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Penguin Island-Part10_Anatole France_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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because accounts are wanting, but because there are so many of them. The

Porpoise Chronicles contradict the Penguin Chronicles at every point. And,



moreover, the Penguins contradict each other as well as the Porpoises. I have

discovered two chronicles that are in agreement, but one has copied from the



other. A single fact is certain, namely, that massacres, rapes,

conflagrations, and plunder succeeded one another without interruption.



Under the unhappyprince Bosco IX. the kingdom was at the verge of ruin. On

the news that the Porpoise fleet, composed of six hundred great ships, was in



sight of Alca, the bishop ordered a solemnprocession. The cathedral chapter,

the elected magistrates, the members of Parliament, and the clerics of the



University entered the Cathedral and, taking up St. Orberosia's shrine, led it

in procession through the town, followed by the entire people singing hymns.



The holy patron of Penguinia was not invoked in vain. Nevertheless, the

Porpoises besieged the town both by land and sea, took it by assault, and for



three days and three nights killed, plundered, violated, and burned, with all

the indifference that habit produces.



Our astonishment cannot be too great at the fact that, during those iron ages,

the faith was preserved intact among the Penguins. The splendour of the truth



in those times illumined all souls that had not been corrupted by sophisms.

This is the explanation of the unity of belief. A constant practice of the



Church doubtless contributed also to maintain this happy communion of the

faithful--every Penguin who thought differently from the others was



immediately burned at the stake.

IV. LETTERS: JOHANNES TALPA



During the minority of King Gun, Johannes Talpa, in the monastery of

Beargarden, where at the age of fourteen he had made his profession and from



which he never departed for a single day throughout his life, composed his

celebrated Latin chronicle in twelve books called "De Gestis Penguinorum."



The monastery of Beargarden lifts its high walls on the summit of an

inaccessible peak. One sees around it only the blue tops of mountains, divided



by the clouds.

When he began to write his "Gesta Penguinorum," Johannes Talpa was already



old. The good monk has taken care to tell us this in his book: "My head has

long since lost," he says, "its adornment of fair hair, and my scalp resembles



those convex mirrors of metal which the Penguin ladies consult with so much

care and zeal. My stature, naturally small, has with years become diminished



and bent. My white beard gives warmth to my breast."

With a charmingsimplicity, Talpa informs us of certain circumstances in his



life and some features in his character. "Descended," he tells us, "from a

noble family, and destined from childhood for the ecclesiastical state, I was



taught grammar and music. I learnt to read under the guidance of a master who

was called Amicus, and who would have been better named Inimicus. As I did not



easily attain to a knowledge of my letters, he beat me violently with rods so

that I can say that he printed the alphabet in strokes upon my back."



In another passage Talpa confesses his natural inclination towards pleasure.

These are his expressive words: "In my youth the ardour of my senses was such



that in the shadow of the woods I experienced a sensation of boiling in a pot

rather than of breathing the fresh air. I fled from women, but in vain, for



every object recalled them to me."

While he was writing his chronicle, a terrible war, at once foreign and



domestic, laid waste the Penguin land. The soldiers of Crucha came to defend




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