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 r