be ignorant of what I
know, I will thicken upon my eyes the veils I have pierced, and in my
blind clearsightedness I will let myself be surprised by what I have
foreseen."

And immediately calling the archangel Raphael:

"Go and find the holy Mael," said he to him; "inform him of his mistake
and tell him, armed with my Name, to change these penguins into men."

VIII. METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PENGUINS

The archangel, having gone down into the Island of the Penguins, found
the holy man asleep in the hollow of a rock surrounded by his new
disciples. He laid his hand on his shoulder and, having waked him, said
in a gentle voice:

"Mael, fear not!"

The holy man, dazzled by a vivid light, inebriated by a delicious
odour, recognised the angel of the Lord, and prostrated himself with his
forehead on the ground.

The angel continued:

"Mael, know thy error, believing that thou wert baptizing children of
Adam thou hast baptized birds; and it is, through thee that penguins
have entered into the Church of God."

At these words the old man remained stupefied.

And the angel resumed:

"Arise, Mael, arm thyself with the mighty Name of the Lord, and say to
these birds, 'Be ye men!'"

And the holy Mael, having wept and prayed, armed himself with the mighty
Name of the Lord and said to the birds:

"Be ye men!"

Immediately the penguins were transformed. Their foreheads enlarged and
their heads grew round like