Orakel Classics
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott, prepared as a public-domain Orakel edition with 24 chapter-aware companion links.
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PART I: THIS WORLD
PART I: THIS WORLD from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. This section is available as a chapter-aware Orakel companion.
Open2Section 1. Of the Nature of Flatland
Section 1. Of the Nature of Flatland from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. 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
Open3Section 2. Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
Section 2. Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. As with you, so also with us, there are four points of the compass North, South, East, and
Open4Section 3. Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland
Section 3. Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The greatest length or breadth of a full grown inhabitant of Flatland may be estimated at about eleven of your inches. Twelve inches may be regarded as a
Open5Section 4. Concerning the Women
Section 4. Concerning the Women from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. If our highly pointed Triangles of the Soldier class are formidable, it may be readily inferred that far more formidable are our Women. For if a Soldier is a wedge, a Woman is a needle; being, so to speak, ALL point, at least at the two extremities. Add to this the power of making herself practically invisible at will, and you will perceive that a Female, in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled
Open6Section 5. Of our Methods of Recognizing one another
Section 5. Of our Methods of Recognizing one another from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. You, who are blessed with shade as well as light, you, who are gifted with two eyes, endowed with a knowledge of perspective, and charmed with the enjoyment of various colours, you, who can actually SEE an angle, and contemplate the complete circumference of a circle in the happy region of the Three Dimensions--how shall I make clear to you the extreme difficulty which we in Flatland experience in recognizing one
Open7Section 6. Of Recognition by Sight
Section 6. Of Recognition by Sight from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. I am about to appear very inconsistent. In previous sections I have said that all figures in Flatland present the appearance of a straight line; and it was added or implied, that it is consequently impossible to distinguish by the visual organ between individuals of different classes: yet now I am about to explain to my Spaceland critics how we are able to recognize one another by the sense of
Open8Section 7. Concerning Irregular Figures
Section 7. Concerning Irregular Figures from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Throughout the previous pages I have been assuming--what perhaps should have been laid down at the beginning as a distinct and fundamental proposition--that every human being in Flatland is a Regular Figure, that is to say of regular construction. By this I mean that a Woman must not only be a line, but a straight line; that an Artisan or Soldier must have two of his sides equal; that Tradesmen must have three sides
Open9Section 8. Of the Ancient Practice of Painting
Section 8. Of the Ancient Practice of Painting from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. If my Readers have followed me with any attention up to this point, they will not be surprised to hear that life is somewhat dull in Flatland. I do not, of course, mean that there are not battles, conspiracies, tumults, factions, and all those other phenomena which are supposed to make History interesting; nor would I deny that the strange mixture of the problems of life and the problems of Mathematics, continually
Open10Section 9. Of the Universal Colour Bill
Section 9. Of the Universal Colour Bill from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The Art of Sight Recognition, being no longer needed, was no longer practised; and the studies of Geometry, Statics, Kinetics, and other kindred subjects, came soon to be considered superfluous, and fell into disrespect and neglect even at our University. The inferior Art of Feeling speedily experienced the same fate at our Elementary Schools. Then the Isosceles classes, asserting that the Specimens were no longer
Open11Section 10. Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition
Section 10. Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. The agitation for the Universal Colour Bill continued for three years; and up to the last moment of that period it seemed as though Anarchy were destined to
Open12Section 11. Concerning our Priests
Section 11. Concerning our Priests from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It is high time that I should pass from these brief and discursive notes about things in Flatland to the central event of this book, my initiation into the mysteries of Space. THAT is my subject; all that has gone before is merely
Open13Section 12. Of the Doctrine of our Priests
Section 12. Of the Doctrine of our Priests from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. As to the doctrine of the Circles it may briefly be summed up in a single maxim, "Attend to your Configuration." Whether political, ecclesiastical, or moral, all their teaching has for its object the improvement of individual and collective Configuration--with special reference of course to the Configuration of the Circles, to which all other objects are
Open14PART II: OTHER WORLDS
PART II: OTHER WORLDS from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. This section is available as a chapter-aware Orakel companion.
Open15Section 13. How I had a Vision of Lineland
Section 13. How I had a Vision of Lineland from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It was the last day but one of the 1999th year of our era, and the first day of the Long Vacation. Having amused myself till a late hour with my favourite recreation of Geometry, I had retired to rest with an unsolved problem in my mind. In the night I had a
Open16Section 14. How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland
Section 14. How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Thinking that it was time to bring down the Monarch from his raptures to the level of common sense, I determined to endeavour 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 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
Open17Section 15. Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland
Section 15. Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It was the last day of the 1999th year of our era. The pattering of the rain had long ago announced nightfall; and I was sitting in the company of my wife, musing on the events of the past and the prospects of the coming year, the coming century, the coming
Open18Section 16. How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me
Section 16. How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. As soon as the sound of the Peace-cry of my departing Wife had died away, I began to approach the Stranger with the intention of taking a nearer view and of bidding him be seated: but his appearance struck me dumb and motionless with astonishment. Without the slightest symptoms of angularity he nevertheless varied every instant with gradations of size and brightness scarcely possible for any Figure within the scope
Open19Section 17. How the Sphere, having in vain tried words,
Section 17. How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. It was in vain. I brought my hardest right angle into violent collision with the Stranger, pressing on him with a force sufficient to have destroyed any ordinary Circle: but I could feel him slowly and unarrestably slipping from my contact; no edging to the right nor to the left, but moving somehow out of the world, and vanishing to nothing. Soon there was a blank. But still I heard the Intruder's
Open20Section 18. How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there
Section 18. How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. An unspeakable horror seized me. There was a darkness; then a dizzy, sickening sensation of sight that was not like seeing; I saw a Line that was no Line; Space that was not Space: I was myself, and not myself. When I could find voice, I shrieked aloud in agony, "Either this is madness or it is Hell." "It is neither," calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, "it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye
Open21Section 19. How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries
Section 19. How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. When I saw my poor brother led away to imprisonment, I attempted to leap down into the Council Chamber, desiring to intercede on his behalf, or at least bid him farewell. But I found that I had no motion of my own. I absolutely depended on the volition of my Guide, who said in gloomy tones, "Heed not thy brother; haply thou shalt have ample time hereafter to condole with him. Follow
Open22Section 20. How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision
Section 20. How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Although I had less than a minute for reflection, I felt, by a kind of instinct, that I must conceal my experiences from my Wife. Not that I apprehended, at the moment, any danger from her divulging my secret, but I knew that to any Woman in Flatland the narrative of my adventures must needs be unintelligible. So I endeavoured to reassure her by some story, invented for the occasion, that I had accidentally fallen
Open23Section 21. How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions
Section 21. How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. I awoke rejoicing, and began to reflect on the glorious career before me. I would go forth, methought, at once, and evangelize the whole of Flatland. Even to Women and Soldiers should the Gospel of Three Dimensions be proclaimed. I would begin with my
Open24Section 22. How I then tried to diffuse the Theory
Section 22. How I then tried to diffuse the Theory from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. 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 endeavour 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
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