A THEORY OF THE MECHANISM OF SURVIVAL A THEORY OF THE MECHANISM OF SURVIVAL _THE FOURTH DIMENSION AND ITS APPLICATIONS_ BY W. WHATELY SMITH LONDON: KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD. NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON & CO. 1920 _TO MY MOTHER_ "_When we can no longer interpret a phenomenon by the known, we must needs try to do so by the unknown...._" "_It is well, in spite of everything, to seek an explanation of the inexplicable; it is by attacking it on every side at all hazards that we cherish the hope of overcoming it._" MAETERLINCK. "The Unknown Guest." CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The meaning of Four-Dimensional Space 1 II. The scope of application and probable importance of the higher space concepts 21 III. Application to certain of the facts elicited by Psychic Research 39 IV. Some other possible applications of the hypothesis 92 V. Vitality and Will 113 VI. Higher Space and Physical Science 122 VII. The Connecting Link 136 VIII. The Religious Aspects of the hypothesis 168 IX. Summary and Conclusion 181 Appendix 187 Index 196 PREFACE The highly speculative and extrapolatory character of this book will be evident to all who are bold enough to read it. I wish to make it perfectly clear that I have no intention of dogmatising on so obscure a subject. The suggestions which follow are purely tentative, and I am well aware that some of them are likely to prove mutually incompatible. But it is only by the bold formulation and ruthless rejection of hypotheses that progress is made, and even if we are compelled to abandon the Higher Space Hypothesis altogether--as is very possible--the negative information so gained will be of the greater value if the hypothesis has first been given the fullest possible trial. W.W.S. A Theory of The Mechanism of Survival CHAPTER I THE MEANING OF FOUR-DIMENSIONAL SPACE. The main line of thought developed in these pages has no claims to originality. Professor Zöllner of Leipsic was an ardent exponent of the theory in the "seventies" and some authors hold that even the ancient writings of the East contain attempts to express Four-Dimensional concepts. Whether this is actually so is open to doubt but it must be remembered that in the days when these writings were produced mathematical knowledge was itself in its infancy and that there was, therefore, no terminology available in which the Higher Space concepts could be suitably expressed even supposing that the ancient philosophers had them in mind.