August 1, 2025 • 22 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part one. Sections one to three flat Land are Romance
of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbot. Abbot to the inhabitants
of space in general and hc. In particular. This work
is dedicated by a humble native of Flatland, in the
hope that, even as he was initiated into the mysteries
(00:23):
of three dimensions, having been previously conversant with only two,
so the citizens of that celestial region may aspire yet
higher and higher to the secrets of four, five, or
even six dimensions, thereby contributing to the enlargement of the
imagination and the possible development of that most rare and
(00:46):
excellent gift of modesty among the superior races of solid humanity.
Part one. This world, be patient, for the world is
broad and wide. Section one of the nature of Flatland.
(01:08):
I call our world flatland, not because we call it so,
but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers,
who are privileged to live in space. Imagine a vast
sheet of paper on which straight lines, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons,
(01:28):
and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places,
move freely about on or in the surface, but without
the power of rising above or sinking below it, very
much like shadows, only hard and with luminous edges. And
you will then have a pretty correct notion of my
country and countrymen, alas a few years ago I should
(01:52):
have said my universe. But now my mind has been
opened to higher views of things. In such a country,
you will perceive at once that it is impossible that
there should be anything of what you call a solid kind.
But I dare say you will suppose that we could
at least distinguish by sight the triangles, squares, and other
(02:17):
figures moving about as I have described them. On the contrary,
we could see nothing of the kind, not at least
so as to distinguish one figure from another. Nothing was visible,
nor could be visible to us, except straight lines. And
the necessity of this I will speedily demonstrate. Place a
(02:41):
penny on the middle of one of your tables in space,
and leaning over it, look down upon it. It will
appear a circle. But now drawing back to the edge
of the table, gradually lower your eye, thus bringing yourself
more and more into the condition of the inhabitance of
flat land, and you will find the penny becoming more
(03:04):
and more oval to your view. And at last, when
you have placed your eye exactly on the edge of
the table, so that you are, as it were, actually
a flatland citizen. The penny will then have ceased to
appear oval at all, and will have become so far
as you can see, a straight line. The same thing
(03:28):
would happen if you were to treat in the same
way a triangle or square, or any other figure cut
out of pasteboard. As soon as you look at it
with your eye on the edge of the table, you
will find that it ceases to appear to you a figure,
and that it becomes in appearance a straight line. Take,
(03:49):
for example, an equilateral triangle who represents with us a
tradesman of the respectable class. Figure one represents the tradesman
as you would see him while you were bending over
him from above. Reader's note. Figure one is a downward
pointing triangle with all sides equal. End of reader's note.
(04:13):
Figures two and three represent the tradesman as you would
see him if your eye were close to the level
or all but on the level of the table. Reader's note. Fig.
Two shares a much flatter downward pointing triangle, with the
top edge much longer than the other two sides which
are of equal length. Fig. Three is flatter, still barely
(04:36):
identifiable as a triangle at all end of reader's note.
And if your eye were quite on the level of
the table, and that is how we see him in
flat land, you would see nothing but a straight line.
When I was in Spaceland, I heard that your sailors
have very similar experiences while they traverse your seas and
(05:00):
discerned some distant island or coast lying on the horizon.
The far off land may have bays, fallands, angles in
and out to any number and extent. Yet at a
distance you see none of these, unless indeed your sun
shines bright upon them, revealing the projections and retirements. By
(05:22):
means of light and shade. Nothing but a gray, unbroken
line upon the water. Well, that is just what we
see when one of our triangular or other acquaintances comes
towards us in flatland. As there is neither sun with us,
nor any light of such a kind as to make shadows,
(05:43):
we have none of the helps to the sight that
you have in Spaceland. If our friend comes close to us,
we see his line becomes larger. If he leaves us
it becomes smaller, But still he looks like a straight line.
Be he a triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, circle? What you
(06:05):
will a straight line he looks, and nothing else. You
may perhaps ask, how, under these disadvantageous circumstances we are
able to distinguish our friends from one another. But the
answer to this very natural question will be more fitly
and easily given when I come to describe the inhabitants
(06:27):
of flatland. For the present, let me defer this subject
and say a word or two about the climate and
houses in our country. Section two of the Climate and
houses in Flatland. As with you, so also with us.
There are four points of the compass north, south, east,
(06:50):
and west. There being no sun nor other heavenly bodies,
it is impossible for us to determine the north in
the usual way, but we have a method of our own,
by a law of nature. With us there is a
constant attraction to the south, and although in temperate climates,
this is very slight, so that even a woman in
(07:13):
reasonable health can journey several furlongs northward without much difficulty.
Yet the hampering effect of the southward attraction is quite
sufficient to serve as a compass in most parts of
our earth. Moreover, the rain which falls at stated intervals,
coming always from the north, is an additional assistance. And
(07:35):
in the towns we have the guidance of the houses,
which of course have their side walls running for the
most part north and south, so that the roofs may
keep off the rain from the north. In the country
where there are no houses, the trunks of the trees
serve as some sort of guide. Altogether, we have not
so much difficulty as might be expected in determining our
(07:57):
bearings in our more temperate regions, in which the southward
attraction is hardly felt. Walking sometimes in a perfectly desolate plain,
where there have been no houses nor trees to guide me,
I have been occasionally compelled to remain stationary for hours together,
waiting till the rain came, before continuing my journey. On
(08:21):
the week and aged, and especially on delicate females, the
force of attraction tells much more heavily than on the
robust of the male sex, so that it is a
point of breeding. If you meet a lady in the street,
always to give her the north side of the way,
by no means an easy thing to do, always at
short notice, when you are in rude health, and in
(08:44):
a climate where it is difficult to tell your north
from your south windows, there are none in our houses.
For the light comes to us alike, in our homes
and out of them, by day and by night, equally
at all times and in all places. Whence we know not.
It was in old days with our learned men, an
(09:06):
interesting and oft investigated question, what is the origin of light?
And the solution of it? Has been repeatedly attempted, with
no other result than to crowd our lunatic asylums with
the would be solvers. Hence, after fruitless attempts to suppress
such investigations indirectly by making them liable to a heavy tax,
(09:29):
the legislature in comparatively recent times absolutely prohibited them. I
alas I alone in flatland, know now only too well
the true solution of this mysterious problem. But my knowledge
cannot be made intelligible to a single one of my countrymen.
(09:50):
And I am mocked at I the sole possessor of
the truths of space and of the theory of the
introduction of light from the world of three dimensions, as
if I were the maddest of the mad. But a
truce to these painful digressions. Let me return to our houses.
(10:11):
The most common form for the construction of a house
is five sided or pentagonal, as in the next figure.
Reader's note. The figure shows a pentagon slightly skewed to
the right, with two sides marked RO and O F,
forming a point marked O to the north. The left
(10:32):
or western side, which has a large opening marked men's door,
is marked a R. The right or eastern side, which
has a small opening marked women's door, is marked b F.
The base, or southern side is marked a b end
of Reader's note. The two northern sides R, O, O
(10:53):
F constitute the roof and for the most part have
no doors. On the east is a small door for
the women, on the west a much larger one for
the men. The south side or floor is usually dawless.
Square and triangular houses are not allowed, and for this reason,
(11:14):
the angles of a square, and still more those of
an equilateral triangle, being much more pointed than those of
a pentagon, and the lines of inanimate objects such as
houses being dimmer than the lines of men and women.
It follows that there is no little danger lest the
points of a square or triangular house. Residents might do
(11:36):
serious injury to an inconsiderate or perhaps absent minded traveler
suddenly running against them. And therefore, as early as the
eleventh century of our era, triangular houses were universally forbidden
by law, the only exceptions being fortifications, powder magazines, barracks,
(11:57):
and other state buildings which it is is not desirable
that the general public should approach without circumspection. At this period,
square houses were still everywhere permitted, though discouraged by a
special tax. But about three centuries afterwards, the law decided
(12:18):
that in all towns containing a population above ten thousand,
the angle of a pentagon was the smallest house angle
that could be allowed consistently with the public safety. The
good sense of the community has seconded the efforts of
the legislature, and now even in the country the pentagonal
(12:38):
construction has superseded every other. It is only now and
then in some very remote and backward agricultural district that
an antiquarian may still discover a square house. Section three.
Concerning the inhabitants of flatland. The greatest length or breadth
(13:00):
of a full grown inhabitant of flat land may be
estimated at about eleven of your inches. Twelve inches may
be regarded as a maximum. Our women are straight lines.
Our soldiers and lowest classes of workmen are triangles, with
two equal sides, each about eleven inches long, and a
(13:24):
base or third side so short, often not exceeding half
an inch, that they form at their vertices a very
sharp and formidable angle. Indeed, when their bases are of
the most degraded type, not more than the eighth part
of an inch in size, they can hardly be distinguished
from straight lines or women, so extremely pointed are their vertices.
(13:49):
With us, as with you, these triangles are distinguished from
others by being called isosceles, and by this name I
shall refer to them in the following pages. Our middle
class consists of equilateral or equal sided triangles. Our professional
men and gentlemen are squares, to which class I myself belong,
(14:13):
and five sided figures or pentagons. Next above these come
the nobility, of whom there are several degrees, beginning at
six sided figures or hexagons, and from thence rising in
the number of their sides, till they receive the honorable
title of polygonal or many sided. Finally, when the number
(14:36):
of the sides becomes so numerous, and the sides themselves
so small that the figure cannot be distinguished from a circle.
He is included in the circular or priestly order, and
this is the highest class of all. It is a
law of nature with us that a male child shall
(14:56):
have one more side than his father, that each generation
shall rise, as a rule, one step in the scale
of development and nobility. Thus, the son of a square
is a pentagon, the son of a pentagon a hexagon,
and so on. But this rule applies not always to
(15:19):
the tradesmen, and still less often to the soldiers and
to the workmen, who indeed can hardly be said to
deserve the name of human figures, since they have not
all their sides equal with them. Therefore the law of
nature does not hold, and the son of an Isosceles
i e. A triangle with two sides equal, remains Isosceles. Still, nevertheless,
(15:45):
all hope is not shut out, even from the Isosceles,
that his posterity may ultimately rise above his degraded condition.
For after a long series of military successes or diligent
and skillful laby, it is generally found that the more
intelligent among the artisan and soldier classes manifest the slight
(16:07):
increase of their third side or base, and a shrinkage
of the two other sides. Intermarriages arranged by the priests
between the sons and daughters of these more intellectual members
of the lower classes generally result in an offspring approximating
still more to the type of the equal sided triangle,
(16:29):
rarely in proportion to the vast number of Isosceles births.
Is a genuine and certifiable equal sided triangle produced from
Isosceles parents. Footnote 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
(16:54):
of the father? I reply that no lady of any
position will marry an NAE certified 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
(17:16):
pentagonal rank or relapses to the triangular end of footnote.
Such a birth requires, as its antecedents not only a
series of carefully arranged into marriages, but also a long
continued exercise of frugality and self control on the part
of the would be ancestors of the coming equilateral, and
(17:39):
a patient, systematic and continuous development of the Isosceles intellect
through many generations. The birth of a true equilateral triangle
from Isosceles parents is the subject of rejoicing in our
country for many furlongs round. After a strict examination conducted
(18:00):
by the Sanitary and Social Board, the infant, if certified
as regular, is, with solemn ceremonial admitted into the class
of equilaterals. He is then immediately taken from his proud
yet sorrowing parents and adopted by some childless equilateral who
is bound by oaths never to permit the child henceforth
(18:24):
to enter his former home, or so much as to
look upon his relations again, for fear lest the freshly
developed organism may, by force of unconscious imitation, fall back
again into his hereditary level. The occasional emergence of an
Isosceles from the ranks of his serf born ancestors is
(18:45):
welcomed not only by the poor serfs themselves as a
gleam of light and hope shed upon the monotonous squalor
of their existence, but also by the aristocracy at large.
For all the higher classes are well aware that these
rare phenomena, while they do little or nothing to vulgarize
their own privileges, serve as a most useful barrier against
(19:09):
revolution from below. Had the acute angled rabble been all
without exception, absolutely destitute of hope and of ambition, they
might have found leaders in some of their many seditious outbreaks,
so able as to render their superior numbers and strength
too much even for the wisdom of the circles. But
(19:33):
a wise ordinance of nature has decreed that in proportion
as the working classes increase in intelligence, knowledge, and all virtue,
in that same proportion, their acute angle, which makes them
physically terrible, shall increase also, and approximate to the harmless
angle of the equilateral triangle. Thus, in the most brutal
(19:57):
and formidable of the soldier class creatures almost on a
level with women in their lack of intelligence. It is
found that as they wax in the mental ability necessary
to employ their tremendous penetrating power to advantage, so do
they wane in the power of penetration itself. How admirable
(20:19):
is this law of compensation and how perfect a proof
of the natural fitness, and I may almost say the
divine origin of the aristocratic constitution of the states in flatland.
By a judicious use of this law of nature, the
polygons and circles are almost always able to stifle sedition
(20:43):
in its very cradle, taking advantage of the irrepressible and
boundless hopefulness of the human mind. Art also comes to
the aid of law and order. It is generally found possible,
by a life artificial compression or expansion on the part
(21:03):
of the state physicians to make some of the more
intelligent leaders of a rebellion perfectly irregular, and to admit
them at once into the privileged classes. A much larger number,
who are still below the standard, allured by the prospect
of being ultimately ennobled, are induced to enter the state hospitals,
(21:26):
where they are kept in honorable confinement for life. One
or two alone of the more obstinate, foolish, and hopelessly
irregular are led to execution. Then the wretched rabble of
the Isosceles, planless and leaderless are either transfixed without resistance
(21:47):
by the small body of their brethren, whom the chief
circle keeps in pay for emergencies of this kind, or
else more often by means of jealousies and suspicions skillfully
fermented among them by the circular party. They are stirred
to mutual warfare and perish by one another's angles. No
(22:09):
less than one hundred and twenty rebellions are recorded in
our annals, besides minor outbreaks numbered at two hundred and
thirty five, and they have all ended thus End of
Part one, Section three
Part one. Sections one to three flat Land are Romance
of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbot. Abbot to the inhabitants
of space in general and hc. In particular. This work
is dedicated by a humble native of Flatland, in the
hope that, even as he was initiated into the mysteries
(00:23):
of three dimensions, having been previously conversant with only two,
so the citizens of that celestial region may aspire yet
higher and higher to the secrets of four, five, or
even six dimensions, thereby contributing to the enlargement of the
imagination and the possible development of that most rare and
(00:46):
excellent gift of modesty among the superior races of solid humanity.
Part one. This world, be patient, for the world is
broad and wide. Section one of the nature of Flatland.
(01:08):
I call our world flatland, not because we call it so,
but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers,
who are privileged to live in space. Imagine a vast
sheet of paper on which straight lines, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons,
(01:28):
and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places,
move freely about on or in the surface, but without
the power of rising above or sinking below it, very
much like shadows, only hard and with luminous edges. And
you will then have a pretty correct notion of my
country and countrymen, alas a few years ago I should
(01:52):
have said my universe. But now my mind has been
opened to higher views of things. In such a country,
you will perceive at once that it is impossible that
there should be anything of what you call a solid kind.
But I dare say you will suppose that we could
at least distinguish by sight the triangles, squares, and other
(02:17):
figures moving about as I have described them. On the contrary,
we could see nothing of the kind, not at least
so as to distinguish one figure from another. Nothing was visible,
nor could be visible to us, except straight lines. And
the necessity of this I will speedily demonstrate. Place a
(02:41):
penny on the middle of one of your tables in space,
and leaning over it, look down upon it. It will
appear a circle. But now drawing back to the edge
of the table, gradually lower your eye, thus bringing yourself
more and more into the condition of the inhabitance of
flat land, and you will find the penny becoming more
(03:04):
and more oval to your view. And at last, when
you have placed your eye exactly on the edge of
the table, so that you are, as it were, actually
a flatland citizen. The penny will then have ceased to
appear oval at all, and will have become so far
as you can see, a straight line. The same thing
(03:28):
would happen if you were to treat in the same
way a triangle or square, or any other figure cut
out of pasteboard. As soon as you look at it
with your eye on the edge of the table, you
will find that it ceases to appear to you a figure,
and that it becomes in appearance a straight line. Take,
(03:49):
for example, an equilateral triangle who represents with us a
tradesman of the respectable class. Figure one represents the tradesman
as you would see him while you were bending over
him from above. Reader's note. Figure one is a downward
pointing triangle with all sides equal. End of reader's note.
(04:13):
Figures two and three represent the tradesman as you would
see him if your eye were close to the level
or all but on the level of the table. Reader's note. Fig.
Two shares a much flatter downward pointing triangle, with the
top edge much longer than the other two sides which
are of equal length. Fig. Three is flatter, still barely
(04:36):
identifiable as a triangle at all end of reader's note.
And if your eye were quite on the level of
the table, and that is how we see him in
flat land, you would see nothing but a straight line.
When I was in Spaceland, I heard that your sailors
have very similar experiences while they traverse your seas and
(05:00):
discerned some distant island or coast lying on the horizon.
The far off land may have bays, fallands, angles in
and out to any number and extent. Yet at a
distance you see none of these, unless indeed your sun
shines bright upon them, revealing the projections and retirements. By
(05:22):
means of light and shade. Nothing but a gray, unbroken
line upon the water. Well, that is just what we
see when one of our triangular or other acquaintances comes
towards us in flatland. As there is neither sun with us,
nor any light of such a kind as to make shadows,
(05:43):
we have none of the helps to the sight that
you have in Spaceland. If our friend comes close to us,
we see his line becomes larger. If he leaves us
it becomes smaller, But still he looks like a straight line.
Be he a triangle, square, pentagon, hexagon, circle? What you
(06:05):
will a straight line he looks, and nothing else. You
may perhaps ask, how, under these disadvantageous circumstances we are
able to distinguish our friends from one another. But the
answer to this very natural question will be more fitly
and easily given when I come to describe the inhabitants
(06:27):
of flatland. For the present, let me defer this subject
and say a word or two about the climate and
houses in our country. Section two of the Climate and
houses in Flatland. As with you, so also with us.
There are four points of the compass north, south, east,
(06:50):
and west. There being no sun nor other heavenly bodies,
it is impossible for us to determine the north in
the usual way, but we have a method of our own,
by a law of nature. With us there is a
constant attraction to the south, and although in temperate climates,
this is very slight, so that even a woman in
(07:13):
reasonable health can journey several furlongs northward without much difficulty.
Yet the hampering effect of the southward attraction is quite
sufficient to serve as a compass in most parts of
our earth. Moreover, the rain which falls at stated intervals,
coming always from the north, is an additional assistance. And
(07:35):
in the towns we have the guidance of the houses,
which of course have their side walls running for the
most part north and south, so that the roofs may
keep off the rain from the north. In the country
where there are no houses, the trunks of the trees
serve as some sort of guide. Altogether, we have not
so much difficulty as might be expected in determining our
(07:57):
bearings in our more temperate regions, in which the southward
attraction is hardly felt. Walking sometimes in a perfectly desolate plain,
where there have been no houses nor trees to guide me,
I have been occasionally compelled to remain stationary for hours together,
waiting till the rain came, before continuing my journey. On
(08:21):
the week and aged, and especially on delicate females, the
force of attraction tells much more heavily than on the
robust of the male sex, so that it is a
point of breeding. If you meet a lady in the street,
always to give her the north side of the way,
by no means an easy thing to do, always at
short notice, when you are in rude health, and in
(08:44):
a climate where it is difficult to tell your north
from your south windows, there are none in our houses.
For the light comes to us alike, in our homes
and out of them, by day and by night, equally
at all times and in all places. Whence we know not.
It was in old days with our learned men, an
(09:06):
interesting and oft investigated question, what is the origin of light?
And the solution of it? Has been repeatedly attempted, with
no other result than to crowd our lunatic asylums with
the would be solvers. Hence, after fruitless attempts to suppress
such investigations indirectly by making them liable to a heavy tax,
(09:29):
the legislature in comparatively recent times absolutely prohibited them. I
alas I alone in flatland, know now only too well
the true solution of this mysterious problem. But my knowledge
cannot be made intelligible to a single one of my countrymen.
(09:50):
And I am mocked at I the sole possessor of
the truths of space and of the theory of the
introduction of light from the world of three dimensions, as
if I were the maddest of the mad. But a
truce to these painful digressions. Let me return to our houses.
(10:11):
The most common form for the construction of a house
is five sided or pentagonal, as in the next figure.
Reader's note. The figure shows a pentagon slightly skewed to
the right, with two sides marked RO and O F,
forming a point marked O to the north. The left
(10:32):
or western side, which has a large opening marked men's door,
is marked a R. The right or eastern side, which
has a small opening marked women's door, is marked b F.
The base, or southern side is marked a b end
of Reader's note. The two northern sides R, O, O
(10:53):
F constitute the roof and for the most part have
no doors. On the east is a small door for
the women, on the west a much larger one for
the men. The south side or floor is usually dawless.
Square and triangular houses are not allowed, and for this reason,
(11:14):
the angles of a square, and still more those of
an equilateral triangle, being much more pointed than those of
a pentagon, and the lines of inanimate objects such as
houses being dimmer than the lines of men and women.
It follows that there is no little danger lest the
points of a square or triangular house. Residents might do
(11:36):
serious injury to an inconsiderate or perhaps absent minded traveler
suddenly running against them. And therefore, as early as the
eleventh century of our era, triangular houses were universally forbidden
by law, the only exceptions being fortifications, powder magazines, barracks,
(11:57):
and other state buildings which it is is not desirable
that the general public should approach without circumspection. At this period,
square houses were still everywhere permitted, though discouraged by a
special tax. But about three centuries afterwards, the law decided
(12:18):
that in all towns containing a population above ten thousand,
the angle of a pentagon was the smallest house angle
that could be allowed consistently with the public safety. The
good sense of the community has seconded the efforts of
the legislature, and now even in the country the pentagonal
(12:38):
construction has superseded every other. It is only now and
then in some very remote and backward agricultural district that
an antiquarian may still discover a square house. Section three.
Concerning the inhabitants of flatland. The greatest length or breadth
(13:00):
of a full grown inhabitant of flat land may be
estimated at about eleven of your inches. Twelve inches may
be regarded as a maximum. Our women are straight lines.
Our soldiers and lowest classes of workmen are triangles, with
two equal sides, each about eleven inches long, and a
(13:24):
base or third side so short, often not exceeding half
an inch, that they form at their vertices a very
sharp and formidable angle. Indeed, when their bases are of
the most degraded type, not more than the eighth part
of an inch in size, they can hardly be distinguished
from straight lines or women, so extremely pointed are their vertices.
(13:49):
With us, as with you, these triangles are distinguished from
others by being called isosceles, and by this name I
shall refer to them in the following pages. Our middle
class consists of equilateral or equal sided triangles. Our professional
men and gentlemen are squares, to which class I myself belong,
(14:13):
and five sided figures or pentagons. Next above these come
the nobility, of whom there are several degrees, beginning at
six sided figures or hexagons, and from thence rising in
the number of their sides, till they receive the honorable
title of polygonal or many sided. Finally, when the number
(14:36):
of the sides becomes so numerous, and the sides themselves
so small that the figure cannot be distinguished from a circle.
He is included in the circular or priestly order, and
this is the highest class of all. It is a
law of nature with us that a male child shall
(14:56):
have one more side than his father, that each generation
shall rise, as a rule, one step in the scale
of development and nobility. Thus, the son of a square
is a pentagon, the son of a pentagon a hexagon,
and so on. But this rule applies not always to
(15:19):
the tradesmen, and still less often to the soldiers and
to the workmen, who indeed can hardly be said to
deserve the name of human figures, since they have not
all their sides equal with them. Therefore the law of
nature does not hold, and the son of an Isosceles
i e. A triangle with two sides equal, remains Isosceles. Still, nevertheless,
(15:45):
all hope is not shut out, even from the Isosceles,
that his posterity may ultimately rise above his degraded condition.
For after a long series of military successes or diligent
and skillful laby, it is generally found that the more
intelligent among the artisan and soldier classes manifest the slight
(16:07):
increase of their third side or base, and a shrinkage
of the two other sides. Intermarriages arranged by the priests
between the sons and daughters of these more intellectual members
of the lower classes generally result in an offspring approximating
still more to the type of the equal sided triangle,
(16:29):
rarely in proportion to the vast number of Isosceles births.
Is a genuine and certifiable equal sided triangle produced from
Isosceles parents. Footnote 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
(16:54):
of the father? I reply that no lady of any
position will marry an NAE certified 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
(17:16):
pentagonal rank or relapses to the triangular end of footnote.
Such a birth requires, as its antecedents not only a
series of carefully arranged into marriages, but also a long
continued exercise of frugality and self control on the part
of the would be ancestors of the coming equilateral, and
(17:39):
a patient, systematic and continuous development of the Isosceles intellect
through many generations. The birth of a true equilateral triangle
from Isosceles parents is the subject of rejoicing in our
country for many furlongs round. After a strict examination conducted
(18:00):
by the Sanitary and Social Board, the infant, if certified
as regular, is, with solemn ceremonial admitted into the class
of equilaterals. He is then immediately taken from his proud
yet sorrowing parents and adopted by some childless equilateral who
is bound by oaths never to permit the child henceforth
(18:24):
to enter his former home, or so much as to
look upon his relations again, for fear lest the freshly
developed organism may, by force of unconscious imitation, fall back
again into his hereditary level. The occasional emergence of an
Isosceles from the ranks of his serf born ancestors is
(18:45):
welcomed not only by the poor serfs themselves as a
gleam of light and hope shed upon the monotonous squalor
of their existence, but also by the aristocracy at large.
For all the higher classes are well aware that these
rare phenomena, while they do little or nothing to vulgarize
their own privileges, serve as a most useful barrier against
(19:09):
revolution from below. Had the acute angled rabble been all
without exception, absolutely destitute of hope and of ambition, they
might have found leaders in some of their many seditious outbreaks,
so able as to render their superior numbers and strength
too much even for the wisdom of the circles. But
(19:33):
a wise ordinance of nature has decreed that in proportion
as the working classes increase in intelligence, knowledge, and all virtue,
in that same proportion, their acute angle, which makes them
physically terrible, shall increase also, and approximate to the harmless
angle of the equilateral triangle. Thus, in the most brutal
(19:57):
and formidable of the soldier class creatures almost on a
level with women in their lack of intelligence. It is
found that as they wax in the mental ability necessary
to employ their tremendous penetrating power to advantage, so do
they wane in the power of penetration itself. How admirable
(20:19):
is this law of compensation and how perfect a proof
of the natural fitness, and I may almost say the
divine origin of the aristocratic constitution of the states in flatland.
By a judicious use of this law of nature, the
polygons and circles are almost always able to stifle sedition
(20:43):
in its very cradle, taking advantage of the irrepressible and
boundless hopefulness of the human mind. Art also comes to
the aid of law and order. It is generally found possible,
by a life artificial compression or expansion on the part
(21:03):
of the state physicians to make some of the more
intelligent leaders of a rebellion perfectly irregular, and to admit
them at once into the privileged classes. A much larger number,
who are still below the standard, allured by the prospect
of being ultimately ennobled, are induced to enter the state hospitals,
(21:26):
where they are kept in honorable confinement for life. One
or two alone of the more obstinate, foolish, and hopelessly
irregular are led to execution. Then the wretched rabble of
the Isosceles, planless and leaderless are either transfixed without resistance
(21:47):
by the small body of their brethren, whom the chief
circle keeps in pay for emergencies of this kind, or
else more often by means of jealousies and suspicions skillfully
fermented among them by the circular party. They are stirred
to mutual warfare and perish by one another's angles. No
(22:09):
less than one hundred and twenty rebellions are recorded in
our annals, besides minor outbreaks numbered at two hundred and
thirty five, and they have all ended thus End of
Part one, Section three
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