* * *
SECTION 6. -- Of Recognition by Sight
I am about to appear very inconsistent. In the previous sections
I have said that all figures in Flatland present the appearance of a
straight line; and it was added or implied, that it is consequently
impossible to distinguish by the visual organ between individuals of
different classes: yet now I am about to explain to my Spaceland
critics how we are able to recognize one another by the sense of
sight.
If however the Reader will take the trouble to refer to the
passage in which Recognition by Feeling is stated to be universal, he
will find this qualification -- "among the lower classes." It is only
among the higher classes and in our more temperate climates that Sight
Recognition is practised.
That this power exists in any regions and for any classes is the
result of Fog; which prevails during the greater part of the year in
all parts save the torrid zones. That which is with you in Spaceland
an unmixed evil, blotting out the landscape, depressing the spirits,
and enfeebling the health, is by us recognized as a blessing scarcely
inferior to air itself, and as the Nurse of arts and Parent os
sciences.
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