Hinton - The Fourth Dimension.pdf

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THE FOURTH DIMENSION
exactly that which we should expect if it were a four-dimensional
vortex. According to Maxwell every current forms
a closed circuit, and this, from the four-dimensional point
of view, is the same as saying a vortex must have its ends
on a boundary of the fluid.
Thus, on the hypothesis of a fourth dimension, the rotation
of the fluid ether would give the phenomenon of an
electric current. We must suppose the ether to be full of
movement, for the more we examine the conditions
which prevail in the obscurity of the minute, the more we
find that an unceasing and perpetual motion reigns. Thus
we may say that the conception of a fourth dimension
means that there must be a phenomenon which presents
the characteristics of electricity.
We know that light is an electro-magnetic action,
and that so far from being a special and isolated phenomenon
this electric action is universal in the realm of the
minute. Hence, may we not conclude that, so far from
the fourth dimension being remote and far away, being a
thing of symbolic import, a term for the explanation of
dubious facts by a more obscure theory, it is really the
most important fact within our knowledge. Our threedimensional
world is superficial. These processes, which
really lie at the basis of all phenomena of matter,
escape our observation by their minuteness, but reveal
to our intellect an amplitude of motion surpassing any
that we can see. In such shapes and motions there is a
realm of the utmost intellectual beauty, and one to
which our symbolic methods apply with a better grace
than they do to those of three dimensions.