Page:Flatland, a Romance of Many Dimensions (1963, fifth edition).djvu/54

 Innovation. For by assigning to the Women the same two colours as were assigned to the Priests, the Revolutionists thereby ensured that, in certain positions, every Woman would appear like a Priest, and be treated with corresponding respect and deference—a prospect that could not fail to attract the Female Sex in a mass.

But by some of my Readers the possibility of the identical appearance of Priests and Women, under the new Legislation, may not be recognized; if so, a word or two will make it obvious.

Imagine a woman duly decorated, according to the new Code; with the front half (i.e. the half containing eye and mouth) red, and with the hinder half green. Look at her from one side. Obviously you will see a straight line, half red, half green.



Now imagine a Priest, whose mouth is at, and whose front semicircle is consequently coloured red, while his hinder semicircle is green; so that the diameter  divides the green from the red. If you contemplate the Great Man so as to have your eye in the same straight line as his dividing diameter, what you will see will be a straight line , of which one half will be red, and the other  green. The whole line will be rather shorter perhaps than that of a full-sized Woman, and will shade off more rapidly