Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

by Lewis Carroll

'Why, I do believe we've been under this tree the whole time! Everything's just as it was!' 'Of course it is,' said the Queen, 'what would you have it?' 'Well, in OUR country,' said Alice, still panting a little, 'you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you ran very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.'

'A slow sort of country!' said the Queen. 'Now, HERE, you see, it takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'

'Living backwards!' Alice repeated in great astonishment. 'I never heard of such a thing!' '—but there's one great advantage in it, that one's memory works both ways.'

Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one CAN'T believe impossible things.'

'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

'Seven years and six months!' Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. 'An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked MY advice, I'd have said "Leave off at seven"—but it's too late now.' 'I never ask advice about growing,' Alice said indignantly. 'Too proud?' the other inquired. Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. 'I mean,' she said, 'that one can't help growing older.' 'ONE can't, perhaps,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'but TWO can. With proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.'

'That seems to be done right—' he began. 'You're holding it upside down!' Alice interrupted.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'

Ever drifting down the stream— Lingering in the golden gleam— Life, what is it but a dream?