The fourth dimension

THE FIRST CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF FOUR SPACE 25

If we pass a spiral through the film the intersection will give a point moving in a circle shown by the dotted lines in the figure. Suppose

now the spiral to be still and

the film to move vertically

upwards, the whole spiral will

be represented in the film of

the consecutive positions of the

point of intersection. In the f <> \ film the permanent existence of the spiral is experienced as

n—

a time series—the record of traversing the spiral is a point moving in a circle. If now we suppose a consciousness connected with the film in such a way that the intersection of the spiral with the film gives rise to a conscious experience, we see that we shall have in the film a point moving in a circle, conscious of its motion, knowing nothing of that real spiral the record of the successive intersections of which by the film is the motion of the point.

It is easy to imagine complicated structures of the nature of the spiral, structures consisting of filaments, and to suppose also that these structures are distinguishable from each other at every section. If we consider the intersections of these filaments with the film as it passes to be the atoms constituting a filmar universe, we shall have in the film a world of apparent motion; we shall have bodies corresponding to the filamentary structure, and the positions of these structures with regard to one another will give rise to bodies in the film moving amongst one another. This mutual motion is apparent merely. The reality is of permanent structures stationary, and all the relative motions accounted for by one steady movement of the film as a whole.

Fig. 14.