The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll/Chapter VIII

by Stuart Dodgson Collingwood

CHAPTER VIII

 

(1892-1896)

 

Mr. Dodgson resigns the Curatorship—Bazaars—He lectures to children—A mechanical "Humpty Dumpty"—A logical controversy—Albert Chevalier—"Sylvie and Bruno Concluded"—"Pillow Problems"—Mr. Dodgson's generosity—College services—Religious difficulties—A village sermon—Plans for the future—Reverence—"Symbolic Logic."

 

AT Christ Church, as at other Colleges, the Common Room is an important feature. Open from eight in the morning until ten at night, it takes the place of a club, where the "dons" may see the newspapers, talk, write letters, or enjoy a cup of tea. After dinner, members of High Table, with their guests if any are present, usually adjourn to the Common Room for wine and dessert, while there is a smoking-room hard by for those who do not despise the harmless but Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/327 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/328 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/329 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/330 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/331 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/332 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/333 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/334 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/335 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/336 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/337 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/338 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/339 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/340 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/341 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/342 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/343 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/344 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/345 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/346 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/347 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/348 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/349 In writing his books he never attempted to win popularity by acceding to the prejudices and frailties of the age — his one object was to make his books useful and helpful and ennobling. Like the great Master, in whose steps he so earnestly strove to follow, he "went about doing good." And one is glad to think that even his memory is being made to serve the same purpose. The "Alice " cots are a worthy sequel to his generous life.

Even Mr. Dodgson, with all his boasted health, was not absolutely proof against disease, for on February 12, 1895, he writes:—

Tenth day of a rather bad attack of influenza of the ague type. Last night the fever rose to a great height, partly caused by a succession of five visitors. One, however, was of my own seeking — Dean Paget, to whom I was thankful to be able to tell all I have had in my mind for a year or more, as to our Chapel services not being as helpful as they could be made. The chief fault is extreme rapidity. I long ago gave up the attempt to say the Confession at that pace; and now I say it, and the Lord's Prayer, close together, and never hear a word of the Absolution. Also many of the Lessons are quite unedifying.

On July nth he wrote to my brother on the subject of a paper about Eternal Punishment, which was to form the first of a series of essays on Religious Difficulties:— Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/351 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/352 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/353 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/354 Page:Collingwood - Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll.djvu/355 In his "Game of Logic" Lewis Carroll introduced an original method of working logical problems by means of diagrams; this method he superseded in after years for a much simpler one the method of "Subscripts."

In "Symbolic Logic, Part i." (London: Macmillan, 1896) he employed both methods. The Introduction is specially addressed "to Learners," whom Lewis Carroll advises to read the book straight through, without dipping.

This Rule [he says] is very desirable with other kinds of books—such as novels, for instance, where you may easily spoil much of the enjoyment you would otherwise get from the story by dipping into it further on, so that what the author meant to be a pleasant surprise comes to you as a matter of course. Some people, I know, make a practice of looking into vol. iii. first, just to see how the story ends; and perhaps it is as well just to know that all ends happily—that the much-persecuted lovers do marry after all, that he is proved to be quite innocent of the murder, that the wicked cousin is completely foiled in his plot, and gets the punishment he deserves, and that the rich uncle in India {Qu. Why in India?Ans. Because, somehow, uncles never can get rich anywhere else) dies at exactly the right moment—before taking the trouble to read vol i. This, I say, is just permissible with a novel, where vol. iii. has a meaning, even for those who have not read the earlier part of the story; but with a scientific book, it is sheer insanity. You will find the latter part hopelessly unintelligible, if you read it before reaching it in regular course.