Part 26 (1/2)
(1897-1898)
Logic-lectures--Irreverent anecdotes--Tolerance of his religious views--A e Baden-Powell--Last illness--”Thy will be done”--”Wonderland” at last!--Letters frodom of Heaven”
The year 1897, the last coson at Guildford On January 3rd he preached in theat the beautiful old church of S Mary's, the church which he always attended when he was staying with his sisters at the Chestnuts
On the 5th he began a course of Logic Lectures at Abbot's Hospital
The Rev A Kingston, late curate of Holy Trinity and S Mary's Parishes, Guildford, had requested hiiven his proether to hear histon canvassed the town so well that an audience of about thirty attended the first lecture
[Illustration: Lewis Carroll _Fro Sunday as always a feature of Mr Dodgson's life in the vacations In earlier years the late Mr W Watson was his usual companion at Guildford The two entleness of character, a winning charuished them both After Mr Watson's death his coymen: the Rev JH Robson, LLD, the Rev HR Ware, and the Rev A Kingston
On the 26th Mr Dodgson paid a visit to the Girls' High School, to show the pupils some mathematical puzzles, and to teach the elder ones his ”Memoria Technica” On the 28th he returned to Oxford, so as to be up in time for term
I have said that he always refused invitations to dinner; accordingly his friends who knew of this peculiarity, and wished to secure hi, dared not actually invite hi that on such and such days they would be dining at home
Thus there is an entry in his Journal for February 10th:
”Dined with Mrs G--(She had not sent an 'invitation'--only 'inforic enabled him to work out the ly short tiic-problean) My reatly doubt if any one will solve the Problem I have sent it to Cook Wilson”
On March 7th he preached in the University Church, the first occasion on which he had done so:--
There is now [he writes] a system established of a course of six sermons at S Mary's each year, for University raduates They are preached, preceded by a few prayers and a hy ended the course for this tere to preach It has been the most forreat_ relief to have it over I took, as text, Job xxviii 28, ”And unto man he said, The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom”--and the prayer in the Litany ”Give us an heart to love and dread thee” It lasted three-quarters of an hour
One can iine hoould have treated the subject The viehich he held on the subject of reverence were, so at least it appears to erated; they are well expressed in a letter which he wrote to a friend of his, during the year, and which runs as follows:--
Dear--, After changing my mind several times, I have at last decided to venture to ask a favour of you, and to trust that you will notso
The favour I would ask is, that you will not tell me any more stories, such as you did on Friday, of remarks which children are said to have made on very sacred subjects-- renise as irreverent, if rown-up people_, but which are assumed to be innocent when made by children who are unconscious of any irreverence, the strange conclusion being drawn that they are therefore innocent when _repeated_ by a grown-up person
Thethat I regard such repetition as always _wrong_ in any grown-up person Let ard it I a to believe that those who repeat such stories differ wholly fro treatnise that ould certainly be wrong in _me_, is not necessarily so in _them_
So I si of that anecdote gave me so much pain, and spoiled so much the pleasure of my tiny dinner-party, that I feel sure you will kindly spare me such in future
One further re about I don't in the least believe that 5 per cent
of them were ever said by _children_ I feel sure thatsacred subjects into ridicule--sometimes by people ish_ to underious truths: for there is no surer way ofto associate theive the freedom hich I have said all this
Sincerely yours,
CL Dodgson
The entry in the Diary for April 11th (Sunday) is interesting:--
Went h Froain, took h tea” at twentya plate of cold ives much less trouble than hot dinner at six