Hinton - The Fourth Dimension.pdf

NOMENCLATURE AND ANALOGIES 149
dimensional solid, must be conceived by him as something
which has duration in it, under circumstances in which his
matter disappears out of his world.
We may put the matter thus, using the conception of
motion.
A null point moving in a direction away generates a
yellow line, and the yellow line ends in a null point. We
suppose, that is, a point to move and mark out the
products of this motion in such a manner. Now
suppose this whole line as thus produced to move in
an upward direction; it traces out the two-dimensional
solid, and the plane being gets an orange square. The
null point moves in a red line and ends in a null point,
the yellow line moves and generates an orange square and
ends in a yellow line, the farther null point generates
a red line and ends in a null point. Thus, by move-
ment in two successive directions known to him, he
can imagine his two-dimensional solid produced with all
its boundaries.
Now we well him: “This whole two-dimensional solid
can move in a third or unknown dimension to you. The
null point moving in this dimension out of your world
generates a white line and ends in a null point. The
yellow line moving generates a light yellow twodimensional
solid and ends in a yellow line, and this
two-dimensional solid, lying end on to your plane world,
is bounded on the far side by the other yellow line. In
the same way each of the lines surrounding your square
traces out an area, just like the orange area you know.
But there is something new produced, something which
you had no idea of before; it is that which is produced by
the movement of the orange square. That, then which
you can imagine nothing more solid, itself moves in a
direction open to it and produces a three-dimensional
solid. Using the addition of white to symbolise the