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DEAR CHILD,
_Please to fancy, if you can, that you are reading a real letter, from a real friend whom you have seen, and whose voice you can seem to yourself to hear wis.h.i.+ng you, as I do now with all my heart, a happy Easter._
_Do you know that delicious dreamy feeling when one first wakes on a summer morning, with the twitter of birds in the air, and the fresh breeze coming in at the open window--when, lying lazily with eyes half shut, one sees as in a dream green boughs waving, or waters rippling in a golden light? It is a pleasure very near to sadness, bringing tears to one's eyes like a beautiful picture or poem. And is not that a Mother's gentle hand that undraws your curtains, and a Mother's sweet voice that summons you to rise? To rise and forget, in the bright sunlight, the ugly dreams that frightened you so when all was dark--to rise and enjoy another happy day, first kneeling to thank that unseen Friend, who sends you the beautiful sun_?
_Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as "Alice"?
And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all, except in church and on a Sunday: but I think--nay, I am sure--that some children will read this gently and lovingly, and in the spirit in which I have written it._
_For I do not believe G.o.d means us thus to divide life into two halves--to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him on a week-day. Do you think He cares to see only kneeling figures, and to hear only tones of prayer--and that He does not also love to see the lambs leaping in the sunlight, and to hear the merry voices of the children, as they roll among the hay? Surely their innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the "dim religious light" of some solemn cathedral?_
_And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amus.e.m.e.nt that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when_ my _turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows._
_This Easter sun will rise on you, dear child, feeling your "life in every limb," and eager to rush out into the fresh morning air_--_and many an Easter-day will come and go, before it finds you feeble and gray-headed, creeping wearily out to bask once more in the sunlight--but it is good, even now, to think sometimes of that great morning when the "Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."_
_Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this--when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters--when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day--and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!_
_Your affectionate friend_,
_LEWIS CARROLL_.
EASTER, 1876.
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS.
[FROM A FAIRY TO A CHILD.]
Lady dear, if Fairies may For a moment lay aside Cunning tricks and elfish play, 'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.
We have heard the children say-- Gentle children, whom we love-- Long ago, on Christmas Day, Came a message from above.
Still, as Christmas-tide comes round, They remember it again-- Echo still the joyful sound "Peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Yet the hearts must childlike be Where such heavenly guests abide: Unto children, in their glee, All the year is Christmas-tide!
Thus, forgetting tricks and play For a moment, Lady dear, We would wish you, if we may, Merry Christmas, glad New Year!
LEWIS CARROLL.
_Christmas, 1867._
WORKS BY LEWIS CARROLL.
PUBLISHED BY
MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES _IN_ WONDERLAND. With Forty-two Ill.u.s.trations by TENNIEL. (First published in 1865.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._ Seventy-eighth Thousand.
AVENTURES D'ALICE AU PAYS DES MERVEILLES. Traduit de l'Anglais par Henri Bue. Ouvrage ill.u.s.tre de 42 Vignettes par JOHN TENNIEL.
(First published in 1869.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._
ALICE'S ABENTEUER IM WUNDERLAND. AUS DEM ENGLISCHEN, VON ANTONIE ZIMMERMANN. MITT 42 ILl.u.s.tRATIONEN VON JOHN TENNIEL. (First published in 1869.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._
LE AVVENTURE D'ALICE NEL PAESE DELLE MERAVIGLIE. Tradotte dall'
Inglese da T. PIETROCLA-ROSSETTI. Con 42 Vignette di GIOVANNI TENNIEL. (First published in 1872.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLa.s.s AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE. With Fifty Ill.u.s.trations by TENNIEL. (First published in 1871.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, price 6_s._ Fifty sixth Thousand.
RHYME? AND REASON? With Sixty-five Ill.u.s.trations by ARTHUR B.
FROST, and Nine by HENRY HOLIDAY. (This book, first published in 1883, is a reprint, with a few additions, of the comic portion of "Phantasmagoria and other Poems," published in 1869, and of "The Hunting of the Snark," published in 1876. Mr. Frost's pictures are new.) Crown 8vo, cloth, coloured edges, price 6_s._ Fifth Thousand.
WORKS BY LEWIS CARROLL.
PUBLISHED BY
MACMILLAN AND CO., LONDON.
A TANGLED TALE. Reprinted from _The Monthly Packet_. With Six Ill.u.s.trations by ARTHUR B. FROST. (First published in 1885.) Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges, 4_s._ 6_d._ Third Thousand.
THE GAME OF LOGIC. (With an Envelope containing a card diagram and nine counters--four red and five grey.) Crown 8vo, cloth, price 3_s._
N.B.--The Envelope, etc., may be had separately at 3_d._ each.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES UNDER GROUND. Being a Facsimile of the original MS. Book, afterwards developed into "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." With Thirty-seven Ill.u.s.trations by the Author.
Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt edges. 4_s._
THE NURSERY ALICE. A selection of twenty of the pictures in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," enlarged and coloured under the Artist's superintendence, with explanations. [_In preparation._
