Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Flatland with Notes and Commentary
- Part I This World
- Part II Other Worlds
- 13 How I had a Vision of Lineland
- 14 How in my Vision I endeavoured to explain the nature of Flatland, but could not
- 15 Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland
- 16 How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland
- 17 How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds
- 18 How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there
- 19 How, though the Sphere showed me other mysteries of Spaceland, I still desired more; and what came of it
- 20 How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision
- 21 How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to my Grandson, and with what success
- 22 How I then tried to diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by other means, and of the result
- Epilogue by the Editor
- Continued Notes
- Appendix A Critical Reaction to Flatland
- Appendix B The Life and Work of Edwin Abbott Abbott
- Recommended Reading
- References
- Index of Defined Words
- Index
16 - How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Flatland with Notes and Commentary
- Part I This World
- Part II Other Worlds
- 13 How I had a Vision of Lineland
- 14 How in my Vision I endeavoured to explain the nature of Flatland, but could not
- 15 Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland
- 16 How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland
- 17 How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds
- 18 How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there
- 19 How, though the Sphere showed me other mysteries of Spaceland, I still desired more; and what came of it
- 20 How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision
- 21 How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to my Grandson, and with what success
- 22 How I then tried to diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by other means, and of the result
- Epilogue by the Editor
- Continued Notes
- Appendix A Critical Reaction to Flatland
- Appendix B The Life and Work of Edwin Abbott Abbott
- Recommended Reading
- References
- Index of Defined Words
- Index
Summary
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 of my experience. The thought flashed across me that I might have before me a burglar or cut-throat, some monstrous Irregular Isosceles, who, by feigning the voice of a Circle, had obtained admission somehow into the house, and was now preparing to stab me with his acute angle.
In a sitting-room, the absence of Fog (and the season happened to be remarkably dry), made it difficult for me to trust to Sight Recognition, especially at the short distance at which I was standing. Desperate with fear, I rushed forward with an unceremonious, “You must permit me, Sir—” and felt him. My Wife was right. There was not the trace of an angle, not the slightest roughness or inequality: never in my life had I met with a more perfect Circle. He remained motionless while I walked round him, beginning from his eye and returning to it again. Circular he was throughout, a perfectly satisfactory Circle; there could not be a doubt of it.
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- Chapter
- Information
- FlatlandAn Edition with Notes and Commentary, pp. 146 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009