"When my Grandson entered the room I carefully secured the door. Then, sitting down by his side and taking our mathematical tablets, β or, as you would call them, Lines β I told him we would resume the lesson of yesterday. I taught him once more how a Point by motion in One Dimension produces a Line, and how a straight Line in Two Dimensions produces a Square. After this, forcing a laugh, I said, "And now, you scamp, you wanted to make me believe that a Square may in the same way by motion 'Upward, not Northward' produce another figure, a sort of extra Square in Three Dimensions. Say that again, you young rascal."At this moment we heard once more the herald's "O yes! O yes!" outside in the street proclaiming the Resolution of the Council. Young though he was, my Grandson β who was unusually intelligent for his age, and bred up in perfect reverence for the authority of the Circles β took in the situation with an acuteness for which I was quite unprepared. He remained silent till the last words of the Proclamation had died away, and then, bursting into tears, "Dear Grandpapa," he said, "that was only my fun, and of course I meant nothing at all by it; and we did not know anything then about the new Law; and I don't think I said anything about the Third Dimension; and I am sure I did not say one word about 'Upward, not Northward', for that would be such nonsense, you know. How could a thing move Upward, and not Northward? Upward and not Northward! Even if I were a baby, I could not be so absurd as that. How silly it is! Ha! ha! ha!""
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Academics from EnglandAbsurdistsNovelists from EnglandScience fiction authors from the United KingdomClergy from England
Original Language: English
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Chapter 21. How I Tried to Teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to My Grandson, and With What Success
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_Abbott_Abbott
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Edwin Abbott Abbott
Edwin Abbott Abbott (20 December 1838 β 12 October 1926) was an English schoolmaster and theologian, most famous as the author of the social satire Flatland (1884), widely noted for its use of mathematical dimensions in religious and political allegories.
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