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: