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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.
--
Langford Reed, The Complete Limerick Book (1924)
--
Although this reply is anonymous, it is usually also attributed to Knox. (See, for example, a Guardian editorial for 3 September 2010.) Given the supposedly divine provenance of the limerick, the lack of a human author would appear to be part of the joke.

 

Ronald Knox

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