Page:Carroll - Notes by an Oxford Chiel.djvu/97

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OF CHRIST CHURCH.
17

joint composition of the friends and the enemies of the Belfry.

To restore the character of Ch. Ch., a tower must be built;
To build a tower, ten thousand pounds must be raised;
Ergo, No time must be lost.

These three Syllogisms have been submitted to the criticism of the Professor of Logic, who writes that 'he fancies he can detect some slight want of logical sequence in the Conclusion of the third.' He adds that, according to his experience of life, when people thus commit a fatal blunder in child-like confidence that money will be forthcoming to enable them to set it right, in ten cases out of nine the money is not forthcoming. This is a large percentage.

§ 11. On the dramatic treatment of the new Belfry, Ch. Ch.

Curtain rises, discovering the Dean, Canons, and Students, seated round a table, on which the mad Architect, fantastically dressed, and rearing a Fool's cap and bells, is placing a square block of deal.

Dean (as Hamlet). Methinks I see a Bell-tower!