The Fable of the Unknown Infinite

In the middle of nature, where animals foraged and burrowed, there fell from the sky, and grew from the ground, an unknown infinite. To a fly it was small; to a bear it was large; to the earth it was sky and to the sky it was earth. In little time it drew towards it all animals and creatures, one celled amoeba and invertebrates, for it was irresistible in persuasion. But what it was, the animal kingdom could not arrive at consensus.

A horse approached and said: I believe it is a square, since it has four sides and four corners.

His friend the beaver replied: There is no such thing as a square, since ideally it is two-dimensional and pure two dimensions cannot exist.

The horse exclaimed that nevertheless he saw four sides and four corners, and as such, reasserted his claim that that which confronted them was nothing but a glorious square.

The beaver said: I do not see four sides and four corners. I see one side. I see a circle. It is a circle.

The horse reiterated argument that it was a square.

A squirrel approached the quarrel between the horse and the beaver. He disagreed with both; he claimed that it was a line with one hundred thousand "X’s" cutting through it.

A snake approached the threesome and added his own thesis; that the unknown infinite was nothing but an upside-down tree.

The trees, over-hearing this brazen assertion, took offence and dropped many leaves upon the poor snake. They took up the controversy themselves but could not come to a consensus, like the animal kingdom. One tree said it was an inside-out caterpillar; another argued that it was time in solid form; another thought it was the trashcan of the universe.

These interpretations continued for the eternity. No two interpretations were alike.