rd with her silken sleeve, do so round
off and smooth and polish the snow-white cubes of truth, that, when they
have got a little dingy by use, it becomes hard to tell them from the
rolling spheres of falsehood.

The schoolmistress[407-3] was polite enough to say that she was pleased
with this, and that she would read it to her little flock the next day.
But she should tell the children, she said, that there were better
reasons for truth than could be found in mere experience of its
convenience, and the inconvenience of lying.

Yes--I said--but education always begins through the senses, and works up
to the idea of absolute right and wrong. The first thing the child has
to learn about this matter is, that lying is unprofitable--afterwards,
that it is against the peace and dignity of the universe.

1. What does the stainless ivory in the cubes indicate?

2. What is the meaning of the veins, streaks, and spots and the
dark crimson flush in the spheres?

3. Are the letters L, I, E, always visible? Does this mean that
lies are not always known to be lies to the person who tells them,
or that they may deceive the person to whom they are told?

4. Does Dr. Holmes mean to imply that it is natural for a little
child to lie when he says that the spheres are the most convenient
things in the world?

5. What does Dr. Holmes mean when he says that the spheres are apt
to roll into the wrong corner?

6. How does Timidity teach a child to lie? How does Good-nature
lead him to lie? What are some of the "polite lies" that help to
make the cubes roll?

7. Which cuts most deeply a substance upon which it is rubbed--a
rasp, a file, or a silken sleeve?

8. Which causes the most lies, Timidity, Good-nature or
Polite-behavior?

9. Do you think the schoolmistress is right? If so, what better
reasons are there for telling the truth than mere convenience and
the inconvenience of lying?

10. What do you understand by "against the peace and dignity of the
universe?"

11. Do you think the schoolmistress would agree with the Autocrat
in his last statement as to the way in which children are taught
the difference between right and wrong?

12. Do you think if a child is first taught that lying is
unprofitable he will without further assistance learn that lying is
wrong in itself?

1