Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice why she is wrong to prefer birthdays, which come once a year to un-birthdays which seem to come 364 times:

«And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!»

«I don't know what you mean by “glory,”» Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. «Of course you don't— till I tell you. I meant “there's a nice knock-down argument for you!”»

«But “glory” doesn't mean “a nice knock-down argument,”» Alice objected.

«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.»

«The question is,» said Alice, «whether you can make words mean so many different things.»

«The question is,» said Humpty Dumpty, «which is to be master— that's all.»

Had Alice been properly armed with a knowledge of the dialectic of sense-certainty, perhaps she could have shown Mr. Dumpty how very unmasterful meaning to say things can be. She may also have explained how very little he knows about this supposed 'I' in which he contemptuously reclines. Oh, Humpty Dumpty isn't the master of much! But then I suppose that is why, Alice's lack of Hegel competence notwithstanding, he falls from the wall as even little children know.