THE FIFTH DIMENSION Also by A.E. Dyson THE CRAZY FABRIC: Essays in Irony THE INIMITABLE DICKENS BETWEEN TWO WORLDS: Aspects of Literary Form YEATS, ELIOT AND R.S. THOMAS: Riding the Echo DICKENS'S BLEAK HOUSE (editor) EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY (editor with Julian Lovelock) MILTON'S PARADISE LOST (editor with Julian Lovelock) MODERN JUDGEMENTS ON DICKENS (editor) MODERN POETRY (author with C.B. Cox) POETRY CRITICISM AND PRACTICE (editor) THE PRACTICAL CRITICISM OF POETRY (author with C.B. Cox) THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY MIND (editor with C.B. Cox) THREE CONTEMPORARY POETS: Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes and R.S. Thomas (editor) The Fifth Dimension A.E. Dyson Honorary Fellow of the University of East Anglia, Norwich © A. E. Dyson 1996 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1996 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-13963-7 ISBN 978-1-349-13961-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13961-3 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 For CLIFF TUCKER 1912-93 A good man and a great friend 'Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' (Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 6: 21) Contents Acknowledgements viii PART I WHERE AM I? MAN'S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE 1 1 Where Am I? Space/Time 3 2 Where Am I? Time, the Mysterious Dimension 16 3 The Fifth Dimension 34 PART II THREE ROADBLOCKS TO WISDOM 53 4 The Linguistic Vandals 55 5 Insubstantial Pageant 77 6 Original Fallacy 86 PART III THREE PATHS TO WISDOM 115 7 The Wisdom of the Greeks 117 8 The Kingdom 188 9 The Eternal in Time 276 Epilogue 342 Notes 344 Index 350 vii Acknowledgements The author and publishers are grateful to the following for per mission to reproduce copyright material: J.M. Dent Publishers for poems from Collected Poems 1945-90 by R.S. Thomas; and to Faber & Faber Ltd and the Eliot Estate for extracts from 'Burnt Norton', 'Little Gidding', East Coker and 'The Dry Salvages' in Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot, Ch. 4 for 'Everyone Sang' by Siegfried Sassoon; and for 'Everyone Suddenly Burst Out Singing' in Collected Poems 1908-1956, published 1961. 'Anyone lived in a pretty how town' is reprinted from Complete Poems 1904-1962, by e.e. cummings, edited by George J. Firmage, by permission of W.W. Norton & Company Ltd, Copyright© 1940, 1968, 1991 by the Trustees for the e.e. cummings Trust. Every effort has been made to contact all the copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently omitted the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the earliest opportunity. viii Part I Where Am I? Man's Place in the Universe 1 Where Am I? Space/Time The thrush is a killing machine, Ted Hughes tells us. My elderly, much cherished cat is bad news for the thrush. But they look beau tiful, and lost in thought, to my human perceptions. The garden is serene, and I ponder. 'Where Am I?' In this chapter, the question is pragmatic, with no tinge of mys ticism. I am concerned with locating myself, if possible, in space. But it is vital to what follows, since not only are the three dimen sions of space relevant, but so too is the problematic fourth dimen sion, time - considered here in its specific relation to space. Time is not confined to space, but it is deeply entwined with it; in one aspect, it is the duration which is space's fourth side. From here onwards, I shall refer to this aspect of duration as 'clock-time', for convenience; and to distinguish it from time's Janus-faced role in a fifth dimension, where its nature is dual. So, I begin in the garden with thrush, cat and serenity, and allow my mind to wander from here. The layer of soil is thin, not rich or fertile. It allows a basic garden to flower, but no great trees, or exotic plants. Beneath, there is rubble, then clay and chalk, and the things London is built on. Then, a little below, a mazelike network of man-made pipes and tunnels: water, sewers, gas, electricity, phones; how many more? The London Transport tube tunnels run very deep here. You detect no rumble, as trains pass two or three hundred feet below. And then? Well: not in London, but elsewhere, there are explora tions underground. Dangerous risks in caves, taken by potholers. Miners, bringing resources up from deep in the earth. The pot holers do it for fun, the miners for commerce; a skilled and danger ous livelihood, stretching far back in history. The miners serve us all and are felt to be special. They are touched with heroism, in myth and in fact. The Earth, much below its surface, is a mystery. The human race 3