During this year he composed the words of a song, “Dreamland.”  The air was dreamed by his friend, the late Rev. C. E. Hutchinson, of Chichester.  The history of the dream is here given in the words of the dreamer:—­

I found myself seated, with many others, in darkness, in a large amphitheatre.  Deep stillness prevailed.  A kind of hushed expectancy was upon us.  We sat awaiting I know not what.  Before us hung a vast and dark curtain, and between it and us was a kind of stage.  Suddenly an intense wish seized me to look upon the forms of some of the heroes of past days.  I cannot say whom in particular I longed to behold, but, even as I wished, a faint light flickered over the stage, and I was aware of a silent procession of figures moving from right to left across the platform in front of me.  As each figure approached the left-hand corner it turned and gazed at me, and I knew (by what means I cannot say) its name.  One only I recall—­Saint George; the light shone with a peculiar blueish lustre on his shield and helmet as he turned and slowly faced me.  The figures were shadowy, and floated like mist before me; as each one disappeared an invisible choir behind the curtain sang the “Dream music.”  I awoke with the melody ringing in my ears, and the words of the last line complete—­“I see the shadows falling, and slowly pass away.”  The rest I could not recall.

[Illustration:  Dreamland—­Facsimile of Words and Music.]

DREAMLAND.

Words by LEWIS CARROLL.

Music by C.E.  HUTCHINSON.

When midnight mists are creeping
And all the land is sleeping
Around me tread the mighty dead,
And slowly pass away.

Lo, warriors, saints, and sages,
From out the vanished ages,
With solemn pace and reverend face
Appear and pass away.

The blaze of noonday splendour,
The twilight soft and tender,
May charm the eye:  yet they shall die,
Shall die and pass away

But here, in Dreamland’s centre,
No spoiler’s hand may enter,
These visions fair, this radiance rare,
Shall never pass away

I see the shadows falling,
The forms of eld recalling;
Around me tread the mighty dead,
And slowly pass away

One of the best services to education which Mr. Dodgson performed was his edition of “Euclid I. and II.,” which was published in 1882.  In writing “Euclid and His Modern Rivals,” he had criticised somewhat severely the various substitutes proposed for Euclid, so far as they concerned beginners; but at the same time he had admitted that within prescribed limits Euclid’s text is capable of amendment and improvement, and this is what he attempted to do in this book.  That he was fully justified is shown by the fact that during the years 1882-1889 the book ran through eight editions.  In the Introduction he enumerates, under the three headings of “Additions,” “Omissions,” and “Alterations,” the chief points of difference between his own and the ordinary editions of Euclid, with his reasons for adopting them.  They are the outcome of long experience, and the most conservative of teachers would readily accept them.