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                          SCIENTIFIC ROMANCES.


                                   BY
                           C. H. HINTON, B.A.

  What is the Fourth Dimension?
  The Persian King.
  A Plane World.
  A Picture of Our Universe.
  Casting Out the Self.

  [Illustration: _FIRST SERIES._]

                               _London._
                     SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.,
                          Paternoster Square.
                                 1886.




                     What is the Fourth Dimension?


                               CHAPTER I.

At the present time our actions are largely influenced by our theories.
We have abandoned the simple and instinctive mode of life of the earlier
civilisations for one regulated by the assumptions of our knowledge and
supplemented by all the devices of intelligence. In such a state it is
possible to conceive that a danger may arise, not only from a want of
knowledge and practical skill, but even from the very presence and
possession of them in any one department, if there is a lack of
information in other departments. If, for instance, with our present
knowledge of physical laws and mechanical skill, we were to build houses
without regard to the conditions laid down by physiology, we should
probably—to suit an apparent convenience—make them perfectly
draught-tight, and the best-constructed mansions would be full of
suffocating chambers. The knowledge of the construction of the body and
the conditions of its health prevent it from suffering injury by the
development of our powers over nature.

In no dissimilar way the mental balance is saved from the dangers
attending an attention concentrated on the laws of mechanical science by
a just consideration of the constitution of the knowing faculty, and the
conditions of knowledge. Whatever pursuit we are engaged in, we are
acting consciously