One of the most extraordinary figures of the popular intellectualism of the early 20th century, Claude Bragdon was an architect and designer who turned his mathematically fueled artistic bent toward the metaphysical and anticipated the new quantum physics with a philosophy of existence that bridged the rational and the transcendent. Here, in this lyrical exploration of the expansiveness of human consciousness, Bragdon considers how humanity's ever-changing understanding of the universe results in an ever-growing appreciation for our own powers of thought, feeling, and experience.

Excerpt from Four-Dimensional Vistas In 1823 Bolyai declared with regard to Euclid's so-called axiom of parallels, I will draw two lines through a given point, both of which will be parallel to a given line. The drawing of these lines led to the concept of the curvature of space, and this to the idea of higher Space. The recently developed Theory of Relativity has compelled the revision of the time concept as used in classical physics. One result of this has been to introduce the notion of curved time. These two ideas, of curved time and higher Space, by their very nature are bound to profoundly modify human thought. They loosen the bonds within which advancing knowledge has increasingly labored, they lighten the dark abysses of consciousness, they reconcile the discoveries of Western workers with the inspirations of Eastern dreamers; but best of all, they open vistas, they offer glimpses that may make us less forlorn. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A detailed description of what the fourth dimension would be like.