Chapter 22
XXII
How I Then Tried to Diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by Other
Means, and 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 catchphrase,
"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 writing.
So I devoted several months in privacy to the composition of a treatise
on the mysteries of Three Dimensions. Only, with the view of evading the
law, if possible, I spoke not of a physical Dimension, but of a
Thoughtland whence, in theory, a Figure could look down upon Flatland
and see simultaneously the insides of all things, and where it was
possible that there might be supposed to exist a Figure environed, 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 Flatland, there are no tablets but Lines, and no
diagrams but Lines, all in one straight Line and only distinguishable by
difference of size and brightness; so that, when I had finished my
treatise (which I entitled, Through Flatland to Thoughtland) I could
not feel certain that many would understand my meaning.
Meanwhile my life was under a cloud. 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
aloud. I neglected my clients and my 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
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, 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
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 danger of my position;
nevertheless 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 would quote the saying of
an ancient Circle, who declared that prophets 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 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 Providence has limited the number of Dimensions to
Two, and why the attribute of [omnividence]{lang="la"} 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, 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 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 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 guard of the better
sort of policemen was in attendance, of angularity little, if at all,
under 55°, ordered them to be relieved before I began my defence, by an
inferior class of 2° or 3°. 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 to substitute the
cheaper for the more expensive victims.
After I had concluded my defence, the President, perhaps perceiving that
some of the junior Circles had been moved by my evident earnestness,
asked me two questions:---
1. Whether I could indicate the direction which I meant when I used the
words "Upward, not Northward"?
2. Whether I could by any diagrams 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, 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 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 me to my prison.
Seven years have elapsed and I am still a prisoner, and---if I except
the occasional visits of my brother---debarred from all companionship
save that of my jailers. My brother is one of the best of Squares, just,
sensible, cheerful, and not without fraternal affection; yet I 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 Sphere's changing sections; he heard the
explanation of the phenomena then given to the Circles. Since that time,
scarcely a 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 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.
Prometheus up in Spaceland was bound for bringing down fire for mortals,
but I---poor Flatland 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 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 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 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 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.