[bdefore]

What a glorious conclusion to the introduction:

"Mental recreation is a thing that we all of us need for our mental health; and you may get much healthy enjoyment, no doubt, from Games, such as Back-gammon, Chess, and the new Game “Halma”. But, after all, when you have made yourself a first-rate player at any one of these Games, you have nothing real to show for it, as a result! You enjoyed the Game, and the victory, no doubt, at the time: but you have no result that you can treasure up and get real good out of. And, all the while, you have been leaving unexplored a perfect mine of wealth. Once master the machinery of Symbolic Logic, and you have a mental occupation always at hand, of absorbing interest, and one that will be of real use to you in any subject you may take up. It will give you clearness of thought——the ability to see your way through a puzzle——the habit of arranging your ideas in an orderly and get-at-able form——and, more valuable than all, the power to detect fallacies, and to tear to pieces the flimsy illogical arguments, which you will so continually encounter in books, in newspapers, in speeches, and even in sermons, and which so easily delude those who have never taken the trouble to master this fascinating Art. Try it. That is all I ask of you!"

[lioeters]

Ah, Lewis Carroll. I see some of his works as a step in a long line of thought, from Renaissance philosophy, art and science. In particular, his approach to logic feels like a precursor and influence on books like Gödel, Escher, Bach.

The joy the author takes on conceptualization and mental operations, logic and computation; the willful use of the Imagination to explore and deepen understanding - there's irreverence, "just for fun", like a child working with the most fascinating toy of all - the mind - and at the same time, a respect and reverence to the profound insights, fruits of the work of play.