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

The angles of a Square (and still more those of an equilateral
Triangle,) being much more pointed than those of a Pentagon, and the
lines of inanimate objects (such as houses) being dimmer than the
lines of Men and Women, it follows that there is no little danger lest
the points of a square of triangular house residence might do serious
injury to an inconsiderate or perhaps absentminded traveller suddenly
running against them: and therefore, as early as the eleventh century
of our era, triangular houses were universally forbidden by Law, the
only exceptions being fortifications, powder-magazines, barracks, and
other state buildings, which is not desirable that the general public
should approach without circumspection.
At this period, square houses were still everywhere permitted,
though discouraged by a special tax. But, about three centuries
afterwards, the Law decided that in all towns containing a population
above ten thousand, the angle of a Pentagon was the smallest house-
angle that could be allowed consistently with the public safety. The
good sense of the community has seconded the efforts of the
Legislature; and now, even in the country, the pentagonal construction
has superseded every other. It is only now and then in some very
remote and backward agricultural district that an antiquarian may
still discover a square house.


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SECTION 3. -- Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland

The greatest length or breadth of a full grown inhabitant of
Flatland may be estimated at about eleven of your inches. Twelve
inches may be regarded as a maximum.
Our Women are Straight Lines.
Our Soldiers and Lowest Class of Workmen are Triangles with two
equal sides, each about eleven inches long, and a base or third side
so short (often not exceeding half an inch) that they form at their
vertices a very sharp and formidable angle. Indeed when their bases
are of the most degraded type (not more than the eighth part of an
inch in size), they can hardly be distinguished from Straight lines or
Women; so extremely pointed are their vertices. With us, as with you,
these Triangles are distinguished from others by being called
Isosceles; and by this name I shall refer to them in the following
pages.
Our Middle Class consists of Equilateral or Equal-Sided Triangles.
Our Professional Men and Gentlemen are Squares (to which class I
myself belong) and Five-Sided Figures or Pentagons.
Next above these come the Nobility, of whom there are several
degrees, beginning at Six-Sided Figures, or Hexagons, and from thence
rising in the number of their sides till they receive the honourable
title of Polygonal, or many-Sided. Finally when the number of the
sides becomes so numerous, and the sides themselve so small, that the