it has practical
drawbacks. In dealing with an Isosceles, if a rascal pleads that he
cannot help stealing because of his unevenness, you reply that for that
very reason, because he cannot help being a nuisance to his neighbours,
you, the Magistrate, cannot help sentencing him to be consumed--and
there's an end of the matter. But in little domestic difficulties,
where the penalty of consumption, or death, is out of the question,
this theory of Configuration sometimes comes in awkwardly; and I must
confess that occasionally when one of my own Hexagonal Grandsons pleads
as an excuse for his disobedience that a sudden change of the
temperature has been too much for his Perimeter, and that I ought to
lay the blame not on him but on his Configuration, which can only be
strengthened by abundance of the choicest sweetmeats, I neither see my
way logically to reject, nor practically to accept, his conclusions.

For my own part, I find it best to assume that a good sound scolding or
castigation has some latent and strengthening influence on my
Grandson's Configuration; though I own that I have no grounds for
thinking so. At all events I am not alone in my way of extricating
myself from this dilemma; for I find that many of the highest Circles,
sitting as Judges in law courts, use praise and blame towards Regular
and Irregular Figures; and in their homes I know by experience that,
when scolding their children, they speak about "right" or "wrong" as
vehemently and passionately as if they believed that these names
represented real existences, and that a human Figure is really capable
of choosing between them.

Constantly carrying out their policy of making Configuration the
leading idea in every mind, the Circles reverse the nature of that
Commandment which in Spaceland regulates the relations between parents
and children. With you, children are taught to honour their parents;
with us--next to the Circles, who are the chief object of universal
homage--a man is taught to honour his Grandson, if he has one; or, if
not, his Son. By "honour", however, is by no means meant "indulgence",
but a reverent regard for their highest interests: and the Circles
teach that the duty of fathers is to subordinate their own interests to
those of posterity, thereby advancing the welfare of the whole State as
well as that of their own immediate descendants.

The weak point in the system of the Circles--if a humble Square may
venture to speak of