I suppose."

_M----._ "Could not shoes be made in the same manner in a mould?"

_Mr. ----._ "Yes; but there would be one disadvantage; the shoes would
lose their shape as soon as they were wet; and the sole and upper
leather must be nearly of the same thickness."

_S----._ "Is the tookpick-case made out of any particular kind of
leather? I wish I could make one!"

_M----._ "You have a bit of green leather, will you give it to me?
I'll punch it out like _H_'s piston; but I don't exactly know how the
toothpick-case was made into the right shape."

_Mr. ----._ "It was made in the same manner in which silver
pencil-cases and thimbles are made. If you take a thin piece of
silver, or of any ductile material, and lay it over a concave mould,
you can readily imagine that you can make the thin, ductile material
take the shape of any mould into which you put it; and you may go on
forcing it into moulds of different depths, till at last the plate of
silver will have been shaped into a cylindrical form; a thimble, a
pencil-case, a toothpick-case, or any similar figure."

We have observed (V. Mechanics) that children should have some general
idea of mechanics before they go into the large manufactories; this
can be given to them from time to time in conversation, when little
circumstances occur, which _naturally_ lead to the subject.

(November 30th, 1795.) _S----_ said he liked the beginning of Gay's
fable of "The man and the flea," very much, but he could not tell what
was meant by the crab's crawling beside the _coral grove_, and hearing
the ocean roll _above_. "The ocean cannot roll _above_, can it
mother?"

_Mother._ "Yes, when the animal is crawling below he hears the water
rolling above him."

_M----._ "Coral groves mean the branches of coral which look like
trees; you saw some at Bristol in Mr. B----'s collection."

The difficulty _S----_ found in understanding "coral groves," confirms
what has been observed, that children should never read poetry without
its being thoroughly explained to them. (Vide Chapter on Books.)

(January 10th, 1795.) _S----_ (8 years old) said that he had been
thinking about the wind; and he believed that it was the earth's
turning round that made the wind.

_M----._ "Then how comes it that the wind does not blow always the
same way?"

_S----._ "Aye, that's the thing I can't make out; besides, perhaps the
air would stick to the earth as it turns round, as threads stick to my
spinnin