IO8 THE FOURTH DIMENSION. 



slow as it is, yet always leads to a sure extension of knowledge, in 

 the hop^ that some aimless, foolhardy venture into the realm of 

 uncerta'nty will carry us farther than the path of slow toil, and that 

 we can ever thus easily lift the veil which hides from man the prob- 

 lems r ! the world that are yet unsolved. 



* 

 * * 



' <fow that we have presented the opinions of others respecting 

 the existence of a four dimensional world of spirits, the author would 

 like to develop one or two ideas of his own on the subject. In the 

 preceding section it was stated that everything that we perceive by 

 our senses is three-dimensional and that everything that possesses 

 'our or more dimensions can only be regarded as abstractions or fic- 

 tions which our reason forms in its constant efforts after an exten- 

 sion and generalisation of knowledge. To speak of two-dimensional 

 matter is as self-contradictory as the notion of four-dimensional 

 matter. But a two or a four-dimensional world might exist in some 

 other manner than a material manner, and for all we know in one 

 which to us does not admit of representation. But in such a case, 

 if it were without the power of affecting the material world, we should 

 never be able to acquire any knowledge concerning its existence, 

 and it would be totally indifferent to the people of the three-dimen- 

 sional world, whether such a world existed or not. Just as an artist 

 during his lifetime produces a number of different works of art, so 

 also the Creator might have created a number of different-dimen- 

 sioned worlds which in no wise interfere with one another. In such 

 a case, any one world would not be able to know anything of any 

 other, and we must consequently regard the question whether a 

 four-dimensional world exists which is incapable of affecting ours, 

 as insoluble. We have only to examine, therefore, the question 

 whether the phenomenal world perhaps is a single individual in a 

 great layer of worlds of which every successive one has one more 

 dimension than the preceding and which are so connected with one 

 another that each successive world contains and includes the pre- 

 ceding world, and, therefore, can produce effects in it. For our 

 reason, which draws its inferences from the phenomena of this world, 

 tells us, that if outside the three-dimensional world there exists a 



