Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Science
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Fourth dimension
Once more I felt myself rising through space. It was even as the Sphere
had said. The further we receded from the object we beheld, the larger
became the field of vision. My native city, with the interior of every
house and every creature therein, lay open to my view in miniature. We
mounted higher, and lo, the secrets of the earth, the depths of mines and
inmost caverns of the hills, were bared before me.
Awestruck at the sight of the mysteries of the earth, thus unveiled
before my unworthy eye, I said to my Companion, “Behold, I am become as a
God. For the wise men in our country say that to see all things, or as
they express it, _omnividence_, is the attribute of God alone.” There was
something of scorn in the voice of my Teacher as he made answer: “Is it
so indeed? Then the very pickpockets and cut-throats of my country are to
be worshipped by your wise men as being Gods: for there is not one of
them that does not see as much as you see now. But trust me, your wise
men are wrong.”
_I._ Then is omnividence the attribute of others beside Gods?
_Sphere._ I do not know. But, if a pick-pocket or a cut-throat of our
country can see everything that is in your country, surely that is no
reason why the pick-pocket or cut-throat should be accepted by you as a
God. This omnividence, as you call it—it is not a common word in
Spaceland—does it make you more just, more merciful, less selfish, more
loving? Not in the least. Then how does it make you more divine?
_I._ “More merciful, more loving!” But these are the qualities of women!
And we know that a Circle is a higher Being than a Straight Line, in so
far as knowledge and wisdom are more to be esteemed than mere affection.
_Sphere._ It is not for me to classify human faculties according to
merit. Yet many of the best and wisest in Spaceland think more of the
affections than of the understanding, more of your despised Straight
Lines than of your belauded Circles. But enough of this. Look yonder. Do
you know that building?
I looked, and afar off I saw an immense Polygonal structure, in which I
recognized the General Assembly Hall of the States of Flatland,
surrounded by dense lines of Pentagonal buildings at right angles to each
other, which I knew to be streets; and I perceived that I was approaching
the great Metropolis.
“Here we descend,” said my Guide. It was now morning, the first hour of
the first day of the two thousandth year of our era. Acting, as was their
wont, in strict accordance with precedent, the highest Circles of the
realm were meeting in solemn conclave, as they had met on the first hour
of the first day of the year 1000, and also on the first hour of the
first day of the year 0.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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