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09 - Flatland- A Romance of Many Dimensions - Edwin Abbott Abbott · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

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Section twenty one. How I tried to teach the theory of three dimensions to
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my grandson, and with what success. I awoke rejoicing, and began to
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reflect on the glorious career before me. I would go forth methought at once
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and evangelize the whole of flatland, even to women and soldiers. Should the
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Gospel of three dimensions be proclaimed, I would begin with my wife, just
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as I had decided on the plan of my operations. I heard the sound
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of many voices in the street, commanding silence, then followed a louder voice.
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It was a herald's proclamation. Listening attentively, I recognized the words of
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the resolution of the Council in joining the arrest, imprisonment, or execution of
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any one who should pervert the mind of the people by delusions and by professing
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to have received revelations from another world. I reflected this danger was not to
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be trifled with. It would be better to avoid it by omitting all mention
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of my revelation, and by proceeding on the path of demonstration, which after
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all, seemed so simple and so conclusive, that nothing would be lost.
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By discarding the former means upward not northward was the clue to the whole proof.
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It had seemed to me fairly clear before I fell asleep, and when
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I first awoke fresh from my dream, it had appeared as patent as arithmetic.
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But somehow it did not seem to me quite so obvious now. Though
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my wife entered the room opportunely, just at that moment, I decided,
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after we had interchanged a few words of commonplace conversation, not to begin with
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her. My pentagonal sons were men of character and standing, and physicians of
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no mean reputation, but not great in mathematics, and in that respect unfit
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for my purpose. But it occurred to me that a young and docile Hexagon
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with a mathematical turn would be a most suitable pupil. Why therefore, not
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make my first experiment with my little, precocious grandson, whose casual remarks on
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the meaning of three cubed had met with the approval of the sphere. Discussing
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the matter with him, a mere boy, I should be in perfect safety,
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for he would know nothing of the proclamation of the Council. Whereas I
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could not feel sure that my sons so greatly did their patriotism and reverence for
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the circles predominate over mere blind affection. Might not feel compelled to hand me
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over to the Prefect if they found me seriously maintaining the seditious heresy of the
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third dimension. But the first thing to be done was to satisfy in some
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way the curiosity of my wife, who naturally wished to know something of the
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reasons for which the Circle had desired that mysterious interview, and of the means
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by which he had entered our house. Without entering into the details of the
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elaborate account, I gave her an account I fear not quite so consistent with
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truth as my readers in Spaceland might desire. I must be content with saying
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that I succeeded at last in persuading her to return quietly to her household duties,
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without eliciting from me any reference to the world of three dimensions. This
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done, I immediately sent for my grandson, for to confess the truth.
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I felt that all I had seen and heard was, in some strange way
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slipping away from me, like the image of a half grasped, tantalizing dream,
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and I longed to essay my skill in making a first disciple. When
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my grandson entered the room, I carefully secured the door. Then, sitting
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down by his side, and taking our mathematical tablets, or as you would
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call them, lines, I told him we would resume the lesson of yesterday.
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I taught him once more how a point by motion in one dimension produces
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a line, and how a straight line in two dimensions produces a square.
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After this, forcing a laugh, I said, and now, you scamp,
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you wanted to make me believe that a square may, in the same
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way, by motion upward not northward, produce another figure, a sort of
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extra square in three dimensions. Say that again, you young rascal. At
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this moment we heard once more the heralds oh yes, oh yes, outside
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in the street, proclaiming the resolution of the council. Young, though he
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was my grandson, who was unusually intelligent for his age and bred up in
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perfect reverence for the authority of the circles, took in the situation with an
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acuteness for which I was quite unprepared. He remained silent till the last words
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of the proclamation had died away, and then bursting into tears, Dear Grandpapa,
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he said, that was only my fun, and of course I meant
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nothing at all by it. And we did not know anything then about the
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new law. And I don't think I said any thing about the third dimension.
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And I am sure I did not say one word about upward not northward,
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for that would be such nonsense. You know, how could a thing
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move upward and not northward? Outward and not northward? Even if I were
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a baby, I could not be so absurd as that. How silly it
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is, ha ha ha, not at all silly, said I losing my
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temper here. For example, I'd take this square, and at the word,
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I grasped a moveable square which was lying at hand, and I move
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it, you see, not northward, but yes, I move it upward,
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that is to say, not northward, but I move it somewhere,
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not exactly like this, but somehow here. I brought my sentence to an
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inane conclusion, shaking the square about in a purposeless manner, much to the
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amusement of my grandson, who burst out laughing louder than ever, and declared
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that I was not teaching him, but joking with him, And so saying,
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he unlocked the door and ran out of the room. Thus ended my
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first attempt to convert a pupil to the Gospel of three Dimensions Section twenty two.
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How I then tried to diffuse the theory of three dimensions by other means,
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And of the result my failure with my grandson did not encourage me to
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communicate my secret to others of my household. Yet neither was I led by
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it to despair of success. Only I saw that I must not wholly rely
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on the catchphrase upward, not northward, but must rather endeavor to seek a
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demonstration by setting before the public a clear view of the whole subject. And
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for this purpose it seemed necessary to resort to writing. So I devoted several
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months in privacy to the composition of a treatise on the Mysteries of three Dimensions,
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only with the view of evading the law if possible. I spoke not
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of a physical dimension, but of a thought land. Whence, in theory
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a figure could look down upon flat land and see simultaneously the insides of all
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things. And where it was possible that there might be supposed to exist a
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figure environed, as it were, with six squares and containing eight terminal points.
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But in writing this book I found myself sadly hampered by the impossibility of
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drawing such diagrams as were necessary for my purpose. For, of course,
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in our country of flat land, there are no tablets but lines, and
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no diagrams but limes, all in one straight line, and only distinguishable by
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difference of size and brightness. So that when I had finished my treaties,
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which I entitled through flat Land to Thoughtland, I could not feel certain that
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many would understand my meaning. Meanwhile, my life was under a cloud.
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All pleasures palled upon me, all sights tantalized and tempted me to outspoken treason.
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Because I could not but compare what I saw in two dimensions with what
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it really was if seen in three, and could hardly refrain from making my
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comparisons. Allowed I neglected my clients and my own business to give myself to
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the contemplation of the mysteries which I had once beheld, yet which I could
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impart to no one, and found daily more difficult to reproduce even before my
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own mental vision. One day, about eleven months after my return from Spaceland,
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I tried to see a cube with my eye closed, but failed,
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and though I succeeded afterwards. I was not then quite certain, nor have
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I been ever afterwards, that I had exactly realized the original. This made
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me more melancholy than before, and determined me to take some step. Yet
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what I knew not. I felt that I would have been willing to sacrifice
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my life for the cause if thereby I could have produced conviction. But if
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I could not convince my grandson, how could I convince the highest and most
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developed circles in the land. And yet at times my spirit was too strong
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for me, and I gave vent to dangerous utterances. Already I was considered
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heterodox, if not treasonable, and I was keenly alive to the dangers of
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my position. Nevertheless, I could not at times refrain from bursting out into
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suspicious or half seditious utterances, even among the highest polygonal and circular society.
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When, for example, the question arose about the treatment of those lunatics who
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said that they had received the power of seeing the insides of things, I
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would quote the saying of an ancient circle who declared that profits and inspired people
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are always considered by the majority to be mad. And I could not help
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occasionally dropping such expressions as the eye that discerns the interiors of things and the
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all seeing land. Once or twice, I even let fall the forbidden terms
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the third and fourth dimensions, at last, to complete a series of minor
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indiscretions. At a meeting of our local speculative Society held at the palace of
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the Prefect himself, some extremely silly person, having read an elaborate paper exhibiting
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the precise reasons why Providence has limited the number of dimensions to two, and
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why the attribute of omnividence is assigned to the Supreme alone, I so far
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forgot myself as to give an exact account of the whole of my voyage with
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the sphere into space and to the assembly hall in our metropolis, and then
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to space again, and of my return home, and of everything that I
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had seen and heard in fact or vision. At first, indeed, I
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pretended that I was describing the imaginary experiences of a fictitious person. But my
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enthusiasm soon forced me to throw off all disguise, and finally, in a
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fervent peroration, I exhorted all my hearers to divest themselves of prejudice and to
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become believers in the third dimension. Need I say that I was at once
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arrested and taken before the Council next morning, standing in the very place where
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but a very few months ago the sphere had stood in my company. I
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was allowed to begin and to continue my narration unquestioned and uninterrupted. But from
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the first I foresaw my fate. For the President, noting that a guard
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of the better sort of policemen was in attendance of angularity little if at all,
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under fifty five degrees, ordered them to be relieved before I began my
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defense by an inferior class of two or three degrees. I knew only too
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well what that meant. I was to be executed or imprisoned, and my
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story was to be yet secret from the world by the simultaneous destruction of the
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officials who had heard it. And this being the case, the President desired
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to substitute the cheaper for the more expensive victims. After I had concluded my
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defense, the President, perhaps perceiving that some of the junior circles had been
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moved by my evident earnestness, asked me two questions. One, whether I
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could indicate the direction which I meant when I used the words upward, not
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northward two, whether I could, by any diagrams or descriptions other than the
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enumeration of imaginary sides and angles indicate the figure I was pleased to call a
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cube. I declared that I could say nothing more, and that I must
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commit myself to the truth, whose would surely prevail in the end. The
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President replied that he quite concurred in my sentiment, and that I could not
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do better. I must be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment. But if the truth
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intended that I should emerge from prison and evangelize the world, the truth might
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be trusted to bring that result to pass. Meanwhile, I should be subjected
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to no discomfort that was not necessary to preclude escape. And unless I forfeited
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the privilege by misconduct, I should be occasionally permitted to see my brother,
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who had preceded me to my prison. Seven years have elapsed and I am
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still a prisoner. And if I accept the occasional visits of my brother,
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debarred from all companionship save that of my jailers. My brother is one of
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the best of squares, just sensible, cheerful, and not without fraternal affection.
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Yet I must confess that my weekly interviews, at least in one respect,
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cause me the bitterest pain. He was present when the sphere manifested himself
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in the council chamber. He saw the spheres changing sections, he heard the
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explanation of the phenomena then given to the circles. Since that time, scarcely
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a week has passed during seven whole years without his hearing from me a repetition
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of the part I played in that manifestation, together with ample descriptions of all
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the phenomena in Spaceland, and the arguments for the existence of solid things derivable
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from analogy. Yet I take shame to be forced to confess it. My
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brother has not yet grasped the nature of the third dimension, and frankly avows
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his disbelief in the existence of a sphere. Hence I am absolutely destitute of
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converts, and for aught that I can see. The millennial revelation has been
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made to me for nothing. Prometheus up in Spaceland was bound for bringing down
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fire for mortals, But I, poor flat Land Prometheus, lie here in
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prison for bringing down nothing to my countrymen. Yet I exist in the hope
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that these memoirs in some manner, I know not how may find their way
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to the minds of humanity in some dimension, and may stir up a race
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of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited dimensionality. That is the
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hope of my brighter moments, alas it is not always so. Heavily weighs
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on me at times, the burdensome reflection that I cannot honest say I am
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confident as to the exact shape of the once seen oft regretted cube, And
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in my nightly visions the mysterious precept upward not northward, haunts me like a
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soul devouring sphinx. It is part of the martyrdom which I endure for the
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cause of the truth. That there are seasons of mental weakness, when cubes
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and spheres flit away into the background of scarce possible existences, when the land
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of three dimensions seems almost as visionary as the land of one or none.
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Nay, when even this hard wall that bars me from my freedom, these
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very tablets on which I am writing, and all the substantial realities of flat
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land itself, appear no better than the offspring of a diseased imagination or the
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baseless fabric of a dream. The end of flat land are amants of many
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dimensions. By Edwin Abbot Abbot