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.

The idea of size is necessary to a correct apprehension of objects.  To talk of yards, feet, or inches, to a child, unless they are shown, is just as intelligible as miles, leagues, or degrees.  Let there then be two five-feet rods, a black foot and a white foot alternately, the bottom foot marked in inches, and let there be a horizontal piece to slide up and down to make various heights.  Thus, when the height of a lion, or elephant, &c. &c., is mentioned, it may be shown by the rod; while the girth may be exhibited by a piece of cord, which should always be ready.  Long measure is taught as follows: