Only at our University
in some of the very highest and most esoteric classes--which I myself
have never been privileged to attend--it is understood that the
sparing use of Colour is still sanctioned for the purpose
of illustrating some of the deeper problems of mathematics.
But of this I can only speak from hearsay.
Elsewhere in Flatland, Colour is now non-existent. The art of making
it is known to only one living person, the Chief Circle for the time being;
and by him it is handed down on his death-bed to none but his Successor.
One manufactory alone produces it; and, lest the secret should be betrayed,
the Workmen are annually consumed, and fresh ones introduced. So great
is the terror with which even now our Aristocracy looks back to the
far-distant days of the agitation for the Universal Colour Bill.
SECTION 11 Concerning our Priests
It is high time that I should pass from these brief and discursive
notes about things in Flatland to the central event of this book,
my initiation into the mysteries of Space. THAT is my subject;
all that has gone before is merely preface.
For this reason I must omit many matters of which the explanation
would not, I flatter myself, be without interest for my Readers:
as for example, our method of propelling and stopping ourselves,
although destitute of feet; the means by which we give fixity
to structures of wood, stone, or brick, although of course
we have no hands, nor can we lay foundations as you can,
nor avail ourselves of the lateral pressure of the earth;
the manner in which the rain originates in the intervals
between our various zones, so that the northern regions
do not intercept the moisture falling on the southern;
the nature of our hills and mines, our trees and vegetables,
our seasons and harvests; our Alphabet and method of writing,
adapted to our linear tablets; these and a hundred other details
of our physical existence I must pass over, nor do I mention them
now except to indicate to my readers that their omission proceeds
not from forgetfulness on the part of the author, but from his
regard for the time of the Reader.
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