It is the contrariety in phenomena already referred to, that is forcing advanced minds to entertain the idea of higher space.  Mathematical physicists have found that experimental contradictions disappear if, instead of referring phenomena to a set of three space axes and one time axis of reference, they be referred to a set of four interchangeable axes involving four homogeneous co-ordinates.  In other words, time is made the fourth dimension.  Psychic phenomena indicate that occasionally, in some individuals, the will is capable of producing physical movements for whose geometrico-mathematical definition a four-dimensional system of co-ordinates is necessary.  This is only another step along the road which the human mind has always travelled:  our conception of the cosmos grows more complete and more just at the same time that it recedes more and more beneath the surface of appearances.

Far from the Higher Space Hypothesis complicating thought, it simplifies by synthesis and co-ordination in a manner analogous to that by which plane geometry is simplified when solid geometry becomes a subject of study.  By immersing the mind in the idea of many dimensions, we emancipate it from the idea of dimensionality.  But the mind moves most readily, as has been said, in ordered sequence.  Frankly submitting ourselves to this limitation, even while recognizing it as such, let us learn such lessons from it as we can, serving the illusions that master us until we have made them our slaves.

II THE DIMENSIONAL LADDER

LEARNING TO THINK IN TERMS OF SPACES

The Reader who is willing to consider the Higher Space Hypothesis seriously, who would discover, by its aid, new and profound truths closely related to life and conduct, should first of all endeavor to arouse in himself a new power of perception.  This he will best accomplish by learning to discern dimensional sequences, not alone in geometry, but in the cosmos and in the natural world.  By so doing he may erect for himself a veritable Jacob’s ladder,

  “Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross.”

He should accustom himself to ascend it, step by step, dimension by dimension.  Then he will learn to trust Emerson’s dictum, “Nature geometrizes,” even in regions where the senses fail him, and the mind alone leads on.  Much profitable amusement is to be gained by such exercises as follow.  They are in the nature of a running up and down the scales in order to give strength and flexibility to a new set of mental fingers.  Learning to think in terms of spaces contributes to our emancipation from the tyranny of space.

FROM THE COSMOS TO THE CORPUSCLE

By way of a beginning, proceed, by successive stages, from the contemplation of the greatest thing conceivable to the contemplation of the most minute, and note the space sequences revealed by this shifting of the point of view.