Chapter IX: Part II: Ontology--Of Singulars (1)

A.--_COSMOGENY_.

a. REST, CENTRE.

209. Through light duplicity originates in the æther, by virtue of which the æther divides into central and peripheric æther. The peripheric necessarily rotates around the central. Every part of the æther is a sphere; the æther therefore is separated by the light into infinitely numerous central and peripheric spheres. Creation is an endless position of centres. The primary centre is inventive.

210. There cannot be therefore only a single central mass; otherwise the universe would be a finite.

211. The central spheres are characterized by absoluteness, the peripheric, however, by finiteness, division; the former are something in themselves, but the latter are so only by opposition; yet the two could not be without each other.

212. Every central body must be surrounded by several peripheric bodies. The peripheric spheres rotate around the central, the images of the primary centre. A Whole, consisting of a central body and several peripheric bodies, is called _solar system_.

213. Chaos is not conceivable, without being at the same time solar system. The solar systems are nothing specially created, but have been given with chaos or with light, are indeed only the æther separated by light. The primary matter appearing as light must appear at the same time as sun and planet. Primary act, sun and planet are of one kind, and differ only in this, that the former is posited individually in the latter, while in itself it is non-posited.

214. There is no general central body, no central sun, about which all suns and planets gravitate. The essence of the æther consists in its complete dissipation. There exists only an infinity of solar systems, which taken together form the central body. All solar systems pursue a course to and fro through each other, like the blood-globules in the vessels. The general central body is only inventive. That the general central body may be dark (that it must be, if present, from its being invisible) is an assertion which betrays an ignorance of the essence of light. A dark central body is an absurdity.

b. MOTION, LINE.

215. Sun and planet, as individual spheres, have also their own individual gravity. The æther therefore must exist otherwise than in the universal sphere. The next change of the æther is _condensation_, more intense gravity, because it becomes more individual, centre and periphery approximate more closely to each other. The heavenly bodies must contain more matter, more æther in an equal space than the terrestrial globe.

216. The heavenly bodies have obtained their matter nowhere else than out of the primary matter, the æther; they are condensed æther. The heavenly bodies of a solar system have derived their mass out of the æther, which is found within the confines of this solar system. The matter of the heavenly bodies was thus previous to its coagulation strewn in the space of the solar system, and has been by so much the rarer, as the space of the solar system is larger than the volume of all the planets together with the sun. It admits therefore of being calculated how much rarer the æther is than e. g. water.

217. The æther is therefore not absolutely imponderable, but only so in relation to the heavenly bodies. Light and heat are therefore ponderose substances, though they are not ponderable.

218. The separation of the æther into central and peripheric mass has happened according to the laws of light, and thus according to the centroperipheric primary antagonism. As a consequence of this, only _one_ central body can originate in a solar system; the mass of the periphery can, however, divide into several, and must divide into as many as the light has moments of operation; of this we shall speak for the first time in treating of colours.

219. The matter of the periphery can be condensed by light into no other form than that of a _hollow_ globe around the sun. The planets are originally concentric _hollow globes_, in the midst of which the sun is formed. There are several hollow globes, because the light has several points of contraction at certain distances from the sun.

220. The number of hollow planetary globes is a definite one, and it is not an arbitrary matter how many of them originate.

221. The matter of such a hollow globe of æther is still, however, rarer by so much than the present planetary mass, as that of our earth would be rarer if it were to form a hollow globe around the sun, about as thick only as from the earth to the moon.

222. This hollow globe rotates with the sun, because the whole globe of æther, which fills out the space of the subsequent solar system, rotates; therefore everything necessarily tends in one direction.

223. These hollow planetary globes, on account of the rarity of their mass, their rotation, and the greater tension of light, could not subsist in the equatorial plane of the solar system, but coagulate together in equatorial rings about the centre of the whole system. The planetary foetuses are only _solar rings_, which rotate with the sun.

224. If the whole coagulated æther of the solar system be so small in quantity, that when extended around the sun in a planetary track or course, it still does not become solid; so also can the orbitar ring not persist, but it contracts itself through light, rotation and the peculiar excited gravity into a _globe_. This globe continues to rotate, as it did when under the conditions of orbitar ring, of hollow globe and as æther; i. e. it pursues a course around the sun. The peripheric globe travels necessarily in the same plane in which the sun rotates. This is therefore called the zodiac. This globe rotates also around its own axis and virtually in the same direction, according to which it performs its course or the sun rotates. A globe coursing and rotating around the sun in its equatorial plane and in its direction is called _planet_.

225. At the first aggregation of the mass of the planetary ring into a planetary globe, the latter was still very much extended, the earth extending beyond the moon. The mass was thus gaseous. What happened in the great globe of æther, of which the sun has become the centre, happens also here. An opposition of centre to periphery again originates; and a subordinate sun and new orbitar rings are formed. If the mass of the planetary equatorial ring be only small and consequently rare, it rolls into a globe and together with this into _moons_.

226. If it be much, consequently so dense, that it coheres, it remains stationary, and is _Saturn's ring_.

227. This is the genesis of the planetary system, but everything has become, and remained as it became, at one stroke. The moon can never have existed as an orbitar ring around the earth in time, or else it had been solid. Being once solid, it can no more coagulate into a globe. Still less, however, have the planets originated from conjoined moons. From whence then have the moons come? The solar system has not arisen mechanically, but dynamically; it has not become what it is by being projected or hurled from the hand of God, nor by impulses and aberrations; but by polarization according to eternal laws, according to the laws of light.

228. As a necessary number of planetary productions exists, so also is their magnitude, distance and velocity a determinate one. No planet, whatever its situation, has attained that by chance. Were the earth larger, it must also have occupied some other place, and have had another velocity, another density of mass, &c.

229. The coagulating matter of æther must collect into a larger mass in the centre than in the periphery. The centre will exist everywhere, and the periphery comes only to its behalf as if it were a scaffold or prop only to existence. The sun can only be the principle of the determination of the planets by the preponderance of its mass. Our sun comprises above 700 planetary systems in itself.

230. Sun and planet are mutually conditionated; both have originated at the same time, the former as the positive pole, the latter as the negative, as the necessary counterpoint, or the one as 0, the other as ±. The hypothesis, which surmises that the planets have come from another solar system, is not maturely considered. For how have they there originated? Such explanations are mere child's play. Sun and planet are in idea but _one_ piece, only _one_ line with two different extremities. The same act which polarizes the sun polarizes also the planets out of chaos. One and the same æther that has become positive, is called sun, when negative, it is called planet. Both are only a single globe of æther, the centre of which is called sun, the periphery, planet. The latter belongs to the sun, like a stone though detached from, belongs to, the earth; its rotation is therefore similar, but retarded.

c. FORM

231. The sun cannot be in the absolute middle of the solar system, on account of its antagonism with the planets, which would likewise become the centre. The collective mass of the planets is the secession of the sun from the centre. The situation of the sun or the degree of its excentricity bears relation to the polar force of the planets. The form, under which the solar system really exists, cannot therefore be the sphere, but the ellipse, i. e. the duplicity of the centre.

232. The sphere is only the type of the universe, of the æther, but not of the solar system nor the Finite. No Finite is absolutely spherical. As the real universe can only exist in a bicentral condition, so is there in this respect also no universal central body. It is there, but under the form of bicentrality, as sun and planet. God only is monocentral. The world is the bicentral God, God the monocentral world, which is the same with monas and dyas. The primary polarity, the dyas, the radiality, the light establishes itself in nature as bicentrality, which is the cosmogenic expression for self-manifestation or self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is a living ellipse.

233. The bicentrality determines the distance of the planets from the sun. If the sun as the active pole be strong or energetic, the planets will occupy a remote situation; if it be feeble or weak, one that is near. The strength of the polar energy depends, however, upon the quantity of the mass. Were the mass of the sun less, all the planets would range nearer to it; were it greater, they would be all driven further off, as electricity repels the pith-balls of elder-wood; more than this the planets are not towards the sun, but even less. The energy of the solar polarization depends not merely upon its magnitude, but also upon the velocity of rotation, which harmonizes with the former; the latter, however, depends upon the original velocity of rotation of the æther. The velocity of the rotation of æther being assumed as definite, that of the sun must be definite also, and with this everything accords.

234. The circumvolution of the planets around the sun is a _polar_ process of _attraction_ and _repulsion_, by virtue of the primary law in the solar system, by virtue of the light. The planet then can only be repelled in the neighbourhood of the sun from the sun, when it has the _same_ solar pole in itself, when it has become positive; and can only attract it at a distance from the sun, when it has received the opposite pole to the sun, or has become negative.

235. This is only conceivable in that the planet, while it draws nearer to the sun, extinguishes in itself by its _own_ power the negative pole, and produces on the contrary the positive pole, or becomes a sun; and that, as it removes itself from the sun, it again extinguishes the positive solar pole, and generates the negative planetary pole within itself. This substantial production of alternating poles upon the planet takes place through the diversity of its surface as water and land, through the oblique position of its axis, whereby summer and winter are produced, through the processes, or through the life that is upon it, through the processes of decomposition and combination effected by water, through the revival and death of vegetation, and even the white colour of snow. The planet discharges its pole in the neighbourhood of the sun, like a cork pellet, and reloads of itself at a distance from the sun; and thus oscillates to and fro, like the hammer in an electrical bell. The course of the planets takes place with the greatest ease. It is everywhere no force of weight, of impulse, but of the easiest self-motion. The planet revolves by its own force to and from the sun, like the blood circulates to and from the heart.

236. The planet cannot, however, be diverted from its course, because the other heavenly bodies, probably the comets, do not act mechanically but only polarly upon it. By means of this polarity they maintain themselves always at a distance, even as the sun keeps itself at a distance from the planets. In addition to this, the polar tension between the comet and the sun is stronger than between the comet and the planets. The perturbations of the planets depend upon their polar relations to each other. Although the planets have a centrifugal tendency, they are not thrown by a prodigious mechanical force in the direction of the tangent, and then drawn back by an attractive force of the sun, that has no import or meaning; but they course in a playful manner round the sun. A theory of attraction of this kind has no physical sense. Such an attraction is a _Qualitas occulta_, an angel which flies before the planets. It does not create the world by impulses and strokes, but only by vivification.

237. Were the planet dead, it could not be attracted or repelled by the sun; it would have from the very beginning always maintained a similar pole in itself, and it could therefore only move in a circular manner around the sun. The circular motion or course around the sun is not generally conditioned by the polarity of the planets, but depends upon the primary rotation. Proportionably to the mutual interchange of polar operation between the sun and planet, the latter would only approach the sun in the line of the apsides, and thus remove from it; but by the primary rotation it is conducted around it. The elliptical path is consequently the result of rotation and of the polar or linear interchange of operation between the two heavenly bodies.

238. The moon would keep a wholly circular path around the sun, if it were not disturbed by the earth, were it not through the difference of the earth's poles to passively retain also different polarities; for the moon is in itself dead.

239. The moon is not attracted more forcibly by the earth than the sun; and therefore it remains not by the earth. The sun exercises more polar action, more photal action upon it than the earth, and yet it falls not into the sun, for the very same reason that the earth itself does not fall in. The moon is forsooth to be regarded as itself a planet with a definite charge of electricity, which is always equably maintained by light; as such it rotates circularly about the sun. But it rotates in the same path wherein the earth rotates; therefore the latter operates upon it and draws it in its strange serpentine line around the sun.

240. The more living a planet is, by so much the more excentric is its path, because it enters into great opposition with the light.

241. If polarization by light be the cause of the attraction and repulsion of the planets from the sun, so is it also the cause of the distance of the planetary masses generally. The individual distance of the several planets is determined by the energy of their own polar excitation. Planets, which possess a strong polar energy, must range further than the others from the sun. This polar energy is, however, dependent upon the magnitude and density of the mass, upon the level state or unevenness of the surface, upon the capacity for heat, upon the quantity of water, upon the position of the axis in regard to the path, upon the possible processes of vegetation; it is thus not to be determined. Before vegetation was upon the earth, there were other processes, e. g. the aqueous precipitations, that changed the polarity; so that the path might formerly have been different to what it subsequently was or is now.

242. Planets are consequently those bodies which possess in themselves a peculiar degree of polarity and a substantial change of the same, whereby their individual distance and the nature of their paths are determined.

COMETS.

243. The comets are heavenly bodies, devoid of a persistent grade of polarity, and without any substantial change in the same. They obtain their polarity solely from the sun, like the cork-pellet from the electrical machine. The comet is therefore repelled as far from the sun as there is still an action between it and the polarity that has been imparted to the comet.

244. At the point where all antagonism between comet and sun ceases, the former must remain stationary, and resolve itself again into æther. This is the case with those comets that never return. These comets are temporal coagulations of æther by light, and thus continued creation.

245. The æther coagulates where the light, already polarized in part by the operations of other heavenly bodies, encounters it. This depends upon fortuitous constellations.

246. These comets originate like the planets; they are æther condensed in the form of an orbitar ring. This dissevered _orbitar ring_ is the _tail_, which is only a more gaseous æther, through which, or even through the nucleus itself, the stars are seen. The tail follows the comet not really but only ideally. Around the nucleus, so far as it is prolonged, the light concentrates the æther. New æther is constantly emitting light, while that which was before illuminating as tail again becomes dark and again sinks into a state of indifference. The tail is only an optical spectrum. For how can the tail be really a part of the comet, since it is always turned backwards from the sun, since it therefore follows and precedes the nucleus? The nucleus is only the lamp which kindles the æther surrounding it for some time. The light suffers a modification through the nucleus; it therefore polarizes only the æther behind it. The tail is the evident example of what is antecedent in the origin of the heavenly bodies. It is the heavenly body conceived in the act of becoming, but unto which polarization is wanting; it cannot therefore concentrate itself, but again dissolves when the nucleus is gone. Every heavenly body is a mass of æther in the world-space, which is materialized by light, and separated out of its indifference into difference, into more solid masses. Finally, the tail becomes dense æther, a nucleus.

247. These comets are thus true meteors; as they originate, so originate the globes of fire, by polarization occurring in the atmosphere, or even too above the limits of the atmosphere.

248. Meteoric stones are terrestrial comets. The opinion that they come from the moon has no foundation. There is probably as little metal as water upon the moon.

249. Returning comets are probably polarized by two suns.

250. A comet can never come into collision with a planet; the fear of such an event is equally absurd with the hypothesis, that a comet had produced the deluge or displaced the earth's axis.

251. Two planets also can never come into mutual collision, not even those that have been recently discovered, although their paths intersect each other.

252. The planets are returning comets, which, however, before they have come to the second sun, have produced within themselves the opposite pole to the sun. What happens to the comets through the influence of the second sun, the planets effect of themselves.

B.--_STÖCHIOGENY._

CONDENSATION.

253. Through its separation into polar masses the æther becomes _condensed_, heavy and material.

254. This condensation is the result of the _fixation_ of a definite pole on a definite mass of æther. The essence of the æther consists in its having no fixed pole, but that all the poles oscillate to and fro with the greatest facility from one particle of æther to the other. This is what is meant by indifference, by equivalency of poles; no part of the æther differs from another, because none retains permanently a definite pole, but each of them all the poles. The formation of the heavenly bodies is none other than an union of poles to a definite mass of æther.

255. A mass of æther with a fixed pole is a dense matter; such a mass of æther I call _terrestrial_ matter, but the æther itself the _cosmic_. Sun and planet must be terrestrial matters, for the essence of both consists in the difference of their poles.

256. The cause of the fixation of poles resides in light.

257. The heavenly bodies go to ruin by removal of the fixation of the pole abiding on the mass, substratum or substance, not by mechanical demolition. The destruction of the heavenly bodies is a retrogression of their mass into æther by means of fire. Heat does not drive the bodies, after the manner of a wedge, from each other, but only suppresses their polarity, and then the atoms must withdraw from each other. Heat depends only on the destruction of poles, _not_ upon extension. The heavenly bodies are ruined in the same way that they have originated, namely, through the primary act in its retrogression.

258. It is only the pole, no other concealed property, which maintains the being of the mass. The mass is not a terrestrial mass subsisting simply by its own rest. Nothing material is the cause of the form of matter, but the Spiritual. Matter has therefore no quality, no consistence of itself, but is nothing, is æther. Mass cannot supplant mass, nor mechanism destroy anything material. The destruction must proceed from within.

259. The fixation of poles in the substance is the _impenetrability_ of matter. It is only the spirit in matter which renders this impenetrable, not the mass itself.

260. The æther is penetrable, and therefore also _penetrating_. Heat is penetrating; light, as æther in a state of tension, is only partially penetrating.

261. All the diversity of matter depends upon the fixation of poles in the substance. For there is no diversity in the universe without poles, without binary division. The substance always remains the same, it is only the poles that change. The substance is the Indestructible, the Persistent, the æther, the nothing.

262. The fixation is the perquisite, but the necessary one, of the substance. The diversity of things resides only in the perquisite. In the substance all are alike. There is only _one_ substance, only _one_ essence.

ELEMENTAL BODIES. (_How many kinds of Æther-condensations may exist?_)

263. The æther has three forms, and can therefore condense itself after a ternary manner, or in other words, there can be only three kinds of fixations of poles.

264. The condensations of the several forms of æther must be simple matters or _Elemental bodies_, as they are called.

265. There can therefore be only three simple bodies, a body of gravity = 0, one of light = +, and one of heat =-.

266. If the heat of the æther becomes fixed, the rarest, most mobile and lightest body must originate. The body of heat is _Hydrogen_.

267. If the light of the æther becomes fixed, a less dense, and thus a less heavy matter, must originate, and one whose atoms are moveable against each other. The body of light must be the most active in nature; it must determine the changes of all other elemental bodies. The body of light is _Oxygen_.

268. If the gravity of the æther become fixed, the greatest condensation must originate. The densest matter is necessarily the heaviest. The dense matter must be immoveable in its atoms, i. e. endowed with form. The body of gravity is _Carbon_ (as basis of the metals).

269. Besides these 3 elemental bodies, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, there can be no other simple bodies. All other bodies must be only different degrees of fixation of the above-mentioned bodies, or combinations of the same. Different degrees of carbon are without doubt the metals. Different degrees of oxygen are probably chlorine, iodine, bromine. Different degrees of hydrogen are probably sulphur. Nitrogen is probably peroxydised hydrogen, or an oxyd of hydrogen; this is indicated by its medium weight, and its perfectly azotic character.

ELEMENTS.

270. Simple bodies cannot exist for themselves, for there can nowhere be an æther, which merely belongs to gravity, or merely to light or to heat.

271. An elemental body is never a Total, but invariably a Polar, a something not whole, properly a half or rather but a third essence, a fraction. One-sidedness is therefore the character of the elemental body.

272. One pole is nowhere produced, but all are invariably present together. The terrestrial matter completed must therefore consist of the three primary bodies, but occurring in diverse proportions. As light and heat can never subsist without the substance of the æther, so also can no body of light and no body of heat subsist per se without the body of gravity or carbon, and vice versâ. The general materials of nature are therefore combinations of the three primary bodies.

273. The æther is the totality of the primary bodies in equal proportion, where thus no pole is fixed, but all are comprehended in fixation, i. e. in constant change.

274. All other general matters must be also combinations of the three primary bodies, but with different fixation, or in unequal proportion. There can consequently be only four general matters.

275. The first general matters are called _Elements_. There are only four elements, one general and three particular.

1. Element, Fire.
2. - - - - Heat.
3. - - - - Light.
4. - - - - Gravity.

276. Each element is a total representation of the æther.

277. An element is not that which is chemically inseparable, but it is only the _Whole_, which has first originated. But the elemental bodies are chemically non-decomposible, because they are already separate, being moieties or fractions.

278. The heat element is the hydrogen element--_Air._

279. The light element is the oxygen element--_Water._

280. The gravity element is the carbon element--_Earth._

281. In each element, beside the basic or combustible elemental body, there is also oxygen; for they are verily naught else than the æther fixed by light, æther that has become heavy by means of light.

AIR.

282. The first condensation of the æther must be that which corresponds to its condition as heat. This element, as being that in which the atoms have no connexion, must be therefore the lightest and rarest. In this element the poles must be fixed in the least degree, and therefore change with the slightest operation. This element is therefore moveable in all directions, is the most unstable, and in form most similar to the æther.

283. Active freedom from form predominates in it, i. e. its atoms are constantly striving to withdraw from each other, or the mass to extend. This endeavour is called elasticity. Elasticity is none other than the endeavour to become a greatest or interminable globe. The terrestrial matter, with this striving towards an universal globe, is called _gas_.

284. The formless internally moveable element, constantly extending itself and changing its pole, is the _Air_.

285. The air is the first terrestrial element, the first degree of ætherial condensation associated with the feeblest fixation of poles, the constant change of which is manifested in its electric relations. It corresponds in every respect, in mobility, extension, general penetration, &c., to heat. The air consists of a preponderance of the body of heat or hydrogen (oxydulated as nitrogen in the proportion of 79 by volume), and of a fair quantity of the body of light or oxygen (21); also of a very small amount of the body of gravity or carbon, as evidenced in the carbonic acid.

286. The air is a maximum of air, a medium of water, and a minimum of earth.

287. As heat is not merely indifferent æther, nor merely its motion or extension, but is the æther moved by the polarity of light, so is the hydrogen gas in the air not in a pure state, but converted by oxygen into nitrogen. The air is in every respect therefore an element that has undergone combustion, an oxyd of hydrogen and carbon.

288. The oxygen is that which is everywhere active, exciting, moving, and vivifying everything; it is the light in the Terrestrial. The nitrogen is inert, as it were mortified, and therefore mortifying or causing death; the former the +, the latter the-. The greatest activity among all terrestrial elements resides in the air, since all polarizations issue from it.

289. The changes in the air are accompanied by constant changes of temperature, for they are verily in themselves nothing else than changes of caloric-æther.

290. All subsequent elements must originate from or be condensations of air, even as this has arisen out of, and been a condensation of, the æther.

291. Condensations, however, are fixations of poles; the other elements differ therefore only from air by having other poles fixed in them.

292. Since the poles are at the same time fixed more internally on these elements, they can no longer have the gaseous form.

293. They must on this account contain more bulk and be therefore heavier.

WATER.

294. If the polarity of light becomes fixed in a certain quantity of the mass of æther, or the oxygen of the air obtains the preponderance, a less changing element originates possessing a more definite character, and the atoms of which adhere more strongly to each other than those of air.

295. This element has, in addition to the gaseous effort towards a general globe or periphery, the effort at the same time also to a centre, or to an individual globe. It is therefore neither elastic or gaseous. The effort of a mass to a _special_ and _general_ globe is a conflict betwixt form and want of form. This effort is called _fluidity_.

296. The fluid element must contain a preponderance of oxygen (85), and less hydrogen (15). There is also some carbon present in it. The carbon of water is to be sought in the slime of the sea, for the sea, and not fresh water, is the primary water.

297. The fluid element oxygen is the _Water_. Water in large as well as in small quantities, seeks to represent the globe, namely, to form drops. It possesses therefore the effort unto form, while it is always relapsing into formlessness. This oscillation between form and formlessness is the conception of fluidity, which is therefore essentially different from that of gasidity; it might be said that the latter were the arithmetic or constant change of numbers; but that fluidity were the combination of arithmetic with geometry.

298. If the essence of water consists in the contest between form and formlessness, it must thus seek to produce fluidity everywhere. Liquefaction is, however, called solution, namely, globules are formed, both on a large and small scale. The function of water is therefore solution. It dissolves the air, (imbibes it) like the earth.

299. Water is more difficult to analyze than air, because its poles are more fixed.

300. In the analysis of water, the body of heat emerges in a pure state as hydrogen, because the antagonism here subsists in an abrupt manner; in the air it is constantly changing. Hydrogen is therefore nitrogen wholly deoxydised.

301. If water is the oxygen-element, so is it the light-element or condensed light-æther; thus it is as little something absolutely new as the air.

302. Terrestrial life originates out of water, as does the cosmic life out of light. All form originates from water; for it is the general fluid, or that which strives towards form. Without water, there would be no life, no Solid and no Organic.

EARTH.

303. If the gravity of æther condenses itself, or the action of gravity be fixed in a quantity of æther, there originates immobility of the atoms, i. e. an effort upon their part towards a single direction, namely, simply towards the centre. The effort towards a single direction or towards the centre, is cohesion or rigidity.

304. The mass with fixed gravity is carbon. If therefore the carbonic acid of air, or the carbon of water, obtain the preponderance over the other elemental bodies, there thus originates the rigid centripetal element.

305. The heavy, rigid, carbon-element is the _Earth_. The earth is neither gaseous nor fluid. The earth contains a preponderance of carbon, with a tolerable quantity of oxygen, and a slight amount of hydrogen and nitrogen. The earth is an oxyd of carbon.

306. If fire is indicated by + 0-, the air then corresponds to the-, the water to +, the earth to the 0. The earth is therefore the Identical, water the Indifferent, air the Different; or the first the centre, the second the radius, the last the periphery of the general globe or of fire. The earth is naught but an accumulation of points. If radii occur in it, it happens only because all points have not place in the middle point.

307. The capacity for analysis of the elements comports with the serial order of their origin. The air is most easily analysed, the water with difficulty, the earth scarcely or not at all. The æther is occupied in eternal analysis, and therefore appears only when it is momentarily polarized unto light or heat, i. e. obtains the disposition to fixation.

308. If air represent arithmetic, so does earth the geometry or universality of forms. Water is the synthesis of both, the algebra; æther the analysis.

309. The geometrical figures of the earthy are called crystals; the

geometry of the earth is Crystallography.

310. In the creation the three primary ideas attained only by degrees to reality. First of all the trias becomes real in the air, then the dyas in water, and lastly the monas in the earth. The creation of the elements is none other than a representation of the three divine ideas in a finite sphere. Creation is a process of formation of the nothing.

311. Creation ceases with the production of the fixed or stable form; for all ideas have parted from each other, and settled down into the most Individual, with which separation all further formation of new matters necessarily ceases. Creation is a constant analysis of the æther, of air, and finally, of water.

312. The element that is correspondent to gravity necessarily occupies the centre upon the planet. It is surrounded by the element corresponding to light, the water, like the centre is by the radii; both are enveloped by the heat-element or air, which forms the periphery of the globe, the integument of the planet.

313. The forms of the elements are the following; water is spherical in its greatest as well as least parts; for it is the point merging out of itself, and can therefore nowhere acquire form. The earth is everywhere nothing but point; it is therefore concrete, and every part self-subsistent or individual, while in water no part subsists for itself, but at every opportunity is confluent with the other, and therefore arrives nowhere at individuality. Finally, air is the eternal flight of the smallest parts to the periphery. In the earth the Finite or Singular is for itself; in the water it is so only through the Whole; in the air it is not indeed for itself, but is there only the Whole without individualized parts.

314. The world is twofold, an ætherial and a terrestrial; both are transcripts or copies of each other, and both ultimately of God. The terrestrial world has originated out of the æther; it is therefore further removed from God than the æther; this is the discharged, purified Terrestrial.

315. God is a threefold Trinity; at first the Eternal, then the Ætherial, and finally the Terrestrial, where it is completely divided.

316. The holy primary number is 3; the second is 9. The æther is 1 in 3; the other elements are simply the 3 of the æther, together 4. 2 × 3, however, or 6, lies at the bottom of this 4. The symbolic numbers are consequently 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, which fundamentally are one and the same, but in different combinations. With this, however, all formation does not yet terminate; to the 4 elements is added the vegetable and animal kingdom. The number of the days of creation is 6.

C.--_STÖCHIOLOGY._

FUNCTIONS OF THE ELEMENTS.

1. _Functions of the Æther._

317. The spiritual activity of æther manifests itself as a _process of combustion_, which appears as fire. The combination of the substance with light and heat is fire; the elements have therefore originated by a process of combustion. All matter has undergone combustion, and indeed æther has been submitted to the same process. The process of fixation of the æther or the process of condensation, is consequently a process of combustion.

318. Each heavenly body has originally burnt, was nothing but fire; the Vulcanic has preceded the Neptunian agency. It was, however, the primary process of combustion, through which the at present combustible matters first originated. The present volcanoes must not be regarded as synonymous with the primary combustion. There it was not Vesuvii that burnt, but æther.

319. What has not been burnt upon the planet, is again reduced. A something that has not originally suffered combustion is a contradiction. The metal is therefore not the Original, as for obvious reasons also, the solid cannot proceed directly out of the æther, without having been first gaseous and fluid. The processes of combustion upon the planet are all secondary, are imitations of the primary combustion in matter, in the elements. Fire consists of the combinations of the three activities, gravity, light, and heat, which are now to be separately considered.

a. GRAVITY.

320. The functions of gravity are exhibited principally in the motion of the heavenly bodies, and are so completely unfolded in works upon Physics and Astronomy, that they may here be passed over in silence.

b. LIGHT.

321. The æther and the terrestrial matter are correlative, like Higher and Lower, unity and multiplicity, and therefore stand in the same antagonism with each other, as the air with the two inferior elements. The æther is constantly seeking to convert the matter into itself, to render it indifferent by depolarization, this, however, to condense it. Matter is only condensed æther. This condensation proceeds, however, from the polarization of light, and it is consequently the activity of light by which the æther hardens into matter.

322. The activity of the æther or the light dies or becomes obscured in matter. The next obscuration of light, or its immediate transition into matter is the polar primary body, _oxygen_. Oxygen is the corporeal light. It is the spirit of light to posit every thing with an internal polarity, to convert everything into oxygen, to render everywhere free the oxygen pole; for the process of fixation can only happen through activity = light, and fixation is a production of primary bodies.

323. Light is the manifestation of positive tension, of the tension of oxygen. When this reaches its maximum, light issues forth. This is evident upon the planet. Every generation of the Similar takes place through the similar principles; the cosmic generation of light must be therefore imparted also by positive tension, by that of oxygen. No reference has been here made to the negative relation of oxygen in electrical tension; it does not come under the denomination.

324. The sun is the body of oxygen, the _water_ in the world-space; the planet, however, is the basic body, the earth in world-space. The æther is diffused between the two as the air of heaven. The sun appears to have only the density of water; for it is four times less dense than the earth, and is thus pretty nearly in the condition of water.

325. The sun must be water, even because it is a body of oxygen. It must be denser than water, because it is in the centre, is central water.

326. It gives out light only, because it is water; for as such it is in eternal motion.

327. The solar water is moved by the planets, like ebb and flow. At every point of the sun opposite to which a planet stands, there is flow; there the illumination is stronger, in other situations weaker. There must be several seas of light upon the sun, as many as there are planets placed opposite to it. There is nowhere a perfectly quiescent point in the sun; therefore it is nowhere wholly solid.

328. The shining is an ebb and flow of the sun. Query Do not the spots and flashes of the sun depend upon this? The ebb and flow also of the sea gives out light; every motion in water shines. The sun does not simply shine by external motion, but because it is by this motion polarized unto the Innermost. It is a true gelatinous animal, a body trembling through its whole mass, and thereupon phosphorescent.

329. The sun is not inhabited. It has no firm ground.

330. The contest of the primary principles of the elemental bodies upon the planet appears as light.

331. Light is now more closely characterized. It is no longer merely the tension of æther generally, but tension of material elemental bodies. Thereby the light has been torn from heaven and given to the earth. Light has a chemical relation, and admits therefore of comparison with terrestrial matters.

332. Through light the negative, its opposite or the basic, pole has been evoked in matter. The sun is self-posited as oxygen against the planet as Azotic or phlogiston; hydrogen and carbon. Light therefore deoxydises the bodies; it converts them into itself, into a polar principle. Acids placed in the light become deoxydised; nitric acid, muriate of silver. Oxygen is developed in light out of water. In like manner the constituent parts of the air continue separated only through light.

INFLEXION.

333. The light tends from the sun to the earth, not merely because the polarization in accordance with its nature streams forth from the centre to the periphery, because the light is radiality; but because the earth is the basic pole of the sun. It is thus polarity, and not simply the straight line, which light obeys. Light tends to the centre of the earth, because between this and the sun the tension oscillates. The line of tension is only between the two centres.

334. In whatever direction light may fall upon the earth, it must strive towards the middle point. Those bodies that have in themselves the earthy nature, attract the light, not by virtue of an hidden quality, but out of the antagonism with the sun; now it may proceed either from greater density or from true basic import.

335. Rays of light, which pass close to the earth, as rays of tension between the sun and another star, become, from the polarity of the earth being stronger than that of the star, diverted from their straight direction and drawn towards the middle point. This diversion of light from its direct course is called _Inflexion_.

336. It is chiefly basic bodies that inflect the light towards themselves. No such body has an infinite shadow. In other respects, all bodies inflect because they are much denser than light.

TRANSLUCENCY AND REFRACTION.

337. Light, as an Ætherial, permeates matter, and must on that very account pass toward the middle point of the earth, because it is virtually none other than the tension of both middle points, the earth and the sun. Originally therefore the light must have gone through the earth.

338. This permeation is not, however, mechanical but dynamic, and is indeed necessarily a propagation of the tension of æther through the matter.

339. Matter is susceptible of the same polarization of which the æther is susceptible, because it is on no account different from the æther; the polarization only takes place more slowly.

340. The transmission of light is called _Translucency_.

341. The æther is transparent, because it is everywhere the propagation of the tension of light, because it is itself, or becomes, light everywhere. Bodies can also be transparent, only in so far as they are the light itself, i. e. in so far as the same polarization can be excited in them which is constantly excited in æther by the sun. But this is not only possible, but necessary; for matter is surely the æther itself, only condensed. The polarity æther must therefore be capable also of being excited in the condensed æther, although in a much less degree. The transparency of matter is a tension of æther continually ringing through matter. The whole universe originally was transparent; it has only originated through tension of light.

342. Matter is a tension of light that has become central. This continuous tension of light in matter in relation to the centre, and thus with curvation, is called _Refraction_.

343. All transparent bodies must refract light. The bodies are, however, denser than the æther; therefore the light, which passes from a rarer into a denser medium, must be refracted towards the centre (plummet of incidence), and in the reverse case turned from it.

344. Materiality is not the only determinant of refraction, but also the density of the element, the earth refracting light more than water, and this more than air.

345. The density also is not the only determinant, but the quality also of the matter; the Basic or Planetary must refract more than the Oxygenic or Solar.

346. As translucency is not a dead transmission of light, but a continued propagation of tension; so must it be viewed as a process of light in matter, but one excited from without. Translucency is a _co-illumination_, like the concord of equally attuned instruments.

347. Co-illuminating bodies are thus analogous still to the æther. If there are non-transparent bodies, they can only be found in the earth-element, which, being furthest removed from the æther, has perfected itself independently, and they must indeed be wholly deoxydised.

348. The co-illumination of bodies or their transparency is an effort of deoxydation. Bodies that cannot at all be deoxydised are non-transparent.

REFLEXION.

349. Transparency belongs only to those bodies which have in themselves a twofold character. It will be shown that the metals are absolutely identical matters, and therefore non-transparent. The metals are the only non-transparent bodies. Metaleity = non-transparency.

350. The light falls upon a non-transparent only through a transparent body, and thus one in which the tension of light propagates itself. This co-illumination of the matter placed in front of the non-transparent body cannot cease to co-illuminate; the tension must thus abide in it, and turn back from the non-transparent body, in a straight direction if the tension fell direct upon it, at a certain angle, if obliquely. This phenomenon is called _Reflexion_.

351. Reflexion is no repulsion of light, but only its tension continued into the medium, in which the tension has been.

352. A non-transparent body indicates nothing for the tension of light but the limit of the co-illuminating matter; it does not at all operate itself upon the light, it is as it were a void space.

353. Transparent bodies also reflect partly, because they are only relative æther, because they only co-illuminate, are not themselves tensed; or because the basis in all is the metal. Every other medium is, however, an æther differently fixed; in every one therefore the tension has been changed; every medium is thus a limit for the tension, and therefore the transparent bodies also reflect. Since the tension becomes altered, when it passes into another medium, it always remains by preference in the neutral medium; therefore reflexion originates also by the air, when the light passes out of glass very obliquely into it.

_Operation of the terrestrial Elements upon Light._

DECOMPOSITION OF LIGHT--COLOURS.

354. It results from all this, that light cannot enter unchanged into mutual operation with matter. The tension of æther changes itself in matter. This change of light through the influence of matter is a debilitation of the tension of æther and lastly its complete cessation. There can be therefore no absolutely transparent matter; the æther only is this absolutely transparent matter. The denser a material is, by so much the more will it be capable of suppressing in itself the tension of light. The most transparent bodies must also become with a greater density adiaphanous or opaque, because the Metallic increases in them.

355. This suppression or expiration of the tension of light in bodies has received, as likewise proceeding from the mechanical theory of light, the name of _absorption_. The absorption is not a mechanical adherence of the particles of light in the pores of bodies. There are no pores for light, and this requires none.

356. The absorption or _decrescence_ of light is a retrogression of light into the indifference of æther, into _darkness_. Light in conflict with matter does not continue light, but becomes a mean condition between light and darkness.

357. The substratum of light, the æther, has two extreme conditions, and only two, the tensed and the non-tensed; the one is the _light_, the other the _dark_. Between the two, however, are the mediate conditions of _twilight_ or "clare-obscure." The light æther emits rays, the dark does not; the mediate conditions are half the two. The light condition is the clear unsullied light, the absolute translucency; the darkness is the absolute want of translucency; the mediate members are offuscated light, mediate tensions of æther.

358. The mean tension of æther, or light mingled with darkness, is called _Colour_. Colour is a finite, fixed light, the actual transmission of light into matter.

359. No matter can be uncoloured. An uncoloured matter is a nonentity.

360. Since matter is rigidified light, even so must it be posited in reference to colour, like light. Pure light materially substantiated or posited is _White_. The untensed æther materially posited is _Black_.

361. The mediate tensions of æther, or the mixture of Light and Dark, are mean conditions of White and Black, mixtures of the two extremes or androgynisms of White and Black. If we do not call White and Black colours, colours are then partial positions of light in matter, or in the dark.

362. Colour originates only in the _confinity_ of Light and Dark, or in the limit between White and Black. They are therefore microscopic.

363. Darkness is the cause of colours.

364. There is nothing visible but colour, but the coloured matter. The Non-corporeal itself is invisible. Darkness is the cause of all visibility. Were there no darkness, there would be no world for the eye. Colours are only illuminated darkness.

365. In the limit between Light and Dark there is neither White nor Black, but their possible mediate conditions, or the proper colours, the material tensions of æther. If the shadow-line of light be viewed under a magnifying glass, colours will be seen to reside in it. They are invisible only before on account of their minuteness. The prism and the lens do nothing else than magnify the shadow-line of light. They only show the colours that already exist therein, but do not create them.