“Lewis Carroll” by Eleanor Farjeon is a clever & nicely imagined verse which addresses (obliquely) something which I have recently noticed – the way that people who have made an academic study of physics can address the imaginations of children.
The Reverend Charles Dodgson was not, of course, a physicist but a mathematician & logician, but those disciplines are closely intertwined.
I am reminded of AN Whitehead’s explanation of why he opted for the study of mathematics rather than physics at Cambridge in the 1880s: it was thought that physics was, basically, completely known by then, just a few loose ends to be tidied up. The fundamental problems of arithmetic which were being exposed seemed to pose a more interesting intellectual challenge.
Then along came a man called Einstein.
Lewis Carroll
‘You are wise, Mr Dodgson,’ the young child said,
‘And your forehead is getting a wrinkle;
And yet you’ve so twinkling an eye in your head –
I’m wondering what makes it twinkle?’
‘In my youth,’ Mr Dodgson replied to the child,
‘I acquired mathematical habits
To keep my odd thoughts from becoming as wild
As March Hares, & as frequent as Rabbits.’
‘You are wise, Lewis Carroll,’ the child said again,
‘And the College you live in is hoary;
But if you’ve such numbers of thoughts in your brain –
Do you think you could tell me a story?’
‘In my youth, if you must know the truth,’ whispered he,
‘I kept those same thoughts very supple
By letting my stories run quite fancy-free –
Allow me to tell you a couple'
Eleanor Farjeon
