Again turn the cube back to the normal position with red running up, white to the right, and yellow away, and try another turning.
You can keep the yellow line fixed, and turn the cube about it. In this case the red line going out to the right the white line will come in pointing downwards.
You will be obliged to elevate the cube from the table in order to carry out this turning. It is always necessary when a vertical axis goes out of a space to imagine a movable support which will allow the line which ran out before to come in below.
Having looked at the three ways of turning the cube so as to present different faces to the plane, examine what would be the appearance if a square hole were cut in the piece of cardboard, and the cube were to pass through it. A hole can be actually cut, and it will be seen that in the normal position, with red axis running up, yellow away, and white to the right, the square first perceived by the plane being—the one contained by red and yellow lines—would be replaced by another square of which the line towards you is pink—the section line of the pink face. The line above is light yellow, below is light yellow and on the opposite side away from you is pink.
In the same way the cube can be pushed through a square opening in the plane from any of the positions which you have already turned it into. In each case the plane being will perceive a different set of contour lines.
Having observed these facts about the catalogue cube, turn now to the first block of twenty-seven cubes.
You notice that the colour scheme on the catalogue cube and that of this set of blocks is the same.
Place them before you, a grey or null cube on the table, above it a red cube, and on the top a null cube again. Then away from you place a yellow cube, and beyond it a null cube. Then to the right place a white cube and beyond it another null. Then complete the block, according to the scheme of the catalogue cube, putting in the centre of all an ochre cube.
You have now a cube like that which is described in the text. For the sake of simplicity, in some cases, this cubic block can be reduced to one of eight cubes, by leaving out the terminations in each direction. Thus, instead of null, red, null, three cubes, you can take null, red, two cubes, and so on.
It is useful, however, to practise the representation in a plane of a block of twenty-seven cubes. For this purpose take the slabs, and build them up against the piece of cardboard, or the book in such a way as to represent the different aspects of the cube.