The plane-being, therefore, could get an idea of the Block of cubes by
learning these slabs. He ought not to call the Gold slab Urna Mala, but
Urna Moena, and so on, because all that he learns are Moenas, merely the
thin faces of the cubes. By introducing the course of time, he can
represent the Block more nearly. For, if he supposes it to be passing an
inch a minute, he may give the name Urna Mala to the Gold slab enduring
for a minute.
But, when he has learnt the slabs in this position and sequence, he has
only a very partial view of the Block. Let the Block turn round the Z
axis, as Model 1 turns round the Brown line. A different set of cubes
comes into his plane, and now they come in on the Alvus faces.
(Alvus is here used to denote the left-hand faces of the cubes, and is
not supposed to be Vermilion; it is simply the thinnest slice on the
left hand of the cube and of the same colour as the cube.) To represent
this, the plane-being should employ a fresh set of slabs, for there is
nothing common to the Moena and Alvus faces except an edge. But, since
each cube is of the same colour throughout, the same slab may be used
for its different faces. Thus the Alvus of Urna Mala can be represented
by a Gold slab. Only it must never be forgotten that it is meant to be a
new slab, and is not identical with the same slab used for Moena.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
Now, when the Block of cubes has turned round the Brown line into the
plane, it is clear that they will be on the side of the Z axis opposite
to that on which were the Moena slabs. The line, which ran Y, now runs
-X. Thus the slabs will occupy the second quadrant marked by the axes,
as shown in the diagram (Fig. 13). Each of these slabs we will name
Alvus. In this view, as before, the book is supposed to be tilted up
towards the reader, so that the Z axis runs from O to his eye. Then, if
the Block be passed at right angles through the plane, there will come
into view the two sets of slabs represented in the Diagrams (Fig. 13).
In copying this arrangement with the slabs, the cardboard on which they
are arranged must slant upwards to the eye, _i.e._, OZ must run up to
the eye, and the sides of the slabs seen are in Diagram 2 (Fig. 13), the
upper edges of Tibicen, Mora, Merces; in Diagram 3, the upper edges of
Vestis, Oliva, Tyro.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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