distinguished animated forms which filled the rocks, in stages, like a
crowd of men on the tiers of an amphitheatre. And at the same time, his
ears, deafened by the continual noises of the sea, heard a feeble sound
of voices. Thinking that what he saw were men living under the natural
law, and that the Lord had sent him to teach them the Divine law, he
preached the gospel to them.

Mounted on a lofty stone in the midst of the wild circus:

"Inhabitants of this island," said he, "although you be of small
stature, you look less like a band of fishermen and mariners than like
the senate of a judicious republic. By your gravity, your silence, your
tranquil deportment, you form on this wild rock an assembly comparable
to the Conscript Fathers at Rome deliberating in the temple of Victory,
or rather, to the philosophers of Athens disputing on the benches of the
Areopagus. Doubtless you possess neither their science nor their genius,
but perhaps in the sight of God you are their superiors. I believe that
you are simple and good. As I went round your island I saw no image
of murder, no sign of carnage, no enemies' heads or scalps hung from a
lofty pole or nailed to the doors of your villages. You appear to me
to have no arts and not to work in metals. But your hearts are pure
and your hands are innocent, and the truth will easily enter into your
souls."

Now what he had taken for men of small stature but of grave bearing were
penguins whom the spring had gathered together, and who were ranged in
couples on the natural steps of the rock, erect in the majesty of their
large white bellies. From moment to moment they moved their winglets
like arms, and uttered peaceful cries. They did not fear men, for they
did not know them, and had never received any harm from them; and there