I have already referred to the services held in Christ Church for the College servants, at which Mr. Dodgson used frequently to preach.  The way in which he regarded this work is very characteristic of the man.  “Once more,” he writes, “I have to thank my Heavenly Father for the great blessing and privilege of being allowed to speak for Him!  May He bless my words to help some soul on its heavenward way.”  After one of these addresses he received a note from a member of the congregation, thanking him for what he had said.  “It is very sweet,” he said, “to get such words now and then; but there is danger in them if more such come, I must beg for silence.”

During the year Mr. Dodgson wrote the following letter to the Rev. C.A.  Goodhart, Rector of Lambourne, Essex:—­

Dear Sir,—­Your kind, sympathising and most encouraging letter about “Sylvie and Bruno” has deserved a better treatment from me than to have been thus kept waiting more than two years for an answer.  But life is short; and one has many other things to do; and I have been for years almost hopelessly in arrears in correspondence.  I keep a register, so that letters which I intend to answer do somehow come to the front at last.

In “Sylvie and Bruno” I took courage to introduce what I had entirely avoided in the two “Alice” books—­some reference to subjects which are, after all, the only subjects of real interest in life, subjects which are so intimately bound up with every topic of human interest that it needs more effort to avoid them than to touch on them; and I felt that such a book was more suitable to a clerical writer than one of mere fun.

    I hope I have not offended many (evidently I have not
    offended you) by putting scenes of mere fun, and talk
    about God, into the same book.

Only one of all my correspondents ever guessed there was more to come of the book.  She was a child, personally unknown to me, who wrote to “Lewis Carroll” a sweet letter about the book, in which she said, “I’m so glad it hasn’t got a regular wind-up, as it shows there is more to come!”

There is indeed “more to come.”  When I came to piece together the mass of accumulated material I found it was quite double what could be put into one volume.  So I divided it in the middle; and I hope to bring out “Sylvie and Bruno Concluded” next Christmas—­if, that is, my Heavenly Master gives me the time and the strength for the task; but I am nearly 60, and have no right to count on years to come.

In signing my real name, let me beg you not to let the information go further—­I have an intense dislike to personal publicity; and, the more people there are who know nothing of “Lewis Carroll” save his books, the happier I am.

    Believe me, sincerely yours,

    Charles L. Dodgson.