Part 21 (1/2)

Your sincere friend,

Lewis Carroll”

Surely we can patiently s hts, if we are to be rewarded with so sweet a Luar!

The enclosed poem, which has since been republished in ”Three Sunsets,” runs as follows:

A LESSON IN LATIN

Our Latin books, in motley row, Invite us to the task-- Gay Horace, stately Cicero; Yet there's one verb, when once we know, No higher skill we ask: This ranks all other lore above-- We've learned ”amare” means ”to love”!

So hour by hour, from flower to flower, We sip the sweets of life: Till ah! too soon the clouds arise, And knitted brows and angry eyes Proclaih, ”Aht ned, with looks forlorn, ”Too well the scholar knows There is no rose without a thorn ”-- But peace is , this morn, ”No thorn without a rose!”

Our Latin lesson is complete: We've learned that Love is ”Bitter-sweet”

Lewis Carroll

In October Mr Dodgson invented a very ingenious little stamp-case, decorated with two ”Pictorial Surprises,” representing the ”Cheshi+re Cat” vanishi+ng till nothing but the grin was left, and the baby turning into a pig in ”Alice's” arms The invention was entered at Stationers' Hall, and published by Messrs Emberlin and Son, of Oxford As an appropriate accoht or Nine Wise Words on Letter-Writing,” a little booklet which is still sold along with the case The ”Wise Words,” as the following extracts show, have the true ”Carrollian” ring about them:--

Some American writer has said ”the snakes in this district may be divided into one species--the venoe-stamp-cases may be divided into one species--the ”Wonderland”

Since I have possessed a ”Wonderland-Staht and peaceful, and I have used no other I believe the Queen's Laundress uses no other

My fifth Rule is, if your friend makes a severe remark, either leave it unnoticed or make your reply distinctly less severe: and, if heup” the little difference that has arisen between you, let your reply be distinctly _ a quarrel, each party declined to gofriends, each was ready to go _five-eighths_ of the hy, there would be more reconciliations than quarrels! Which is like the Irishhter: ”Shure, you're _always_ goin' out! You go out _three_ times for wanst that you come in!”

My sixth Rule is, _don't try to have the last word!_ How many a controversy would be nipped in the bud, if each was anxious to let the _other_ have the last word!

Nevera rejoinder you leave unuttered: neverthat you are silent fro drop, as soon as it is possible without discourtesy: reolden”! (NB If you are a gentleman, and your friend a lady, this Rule is superfluous: _you won't get the last word!_)

Re” ”The _old_ proverb?” you say inquiringly ”_How_ old?” Well, not so _very_ ancient, I raph Still, you know, ”old” is a _comparative_ ter a chicken, just out of the shell, as ”old boy!” _when compared_ with another chicken that was only half-out!

The pamphlet ends with an explanation of Lewis Carroll'sa correspondence-book, illustrated by a few ies from such a compilation, which are very huramme of ”Alice in Wonderland_”]

At the end of the year the ”Alice” operetta was again produced at the Globe Theatre, with Miss Isa Bowson writes, ”and Eood as Dors a verse, and dances the Sailor's Hornpipe”

[Illustration: ”The Mad Tea-Party” _Froraph by Elliott & Fry_]

The first of an incomplete series, ”Curiosa Matheson by Messrs Mac the year It was entitled ”A New Theory of Parallels,” and any one taking it up for the first tiht be te us some _jeu d'esprit?_ A closer inspection, however, soon settles the question, and the reader, iftill he reaches the last page

The object which Mr Dodgson set himself to acco the celebrated 12th Axiom, a feat which calls up visions of the ”Circle-Squarers”

The work is divided into two parts: Book I contains certain Propositions which require no disputable Axiom for their proof, and when once the few Definitions of ”a In Book II the author introduces a new Axiom, or rather ”Quasi-Axiom”--for it's _self-evident_ character is open to dispute This Axiom is as follows:--