Part 22 (1/2)

TO SYLVIE

Ah! Sylvie, winsoood!

Fain would I love thee as I should

But, to tell the truth, h fair and pure and sweet thou art, Thine elder sister has o To have and hold; and well I know, Brave Lady Sylvie, thou wouldst scorn To accept a heart foresworn

Lovers thou wilt have enow Under alore, Like Alice all the orld o'er; But, darling, I ah I still shall hold Thee, and that puckling sprite, thy brother, Dear, I cannot _love_ another: In this heart of n alone!

_March_, 1890

NP

I do not know NP's na publicity to the above verses If these words ies for the liberty I have taken

At the beginning of 1894 a Baptiston the text, ”No man liveth to hiu that book, he proceeded as follows:

A child was asked to define charity He said it was ”givin'

ahat yer didn't want yerself” This was some people's idea of self-sacrifice; but it was not Christ's Then as to serving others in view of reward: Mr Lewis Carroll put this view of the subject very forcibly in his ”Sylvie and Bruno”--an excellent book for youth; indeed, for men and women too He first criticised Archdeacon Paley's definition of virtue (which was said to be ”the doing good to mankind, in obedience to the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness,”) and then turned to such hy:--

Whatever, Lord, we lend to Thee, _Repaid a thousandfold shall be_, Then gladly e give to Thee, Giver of all!

Mr Carroll's coinal _Sin_! Can you have a stronger proof of the Original Goodness there ion has been preached to us, as a commercial speculation, for a century, and that we still believe in a God?” [”Sylvie and Bruno,” Part i, pp 276, 277] Of course it was quite true, as Mr Carroll pointed out, that our good deeds would be rewarded; but we ought to do thereat

In the Preface to ”Sylvie and Bruno,” Lewis Carroll alluded to certain editions of Shakespeare which seemed to him unsuitable for children; it never seeht be read by children, and that thus his object very probably would be defeated, until this fact was pointed out to him in a letter from an unknown correspondent, Mr JC Cropper, of Hason replied as follows:--

Dear Sir,--Accept estion about the Preface to ”Sylvie and Bruno”

The danger you point out had not occurred tothe Preface): but it is a very real one, and I alad to have had my attention called to it

Believe me, truly yours,

Lewis Carroll

Mathematical controversy carried on by correspondence was a favourite recreation of Mr Dodgson's, and on February 20, 1890, he wrote:--

I've just concluded a correspondence with a Ca a Geometry on the ”Direction” theory (Wilson's plan), and thinks he has avoided Wilson's (what _I_ think) fallacies He _hasn't_, but I can't convince him! My view of life is, that it's next to i_

The following letter is very characteristic ”Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy son's rule of life, and, as the end drew near, he only worked the harder:--

Christ Church, Oxford, _April_ 10, 1890

My dear Atkinson,--Many and sincere thanks for yourphoto of the faroup The forard it as a pleasant drea some day realised I keep a list of such pleasant possibilities, and yours is now one of ten similar kind offers of hospitality But as life shortens in, and the evening shadows looiven towork half finished that one is longing to do before the end coet finished for children I aood as they ever were Even with thethrough the press, I think nothing of working six hours at a stretch

There is one text that often occurs to ards to Mrs