16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
of navigation: in fact he also possessed uncommon
mathematical powers and had read
papers on nutation to the Royal Society; but
this did not appear in his ordinary conversation.
Sam, on the other hand, had been
brought up by singularly learned Irish missionaries;
his command of languages, ancient and
modern, did the Fathers infinite credit; and he
had read voraciously. Stephen, a Catholic
himself with a certain amount of influence in
Rome, had procured him the dispensation
necessary for a bastard to be ordained priest,
and now Sam was doing remarkably well in
the Church: it was said that he might soon become
a prelate, not only because at present
there were no black monsignori – some yellowish
or quite dark brown, to be sure, but
none of such a wholehearted gleaming black
as Sam – but also because of his patristic
learning and his exceptional and evident abili-