
> 
> ... "and then the
> different branches of Arithmetic--
> **Ambition, Distraction, Uglification,**
> and **Derision.**"
> 
> 
> (*Alice in Wonderland*, chapter IX: the Mock Turtle's story)
> 
> 
> 


As a child I wondered for a long time what was the exact meaning of the above partition of Arithmetic quoted in the strange Mock turtle's speech. Today, I like to think it refers to that unpleasant circumstance many of us experienced sometimes: I want to get a certain difficult result (Ambition) but there is a fatal error somewhere in my argument, or computation (Distraction) and when I realize it, the construction miserably falls (Uglification) with a inner feeling of scorn (Derision). A sort of micro - Greek tragedy. Is that what Lewis Carrol really had in mind? It is possible, as he was a mathematician himself, but then did he refer to a precise incident? Did he left any comment on that passage? Has anybody quoted that passage in this meaning later?



The different Branches of Arithmetic
Martin Gardner's *Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition* says only this:



> 
> Needless to say, all the Mock Turtle's subjects are puns (reading, writing, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, history, geography, drawing, sketching, painting in oils, Latin, Greek). In fact, this chapter and the one to follow fairly swarm with puns. Children find puns very funny, but most contemporary authorities on what children are supposed to like believe that puns lower the literary quality of juvenile books.
> 
> 
> 


Gardner then goes on to say that the "Drawling-master" is a reference to the art critic John Ruskin, and gives a couple of paragraphs of biographical information about Ruskin. Given Gardner's extensive knowledge of Carrolliana, it seems likely that Carroll never published any further comments about the "different branches of Arithmetic."


