THE
MYSTERY OF SPACE
The domain of the senses, in nature, is almost
infinitely small in comparison with the vast
region accessible to thought which lies beyond
them.— Tyndall, "On Radiant Heat."
THE
MYSTERY OF SPACE
A Study of the Hyperspace Movement
in the Light of the Evolution of
New Psychic Faculties
and
An Inquiry into the Genesis and
Essential Nature of Space
BY
ROBERT T. BROWNE
NEW YORK,
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
681 Fifth Avenue
Copyright 1919, by
E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
TO
THE CHERISHED MEMORYOF
Mylie De Prè
WHOSE WIFELY DEVOTION,
SYMPATHETIC ASSISTANCE AND ENCOURAGEMENT
DURING THE EARLY LABORS ON THE TEXT
WERE A CONSTANT SOURCE OF
INSPIRATION AND FORTITUDE TO THE AUTHOR,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
AFFECTIONATELY
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PREFACE
Mathematics is the biometer of intellectual evolution.Hence, the determination of the status quoof the intellect at any time can be accomplished mostsatisfactorily by applying to it the rigorous measureof the mathematical method. The intellect has butone true divining rod and that is mathematics. Byday and by night it points the way unerringly, so longas it leads through materiality; but, falteringly, blindly,fatally, when that way veers into the territory ofvitality and spirituality.
Wherefore, when we have wished to ascertain thereal status of the intellect, as well as its limitations,tendencies, possibilities, we have turned to its conductin the field of mathesis where it is least trammeled inits ingressive and egressive motivations because of thenatural and easy accommodation which is offered forintellectual movement. Whether there are signs ofmoribundity or symptomatic evidences of markedgrowth or of a termination of intellectual regnancy,or whatever may be the occasion for the examination,no surer index than the mathematical may be foundfor the purpose. Full logical justification is, therefore,claimed for the choice of mathematical evidences totest the assumption that a new era of conscious mentalconquest is opening for the vanguard of humanity andsequently for the human family.
The treatment of these evidences has fallen logicallyinto two divisions, namely, the first, a briefand elementary review of the principles of the non-Euclideangeometry and their bearings upon the questionof 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 t