Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Science
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Fourth dimension
If our highly pointed Triangles of the Soldier class are formidable, it
may be readily inferred that far more formidable are our Women. For, if a
Soldier is a wedge, a Woman is a needle; being, so to speak, _all_ point,
at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself
practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a Female, in
Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.
But here, perhaps, some of my younger Readers may ask _how_ a woman in
Flatland can make herself invisible. This ought, I think, to be apparent
without any explanation. However, a few words will make it clear to the
most unreflecting.
Place a needle on a table. Then, with your eye on the level of the table,
look at it side-ways, and you see the whole length of it; but look at it
end-ways, and you see nothing but a point: it has become practically
invisible. Just so is it with one of our Women. When her side is turned
towards us, we see her as a straight line; when the end containing her
eye or mouth—for with us these two organs are identical—is the part that
meets our eye, then we see nothing but a highly lustrous point; but when
the back is presented to our view, then—being only sub-lustrous, and,
indeed, almost as dim as an inanimate object—her hinder extremity serves
her as a kind of Invisible Cap.
The dangers to which we are exposed from our Women must now be manifest
to the meanest capacity in Spaceland. If even the angle of a respectable
Triangle in the middle class is not without its dangers; if to run
against a Working Man involves a gash; if collision with an Officer of
the military class necessitates a serious wound; if a mere touch from the
vertex of a Private Soldier brings with it danger of death;—what can it
be to run against a Woman, except absolute and immediate destruction? And
when a Woman is invisible, or visible only as a dim sub-lustrous point,
how difficult must it be, even for the most cautious, always to avoid
collision!
Many are the enactments made at different times in the different States
of Flatland, in order to minimize this peril; and in the Southern and
less temperate climates, where the force of gravitation is greater, and
human beings more liable to casual and involuntary motions, the Laws
concerning Women are naturally much more stringent. But a general view of
the Code may be obtained from the following summary:—
1. Every house shall have one entrance in the Eastern side, for the use
of Females only; by which all females shall enter “in a becoming and
respectful manner”[2] and not by the Men’s or Western door.
2. No Female shall walk in any public place without continually keeping
up her Peace-cry, under penalty of death.
3. Any Female, duly certified to be suffering from St. Vitus’s Dance,
fits, chronic cold accompanied by violent sneezing, or any disease
necessitating involuntary motions, shall be instantly destroyed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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