ONTOLOGY--OF SINGULARS.
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.
366. There is properly only _one_ colour between White and Black;
it is the transmission of light into matter generally. If we look
through a prism with the refracting angle presented downwards, at an
horizontal fissure in the shutter of a dark chamber, the red colour
is then exhibited upon the upper and lower borders of the spectrum
so formed within the eye; thus, in both instances, where the Dark is
above and the White beneath, as also where the latter is above and
the former beneath, as on the inferior border of the opening. Upon
the lower border of the upper Red, and thus in the Clare, Yellow
appears, which is consequently a mixture of Red and White, as seen
through the thinner part of the prism. Yellow is thus brighter Red.
Upon the upper border of the lower Red, thus also in the Clare, Blue
appears, which is consequently a mixture also of Red and White, but
the latter seen through the thicker part of the prism. Blue is thus
offuscated Red. If Yellow and Blue be mixed, Green then originates.
There can be therefore only four colours, whereof the Red is a mixture
of Black and White, Yellow of Red and White, Blue of Red and Black,
Green of Blue and Yellow. The first three are simple or mixed colours,
the last a compound colour or a medley. These colours are parallel
to the gradations in nature, or the latter are none other than the
materializations of colours or the gradations of light. All other
colours must be contained in the Red; it must serve as the basis
or groundwork of all; it must be the noblest, most total, fullest
and purest colour. This colour is the first position of the æther
as matter, and thus of _fire_. _Fire-colour_ is the first-born, the
noblest, highest, fullest, purest; it is the ætherial, cosmic colour.
In fire the light is offuscated by gravity, and thereby coloured.
367. The light is not, however, perfected by its position as fire, but
is posited also terrestrially. There are therefore terrestrial colours
also.
368. There can be only three terrestrial colours, neither more nor
less; for there are only three different material or offuscated
positions of light.
369. The first terrestrial offuscation of light is the _air_. The
colour of the air is thus second in the rank of colours. As the
fire-colour plays the chief part in the cosmic and in all colours, so
does the air-colour among the terrestrial. It is the highest colour of
the planet.
370. The second offuscation of light is water. The colour of water is
the third colour.
371. The third offuscation of light is the earth; and this colour is
the last, the most ignoble. The colours part into two series, the
cosmic or solar, and the terrestrial or planetary. The cosmic is the
Red. The first terrestrial is Blue. The second is Green. The third
is Yellow. Red alone is worth as much as all the three others taken
together. It is the identification of all numbers. Green is merely
their synthesis, the terrestrial, finite totality.
372. The genesis of colours is thus the genesis of the elements, or
that of matter. It cannot be otherwise; for the becoming of matter is
verily an offuscation of light, a coloration. Colour agrees essentially
with the elements, and is itself nothing different from element. Fire
is in its essence red, as being the impartient of light and heat; air
is in its essence nothing else than the blue æther by virtue of its
being gaseous; water is the green æther, earth the yellow. If the æther
is tensed, it then becomes red or fire; if it attains its blue stage,
it becomes air; at the green stage, water, upon the yellow, earth.
373. The elements are only gradations of light, colours. They have
therefore been formed according to the laws of light; for colours are
without doubt the legitimate developments of light.
374. Red, as being the solar or fire-colour, ranks parallel with
oxygen; the more powerful indeed the combustion, the more powerful is
the oxydation, and by so much redder the flame. Matters also become red
through oxydation. The Red vanishes lastly into White, and thus the
highest oxydation is white.
375. The next interchange of Red is with Blue; it becomes red
by oxydation, this again blue by desoxydation, but by excessive
alkalization and terrification, yellow. It is Red that imparts
oxydation, Blue that resolves it and reduces the poles to indifference.
376. From the same cause Red warms, but Blue on the contrary does not.
The calefaction given out in prismatic spectra of colours is an impure
work, in which refractions, diversions and convergences of light, as
well as demi-foci, cooperate.
377. The sun in the firmament may be viewed as the bright opening in
the darkened chamber. Colours are therefore nothing but images of the
sun in darkness, self-manifestations of the sun in dark matter. A point
of light thrown into darkness is colour. This is the case around the
sun, which is therefore surrounded by a hollow globe of colours, by
its own refulgence. The rainbow is a ring around the sun consisting of
infinite positions of the solar spectra in darkness.
378. The symbolical doctrine of the colours is correct according to
the philosophy of nature. _Red_ is fire, love--Father. _Blue_ is air,
truth and belief--Son. _Green_ is water, formation, hope--Ghost. These
are the three cardinal virtues. _Yellow_ is earth, the Immoveable,
Inexorable, falsity the only vice--Satan. There are three virtues,
but only one vice. A result obtained by Physio-philosophy, whereof
Pneumato-philosophy as yet augurs nothing.
COLOURS AND PLANETS.
379. Every condensation of æther by light is consequently a production
of colour, and inversely, every production of colour is a condensation
of the æther. The laws of coloration run parallel with those of
materialization, or, what is more, are the same. The planets are thus
produced according to the laws which light exercises in the production
of colours.
380. There are as many productions of heavenly bodies as there are of
colours, and thus there are four.
381. The sun is the incorporation of Red or fire, the planets are that
of the three terrestrial colours. The comets belong to the kingdom of
darkness.
382. The planets are only suns reflected in darkness as in a mirror;
they have originally been hollow globes of colour, then orbitar
rings of colour (solar rainbows), then points of colour. The planets
are coagulated colours, for they are coagulated light. At that very
distance from the sun, where light begins to grow dim, where, to speak
in the Newtonian sense, it begins to refract, there planetary mass
originates. The mass of the planet thus coagulates together around the
sun, but not in an uniform manner like a mass of pulp, but in pauses of
colours, exactly like a rainbow.
383. These planetary chromatic arcs or bows of colour are related to
the sun like the three terrestrial colours to the cosmic, or as the
three terrestrial elements to fire. _Three_ planetary productions
must have thus formed around the sun, because the light condenses,
materializes itself in three moments. Therefore the planets range
themselves in groups at three great distances. To the _first_
production belong Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Vesta, Juno, Ceres
and Pallas. They are the first digression from Red, the Yellow; the
Earthy preponderates in them. They are all placed close together. To
the _second_ production belong Jupiter and Saturn; water rules them,
and fluctuates visibly upon them; they are the Green. They range
at a great distance from the former group. To the _third_ and most
remote productions belongs Uranus; it is the Blue, in which the air
preponderates. It again ranges at a great distance from the former
group. The comets are naught but æther, which is about to become air.
384. The production of the earth-planets or of the first group is
dispersed into so many as it is on account of the proximity of the sun,
on account of the energy of the rays of light, as well as the import of
the Earthy, which exists essentially under many forms. The planetary
rings have been arranged like scales behind each other, like clouds
through electrical pauses; but these repeat themselves more rapidly, in
the neighbourhood of the sun.
c. HEAT.
385. While the æther falls into a state of tension or shines, it is
thrown into motion. This motion of æther manifests itself as the
conatus or effort to extension. The extension, however, considered as a
world-phenomenon, is _Heat_.
386. Light, when it operates upon terrestrial matter, excites this to
special polarization, whereby the Ætherial that is in it is set in
motion, i. e. heat is generated.
387. Light never moves directly the mass itself, but only the Ætherial
that is in it. Through this motion of the æther it becomes separated
from matter; and this separation is manifested as _free_ heat.
388. Heat is not matter itself any more than light is, but it is only
the act of motion in the primary matter. In heat, as well as in light,
there certainly resides a material substratum; yet this substratum does
not give out heat and light; but the _motion_ only of the substratum
gives out heat, and the _tension_ only of the substratum light. There
is no body of heat; hydrogen is the body of heat, just as oxygen may be
called the body of fire.
389. Heat is real space; into it all forms have been resolved, as all
materiality has been resolved into gravity, and all activity, all
polarity into light. Heat is the universal form, consequently the want
of form.
390. Light properly develops heat out of matter through separation of
the fixed poles from the substance, whereby the latter again passes
over into æther.
391. The development of heat in a body is not an extrusion of a matter
adherent, and as it were foreign, to it; but an ascent of the matter
itself into heat. The matter does not develop, or give out heat, but
_becomes_ heat, namely æther.
392. The loss which a body sustains by the radiation of heat is as
slight as the æther is subtile or rare; thus it is infinitely small,
where the æther is infinitely light. We cannot speak of the loss of
matter, while it is hot; although a true loss is present, if the point
in question be philosophically regarded, it can come, however, as
little under consideration as the weight of the æther.
393. The fusion of bodies is a diminution of the fixity of their poles,
their further evaporation, and thus an approximation to indifference or
the apolarity of æther. Heat is the actual retrogression of matter into
æther; light is only the efficient of this transition.
394. As heat becomes originally excited, so must it be always
excited; two causes for one effect are impossible. The excitation of
heat by oxydation takes place in the same way as by light, namely
by polarization and separation therefore of the Indifferent. The
generation of heat by chemical processes is based upon the same
principle. Lastly, the generation also of heat by compression and
simple _friction_ is wholly similar to that which is caused by
light. In every case they are only polar, and by no means mechanical
operations upon matter, whereby the fixity of the poles becomes changed.
395. It is not a change of cohesion, which the friction mechanically
effects, but the act is purely dynamical. The essence of friction
consists in the constant renewal of polar change, because thereby an
infinite number of projecting points or apices are alternately brought
into contact. There is verily no smooth body.
396. Heat is the transition of light unto darkness; for it is
indifferent æther, only moved. Colours are thus also a conflict of
light with heat, and out of this conflict issues the most beautiful,
the highest colour, the Red of fire. In fire, the contest between light
and darkness has risen to the highest pitch; the æther therefore is
also moved to the greatest degree, becomes hot. If the indifference
becomes the maximum, the vital tension then relaxes, the fire is
extinguished; finally motion ceases, it is cold and dark.
397. In matter also light and heat operate against each other. Light
deoxydizes, heat oxydizes. If light appears to oxydize, it is only by
evoking heat.
398. Heat is the function of expansion for matter. Every body has a
definite degree or amount of expansion, therefore a definite fixity of
æther; this æther is _latent_ heat.
399. Heat operates spherically in matter or in all directions, not in
the linear direction like light. The propagation of heat can only take
place slowly, because it is not a polar action, but only the result of
such an one, only motion. Heat does not penetrate bodies mechanically,
but dynamically like light, yet without decomposing them, as light does.
400. Heat is related as indifferent æther to the matter as to a Polar.
This relation imparts the _process of conduction_. Light, however, is
itself polar and disturbs matter, while it passes through it.
401. With the exception of their cohesion matters are not directly
changed by heat.
402. During every process of decomposition, during every process of
light heat must be produced, but not light also during every process of
heat.
403. Dense materials must conduct heat because they are most opposed to
it. It is only the formed element therefore that can possess capacity
for conducting heat.
404. Absence of form is the character of isolators of heat, form that
of the conductors, apart from every remaining quality. Solid bodies,
which easily pass into the formless condition are isolators.
405. The densest bodies among the solids must be the best conductors.
Regard may be first paid to the nature of their constituent parts in
the sequel of the present section of this work.
406. The conduction of heat is a continuous excitation from one part
striving against or resisting the other; the earths (as metals) are the
best conductors.
407. Matters, which are images of heat, do not conduct, because
they enter only as minimum into conflict with it, and while they
expand at once convert themselves into the same. Such is the air.
The Heterogeneous only conducts. The heat expands in the air only by
continuous motion of the aerial particles. The air is an isolator.
Water ranks in the middle between air and earth.
408. With respect also to conduction, light is opposed to heat. Light
is conducted by those very bodies, which isolate heat, and isolated,
not admitted to permeate or absorbed, by those which conduct heat. The
air conducts light, isolates heat; the metal, the earth conducts heat,
isolates light; water holds a mediate relation towards the two, yet
towards light that of a conductor, because it is deoxydizable.
409. The conduction of light is likewise a process of deoxydation,
or a disintegration of matter. By the conduction of light the bodies
are chemically analysed, and finally resolve themselves into their
principles; such after all is the case with every glass and crystal.
As the process of conduction of light may be called a process of
deoxydation, so also may it be called a process of the generation of
colour. The conduction is an offuscation of light, a colouring; the
deoxydation is a solution of the material bonds, an elevation unto
colour.
2. _Functions of the Air._
ELECTRICITY.
410. The air is the slightest combination of the primary bodies,
and stands in opposition with the two other elements, as more solid
combustions. In this antagonism the air lays claim upon the other
elements to analyse them; these, however, upon the air, to combine, and
undergo more vivid combustion.
411. This antagonism is on a large scale an antagonism of periphery and
centre, like the primary antagonism, by which planets and suns have
withdrawn from each other. The tension of air with the other elements
is called _Electricity_. The centroperipheric antagonism between
the sun and the planet, between light and colour, represented in an
elementary manner is electricity.
412. Sun and planet are electrically related to each other, and
the circumrotation of the latter may be viewed as conditioned by
the change of electrical poles. Colours also are only electrical
productions. Light itself is similar to an electrical tension of the
æther.
413. Electricity is an action of the periphery or limit and thus of the
surface of the globe. The surface of the globe is, however, everywhere
+-without centre. The principles of electricity are therefore eternally
separated without having a middle point, as occurs in magnetism. The
electrical poles live in eternal animosity, because they have no point
of union. Such is then the essence of electricity. Electricity is
therefore only a function of surfaces without any line. It clings only
to the upper surface of the bodies, and does not penetrate into their
thickness. It is only the tension of the surfaces of bodies against
each other, of the apices of divided radii.
414. The air is the periphery, the _limit_ or boundary of the earth.
Electricity is therefore the spirit of air. It is in its most active
state in that stratum of air which is in contact with the earth,
because there the limits are situated. Upon this lightning depends.
415. Electricity, as an aerial function, is terrestrial heat. Both are
therefore conducted by the same rigid linear bodies and isolated by the
same. The isolation of electricity coalesces with absence of form, or
with the transition of denser bodies into air.
416. Electricity is an antagonism between air on the one side and water
and earth upon the other. By these therefore two kinds of operation are
posited in the air.
417. While electricity is the tension of air with the other elements,
it is also the tension of the principles themselves of air. Electricity
is a twofold character appertaining to the two principles of air. The
tension of æther and of substance, thus the tension of fire repeated
upon the two elementary bodies of air, is electricity. Electricity
exists under two forms, as the electricity of the substance or body
of fire, and as that of the planet. These two conditions are perhaps
incorrectly named + E and-E, or positive and negative electricity.
418. The + E is the more energetic, active in itself, polar; it is
the electricity of fire represented in oxygen. The-E is the weaker,
that which has only been evoked, the basic; it is the electricity of
the planet represented in nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon, sulphur. It may
be said that-E is related to + E as planet is to sun, as periphery
to centre. The sun is + E, the planet-E, the one the electricity of
oxygen, the other of hydrogen.
419. These electrical conditions must always be changing in the air,
according as the slightest influence is brought to bear upon them from
without. The air consists in this change of electrical poles. Were
the poles not to change, the air would be a solid element. The earth
is an air with _fixed_ electricity, the water with extinguished or
neutralized electricity.
420. The twofold character of the aerial principles is increased by
every polarizing action from without, and therefore principally by the
surface of the earth, which consists of two elements. Were there no
surface to the earth, were simply air present, then there would be no
electrical change of poles. The surface of the earth itself, however,
produces no change of poles in the air, for it remains always neutral;
but it becomes unequal or polar from the change wrought upon it by
water and earth, by light, by heating and by chemical processes.
421. The air also changes the electricities while it roams over the
earth. This wandering motion is a contact of differently polarized
tracts of the earth. Every mountain, valley, and river, every meadow is
differently polarized; from each the air derives another electricity.
Through this ceaseless alternation of polar exchange, its activity
becomes so elevated that at last the electricity makes its appearance
in a manner cognizable by the senses. The production of electricity by
_friction_ admits of a similar explanation. Friction is in miniature,
what the sweeping of air is over the earth. Were the earth quite level,
and composed of homogeneous matter, the air would not become electric
by motion.
422. All terrestrial electricity has been evoked by a change of poles
analogous to friction. Through light nothing foreign is posited in the
air, any more than by friction, and by both the electricity is attained
in a similar dynamical manner.
423. The elements of the air, polarized to the highest degree by
electricity, must combine, and this combination is the process of
combustion. The final result of electrical tension is combustion
of air. It is only, however, the two primary bodies that undergo
combustion; the two constituent parts of the air must, therefore, be
driven by electricity to their last extreme, even to the most perfect
element of fire and the basic or terrestrial substance. The internal
combination of both these primary or elemental bodies, or the product
of this aerial combustion is next of all _water_. The termination of
electrical tension in the air is rain. All rain is the extinguished
function, the dying spirit of air. The two hostile principles are
reconciled in water. Water accompanies every process of combustion.
424. By electricity the air was separated into the two inferior
elements, into water and earth. At present, where the whole water and
the whole earth has been precipitated from air, rain is certainly as a
rule only water condensed and held in solution in the air.
425. The nitrogen gas is the residue of the primary rain. After the air
has become sea by the combination of oxygen and hydrogen, it no longer
creates water out of its own bulk, but now rederives it from the sea,
and still but imitates its primary process in rain.
426. Were there merely solid land upon the planet, the oxygen pole
would be evoked in the air, and the latter would be precipitated wholly
as water. Were there merely water or sea upon the planet, the nitrogen
pole would be evoked, and the air be wholly precipitated as earth. But
since the two elements are constantly and alternately operating upon
the air, so must at one time water, at another earth, be generated and
precipitated from it. The earths in the act of falling down, or in
precipitation, are the meteoric stones. They are only the after-births
of the primary decomposition of air.
427. It can indeed be none other than carbonic acid, which is converted
by decomposition into meteoric stones, or at least into the metals and
earths which they contain. Sulphur must be regarded as the melting
down of carbon and hydrogen. In the upper lighter regions of the air
carburetted hydrogen gas may very well be present, and condense itself
into meteoric stones.
428. The condensation must take place by means of electricity. The
greater condensation or solidification, as well as the calefaction,
results indeed first through the fall.
429. Their bursting is only conceivable when some hydrogen gas is in
the meteoric stone, which gas, when submitted to the highest degree of
heat, becomes finally fulminating gas and bursts the stone.
430. Meteoric stones are children of our planet, and not of the
world-space. They are the antagonism of the water-formation or of rain.
431. The falling stars are simply indeed condensed carbon or hydrogen
gas, but which by reason of its small mass does not become solid. It
is probably converted only into sulphur. Thus falling stars would
be the other halves of meteoric stones; the latter consisting of a
preponderance of carbon, being therefore earths and metals; the former
of a preponderance of hydrogen, being therefore carburetted hydrogen
or sulphur. A greater number of meteoric stones must fall over the sea
than over the solid land.
3. _Function of the Water._
SOLUTION.
432. The function of water is necessarily homologous with the process
of combustion, because the main bulk or proportion of water is oxygen.
In conformity with its spiritual activity does water seek to convert
the two other elements into water, to impart to them its form, to
fluidize them. This happens with the air when it has been absorbed;
but upon the earth also the water exercises the same action.
433. The function of water is the formation of globes or the _Process
of Solution_; it directs itself chiefly against the solid; for the
solid element is the redintegrant factor of water. Solution is a
positing of the solid under the internal polar form, but the poles of
which have not yet separated. Every solid _formation_ has come out of
water, as water has out of air; every new formation must also return
out of water, by fluidization, by relaxation of the poles. By solution,
solid matters are again reduced to their primary condition, and are
then capable of reassuming new fixities. The process of solution is a
process of becoming water, not by agglutination, but by liberations of
fixity; a _Solution_ in the strongest sense of the term.
434. No process of solution is conceivable without oxydation. The
dissolved body, while it obtains the aqueous nature, is taken up in
the sense of oxygen. No solution occurs without oxygen, as well as no
combustion is possible without water. The solvent character of water is
based upon the preponderance of the oxygen over the hydrogen.
435. During every solution the two principles of water enter into
a state of tension with each other, as the two aerial principles
do in electricity. This tension is established by that which is to
undergo solution; for everything so circumstanced is polar towards
water. During every solution the oxygen is elevated in its pole, and
the hydrogen likewise. If the solution be very heterogeneous, they
separate, the water is decomposed. In the pure process of solution the
water simply abides in a state of tension; if each aqueous principle is
actually and independently self-evolved, chemistry then originates; but
of this we shall discourse in the sequel. The process of solution may
be characterized as the equilibrium of the process of tension between
the object that is to undergo solution and the solvent, and between the
two principles of the latter, whereby separation is not thus attained.
As electricity finally strikes out into the process of combustion, so
does that of solution into the chemical.
436. Solution is in essence like electricity. Solution is an electrical
tension between oxygen and carbon; electricity is a process of solution
between oxygen and nitrogen, a process of tension without separation of
principles. Air and water are in a state of constant tension towards
each other; and hence therefore result the constant evaporation and the
clouds.
437. What lightning is in the air, namely formation of water, that is
chemistry in water. The salt in the sea is what the clouds are in the
air. Two electrical clouds are what two salts are in the water. Rain is
the imitation of the creation of water. Precipitation of salt is the
imitation of the creation of earth.
4. _Functions of the Earth._
CRYSTALLIZATION.
438. The earth-element is the highest result of combustion in creation,
the highest fixation of æther. The earth is the æther represented as
centre in the Material, or it is the identification of all polar binary
division in the Terrestrial, independently of oxydation; therefore its
parts are motionless, be they dust or compact masses. The earth is the
corporeal gravity, the substance as a perfectly simple position without
emergence out of itself, the 0, the terrestrial monas. The earth is
consequently the heaviest and densest element, and is that which must
include the middle point of our own and every planet.
439. In the middle of the planet there is only earth, and nothing else;
the middle is not hollow, does not contain any central fire as has been
imagined, nor air, and the science of Geogeny will show that no metal
also could be contained in the interior of the earth.
440. In the air both material principles are only associated with each
other, in water they are mixed, but in the earth identified, blended
together.
441. The earth is to the other elements what the sun is to the planets,
namely, the basis, the centre and that the mathematical as well as
the dynamic centre. That this is the part played by the earth-element
is proved not only by its character, but also by its volume. The
earth-element exceeds the other elements in mass as much as the sun
does the planets; the water is only the vascular system in the flesh of
the earth-element; while the air is only the expression of the limit or
in other words its integument.
442. Everything therefore that now occurs upon the planet develops
itself out of the earth, the water and the air being only the
auxiliaries of generation. The Earthy is developed in the water by
the air. As creation has been closed with the earth, so may the solid
materials, which are now and then found upon the planet apart from the
earth, not be products of the first creation, but only developments of
the planet when created and cosmically completed.
443. The earth as material gravity is solid. It has, however,
originated out of the fluid, therefore by a process of cohesion; this
is called the _Process of Crystallization_.
444. The process of crystallization is perfectly equivalent to the
process of fixation of the æther, and is only the termination of
the same. As light at any spot in the world-space creates a central
point, the nucleus of a comet, around which more of the mass of
æther is constantly accumulating till it finally coagulates into
the solid condition; so does the process of crystallization evoke
some particular spot, point or nucleus in the water, wherein the
crystallizing forces are excited, which attract the mass that is
susceptible of fixation and fashion it into a crystal. The process of
crystallization is a process of fixation, and with it also is furnished
the theory of crystallization. The process of crystallization is a
process of polarization, and one indeed that proceeds from a centre;
or, properly speaking, the point, from which the polarizing process
emerges in a fluidity that is fixable or in other words susceptible of
crystallization, becomes a central point, a middle point and virtually
the middle point of the crystal.
445. The process of polarization does not originate absolutely in
the fluid, any more than light has the power of concentrating or
crystallizing itself in any given part of the æther; but by an external
determination. This is a granule, a projecting point in the vessel
or in the hollow of the earth, in which the crystals originate. The
crystal never begins in the middle of the fluid, but only on its walls
or on the surface. The point of polarization or of crystallization has
been granted; now this is polar towards the fluid, and works therefore
by polarizing upon it, and through this water also passes over into the
crystal, forming what is called water of crystallization.
446. This polarization of the fluid passes in every direction; for
every polar point is polar all around. Thus a spherical portion of
the fluid is polarized round about the point. The fixable parts are
spheroidally attracted and gather together from all sides around the
point. For were the polarization not to traverse the whole mass, but
only according to individual lines, the crystal must then indeed be
jagged or indented.
447. In this manner the crystal would have been a globe, from the
fixable particles lying together in distinct points, after the manner
of pulp. But this is impossible, because the point of starting or
departure is differently polarized to the fluidity, being negative
according to observation. Every polar process does not operate in
continuity, so that one end of the line should be purely positive,
the other, however, purely negative; but every polar line is an
infinity of poles, where, however, at one end the positive character
only, at the other the negative preponderates. Such a line is e. g.
as follows, +-+-+-, which begins with + and ends with-; it therefore
has a preponderance of + at one end, of-at the other, and yet is both
everywhere. By this infinity of polar change the fixable particles
range themselves behind each other, while they separate from each
other to an infinitely minute degree; these parts polarized behind
each other are lines or fibres. Every crystal must accordingly consist
of fibres; none possesses an homogeneous or pultaceous structure.
448. In the crystal one principal direction of polarization originates,
which is effected by the antagonism of the point of crystallization
with the fluid mass. It gives the direction of the crystal and its
energy gives the length. This principal line consists of two poles
that recede from each other, and these determine the two ends of the
crystal, which are always similar, provided no mechanical obstacle be
interposed.
449. From each of the mutually seceding poles lines of polarization
issue at definite angles, which (like elliptical radii on the
periphery) meet at the sides of the newly produced crystal. Then again
between these radii tension arises, so that the fibres become lamellæ.
The main line between the two mutually seceding poles is the central
line or _polar axis_ of the crystal; the angular lines which determine
the position of the lamellæ, are the _polar radii_. The polar radii
determine the _nucleus_ of the crystal and are therefore nuclear lines;
the polar axis determines the whole of the crystal, is the crystal,
the central-line, and determines the form in general, or what has been
called the secondary form.
450. Since all polar activities operate only in a straight line, there
can thus be no globular crystal. Water is only susceptible of assuming
the globular form upon a large as well as a small scale, because there
are no fixed poles in it. The nucleus does not originate previous to
the secondary form; since it is verily impossible for the polar rays to
originate without a polar axis.
451. There are no actual degradations in the genesis of the crystal;
they are only a mathematical expression for the finished form of the
crystal.
452. The number of possible or actual nuclei is definite. They are
based upon the combination of the laws of the globe with those of the
polarity.
453. The simplest angular body must be circumscribed by at least four
surfaces, and thus be a tetrahedron.
454. The fundamental nucleus of crystals is, however, the double
tetrahedron or the hexahedron, namely the trilateral double-pyramid;
for radii do not proceed simply from the point of commencement, but
also from the extremities of the axis. When the superior and inferior
radii meet, they must form a double-tetrahedron. The disposition to
this form has been implanted in all crystals. If the nucleus becomes no
such hexahedron, the aberration from, still admits of being referred
to, the hexahedron.
455. There is no prismatic nucleus. The columns and parallelopiped
nuclei are only mutilations.
456. The tetrahedron is also only a mutilated nucleus. To the essence
of a nucleus belong two tetrahedra, with their bases joined to each
other.
457. The six-sided double-pyramid is a duplication of the hexahedron.
The octahedric nuclei, are things intermediate between the three-and
six-sided interruptions of the natural type, like quadrinumeral or
tetrapetalous corollæ in flowers.
458. Columns originate only between the two tetrahedra, without doubt
owing to deficiency in bulk.
459. If the three-sided double-pyramid be the primary form of crystals,
so must the six-sided column with trilateral terminal pyramids be
the ultimate form. The rhomboidal-dodecahedron is therefore the most
perfect crystal. It is the most perfect representation of the globe in
the angular form.
460. The crystal can not commence with the nucleus and then for the
first time continue to grow or even _change_ into the perfected
crystal, because it becomes only crystal in the conflict of the linear
and spherical action. As little as the sun can be produced without
the planet, or vice versâ, so little can a nucleus subsist without
what is called the external shell or crust. The nucleus is in fact
determined by the shell of the crystal, namely by the polar axis. But
inversely also the shell is determined by the nucleus, by the polar
radii. A nucleus alone would be called a centre of a circle without
circumference. Microscopic crystals therefore have at once the same
perfected form as the largest in size. A crystal is an entire heavenly
body; it is determined by central forces, which have, however, been
roused and conducted by dualizing forces, forces of light. Everywhere
do we meet with the same laws of the fixation of æther, upon a small as
well as large scale.
461. Every solid matter and thus the Terrestrial generally, is
crystallized upon a small as well as large scale. There cannot be an
atom that were not crystallized, not arranged according to central and
polar forces. Every crystal is therefore, and especially by reason
of the infinity of the subordinate poles, crystallized again upon an
infinitely small scale, or in other words it consists of infinitely
numerous crystals. Every lamella or every particle of the lamella of
a crystal consists again of crystals. These are what are called the
_integral parts_, properly integral forms of the crystal. They are all
probably hexahedra. The metals usually form but very small crystals,
probably because the atoms are too heavy and cannot therefore be
attracted from any distance.
462. Crystallography has been incorrectly made the principle of
division in Mineralogy. A single character can never become a principle
of division. If also it were actually true, that the form is always
disposed according to the Interior, yet the form could never be the
principle of division, but the Interior itself. The form is only the
sign, but not the spirit, the essence of the mass.
D.--_KINGDOMS OF NATURE._
INDIVIDUALS.
463. All the matters that have hitherto originated have done so only
in a _general_ not a _particular_ manner. They are constituent parts
of the universe, in which as yet no distinctions reside. So soon as
distinctions occur in the elements, they cease to be general matters,
and become particular or individual things. The sum of the individuals
is the Kingdoms of Nature.
464. The kingdoms of nature are the repetition of the world upon the
planet. This repetition in consciousness is Natural History.
465. Acts of the world repeated upon the planet are combinations of the
elements. Creation, which has hitherto advanced, now retrogrades, and
thus by the combinations of general elements that have been already
created.
466. Combinations of the elements, in accordance with the laws of the
world, are upon the finite planet particular or individual bodies. The
kingdoms of nature are the totality of particular bodies.
467. That which is not a Particular belongs not to the kingdoms of
nature, and thus also does not come within the province of Natural
History, but of Physics.
468. The earth-element lies at the basis of all the combinations of the
elements. These combinations are therefore ascensions or retrogressions
in creation. Only three such combinations are therefore possible, viz.
1. Of the earth with water, or air, or fire--binary combination. 2. Of
the earth with water and air, without fire--ternary combination. 3. Of
the earth with water, air, and fire--quaternary combination.
469. Out of the binary combination the quiescent bodies originate, for
they are only a part of the planet--_Minerals_, _Earths_.
470. Out of the ternary combination originate bodies that are
internally moved, for they are a whole planet in Particulars--_Plants_.
471. Out of the quaternary combination particular bodies, moved
throughout and rotating around themselves, originate; for they are
representations of the whole universe--_Animals_. Individual bodies
that are moved internally are called organic.
472. There can be therefore only _three_ Kingdoms of Nature. The
first consists simply of individualities, because it is not the equal
proportion of all the elements. The two other kingdoms, however, are
combinations of the individualities of the earth-element with two or
three elements, and are thus equivalent to the planet or to the whole
universe. The organic bodies are thus combinations of the Singular with
the Whole, and supply the third part of the Philosophy of Nature, the
Organology.
FIRST KINGDOM.
MINERAL OR EARTH KINGDOM.
473. Uni-or bin-elementary terrestrial bodies are minerals or earths;
their development is Mineralogy in the general sense of that term.
The earths regarded individually gives us the science of _Mineralogy_
proper; combined to form a whole, that of _Geology_.
I.--_MINERALOGY._
474. Mineralogy teaches us the development of the earth-element.
475. The earth-element does not exist universally, but only in
particular bodies or individuals. There is no general earth, but it is
either silicious earth or common salt, sulphur or iron, and so on.
476. The earth-element or the earth can only sustain changes, which are
permanent or abiding; for in it alone fixation has become formation, in
which the atoms do not move, or whereby at least a constant individual
character of body, or one that is chemical, becomes apparent. The
changes undergone by the other three elements are not constant, because
of the atoms ceaselessly moving and balancing themselves. They do not
exist individually, but only universally. There is only _one_ water,
_one_ air, and only _one_ fire; there are therefore no igneous, aerial,
and aqueous individuals.
477. The changes of the earth-element can only take place upon its
fundamental or characteristic body, thus on carbon.
478. Nothing can, however, change of itself. All change must proceed
from external influence. All things can be changed therefore by such
influences only as are already antecedent to or _before_ them. The two
other bodies, however, are prior to carbon; before the earth-element
only the three other elements.
479. The earth can therefore be changed in only two ways; either the
carbon by the other elemental bodies, or the total earth-element by the
other elements.
480. The changes wrought by the influence of these bodies are, however,
only partial or fractional changes. Therefore partial or chemical
diversities only originate, and with them other different bodies or
degrees of such. The changes effected by the elements are, however,
total changes, which bear not only reference to the carbon, but to all
the constituent parts of the earth-element.
481. Total changes or different conditions of the earth-element are
called _Minerals_, or earths.