We can represent the different classes of life in three life coordinates. The minerals, with their inorganic activities would be the Zero (0) dimension of “life”—that is the _lifeless_ class—here represented by the point _M_.
The plants, with their “autonomous” growth, to be represented by the ONE DIMENSIONAL line _MP_.
The animals, with their “autonomous” capacity to grow and to be active in space by the TWO DIMENSIONAL plane _PAM_.
The humans, with their “autonomous” capacity to grow, to be active in space AND TO BE ACTIVE IN TIME, by the THREE DIMENSIONAL region _MAPH_.
[ A drawing, like labeling the axes of a three-dimensional space. At the center is “(Minerals) M”. At the top of the Z axis is “H (Humans)”. At the end of the X axis is “P (Plants)”. At the end of the Y axis is “A (Animals)”. ]
Such diagrammatic illustrations must not be taken too literally; they are like figures of speech—helpful if understood—harmful if not understood. The reader should reflect upon the simple idea of dimensions until he sees clearly that the idea is not merely a thing of interest or of convenience, but is absolutely essential as a means of discriminating the cardinal classes of life from one another and of conceiving each class to be what it is instead of mixing it confusedly with something radically different. It will greatly help the reader if he will retire to the quiet of his cloister and there meditate about as follows. A line has one dimension; a plane has two; a plane contains lines and so it has line properties—_one_-dimensional properties—but it has other properties—_two_-dimensional properties—and it is these that are peculiar to it, give it its own character, and make it what it is—a plane and not a line. So animals have some plant properties—they grow, for example—but animals have other properties—autonomous mobility, for example,—properties of higher dimensionality or type—and it is these that make animals _animals_ and not plants. Just so, human beings have certain animal properties—autonomous mobility, for example, or physical appetites—but humans have other properties or propensities—ethical sense, for example, logical sense, inventiveness, progressiveness—properties or propensities of higher dimensionality, level, or type—and it is these propensities and powers that make human beings _human_ and _not_ animal. When and only when this fact is clearly seen and keenly realized, there will begin the _science of man_—the science and art of _human nature_—for then and only then we shall begin to escape from the age-long untold immeasurable evils that come from regarding and treating human beings as animals, as mere binders of space, and we may look forward to an ethics, a jurisprudence and economics, a governance—a science and art of human life and society—based upon the laws of human nature because based upon the just conception of humanity as the time-binding class of life, creators and improvers of good, destined to endless advancement, in accord with the potencies of Human Nature.(9)