The other polygons are taught the children in rotation,
in the same
simple manner, all tending to please and edify them.
The following is sung:--
Horizontal, perpendicular,
Horizontal, perpendicular,
Parallel, parallel,
Parallel, lines,
Diverging, converging, diverging lines,
Diverging, converging, diverging lines.
Spreading wider, or expansion,
Drawing nearer, or contraction,
Falling, rising,
Slanting, crossing,
Convex, concave, curved lines,
Convex, concave, curved lines.
Here's a wave line, there's an angle,
Here's a wave line, there's an angle;
An ellipsis,
Or an oval,
A semicircle half way round,
Then a circle wheeling round.
Some amusing circumstances have occured from the knowledge of form
thus acquired.
"D'ye ken, Mr. Wilderspin," said a child at Glasgow one day,
"that we
have an oblong table: it's made o' deal; four sides, four corners, twa
lang sides, and twa short anes; corners mean angles, and angles mean
corners. My brother ga'ed himsel sic a clink o' the eye against ane
at
hame; but ye ken there was nane that could tell the shape o' the thing
that did it!"
A little boy was watching his mother making pan-cakes and wishing
they were all done; when, after various observations as to their
comparative goodness with and without sugar, he exclaimed, "I wonder
which are best, elliptical pan-cakes or circular ones!" As
this
was Greek to the mother she turned round with "What d'ye say?"
When
the child repeated the observation. "Bless the child!" said
the
astonished parent, "what odd things ye are always saying; what
can you
mean by liptical pancakes? Why, you little fool, don't you know they
are made of flour and eggs, and did you not see me put the milk into
the large pan and stir all up together?" "Yes," said
the little
fellow, "I know what they are made of, and I know what bread is
made of, but that is'nt the shape; indeed, indeed, mother, they are
elliptical pan-cakes, because they are made in an elliptical
frying-pan." An old soldier who lodged in the house, was now called
down by the mother, and he decided that the child was right, and far
from being what, in her surprize and alarm, she took him to be.
On another occasion a little girl had been taken to market by her
mother, where she was struck by the sight of the carcasses of six
sheep recently killed, and said, "Mother, what are these?"
The reply
was, "Dead sheep, dead sheep, don't bother." "They are
suspended,
perpendicular, and parallels," rejoined the child. "What?
What?" was
then the question. "Why, mother," was the child's answer,
"don't you
see they hang up, that's suspended; they are straight up, that's
perpendicular; and they are at equal distances, that's parallel."
On another occasion a child came crying to school, at having been
beaten for contradicting his father, and begged of me to go to his
father and explain; which I did. The man received me kindly, and told
me that he had beaten the child for insisting that the table which
he pointed out was not round, which he repeated was against all
evidence of the senses; that the child told him that if it was round,
nothing would stand upon it, which so enraged him, that he thrashed
him, as he deserved, and sent him off to school, adding, to be thus
contradicted by a child so young, was too bad. The poor little fellow
stood between us looking the picture of innocence combined with
oppression, which his countenance fully developed, but said not a
word. Under the said table there happened to be a ball left by a
younger child. I took it up and kindly asked the man the shape of it?
he instantly replied, "Round." "Then," said I,
"is that table the
same shape as the ball?" The man thought for a minute, and then
said,
"It is round-flat." I then explained the difference to him
between
the one and the other, more accurately, of course, than the infant
could; and told him, as he himself saw a distinction, it was evident
they were not both alike, and told him that the table was circular.
"Ah!" said be, "that is just what the little one said!
but I did not
understand what circular meant; but now I see he is right." The
little fellow was so pleased, that he ran to his father directly with
delight. The other could not resist the parental impulse, but seized
the boy and kissed him heartily.
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