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 him to do this, and he had given his promise if as many as six people could be got together to hear him.  Mr. Kingston canvassed the town so well that an audience of about thirty attended the first lecture.

[Illustration:  Lewis Carroll. From a photograph.]

A long Sunday walk was 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 men were in some respects very much alike; a peculiar gentleness of character, a winning charm of manner which no one could resist, distinguished them both.  After Mr. Watson’s death his companion was usually one of the following Guildford clergymen:  the Rev. J.H.  Robson, LL.D., the Rev. H.R.  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 him for a special evening, dared not actually invite him, but wrote him little notes stating 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 ’information’).”

His system of symbolic logic enabled him to work out the most complex problems with absolute certainty in a surprisingly short time.  Thus he wrote on the 15th:  “Made a splendid logic-problem, about “great-grandsons” (modelled on one by De Morgan).  My method of solution is quite new, and I greatly 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 men only, and specially meant for undergraduates.  They are preached, preceded by a few prayers and a hymn, at half-past eight.  This evening ended the course for this term:  and it was my great privilege to preach.  It has been the most formidable sermon I have ever had to preach, and it is a great 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 imagine how he would have treated the subject.  The views which he held on the subject of reverence were, so at least it appears to me, somewhat exaggerated; they are well expressed in a letter which he wrote to a friend of his, during the year, and which runs as follows:—­