The Internet Wiretap Electronic Edition of FLATLAND

                         A Public Domain Text

       Instantiated by aloysius@west.darkside.com in November 1990

             The Internet Wiretap, of Cupertino, California

                       gopher@wiretap.spies.com

                            F L A T L A N D

                     A Romance of Many Dimensions

                          With Illustrations

                        by the Author, A SQUARE

                           (EDWIN A. ABBOTT)

              "Fie, fie how franticly I square my talk!"

                       [Fifth Edition, Revised]

                                 * * *

                                  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

                                 * * *

                            PREFACE TO THE

                          SECOND AND REVISED

                            EDITION, 1884.

                             BY THE EDITOR

    If my poor Flatland friend retained the vigour of mind which he 
enjoyed when he began to compose these Memoirs, I should not now need 
to represent him in this preface, in which he desires, fully, to 
return his thanks to his readers and critics in Spaceland, whose 
appreciation has, with unexpected celerity, required a second edition 
of this work; secondly, to apologize for certain errors and misprints 
(for which, however, he is not entirely responsible); and, thirdly, to 
explain on or two misconceptions.  But he is not the Square he once 
was.  Years of inprisonment, and the still heavier burden of general 
incredulity and mockery, have combined with the thoughts and notions, 
and much also of the terminology, which he acquired during his short 
stay in spaceland.  He has, therefore, requested me to reply in his 
behalf to two special objections, one of an intellectual, the other of 
a moral nature. 

    The first objection is, that a Flatlander, seeing a Line, sees 
something that must be _thick_ to the eye as well as _long_ to the eye 
(otherwise it would not be visible, if it had not some thickness); and 
consequently he ought (it is argued) to acknowledge that his 
countrymen are not only long and broad, but also (though doubtless to 
a very slight degree) _thick_ or _high._  This objection is plausible, 
and, to Spacelanders, almost irresistible, so that, I confess, when I 
first heard it, I knew not what to reply.  But my poor old friend's 
answer appears to me completely to meet it.