The Lord having invited her to speak, she expressed herself in these terms:
“Lord, in order to solve the problem you deign2 to submit to me I shall not study the habits of animals in general nor those of birds in particular. I shall only remark to the doctors, confessors, and pontiffs gathered in this assembly that the separation between man and animal is not complete since there are monsters who proceed from both. Such are chimeras3 — half nymphs and half serpents; such are the three Gorgons and the Capripeds; such are the Scyllas and the Sirens who sing in the sea. These have a woman’s breast and a fish’s tail. Such also are the Centaurs5, men down to the waist and the remainder horses. They are a noble race of monsters. One of them, as you know, was able, guided by the light of reason alone, to direct his steps towards eternal blessedness, and you sometimes see his heroic bosom6 prancing7 on the clouds. Chiron, the Centaur4, deserved for his works on the earth to share the abode8 of the blessed; he it was who gave Achilles his education; and that young hero, when he left the Centaur’s hands, lived for two years, dressed as a young girl, among the daughters of King Lycomedes. He shared their games and their bed without allowing any suspicion to arise that he was not a young virgin9 like them. Chiron, who taught him such good morals, is, with the Emperor Trajan, the only righteous man who obtained celestial10 glory by following the law of nature. And yet he was but half human.
“I think I have proved by this example that, to reach eternal blessedness, it is enough to possess some parts of humanity, always on the condition that they are noble. And what Chiron, the Centaur, could obtain without having been regenerated11 by baptism, would not the penguins12 deserve too if they became half penguins and half men? That is why, Lord, I entreat13 you to give old Mael’s penguins a human head and breast so that they can praise you worthily14. And grant them also an immortal15 soul — but one of small size.”
Thus Catherine spoke16, and the fathers, doctors, confessors, and pontiffs heard her with a murmur17 of approbation18.
But St. Anthony, the Hermit19, arose and stretching two red and knotty20 arms towards the Most High:
“Do not so, O Lord God,” he cried, “in the name of your holy Paraclete, do not so!”
He spoke with such vehemence21 that his long white beard shook on his chin like the empty nose-bag of a hungry horse.
“Lord, do not so. Birds with human heads exist already. St. Catherine has told us nothing new.”
“The imagination groups and compares; it never creates,” replied St. Catherine drily.
“They exist already,” continued St. Anthony, who would listen to nothing. “They are called harpies, and they are the most obscene animals in creation. One day as I was having supper in the desert with the Abbot St. Paul, I placed the table outside my cabin under an old sycamore tree. The harpies came and sat in its branches; they deafened22 us with their shrill23 cries and cast their excrement24 over all our food. The clamour of the monsters prevented me from listening to the teaching of the Abbot St. Paul, and we ate birds’ dung with our bread and lettuces25. Lord, it is impossible to believe that harpies could give thee worthy26 praise.
“Truly in my temptations I have seen many hybrid27 beings, not only women-serpents and women-fishes, but beings still more confusedly formed such as men whose bodies were made out of a pot, a bell, a clock, a cupboard full of food and crockery, or even out of a house with doors and windows through which people engaged in their domestic tasks could be seen. Eternity28 would not suffice were I to describe all the monsters that assailed29 me in my solitude30, from whales rigged like ships to a shower of red insects which changed the water of my fountain into blood. But none were as disgusting as the harpies whose offal polluted the leaves of my sycamore.”
“Harpies,” observed Lactantius, “are female monsters with birds’ bodies. They have a woman’s head and breast. Their forwardness, their shamelessness, and their obscenity proceed from their female nature as the poet Virgil demonstrated in his ‘AEneid.’ They share the curse of Eve.”
“Let us not speak of the curse of Eve,” said the Lord. “The second Eve has redeemed31 the first.”
Paul Orosius, the author of a universal history that Bossuet was to imitate in later years, arose and prayed to the Lord:
“Lord, hear my prayer and Anthony’s. Do not make any more monsters like the Centaurs, Sirens, and Fauns, whom the Greeks, those collectors of fables32, loved. You will derive33 no satisfaction from them. Those species of monsters have pagan inclinations34 and their double nature does not dispose them to purity of morals.”
The bland35 Lactantius replied in these terms:
“He who has just spoken is assuredly the best historian in Paradise, for Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius, Livy, Velleius Paterculus, Cornelius Nepos, Suetonius, Manetho, Diodorus Siculus, Dion Cassius, and Lampridius are deprived of the sight of God, and Tacitus suffers in hell the torments36 that are reserved for blasphemers. But Paul Orosius does not know heaven as well as he knows the earth, for he does not seem to bear in mind that the angels, who proceed from man and bird, are purity itself.”
“We are wandering,” said the Eternal. “What have we to do with all those centaurs, harpies, and angels? We have to deal with penguins.”
“You have spoken to the point, Lord,” said the chief of the fifty doctors, who, during their mortal life had been confounded by the Virgin of Alexandria, “and I dare express the opinion that, in order to put an end to the scandal by which heaven is now stirred, old Mael’s penguins should, as St. Catherine who confounded us has proposed, be given half of a human body with an eternal soul proportioned to that half.”
At this speech there arose in the assembly a great noise of private conversations and disputes of the doctors. The Greek fathers argued with the Latins concerning the substance, nature, and dimensions of the soul that should be given to the penguins.
“Confessors and pontiffs,” exclaimed the Lord, “do not imitate the conclaves37 and synods of the earth. And do not bring into the Church Triumphant38 those violences that trouble the Church Militant39. For it is but too true that in all the councils held under the inspiration of my spirit, in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa, fathers have torn the beards and scratched the eyes of other fathers. Nevertheless they were infallible, for I was with them.”
Order being restored, old Hermas arose and slowly uttered these words:
“I will praise you, Lord, for that you caused my mother, Saphira, to be born amidst your people, in the days when the dew of heaven refreshed the earth which was in travail40 with its Saviour41. And I will praise you, Lord, for having granted to me to see with my mortal eyes the Apostles of your divine Son. And I will speak in this illustrious assembly because you have willed that truth should proceed out of the mouths of the humble42, 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, appeased43 the quarrels of his elect.
“Let us not deliberate any longer,” said he. “The opinion broached44 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 incorporation45 into the family of Abraham. But my foreknowledge must not encroach upon their free will.
“In order not to impair46 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 clear-sightedness 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.”
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1
sapphires
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| n.蓝宝石，钢玉宝石( sapphire的名词复数 )；蔚蓝色 | |
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2
deign
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| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
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3
chimeras
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| n.（由几种动物的各部分构成的）假想的怪兽( chimera的名词复数 )；不可能实现的想法；幻想；妄想 | |
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centaur
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| n.人首马身的怪物 | |
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centaurs
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| n.（希腊神话中）半人半马怪物( centaur的名词复数 ) | |
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6
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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7
prancing
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| v.（马）腾跃( prance的现在分词 ) | |
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8
abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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9
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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10
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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regenerated
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| v.新生，再生( regenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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penguins
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| n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 ) | |
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13
entreat
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| v.恳求，恳请 | |
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14
worthily
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| 重要地，可敬地，正当地 | |
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15
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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18
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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19
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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20
knotty
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| adj.有结的，多节的，多瘤的，棘手的 | |
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21
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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22
deafened
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| 使聋( deafen的过去式和过去分词 )； 使隔音 | |
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23
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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24
excrement
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| n.排泄物，粪便 | |
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25
lettuces
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| n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶 | |
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26
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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27
hybrid
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| n.(动，植）杂种，混合物 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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29
assailed
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| v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 )；困扰；质问；毅然应对 | |
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30
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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31
redeemed
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| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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32
fables
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| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
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33
derive
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| v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自 | |
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34
inclinations
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| 倾向( inclination的名词复数 )； 倾斜； 爱好； 斜坡 | |
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35
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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36
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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37
conclaves
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| n.秘密会议，教皇选举会议，红衣主教团( conclave的名词复数 ) | |
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38
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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39
militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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40
travail
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| n.阵痛；努力 | |
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41
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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42
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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43
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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44
broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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45
incorporation
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| n.设立，合并，法人组织 | |
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46
impair
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| v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少 | |
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