was roving up and down in the Hall,
anxiously awaiting my return. Also the Page, aroused by my cries, had
left his room, and under pretext of ascertaining whether I had fallen
somewhere in a faint, was prying into the cabinet in my study. All
this I could now SEE, not merely infer; and as we came nearer and
nearer, I could discern even the contents of my cabinet, and the two
chests of gold, and the tablets of which the Sphere had made mention.

Touched by my Wife's distress, I would have sprung downward to reassure
her, but I found myself incapable of motion. "Trouble not yourself
about your Wife," said my Guide: "she will not be long left in anxiety;
meantime, let us take a survey of Flatland."

Once more I felt myself rising through space. It was even as the
Sphere had said. The further we receded from the object we beheld, the
larger became the field of vision. My native city, with the interior
of every house and every creature therein, lay open to my view in
miniature. We mounted higher, and lo, the secrets of the earth, the
depths of the mines and inmost caverns of the hills, were bared before
me.

Awestruck at the sight of the mysteries of the earth, thus unveiled
before my unworthy eye, I said to my Companion, "Behold, I am become as
a God. For the wise men in our country say that to see all things, or
as they express it, OMNIVIDENCE, is the attribute of God alone." There
was something of scorn in the voice of my Teacher as he made answer:
"it is so indeed? Then the very pick-pockets and cut-throats of my
country are to be worshipped by your wise men as being Gods: for there
is not one of them that does not see as much as you see now. But trust
me, your wise men are wrong."

I. Then is omnividence the attribute of others besides Gods?

Sphere. I do not know. But, if a pick-pocket or a cut-throat of our
country can see everything that is in your country, surely that is no
reason why the pick-pocket or cut-throat should be accepted by you as a
God. This omnividence, as you call it--it is not a common word in
Spaceland--does it make you more just, more merciful, less selfish,
more loving? Not in the least. Then how does it make you more divine?

I. "More merciful, more loving!" But these are the qualities of
women! And we know that a Circle is a higher Being than a Straight
Line, in so far as knowledge and wisdom are more to be esteemed than
mere affection.

Sphere. It is not for me to cl