“Of course it is,’ said the Duchess, who
seemed ready to agree to everything that Alice
said; “there’s a large mustard-mine near here.
And the moral of that is—‘The more there is
of mine, the less there is of yours.
“Oh, I know!” exclaimed Alice, who had
not attended to this last remark, “it’s a vege¬
table. It doesn’t look like one, but it is.”
“T quite agree with you,’ said the Duchess,
" and the moral of that is—‘ Be what you would
seem to be —or if youd like it put more
simply—‘ Never imagine yourself not to be
otherwise than what it might appear to others
that what you were or might have been was
not otherwise than what you had been would
have appeared to them to be otherwise.’ ”
‘“T think I should understand that better,"
Alice said very politely, “if I had it written
down: but I can’t quite follow it as you say
it.
“That’s nothing to what I could say if I
chose,’ the Duchess replied, in a pleased tone.