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THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF SPACE. 271
Heavens," which are three Earths or Globes also, only far more ethereal,
on the ascending or spiritual arc. By the first three we descend into
Matter, by the other three we ascend into Spirit ;
the lowest one, Bhumi,
our Earth, forming the turning point, so to say, and containing, potentially,
as much of Spirit as it does of Matter. But we shall treat of this
hereafter.
The general teaching of the Commentar>% then, is that everj^ new
Round develops one of the Compound Elements, as now known to
Science, which rejects the primitive nomenclature, preferring to subdivide
them into constituents. If Nature is the "Ever-Becoming" on
the manifested plane, then these Elements are to be regarded in the
same light: they have to evolve, progress, and increase to the manvantaric
end.
Thus the First Round, we are taught, developed but one Element,
and a nature and humanity in what may be spoken of as one aspect of
Nature—called by some, very unscientifically, though it may be so
defacto, "one-dimensional space."
The Second Round brought forth and developed two Elements,
Fire and Earth ; and its humanity, adapted to this condition of Nature,
if we can give the name humanity to beings living under conditions
now unknown to men, was—to use again a familiar phrase in a strictly
figurative sense, the only way in which it can be used correctly—
"two-dimensional" species.
The processes of natural development which we are now considering
will at once elucidate and discredit the fashion of speculating on the
attributes of two, three, and/our or more dirneyisional space; but, in passing,
it is worth while to point out the real significance of the sound,
but incomplete, intuition that has prompted—among Spiritualists and
TheosophLsts, and several great men of Science, for the matter of that*
—the use of the modern expression, the "fourth dimension of space."
To begin with, the superficial absurdity of assuming that Space itself
is measurable in any direction is of little consequence. The familiar
phrase can only be an abbreviation of the fuller form—the "-fourth dimension
of matter, in Spaced \ But even thus expanded, it is an unhappy
phrase, because while it is perfectly true that the progress of
• Professor ZSllner's theory has been more than welcomed by several Scientists, who are also
Spiritualists; Professors Butlerof and Wagner, of St. Petersburg:, for instance.
i- " The pfiving reality to abstractions is the error of Realism. Space and Time are frequently viewed
a.s separated from all the concrete experiences of the mind, instead of being generalizations of these
in certain aspects." (Bain, Log^'r, Part II. p. 389.)