Section 17. How the Sphere, having in vain tried words,
resorted to deeds
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 voice.
SPHERE. Why will you refuse to listen to reason?
I had hoped to find in you -- as being a man of sense
and an accomplished mathematician -- a fit apostle for the Gospel
of the Three Dimensions, which I am allowed to preach once only
in a thousand years: but now I know not how to convince you.
Stay, I have it. Deeds, and not words, shall proclaim the truth.
Listen, my friend.
I have told you I can see from my position in Space the inside
of all things that you consider closed. For example,
I see in yonder cupboard near which you are standing,
several of what you call boxes (but like everything else in Flatland,
they have no tops nor bottoms) full of money; I see also
two tablets of accounts. I am about to descend into that cupboard
and to bring you one of those tablets. I saw you lock the cupboard
half an hour ago, and I know you have the key in your possession.
But I descend from Space; the doors, you see, remain unmoved.
Now I am in the cupboard and am taking the tablet. Now I have it.
Now I ascend with it.
I rushed to the closet and dashed the door open. One of the tablets
was gone. With a mocking laugh, the Stranger appeared
in the other corner of the room, and at the same time the tablet
appeared upon the floor. I took it up. There could be no doubt --
it was the missing tablet.
I groaned with horror, doubting whether I was not out of my senses;
but the Stranger continued: "Surely you must now see
that my explanation, and no other, suits the phenomena. What you call
Solid things are really superficial; what you call Space is really
nothing but a great Plane. I am in Space, and look down upon
the insides of the things of which you only see the outsides.
You could leave this Plane yourself, if you could but summon up
the necessary volition. A slight upward or downward motion
would enable you to see all that I can see.
"The higher I mount, and the further I go from your Plane,
the more I can see, though of course I see it on a smaller scale.
For example, I am ascending; now I can see your neighbour the Hexagon
and his family in their several apartments; now I see
the inside of the Theatre, ten doors off, from which the audience
is only just departing; and on the other side a Circle in his study,
sitting at his books. Now I shall come back to you.
And, as a crowning proof, what do you say to my giving you a touch,
just the least touch, in your stomach? It will not seriously
injure you, and the slight pain you may suffer cannot be compared with
the mental benefit you will receive."
Before I could utter a word of remonstrance, I felt a shooting pain
in my inside, and a demoniacal laugh seemed to issue from within me.
A moment afterwards the sharp agony had ceased, leaving nothing but
a dull ache behind, and the Stranger began to reappear, saying,
as he gradually increased in size, "There, I have not hurt you much,
have I? If you are not convinced now, I don't know what will
convince you. What say you?"
My resolution was taken. It seemed intolerable that I should endure
existence subject to the arbitrary visitations of a Magician who could
thus play tricks with one's very stomach. If only I could in any way
manage to pin him against the wall till help came!
Once more I dashed my hardest angle against him, at the same time
alarming the whole household by my cries for aid. I believe,
at the moment of my onset, the Stranger had sunk below our Plane,
and really found difficulty in rising. In any case
he remained motionless, while I, hearing, as I thought,
the sound of some help approaching, pressed against him
with redoubled vigour, and continued to shout for assistance.
A convulsive shudder ran through the Sphere. "This must not be,"
I thought I heard him say: "either he must listen to reason,
or I must have recourse to the last resource of civilization."
Then, addressing me in a louder tone, he hurriedly exclaimed,
"Listen: no stranger must witness what you have witnessed.
Send your Wife back at once, before she enters the apartment.
The Gospel of Three Dimensions must not be thus frustrated.
Not thus must the fruits of one thousand years of waiting
be thrown away. I hear her coming. Back! back! Away from me,
or you must go with me -- whither you know not -- into the Land
of Three Dimensions!"
"Fool! Madman! Irregular!" I exclaimed; "never will I release thee;
thou shalt pay the penalty of thine impostures."
"Ha! Is it come to this?" thundered the Stranger: "then meet
your fate: out of your Plane you go. Once, twice, thrice!
'Tis done!"
