our professional men and gentlemen are squares (to which class i myself belong) and five-sided figures or pentagons.

next above these come the nobility, of whom there are several degrees, beginning at six-sided figures, or hexagons, and from thence rising in the number of their sides till they receive the honourable title of polygonal, or many-sided. finally when the number of the sides becomes so numerous, and the sides themselves so small, that the figure cannot be distinguished from a circle, he is included in the circular or priestly order; and this is the highest class of all.

it is a law of nature with us that a male child shall have one more side than his father, so that each generation shall rise (as a rule) one step in the scale of development and nobility. thus the son of a square is a pentagon; the son of a pentagon, a hexagon; and so on.