16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
sails, dark in the moon-shadow, the topgallants
and topsails rounding just enough to
send the ship whispering along, the courses
hanging slack.
'As for the dew,' said Vidal after a while, 'you
might ask Mr Dutourd. There's a learned gentleman
for you! Not in physic, of course, but
more in the philosophical and moral line:
though as I understand it he has many friends
in Paris who make experiments with the electric
fluid, gas-balloons, the weight of air – that
kind of thing – and perhaps dew might have
come into it. But what a pleasure it is to hear
him talk about moral politics! The rights of
man, brotherhood, you know, and equality!
He has edified us many an hour with his observations,
you might almost say his oratory,
on the just republic. And the colony he
planned – no privileges, no oppression; no
money, no greed; everything held in common,