Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Science
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Fourth dimension
"You see," said my Teacher, "how little your words have done. So far
as the Monarch understands them at all, he accepts them as his own--for
he cannot conceive of any other except himself--and plumes himself upon
the variety of 'Its Thought' as an instance of creative Power. Let us
leave this God of Pointland to the ignorant fruition of his
omnipresence and omniscience: nothing that you or I can do can rescue
him from his self-satisfaction."
After this, as we floated gently back to Flatland, I could hear the
mild voice of my Companion pointing the moral of my vision, and
stimulating me to aspire, and to teach others to aspire. He had been
angered at first--he confessed--by my ambition to soar to Dimensions
above the Third; but, since then, he had received fresh insight, and he
was not too proud to acknowledge his error to a Pupil. Then he
proceeded to initiate me into mysteries yet higher than those I had
witnessed, shewing me how to construct Extra-Solids by the motion of
Solids, and Double Extra-Solids by the motion of Extra-Solids, and all
"strictly according to Analogy", all by methods so simple, so easy, as
to be patent even to the Female Sex.
Section 21. How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions
to my Grandson, and with what success
I awoke rejoicing, and began to reflect on the glorious career before
me. I would go forth, methought, at once, and evangelize the whole of
Flatland. Even to Women and Soldiers should the Gospel of Three
Dimensions be proclaimed. I would begin with my Wife.
Just as I had decided on the plan of my operations, I heard the sound
of many voices in the street commanding silence. Then followed a
louder voice. It was a herald's proclamation. Listening attentively,
I recognized the words of the Resolution of the Council, enjoining the
arrest, imprisonment, or execution of any one who should pervert the
minds of the people by delusions, and by professing to have received
revelations from another World.
I reflected. This danger was not to be trifled with. It would be
better to avoid it by omitting all mention of my Revelation, and by
proceeding on the path of Demonstration--which after all, seemed so
simple and so conclusive that nothing would be lost by discarding the
former means. "Upward, not Northward"--was the clue to the whole
proof. It had seemed to me fairly clear before I fell asleep; and when
I first awoke, fresh from my dream, it had appeared as patent as
Arithmetic; but somehow it did not seem to me quite so obvious now.
Though my Wife entered the room opportunely just at that moment, I
decided, after we had exchanged a few words of commonplace
conversation, not to begin with her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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