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Article: Histories.(In the Company of Animals)
- Article from:
- Social Research
- Article date:
- September 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 New School for Social Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In his parable Penguin Island ([1908]1931), Anatole France relates how the old, blind monk Saint Mael inadvertently baptized a group of penguins, mistaking them for human beings. When the news reached heaven, it caused, so we are told, neither joy nor sorrow but extreme surprise. The Lord himself was embarrassed. He gathered an assembly of clerics and doctors, and asked them for an opinion on the delicate question of whether the birds must now be given souls. It was a matter of more than theoretical importance. "The Christian state," Saint Cornelius observed, "is not without serious inconveniences for a penguin. . . . The habits of birds are, in many points, contrary to ...