n acute isosceles
triangle had all its angles acute, and proceeded to observe that a
right-angled scalene triangle had all its angles acute. The children
immediately began to laugh, for which I was at a loss to account, and
told them of the impropriety of laughing at me. One of the children
immediately replied, "Please, sir, do you know what we were laughing
at?" I replied in the negative. "Then, sir," says the boy, "I will
tell you. Please, sir, you have made a blunder." I, thinking I had
not, proceeded to defend myself, when the children replied, "Please,
sir, you convict yourself." I replied, "How so?" "Why," says the
children, "you said a right-angled triangle had one right angle, and
that all its angles are acute. If it has one right angle, how can all
its angles be acute?" I soon perceived the children were right, and
that I was wrong. Here, then, the reader may perceive the fruits of
teaching the children to think, inasmuch as it is shewn that children
of six years of age and under were able to refute their tutor. If
children had been taught to think many years ago, error would have
been much more easily detected, and its baneful influence would not
have had that effect upon society which at this day unfortunately we
are obliged to witness.

At another time I was lecturing the children in the gallery on the
subject of cruelty to animals; when one of the little children
observed, "Please, sir, my big brother catches the poor flies, and
then sticks a pin through them, and makes them draw the pin along the
table." This afforded me an excellent opportunity of appealing to
their feelings on the enormity of this offence, and, among other
things, I observed, that if the poor fly had been gifted with the
powers of speech like their own, it probably would have exclaimed,
_while dead_, as follows:--"You naughty child, how can you think of
torturing me so? Is there not room in the world for you and me? Did I
ever do you any harm? Does it do you any good to put me in such pain?
Why do you do it, you are big enough to know better? How would you
like a man to run a piece of wire through your body, and make you draw
things about? Would you not cry at the pain? Go, then, you wicked boy,
and learn to leave off such cruel actions." Having finished, one of
the children replied, "How can any thing speak if it is dead?" "Why,"
said I, "supposing it could speak." "You meant to say, sir," was the
rejoinder, "_dying_ instead of _dead_.