The Time Traveller (for so it will be convenient to speak of him)
was expounding a recondite matter to us. His grey eyes shone and
twinkled, and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. The
fire burnt brightly, and the soft radiance of the incandescent
lights in the lilies of silver caught the bubbles that flashed and
passed in our glasses. Our chairs, being his patents, embraced and
caressed us rather than submitted to be sat upon, and there was that
luxurious after-dinner atmosphere, when thought runs gracefully free
of the trammels of precision. And he put it to us in this way marking
the points with a lean forefinger as we sat and lazily admired his
earnestness over this new paradox (as we thought it) and his fecundity.
You must follow me carefully. I shall have to controvert one or two
ideas that are almost universally accepted. The geometry, for instance,
they taught you at school is founded on a misconception.
Is not that rather a large thing to expect us to begin upon? said
Filby, an argumentative person with red hair.
I do not mean to ask you to accept anything without reasonable ground
for it. You will soon admit as much as I need from you. You know of
course that a mathematical line, a line of thickness _nil_, has no real
existence. They taught you that? Neither has a mathematical plane.
These things are mere abstractions.
That is all right, said the Psychologist.
Nor, having only length, breadth, and thickness, can a cube have a
real existence.
There I object, said Filby. Of course a solid body may exist. All
real things
So most people think. But wait a moment. Can an _instantaneous_ cube
exist?
Don t follow you, said Filby.
2