Complete Works of Lewis Carroll (240 page)

I proceed to give a summary of rules for the method I propose.
Form districts which shall return three, four, or more Members, in proportion to their size.
Let each elector vote for one candidate only.
When the poll is closed, divide the total number of votes by the number of Members to be returned
plus
one, and take the next greater integer as "quota."
Let the returning officer publish the list of candidates, with the votes given for each, and declare as "returned" each that has obtained the quota.
If there are still Members to return, let him name a time when all the candidates shall appear before him; and each returned Member may then formally assign his surplus votes to whomsoever of the other candidates he will, while the other candidates may in like manner assign their votes to one another.

This method would enable each of the two parties in a district to return as many Members as it could muster "quotas," no matter how the votes were distributed.
If, for example, 10,000 were the quota, and the "reds" mustered 30,000 votes, they could return three Members; for, suppose they had four candidates, and that A had 22,000 votes, B 4,000, C 3,000, D 1,000, A would simply have to assign 6,000 votes to B and 6,000 to C; while D, being hopeless of success, would naturally let C have his 1,000 also.
There would be no risk of a seat being left vacant through two candidates of the same party sharing a quota between them—an unwritten law would soon come to be recognised—that the one with fewest votes should give place to the other.
And, with candidates of two opposite parties, this difficulty could not arise at all; one or the other could always be returned by the surplus votes of his party.

Some notes from the Diary for March, 1885, are worth reproducing here:—

March
1
st
.—Sent off two letters of literary importance, one to Mrs.
Hargreaves, to ask her consent to my publishing the original MS.
of "Alice" in facsimile (the idea occurred to me the other day); the other to Mr.
H.
Furniss, a very clever illustrator in
Punch
, asking if he is open to proposals to draw pictures for me.

The letter to Mrs.
Hargreaves, which, it will be noticed, was earlier in date than the short note already quoted in this chapter, ran as follows:—

My Dear Mrs.
Hargreaves,—I fancy this will come to you almost like a voice from the dead, after so many years of silence, and yet those years have made no difference that I can perceive in
my
clearness of memory of the days when we
did
correspond.
I am getting to feel what an old man's failing memory is as to recent events and new friends, (for instance, I made friends, only a few weeks ago, with a very nice little maid of about twelve, and had a walk with her—and now I can't recall either of her names!), but my mental picture is as vivid as ever of one who was, through so many years, my ideal child-friend.
I have had scores of child-friends since your time, but they have been quite a different thing.

However, I did not begin this letter to say all
that
.
What I want to ask is, Would you have any objection to the original MS.
book of "Alice's Adventures" (which I suppose you still possess) being published in facsimile?
The idea of doing so occurred to me only the other day.
If, on consideration, you come to the conclusion that you would rather
not
have it done, there is an end of the matter.
If, however, you give a favourable reply, I would be much obliged if you would lend it me (registered post, I should think, would be safest) that I may consider the possibilities.
I have not seen it for about twenty years, so am by no means sure that the illustrations may not prove to be so awfully bad that to reproduce them would be absurd.

There can be no doubt that I should incur the charge of gross egoism in publishing it.
But I don't care for that in the least, knowing that I have no such motive; only I think, considering the extraordinary popularity the books have had (we have sold more than 120,000 of the two), there must be many who would like to see the original form.

Always your friend,

C.L.
Dodgson.

H.
FURNISS.

From a photograph
.

The letter to Harry Furniss elicited a most satisfactory reply.
Mr.
Furniss said that he had long wished to illustrate one of Lewis Carroll's books, and that he was quite prepared to undertake the work ("Sylvie and Bruno").

Two more notes from the Diary, referring to the same month follow:—

March 10th
.—A great Convocation assembled in the theatre, about a proposed grant for Physiology, opposed by many (I was one) who wish restrictions to be enacted as to the practice of vivisection for research.
Liddon made an excellent speech against the grant, but it was carried by 412 to 244.

March 29th
.—Never before have I had so many literary projects on hand at once.
For curiosity, I will here make a list of them.

(1) Supplement to "Euclid and Modern Rivals."

(2) 2nd Edition of "Euc.
and Mod.
Rivals."

(3) A book of Math.
curiosities, which I think of calling "Pillow Problems, and other Math.
Trifles."
This will contain Problems worked out in the dark, Logarithms without Tables, Sines and angles do., a paper I am now writing on "Infinities and Infinitesimals," condensed Long Multiplication, and perhaps others.

(4) Euclid V.

(5) "Plain Facts for Circle-Squarers," which is nearly complete, and gives actual proof of limits 3.14158, 3.14160.

(6) A symbolical Logic, treated by my algebraic method.

(7) "A Tangled Tale."

(8) A collection of Games and Puzzles of my devising, with fairy pictures by Miss E.G.
Thomson.
This might also contain my "Mem.
Tech."
for dates; my "Cipher-writing" scheme for Letter-registration, &c., &c.

(9) Nursery Alice.

(10) Serious poems in "Phantasmagoria."

(11) "Alice's Adventures Underground."

(12) "Girl's Own Shakespeare."
I have begun on "Tempest."

(13) New edition of "Parliamentary Representation."

(14) New edition of Euc.
I., II.

(15) The new child's book, which Mr.
Furniss is to illustrate.
I have settled on no name as yet, but it will perhaps be "Sylvie and Bruno."

I have other shadowy ideas,
e.g.
, a Geometry for Boys, a vol.
of Essays on theological points freely and plainly treated, and a drama on "Alice" (for which Mr.
Mackenzie would write music): but the above is a fair example of "too many irons in the fire!"

A letter written about this time to his friend, Miss Edith Rix, gives some very good hints about how to work, all the more valuable because he had himself successfully carried them out.
The first hint was as follows:—

When you have made a thorough and reasonably long effort, to understand a thing, and still feel puzzled by it,
stop
, you will only hurt yourself by going on.
Put it aside till the next morning; and if
then
you can't make it out, and have no one to explain it to you, put it aside entirely, and go back to that part of the subject which you
do
understand.
When I was reading Mathematics for University honours, I would sometimes, after working a week or two at some new book, and mastering ten or twenty pages, get into a hopeless muddle, and find it just as bad the next morning.
My rule was
to begin the book again
.
And perhaps in another fortnight I had come to the old difficulty with impetus enough to get over it.
Or perhaps not.
I have several books that I have begun over and over again.

My second hint shall be—Never leave an unsolved difficulty
behind
.
I mean, don't go any further in that book till the difficulty is conquered.
In this point, Mathematics differs entirely from most other subjects.
Suppose you are reading an Italian book, and come to a hopelessly obscure sentence—don't waste too much time on it, skip it, and go on; you will do very well without it.
But if you skip a
mathematical
difficulty, it is sure to crop up again: you will find some other proof depending on it, and you will only get deeper and deeper into the mud.

My third hint is, only go on working so long as the brain is
quite
clear.
The moment you feel the ideas getting confused leave off and rest, or your penalty will be that you will never learn Mathematics
at all
!

Two more letters to the same friend are, I think, deserving of a place here:—

Eastbourne,
Sept
.
25, 1885.

My dear Edith,—One subject you touch on—"the Resurrection of the Body"—is very interesting to me, and I have given it much thought (I mean long ago).
My
conclusion was to give up the
literal
meaning of the
material
body altogether.
Identity
, in some mysterious way, there evidently is; but there is no resisting the scientific fact that the actual
material
usable for
physical
bodies has been used over and over again—so that each atom would have several owners.
The mere solitary fact of the existence of
cannibalism
is to my mind a sufficient
reductio ad absurdum
of the theory that the particular set of atoms I shall happen to own at death (changed every seven years, they say) will be mine in the next life—and all the other insuperable difficulties (such as people born with bodily defects) are swept away at once if we accept S.
Paul's "spiritual body," and his simile of the grain of corn.
I have read very little of "Sartor Resartus," and don't know the passage you quote: but I accept the idea of the material body being the "dress" of the spiritual—a dress needed for material life.