Penguin Island

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday January 29, 2003 10:36 by Gaillimhed

An extract from Penguin Island, by Anatole France (1844-1924).

Penguin Island, by Anatole France, 1844-1924. Ch.III The Journey of Doctor Obnubile

The Journey of Doctor Obnubile
After a succession of amazing vicissitudes, the memory of
which is in great part lost by the wrongs of time and the
bad style of historians, the Penguins established the
government of the Penguins by themselves. They elected a
diet or assembly, and invested it with the privilege of
naming the Head of the State. The latter, chosen from among
the simple Penguins, wore no formidable monster's crest upon
his head and exercised no absolute authority over the
people. He was himself subject to the laws of the nation. He
was not given the title of king, and no ordinal number
followed his name. He bore such names as Paturle, Janvion,
Traffaldin, Coquenhot, and Bredouille. These magistrates did
not make war. They were not suited for that.

The new state received the name of Public Thing or Republic.
Its partisans were called republicanists or republicans.
They were also named Thingmongers and sometimes Scamps, but
this latter name was taken in ill part.

The Penguin democracy did not itself govern. It obeyed a
financial oligarchy which formed opinion by means of the
newspapers, and held in its hands the representatives, the
ministers, and the president. It controlled the finances of
the republic, and directed the foreign affairs of the
country as if it were possessed of sovereign power.

Empires and kingdoms in those days kept up enormous fleets.
Penguinia, compelled to do as they did, sank under the
pressure of her armaments. Everybody deplored or pretended
to deplore so grievous a necessity. However, the rich, and
those engaged in business or affairs, submitted to it with a
good heart through a spirit of patriotism, and because they
counted on the soldiers and sailors to defend their goods at
home and to acquire markets and territories abroad. The
great manufacturers encouraged the making of cannons and
ships through a zeal for the national defence and in order
to obtain orders. Among the citizens of middle rank and of
the liberal professions some resigned themselves to this
state of affairs without complaining, believing that it
would last for ever; others waited impatiently for its end
and thought they might be able to lead the powers to a
simultaneous disarmament.

The illustrious Professor Obnubile belonged to this latter
class.

"War," said he, "is a barbarity to which the progress of
civilization will put an end. The great democracies are
pacific and will soon impose their will upon the
aristocrats."

Professor Obnubile, who had for sixty years led a solitary
and retired life in his laboratory, whither external noises
did not penetrate, resolved to observe the spirit of the
peoples for himself. He began his studies with the greatest
of all democracies and set sail for New Atlantis.

After a voyage of fifteen days his steamer entered, during
the night, the harbour of Titanport, where thousands of
ships were anchored. An iron bridge thrown across the water
and shining with lights, stretched between two piers so far
apart that Professor Obnubile imagined he was sailing on the
seas of Saturn and that he saw the marvellous ring which
girds the planet of the Old Man. And this immense conduit
bore upon it more than a quarter of the wealth of the world.
The learned Penguin, having disembarked, was waited on by
automatons in a hotel forty-eight stories high. Then he took
the great railway that led to Gigantopolis, the capital of
New Atlantis. In the train there were restaurants,
gaming-rooms, athletic arenas, telegraphic, commercial, and
financial offices, a Protestant Church, and the
printing-office of a great newspaper, which latter the
doctor was unable to read, as he did not know the language
of the New Atlantans. The train passed along the banks of
great rivers, through manufacturing cities which concealed
the sky with the smoke from their chimneys, towns black in
the day, towns red at night, full of noise by day and full
of noise also by night.

"Here," thought the doctor, "is a people far too much
engaged in industry and trade to make war. I am already
certain that the New Atlantans pursue a policy of peace. For
it is an axiom admitted by all economists that peace without
and peace within are necessary for the progress of commerce
and industry."

As he surveyed Gigantopolis, he was confirmed in this
opinion. People went through the streets so swiftly
propelled by hurry that they knocked down all who were in
their way. Obnubile was thrown down several times, but soon
succeeded in learning how to demean himself better; after an
hour's walking he himself knocked down an Atlantan.

Having reached a great square he saw the portico of a palace
in the Classic style, whose Corinthian columns reared their
capitals of arborescent acanthus seventy metres above the
stylobate.

As he stood with his head thrown back admiring the building,
a man of modest appearance approached him and said in
Penguin:

"I see by your dress that you are from Penguinia. I know
your language; I am a sworn interpreter. This is the
Parliament palace. At the present moment the representatives
of the States are in deliberation. Would you like to be
present at the sitting?"

The doctor was brought into the hall and cast his looks upon
the crowd of legislators who were sitting on cane chairs
with their feet upon their desks.

The president arose and, in the midst of general
inattention, muttered rather than spoke the following
formulas which the interpreter immediately translated to the
doctor.

"The war for the opening of the Mongol markets being ended
to the satisfaction of the States, I propose that the
accounts be laid before the finance committee . . . ."

"Is there any opposition? . . ."

"The proposal is carried."

"The war for the opening of the markets of Third-Zealand
being ended to the satisfaction of the States, I propose
that the accounts be laid before the finance committee. . .
."

"Is there any opposition? . . ."

"The proposal is carried."

"Have I heard aright?" asked Professor Obnubile. "What? you
an industrial people and engaged in all these wars!"

"Certainly," answered the interpreter, "these are industrial
wars. Peoples who have neither commerce nor industry are not
obliged to make war, but a business people is forced to
adopt a policy of conquest. The number of wars necessarily
increases with our productive activity. As soon as one of
our industries fails to find a market for its products a war
is necessary to open new outlets. It is in this way we have
had a coal war, a copper war, and a cotton war. In
Third-Zealand we have killed two-thirds of the inhabitants
in order to compel the remainder to buy our umbrellas and
braces."

At that moment a fat man who was sitting in the middle of
the assembly ascended the tribune.

"I claim," said he, "a war against the Emerald Republic,
which insolently contends with our pigs for the hegemony of
hams and sauces in all the markets of the universe."

"Who is that legislator?" asked Doctor Obnubile.

"He is a pig merchant."

"Is there any opposition?" said the President. "I put the
proposition to the vote."

The war against the Emerald Republic was voted with uplifted
hands by a very large majority.

"What?" said Obnubile to the interpreter; "you have voted a
war with that rapidity and that indifference!"

"Oh! it is an unimportant war which will hardly cost eight
million dollars."

"And men . . ."

"The men are included in the eight million dollars."

Then Doctor Obnubile bent his head in bitter reflection.

"Since wealth and civilization admit of as many causes of
wars as poverty and barbarism, since the folly and
wickedness of men are incurable, there remains but one good
action to be done. The wise man will collect enough dynamite
to blow up this planet. When its fragments fly through space
an imperceptible amelioration will be accomplished in the
universe and a satisfaction will be given to the universal
conscience. Moreover, this universal conscience does not
exist."