Genre:

Short Fiction

Subjects:

Education, Religion, Morality, Electricity

    The narrator gives an account of a visit to a friend who instructed his grandchildren in 'all the doctrines and duties of religion', in every case enforcing these 'by the help of some sensible object' (187). A fortnight after teaching them about the Fall, he fitted up his lecture room 'with a number of panoramic scenes, which were viewed through magnifying glasses, placed for the purpose, by which the objects appeared as large as reality', such as had recently been exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, but he forbade the children to look at one of them until the following day (188). Two of the children attempted to remove the slide covering the forbidden view, but 'some wires which were attached to that slide had been strongly charged with the electric fluid, and the moment it was touched, Curio and his sister received the shock and were thrown down in the middle of the room'. The children thanked their grandfather for his 'kindness' in teaching them that they were 'true descendants of Adam'. (189)