n the glorious career before
me. I would go forth, methought, at once, and evangelize the whole of
Flatland. Even to Women and Soldiers should the Gospel of Three
Dimensions be proclaimed. I would begin with my Wife.

Just as I had decided on the plan of my operations, I heard the sound
of many voices in the street commanding silence. Then followed a
louder voice. It was a herald's proclamation. Listening attentively,
I recognized the words of the Resolution of the Council, enjoining the
arrest, imprisonment, or execution of any one who should pervert the
minds of people by delusions, and by professing to have received
revelations from another World.

I reflected. This danger was not to be trifled with. It would be
better to avoid it by omitting all mention of my Revelation, and by
proceeding on the path of Demonstration--which after all, seemed so
simple and so conclusive that nothing would be lost by discarding the
former means. "Upward, not Northward"--was the clue to the whole
proof. It had seemed to me fairly clear before I fell asleep; and when
I first awoke, fresh from my dream, it had appeared as patent as
Arithmetic; but somehow it did not seem to me quite so obvious now.
Though my Wife entered the room opportunely at just that moment, I
decided, after we had exchanged a few words of commonplace
conversation, not to begin with her.

My Pentagonal Sons were men of character and standing, and physicians
of no mean reputation, but not great in mathematics, and, in that
respect, unfit for my purpose. But it occurred to me that a young and
docile Hexagon, with a mathematical turn, would be a most suitable
pupil. Why therefore not make my first experiment with my little
precocious Grandson, whose casual remarks on the meaning of
three-to-the-third had met with the approval of the Sphere? Discussing
the matter with him, a mere boy, I should be in perfect safety; for he
would know nothing of the Proclamation of the Council; whereas I could
not feel sure that my Sons--so greatly did their patriotism and
reverence for the Circles predominate over mere blind affection--might
not feel compelled to hand me over to the Prefect, if they found me
seriously maintaining the seditious heresy of the Third Dimension.

But the first thing to be done was to satisfy in some way the curiosity
of my Wife, who naturally wished to know something of the reasons for
which the Circle had desired that mysterious interview, an