"Here we descend," said my Guide. It was now morning,
the first hour of the first day of the two thousandth year of our era.
Acting, as was their wont, in strict accordance with precedent,
the highest Circles of the realm were meeting in solemn conclave,
as they had met on the first hour of the first day of the year 1000,
and also on the first hour of the first day of the year 0.
The minutes of the previous meetings were now read by one whom I
at once recognized as my brother, a perfectly Symmetrical Square,
and the Chief Clerk of the High Council. It was found recorded
on each occasion that: "Whereas the States had been troubled
by divers ill-intentioned persons pretending to have received
revelations from another World, and professing to produce
demonstrations whereby they had instigated to frenzy both themselves
and others, it had been for this cause unanimously resolved
by the Grand Council that on the first day of each millenary,
special injunctions be sent to the Prefects in the several districts
of Flatland, to make strict search for such misguided persons,
and without formality of mathematical examination, to destroy all such
as were Isosceles of any degree, to scourge and imprison
any regular Triangle, to cause any Square or Pentagon to be sent
to the district Asylum, and to arrest any one of higher rank,
sending him straightway to the Capital to be examined and judged
by the Council.
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