Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott: Part 2, Sections 21 - 22

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part two, sections twenty one and twenty two of Flatland.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Ruth Golding flat Land A Romance of Many Dimensions by
Edwin Abbot Abbot, Section twenty one. How I tried to

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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

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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.

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Listening attentively, I recognized the words of the resolution of
the Council in joining the arrest, imprisonment, or execution of
any one who should pervert the minds of the people
by delusions and by professing to have received revelations from
another world. I reflected this danger was not to be

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trifled with. It would be better to avoid it by
omitting all mention of my revelation, and by proceeding on
the path of demonstration, which after all seemed so simple
and so conclusive, that nothing would be lost by discarding
the former. Means upward, not northward, was the clue to

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the whole proof. It had seemed to me fairly clear
before I fell asleep, and when I first awoke fresh
from my dream, it had appeared as patent as arithmetic.
But somehow it did not seem to me quite so
obvious now. Though my wife entered the room opportunely, just

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at that moment, I decided, after we had interchanged a
few words of commonplace conversation, not to begin with her.
My pentagonal sons were men of character and standing, and
physicians of no mean reputation, but not great in mathematics,
and in that respect unfit for my purpose. But it

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occurred to me that a young and docile hexagon with
a mathematical turn would be a most suitable pupil. Why therefore,
not make my first experiment with my little precocious grandson,
whose casual remarks on the meaning of three cubed had
met with the approval of the sphere discussing the matter

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with him, a mere boy, I should be in perfect safety,
for he would know nothing of the proclamation of the Council.
Whereas I could not feel sure that my sons so
greatly did their patriotism and reverence for the circles predominate
over mere blind affection, might not feel compelled to hand

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me over to the Prefect if they found me seriously
maintaining the seditious heresy of the third dimension. But the
first thing to be done was to satisfy in some
way the curiosity of my wife, who naturally wished to
know something of the reasons for which the Circle had

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desired that mysterious interview, and of the means by which
he had entered our house. Without entering into the details
of the elaborate account, I gave her an account I
fear not quite so consistent with truth as my readers
and 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, without eliciting from me any
reference to the world of three dimensions. This done, I
immediately sent for my grandson, for to confess the truth.
I felt that all I had seen and heard was

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in some strange way slipping away from me, like the
image of a half grasped, tantalizing dream. And I longed
to essay my skill in making a first disciple. When
my grandson entered the room, I carefully secured the door. Then,
sitting down by his side, and taking our mathematical tablets,

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or as you would call them, lines, I told him
we would resume the lesson of yesterday. I taught him
once more how a point by motion in one dimension
produces a line, and how a straight line in two
dimensions produces a square. After this, forcing a laugh, I said,

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and now, you scamp, you wanted to make me believe
that a square may, in the same way, by motion
upward not northward, produce another figure, a sort of extra
square in three dimensions. Say that again, you young rascal.
At this moment we heard once more the heralds oh yes,

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oh yes, outside in the street, proclaiming the resolution of
the council. Young, though he was my grandson, who was
unusually intelligent for his age and bred up in perfect
reverence for the authority of the circles, took in the
situation with an acuteness for which I was quite unprepared.

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He remained silent till the last one words of the
proclamation had died away, and then bursting into tears. Dear Grandpapa,
he said, that was only my fun, and of course
I meant nothing at all by it. And we did
not know anything then about the new law. And I
don't think I said anything about the third dimension. And

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I am sure I did not say one word about upward,
not northward, for that would be such nonsense. You know,
how could a thing move upward and not northward? Outward
and not northward? Even if I were a baby, I
could not be so absurd as that. How silly it is,
ha ha, not at all silly, said I, losing my temper. Here.

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For example, I'd take this square, and at the word,
I grasped a moveable square which was lying at hand,
And I move it, you see, not northward, but yes,
I move it upward, that is to say, not northward.
But I move it somewhere, not exactly like this, but

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somehow here I brought my sentence to an inane conclusion,
shaking the square about in a purposeless manner, much to
the amusement of my grandson, who burst out laughing louder
than ever, and declared that I was not teaching him,
but joking with him, And so saying, he unlocked the

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door and ran out of the room. Thus ended my
first attempt to convert a pupil to the Gospel of
three Dimensions Section twenty two. How I then tried to
diffuse the theory of three dimensions by other means, and

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of the result, my failure with my grandson did not
encourage me to communicate my secret to others of my household.
Yet neither was I led by it to despair of success.
Only I saw that I must not wholly rely on
the catch phrase upward, not northward, but must rather endeavor

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to seek a demonstration by setting before the public a
clear view of the whole subject. And for this purpose
it seemed necessary to resort to writing. So I devoted
several months in privacy to the composition of a treatise
on the Mysteries of three Dimensions, only with the view

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of evading the law if possible. I spoke not of
a physical dimension, but of a thought land. Whence, in theory,
a figure could look down upon flat land and see
simultaneously the insides of all things, and where it was
possible that there might be supposed to exist a figure environed,

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as it were, with six squares and containing eight terminal points.
But in writing this book I found myself sadly hampered
by the impossibility of drawing such diagrams as were necessary
for my purpose. For, of course, in our country of
flat land, there are no tablets but lines, and no

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diagrams but limes, all in one straight line, and only
distinguishable by difference of size and brightness. So that when
I had finished my treaties, which I entitled through flat
Land to Thoughtland, I could not feel certain that 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, because I could not but compare
what I saw in two dimensions with what it really
was if seen in three, and could hardly refrain from
making my comparisons. Allowed, I neglected my clients and my

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own business to give myself to the contemplation of the
mysteries which I had once beheld, yet which I could
impart to no one, and found daily more difficult to
reproduce even before my own mental vision. One day, about
eleven months after my return from Spaceland, I tried to

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see a cube with my eye closed, but failed, And
though I succeeded afterwards, I was not then quite certain,
nor have I been ever afterwards, that I had exactly
realized the original. This made me more melancholy than before,

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and determined me to take some step. Yet what I
knew not. I felt that I would have been willing
to sacrifice my life for the cause if thereby I
could have produced conviction. But if 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 for me, and I gave vent
to dangerous utterances. Already I was considered heterodox, if not treasonable,
and I was keenly alive to the dangers of my position. Nevertheless,

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I could not at times refrain from bursting out into
suspicious or half seditious utterances, even among the highest polygonal
and circular society. When, for example, the question arose about
the treatment of those lunatics who 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 are always considered by the
majority to be mad. And I could not help occasionally
dropping such expressions as the eye that discerns the interiors
of things and the all seeing land. Once or twice

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I even let fall the forbidden terms the third and
fourth dimensions. At last, to complete a series of minor indiscretions.
At a meeting of our local speculative Society held at
the palace of the Prefect himself, some extremely silly person,
having read an elaborate paper exhibiting the precise reasons why

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Providence has limited the number of dimensions to two, and
why the attribute of omnividence is assigned to the Supreme alone,
I so far forgot myself as to give an exact
account of the whole of my voyage with the sphere
into space and to the assembly hall in our metropolis,
and then to space again, and of my return home,

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and of everything that I had seen and heard in
fact or vision. At first, indeed, I pretended that I
was describing the imaginary experiences of a fictitious person. But
my enthusiasm soon forced me to throw off all disguise,
and finally, in a fervent peroration, I exhorted all my

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hearers to divest themselves of prejudice and to become believers
in the third dimension. Need I say that I was
at once arrested and taken before the Council next morning,
standing in the very place where 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 the first I foresaw my fate.
For the President, noting that a god of the better
sort of policeman was in attendance of angularity little, if
for all under fifty five degrees, ordered them to be

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relieved before I began my defense by an inferior class
of two or three degrees. I knew only too well
what that meant. I was to be executed or imprisoned,
and my story was to be kept secret from the
world by the simultaneous destruction of the 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 defense, the President, perhaps perceiving that
some of the junior circles had been moved by my
evident earnestness asked me two questions. One, whether I could

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indicate the direction which I meant when I used the
words upward not northward. Two whether I could, by any
d biagrams or descriptions other than the enumeration of imaginary
sides and angles, indicate the figure I was pleased to
call a cube. I declared that I could say nothing more,

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and that I must commit myself to the truth, whose
cause would surely prevail in the end. The President replied
that he quite concurred in my sentiment, and that I
could not do better. I must be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.
But if the truth intended that I should emerge from

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prison and evangelize the world, the Truth might be trusted
to bring that result to pass. Meanwhile, I should be
subjected to no discomfort that was not necessary to preclude escape.
And unless I forfeited the privilege by misconduct, I should
be occasionally permitted to see my brother, who had preceded

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me to My prison. Years have elapsed and I am
still a prisoner. And if I accept the occasional visits
of my brother debarred from all companionship save that of
my jailors. My brother is one of the best of squares,
just sensible, cheerful, and not without fraternal affection. Yet I

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must confess that my weekly interviews, at least in one respect,
cause me the bitterest pain. He was present when the
sphere manifested himself in the council chamber. He saw the
spheres changing sections, he heard the explanation of the phenomena
then given to the circles. Since that time, scarcely a

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week has passed during seven whole years without his hearing
from me a repetition of the part I played in
that manifestation, together with ample descriptions of all the phenomena
in Spaceland and the arguments for the existence of solid
things derivable from analogy. Yet I take shame to be

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forced to confess it. My brother has not yet grasped
the nature of the third dimension, and frankly avows his
disbelief in the existence of a sphere. Hence, I am
absolutely destitute of converts, and for aught that I can see.
The millennial revelation has been made to me for nothing

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Prometheus up in Spaceland was bound for bringing down fire
for mortals, But I, poor flat Land Prometheus, lie here
in prison for bringing down nothing to my countrymen. Yet
I exist in the hope that these memoirs, in some
manner I know not how, may find their way to

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the minds of humanity in some dimension, and may stir
up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be
confined to limited dimensionality. That is the 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
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

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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

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in 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. The end of Flatland are amants of

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many dimensions by Edwin Abbot Abbot read by Ruth Golding,
October two thousand and eight,