THE CARDINAL POINTS.
The east is where the sun does rise
Each morning, in the glorious skies;
Full west he sets, or hides his head,
And points to us the time for bed;
He's in the south at dinner time;
The north is facing to a line.
The above can be given as a gallery lesson, and it will at once be
seen that it requires explanation: the explanation is given by the
teacher in the same way as we have hinted at in former lessons, though
for the sake of those teachers who may not be competent to do it, we
subjoin the following:
Q. Little children what have we been singing about?
A. The earth on which we live.
Q. What is the earth called?
A. A globe.
Q. What is the shape of a globe?
A. Round, like an orange.
Q. Is the earth round, like an orange?
A. Yes.
Q. Does it always stand still?
A. No, it goes round the sun.
Q. How often does it go round the sun in a year?
A. Once.
Q. Does it go round anything else but the sun?
A. Yes, round its own axis, in the same way as you turn the balls round
on the wires of the arithmeticon.
Q. What are these motions called?
A. Its motion round the sun is called its annual or yearly motion.
Q. What is its other motion called?
A. Its diurnal or daily motion.
Q. What is caused by its motion round the sun?
A. The succession of summer, winter, spring, and autumn, which are called
the four seasons, is caused by this.
Q. What is caused by its daily motion round its own axis?
A. Day and night.
Q. Into what two principal things is this earth on which we live divided?
A. Into land and water.
Q. Into how many great parts is the globe divided?
A. Into five.
Q. Which are they?
A. Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia.
Q. Which part do you live in?
A. In Europe.
Q. We sung that those great parts contained
Straits, oceans, seas,
Continents, promontories,
Islands, rivers, gulfs, or bays,
Isthmusses, peninsulas.
Q. What is a strait?
A. A narrow part of the sea joining one great sea to another.
Q. What is an ocean?
A. A very large sea.
Q. What is a gulf or bay?
A. A part of the sea running a long way into the land.
Q. What is a continent?
A. A very large tract of land.
Q. What does a continent contain?
A. Nations and kingdoms, such as England.
Q. What more?
A. Many cities and towns.
Q. What more?
A. Mountains.
Q What are mountains?
A. Very high steep places.
Q. What more does a continent contain?
A. Forests, hills, deserts, and valleys.
Q. What is a forest?
A. Many large trees growing over a great deal of the land is a forest.
Q. What are hills?
A. Parts of the ground which rise higher than the rest.
Q. What is a desert?
A. A part of the earth where nothing will grow, and which is covered
with hot sand.
Q. What is a valley?
A. A part of the earth which is lower than the rest, with hills at each
side.
Q. Who made all that we have been speaking of?
A. Almighty God.
I can remember the time when no national school in England possessed
a map. It was thought dangerous to teach geography, as in fact
anything but cramming the memory, and reading and writing. With regard
to the reading I will say nothing as to how much was understood, explaining
then, was out of the question. What a change have I lived to see!
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