Transcriber’s Notes Text printed in italics is represented between _underscores_, bold face text between ~tildes~. Small capitals have been transcribed as ALL CAPITALS. A letter in square brackets preceded by an equal sign, as [=X], represents a letter with bar above. More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text. A NEW ERA OF THOUGHT. SCIENTIFIC ROMANCES. By C. HOWARD HINTON, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6_s._; or separately, 1_s._ each. 1. ~What is the Fourth Dimension?~ 1_s._ GHOSTS EXPLAINED. “A short treatise of admirable clearness.  .  .  . Mr. Hinton brings us, panting but delighted, to at least a momentary faith in the Fourth Dimension, and upon the eye of this faith there opens a vista of interesting problems.  .  .  . His pamphlet exhibits a boldness of speculation, and a power of conceiving and expressing even the inconceivable, which rouses one’s faculties like a tonic.”--_Pall Mall._ 2. ~The Persian King; or, The Law of the Valley~, 1_s._ THE MYSTERY OF PLEASURE AND PAIN. “A very suggestive and well-written speculation, by the inheritor of an honoured name.”--_Mind._ “Will arrest the attention of the reader at once.”--_Knowledge._ 3. ~A Plane World~, 1_s._ 4. ~A Picture of our Universe~, 1_s._ 5. ~Casting out the Self~, 1_s._ _SECOND SERIES._ 1. ~On the Education of the Imagination.~ 2. ~Many Dimensions~, 1_s._ LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. _A New Era of Thought._ BY CHARLES HOWARD HINTON, M.A., OXON. _Author of “What is the Fourth Dimension,” and other “Scientific Romances.”_ [Illustration] London: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1888. BUTLER & TANNER, THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, FROME, AND LONDON. PREFACE. The MSS. which formed the basis of this book were committed to us by the author, on his leaving England for a distant foreign appointment. It was his wish that we should construct upon them a much more complete treatise than we have effected, and with that intention he asked us to make any changes or additions we thought desirable. But long alliance with him in this work has convinced us that his thought (especially that of a general philosophical character) loses much of its force if subjected to any extraneous touch. This feeling has induced us to print Part I. almost exactly as it came from his hands, although it would probably have received much rearrangement if he could have watched it through the press himself.