ABSTRACT
A mathematician and logician, Lewis Carroll was an ardent lover of nature, an avid reader of natural history books, and an informed consumer of then-contemporary science. Carroll's skepticism about science issued from his convictions, from his perceptions of human nature, and from his profound respect for the educational traditions of Oxford. He was more than suspicious, for instance, of the claim that science is an altruistic enterprise. Moreover, Carroll distrusted the emerging magisterium of science, its demands for amplified power, greater laboratory space, greater numbers of salaried positions for dons and assistants, especially as the new sciences were displacing the classical tradition at Cambridge and Oxford. His parody perhaps proved effective; at any rate, the University did change its mind. As Carroll was usually on the losing, anti-reform side of University controversies, a rare victory must have been rather pleasant for him.
