A New Era of Thought

by Charles Howard Hinton

We have, however, supposed that the cubes are fixed. Then, in order to learn them, we must put up another block showing what they would be like in the supposed new position. We then take a set of cubes, models of the original cubes, and by consideration we can put them in such positions as to be an exact model of what the block of cubes would be if turned upside down.

And here is the whole point on which the process depends. We can tell where each cube would come, but we do not know the block in this new position. I draw a distinction between the two acts, “to tell where it would be,” and to “know.” Telling where it would be is the preparation for knowing. The power of assigning the positions may be called the theory of the block. The actual knowledge is got by carrying out the theory practically, by putting up the blocks and becoming able to realize without effort where each one is.

It is not enough to put up the model blocks in the reverse position. It is found that this up and down is a very obstinate element indeed, and a good deal of work is requisite to get rid of it completely. But when it is got rid of in one set of cubes, the faculty is formed of appreciating shape independently of the particular parts which are above or below on first examination. We discover in our own minds the faculty of appreciating the facts of position independent of gravity and its influence on us. I have found a very great difference in different minds in this respect. To some it is easy, to some it is hard.

And to use our old instance, the discovery of this capacity is like the discovery of a love of justice in the being who has forced himself to act justly. It is a capacity for being able to take a view independent of the conditions under which he is placed, and to feel in accordance with that view. There is, so far as I know, no means of arriving immediately at this impartial appreciation of shape. It can only be done by, as it were, extending our own body so as to include certain cubes, and appreciating then the relation of the other cubes to those. And after this, by identifying ourselves with other cubes, and in turn appreciating the relation of the other cubes to these. And the practical putting up of the cubes is the way in which this power is gained. It springs up with a repetition of the mechanical acts. Thus there are three processes. 1st, An apprehension of what the position of the cubes would be. 2nd, An actual putting of them up in accordance with that apprehension, 3rd, The springing up in the mind of a direct feeling of what the block is, independent of any particular presentation.

Thus the self element of up and down can be got rid of out of a block of cubes.

And when even a little block is known like this, the mind has gained a great deal.

Yet in the apprehension and knowledge of the block of cubes with the up and down relation in them, there is more than in the absolute apprehension of them. For there is the apprehension of their position and also of the effect of gravity on them in their position.

Imagine ourselves to be translated suddenly to another part of the universe, and to find there intelligent beings, and to hold conversation with them. If we told them that we came from a world, and were to describe the sun to them, saying that it was a bright, hot body which moved round us, they would reply: You have told us something about the sun, but you have also told us something about yourselves.

Thus in the apprehension of the sun as a body moving round us there is more than in the apprehension of it as not moving round, for we really in this case apprehend two things—the sun and our own conditions. But for the purpose of further knowledge it is most important that the more abstract knowledge should be acquired. The self element introduced by the motion of the earth must be got rid of before the true relations of the solar system can be made out.

And in our block of cubes, it will be found that feelings about arrangement, and knowledge of space, which are quite unattainable with our ordinary view of position, become simple and clear when this discipline has been gone through.