"Neal Stephenson - Baroque Cycle 3 - The System of the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sterling Bruce)

harmonize science and religion. NewtonтАЩs is based on the ancient proto-science of Alchemy and
LeibnizтАЩs is based on a theory of time, space, and matter called Monadology. They are radically different
and probably irreconcilable.

Princess Caroline wishes to head off any possible conflict between the worldтАЩs two greatest savants, and
the political and religious complications that would ensue from it. She has asked Daniel, who is an old
friend of both Newton and Leibniz, to journey back to England, leaving his young wife and their little boy
in Boston, and mediate the dispute. Daniel, knowing NewtonтАЩs vindictiveness, sees this as foreordained
to fail, but agrees to give it a try, largely because he is impoverished and the Princess has held out the
incentive of a large life insurance policy.

Daniel departs from Boston onMinerva,a Dutch East Indiaman (a heavily armed merchant ship).
Detained along the New England coast by contrary winds, she falls under attack in Cape Cod Bay from
the formidable pirate-fleet of Captain Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard, who somehow knows that Dr.
Waterhouse is on board Minerva,and demands that her Captain, Otto Van Hoek, hand him over.
Captain Van Hoek, who loathes pirates even more than the typical merchant-captain, elects to fight it
out, and bests TeachтАЩs pirate fleet in a day-long engagement.

Minervacrosses the Atlantic safely but is caught in a storm off the southwest corner of England and
nearly cast away on the Isles of Scilly. Late in December she puts in at Plymouth for repairs. Dr.
Waterhouse goes ashore intending to travel to London by land. In Plymouth he encounters a family friend
named Will Comstock.

Will is the grandson of John Comstock, a Tory nobleman who fought against Cromwell in the middle of
the previous century and, after the Restoration, came back to England and helped found the Royal
Society. Subsequently, John was disgraced and forced to retire from public life, partly through the
machinations of his (much younger) distant cousin and bitter rival, Roger Comstock. Daniel served as a
tutor in Natural Philosophy to one of the sons of John. This son later moved to Connecticut and
established an estate there. Will was born and grew up on that estate but has lately moved back to
England, where he has found a home in the West Country. He is a moderate Tory who has recently been
created Earl of Lostwithiel. Queen Anne has recently been forced to create a large number of such titles
in order to pack the House of Lords with Tories, the party that she currently favors.

Daniel has spent the twelve days of Christmas with WillтАЩs family at his seat near Lostwithiel, and Will has
talked him into making a small detour en route to London.

Book 6

SolomonтАЩs Gold

Dartmoor

15JANUARY 1714

In life there is nothing more foolish than inventing.

тАФJAMESWATT

тАЬMEN HALF YOUR AGEand double your weight have been slain on these wastes by Extremity of
Cold,тАЭ said the Earl of Lostwithiel, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and Rider of the Forest and Chase of