Page:Carroll - Notes by an Oxford Chiel.djvu/136

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THE VISION

will ever follow Nature. Thus, in the centre of a hall-door we usually place an umbrella-stand——in the midst of a wicket-gate, a milestone——what place so suited for a watch-box as the centre of a narrow bridge?——Yea, and in the most crowded thoroughfare, where the living tide flows thickest, there, in the midst of all, the true ideal architect doth ever plant an obelisk! You may have observed this?

Ven. (much bewildered), I may have done so, worthy Sir: and yet, methinks——

Tutor. I must now bid you farewell; for the music, which I would fain hear, is even now beginning.

Ven. Trust me, Sir, your discourse hath interested me hugely.

Tutor. Yet it hath, I fear me, somewhat wearied your friend, who is, as I perceive, in a deep slumber.

Ven. I had partly guessed it, by his loud and continuous snoring.

Tutor. You had best let him sleep on. He hath, I take it, a dull fancy, that cannot grasp the Great and the Sublime. And so farewell: I am bound for the music. [Exit Tutor.