the coast supersedes grammatical attitudes
having ascertained the possibility of measuring a great number of angles at the same instant, I conjectured that the most correct and easy method of laying down the points or positions corresponding with these angles, taken from a station either afloat or on shore, was still to be sought for : the system of using the letters of the alphabet and arithmetical figures, to denote objects which were not yet names, tended, it is true, to the attainment of this point; but, in being confined to this method, the observer exposed oneself to the commission of errors so much the more important, as there was not a hope of proving their existence or extent.
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How can a coast, which consists of language, be outside languages?
If I read this coast with pleasure, it is because it was written with pleasure. I have acquired the habit of making words for myself, now that I have a language of my own. A fluid language, without suffixes, prefixes, or roots. I make feminine words masculine: the sea, the earth, and the night have become beings of another sex than mine. My notes are written with the metallic pencil, the marks of which are not liable to be effaced by sea-water, and because ink evaporates... Now you know everything.
