The last work of his that attained any great celebrity was "Sylvie and Bruno," a curious romance, half fairy tale, half mathematical treatise. Mr. Dodgson was employed of late years on his "Symbolic Logic," only one part of which has been published, and he seems to have been influenced by his studies. One can easily trace the trail of the logician in Sylvie and Bruno, and perhaps this resulted in a certain lack of "form." However, some of the nonsense verses in this book were up to the highest level of the author's achievement. Even as I write the verse comes to me-- "He thought he saw a kangaroo Turning a coffee-mill; He looked again, and found it was A vegetable pill! 'Were I to swallow you,' he said, 'I should be very ill'!" The fascinating jingle stays in the memory when graver verse eludes all effort at recollection. I personally could repeat "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from beginning to end without hesitation, but I should find a difficulty in writing ten lines of "Hamlet" correctly. At the beginning of "Sylvie and Bruno" is a little poem in three verses which forms an acrostic on my name. I quote it-- "Is all our life, then, but a dream, Seen faintly in the golden gleam Athwart Time's dark resistless stream? Bowed to the earth with bitter woe, Or laughing at some raree-show, We flutter idly to and fro. Man's little day in haste we spend, And, from its merry noontide, send No glance to meet the silent end." You see that if you take the first letter of each line, or if you take the first three letters of the first line of each verse, you get the name Isa Bowman. [Illustration: Facsimile: Prologue [Enter Beatrice, leading Wilfred She leaves him to centre (front) & after going round on tip-toe to make sure they are not overheard returns & takes his arm.] B. "Wiffie! I'm sure that something is the matter! All day there's been--oh such a fuss and clatter! Mamma's been trying on a funny dress-- I never =saw= the house in such a mess! (puts her arm round his neck) Is there a secret, Wiffie?" W. (Shaking her off) "yes, of course!" B. "And you won't tell it? (whispers) Then you're very cross! (turns away from, & clasps her hands, looking up ecstatically) I'm sure of =this=! It's something =quite= uncommon!" W. (stretching up his arms with a mock-heroic air) "Oh, Curiosity! Thy name is Woman! (puts his arm round her coaxingly) Well, Birdie, then I'll tell. (mysteriously) What should you say If they were going to act--a little play?" B. (jumping and clapping her hands) "I'd say '=How nice=!'" W. (pointing to audience) "But will it please the rest?" B. "Oh =yes=! Because, you know, they'll do their best! [turns to audience] "You'll praise them, won't you, when you've seen the play? Just say '=How nice=!' before you go away!" [they run away hand in hand]. Feb 14. 1873.]