"Abbott, Edwin A - Flatland" - читать интересную книгу автора (Abbott Edwin A)

As with you, so also with us, there are four points of the compass
North, South, East, and West.
There being no sun nor other heavenly bodies, it is impossible for
us to determine the North in the usual way; but we have a method of
our own. By a Law of Nature with us, there is a constant attraction
to the South; and, although in temperate climates this is very slight
-- so that even a Woman in reasonable health can journey several
furlongs northward without much difficulty -- yet the hampering effort
of the southward attraction is quite sufficient to serve as a compass
in most parts of our earth. Moreover, the rain (which falls at stated
intervals) coming always from the North, is an additional assistiance;
and in the towns we have the guidance of the houses, which of course
have their side-walls running for the most part North and South, so
that the roofs may keep off the rain from the North. In the country,
where there are no houses, the trunks of the trees serve as some sort
of guide. Altogether, we have not so much difficulty as might be
expected in determining our bearings.
Yet in our more temperate regions, in which the southward
attraction is hardly felt, walking sometimes in a perfectly desolate
plain where there have been no houses nor trees to guide me, I have
been occasionally compelled to remain stationary for hours together,
waiting till the rain came before continuing my journey. On the weak
and aged, and especially on delicate Females, the force of attraction
tells much more heavily than on the robust of the Male Sex, so that it
is a point of breeding, if you meet a Lady ont he street, always to
give her the North side of the way -- by no means an easy thing to do
always at short notice when you are in rude health and in a climate
where it is difficult to tell your North from your South.
Windows there are none in our houses: for the light comes to us
alike in our homes and out of them, by day and by night, equally at
all times and in all places, whence we know not. It was in old days,
with our learned men, an interesting and oft-investigate question,
"What is the origin of light?" and the solution of it has been
repeatedly attempted, with no other result than to crowd our lunatic
asylums with the would-be solvers. Hence, after fruitless attempts to
suppress such investigations indirectly by making them liable to a
heavy tax, the Legislature, in comparatively recent times, absolutely
prohibited them. I -- alas, I alone in Flatland -- know now only too
well the true solution of this mysterious problem; but my knowledge
cannot be made intelligible to a single one of my countrymen; and I am
mocked at -- I, the sole possessor of the truths of Space and of the
theory fo the introduction of Light from the world of three Dimensions
-- as if I were the maddest of the mad! But a truce to these painful
digressions: let me return to our homes.
The most common form for the construction of a house is five-sided
or pentagonal, as in the annexed figure. The two Northern sides RO,
OF, constitute the roof, and for the most part have no doors; on the
East is a small door for the Women; on the West a much larger one for
the Men; the South side or floor is usually doorless.
Square and triangular houses are not allowed, and for this reason.