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.