We may call this reasoning from analogy; but using this phrase does not explain the process. It seems to me just as rational to say that the facts of the line and plane remind us of facts which we know already about four-dimensional figures—that they tend to bring these facts out into consciousness, as Plato shows with the boy’s knowledge of the cube. We must be really four-dimensional creatures, or we could not think about four dimensions.
But whatever name we give to this peculiar and inexplicable faculty, that we do possess it is certain; and in our investigations it will be of service to us. We must carefully investigate existence in a plane world, and then, making sure, and impressing on our inward sense, as we go, every step we take with regard to a higher world, we shall be reminded continually of fresh possibilities of our higher existence.
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
THREE-SPACE. GENESIS OF A CUBE. APPEARANCES OF A CUBE TO A PLANE-BEING.
The models consist of a set of eight and a set of four cubes. They are marked with different colours, so as to show the properties of the figure in Higher Space, to which they belong.
The simplest figure in one-dimensional space, that is, in a straight line, is a straight line bounded at the two extremities. The figure in this case consists of a length bounded by two points.
Looking at Cube 1, and placing it so that the figure 1 is uppermost, we notice a straight line in contact with the table, which is coloured Orange. It begins in a Gold point and ends in a Fawn point. The Orange extends to some distance on two faces of the Cube; but for our present purpose we suppose it to be simply a thin line.
This line we conceive to be generated in the following way. Let a point move and trace out a line. Let the point be the Gold point, and let it, moving, trace out the Orange line and terminate in the Fawn point. Thus the figure consists of the point at which it begins, the point at which it ends, and the portion between. We may suppose the point to start as a Gold point, to change its colour to Orange during the motion, and when it stops to become Fawn. The motion we suppose from left to right, and its direction we call X.