Flatland: A Romance of Many DimensionsAbbott, Edwin Abbott
Science
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Abbott, Edwin Abbott
Fourth dimension
“Silence, silence, contemptible Creature. You call yourself the All in
All, but you are the Nothing: your so-called Universe is a mere speck
in a Line, and a Line is a mere shadow as compared with—” “Hush, hush,
you have said enough,” interrupted the Sphere, “now listen, and mark
the effect of your harangue on the King of Pointland.”
The lustre of the Monarch, who beamed more brightly than ever upon
hearing my words, shewed clearly that he retained his complacency; and
I had hardly ceased when he took up his strain again. “Ah, the joy, ah,
the joy of Thought! What can It not achieve by thinking! Its own
Thought coming to Itself, suggestive of its disparagement, thereby to
enhance Its happiness! Sweet rebellion stirred up to result in triumph!
Ah, the divine creative power of the All in One! Ah, the joy, the joy
of Being!”
“You see,” said my Teacher, “how little your words have done. So far as
the Monarch understand 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.
§ 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 people by delusions, and by professing to have received
revelations from another World.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions — John Shaqi
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