Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott: Part 2, Sections 13 - 14

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part two, Section thirteen and fourteen of flat Land. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Ruth Golding.
Flat Land, A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbot
Abbot Part two. Other Worlds O brave new worlds that

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have such people in them, Section thirteen. How I had
a vision of Lineland. It was the last day but
one of the nineteen hundred and ninety ninth year of
our era, and the first day of the long vacation.
Having amused myself till a late hour with my favorite

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recreation of geometry, I had retired to rest with an
unsolved problem in my mind. In the night, I had
a dream. Reader's note. The following paragraph makes reference to
a diagram. The diagram is headed my view of Lineland.
Beneath this title, and centrally placed is a square labeled myself.

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Under that, from left to right on a horizontal plane
are four dots labeled women, a short dash labeled a boy,
six longer dashes marked men. Then, directly below myself a
thick dash labeled the King, with an eye looking out
from either end. Under the eyes is written the King's

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eyes much larger than the reality showing that his Majesty
could see nothing but a point. The horizontal line then
continues towards the right, with seven dashes marked men, one
dash marked a boy, and seven dots marked women. End
of reader's note. I saw before me a vast multitude

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of small straight lines, which I naturally assumed to be women,
interspersed with other beings, still smaller, and of the nature
of lustrous points, all moving to and fro in one
and the same straight line, and as nearly as I
could judge, with the same velocity. A noise of confused,

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multitudinous chirping or twittering issued from them at intervals as
long as they were moving, but sometimes they ceased from motion,
and then all was silence. Approaching one of the largest
of what I thought to be women, I accosted her,
but received no answer. A second and third appeal on

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my part were equally ineffectual. Losing patience at what appeared
to me intolerable rudeness, I brought my mouth into a
position full in front of her mouth so as to
intercept her motion, and loudly repeated my question, woman, what
signifies this concourse and this strange and contra used chirping

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and this monotonous motion to and fro in one and
the same straight line. I am no woman, replied the
small line. I am the monarch of the world. But thou,
whence intrudest thou into my realm of Lineland. Receiving this
abrupt reply, I begged pardon if I had in any

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way startled or molested his royal Highness, and describing myself
as a stranger, I besought the king to give me
some account of his dominions. But I had the greatest
possible difficulty in obtaining any information on points that really
interested me, for the monarch could not refrain from constantly

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assuming that whatever was familiar to him must also be
known to me, and that I was simulating ignorance in jest. However,
by persevering questions, I elicited the following facts. It seemed
that this poor ignorant monarch, as he called himself, was

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persuaded that the straight line which he called his kingdom
and in which he passed his existence, constituted the whole
of the world, and indeed the whole of space. Not
being able either to move or to see save in
his straight line, he had no conception of anything out

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of it. Though he had heard my voice when I
first addressed him, the sounds had come to him in
a manner so contrary to his experience that he had
made no answer, seeing no man as he expressed it,
and hearing a voice as it were from my own intestines.
Until the moment when I placed my mouth in his world,

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he had neither seen me nor heard anything except confused
sounds beating against what I called his side, but what
he called his inside or stomach. Nor had he even
now the least conception of the region from which I
had come. Outside his world or line. All was a

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blank to him, Nay not even a blank, for a
blank implies space, say, Rather, all was nonexistent his subjects,
of whom the small lions were men and the points
women were all alike, confined in motion and eyesight to

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that single straight line which was their world. It need
scarcely be added that the whole of their horizon was
limited to a point. Nor could any one ever see
anything but a point, man, woman, child, thing. Each was
a point to the eye of a linelander. Only by

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the sound of the voice could sex or age be distinguished. Moreover,
as each individual occupied the whole of the narrow paths,
so to speak, which constituted his universe, and no one
could move to the right or left to make way
for passers by. It followed that no linelander could ever

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pass another. Once neighbors always neighbors. Neighborhood with them was
like marriage with us. Neighbors remained neighbors till death did
them part. Such a life, with all vision limited to
a point and all motion to a straight line, seemed

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to me inexpressibly dreary, and I was surprised to note
the vivacity and cheerfulness of the King, Wondering whether it
was possible, amid circumstances so unfavorable to domestic relations, to
enjoy the pleasures of conjugal union. I hesitated for some
time to question his Royal Highness on so delicate a subject,

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but at last I plunged into it by abruptly inquiring
as to the health of his family, My wives and children,
he replied, are well and happy. Staggered at this answer,
for in the immediate proximity of the monarch, as I
had noted in my dream before I entered Lymeland, there
were none but men. I ventured to reply, Pardon me,

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but I cannot imagine how your Royal Highness can at
any time either see or approach their majesties when there
are at least half a dozen intervening individuals whom you
can neither see through nor pass by. Is it possible
that in Linland proximity is not necessary for marriage and

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for the generation of children? How can you ask so
absurd a question, replied the monarch. If it were indeed
as you suggest, the universe would soon be depopulated. No, no,
neighborhood is needless for the union of hearts, and the
birth of children is too important a matter to have

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been allowed to depend up such an accident as proximity.
You cannot be ignorant of this, yet, since you are
pleased to affect ignorance, I will instruct you as if
you were the veriest baby in Lineland. Know then, that
marriages are consummated by means of the faculty of sound

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and the sense of hearing. You are, of course aware
that every man has two mouths or voices, as well
as two eyes, a base at one and a tenor
at the other of his extremities. I should not mention this,
but that I have been unable to distinguish your tenor
in the course of our conversation. I replied that I

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had but one voice, and that I had not been
aware that his Royal Highness had two. That confirms my impression,
said the King, that you are not a man, but
a feminine monstrosity with a base voice and an utterly
uneducated ear. But to continue, nature herself having ordained that

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every man should wed two wives, why, too, asked I.
You carry your affected simplicity too far, He cried, how
can there be a completely harmonious union without the combination
of the four in one viz. The base and tenor
of the man, and the soprano and contralto of the

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two women. But supposing, said I, that a man should
prefer one wife or three, it is impossible. He said.
It is as inconceivable as that two and one should
make five, or that the human eye should see a
straight line. I would have interrupted him, but he proceeded

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as follows. Once in the middle of each week, a
law of nature compels us to move to and fro
with a rhythmic motion of more than usual violence, which
continues for the time you would take to count one
hundred and one. In the midst of this choral dance,
at the fifty first pulsation, the inhabitants of the universe

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pause in full career, and each individual sends forth his richest, fullest,
sweetest strain. It is in this decisive moment that all
our marriages are made. So exquisite is the adaptation of
base to treble of tenor to contralto that. Oftentimes the

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loved ones, though twenty thousand leagues away, recognize at once
the responsive note of their destined lover, and penetrating the
paltry obstacles of distance, love unites the three. The marriage,
in that instant, consummated results in a threefold male and
female offspring, which takes its place in lineland. What always threefold?

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Said I must one wife? Then always have twins? Base
voice monstrosity, yes, replied the king. How else could the
balance of the sexes be maintained if two girls were
not born for every boy? Would you ignore the very
alphabet of nature? He ceased speechless for fury, and some

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time elapsed before I could induce him to resume his narrative.
You will, not, of course, suppose that every bachelor among
us finds his mates at the first wooing in this
universal marriage chorus. On the contrary, the process is by
most of us many times repeated. Few are the hearts
whose happy lot it is at once to recognize in

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each other's voices the partner intended for them by providence,
and to fly into a reciprocal and perfectly harmonious embrace.
With most of us, the courtship is of long duration.
The wooer's voices may perhaps accord with one of the
future wives, but not with both, or not at first

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with either, or the soprano and contralto may not quite harmonize.
In such cases, Nature has provided that every weekly chorus
shall bring the three lovers into closer harmony. Each trial
of voice, each fresh discovery of discord, almost imperceptibly induces

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the less perfect to modify his or her vocal utterance
so as to approximate to the more perfect. And after
many trials and many approximations, the result is at last achieved.
There comes a day, at last, when, while the wonted
marriage chorus goes forth from universal Lineland, the three far

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off lovers suddenly find themselves in exact harmony, and before
they are aware, The wedded triplet is wrapped vocally into
a duplicate embrace, and nature rejoices over one more marriage
and over three more births. Section fourteen. How I vainly

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tried to explain the nature of flatland. Thinking that it
was time to bring down the monarch from his raptures
to the level of common sense. I determined to endeavor
to open up to him some glimpses of the truth,
that is to say, of the nature of things in flatland.
So I began, thus, how does your Royal Highness distinguish

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the shapes and positions of his subjects? I, for my part, noticed,
by the sense of sight before I entered your kingdom,
that some of your people are lines and others points,
and that some of the lines are larger. You speak
of an impossibility, interrupted the king. You must have seen
a vision. For to detect the difference between a line

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and a point by the sense of sight is, as
everyone knows in the nature of things impossible. But it
can be detected by the sense of hearing, and by
the same means my shape can be exactly as attained.
Behold me, I am a line the longest in Lineland

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over six inches of space of length I ventured to suggest.
Fool said he spaces length. Interrupt me again, and I
have done. I apologized, but he continued scornfully. Since you
are impervious to argument, you shall hear with your ears.

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How by means of my two voices, I reveal my
sh ape to my wives, who are at this moment
six thousand miles seventy yards two feet eight inches away,
the one to the north, the other to the south. Listen,
I call to them, He chirruped, and then complacently continued.

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My wives, at this moment, receiving the sound of one
of my voices closely followed by the other, and perceiving
that the latter reaches them after an interval in which
sound can traverse six point four five seven inches, infer
that one of my mouths is six point four five
seven inches further from them than the other, and accordingly

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know my shape to be six point four five seven inches.
But you will, of course understand that my wives do
not make this calculation every time they hear my two voices.
They made it once for all before we were married,
but they could make it at any time, and in

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the same way I can estimate the shape of any
of my male subjects by the sense of sound. But
how said I, if a man feigns a woman's voice
with one of his two voices, or so disguises his
southern voice that it cannot be recognized as the echo
of the northern may not such deceptions cause great inconvenience?

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And have you no means of checking frauds of this
kind by commanding your neighboring subjects to feel one another? This,
of course, was a very stupid question, for feeling could
not have answered the purpose. But I asked with the
view of irritating the monarch, and I succeeded perfectly. What

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cried he in horror, explain your meaning, feel, touch, come
into contact, I replied, If you mean by feeling, said
the king, approaching so close as to leave no space
between two individuals, no stranger that this offense is punishable

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in my dominions by death, And the reason is obvious.
The frail form of a woman, being liable to be
shattered by such an approximation, must be preserved by the state.
But since women cannot be distinguished by the sense of
sight from man, the law ordains universally that neither man

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nor woman shall be approached so closely as to destroy
the interval between the approximator and the approximated. And indeed,
what possible purpose would be served by this illegal and
unnatural excess of approximation, which you call touching, when all
the ends of so brutal and coarse a process are

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attained at once, more easily and more exactly by the
sense of hearing. As to your suggested danger of deception,
it is nonexistent for the voice being, the essence of
one's being, cannot be thus changed at will. But come
suppose that I had the power of passing through solid things,

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so that I could penetrate my subjects one after another,
even to the number of a billion, verifying the size
and distance of each, by the sense of feeling. How
much time and energy would be wasted in this clumsy
and inaccurate method, Whereas now, in one moment of audition,

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I take, as it were, the senses and statistics, local, corporal, mental,
and spiritual of every living being in Lineland. Hark only
Hark so saying he paused and listened, as if in
an ecstasy, to a sound which seemed to me no
better than a tiny chirping from an innumerable multitude of

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Lilliputian grasshoppers, truly replied, I your sense of hearing serves
you in good stead and fills up many of your deficiencies.
But permit me to point out that your life in
line land must be deplorably dull to see nothing but
a point, not even to be able to contemplate a

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straight line, nay, not even to know what a straight
line is, to see yet to be cut off from
those linear prospects which are vouchsafed to us in flat land.
Better surely, to have no sense of sight at all
than to see so little. I grant you, I have

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not your discriminative faculty of hearing, for the concert of
all line land, which gives you such intense pleasure, is
to me no better than a multitudinous twittering or chirping.
But at least I can discern by sight a line
from a point, and let me prove it. Just before
I came into your kingdom, I saw you dancing from

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left to right, and then from right to left, with
seven men and a woman in your immediate proximity on
the left, and eight men and two women on your right,
is not this correct? It is correct, said the King,
so far as the numbers and sexes are concerned. Though
I know not what you mean by right and left.

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But I deny that you saw these things, For how
could you see the line, that is to say, the
inside of any man? But you must have heard these
things and then dreamed that you saw them. And let
me ask what you mean by those words left and right.
I suppose it is your way of saying northward and southward.

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Not so replied I. Besides your motion of northward and southward,
there is another motion, which I call from right to left. King,
exhibit to me, if you please this motion from left
to right. I nay that I cannot do unless you
could step out of your line altogether. King, out of

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my line? Do you mean out of the world, out
of space? I? Well, yes, out of your world, out
of your space. For your space is not the true space.
True space is a plane, but your space is only
a line. King. If you cannot indicate this motion from

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left to right by yourself moving in it, then I
beg you to describe it to me in words. I.
If you cannot tell your right side from my left,
I fear that no words of mine can make my
meaning clear to you, But surely you cannot be ignorant
of so simple a distinction, King, I do not in

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the least understand you. I alas, how shall I make
it clear? When you move straight on? Does it not
sometimes occur to you that you could move in some
other way, turning your eye round, so as to look
in the direction to which your side is now fronting?

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In other words, instead of always moving in the direction
of one of your extremities, do you never feel a
desire to move in the direction, so to speak, of
your side? King? Never? And what do you mean, how
can a man's inside front in any direction? Or how

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can a man move in the direction of his inside? I? Well, then,
since words cannot explain the matter, I will try deeds
and will move gradually out of Lineland in the direction
which I desire to indicate to you. Reader's Note. The

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following paragraph makes reference to a diagram. The diagram shows
a horizontal line. At the left is marked Lineland with
an arrow pointing rightwood. At the right on the line
is a broad dash labeled the King. In the center
on the line is a horizontally shaded square, over which

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is written my body just before I disappeared. End of
reader's note. At the word I began to move my
body out of Lineland. As long as any part of
me remained in his dominion and in his view, the
king kept exclaiming, I see you. I see you. Still
you are not moving. But when I had at last

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moved myself out of his line, he cried, in his
shrillest voice, she is banished, she is dead. I am
not dead, replied I. I am simply out of Lineland,
that is to say, out of the straight line which
you call space, and in the true space, where I

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can see things as they are, And at this moment
I can see your line or side, or inside, as
you are pleased to call it. And I can also
see the men and women on the north and south
of you, whom I will now enumerate, describing their order,
their size, and the interval between each. When I had

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done this at great length, I cried, triumphantly, does this
at last convince you? And with that I once more
entered Linland, taking up the same position as before. But
the monarch replied, if you were a man of sense,
though as you appear to have only one voice, I
have little doubt you are not a man but a woman.

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But if you had a particle of sense, you would
listen to reason. You ask me to believe that there
is another line besides that which my senses indicate, and
another motion besides that of which I am daily conscious.
I in return ask you to describe in words or
indicate by motion that other line of which you speak.

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Instead of moving, you merely exercise some magic art of
vanishing and returning to sight. And instead of any lucid
description of your new world, you simply tell me the
numbers and sizes of some forty of my retinue facts
known to any child in my capital? Can anything be

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more irrational or audacious? Acknowledge your folly or depart from
my dominions. Furious at his perversity, and especially indignant that
he professed to be ignorant of my sex, I retorted,
in no measured terms, besotted being, you think yourself the
perfection of existence, while you are, in reality the most

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imperfect and imbecile You profess to see, whereas you can
see nothing but a point. You plume yourself on inferring
the existence of a straight line. But I can see
straight lines and infer the existence of angles, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons,

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and even circles. Why waste more words? Suffice it that
I am the completion of your incomplete self. You are
a line, but I am a line of lines, called
in my country a square, and even I infinitely superior.
Though I am to you am of little account among

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the great nobles of flatland. Whence I have come to
visit you in the hope of enlightening your ignorance. Hearing
these words, the King advanced towards me with a menacing cry,
as if to pierce me through the diagonal. And in
that same moment there arose from myriads of his subjects
a multitudinous, wary war cry, increasing in vehemence till at last,

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methought it rivaled the roar of an army of a
hundred thousand isosceles and the artillery of a thousand pentagons.
Spell Bound and motionless, I could neither speak nor move
to avert the impending destruction, and still the noise grew louder,
and the king came closer. When I awoke to find

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the breakfast bell, recalling me to the realities of flatland.
End of section fourteen recording by Ruth Golding