The mystery of space

Mathematics is the biometer of intellectual evolution. Hence, the determination of the status quo of the intellect at any time can be accomplished most satisfactorily by applying to it the rigorous measure of the mathematical method. The intellect has but one true divining rod and that is mathematics. By day and by night it points the way unerringly, so long as it leads through materiality; but, falteringly, blindly, fatally, when that way veers into the territory of vitality and spirituality.

Wherefore, when we have wished to ascertain the real status of the intellect, as well as its limitations, tendencies, possibilities, we have turned to its conduct in the field of mathesis where it is least trammeled in its ingressive and egressive motivations because of the natural and easy accommodation which is offered for intellectual movement. Whether there are signs of moribundity or symptomatic evidences of marked growth or of a termination of intellectual regnancy, or whatever may be the occasion for the examination, no surer index than the mathematical may be found for the purpose. Full logical justification is, therefore, claimed for the choice of mathematical evidences to test the assumption that a new era of conscious mental conquest is opening for the vanguard of humanity and sequently for the human family.

The treatment of these evidences has fallen logically into two divisions, namely, the first, a brief and elementary review of the principles of the non-Euclidean geometry and their bearings upon the question of space as the subject of mathematical study; and second, the consideration of space as a psychological, vital and dynamic or creative phenomenon.

In Part I an effort has been made to trace the growth of the notion of hyperspace and to show that it is a symbol of a new epoch of intellectual expansion, an actual seizure of a new domain of awareness by the mind. And for this purpose a critical examination of the fundamental question of dimensionality is entered upon from which it develops that the status of this primary norm of mathematical thought exhibits a relatively inchoate character because of its insufficiency as a definitive quantity, and further, because of its rather superfoetated aspect when utilized as a panacea for mathetic symptoms. Also, it has been found necessary to survey the field of the four-space which has been accorded such a prominent place in the mathematical thought of the day. The reader should find in the chapter devoted to it adequate material for thought and sufficient comprehension of its meanings as a mathematical contrivance.

In Part II an endeavor is made to interpret the evidences offered by high mathematic considerations in the light of the larger psychogenetic movement. For this undertaking the quality of awareness has been studied with the view to establishing its priority as a determining agency in the consideration of space in aspects broader and less restricted than those embraced in the mathematical premises. Wherefore, it appears that there are massive implications arising out of the hyperspace propaganda which have hitherto been neglected in the preliminaries incident to the fabrication of its structure. A very brief, and more or less symbolic, sketch of the genesis of space has served to demonstrate its essential nature as a consubstantive of materiality, vitality and intellectuality, the three major objective processes. Consequently it becomes imperatively necessary that any view of space which neglects its kosmic intent and purpose should be regarded as gravely fragmentary and insufficient. It is only by linking up the two aspects of space, the mathematical and the psychological, in such a manner that the one shall supplement the other, that we shall be able to arrive at a truly satisfactory understanding of its nature.