part i chapter 1 `` i am afraid his attention is much given to material things , '' shen li observed in a mild way , while temeraire strove in the distance lifting up the great carved-out slab of stone which should form the central part of the floor of the pavilion : a curious opinion to hear from a dragon , who were nearly all of them inclined to extreme attachment to material things ; but perhaps her long stretches in the air , over the barren distances of the australian deserts and the southern pacific , had inclined the great-winged chinese courier to adopt a philosophy more suited to her lot .