123
only that the third and fourth walls hare each six stripes, which difference from the two first, it will be easily seen could not be avoided.
An objection may be made to this plan, by stating the supposed difficulty of making children acquainted with the letters that represent figures; but this will be found on trial perfectly easy, and will thus render them early acquainted with their use, which if they follow the system of mnemonics in its extended sense, will be so necessary to be known by them; if the proper means be employed, a child of tolerable capacity, could commit the whole table to memory in four lessons of half an hour each.
Although for this table, no system can supersede the necessity of trusting to memory for the recollection of it, yet some assistance may be occasionally derived by learners, in parts of the table, by observing a few partial rules.
When 5 for instance is the multiplier, a child could be taught, that when the multiplicand is an even number, such as 2, 4, 6, 8, &c.—that to take the half of such number, and join a cipher to it, gives the product—thus 5 times 6, is easily ascertained to be 30—for the half of 6 is 3, join to it a cipher, it is the sum 3,0—5 times 8? the half of 8 is 4—join a cipher, is 40—When the multiplicand is an odd number, instead of joining a cipher to the nearest half of such number, join a five to it—thus 5 times 7—the half of 7 is 3, and one over—that one is a 5—joining it to the 3, is 35.—
How much is 5 times 9?—the nearest number to the half of 9 is 4, join to it a 5—is 45.—When 5 is named as the multiplicand, it can be always shifted as the multiplier; for 7 times 5 is the same as 5 times 7.—It is scarcely necessary to point out, that when 10 is the multiplier, that a cipher added to the multiplicand, gives