Either thou or I must
perish." And saying these words I precipitated myself upon him.
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; not edging to the right nor to the left, but moving somehow
out of the world, and vanishing into 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 or bottom)
full of money; I see also two tablets of accounts.
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