;8 
Space and its Dimensions. 
[February 
V. SPACE AND ITS DIMENSIONS.* 
S AD either of the two works before us made its appear- 
ance half a century ago the author, if not straight- 
way consigned to a lunatic asylum, would have been 
overwhelmed with derision. Little better would have been 
the lot of an unfortunate reviewer who should have ventured 
seriously to discuss such an audacious and unheard-of sup- 
position. Times are, however, changed, — in this respetft 
fortunately so — and we may at least take the possibility of 
^-dimensional space into quiet consideration. 
One misunderstanding must be brushed aside at the out- 
set : We hear it sometimes asserted that the conception of 
four-dimensional space, as at least possible, is, in some way 
or other, an outcome of Spiritualism. This is quite erroneous. 
The late Professor Zollner did certainly maintain that some 
of the most perplexing phenomena manifested at spiritual 
seances could be explained by the hypothesis of space of four 
dimensions. But between the two there is no necessary con- 
nexion. A believer in the genuine character of the so- 
called spiritual manifestations may rejeX and scoff at the 
poly-dimensional hypothesis. On the other hand, a person 
who accepts “ poly-dimensionalism ” may regard Spiritualism 
as fraud and delusion. For the rise and progress of this 
strange hypothesis the mathematicians are alone responsible. 
Strange, indeed, and suggestive that the most sober, rigid, 
and exaX of the sciences should thus point the way to what 
the men of practical common sense will deem foolishness ! 
It will at once be granted that our senses and our ordinary 
experience tell us of three-dimensional space and nothing 
further. We take up any solid body whatever, and we find 
it has always, to our touch and sight, length, breadth, and 
thickness, the latter being often called depth or height. We 
stand in the open air and we recognise the same three dimen- 
sions — one, from east to west, another from north to south, 
and a third, from the ground on which we stand, upwards. 
We may, in thought, prolong any one of these lines indefi- 
nitely, or, on the other hand, suppose them reduced to micro- 
scopical magnitude we have still merely length, breadth, and 
* Scientific Romances: No. i. “What is the Fourth Dimension?” By C. 
H. Hinton, B.A. London: W. Swan Sonnenschein and Co. 
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. By A Square. London: 
Seeley and Co. 
