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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott
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Title: Flatland
Author: Edwin A. Abbott
Posting Date: May 15, 2008 [EBook #97] Release Date: January, 1994 Last updated: January 19, 2005
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLATLAND ***
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
1884
To
The Inhabitance of SPACE IN GENERAL
And H.C. IN PARTICULAR
This Work is Dedicated
By a Humble Native of Flatland
In the Hope that
Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries
Of THREE DIMENSIONS
Having been previously conversant
With ONLY TWO
So the Citizens of that Celestial Region
May aspire yet higher and higher
To the Secrets of FOUR FIVE or EVEN SIX Dimensions
Thereby contributing
To the Enlargment of THE IMAGINATION
And the possible Development
Of that most and excellent Gift of MODESTY
Among the Superior Races
Of SOLID HUMANITY
***
FLATLAND
PART 1
THIS WORLD
SECTION 1 Of the Nature of Flatland
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 Space.
Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and
other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but
without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows—only hard with
luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas,
a few years ago, I should have said "my universe:" but now my mind has been opened to higher views
of things.
In such a country, you will perceive at once that it is impossible that there should be anything of what
you call a "solid" kind; but I dare say you will suppose that we could at least distinguish by sight the
Triangles, Squares, and other figures, moving about as I have described them. On the contrary, we
could see nothing of the kind, not at least so as to distinguish one figure from another. Nothing was
visible, nor could be visible, to us, except Straight Lines; and the necessity of this I will speedily
demonstrate.
Place a penny on the middle of one of your tables in Space; and leaning over it, look down upon it. It
will appear a circle.
But now, drawing back to the edge of the table, gradually lower your eye (thus bringing yourself
more and more into the condition of the inhabitants of Flatland), and you will find the penny
becoming more and more oval to your view, and at last when you have placed your eye exactly on the
edge of the table (so that you are, as it were, actually a Flatlander) the penny will then have ceased to
appear oval at all, and will have become, so far as you can see, a straight line.
The same thing would happen if you were to treat in the same way a Triangle, or a Square, or any
other figure cut out from pasteboard. As soon as you look at it with your eye on the edge of the table,
you will find that it ceases to appear to you as a figure, and that it becomes in appearance a straight
line. Take for example an equilateral Triangle—who represents with us a Tradesman of the
respectable class. Figure 1 represents the Tradesman as you would see him while you were bending
over him from above; figures 2 and 3 represent the Tradesman, as you would see him if your eye
were close to the level, or all but on the level of the table; and if your eye were quite on the level of
the table (and that is how we see him in Flatland) you would see nothing but a straight line.
When I was in Spaceland I heard that your sailors have very similar experiences while they traverse
your seas and discern some distant island or coast lying on the horizon. The far-off land may have
bays, forelands, angles in and out to any number and extent; yet at a distance you see none of these
(unless indeed your sun shines bright upon them revealing the projections and retirements by means
of light and shade), nothing but a grey unbroken line upon the water.
Well, that is just what we see when one of our triangular or other acquaintances comes towards us in
Flatland. As there is neither sun with us, nor any light of such a kind as to make shadows, we have
none of the helps to the sight that you have in Spaceland. If our friend comes closer to us we see his
line becomes larger; if he leaves us it becomes smaller; but still he looks like a straight line; be he a
Triangle, Square, Pentagon, Hexagon, Circle, what you will—a straight Line he looks and nothing
else.
You may perhaps ask how under these disadvantagous circumstances we are able to distinguish our
friends from one another: but the answer to this very natural question will be more fitly and easily
given when I come to describe the inhabitants of Flatland. For the present let me defer this subject, and
say a word or two about the climate and houses in our country.
SECTION 2 Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
As with you, so also with us, there are four points of the compass
North, South, East, and West.
There being no sun nor other heavenly bodies, it is impossible for us to determine the North in the
usual way; but we have a method of our own. By a Law of Nature with us, there is a constant attraction
to the South; and, although in temperate climates this is very slight—so that even a Woman in
reasonable health can journey several furlongs northward without much difficulty—yet the
hampering effort of the southward attraction is quite sufficient to serve as a compass in most parts of
our earth. Moreover, the rain (which falls at stated intervals) coming always from the North, is an
additional assistance; and in the towns we have the guidance of the houses, which of course have their
side-walls running for the most part North and South, so that the roofs may keep off the rain from the
North. In the country, where there are no houses, the trunks of the trees serve as some sort of guide.
Altogether, we have not so much difficulty as might be expected in determining our bearings.
Yet in our more temperate regions, in which the southward attraction is hardly felt, walking
sometimes in a perfectly desolate plain where there have been no houses nor trees to guide me, I have
been occasionally compelled to remain stationary for hours together, waiting till the rain came before
continuing my journey. On the weak and aged, and especially on delicate Females, the force of
attraction tells much more heavily than on the robust of the Male Sex, so that it is a point of breeding,
if you meet a Lady on the street, always to give her the North side of the way—by no means an easy
thing to do always at short notice when you are in rude health and in a climate where it is difficult to
tell your North from your South.
Windows there are none in our houses: for the light comes to us alike in our homes and out of them,
by day and by night, equally at all times and in all places, whence we know not. It was in old days,
with our learned men, an interesting and oft-investigate question, "What is the origin of light?" and
the solution of it has been repeatedly attempted, with no other result than to crowd our lunatic asylums
with the would-be solvers. Hence, after fruitless attempts to suppress such investigations indirectly by
making them liable to a heavy tax, the Legislature, in comparatively recent times, absolutely
prohibited them. I—alas, I alone in Flatland—know now only too well the true solution of this
mysterious problem; but my knowledge cannot be made intelligible to a single one of my
countrymen; and I am mocked at—I, the sole possessor of the truths of Space and of the theory of the
introduction of Light from the world of three Dimensions—as if I were the maddest of the mad! But a
truce to these painful digressions: let me return to our homes.
The most common form for the construction of a house is five-sided or pentagonal, as in the annexed
figure. The two Northern sides RO, OF, constitute the roof, and for the most part have no doors; on
the East is a small door for the Women; on the West a much larger one for the Men; the South side or
floor is usually doorless.
Square and triangular houses are not allowed, and for this reason. The angles of a Square (and still
more those of an equilateral Triangle,) being much more pointed than those of a Pentagon, and the
lines of inanimate objects (such as houses) being dimmer than the lines of Men and Women, it

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