"
St. George nodded. This was the familiar talk of college
class-rooms.
"As it is," pursued the prince, "your people do perfectly understand
lifting a square and placing it upon a square, or a triangle upon a
triangle. But you do not know anything about placing a cube upon a
cube, or a pyramid upon a pyramid _so that both occupy the same
space at the same time_. We of Yaque have mastered that principle
also," the prince tranquilly concluded, "and all that of which this
is the alphabet. That is why we are able to keep our island unknown
to the world--not to say 'invisible.'"
For a moment St. George looked at him speechlessly; then, in spite
of himself, a slow smile overspread his face.
"But," he said, "your Highness, there is not a mathematician in the
civilized world who has not considered that problem and cast it
aside, with the word that if fourth-dimensional space does exist it
can not possibly be inhabited."
"Quite so," said the prince, "and yet here we are."
And, if you come to think of it--as St.
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