Biography
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the pen name of Oxford mathematician, logician, photographer and author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is famous the world over for his fantastic classics “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” “Through the Looking Glass,” “The Hunting of the Snark,” “Jabberwocky,” and “Sylvie and Bruno.”
Wow, what a jewel. I found this on a whim and loved it. It is more of a paper and not a book but it is worth the time it will take you to read. I will just give you a few nuggets and you can judge for yourself.
Ronnie
Rule 6.—‘Don’t try to get the last word…. (N.B.—If you are a gentleman and your friend a lady, this rule is superfluous: You won’t get the last word!)’
‘When you have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your friend, however necessary you may have felt it to so express yourself, put it aside till the next day. Then read it over again, and fancy it addressed to yourself. This will often lead to your writing it all over again, taking out a lot of the vinegar and pepper and putting in honey instead, and thus making a much more palatable dish of it!’
“What care we take about feeding the lucky body! Which of us does as much for his mind?”
“Well, it is, I say, for us that the consequences of neglecting the body can be clearly seen and felt; and it might be well for some if the mind were equally visible and tangible—if we could take it, say, to the doctor, and have its pulse felt.”
“If this paper has given you any useful hints on the important subject of reading, and made you see that it is one’s duty no less than one’s interest to ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ the good books that fall in your way, its purpose will be fulfilled.”