The Fourth Dimension

by Charles Howard Hinton

Consequently letting the left-hand face move in this direction we get a cube, and in this cube all the varieties of the minor premiss, the conclusion, and the figure are represented.

Thus another cubic base of measurement is given to the cube, generated by movement of the left-hand square in the fourth dimension.

We find the other bases in a similar manner, one is the cube generated by the front square moved in the fourth dimension so as to generate a cube. From this cube variations in the mood of the minor are measured. The fourth base is that found by moving the bottom square of the cube in the fourth dimension. In this cube the variations of the major, the minor, and the figure are given. Considering this as a basis in the four stages proceeding from it, the variation in the moods of the conclusion are given.

Any one of these cubic bases can be represented in space, and then the higher solid generated from them lies out of our space. It can only be represented by a device analogous to that by which the plane being represents a cube.

He represents the cube shown above, by taking four square sections and placing them arbitrarily at convenient distances the one from the other.

So we must represent this higher solid by four cubes: each cube represents only the beginning of the corresponding higher volume.

It is sufficient for us, then, if we draw four cubes, the first representing that region in which the figure is of the first kind, the second that region in which the figure is of the second kind, and so on. These cubes are the beginnings merely of the respective regions—they are the trays, as it were, against which the real solids must be conceived as resting, from which they start. The first one, as it is the beginning of the region of the first figure, is characterised by the order of the terms in the premisses being that of the first figure. The second similarly has the terms of the premisses in the order of the second figure, and so on.

These cubes are shown below.

For the sake of showing the properties of the method of representation, not for the logical problem, I will make a digression. I will represent in space the moods of the minor and of the conclusion and the different figures, keeping the major always in mood A. Here we have three variables in different stages, the minor, the conclusion, and the figure. Let the square of the left-hand side of the original cube be imagined to be standing by itself, without the solid part of the cube, represented by (2) [fig. 55]. The A, E, I, O, which run away represent the moods of the minor, the A, E, I, O, which run up represent the moods of the conclusion. The whole square, since it is the beginning of the region in the major premiss, mood A, is to be considered as in major premiss, mood A.

From this square, let it be supposed that that direction in which the figures are represented runs to the left hand. Thus we have a cube (1) running from the square above, in which the square itself is hidden, but the letters A, E, I, O, of the conclusion are seen. In this cube we have the minor premiss and the conclusion in all their moods, and all the figures represented. With regard to the major premiss, since the face (2) belongs to the first wall from the left in the original arrangement, and in this arrangement was characterised by the major premiss in the mood A, we may say that the whole of the cube we now have put up represents the mood A of the major premiss.