I Am Always About in the Quad

A memory returned today, after many, many years: my father quoting to me, when I was a child, Ronald Knox’s limerick based on Berkeley’s famous tree in the university quadrangle.

There was a young man who said "God

Must find it exceedingly odd

To think that the tree

Should continue to be

When there's no one about in the quad."

"Dear Sir: Your astonishment's odd;

I am always about in the quad.

And that's why the tree

Will continue to be

Since observed by, Yours faithfully, God."