And _the boundes_ of euerie platte forme are lines: as by the examples you maie perceiue. Of platte formes some be plain, and some be croked, and some parly plaine, and partlie croked. [Sidenote: A plaine platte.] _A plaine platte_ is that, whiche is made al equall in height, so that the middle partes nother bulke vp, nother shrink down more then the bothe endes. [Sidenote: A crooked platte.] For whan the one parte is higher then the other, then is it named a _Croked platte_. And if it be partlie plaine, and partlie crooked, then is it called a _Myxte platte_, of all whiche, these are exaumples. [Illustration: A plaine platte.] [Illustration: A croked platte.] [Illustration: A myxte platte.] And as of many prickes is made a line, and of diuerse lines one platte forme, [Sidenote: A bodie.] so of manie plattes is made _a bodie_, whiche conteigneth _Lengthe, bredth, and depenesse_. [Sidenote: Depenesse.] By _Depenesse_ I vnderstand, not as the common sort doth, the holownesse of any thing, as of a well, a diche, a potte, and suche like, but I meane the massie thicknesse of any bodie, as in exaumple of a potte: the depenesse is after the common name, the space from his brimme to his bottome. But as I take it here, the depenesse of his bodie is his thicknesse in the sides, whiche is an other thyng cleane different from the depenesse of his holownes, that the common people meaneth. Now all bodies haue platte formes for their boundes, [Sidenote: Cubike.] so in a dye (whiche is called _a cubike bodie_) by geomatricians, [Sidenote: Asheler.] and an _ashler_ of masons, there are .vi. sides, whiche are .vi. platte formes, and are the boundes of the dye. [Sidenote: A globe.] But in a _Globe_, (whiche is a bodie rounde as a bowle) there is but one platte forme, and one bounde, and these are the exaumples of them bothe. [Illustration: A dye or ashler.] [Illustration: A globe.] But because you shall not muse what I dooe call _a bound_, [Sidenote: A bounde.] I mean therby a generall name, betokening the beginning, end and side, of any forme. [Sidenote: Forme, Fygure.] _A forme, figure, or shape_, is that thyng that is inclosed within one bond or manie bondes, so that you vnderstand that shape, that the eye doth discerne, and not the substance of the bodie. Of _figures_ there be manie sortes, for either thei be made of prickes, lines, or platte formes. Not withstandyng to speake properlie, _a figure_ is euer made by platte formes, and not of bare lines vnclosed, neither yet of prickes. Yet for the lighter forme of teachyng, it shall not be vnsemely to call all suche shapes, formes and figures, whiche y^e eye maie discerne distinctly. And first to begin with prickes, there maie be made diuerse formes of them, as partely here doeth folowe. [Illustration: A lynearic numbre. Trianguler numbres Longsquare nũbre. Iust square numbres a threcornered spire. A square spire.]