That is the hope of my brighter moments. Alas, it is not always so. Heavily weighs on me at times the burdensome reflection that I cannot honestly say I am confident as to the exact shape of the once-seen, oft-regretted Cube; and in my nightly visions the mysterious precept, “Upward, not Northward,” haunts me like a soul-devouring Sphinx. It is part of the martyrdom which I endure for the cause of the Truth that there are seasons of mental weakness, when Cubes and Spheres flit away into the background of scarce-possible existences; when the Land of Three Dimensions seems almost as visionary as the Land of One or None; nay, when even this hard wall that bars me from my freedom, these very tablets on which I am writing, and all the substantial realities of Flatland itself, appear no better than the offspring of a diseased imagination, or the baseless fabric of a dream. [Illustration: THE END OF FLATLAND] Footnotes [1]“What need of a certificate?” a Spaceland critic may ask: “Is not the procreation of a Square Son a certificate from Nature herself, proving the Equal-sidedness of the Father?” I reply that no Lady of any position will marry an uncertified Triangle. Square offspring has sometimes resulted from a slightly Irregular Triangle: but in almost every such case the Irregularity of the first generation is visited on the third; which either fails to attain the Pentagonal rank, or relapses to the Triangular. [2]When I was in Spaceland I understood that some of your Priestly Circles have in the same way a separate entrance for Villagers, Farmers, and Teachers of Board Schools (_Spectator_, Sept. 1884, p. 1255) that they may “approach in a becoming and respectful manner.” [3]When I say “sitting,” of course I do not mean any change of attitude such as you in Spaceland signify by that word; for as we have no feet, we can no more “sit” nor “stand” (in your sense of the word) than one of your soles or flounders. Nevertheless, we perfectly well recognise the different mental states of volition implied in “lying,” “sitting,” and “standing,” which are to some extent indicated to a beholder by a slight increase of lustre corresponding to the increase of volition. But on this, and a thousand other kindred subjects, time forbids me to dwell. LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS. Transcriber’s Notes --This eBook represents the text of the first printed edition. --Retained publisher information from the printed copy (the electronic edition is in the public domain in the country of publication). --Corrected some palpable typos. --In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_; superscripts are preceded by a ^caret.