Take barley-corns of mod’rate length,
    And three you’ll find will make an inch;
  Twelve inches make a foot;—­if strength
    Permit; I’ll leap it and not flinch. 
  Three feet’s a yard, as understood
    By those possess’d with sense and soul;
  Five feet and half will make a rood,
    And also make a perch or pole. 
  Oh how pretty, wond’rously pretty,
    Every rule
    We learn at school
  Is wondrously pretty.

  Forty such poles a furlong make,
    And eight such furlongs make a mile,
  O’er hedge, or ditch, or seas, or lake;
    O’er railing, fence, or gate, or stile. 
  Three miles a league, by sea or land,
    And twenty leagues are one degree;
  Just four times ninety degrees a band
    Will make to girt the earth and sea. 
  Oh how pretty, &c.

  But what’s the girth of hell or heaven? 
    (No natural thought or eye can see,)
  To neither girth or length is given;
    ’Tis without space—­Immensity. 
  Still shall the good and truly wise,
    The seat of heaven with safety find;
  Because ’tis seen with inward eyes,
    The first resides within their mind. 
  Oh how pretty, &c.

Whatever can be shewn by the rod should be, and I entreat teachers not to neglect this part of their duty.  If the tables be merely learnt, the children will be no wiser than before.

Another anecdote may be added here, to shew that children even under punishment may think of their position with advantage.  Doctor J., of Manchester, sent two of his children to an infant school, for the upper classes, and one of his little daughters had broken some rule in conjunction with two other little ladies in the same school; two of the little folks were placed, one in each corner of the room, and Miss J. was placed in the centre, when the child came home in the evening, Doctor J. enquired, “Well, Mary, how have you got on at school to day?” the reply was “Oh, papa, little Miss ——­ and Fanny ——­, and I, were put out, they were put in the corners and I in the middle of the room, and there we all stood, papa, a complete triangle of dunces.”  The worthy doctor took great pleasure in mentioning this anecdote in company, as shewing the effect of a judicious cultivation of the thinking faculties.

In my peregrinations by sea and land, with infants, we have had some odd and amusing scenes.  I sometimes have had infants at sea for several days and nights to the great amusement of the sailors:  I have seen some of these fine fellows at times in fits of laughter at the odd words, as they called them, which the children used; at other times I have seen some of them in tears, at the want of knowledge, they saw in themselves; and when they heard the infants sing on deck, and explain the odd words by things in the ship, the sailors were delighted to have the youngsters in their berths, and no nurse could take better care of them than these noble fellows did.