Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Science
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Fourth dimension
My Pentagonal Sons were men of character and standing, and physicians of
no mean reputation, but not great in mathematics, and, in that respect,
unfit for my purpose. But it occurred to me that a young and docile
Hexagon, with a mathematical turn, would be a most suitable pupil. Why
therefore not make my first experiment with my little precocious
Grandson, whose casual remarks on the meaning of 3³ had met with the
approval of the Sphere? Discussing the matter with him, a mere boy, I
should be in perfect safety; for he would know nothing of the
Proclamation of the Council; whereas I could not feel sure that my
Sons—so greatly did their patriotism and reverence for the Circles
predominate over mere blind affection—might not feel compelled to hand me
over to the Prefect, if they found me seriously maintaining the seditious
heresy of the Third Dimension.
But the first thing to be done was to satisfy in some way the curiosity
of my Wife, who naturally wished to know something of the reasons for
which the Circle had desired that mysterious interview, and of the means
by which he had entered our house. Without entering into the details of
the elaborate account I gave her,—an account, I fear, not quite so
consistent with truth as my Readers in Spaceland might desire,—I must be
content with saying that I succeeded at last in persuading her to return
quietly to her household duties without eliciting from me any reference
to the World of Three Dimensions. This done, I immediately sent for my
Grandson; for, to confess the truth, I felt that all that I had seen and
heard was in some strange way slipping away from me, like the image of a
half-grasped, tantalizing dream, and I longed to essay my skill in making
a first disciple.
When my Grandson entered the room I carefully secured the door. Then,
sitting down by his side and taking our mathematical tablets—or, as you
would call them, Lines—I told him we would resume the lesson of
yesterday. I taught him once more how a Point by motion in One Dimension
produces a Line, and how a straight Line in Two Dimensions produces a
Square. After this, forcing a laugh, I said, “And now, you scamp, you
wanted to make me believe that a Square may in the same way by motion
‘Upward, not Northward,’ produce another figure, a sort of extra Square
in Three Dimensions. Say that again, you young rascal.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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