"Тед Чан. Seventy-Two Letters (72 буквы, Рассказ) (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

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Robert Stratton and his fourth form classmates sat quietly as Master
Trevelyan paced between the rows of desks.
"Langdale, what is the doctrine of names?"
"All things are reflections of God, and, um, all--"
"Spare us your bumbling. Thorburn, can you tell us the doctrine of
names?"
"As all things are reflections of God, so are all names reflections of
the divine name."
"And what is an object’s true name?"
"That name which reflects the divine name in the same manner as the
object reflects God."
"And what is the action of a true name?"
"To endow its object with a reflection of divine power."
"Correct. Halliwell, what is the doctrine of signatures?"
The natural philosophy lesson continued until noon, but because it was
a Saturday, there was no instruction for the rest of the day.
Master Trevelyan dismissed the class, and the boys of Cheltenham school
dispersed.
After stopping at the dormitory, Robert met his friend Lionel at the
border of school grounds. "So the wait’s over? Today’s the day?"
Robert asked.
"I said it was, didn’t I?"
"Let’s go, then." The pair set off to walk the mile and a half to
Lionel’s home.
During his first year at Cheltenham, Robert had known Lionel hardly at
all; Lionel was one of the day-boys, and Robert, like all the boarders,
regarded them with suspicion. Then, purely by chance, Robert ran into him
while on holiday, during a visit to the British Museum. Robert loved the
Museum: the frail mummies and immense sarcophagi; the stuffed platypus and
pickled mermaid; the wall bristling with elephant tusks and moose antlers
and unicorn horns.
That particular day he was at the display of elemental sprites: he was
reading the card explaining the salamander’s absence when he suddenly
recognized Lionel, standing right next to him, peering at the undine in
its jar. Conversation revealed their shared interest in the sciences, and
the two became fast friends.
As they walked down the road, they kicked a large pebble back and forth
between them. Lionel gave the pebble a kick, and laughed as it skittered
between Robert’s ankles. "I couldn’t wait to get out of there," he said.
"I think one more doctrine would have been more than I could bear."
"Why do they even bother calling it natural philosophy?" said Robert.
"Just admit it’s another theology lesson and be done with it." The two of
them had recently purchased A Boy’s Guide to Nomenclature, which informed
them that nomenclators no longer spoke in terms of God or the divine name.
Instead, current thinking held that there was a lexical universe as well
as a physical one, and bringing an object together with a compatible name