"LEWIS-CARROLL" ON LETTER WRITING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 104, 25 January 1908, Page 13

"LEWIS-CARROLL" ON LETTER WRITING.

Twenty-four.years ago "Lewis Carroll".delivered a lecturo on "Feeding tho Mind" to a country audience. The lecture has been roprintcd as a booklet, to which W. H. Draper contributes a preface, from which we extract the following:— Probably not iuany readers of tho- immortal Alice havo ever seen the curious little whimsical paper called "Eight or Nino Wise Words about Letter-writing," which their author had printed, and .used to' send to his acquaintances, accompanied by a small case for postage stamps. In this little script there are th'o same sparkles of wit which betoken that nimblo pen; as, for example, under "How to begin a Letter": -"'And nover, never, dear madamo' (N.B. —This remark is addressed to ladies only. No man would ever do such a thing), 'put Wednesday' simply as tho date I 'That way madness lies I' "From Section 3: 'How to go on with a Letter.'—'A groat of tho bad writing in the world conies simply from writing too quickly. .Of course you reply, "1 do it to save time." . A very good object, no doubt, but what right have you to do it at your friend's expense. Isn't his time as valuablo as yours? Years ago I used to receive letters from a friend —and very interesting letters too—written in ono of tho most atrocious hands ever invented. It generally took mo about a week to read one of his lettcrs'l I used to carry it about in my pocket, and tako it out at leisure times, to puzzle over the riddles which composed it—holding it in dilforent positions and at different distances till at last the meaning of somo hopeless scrawl would flash npon mo, when I at onco wrote tho English under it. And when several had been thus guessed tho oontext would help ono with the others, till at last the whole series of hieroglyphics was deciphered. If all one's friends wrote liko that, life would be entirely spent in reading their letters!' "Rule for correspondence that has, unfortunately, become controversial: '"Don't repeat yourself.—When onco you have had your say fully and clearly on a certain point, and htive failed to convince your friend, drop the subject. To repeat your arguments all over again will simply lead to his doing the same, and so you will go on liko a circulating decimal. Did yon' ever know a circulating decimal come to an end?' ... "Rulo o—Don't try to get the last word . . . (N.B. —If you are a gentleman nnd your friend a lady, this rule is superfluous; you won't get the last word I). . . .

' " 'When you have written a letter that you feel may possibly irritate your friend, howover 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, taking out n lot of tho vinegar and pepper, and putting" in honey instead, and thus making a much more palatablo dish of it 1' "