THE

RAY SOCIETY.

INSTITUTED MDCCCXLIV.

LONDON.

MDCCCXLVII.

ELEMENTS
OF
PHYSIOPHILOSOPHY.

BY

LORENZ OKEN, M.D.

PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZÜRICH; &c. &c.

FROM THE GERMAN

BY

ALFRED TULK,

MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE RAY SOCIETY.
MDCCCXLVII.

C. AND J. ADLARD, PRINTERS,
BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE.

"Of all truths relating to phenomena, the most valuable to us are those which relate to the order of their succession. On a knowledge of these is founded every reasonable anticipation of future facts, and whatever power we possess of influencing those facts to our advantage. Even the laws of geometry are chiefly of practical importance to us as being a portion of the premises from which the order of the succession of phenomena may be inferred."

John Stuart Mill.

Begun in the autumn of the year 1845, without the cognizance, or at the suggestion of a single human being, the present Translation is due to the fact of its original having encountered a somewhat kindred spirit, and aroused therein the desire to render others participant, if possible, in the large amount of instruction it is so well calculated to afford. And now that the work is done, what remains for the labourer at second-hand to say by way of preamble to his newly-dressed wares? Had the book been printed within the pale of a philosophical or physico-theological sect, the Translator's final duty would have been clearly enough prescribed. Already bound to the profession of "particular tenets," his main object would be to indulge in a laudatory but servile abstract of his author's doctrines, or, if having set out with the expressed intention of illustrating their bearings upon the state of science past, present, and to come, he would become so drunk beforehand with the large and unbridled potation of his creed, as to surprise the casual reader by informing him that such an intention is useless, for the two stand in direct antithesis to each other. Examples of this mode of procedure are not wanting at the present day, whether at home or abroad. They are the produce of that spirit, which, rife enough in the Middle Ages, has been so graphically described by Professor Whewell under the title of the "Commentatorial," and "whose professed object is to explain, to enforce, to illustrate doctrines assumed to be true, but not to obtain additional truths or new generalizations." While from dealings of this character, as being utterly opposed to the sacred cause of Truth, I turn away with feelings of repugnance, to which the lessons of some personal experience have lent their aid, it is not my business, upon the othervi hand, to enter the lists of controversy against those who, having neither the capacity, nor the desire of its cultivation, for the higher walks of science, delight to dismiss a work of the present kind with some idle anathema of mysticism or evasive outcry for more facts.

I refrain from essaying to give any condensed formula or outlineA of Professor Oken's Physio-philosophy: first, because its leading points have been already noted in his own prefaces to the German work and its translation; secondly, because the book will, I trust, best speak for itself to those who shall come with minds unprejudiced and duly prepared, each one in his particular department, to its study; and, lastly, because any such attempt would necessarily involve an amount of historical and critical details, which must be here superficially treated and so misplaced. Suffice it to observe, that the present work stands alone in Germany, as being the most practical application upon a systematic scale of the principles advanced by Schelling, more especially in the Mathesis and Ontology; for the concluding part or Biology stands almost "per se." As such it will form, apart from other and higher considerations, a readily available introduction to the writings upon similar subjects of Carus, Steffens, Hegel and others, and may induce further attempts to render, by translation or history, the English student familiar with much of what at present is known only by scattered fragments in journals, or through the medium of reviews. From what has been said, the reader will be at no loss to discern in what light the Translator humbly desires to be viewed in reference to the present work. He rests content with the confident hope that its pages will be, at least, found eminently suggestive, that new thoughts will be awakened by facts and their relations being here cast in a fresh mould, that shall stimulate others in the field of inquiry, and open paths hitherto untrod. In this he is but expressing the sentiments ofvii the author himself, and acknowledging what the present time with its accumulating mass of knowledge presses upon us more and more—the necessity of work, wherein abstract science and experience, theory and facts shall advance together, the Ideal in part receiving and reflecting back with increased lustre the light which it has derived from the Real or outward semblance of things.

Meanwhile, it is with no small amount of diffidence and hesitation that the present Translation will quit my hands. Hemmed in by a rigid dialectic terminology upon all sides, I have had difficulties of no ordinary kind to contend with in adapting a language, composed of such varied elements as our own, to meet the requisites of general clearness and conciseness that form so prominent a feature of the German work. If errors and obscurities exist, the blame, it will be observed, attaches to myself, not to the distinguished author. Ill-health has conflicted much with the calmness and repose of mind so indispensable to an undertaking, at once novel in kind and character to the English reader; or otherwise, these (my last labours unto any extent as a Translator) might have been rendered more worthy of the Ray Society and the objects it has in view.

To those who have kindly afforded me assistance in the progress of the work, and to the latter body for undertaking it, I here return many grateful thanks. The Author himself in a letter to the Translator, dated Jan. 12, 1847, acknowledges the acceptance of his work by the Society in the following words:—"The intelligence of my Physio-philosophy having been deemed worthy of translation by so goodly and enlightened a Society, cannot be otherwise unto me than a source of delight."B

ALFRED TULK.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE TRANSLATION.

It is with no readiness or pleasure that I write introductions of any kind, and usually abstain from doing so, partly because they appear to me like a kind of apology or makeshift for the author, and partly because the contents of the book itself should indicate his status or position. With regard, however, to the history of the work, some few words are certainly requisite for its Translation.

I wrote the first Edition of 1810 in a kind of inspiration, and on that account it was not so well arranged as a systematic work ought to be. Now, although this may appear to have been amended in the second and third edition, yet still it was not possible for me to completely attain the object held in view. The book has therefore remained essentially the same as regards its fundamental principles, such as those concerning the formation of matter, the protoplasmic substance (Schleim-Substanz) and vesicular form of the organic mass, the signification and function of the organs, as also the principles of classification in Minerals, Plants and Animals, so that all this is consequently as old as the first edition. It is only the empirical arrangement into series of plants and animals, that has been modified from time to time in accordance with the scientific elevation of their several departments, or just as discoveries and anatomical investigations have increased and rendered some other position of the objects a matter of necessity. This susceptibility to change will of course be persistent in the future, although the principles themselves should continue wholly unchanged; ay, the very stability of the latter will tend the more to invite the naturalist to the pursuit of empirical inquiries, by determining beforehand in what direction he is to extend his point of view, and thus spare himself the trouble of blindly and laboriously groping about in the dense labyrinth of facts. Such a work therefore as the present can only approximate completion through the progress made in science, and each new edition will supply some defect of its predecessor in the distribution or parcelling out of things.

x

In the first edition the principle was raised of individual bodies being alone the object of Natural History, and that in the next place they are to be arranged according to the combination of their organs or component parts, and by no means after the division or mere form of a single organ; that, for example, a special organ or anatomical system lies as the basis of each Vegetable and Animal class, and that there must be therefore as many classes, and no more, as there are cardinal organs present upon which to found them. On that account it was absolutely necessary first of all to find out these cardinal organs, and determine their rank; and, in so doing, it was shown that organs and classes are at bottom of one kind, and that the development by stages or degrees of the embryo is the antetype of that of the classes; furthermore, that each class takes its starting-point from below, and consequently that the classes do not stand simply one above the other, but fall into a series of mutually parallel ranks. Now it is this which, along with the doctrine of the infusorio-vesicular form of the organic mass, and that touching the signification of parts, as to how e. g. the blossom is the repetition of the vegetable axis or trunk, the cephalic bones that of the vertebræ, the feet of the branchiæ, and the maxillæ in turn of the feet, appears to me the cardinal point attained in my Philosophy of Nature; more especially, because it was these very doctrines which were first of all, i. e. before all the others, comprehended and almost universally adopted. The inorganic matters and activities pass, however, parallel also to the anatomical formations and functions; and that this is the case too with the spiritual or psychical functions the philosophy of the future will probably be in the condition to point out.

The reader will not expect to find that the serial arrangement of Plants and Animals, with their parallelism, has been in every instance thoroughly attained. The present is but a sample of how we are to proceed in our desire of obtaining a Natural system. With such an attempt one has something to change every year, and I have in the present translation made some alterations in respect to the Mollusca and Fishes. In this sense then it is my wish that the book may be regarded, and accordingly received with its due amount of indulgence.

LORENZ OKEN.

xi

PREFACE.

The first principles of the present work I laid down in my small pamphlet entitled Grundriss der Naturphilosophie, der Theorie der Sinne und der darauf gegrundeten Classification der Thiere; Frankfurt bey Eichenberg, 1802, 8vo (out of print). I still abide by the position there taken, namely, that the Animal Classes are virtually nothing else than a representation of the sense-organs, and that they must be arranged in accordance with them. Thus, strictly speaking, there are only 5 Animal Classes: Dermatozoa, or the Invertebrata; Glossozoa, or the Fishes, as being those animals in whom a true tongue makes for the first time its appearance; Rhinozoa, or the Reptiles, wherein the nose opens for the first time into the mouth and inhales air; Otozoa, or the Birds, in which the ear for the first time opens externally; Ophthalmozoa, or the Thricozoa, in whom all the organs of sense are present and complete, the eyes being moveable and covered with two palpebræ or lids. But since all vegetative systems are subordinated to the tegument or general sense of feeling, the Dermatozoa divide into just as many or corresponding divisions, which, on account of the quantity of their contents, may be for the sake of convenience also termed classes. Thereby 9 classes of the inferior animals originate, but which, when taken together, have only the worth or value of a single class. So much by way of explaining the apparent want of uniformity in the system.

I first advanced the doctrine, that all organic beings originate from and consist of vesicles or cells, in my book upon Generation. (Die Zeugung. Frankfurt bey Wesche, 1805, 8vo.) These vesicles, when singly detached and regarded in their original process of production, are the infusorial mass, or the protoplasma (Ur-Schleim) from whence all larger organisms fashion themselves or are evolved. Their production is therefore nothing else than a regular agglomeration of Infusoria; not of course of species already elaborated or perfect, but of mucous vesicles or points in general, which first form themselves by their union or combination into particularxii species. This doctrine concerning the primo-constituent parts of the organic mass is now generally admitted or recognised, and I need not, therefore, add anything by way of apology for it or defence.

In mine and Kieser's Beyträgen zur vergleichenden Zoologie, Anatomie und Physiologie; Frankfurt bey Wesche, 1806, 4to, I have shown that the intestines originate from the umbilical vesicle, and that this corresponds to the vitellus. It is true Friedrich Wolf had already discovered it in the chick, but his was only a single instance, and completely forgotten. I have also discovered it and without knowing anything about my being anticipated, since it was nowhere taught. But I have elevated this structure to the light of a general law, and it is that unto which I may fairly lay claim. In the same essay I have introduced into the Physiology the Corpora Wolfiana, or Primordial Kidneys, but, having failed to recognise their signification, any one who pleases may filch away the credit of their bare detection.

In my Essay: Ueber die Bedeutung der Schädelknochen, (Ein Programm beym Antritt der Professur an der Gesammt-Universität zu Jena; Jena gedruckt bey Göpfert, 1807, verlegt zu Frankfurt bey Wesche, 4to,) I have shown that the head is none other than a vertebral column, and that it consists of four vertebræ, which I have respectively named Auditory, Maxillary or Lingual, Ocular and Nasal vertebra; I have also pointed out that the maxillæ are nothing else but repetitions of arms and feet, the teeth being their nails; all this is carried out more circumstantially and in detail in the Isis, 1817, S. 1204; 1818, S. 510., 1823. litt. Anzeigen S. 353 und 441. This doctrine was at first scoffed at and repulsed; finally, when it began to force its way, several barefaced persons came forward, who would have made out if they could, that the discovery was achieved long ago. The reader will not omit to notice that the above essay appeared as my Antritts-Programm, or Inaugural discourse, upon being appointed Professor at Jena.

In my Essay entitled Ueber das Universum als Fortsetzung des Sinnensystems; Jena bey Frommann, 1808, 4to, I showed that the Organism is none other than a combination of all the Universe's activities within a single individual body. This doctrine has led me to the conviction that World and Organism are one in kind, and do not stand merely in harmony with each other. From hence was developed my Mineral, Vegetable and Animal system, as also my philosophical Anatomy and Physiology.

xiii

In my Essay entitled Erste Ideen zur Theorie des Lichts, der Finsterniss, der Farben und der Wärme; Jena bey Frommann, 1808, 4to, I pointed out, that the Light could be nothing but a polar tension of the æther, evoked by a central body in antagonism with the planets; and that the Heat were none other than the motion of this æther. This doctrine appears to be still in a state of fermentation.

In my Essay entitled Grundzeichnung des natürlichen Systems der Erze; Jena bey Frommann, 1809, 4to, I arranged the Ores for the first time, not according to the Metals, but agreeably to their combinations with Oxygen, Acids, and Sulphur, and thus into Oxyden, Halden, Glanzen, and Gediegenen. This has imparted to the recent science of Mineralogy its present aspect or form.

In the first edition of my Lehrbuch der Naturphilosophie, 1810 and 1811, I sought to bring these different doctrines into mutual connexion, and to show, forsooth, that the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal classes are not to be arbitrarily arranged in accordance with single or isolated characters, but to be based upon the cardinal organs or anatomical systems, from which a firmly established number of classes must of necessity result; moreover, that each of these classes commences or takes its starting-point from below, and consequently that all of them pass parallel to each other. This parallelism is now pretty generally adopted, at least in England and France, though with sundry modifications, which, from the principles being overlooked or neglected, are based at random, and are not therefore to be approved of. As in chemistry, where the combinations follow a definite numerical law, so also in Anatomy the organs, in Physiology the functions, and in Natural History the classes, families and even genera of Minerals, Plants and Animals, present a similar arithmetical ratio. The genera are indeed, on account of their great number and arbitrary erection to the rank whose title they bear, not to be circumscribed or limited in every case with due propriety, nor brought into their true scientific place in the system; it is nevertheless possible to render their parallelism with each other clear, and to prove that they by no means form a single ascending series. If once the genera of Minerals, Plants and Animals come to stand correctly opposite each other, a great advantage will accrue therefrom to the science of Materia Medica; for corresponding genera will act specifically upon each other.

These principles, which I have now carried out into detail, werexiv retained in the second, and have been also in the third or present edition of the Physio-philosophy, the arrangement and serial disposition of the natural objects having, with my increase of knowledge and concomitant views of things, been amended, enlarged or diminished, as the case might require, especially in the Mineral, Vegetable and Animal systems. I am very well aware that there is many an object which does not stand in its right place; but where again is there a single system in which this is not still more strikingly the case? We have here dealt only with the restoration of the edifice, wherein, after years of long and oft-repeated attempts, the furniture may for the first time be properly distributed, without detriment to its general bearings or ground plan.

In my Lehrbuch der Naturgeschichte, the Mineralogical and Zoological portions of which are out of print, but the Botanical still to be had (Weimar, Industrie-Comptoir, 1826), I have arranged for the first time the genera and species in accordance with the above principles, and stated everything of vital importance respecting these matters. This was the first attempt to frame a scientific Natural History, and one unto which I have remained true in my last work, the Allgemeine Naturgeschichte, the principles whereof I have sought to develop more distinctly and in detail in the work now before the reader.

Thus then have I prosecuted throughout a long series of years one kind of principle, and worked hard to perfectionate it upon all sides. Yet, notwithstanding my endeavour to amass the manifold stores of knowledge so requisite to an undertaking like this, I could not acquire within the vast circuit that appertains thereunto, many things which might be necessary unto a system extending into all matters of detail. This it is to be hoped the reader will acknowledge, and have forbearance for the errors, against which every one will stumble who has busied himself throughout life with a single branch of the natural sciences. Natural History is not a closed department of human knowledge, but presupposes numerous other sciences, such as Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry and Physics, with even Medicine, Geography and History; so that one must be content with knowing only the main facts of the same, and relinquishing the Singular to its special science. The gaps and errors in Natural History can therefore be filled up or removed only by numerous writers and in the lapse of time.

xv

CONTENTS.

1

PHYSIO-PHILOSOPHY.

INTRODUCTION.

CONCEPTION OF THE SCIENCE.

1. Philosophy, as the science which embraces the principles of the universe or world, is only a logical, which may perhaps conduct us to the real, conception.

2. The universe or world is the reality of mathematical ideas, or, in simpler language, of mathematics.

3. Philosophy is the recognition of mathematical ideas as constituting the world, or the repetition of the origin of the world in consciousness.

4, 5. Spirit is the motion of mathematical ideas. Nature, their manifestation.

6. The philosophy of Spirit is the representation of the movements of ideas in consciousness.

7. The philosophy of Nature that of the phenomena or manifestations of ideas in consciousness.

8. The world consists of two parts: of one apparent, real, or material; and one non-apparent, ideal, spiritual, in which the material is not present, or which is naught in relation to the material.

9. There are, accordingly, two parts or divisions of Philosophy, viz. Pneumato-and Physio-philosophy.

10. Physio-philosophy has to show how, and in accordance indeed with what laws, the Material took its origin; and, therefore, how something derived its existence from nothing. It has to portray the first periods of the world's development from nothing; how the elements and heavenly bodies originated; in what method by self-evolution into higher and manifold forms, they2 separated into minerals, became finally organic, and in Man attained self-consciousness.

11. Physio-philosophy is, therefore, the generative history of the world, or, in general terms, the History of Creation, a name under which it was taught by the most ancient philosophers, viz. as Cosmogony. From its embracing the universe, it is plainly the Genesis of Moses.

12. Man is the summit, the crown of nature's development, and must comprehend everything that has preceded him, even as the fruit includes within itself all the earlier developed parts of the plant. In a word, Man must represent the whole world in miniature.

13. Now since in Man are manifested self-consciousness or spirit, Physio-philosophy has to show that the laws of spirit are not different from the laws of nature; but that both are transcripts or likenesses of each other.

14. Physio-and Pneumato-philosophy range, therefore, parallel to each other.

15. Physio-philosophy, however, holds the first rank, Pneumato-philosophy the second: the former, therefore, is the ground and foundation of the latter, for nature is antecedent to the human spirit.

16. Without Physio-philosophy, therefore, there is no Pneumato-philosophy, any more than a flower is present without a stem, or an edifice without foundation.

17. The whole of philosophy depends, consequently, upon the demonstration of the parallelism that exists between the activities of Nature and of Spirit.

DIVISION OF THE SCIENCE.

18. It will be shown in the sequel that the Spiritual is antecedent to nature. Physio-philosophy must, therefore, commence from the spirit.

19. It will also be shown in the sequel that the whole Animal Kingdom, e. g. is, none other than the representation of the several activities or organs of Man; naught else than Man disintegrated. In like manner nature is none other than the representation of the individual activities of the spirit. As, therefore, Zoology can3 be termed the Science of the Conversion of Man into the Animal Kingdom, so may Physio-philosophy be called the Science of the Conversion of Spirit into Nature.

20. Physio-philosophy is divisible, therefore, into three parts. The first of these treats of spirit and its activities; the second, of the individual phenomena, or things of the world; the third, of the continuous operation of spirit in the individual things.

The first division is the doctrine of the Whole (de Toto)—Mathesis.

The second, that of Singulars (de Entibus)—Ontology.

The third, that of the Whole in the Singulars (de Toto in Entibus)—Biology.

21. The Science of the Whole must divide into two doctrines; into that of immaterial totalities—Pneumatogeny; and into that of material totalities—Hylogeny.

Ontology teaches us the phenomenon of matter. The first phenomenon of this are the heavenly bodies comprehended by Cosmogony; these develop themselves further, and divide into the elements—Stochiogeny.

From these elements the Earth element develops itself still further, and divides into minerals—Mineralogy; these minerals unite into one collective body, and this is Geogeny.

The Whole in Singulars is the living or Organic, which again divides into plants and animals.

Biology, therefore, divides into Organogeny, Phytosophy and Zoosophy.

After this division of the subject the question first of all arises, what is science, provided there is one.

TRUTH.

22. Science is a series of necessarily inter-dependent and consecutive propositions, which rest upon a certain fundamental proposition.

23. Now, if anything be certain it can only be one in number. If, then, there be only one certainty, there can also be only one science, from which all the rest must be derived.

4

24. The Mathematical is certain, and, by virtue of this character, it stands also alone. Mathematics is the only true science, and thus the primary science, the Mathesis, or Knowledge simply, as it was called by the ancients. The fundamental propositions of mathematics must, therefore, be fundamental propositions for all other sciences also.

25. Physio-philosophy is only a science when it is reducible to, i. e. can be placed upon an equal footing with, mathematics. Mathematics is the universal science; so also is Physio-philosophy, although it is only a part, or rather but a condition of the universe; both are one, or mutually congruent.

26. Mathematics is, however, a science of mere forms without substance. Physio-philosophy is, therefore, Mathematics endowed with substance.

27. The substance of Physio-philosophy must be of one kind with the form of Mathematics.

28. The certainty of mathematical propositions depends upon no proposition being essentially different from another. Though there may be much that is diversified or heterogeneous, there is nothing new in Mathematics.

For to prove a mathematical proposition is to show (or demonstrate) that it is equivalent, i. e. of the same kind with another proposition. All mathematical propositions must, consequently, resemble a first proposition.

29. Physio-philosophy must also show that all its propositions, or that all things, resemble each other, and, finally, some first proposition or thing.

30. These natural propositions or natural things must, however, resemble also mathematical propositions, and depend, after all, upon the primary proposition of mathematics or the axiom.

Now then comes the question, what is the first principle of Mathematics?

5

PART I.
MATHESIS—OF THE WHOLE.

NOTHING.

31. The highest mathematical idea, or the fundamental principle of all mathematics is the zero = 0.

The whole science of mathematics depends upon zero. Zero alone determines the value in mathematics.

32. Zero is in itself nothing. Mathematics is based upon nothing, and, consequently, arises out of nothing.

33. Out of nothing, therefore, it is possible for something to arise, for mathematics, consisting of propositions, is a something in relation to 0. Mathematics itself were nothing if it had none other than its highest principle zero. In order, therefore, that mathematics may become a real science, it must, in addition to its highest principle, subdivide into a number of details, namely, first of all into numbers, and, finally, into propositions. What is tenable in regard to mathematics must be equally so of all the sciences; they must all resemble mathematics.

34. The first act towards realization or the becoming something, is an origination of Many. All reality can, accordingly, manifest itself only in multiplicity.

That which belongs to the Many is a Definite; this again is a Limited; the Limited is a Finite. The Finite only is real.

The question now arises, how it happens that mathematics becomes a multiplicity, or, what is the same thing, a reality, a something.

35. The reality of mathematics consists in the universality of its quantities; viz. numbers or figures. Every number, and every thing which belongs to mathematics, can be derived from no other source than zero.

6

Mathematical multiplicity, or its reality, must have proceeded, therefore, out of zero.

36. Zero, however, contains no number and no figure really in itself; it contains, forsooth, neither 1 nor 2, neither a point nor a line within itself. The Singulars or details cannot, therefore, reside in a real, but only an ideal manner in zero; or, in other words, not actually, but only potentially. The conditions here are the same as with all mathematical ideas. We may conceive, e. g., an idea or definition of a triangle in so general a sense that it shall comprehend all triangles, without, however, a definite triangle being actually intended, or without even a triangle actually existing. In order that the idea of the triangle be realized, it must become a definite, in other words, an obtuse or an acute triangle. In short, the idea of the triangle must multiply itself, be self-evolved, or else it is as naught in reference to mathematics, or only a geometrical zero.

The individual objects or figures of mathematics thus attain existence, so far only as the idea comprising them emerges out of itself and assumes an individual character.

It is clear that all individual triangles taken together closely resemble the ideal triangle, or, to express the same in more general terms, that the Real is equivalent to the Ideal, that the former is but the latter which has become dissevered and finite, and that the aggregate of every Finite is equivalent to the Ideal. This will probably be rendered still more distinct by the example of ice and water. The crystals of ice are nothing else than water bounded by definite lines. So, also, are the Real and Ideal no more different from each other than ice and water; both of these, as is well known, are essentially one and the same, and yet are different, the diversity consisting only in the form. It will be shown in the sequel that everything which appears to be essentially different from another, is so only in the form.

The Real and Ideal are one and the same, only under two kinds of form. The latter is the same under an indefinite, eternal, single form; but the Real is also the7 same, yet under the form of quantity, and, as will be shown, of multiplicity. An infinity resides in both; in the Real an endlessness of individual forms; in the Ideal but one endless form; in the latter case an eternity, in the former an infinity. The quantity and multiplicity of the whole of mathematics is contained in the same manner in the 0, that the quantity and multiplicity of the triangles are in the ideal or primary triangle. Mathematics is a system of nullities or nothings, and this admits of being easily proved.

37. Zero is indeed the universality of mathematics, this, however, is not real, but only ideal. Every number issues out of zero, like the multiplicity of the real triangles out of the primary triangle. This progression of numbers out of zero takes place through a process of becoming determinate and limited; just as the real triangles are only definitions of the absolute triangle. The process of becoming determined is identical with becoming a Finite; becoming real is called becoming finite. Mathematical singulars or numbers can, therefore, be nothing else than zero disintegrated, or rendered real by determination.

What zero is in infinite intensity, that are numbers in endless extensity. Zero is of two forms: under the ideal it is mere intensity; under the real mere extensity, or a series of numbers. The latter is only expanded intensity; the former, extensity concentrated on the point; both are, consequently, one and the same in toto. Numbers are identical with zero; they are zero in a state of extension, while zero is equivalent to numbers in a state of intensity. The sense in which numbers are said to come out of zero is, therefore, very clear; they have not issued forth from zero as if they had previously resided individually therein, but the zero has emerged out of itself, has itself become apparent, and then was it a finite zero, a number. So, also, does the idea of a circle become a real circle, not from the latter emerging from the former, but from this itself becoming manifest. The individual circle is a manifestation or phenomena of the spiritual circle.

8

38. All realization, therefore, is not the origin of a something that has not previously been; it is only a manifestation, a process of extension taking place in the idea.

Thus the Real does not arise out of the Ideal, but is the Ideal itself in a condition of definition and limitation, as are, e. g. the actual triangle or the actual circle. If, then, the Ideal and Real be one, everything is necessarily identical, and this identity dominates not merely between the Ideal and Real in a general sense, but between all individual members of the Real.

39. The identity of every Different, or of all things among themselves and with the highest unity, is the essence of things. The limitation or definition of the Ideal is their form. Limitation is the Impartient of form.

40. Limitation is originally only a quantitative relation, e. g. the size of the angle in a triangle; later on it becomes also a relation of direction or of position.

In both cases the limitation is only an ideal relation. Realization also takes place, therefore, only in an ideal manner; and the Real is therefore ideal, not simply as it regards its form, but also its essence. Every Plural resembles itself and the highest principle in essence; or, in other words, all Singulars are united through essence with the highest One. All diversity of the Plural resides merely in the form, limitation or manifestation. The one unchanging essence possesses one ideal form, which is that of pure unity, and the same essence has a limitation, a real form, which is that of subdivision. There is only one essence in all things, the 0, the highest identity; but there are infinitely numerous forms.

Numbers are naught else than different forms of the one unchangeable essence, namely, the 0.

If, then, all numbers are only zero in a state of extension, and are consequently identical with it, the question arises, what are the first finitings of zero, or as what does it appear when it is no longer merely ideal or indefinite; in short, what is the first form of the real zero, or of the essence in general?

9

ESSENCE OF NOTHING.

41. The ideal zero is absolute unity, or monas; it is not a singularity, such as one individual thing, or as the number 1; but an indivisibility, a numberlessness, in which neither 1 nor 2, neither a line nor a circle can be found; in short, an unity without distinction, an homogeneity, brightness, or translucency, a pure identity.

42. The mathematical monas is eternal. It succumbs to no definitions of time and space, is neither finite nor infinite, neither great nor small, neither quiescent nor moved; but it is and it is not all this. That is the conception of eternity.

Mathematics is thus in possession of an eternal principle.

43. Since all the sciences are equivalent to mathematics, nature must also possess an eternal principle.

The principle of nature, or of the universe, must be of one and the same kind with the principle of mathematics. For there cannot be two kinds of monades, nor of eternities, nor of certainties. The highest unity of the universe is thus the Eternal. The Eternal is one and the same with the zero of mathematics. The Eternal and zero are only denominations differing in accordance with their respective sciences, but which are essentially one.

44. The Eternal is the nothing of Nature.

As the whole of mathematics emerges out of zero, so must everything which is a Singular have emerged from the Eternal or nothing of Nature.

The origin of the Singular is nothing else than a manifestation of the Eternal. Thereby unity, brightness, homogeneity are lost, and converted into multiplicity, obscurity, diversity.

Unity posited manifoldly is an expansion without termination, but one that always remains the same.

Realization or manifestation is an expansion of the Eternal.

FORMS OF NOTHING.

45. The first form of the expansion or manifestation of the mathematical monas, or of 0 is + -. The + - is10 nothing else than the definition of 0. 0 is the reduction of the positive and negative series of numbers, upon which the whole of arithmetic depends. A series of numbers is, however, nothing else than a repetition of a + 1 or a-1; consequently, the whole of arithmetic reduces itself to + 1-1.

What, however, is a + 1, or-1? Obviously nothing else than a single + or-. The figure is quite superfluous, and only indicates how often + or-has been assumed; instead, therefore, of + 1 we can posit +; instead of-1 simply-. The series + 1 + 1 + 1 is synonymous with + + +; or instead of 3 we may posit + + +, and so on for every figure ad libitum. The figures are nothing more than shorter signs for the two highest mathematical forms or ideas of numbers. Numbers are nothing different from the ideas of numbers; they are the latter themselves, only several times posited. Essentially numbers do not exist, but only their two ideas. These ideas, however, exist an infinite number of times.

Multiplicity or real infinity is, accordingly, nothing special or particular, but only an arbitrary repetition of the Ideal, an incessant positing of the idea. The idea posited is reality, non-posited it is = 0.

46. The first multiplicity is duality, + -. This duality alters nothing in the essence of the monas, for + - is = 0. It is the monas itself only under another form. In multiplication it is thus the form alone that changes.

There are many forms, but not many essences.

47. The first or primary duality is not, however, a double unity, both members of which are of equal rank, but an antagonism, disunion, or diversity. Many diversities are multiplicity. The Many is thus complex. The first form is not therefore a simple division of zero or the primary unity, but an antagonistic positing of itself, a becoming manifold.

48. Every Finite is in the same manner only the self-definition of the Eternal. The Eternal becomes, accordingly, real, by binary self-division. When the Eternal is11 manifested, it is either a positive or negative. The whole of arithmetic is nothing else than a ceaseless act of positing and negating, of affirming and denying.

All realization is nothing else than the act of positing and negating. The act of positing and negating of the Eternal is called realization.

49. Positing and negating is, however, an act or function. Arithmetic is, therefore, a ceaseless process of acting or performing. Numbers are acts of the primary idea, or, properly speaking, stationary points of its function, and hence proceeds a division into the two ideas + and -. If these remain always alone nothing is added to them. They alone produce the whole science of arithmetic, and simply because they are never exhausted by the act of positing themselves repeatedly, but capable after this of again becoming suppressed. Since + is in essence nothing else than a simple positing, a mere affirmation, and-a mere suppression of this affirmation, a negation; so is the positive unity = 1 nothing but an affirmation once declared, and the whole series of numbers is a reiterated affirmation. The act of affirmation alone gives the number, and the latter is thus the definite quantity devoid of intrinsic value. Bare affirmation alone without reference to any substance is unity, duality, &c.

SOMETHING.

50. Still, however, there must be something, which is posited and negatived. The form must have a substance.

This something is the primary idea, or the very Eternal of mathematics, the zero; for + - is = 0. The + is naught else than zero affirmed; the-naught else than this + 0 negatived = - 0. Now since an affirmation once declared is = 1, so are unity and zero identical. Zero differs only from finite unity in that it is not affirmed.

51. The - is not simply the want of affirmation, but its explicit abstraction. The + presupposes the 0; the - the + and 0; the 0, however, presupposes neither + nor -. Purely negative quantities are, as is known, a nonentity, because they can only bear reference to positive12 quantities. The - is, indeed, the retroversion of + into 0; yet alone, therefore, it is not perfectly equal to 0. It is a retrovertent, and consequently the second act, which presupposes the positive. By the - we know what is not; the 0 is, however, a nothing in every respect. The-is the copula between 0 and +.

52. If the + is the 0 posited, so is it a nothing posited or determined. This position is, however, a number, and therefore a mathematical something. The nothing thus becomes a something, a Finite, a Real, through the simple positing of itself, and the something becomes a nothing by the removal of this self-position. The nothing itself is, however, the mere neglect of its self-position. The something, the + -, has consequently not arisen or been evolved out of nothing, or been produced from it by addition; but it is nothing itself; the whole undivided nothing has become unity. The nothing once posited as nothing is = 1. We cannot speak of production or evolution in this case; but of the complete identity and uniformity of the nothing with the something; it is a virgin product or birth.

53. Zero must be endlessly positing itself, for in every respect it is indefinite or unlimited, eternal. The number of finite singularities must, therefore, pass into the Infinite.

54. The whole of Arithmetic is nothing but the endless repetition of nothing, an endless positing and suppressing of nothing.

We can become acquainted with nothing but the nothing, for the Original of our knowledge is the 0.

There is no other science than that which treats of nothing.

Every Real, if it were such in itself, could not be known, because the possibilities of its properties would pass into the Infinite. The nothing alone is cognizable, because it has only a single property, namely, that of having none; concerning which knowledge no doubt can be entertained.

13

A.—PNEUMATOGENY.

PRIMARY ACT.

55. The + - or, in other words, numbers are acts or functions. Zero is, consequently, the primary act. Zero is, therefore, no absolute nothing, but an act without substratum. Generally speaking there is, therefore, no nothing; the mathematical nothing is itself an act, consequently a something. The nothing is only postulate.

56. An act devoid of substratum is a spiritual act. Numbers are, accordingly, not positions and negations of an absolute nothing, but of a spiritual act.

57. The zero is an eternal act; numbers are repetitions of this eternal act, or its halting points, like the steps in progression. With zero the Eternal therefore originates directly, or both are only different expressions for one and the same act, according with the difference of the science wherein they are employed. Mathematics designates its primary act by the name of zero; Philosophy by that of Eternal. It is an error to believe that numbers were absolute nothings; they are acts and consequently realities. While numbers in a mathematical sense are positions and negations of Nothing, in the philosophical they are positions and negations of the Eternal. Everything which is real, posited, finite, has become this out of numbers; or, more strictly speaking, every Real is absolutely nothing else than a number. This must be the sense entertained of numbers in the Pythagorean doctrine, namely, that everything or the whole universe had arisen from numbers. This is not to be taken in merely a quantitative sense, as it has hitherto been erroneously, but in an intrinsic sense, as implying that all things are numbers themselves, or the acts of the Eternal. The essence in numbers is naught else than the Eternal. The Eternal only is or exists, and nothing else is when a number exists. There is, therefore, nothing real but the Eternal itself; for every Real, or everything that is, is only14 a number and only exists by virtue of a number. Every Singular is nothing for itself, but the Eternal is in it, or rather it is itself only the Eternal, though not the Eternal in itself, but affirmed or negatived. The existence of the Singular is not its own existence, but only that of the Eternal subjected to an arbitrary repetition; for the act of being and affirming are of one kind.

58. The continuance of Being is a continuous positing of the Eternal, or of nothing, a ceaseless process of becoming real in that which is not. There exists nothing but nothing, nothing but the Eternal, and all individual existence is only a fallacious existence. All individual things are monades, nothings, which have, however, become determined.

The Eternal must posit without cessation, for otherwise it would be an actual nothing, while in fact it is an act; but it must incessantly suppress also this position, else it would be only a finite act, or an act which had only one kind of direction, that of affirmation + + + +, and so on, which represents only the half of arithmetic. The totality of the Finite is, therefore, of eternal duration also: the Singular, however, issues forth and disappears like the numbers in arithmetic. The eternal duration of the Finite consists, however, only in ceaseless repetition. Such an Eternal is to be distinguished therefore from the Primary eternal, and is called the Infinite. The totality of finite things is not therefore eternal, but only infinite.

PRIMARY CONSCIOUSNESS.

59. Two tendencies are present in the primary act, both of which being inseparable are one in kind. It has the tendency to posit, and also to suppress, itself. The unity strives unto binary division or to antagonism, even as the 0 strives to produce + or -. While the primary act itself posits, it does this indeed out of its own strength, and that which it posits is also none other than itself; it itself posits i. e. actively; and is itself posited i. e. passively; it itself posits itself, is the self15-position of itself; for + is nothing else than 0 self-posited. The positing and posited act are of one kind; the latter, however, is the Real, the Finite; the former the Ideal, the Eternal. Both are distinguished from each other through this only, that the Real is the posited, numbered, and consequently determined act; the ideal, however, the positing, consequently numbering and thus undetermined act. While, however, the + is nothing else than 0, it must necessarily bear a relation to it, and thus retrograde into the 0. This retrogression is an act in the reverse direction, or what is indicated in mathematics by negation. The - has been therefore necessarily granted with the +, else the + would not be represented as = to 0. The act of positing is therefore at the same time also an act of negation. So soon as the 0 is or exists, it is = + -. The realization of the Eternal is accordingly a complete antagonism of itself. For 0 is equal to + -, not simply = + or = to-.

60. The being of the Eternal is therefore a self-manifestation. Every Singular is nothing but a self-manifestation; since all numbers are only positions of zero or of +, which can never be without-. In every essence there are two, but the two are the one essence itself, which posits itself by division. The Positing of the Eternal in the sense in which it has been hitherto adopted, namely, as a realization of the same, is not merely an act of positing, not an indeterminate Positing, but an antagonism of itself. The zero is simply the indeterminate Positing, or the negative Positing; but the number, or the real is the antagonism of zero, the + -, or the self-manifestation. The 0 cannot be thought of for itself alone without the +; the latter, however, not without 0, as well as the-also not without 0; for it is the suppression of the posited 0, namely, the +. Every act of self-manifestation is therefore twofold, a manifestation (= +), but a manifestation of itself, consequently a retrogression into 0 (= -). Through negation the Finite becomes united with the Eternal. Every disappearance of the Finite is a retrogression into the Eternal;16 for it must return to whence it came. It has arisen out of nothing, is itself the existing nothing; it must therefore retrograde again into the nothing.

GOD.

61. The self-manifestation of the primary act is self-consciousness. The eternal self-consciousness is God.

62. The continued act of self-consciousness, or becoming self-conscious repeated, is called representation. God is therefore comprehended in ceaseless representation. Representations are single acts of self-consciousness. Single acts, however, are real things. All real things, however, are the world. The world therefore originates with the representations of the Eternal.

63. The representations are, however, manifested or attain only reality through expression. The world is therefore the language of God; the creation of the world the speaking of God. "God spake, and it was." It is not merely said, God thought and it was. Thought belongs merely to spirit; in so far, however, as it becomes apparent, it is a word, and the sum of all apparent thoughts is speech. This is the created, realized system of thought. The thought is only the idea of the world, but speech is the idea actualized.

64. As thought differs from speaking, so does God from the world. Our world consists in our apparent thoughts, namely, the words. The universe is the language of God. So far as the thoughts lie at the foundation of the words, it can be said, that our world were the play of our thoughts, and the actual world that of God's. The word has become world. Worldly things have no more reality for God, than our words or our language for us. We carry a world within us while we think; we posit or create a world without us while we speak. Thus God carries the world within himself while he thinks; he posits the same without himself or creates it, while he speaks. In so far as thought necessarily precedes speech, it may be said, that there would have been no world, if God had not thought. In the same sense it may be17 also said, that all things are nothing but representations, thoughts, ideas of God. So soon as God thinks and speaks is there a real thing. To speak and to create are one. All, that we perceive, are words, thoughts of God; we are ourselves nothing else than such words or thoughts of God, consequently his metatypes or images, in as far as we unite in ourselves the whole system of speech. There is therefore no being without self-consciousness. That only which thinks is (for itself); that which does not think is not for itself, but only for some other consciousness. The world differs from God as doth our speech from us. The self-consciousness of God is independent of the world, even as our self-consciousness is independent of our speech.

65. The divine laws are also the laws of the world; this has therefore been created and governed in accordance with eternal and immutable laws.

66. Physio-philosophy is the history of creation; the creation, however, is the language of God. The system of thought, however, lies necessarily at the foundation of the system of speech. Now the science of the laws of thought is called logic; physio-philosophy is therefore a divine doctrine of speech or a divine logic. The laws of speech instruct us in the genesis of language. Physio-philosophy is, therefore, the science of the genesis of the world, or Cosmogony.

FORM OF GOD—TRIUNITY.

67. As the complete principle of mathematics consists of three ideas, so also does the primary principle of nature, or the Eternal. The primary principle of mathematics is 0; so soon, however, as it is actual, is it + and-; or the primary idea resolves itself in being at once into two ideas, each of which resembles the other in essence, but differs from it in form. Thus it is here one and the same essence under three forms, or three are one. Now that which holds good of mathematical principles, must hold good also of the principles of nature. The18 primary act is manifested, or operates under three forms, which correspond to the 0, + and-.

These three ideas of the Eternal are all equivalent to each other, are the same primary act, each of them being whole and undivided, but each otherwise posited. The positing primary act is the whole Eternal; the posited is likewise the whole Eternal, and that which is subtractive, retrogressive, combining the two first, is also the whole Eternal. Although all three ideas are equivalent to each other, still the positing idea ranks first, the posited second, and the combining third; not as if they had first arisen successively (this is impossible, for they are coexistent, namely, before all time), nor as if they occupied different positions (for they are everywhere); but only according to their order and value. How one may be three and three one, is thus rendered comprehensible only by mathematics.

68. The first idea is the original, that therefore which is thoroughly independent, which having arisen from and being based upon itself, has consequently emerged from nothing else; in short, it is the eternal idea, like the mathematical 0 = Monas aoristos. Everything is possible with it; it can propose and solve all problems, knows therefore everything and creates everything. It is the generative, creative and paternal idea.

69. The two other ideas have emerged out of the first, although apparently equivalent to it; yea, they have themselves issued out of themselves. The second idea is, therefore, Dyas aoristos, and corresponds to the mathematical +; the third idea is the Trias aoristos, and corresponds to the mathematical-, so that by the three the primary trinity 0 + - is completed. The first idea labours or, what is more, rejoices from all eternity to convert itself into the two others. The action or the life of God consists in eternally manifesting itself, eternally contemplating itself in unity and duality, eternally dividing itself and still remaining one. The second idea has issued next from the first, and is therefore related to it as Son is to Father, when the ideas are viewed as19 personified. The third idea has emerged conjointly from the second and first, and forms therefore the spiritual union, the mutual love between both. It may be therefore simply called Ghost or Spirit, if it is thought of as personified.

70. Since every Singular, having been produced through the primary trinity, is only the expressed word of the primary trinity, so also must their qualities be recognizable in the same. The Singular is not simply therefore a position of one idea, but of all three. All things have issued out of the trinity. The essence of the universe consists in the trinity which is unity, and in the unity which is trinity; for it is a likeness of the primary trinity. Being, generally, is an act, and that, indeed, of a threefold nature. Apart from act or function there is no being. That, which is called nothing, is in itself an act, and there is, therefore, no absolute nothing. The nothing is only something relative to a particular being. Even the mathematical zero is not nothing, but an act. It is nothing only in reference to particular numbers. Numbering is a repetition of one and the same act. The forms or conditions of the primary act are Rest, Motion, and Extension or expansion.

a. PRIMARY REST. (First form of the Primary Act.)

71. The primary idea is the position simply without any relation, or any antagonism; it is the oscillating resting point in the universe, around which everything collects itself, and from which everything emerges; the Centrum ubique, circumferentia nusquam. The primary idea is the substratum of everything, which will come before us in the sequel of this work. Everything depends upon this primary essence; all action, motion, and form issues forth from it; or rather, in all phenomena naught else appears than the primary essence in different stages of position, just as in all numbers naught else appears but the zero. The primary idea is the absolute beginning. This primary idea is the non-representable, the never apparent and yet omnipresent,20 idea; but which is always withdrawing itself from our view when we imagine or believe that we gaze upon it; in short, the Spiritual, which declares itself in everything and yet always remains the same. The origin of all action may be termed the primary force.

b. MOTION, TIME. (Second form of the Primary Act.)

72. The primary idea operates only, while it posits; through positing, however, arises a succession of positing, or numbers; positing and successive positing are one. The function of the primary idea consists in an eternal repetition of the essence; the primary act is a continuous self-repeating act. Repetition of the primary act devoid of another substratum is Time. Time is none other than the eternal repetition of the positing of the Eternal, corresponding to the series of numbers + 1 + 1 + 1 + n. Time has not been created, but has emerged directly out of the primary act and its position; it is the function of God himself. Something has thus already originated, which appears to conduct us into the universe. Time is the first portal through which the operation of God passes over into the world. Time is the infinite succession of numbers or the mathematical nothings. The mathematising, numbering act is Time. Numbers, however, are Singulars or finitudes, which constitute the world.

73. Time is infinite, for it is the totality of positing; it is only the points or numbers in it that are the Finite.

74. All things are created in time; for time is the totality of Singulars. Time is no stationary quantity, which is always changing itself into something new during its progressive flux. It is not a continuous stream, but a repetition of one and the same act, namely, the primary act, like as it were to a rolling ball, which constantly returns upon itself. There is no endless, still less an eternal thing; for things are only positions of time. Time itself is, however, only repetition, and thus also a suppression of these positions. The vicissitude of things is in fact time; if there be no change, there is also no time.21 Time is an universal property of things. Exemption from time is only in the Eternal.

75. Time, not being itself the Finite, but creating it, is not itself a Real, but still an Ideal, a form only of the primary act, an idea, with which finite things have been directly posited. Time is the act of numbering; numbering is thinking; thinking is time. Our thinking is our time. In sleep there is no time for us. God's thought is God's time; God's time, however, is all time, consequently time of the world. Time is not of earthly but heavenly descent or origin. In so far a divine quality belongs to all finite things. They are divine, in so far as they are time; terrestrial, in so far as they are evanescent moments of time.

POLARITY.

76. Time is an action of the primary power; and all things are active only in so far as they are filled or inspired with the idea of time. The whole activity of things, all their forces arise out of the primary act or primary power, are only moments of the same. There are, however, no positive without negative numbers, consequently also no moments of time without suppression of the same. There is, therefore, no single force, but each is the position of + and-. A force consisting of two principles is called Polarity. Time is, therefore, the primary polarity, and polarity is manifested at the very instant in which the creation of the world is stirring.

77. Polarity is the first force which appears in the world. If time is eternal, polarity must also be eternal. There is no world, and in general nothing at all without polar force.

78. Every single thing is a duplicity.

79. The law of causality is a law of polarity. Causality is valid only in time, is only a series of numbers. Time itself has no causality. Causality is an act of generation. The sex is rooted in the first movement of the world.

22

MOTION.

80. Polarity may be viewed as a single positing of + -; if, however, this positing repeats itself, Motion originates, viz. when many + - + - are consecutively posited, and thus the principal poles separate from each other, as in an iron bar when magnetizing. Time is a polar positing of the primary act, and an endless repetition of this positing; through this originate individual things, whose succession is motion.

81. Primary motion is the result of primary polarity. All motion has originated from duplicity; consequently from the idea in a dynamic not a mechanical manner. A mechanical motion, which might be produced ad infinitum by mechanical impulses, is an absurdity. There is nowhere a purely mechanical motion; nothing, as it is at present in the word, has become so by impulse; an internal act, a polar tension lies at the bottom of all motion.

82. Motion itself, however, is not twofold in character; it is unity, but the result of duality. In time we have to distinguish the polar act of position, and the act of repeating this position, which is motion. Motion is the simple repetition of the polar, twofold act, or the ceaseless separation of poles; but, as in every polar line the two poles are in all cases together, so even is this mutual separation of poles only a repetition of polarity.

83. Motion also is not created, but has emerged directly from the Eternal, is the primary function itself repeated. Motion is the ever self-manifesting, consequently progressive God.

84. Motion is thought, which is manifested as speech. Thought polarizes the fingers. If the thought be powerful it moves them, and through them other bodies. Speech is only a thought that has passed over into motion. The world is the thought of God that has been translated into motion, the moved thought of God—thought spoken. It is here evident that the world is not simply the thought but the language of God; for there is no action without23 motion; consequently no thought without speech, and vice versâ.

85. There is no thing which were without motion, just as there is none without time. A Finite without everlasting motion is a contradiction. All rest in the world is only relative, is but a combined motion. There is only rest in the Eternal, in the nothing of nature.

86. The primary motion is only possible in a circle, because it fills every thing.

87. The motion of finite things by polarity may, in a wider sense, be called life; for life is motion in the circle. Polarity, however, is a constant retrogression into itself. Without life there is no being. Nothing is, simply by virtue of being, e. g. by its mere presence; but everything of which a being can be declared, is only, or manifests itself, by its polar motion or by life. Being and life are inseparable ideas. While God acts, he creates life.

88. Life is nothing new, that came first into the world, after it was created, but an Original, an idea, a moved thought of God, the primary act itself with all its consequences.

89. There is in the universe no vital force of its own; the individual things lie not there some time and await the polarizing breath, but they first become through the breath of God. The Causa existentiæ is life.

90. There is nothing properly dead in the world; that only is dead which is not, only the nothing. Something can only cease to live, when its motion ceases; this, however, ceases only when deprived of its polarity; the polarity dissolved, however, is zero. Thus individual things retreat into the Absolute, if they cease to live. Everything in the world is endowed with life; the world itself is alive, and continues only, maintains itself, by virtue of its life; just as an organic body maintains itself, only while it is constantly being generated anew by the vital process.

91. Every living thing is twofold in character. It is one persistent in itself, and one immersed in the universe.24 In everything, therefore, are two processes, one individualizing, vitalizing, and one universalizing, destructive. By the process of destruction, the finite thing seeks to become the universe itself; by the vitalizing process, however, the variety of the universe, and yet with that to remain a Singular. That only is truly living which represents the Eternal, and the whole multiplicity of the universe in the Singular.

92. The whole in the singular is called Individual. The individual is an example of computation, which admits only of being developed, from its comprehending the whole of arithmetic in itself. Nothing individual can persist eternally; it must eternally move itself, consequently fill up everything, displace everything, must become itself the universe.

MAN.

93. Time consists of single acts; i. e. the life or the absolute act does not work with one stroke, but an infinite number of times. All acts, therefore, taken together, all finite things in time, are equal to the primary act or the Eternal.

94. There are two totalities, a primary totality 0 + -, and a secondary, or the summing up of all numbers 0 + n-n; the former the eternal, the latter the finite totality, or the one the eternity, the other the infinity.

95. The more a thing has adopted into itself of the Manifold of the universe, by so much the more is it animated, by so much the more does it resemble the Eternal. It is conceivable, for a finite or living essence to unite all numbers or acts in itself, without, however, its being the very Eternal. It would, however, be obviously the most perfect finite essence, and, as a secondary totality, be the likeness of the primitive; the former the compound universality, the latter the identical.

96. Such an essence would be necessarily the highest and last, whereunto creation could attain; for more than the universe cannot be represented in one thing.25 With such an essence creation would be closed or would terminate.

97. Since the realization of the Eternal is a becoming self-conscious, so is the highest creature also a Self-conscious, but a Singular. Such a creature is the finite God, or God become corporeal. God is Monas indeterminata, the highest creature is Monas determinata, Totum determinatum. A finite self-conscious being we call Man. Man is an idea of God, but that in which God wholly, and in every single act becomes an object unto himself. Man is God represented by God in the infinity of time. God is a Man representing God in one act of self-consciousness, without time.

98. Man is God wholly manifested. God has become Man, zero has become + -. Man is the whole of arithmetic, compacted, however, out of all numbers; he can therefore produce numbers out of himself. Man is a complex of all that surrounds him, namely, of element, mineral, plant and animal.

99. The other things below man are also ideas of God, but none of these ideas is the whole representation of arithmetic. They are only parts of the divine conscience posited in time; but man is God, planted or posited uninjured in time. Man is the object in the self-consciousness of God; the creatures below man are, however, the objects only of the consciousness of God. Thus, if God places before and from himself only single qualities, there are worldly things; if, however, God in this crowd of representations attains to his own entire representation, then arises Man. God is = + 0-, Man = + [oo] 0-[oo], the animal is = + n 0-n. The animals are only represented in part. The subject of self-consciousness is = + 0-; the objects, however, are the numbers which are equivalent to this, being = [oo] + 3 + 2 + 1 + 0-1-2-3-[oo]. Thus if all numbers, all world-elements, together with their perfections, occur in consciousness = + 0-, there is a Man; if only single, and perhaps but few things, such as food, stones, &c. (with the entire exception of the26 celestial bodies), enter consciousness, there is an animal. They are represented only partly or in a portion of the universe, but man is represented wholly or in all its parts. Animals are fragments of man.

100. No creatures below Man can possess self-consciousness. They have, indeed, consciousness of their several acts and of their sensations, and possess memory; but as these several acts are only parts of the world, or of the great consciousness, and are not the Whole, they can never become objective unto themselves, never imagine. Animals are men, who never imagine. They are imaginative, but never of themselves wholly; they are therefore beings who never attain to consciousness concerning themselves. They are single accounts; Man is the whole of mathematics.

FREEDOM.

101. An action, which is not determined by some other action, is free. God is free, because apart from him there is none other action.

102. Man, as being an image of God, is likewise free; as being an image of the world he is devoid of freedom. Man is, therefore, in his primary commencement or principle free, but not in his end or object to be attained. In the resolution Man is free, in the execution he is not free. The mathematician can select at pleasure any proposition; but having selected it, must solve it in accordance with necessary laws and with definite numbers and figures. Man is a twofold being, compounded of freedom and necessity.

RETROSPECT.

103. Hitherto we have considered simply the arithmetical relations of the primary act and of the universe. We have shown, to wit, that all ideas fluctuate simply under the forms of numbers; that everything was comprised in the 0 + -. Time was only the active series of numbers; motion was the actual arithmetical calculation, namely,27 the process of reducing numbers to absolute identity, to zero.

104. Life is moreover only a mathematical problem, which, the higher it ascends, approaches so much the nearer to absolute zero in its attainment of the infinity of numbers, becomes so much the more endowed with life.

105. Arithmetic is the science of the second idea, or that of time and motion, or of life; it is, therefore, the first science; mathematics not only begins with it, but creation also, with the becoming of time and of life. Arithmetic is, accordingly, the truly absolute or divine science, and therefore everything in it is also directly certain, because everything in it resembles the Divine. Theology is arithmetic personified.

106. Hence it follows in the most perfect manner, that every science, if it would possess certainty, must resemble arithmetic. Now a science always implies a science treating of certain objects; all certain objects must, therefore, resemble the objects of arithmetic; or all objects, of whatever denomination, whether natural or spiritual, must correspond to arithmetical objects, consequently in idea be numbers, an actual arithmetical problem, as it were the numbers of motion, of life.

107. A natural thing is nothing but a self-moving number; an organic or living thing is a number moving itself out of itself, or spontaneously; an inorganic thing, however, is a number moved by another thing; now, as this other thing is also a real number, so then is every inorganic thing a number moved by another number, and thus ad infinitum. The movements in nature are only movements of numbers by numbers; even as arithmetical computation is none other than a movement of numbers by numbers, but with this difference, that in the latter this operates in an ideal manner, in the former after a real.

c. FORM, SPACE. (Third form, of the Primary Act.)

108. Viewed arithmetically every position is a number,28 geometrically, however, it is a point. What the 0 is in arithmetic, the point is in geometry; the one the arithmetical, the other the geometrical nothing. Both sciences commence with nothing and are only different views of nothing. The 0 is a temporal nothing (a number), the point a spatial nothing (a figure).

109. The first motion of numbers or of points is the motion of the primary number, the 0, or the primary act; and this motion depends upon the multiplicity of numbers or points, upon the disintegration of the identical primary number, upon the + -. The first motion of the primary act is an expansion of itself into multiplicity, whereby not merely sequence but an addition also is posited. The primary act is not simply positing, but also posited; as the former it is time, as the latter it is time posited universally. Time remaining stationary is Space. Space is not different in essence from time, but only according to position; it is only time resting, while this is moved, active space.

110. Space has first arisen out of time, as the third idea out of the second, but only ideally. It has arisen out of it, while, time being the act of positing, it is the posited; now as time posits from eternity, so is space also from eternity and in eternity. The eternity of space, however, depends not upon duration, but upon extension; it is unlimited.

111-112. Space is everywhere, as time is ever. Two spaces can no more exist than two times. There is only one Eternal. Time and space are, however, nothing special that has attained unto the Eternal, but the Eternal itself. They are also not two kinds of qualities subsisting near each other, but are one in kind. The series of numbers is infinite, thus universal; space is consequently universal.

113. Space is an idea like time, a form of God like time; it is the passive form, the extended 0 = + 0-.

114. All temporal things are also in space and limited. An unlimited thing extended through the whole of space is an absurdity. God's operation only is extended through29 the whole of space; it is space itself; when he willed to act, he became time; but when he was time, he became space.

115. Space has not been created, but has emerged out of the Eternal; it is nothing new in the universe, nothing next to God and present with him, but coexistent with God.

116. Single things must be both in space and in time; or a real thing first originates, where time and space cross each other at one point; they cross, however, everywhere, and therefore things are everywhere.

117. There is no void or empty space, no time and no place, were a Finite could not be; for time and space are virtually the manifesting primary act, the zero that has become thing.

POINT.

118. Time has begun with number, space with the point, with the spatial nothing, with the zero of space. This point necessarily posits itself "ad infinitum;" it extends itself also in all directions, and necessarily in equal distances. Such an extended point is the Sphere.

119. The sphere is nothing peculiar, nothing new in the thoughts of God, but only the point expanded, while this again is but a contracted sphere, just as the totality of numbers is an expanded 0, and this their contracted sphere.

120. Space is spherical, and, indeed, an infinite sphere. The sphere has been posited with space, and consequently from eternity; it is also an idea, and that, indeed, the total idea; for time and space have in it been posited together.

121. For God to become real, he must appear under the form of the sphere. There is no other form for God. God manifesting is an infinite sphere.

122. The sphere is, therefore, the most perfect form; for it is the primary, the divine form. Angular forms are imperfect. The more spherical a thing is in form, by so much the more perfect and divine is it. The Inorganic is angular, the Organic spherical.

123. The universe is a globe, and everything, which is a Total in the universe, is a globe.

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LINE, LIGHT, MAGNETISM.

124. While the point expands, it is active; this active expansion is a simple repetition of the point, and this is a Line, which in the sphere, however, is a Radius. With time originates not merely a series of numbers, but together with it also the line. The line and time are of one kind, repeated positions of the nothing, of the point. It is consequently clear, how that time were a repeated positing of the Eternal itself: for the line is only a repeated self-positing of the point, of the nothing. God fluctuating in his eternity, and the point, are one in kind; but God acting is a line, being or existing a sphere, i. e. the point in the act of being.

125. The line is nothing new in creation, but time itself, when regarded more closely. God creates the line as little as he does time; but this originates unto him, while he moves, while he thinks. It is impossible to think without producing a line. The line is therefore from eternity, is a series of numbers.

126. The essence of the line does not consist in its two extremities being continued with equal significance into the Infinite; but in its radiality, i. e. that one extremity turned towards the centre has become central, converging, absolute; but the other turned towards the periphery has become divergent, finite, multiplicity. The primary line is a line produced with two antagonized characters. The central extremity is 0, the peripheral is the bisected zero = ±. This radial line gives us the antetype of a new polarity. The two extremities are not related as + and-towards each other, but as 0 and + -. At the instant, when a line originates in the universe, it is not a line merely, or an indefinite line that originates; but one that is definite at both extremities, polar, indeed, but after a determinate fashion. Nothing, not even a finite thing, exists in an indefinite manner.

127. There is no mathematically straight line in the world: all real lines are polar; they are all rooted in God by one extremity, by the other in finitude. The31 primary act becomes in its first operation not merely a posited nothing, a numerical series; not merely time, not merely an aoristic line, but a Linea determinata; in short, God can step forth into time only as radius. The Monas determinata is a Monas radialis, or a centroperipheric monas.

128. The essence of the primary antagonism is a centroperipheric antagonism. As centre is related to periphery, so is here one pole related to the other. Polar existence and central or peripheral existence are one. Primary polarity is centroperiphery. The primary line is constantly in a state of polar action, which is called tension; for it is always converging and diverging, at once central and peripheric. Every line originates, therefore, only by tension, and is only by it, yea, every line is nothing else than this tension.

129. A line, one extremity whereof strives towards the centre, the other to the periphery, the one to identity, the other to duality, will exhibit itself in the world as a line of Light, in the planet as a Magnetic line. Magnetism is centroperipheric antagonism, a radial line, 0—±, the action of the line being cleft at one extremity. Magnetism has its root in the beginning of creation. It is prophesied with time.

SURFACE, ELECTRICITY, OXYDATION.

130. The periphery is the boundary of the sphere, and is, consequently, a superficies or Surface. This, therefore, originates also directly with the positing of the Eternal.

131. As the primary line is not a purely polar, but a radial line, so is the primary surface not a level, but a curved or convex surface.

132. There is no level surface in the universe, no pure surfaces any more than pure lines. All surfaces are curved. For example, those of drops, of the heavenly bodies, of animals. The surface of a sphere is no Continuum; but consists properly of the divided peripheric and upright extremities of the radii; it is a ±.

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133. The surface of a globe has no centre, no 0, like the radius; but is an absolute Dualized, a ± without 0.

134. This mode of operating of the primary act is manifested as electricity. Electricity is a merely peripheric antagonism, without centre, thus without union; an eternally Dissevered without rest. Electricity is thus also a special form, under which polarity makes its appearance, and is likewise rooted in the primary creation. There is, consequently, no thing which were not magnetic and electric.

135. The idea of a surface is constantly that of surrounding. It is not generated by a section of a globe, but by the completion, the circumferential limitation of the sphere. The essence of the sphere is boundary. Every surface is finite, is convex. In the divine position a surface never occurs, save on the boundary of the primary sphere.

136. As no thing can exist without a line, without a radius, so also none can be without surface, without circumscription. The single surface is identical with the Locus of the old philosophers. Every Finite is a closed whole, and that thing is of the most perfect kind which has the most perfect closure, surface, periphery (or skin).

137. The surface is also not different from the primary act, but a form of the primary act itself; or a boundary, which, however, nowhere remains stationary, but is always displaced by means of the eternal act. Therefore the world is at once unlimited and limited; the latter in reference to the closure of the surface, the former to the endless expansion of the same.

138. The periphery is the object in divine consciousness, the point which, posited without the centre, is thus one and the same, centre (subject) and periphery (object). It is everywhere the same point, the same 0, wherever it be posited. Hence the profound saying, "Mundus est Sphæra, cujus centrum ubique, circumferentia nusquam."

139. The surface stands in antagonism to the line, like periphery and centre; it stands perpendicular upon the radius, and can never pass parallel to linear action. Electricity ranks in eternal antagonism to magnetism.

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SPHERE, HEAT, CHEMISTRY.

140. The line and surface are density, the representation of time and space; they have therefore like these originated out of nothing, namely, out of the point. The sphere is the expanded nothing. Nothing thus extended, or nothing posited, becomes a something, viz. line, surface, density, polarity. The line is a long nothing, the surface a hollow nothing, the sphere a dense nothing; in short, the something is a nothing which has received only predicates. All things are nothings with different forms. The point is = 0, the line = +, the surface = + -, the sphere = + 0-.

141. The internal motion of the globe, or the becoming of the globe, is manifested in the universe as Heat, in the planet as Chemistry.

ROTATION.

142. The primary sphere is rotating, for it has originated through motion; the motion of the sphere cannot, however, be progressive, for it fills everything. God is a rotating globe. The world is God rotating. All motion is circular, and there is everywhere no straight motion any more than there is a single line or straight surface. Everything is comprehended in ceaseless rotation. Without rotation there is no being and no life; for without it, there is no sphere, no space and no time.

143. The more perfectly circular the motion of a thing is, so much the more perfect is it. Straight motion is only the mechanical; such, however, exists not through itself. The more a body moves in a straight direction, the more mechanical and ignoble is it. Straight motion too yields only straight form.

GEOMETRY.

144. The sphere with its attributes is the totality of numbers, is thus a rotating number. The universe is the same. In arithmetic the quantity of divine positions is34 regarded; in the sphere, however, the direction of these positions, or of series of numbers.

145. The doctrine of the sphere is Geometry; for all forms are contained in the sphere. All geometrical proofs admit of being conducted through the sphere. Geometry has originated directly from arithmetic, or is arithmetic itself, with this difference, that the latter regards series of numbers as individualities, the former, however, as a whole. Arithmetic is a geometry seriebus discretis; geometry is an arithmetic seriebus continuis, a solidified arithmetic.

146. Geometry is a science of equal value with arithmetic; it is even as certain, because it has no other propositions; it is equally eternal, is the same realization of the primary act, the Deus geometrizans of the Pythagoreans. Everything to be certain must therefore resemble geometry, must be itself a position of geometry, only under other relations.

147. Geometry is more real, more finite, therefore also more apparent, and, as it were, more material than arithmetic. The ideas in it have become something determinate, have assumed form, while before they still fluctuated formless in arithmetic; here were they mere ghosts without veils, but in geometry they have received these veils. Time has received for its form, its body, the line; space, the surface; life, the globe, consequently the rotation for its form or body. It is to be here remarked, that ideas always become more real and more finite, always approximate nearer to actual manifestation, the lower they descend or the more they are considered individually. Geometry has not originated later than arithmetic, but is only a more individual view of ideas, arithmetic being more universal. Geometry is arithmetic with stationary numbers, = points. The Divine thus approximates to manifestation, to materiality, the more individual it becomes; and this is very natural, for it verily limits itself more and obtains always more predicates. The more a thing obtains predicates, by so much the more perfect is its35 finiteness. By geometry we are actually transferred into the universe, but only into the formal, in which it has, like a skeleton, been sketched for us solely upon a general plan; namely, as infinite extension, in which line and periphery, central and peripheric action, magnetism, electricity, and rotation, &c., have been prefigured.

B.—HYLOGENY.

a. GRAVITY. (First form of the World. Rest.)

148. In arithmetic the divine acts are only undetermined = numbers. In geometry the numbers obtain determinate or finite directions, become figures. All figures have, however, an especial direction to the centre. Figures are nought but centres manifoldly posited.

149. The direction to a centre is, however, an act, which never ceases to operate. The primary act strives therefore to posit ad infinitum nought else than a centre, i. e. points.

150. If there are points without the centre, it so happens only because the succeeding points have been displaced by the points that were first posited. The peripheric points are only with reluctance out of the centre. The globe only exists in an uneasy state, because it has no place in the centre.

151. Every finite thing strives towards the centre. The finite is only something, in so far as it is posited in the centre, and it maintains its value according to its distance from the centre. This exertion or endeavour, by virtue of which things would be in the centre, is Gravity.

152. What the retrogression of numbers into 0 is, that is the gravity in the sphere. The gravity is a geometrical reduction of position unto nothing. The sphere is only produced by action, and that indeed by the centroperipheric. This action must therefore manifest itself in two ways, as centrifugality and centripetality. The first is the dispersion of the primary act or of points, the36 second is the collection of the primary acts or points into the unity, and this is gravity. Centrifugality originates only in a constrained manner or with reluctance, for the primary act always seeks the centre, and only moves towards the periphery, because it has no longer any place there. If centripetality be regarded as a force, then is centrifugality no force, but only centripetality itself retreating from the centre; even as cold and darkness are probably no particular forces in themselves, but only weaker degrees of heat or light.

153. Gravity is not motion simply, but motion unto a centre, unto rest.

154. That which is itself in the very centre is therefore not heavy. The primary act is not heavy.

155. As all finite things are positions of the primary act in the sphere out of the centre, so are all of them heavy. Gravity is the force that strives unto the centre, and which is there impeded by other forces already present therein. A finite thing, that is not heavy, is a contradiction. The gravity of the single thing is weight. The world itself has no weight, or else it must be heavy in relation to something else without it. The ideas of gravity and weight, as we speak of them in reference to individual things, are not applicable to the world, still less to God.

156. Gravity is also nothing new in the world, but it is only the positing of the centre in space. As necessarily as the Eternal, when it manifests itself, must appear under a definite form, so also must it be necessary with the eternal effort, to return into itself or appear as gravity. Gravity is nothing different from the primary act, nothing specially created; but the spherical position of the same tending unto the centre.

157. Now, as the sphere has originated out of nothing, so also has gravity originated out of the same. The form is a formed nothing: the form is, however, no form without internal forming force, and to this gravity belongs. The being of form and the being of gravity are one. Gravity is a weighty nothing, a heavy essence,37 striving towards centre, a realization of the first divine idea. Gravity cannot, therefore, be perceived in the universe as a whole, but only in its parts.

158. If gravity is the primary act that has become real, so must everything originate out of gravity, or everything must acknowledge gravity to be the common mother of the finite. It is in all cases, or in every individual thing, only the gravity, the Ponderose, which exists, otherwise nothing exists; for verily nothing exists without the divine primary, which is incessantly a central, act.

MATTER.

159. Points, which strive towards the centre, are compressed, because they would all occupy one and the same spot. These points, however, are forces, which take up space and therefore exclude other points. A space that excludes another is Matter. Everything which has been said of gravity holds good in respect to matter; for matter is only another word for gravity. A heavy thing is a material thing.

160. To the totality of a thing belongs not merely its figure nor its tension or motion simply, but also its gravity. This is, however, a whole sphere. Matter is, consequently, a total position of the primary act, a trinity of ideas.

161. Matter has been imparted with space and time. All space is material; ay, matter is itself the space and the time, the form and the motion; for space is nothing special, but only extended or formed force. It is here also shown that the nothing does not exist. There is as little nothing in the universe as there is an 0 in mathematics. So soon as the nothing is, there is something. The whole universe is material, is nothing but matter; for there is the primary act eternally repeating itself in the centre. The universe is a rotating globe of matter.

162. But the universe is an acting gravity, a matter, in which the centroperipheric antagonism is active; it is therefore everywhere matter only, which acts. There is no activity without matter, but also no matter without38 activity, both being one; for gravity is itself the activity, and itself the matter. Matter is only limited activity. A matter which does not move is not; it can only subsist through continuous origination, through life. There is no dead matter; it is alive through its being, through the eternal that is in it. Matter has no existence in itself, but it is the Eternal only that exists in it. Everything is God, that is there, and without God there is absolutely nothing.

163. It is an illusion to believe that matter were an actual something subsisting in itself. It is even so with numbers, upon which a reality also is bestowed, when they are still demonstrable nothings. A number is nothing truly than an affirmation several times repeated, a reiterated deposition of what is nothing, what is no number. This deposition happens likewise in the universe, where it is the primary act, that is deposited. Where, however, this is, no other station can occur. This exclusive property is usually called the Impenetrable, the Material. It cannot be said in what spot matter arises, so secretly and suddenly does it start into existence. It is matter properly at the first manifestation of being, of time and of space; for at the same instant also the line, surface, density and gravity have been given. The line does not exist if it does not act; the sphere does not exist if it be not inert, i. e. if its forces do not strive towards the centre, and consequently to connexion. Nothing exists if it is not material. Matter is accordingly coexistent with the presence of God.

164. The Immaterial does not exist; for even the Material which is not, is the Immaterial. Everything that is, is material. Now, however, there is nothing that is not; consequently, there is everywhere nothing immaterial. Immateriality is only a postulate principle, by which to get at matter, like the 0 in mathematics, which is nothing in itself, does not even exist, but that still must be posited, in order that numbers may bear a reference to it.

165. God only is immaterial; he is the only per39manent immaterial invention, and the axiom being the Formless, Polarless, Timeless. A spirit with form is a contradiction. But the matter also does not exist, because matter is nothing, because it is only a sphere of central actions, which is gravity.

166. The material universe is called nature. There can be only one nature, as well according to time as to space and to divine animation. There is only one God, whose operations expressed, or materially posited, are nature. Nature has originated out of nothing like time and space; or with these has nature also been. God has made heaven and earth out of nothing.

167. God has not found matter co-eternal with himself, and, like an architect, arranged this to his fancy; but he has, out of his own eternal omnipotence, by his will simply, evoked the world out of nothing unto existence. He has thought and spoken, and it was.

168. The doctrine of matter is the Philosophy of Nature. It is therefore the science also of all Singulars, like geometry and arithmetic; thus at bottom is only the third part of mathematics, and is even as certain and demonstrable as this.

ÆTHER.

169. The matter, which is the direct position of God, which fills the whole universe, which is the time in a state of tension and motion, the formed space, the heavy primary essence, I call the Primary matter, the matter of the world, cosmic matter, Æther. The æther is the first realization of God, the eternal position of the same. It is the first matter of creation. Everything has consequently originated out of it. It is the highest, divine element, the divine body, the primary substance = 0 + -.

170. The æther fills out the whole universe, and is, consequently, a sphere, yea, the world's sphere itself; the world is a rotating globe of æther.

171. The sphere of æther, not as yet individualized, I call chaos. From the beginning was chaos, and this was40 æther, and unto the end will chaos become æther. The æther is the apparent nothing, and thus it is the chaos. This was not the latter and not the former, but an existing nothing.

172. The æther is the imponderable matter, because it is gravity and totality itself, because it is the infinite matter.

173. The æther has no life; it is the only mortuum, because it is the heavy 0. In æther, however, reside all the principles of life, all numbers; it is the substratum, the essence of life. There is only one universal substratum in nature.

HEAVENLY BODY, POINT, CENTRE, GRAVITY.

174. Everything which emerges out of æther and is posited as a finite matter, can be nought else than a repetition of the sphere.

175. The æther subdivides into an endless number of subordinate rotating spheres, and so it must, because the world is not a whole devoid of parts, but only a whole in the parts, only a repetition of positions. The chaotic sphere of æther consists essentially at one and the same time of an infinity of spheres.

176. A chaos has never existed. The General never exists, but only the Particular. Chaos was from eternity a multiplicity of ætherial globes. Chaos is only postulate.

177. Every sphere of æther is complete in itself and closed, and therefore rotating around its axis and around the universal axis of the æther.

178. The new rotation in the heavenly bodies condensed in the periphery of the æther, follows as a necessary result, on account of the unequal velocity of its outwardly and inwardly lying points.

179. Every individual sphere has two motions in itself; the one depends upon the representation of the primary act in itself by the special rotation; the other re-attempts to regain the primary centre, through the general rotation around the universal axis.

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180. Such a sphere rotating for itself is called a Heavenly body. A heavenly body again is the image or metatype of the Eternal; it is a whole, it is alive; everything, even the highest, can originate out of it; everything develop itself out of the coagulated, individualized æther. The heavenly body has a double life, an individual and an universal, since it is for itself and at the same time in the general centre. Every Individual must have a double life.

181. The heavenly bodies are as old as the æther, consequently they are from the beginning, and endure also without end. As they are only coagulated æther, so are they susceptible of being resolved into the same, such as are probably the comets.

b. LIGHT, LINE. (Second form of the World. Motion.)

182. The æther is from eternity, not merely monas, but also dyas; from eternity it stands in a state of tension with itself, when, as the image of the existing primary act, it has emerged out of itself into two poles. This self-egression or self-manifestation of æther, or of substance simply, is the self-egression of the point into the periphery. As dyas, æther exists under the form of polarity, of central and peripheric effort; the æther in a state of tension is a centroperipheric antagonism.

183. The æther is separated from eternity into a central and peripheric substance, and that indeed through its simple position as a globe. The universe is a duplicity in the form of æther; it is both indifferent and different æther, both central and peripheric. The central mass of æther may be called sun, the peripheric planet. Only one sun can originate in a globe of æther, but many planets.

184. Between the central and peripheral mass of the æther, between the sun and planets, there is tension. Through this solar-planetary tension the æther fluctuating between the two becomes polarized.

185. The tension of the æther proceeds from the42 centre and thus from the sun. Were the sun to be removed, the polarity of the æther would be annulled; it would be again the indifferent chaotic æther, the null and void matter. For the absolute substance to exist it needed not simply itself, but an identical centre and a dissevered periphery. Is there no peripheric mass, no planet, so also is the tension annulled; centre cannot be without periphery, sun not without planet, nor vice versâ. The tension of æther is thus excited by the sun and conditioned by the planet. The planet is not the principle, but the Redintegrant of the tension of æther by the opposition.

186. At that part of the universe where no periphery stands opposed to centre, no planet to the sun, the æther is not tense, but indifferent, annulled. There can thus only be columns of æther, which are rendered tense, namely, those columns of æther which are found between the sun and the planets. Near to the planets the æther is void of action, indifferent, non-apparent. There are consequently as many apparent æther-columns, as there are heavenly bodies, that stand in the process of polarity opposed to each other. These columns move with the planets around the suns. The indifferent æther of the world-space is, therefore, successively rendered tense, as the planets move around suns, and becomes again indifferent behind the planets.

187. But besides this, that columns of tension only exist, and therefore that the æther is nowhere active as a sphere, there is still no spot in the world-space where there would be only indifferent æther, nothing; for the æther consists of many globes of æther. There is thus nowhere an indifferent æther, consequently nowhere an empty space. The idea of the repletion of space is not that of the sphere, but of the columns of tension, which by their crossing in every direction form a sphere only externally.

188. That which is thought of as originally filling space is not the quiescent but only the moved, tensed æther. The former is the void space, the nothing.

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189. The tension of æther is an action, which operates according to the line. This linear activity, which makes its exit from the central mass and is excited hence to the peripheral mass, is Light, or in short, light is tension of æther.

190. Light is a traction of lines or radial action; consequently an antetype of magnetism. A ray of light is a radius. The ray of light has two extremities different from each other; that turned towards the sun is 0, that which comes in contact with the planets is ±. Light is, therefore, a splitting, rending action.

191. Light is the life of the æther. Hitherto the æther was an inactive nothing, mere substratum for a future. This nothing, when it becomes centroperipheric, seeks to tear the mathematical point into radii and circumferences, appears; and this centroperipheric manifestation we call light.

192. The untensed, indifferent æther is, therefore, darkness, and this is the essence, the rest of æther. Chaos was thus darkness; the world arose out of darkness when light became. Light has originated out of darkness when the chaos was moved. Were it possible therefore for all light to vanish, the world would again return into its old nothing; for darkness and nothing are one. God has separated the light from the darkness.

193. If light be only a column of æther in a state of tension, light is or exists only between the planet and the sun; near to the planet and behind it is darkness. The primary sphere is a dark sphere, transpierced only by single rays of light. Each star, however, stands in a state of tension with another; thus many thousand rays of light stream forth from each, and fill out the world-space in all directions. There is therefore no absolute darkness, because there are infinitely numerous rays of light. In the night also there is always as much light present as is necessary to maintain the heavenly bodies in their action. For the world there is no night, but only for the planets. It will be shown that the air maintains its existence simply through the operation of44 light; were it therefore always dark, were night to endure for ever, the air must soon assume another composition or mixture, and everything that lives in it must fall to ruin. This is shown also by the diseases and crises of the same.

194. Light is from eternity, for the tense æther was from eternity. The dark chaos exists only as postulate. Light is time that has become real, the first manifestation of God; is God himself positing, is the dyadic God. The dyas is not merely radiality but light; or both are one, time and light are one, motion and light are one. When God numbers, when he draws lines, he thus creates light. God becoming self-conscious is light. Light is God illuminating. Darkness has accordingly never existed, although the light is derived from the darkness, like numbers and figures are out of nothing.

195. Light is no matter. There is no substance called light, but the æther is illuminant through its binary division. The sun does not, therefore, stream forth when it illumines the planets, and loses nothing of its magnitude; it is not to be feared that we shall ever lose it. That the sun is an undulating sea of flame, that it is throughout a volcano, that combustions or electrical processes of light, appearing to us as light, occur in its atmosphere; that the velocity of rotation hurls about the light-particles, and that these particles scattered in the world-space are, by an unknown route, or by means of comets, again brought back to the sun, are opinions unworthy the inquirer into nature. The sun gives out nothing but the impulse, not, however, the mechanical, which makes the space of heaven tremble upon which it shines; but the purely spiritual, as the nerves rule the muscle. The sun can never be extinguished, never become dark; for it gives out light, not as a fire, but simply by reason of its standing in the midst; its simple position, its enchainment to the planets is light. A fire upon the sun would not be perceived by us; it would not lighten nor warm us, because of its having no relation to us. The central relation of the sun toward us cannot,45 however, remain unobserved, and this observation is even that of light.

196. Matter has become by means of light, is a child of light, is but illuminating æther. Every binary division of matter manifests itself as light.

197. The whole universe is transparent, because everything has issued out of the tension of æther. Everything which is matter is light, and without light there is nothing. Without light the universe is not only dark but it is even not. Light is the universe, and every Finite is only a different position of light. The world is a thoroughly illuminating globe, a rotating globe of light. The solar system must have been created according to the laws of light. The phenomena of the world are only representations of optics, consequently of living geometry. What we see is nothing but optical construction or figuration. (Vid. Oken's 'Essay über das Licht;' Jena. Fromann. 1808.)

c. HEAT, DENSITY. (Third form of the World. Shape.)

198. Light is not simply a motion in itself, a mere continuous excitation of polarity in the æther, but it is also the æther itself set in motion thereby. All polar actions resolve themselves finally into motion of the polarized masses. The end of electricity, galvanism, magnetism, is motion. It will be, however, shown that all these polar functions are only repetitions of the primary polarity; this must therefore produce what the former did, namely, ætherial motion.

199. Every point of the æther becomes polar, every one attracts and repels the other; whereby motion arises in the innermost parts of the æther itself. Not a portion of the æther is moved on, but motion originates in the mass of æther itself. The æther-atoms quit each other.

200. The æther is, however, that which is filling space, is space itself, the Expansissimum of the world, the Formless and therefore that which adopts all forms. The46 formless æther, when it moves itself, must be connected with a phenomenon, that depends upon its expansion and identification, which is polarized by light. This action of the æther does not therefore depend upon the tension of æther, not upon production from differences in the same, but upon dissolution of the tension, therefore upon extension, upon the indifferent representation of space. This action, which is at the same time universal, can only be heat. Moved æther is Heat.

201. Heat is the contest of the indifferent æther with light; light alone produces heat. Without light the world were not only dark, but also absolutely cold. Cold is untensed and quiescent æther, death, nothing; dark and cold are one. Heat is therefore the result of light, but equally eternal with it; it is space represented really, as that is real time.

202. Heat is not moved indifferent ether, which is = nothing; but moved and tensed or the moved light.

203. Heat penetrates into thickness as an extending function, but does not oscillate between two poles like light. It is only the function of density, and depends upon nothing else, not upon lines or mere surfaces, but upon the living sphere.

204. Heat and light, although characters of one substance, yet stand in an antagonism like thickness and line, or as indifference and difference. Heat is properly the first perfected position of the primary act, while light is only the act of positing; the latter therefore is +, the former-. Or also, gravity is the absolute position, simply = 0; light is the commencing egression of this position out of itself + -, heat the completion + 0-, and therefore the position everywhere; it will everywhere deposit, therefore it is motion, repletion of space, expansion. Light is gravity become real, or 0 become real; 0 however, rendered real, is + -. Heat is as-at the same time + - and 0, or light and gravity, material light, light that is filling. Both will also assert the antagonism of their genesis through all forms of the47 world. The heat seeks to destroy the line, which the light endeavours to establish; heat seeks to produce homogeneity in the Dissimilar, light to effect the reverse. Heat is slow in its motion; with it the mass of æther must continually move, or move whither it will operate; light, however, acts spiritually and rapidly, without motion of the mass, but only glides continually with the latter. Heat is not created, it is no special matter different from æther. There is no body of heat.

205. Heat is everywhere where the æther is, and must consequently be regarded as a sphere. Heat is not present merely in the columns of æther between the heavenly bodies, but everywhere. Therefore heat does not move itself in the direction of the line, but it extends itself on all sides, as real space.

FIRE.

206. Light and heat were the first phenomena of the world. Heat with light, however, are Fire. Fire is the totality of æther, is God manifested in his totality. God, previous to his determination to create a world, was darkness; in the first act of creation, however, he appeared as fire. There is no higher, more perfect symbol of divinity than fire. God's whole consciousness, apart from individual thoughts, is fire. The Holy Scriptures therefore usually admit of God appearing under the form of a fire, as a fiery bush, a flame. The world is none other than a rotating globe of fire.

207. Everything that is, has originated out of fire; everything is only cooled, rigidified fire. As everything has become out of fire, so must everything to be annihilated have recourse to fire. If finite things be only fire singly posited, so must every change occurring in the same be an igneous change. Nothing changes in the world but fire. The essential change of things take place only by fire.

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RETROSPECT.

208. The Triplicity of the primary act in the universe has now been completely demonstrated. The first manifestation of God is monas; to this corresponds Gravity, Æther, darkness, the cold of chaos. The second manifestation of God is the dyas; to this corresponds the æther in a state of tension, the Light. The third manifestation of God is the trias; to this corresponds the want of form, Heat. God being in himself is Gravity; acting, self-emergent, Light; both together, or returning into himself, Heat. These are the three Primals in the world, and equal to the three which were prior to the world. They are the manifested triunity = Fire.

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PART II.
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 and50 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.

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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 fœtuses 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 and52 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, it53 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, of54 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, while55 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 flies56 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 is57 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; they58 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.

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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 then60 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.

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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 completed62 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.

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 ele-

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ment, 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; the64 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 represent65 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 there66fore 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 necessarily67 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.

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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 are69 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.

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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.

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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 of72 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 to73 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 into74 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 the75 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 re76fracting 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 and77 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.

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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 globes79 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.

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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 question81 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,82 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.

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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 viewed84 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,85 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 light86 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.

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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 has88 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. As89 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.

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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 or91 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 other92 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.

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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 the94 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.

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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 bodies96 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 not97 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.

482. The genesis of minerals, thus their collective character, as differently posited fixations of earth, determines the classes, orders, and genera.

483. The genus is the product of a genetic moment, and is therefore always a definite, chemical mixture, which alone consequently expresses the essential character. Hitherto there has been no definition of mineral genera.

484. Species of minerals are successive developments of the genetic moment, thus stöchiometric subdivisions of the genetic mixture, e. g. the different degrees of oxyda98tion of nitrogen, in the oxyde, binoxyde gases and nitric acid. Hitherto it was not known what a mineral species might be; Physio-philosophy has been the first to introduce clearness to these conceptions.

485. A stöchiometric mixture in the earth-element is an individual.

486. Individuals only are the object of natural history, and thus neither water, air, nor fire. This also was not known previous to Physio-philosophy; it is, however, gradually acknowledged also by empirics.

487. The crystalline form is merely an external character for the species, and therefore the same nuclei may occur in the different orders.

488. Kinds or varieties are different conditions of cohesion. They are therefore not determined by the form of the secondary crystal, since the aberration of forms results only from a stoppage upon their part half way or from the quantitative energy of the polar radii or polar axes.

489. While æther, air, and water, as being general matters, do not belong to the mineral system, what have been called artificial salts must on the contrary be admitted therein, because they are no works of art. The chemist only brings bodies together which do not come together accidentally in nature. It is a true misapprehension of nature's products if those substances only, that adhere to the earth, are recognized as such; surely this definition is perfectly ridiculous.

490. Two kinds or modes of division are possible, a chemical, and a genetic or philosophical.

491. The chemical principle of division of the earth are the elemental bodies. The philosophical or naturo-historical principles of division are the elements.

492. In reference to the chemical bodies four combinations only are possible. 1. Carbon, represented as perfectly pure, may be regarded as Metal. 2. Carbon united with hydrogen, is manifested in the Inflammables. 3. Carbon with oxygen makes its appearance in the Earths. 4. Carbon with oxygen and99 hydrogen in the Salts. According to this view, the classes would succeed each other thus:—

Now, as the earths here intervene between the Inflammables and salts, it is at once seen that the series is incorrect; for the earths form by far the largest mass, and must therefore constitute the groundwork or basis of Mineralogy, and thus stand at the commencement. If all metals, Inflammables and salts were to be deducted, the globe of the earth would still lose but little of its magnitude.

493. This chemical division admits thus of no strict arrangement, since what are called minerals follow each other unnaturally. Meantime the chemical view admits also of a philosophical treatment and amelioration of the serial order. It may be said that the earth consists of much carbon, little oxygen and very little hydrogen, without any other element. Salt, of little carbon, much oxygen and little hydrogen, together with water. The Inflammables of little carbon and oxygen, much hydrogen, besides air. Ore, of much carbon, little hydrogen, and still less oxygen with fire. As the fire or the æther is imponderable, so do the three elemental bodies appear blended together into one apparently simple body, with which gravity, light as lustre, heat as spirit and the conduction of heat, are only spiritually combined.

494. But this view leads directly to the genetic division, as the only true one, to that, namely, which has been based upon the mutual influence of all the elements. It is itself the ultimate cause or foundation of chemical division.

495. There can accordingly, as there are only four elements, be only four kinds of minerals. The Earthy either continues unchanged, or it is changed by water, air and fire.

496. When the earth-element originates or separates itself from the water, in order to free itself from all the100 properties of the latter as well as from those of the air and fire, and to become stiff and solid, the remaining elements exert an incessant influence upon it, and draw a portion of it into their circle, i. e. they confer upon it their properties.

497. Through the influx of fire upon the formation of the Earthy it becomes an identical, homogeneous mass, in which the possibility resides, as in the æther itself, of undergoing all changes. This developmental stage of the earth-element is represented by the metal. The homogeneous mass of the metal can become earthy by oxydation, aqueous or saline by acidification, aerial or combustible by being hydrogenized.

498. The metal is unanalysable, as is the æther, although it consists of three forms. The metal is easily restored or brought back from its combinations.

499. Besides, however, the identical, homogeneous or simple character, the metal has still also the three characters of fire or of the æther. It is therefore a triplicity in identity.

a. In so far as gravity is represented in it, it has the identical or homogeneous mass already indicated, and is heavier than all other bodies. It is central mass. It must be regarded as pure carbon. Metal and the body of gravity are one.

b. In so far as light is represented in it, it has the peculiar lustre, which stands again also in intimate connexion with the homogeneous mass. The usual colour of metals is white, the colour of unsullied light. The lustre is properly a self-illumination, and thereupon depends their repulsion of light, or opacity. Metals are therefore adiaphanous or opaque, because they are noncombustible by light. As soon as they become decomposible, namely oxydes, they become also trans101parent. The metals are the only opaque bodies, because they alone are non-decomposible. All matters become only opaque by admixture with metal, or in so far as the metallic body resides at the bottom of all. The visibility of the world is based upon its metallic character. Without metal we would see nothing.

c. In so far as heat is represented in metal is it extensible, fusible and fluidifiable. Metal is water that has become dense.

500. In so far as the air has acted upon the Earthy during its origin, it has imparted to it electrical and combustible properties; the metal has combined with hydrogen, has become an Inflammable, as in sulphur or pit-coal. Sulphur may be regarded as the intimate fusion of hydrogen with metal; coal as a combination of the same probably elicited by means of oxygen. Inflammables are idioelectric and combustible, because they are rigidified air. That matter belongs only to the Inflammables, which, being once kindled in exposure to the air, continues to burn of itself. The Inflammables are volatile, since they undergo combustion, i. e. they take on the condition of their antetype, the air. They have from metal the opacity and the colours, but they do not preserve the lustre or self-illumination. They become transparent simply by crystallization or oxydation.

501. With the generation of the Earthy water imparts also to a portion of the same its properties, dissolubility and transparency. To the metal and hydrogen oxygen is next added. An hydrated Earthy originates. The Aqueo-earthy is fluid in water; it is salt. Salt changes its form in the readiest manner, because it is the metatype or likeness of water; and hence its susceptibility to crystallization. It is not combustible by itself, because it is essentially an oxyde and hydroid. Salt is a metal or Inflammable that has undergone combustion, and can therefore never be simple.

502. Now that part of the earth-element, which remains after the salt, the Inflammable and the metal have been separated, is plainly the Earthy or the earth. It102 has therefore no aqueous properties, is not soluble; it has no aerial properties, is not electric and combustible; has no metallic properties, is not heavy, nor opaque and glittering, not fusible and malleable or extensible. The pure Earthy is always fixed or firm, and therefore figurate. The Earthy is a metal, with which the oxygen has been intimately melted down; for it is the identification of all elements.

503. The Earthy is the principal mass, because it represents the earth-element itself. Salt, Inflammable and metal are only subordinate masses, because they are only displacements of the earth-element by the other elements. Therefore a small part only of the Earthy has become salt, a yet smaller Inflammable, and the smallest, metal.

504. Although the metal is simple, it can by no means correspond, as might otherwise appear, to the earth-element; for every element is a totality of elemental bodies, and therefore those minerals, which represent the pure earth-element, must be compound, without, however, exhibiting the characters of the other elements. This is found only in the earths.

505. There are, accordingly, in a genetic point of view, four, and only four, mineral classes. They originate in an ascending direction, from the earth-element by water and air up to fire. The Classes are—

a. Earths are those minerals, which admit of being changed neither by water, nor air, nor by fire; i. e. which are neither soluble, combustible, fusible, neither yield colour, nor are particularly heavy. Such minerals have been properly called earths, as silicious, sacrilegious earth, &c.

b. Salts are those which have aqueous properties, i. e. are soluble.

c. Inflammables are those which have aerial properties, i. e. are inflammable and volatile.

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d. Metallic ores are those which have the three properties of fire, are superlatively heavy, yielding light or colour, and fusible.

506. The Earths are to be regarded as the proper total earth-element, namely as carbon neutralized by oxygen. The Salts are to be regarded as combinations of the earth-and water-elements; therefore as combinations of carbon with oxygen and hydrogen. The Inflammables are to be regarded as combinations of the earth-element with the air-element, thus of carbon with hydrogen, which supplies the place of nitrogen. The Metals are to be regarded as combinations of the earth-element with the fire-element; therefore as carbon without any other body, only combined with spiritual actions, namely gravity, light and heat. Hence the apparent simplicity of metals, and the great number of special properties, which are absent in the other classes.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLASSES.

507. As there is not simply a single earth, salt, Inflammable and metal, but in each class many of them; we have to inquire what is the groundwork of their further distinctions or of their systematic division. Here also may we go to work again chemically and philosophically.

a. Chemical Division.

The Metals, chemically regarded, do not admit of being separated into constituent parts. They exhibit only physical differences in gravity, colour, hardness, malleability, conducting power, tension or their mutual polarity. If it be endeavoured to arrange them according to these respects, nothing but disorder results. The same is the case in reference to their affinity for oxygen, sulphur, the acids and other metals. Rather more order is at once displayed if their philosophical composition, namely as carbon and fire, be submitted to our consideration.

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508. In consequence of this view, the Metals must divide into Earth-metals and Fire-metals; and the latter again into three subdivisions, nearly as follows:—

A. Earth-metals—difficultly fusible and invariably oxydized—Sidereometalla, e. g. Iron—Manganese, Wolfram, Uranium, Titanium, Chromium, &c.

B. Fire-metals.

a. Heavy metals; difficultly fusible, unoxydized or noble metals, e. g. Platinum, Nickel, Cobalt.

b. Light metals; the easily fused noble metals—e. g. Gold, Silver, &c.

c. Heat-metals; the easily fused, ignoble and frequently volatile metals, e. g. Lead, Tin, Antimony, Zinc, Arsenic, &c.

509. The Inflammables divide under a chemical point of view into two groups—into the varieties of Coal and Sulphur, whereof the Earthy lies at the basis of the former which is non-fusible; the Aerial at that of the latter. They do not admit of being divided, unless a mean betwixt the two be taken, the combinations of carbon and hydrogen in the resins.

510. The Salts admit of a better dismemberment. Their constituent parts are alkalies and acids, the former the Earthy, the latter the Aqueous. The mean condition is exhibited by the neutral salts, so that three orders are the result.

511. Now by the philosophical view we have first attained to the very remarkable import of the acids. They are forsooth nothing else than oxydized elements and mineral classes. In the nitric acid it is evident that, as the acid of nitrogen, it is the aerial acid; as sulphuric acid is the inflammable acid; arsenic acid the metallic acid. Upon this ground we may expect that the other acids also have a similar origin. Without much hesitation hydrochloric acid may be viewed as the aqueous acid, which is associated with the sea; the carbonic acid as æther- or igneous-acid, as well on account of its constituent parts and gaseous character, as chiefly on account of its general diffusion. There remain then only two that have been105 called mineral acids, the fluoric and boracic acids, the first of which, as conqueress of the earths is the earth acid, the last being thus the acid of the salts. We have accordingly—

512. The vegetable and animal acids are none other than repetitions of the elemental and mineral acids. They may perhaps be parallelized in the following manner.

All the remaining acids must be viewed as subordinate to, or as kinds of these.

513. The alkalies appear to follow the same course, though it does not admit of being so completely demonstrated.

514. The earths proper do not consist of two principles, and do not, therefore admit of being chemically divided.

515. This division is only incorrect in a naturo-historical sense, because it has no reference to the totality. Inasmuch as every mineral class is viewed as having originated out of only one or two elements, it divides by the chemical method only into constituent parts or frac106tions, as the acids and alkalies, which are obviously only moieties, and taken in a strict sense are not true minerals.

b. Genetic Division of the Classes.

516. The total division only is genetic and consequently correct.

517. As the classes have originated through that which directly preceded them, namely, the elements; so must the divisions of the classes be determined by the other classes. Such divisions are called orders. Every class necessarily divides into four orders.

CLASS I.

EARTHS.

518. There must be therefore pure earths, haloid or salt-earths, inflammable earths and metallic earths or ores.

1. The Earth-earths must have neither saline, nor inflammable nor metallic properties, and thus also be insoluble in acids. Such is the case with the Silicious earths.

2. The Haloid-earths must have saline properties, dissolve in acids, but not fall to pieces when exposed to air and fire. Such is the behaviour of Argillaceous earth; it admits besides of combining with water, that antetype of the salts.

3. The Inflammable earths must be soluble in acids and exhibit electric or aerial properties. Such is the behaviour of the Talcose earths; its minerals are unctuous, fall when exposed to the air into electric lamellæ, and burn brittle.

4. The Metallic earths must undergo change in acids, air and fire. The calcareous earth dissolves in all acids,107 burns corrosive and becomes almost a metallic calx. The Orders of earth are consequently:

519. Nature does not produce any so-called pure calcareous earth, but only this earth in an oxydated condition. Carbonic acid is the oxygen of the earth that has become free, and the corroding calx is the Metallic, the other constituent part of the Earthy, which has obtained some oxygen, but lost the Aqueous by the carbonic acid and thereby has become corrosive.

520. The carbonate calcareous earth is the whole earth, not the corrosive. This is only the half of the earth-element, only its basic or phlogistic principle. What has been called pure calcareous earth is a half earth; the perfect or naturo-historical earth is just that which is chemically impure.

521. The calcareous earth is not, however, perfected with one position. It still exhibits several stages of development which appear to be approximations to the salt, e. g. Strontian and Baryta.

522. The silicious earth, which principally represents the Earthy, holds its principles more firmly together. No separation occurs there in the carbonic acid and the basic or corroding body of earth; no association with water, no great activity, no direct participation in the highest evolutions of the planet; but it continues to lie in an extreme state of contraction, and in a state of indifference in the non-differencing darkness.

523. This pure earth is the basis, the pedestal of all the other earths, and the foundation of the planet; for it alone is the earth proper, the earth-abiding earth-element, while the other masses of earth, divided in their principles, have pitched themselves in outward opposition to the sun and other elements. The silicious earth is in every respect the centre of all earthy productions, these being only digressions from it. The108 Zircon earth is only a removal or displacement of the silicious toward the argillaceous earth.

524. The argillaceous earth also is not dissevered into its principles; it is not found as a carbonate. On the contrary, it is at once shown to be far more pliable by its capacity for being kneaded and moulded in water, and by its hardening when exposed to air and fire. It is also seized upon and dissolved, i. e. reduced to the aqueous condition, by all acids. Its kindred earths are the Glucine and Yttria, verging towards the talcose earths.

525. The first dismemberment of principles is shown by the talcose earth. Where it appears uncombined with the former earths it is carbonate, yet still feebly corrosive.

526. These three principal earths together make up the body of the earth, while the calcareous earth is only spread over them like a mantle or crust.

527. As no earth is in its totality corrosive, and none such occurs in nature or has at least not been originally produced from it, so may the insolubility of the earths in water be set up as an essential and thoroughly valid characteristic of the earths. Their distinctive characters have been sedulously rendered fluctuating, by having been drawn not from nature, but the products of art. That the corrosive chalk is soluble in water, and may therefore be a salt is true; but it has not issued thus out of the womb of nature. Mineralogy knows nothing of a corrosive calcareous earth. The earths are sufficiently separated from the salts by their insolubility in water. They are separated from the ores by their incombustibleness, or, if they have been already burnt, by their incapacity for reduction. As both of these qualities are imparted by fire, so the earths are distinguished by their immutability in fire, whereby is naturally understood not the scoriation, but change of the earthy character. They differ also in the same manner from the Inflammables. Nature does not undertake the artificial reductions of earths to Metalloids, at least not so, that they may become again of themselves earths. The metals are permanent reductions.

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528. Earth is thus the body, which is mutable neither in water, air, nor fire. Earth is a water-, air-, and fire-proof body. This is the brief, rigid, wholly exclusive, and significantly expressive definition, which a so-called empirical science could never, but philosophy alone, bestow.

529. The Ore is not soluble in water, nor mutable in air; on the contrary, it is fusible, oxydizable, or reducible in fire. Ore is a water-and air-, but not fire-proof body.

530. The Inflammable is immutable in water, but mutable in air and fire. The Inflammable is a water-proof, but not air-and fire-proof body.

531. The Salt is soluble in water, and decomposible in fire, but immutable in air. Salt is an air-, but not water-and fire-proof body. The legitimate series of gradations comprised in the above four definitions cannot escape the attentive reader, nor moreover that the properties of the earths are all affirmative. Nature has not employed such insignificant means of distinction as our mineralogy has done; has nowhere used an acid in order to distinguish the metals from the earths, nor savour to separate the salts from the earths; but she selects universal reagents which are the elements themselves. So simple is Nature, if we do not violate her by art.

DIVISION OF THE EARTHS.

532. There is not merely a single silicious mineral, but many such, just as in clay, talc, and calx. How, then, do differences occur in these earths? When we survey the science of Mineralogy we remark that most minerals are composed of several earths; with them also metals, coal, sulphur, alkalies and acids are frequently associated. It follows thereupon that the further distinctions are no longer of an internal kind, namely, alterations of substance; but proceed from combinations and thus indicate stöchiometric bodies. The next division of the orders I call Families.

Order 1. Silicious minerals. *

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533. With how many bodies now can the silicious earth combine? It will first of all appear in a pure condition, as in quartz; then, in the next place, combine with the other earths, thus with clay, talc and calx. We have thus four families of Earth-silices.

534. Thus the hardest minerals or the silicious precious stones are here placed. But these are obviously not exhausted with the above four combinations, but more of the latter must still be sought for. Those bodies which rank next to the earths, and can therefore enter into the following combinations are the other mineral classes, such as the salts, Inflammables, and metals; and we accordingly obtain the following silicious minerals, as constituting classes.

535. Still all the silicious minerals are not exhausted with these combinations. But now the silicious earth can combine with nothing more than the elements, whence three families originate.

536. Upon casting a glance at this series, it is shown, that the first seven families occur in a crystalline, but the last three only in a compact or structureless condition. The latter occur at the same time in large masses, the former, on the contrary, but scantily dispersed. The first family or the quartz, occurs as well in a compact and massive state as crystallized; the others, on the contrary, taken collectively, are only crystallized, and scarcely form small rocks here and there, but never mountain-chains. They are the precious stones proper, both on111 account of their hardness, as also their rarity. Precious stones are thus only combinations of silex with other earths, and with the classes; on the contrary, the elemental silices only, viz. the earth-, water-, air-and fire-silices, are massive.

537. It is here shown, that freedom finds a place also in dead nature. Quartz only is necessary as the earth in general. Its marriages with the other earths, &c., to form precious stones are not necessary, but free or accidental, and may therefore happen for the first time in the laboratory.

538. If we now proceed to the arrangement of the Clay, we find exactly the same law to prevail in the genesis of its minerals i. e. stöchiometric combinations with other orders, classes, and elements. We have likewise—

The water-clays are hydrates; the air-clays volatilized hydrates; the fire-clays are clay fused or transmuted by heat. Here also the first 7 families only are crystallized; the 3 last, on the contrary, as well as the first in part, occur only in a compact state and in large masses.

539. The Talcs follow the same laws, and we have—

Here also the first 7 families only are crystallized and occur for the most part in a scattered manner; but the aqueous, aerial, and igneous families, as well as the first family in part, are merely compact and mountainous masses.

540. The fourth order or that of the Calcareous earths is developed likewise according to the same laws. As, however, it approximates the salts, and therefore combines with acids, it presents many anomalous varieties, of which account cannot be taken in every instance. These minerals are soft throughout, change by fire and admit of being wholly or partially dissolved in acids. Here belong the zeolites, or combinations of the calcareous earths with the other earths.

Here also the first 7 tribes only occur crystallized, the 3 last, in a great measure, compact, and as mountainous masses.

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CLASS II.

WATER-EARTHS. SALTS.

541. The chief distinctions of the salts consist also in their combination with the other classes, and we have therefore 4 orders—

The same will hold good without doubt of the orders, as in the case of the earths. They form as many families as there are principal masses of them present, with which they may combine. As the acids, from being the children or offspring of water, play the chief part in the water minerals, and are themselves nothing else than oxydized and outwardly lying masses, they carry consequently within themselves the number and import of the families; thus it is they which determine indeed the division. If the bases were to be taken as the groundwork of arrangement, there would be only earths and alkalies, and on the other hand numerous metals, by which step the mineralogist would fall into the unprincipled method of classification adopted by empirics. Here also the philosophy of nature shows, and that indeed upon sound reasoning, that the acids and not the bases afford the principle of a natural classification. A somewhat different opinion is held by the chemist, who must characterize the salts according to both series; but this is by no means the course taken by the historian of nature.

CLASS III.

AIR-EARTHS—INFLAMMABLES.

542. It is very difficult to arrange this class, because it has been wholly neglected by mineralogists, and is, properly speaking, quite unknown to them, because they115 have had recourse only to those combustible bodies which occur accidentally in the earth, while according to philosophical principles everything belongs to the province of natural history, that has originated or may originate in nature, so that its situation is a matter of complete indifference. If we follow the same laws according to which the earths and salts have been so excellently arranged, we must here also adopt four orders, namely, combustible things which bear a resemblance to earths, others to salts, others to metals; finally, others which represent combustibility in a pure state, and thus we obtain—

The Earth-inflammables will be such as are solid and burn, without becoming fluid, e. g. Common Coal. The Salt-inflammables will either be or become fluid before they undergo combustion, and are readily converted of themselves into acids, e. g. Animal and Vegetable Fats. The Inflammable-inflammables will be of a sulphurous character, solid or fluid, fragile, electric, fetid and fluid before they burn. These properties are found in the Resins. The Ore-inflammables are those which, independently of their combustibility, possess pre-eminently one property of metals, namely their non-transparency, or coloration, e. g. the Pigments or colouring matters from the organic kingdoms.

CLASS IV.

FIRE-EARTHS—ORES.

543. The metals are again easier of arrangement, because they have a resemblance to earths and have been better worked out both in chemistry and mineralogy. They divide very naturally into—

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The principles of this arrangement which has been at present pretty generally followed, were first published in my essay 'Das naturliche System der Erze,' 1809. In order to gain a proper insight into the serial gradation of all the families we must first regard the 4th order.

Order IV.

Metallic-Ores.—Metals.

(Pure or reduced metals.)

544. The classification of metals is one of the most difficult, because no natural arrangement of them has been as yet attempted, and their signification is also so mysterious that we can only get at it, by clinging fast to the laws of development. Thus assuming, that they likewise arrange themselves according to the elements, classes and orders of the earths, we have at once the Elemental metals. The earth-metals are without doubt the difficultly fusible, ignoble or oxydized, such as iron with its congeners. Then the air-metals present themselves with their peculiar character of volatility, as Arsenic with its congeners. These being once rendered solid, the easily fusible but non-volatile will correspond to water, such as Lead with its congeners. The noble metals consequently as Gold, Silver, &c., must doubtless be regarded as fire-metals. Having once separated these 4 groups, the Class-metals admit of being more readily brought into their place. There is one metal, which subjected to moisture is readily converted into a salt, namely copper. This is consequently the representative of the salts among the metals. Ore-metals are, without doubt, those resembling iron, which do not, however, occur in an oxydized condition and are therefore noble Irons. Of this119 kind are Platinum with its retinue. Between Copper and Platinum nothing else can be introduced but Nickel and Cobalt, as they are likewise difficultly fusible and tolerably noble. They are thus the Inflammable metals. After all these separations a great group is still left of the earth-metals or the difficultly fusible and ignoble. They divide therefore without doubt according to the 4 earths. If now iron approximates the argillaceous-earths, so will those metals whose oxydes are distinguished by a striking colour be regarded as talc-metals. Of this kind are Titanium, Chromium, Uranium, which crystallize moreover into spiculæ like hornblende, or into lamellæ like mica. These again being separated the silicious and calcareous-metals remain for investigation. The former are those which scarcely admit of being reduced; the latter, on the contrary, those which approximate to the noble, difficultly fusible metals, namely to platinum. It can hardly be doubted that Tantalum is the silicious-metal. For the calcareous-metals Sulphuret of Molybdenum is left, to which Osmium seems to approximate. We have accordingly the following genetic arrangement:

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Every one will easily see that these groups of metals agree with their antetypes in properties, as also that this arrangement is more natural than any that has hitherto been advanced. Glancing at it, it must strike the reader that in several of the families 4 metals are present, and that none exceed this number. There are 4 sideroid, 4 titanoid, 4 platinoid, 4 arsenicoid and 4 argyroid metals. Now, as they are to be viewed as deoxydized earths, it must be assumed that in each family they are mindful of their origin, and everywhere represent the 4 earths along with the character of their family. They are earths divided unto the last members, or reduced in a primo-chemical manner. In order to recognize the parallelism of the classes, orders and families, we have only to compare the adjoining table. We cannot expect to find all the minerals ranging there in their proper place. For we are treating the subject at present only as regards its principles.

Table A

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II.—GEOLOGY.

545. Geology is the history of the formation of the planet. It is the doctrine which comprises the structure and thus the form, with the organs or members of the planet, if we would compare the latter with an organic body.

1. Form of the Planet.

546. Crystallization belongs to the essence of the earth as the globular form does to that of water. The life of the earth consists in the formation of crystals. The being of the earth and of the crystal are identical. The solid planet earth, has originated also according to the laws of crystallization.

547. It is not, however, a single large crystal, the structure of which appears to be homogeneous; but it is crystallized in its smallest parts; it is an accumulation of crystals, which its atoms, integral parts, or constituent forms present for our examination. If a schorl or feldspar were extended to the size of the whole earth, its integral parts, though undiscoverable before by the microscope, would then become visible. Crystals would be exhibited therein of silicious, argillaceous, talcose, and calcareous earths, of iron, boracic acid, &c. In short it would prove a complex kind of rock or mountain. The fundamental or principal mass of the planet is thus a granular kind of rock or mountain, probably like granite. Each of these constituent forms is crystallized for itself out of the fluid-mass according to the laws developed in the theory of crystallization, in every point of the fluid a globe of crystallizing forces being constituted, that generated the constituent forms.

548. The earth (regarded as planet, not as element) has during its coagulation into a solid nucleus, generated an infinity of polar spheres, as every polar line consists of an infinite vicissitude of poles.

549. These integral crystals have originated only in drops of water; for then only was an infinite multitude122 of polar axes and polar radii separated from each other. Water in infinitely numerous drops is rain. In the primary rain each drop crystallized, and each fell towards the centre, because the primary water ranged over a vast extent. The granular rock has originated in and out of rain. It is crystallized rain.

550. It does not follow from this, that the earth should be an accidental accumulation of small crystals, which, by the rotation of the planet, formed themselves mechanically into a spheroid. As in small crystals the infinity of poles reunites to constitute some principal polarities, so also is this the case with the globe of the earth; this results from its genesis whereby it is present in a definite space, and hence coheres or hangs together as one piece. The earth is only one small punctule of contraction wrought in æther-space by the agency of light. Again, it was without doubt a single central tension, which, occurring upon a large scale, attracted together all the particles of æther, and from that circumstance arranged them also. It was probably magnetism, which is so intimately connected with the rotation of the earth's axis, or the conflict of magnetism in its interior with the electricity upon its surface, which was active in the condensation and arrangement of the masses.

551. This arrangement of the parts of the earth, upon a large scale, is a regulation of its constituent forms. The adjusting forces are, however, those that operate through the whole sphere, and are thus linear and spherical at one and the same time. By these the laminæ of the nucleus were determined. The constituent forms of the earth are consequently arranged in laminæ. What in the crystal is called the cleavage of the laminæ, is in the earth stratification. The strike of the strata combined with their dip determines the crystal nucleus of the earth.

552. The strike and dip of the strata happened without doubt according to definite laws of crystallization, and has by no means been resigned to elevating force, mechanical dislocation, or even to chance.

553. On this very account the two directions of the123 earth's laminæ cannot have a similar bearing over the whole earth. They can only have a long tract extending in the same direction in individual mountain-chains. This does not, however, exclude a parallel strike and dip occurring in some wholly different quarter of the world; it must indeed occur, and in such instances we meet with the opposing sides or edges of the earth's nucleus.

554. The earth has without doubt originated according to the laws of the polyhedron, which represents in the nearest manner the globe. The polyhedron of the globe is the rhomboidal dodecahedron.

555. The land cannot therefore have an equal elevation everywhere above the water, because the crystal consists of edges, angles, and surfaces or sides. The mountain tops are probably the angles, the mountain ridges or chains the edges, the plains the lateral surfaces of the crystal.

556. Several mountain-chains run parallel, but interrupted, with the equator. This parallelism extends to the most temperate zones. Then follow oblique mountain-chains, as the Carpathian, Alps, Pyrenees. Lastly, mountain-chains pass from the poles to the equator, as the Sewo, Ural and Altai mountains. Subordinate mountain-chains unite the latter transversely and the former in the direction of the meridian. The earth is probably a regular net of crystal edges and angles, and thus of crystal surfaces also.

PRIMARY VALLEYS.

557. Although the earth may be regarded as originally a crystal, that consists of level surfaces, edges and angles, wide fissures may still have originated between its laminæ, such as we see in large crystals of felspar. These fissures or gaps are the primary valleys.

558. There must be therefore valleys or parallel valleys, which probably extend for hundreds of miles, and are many miles deep—Longitudinal valleys.

559. The laminæ of the earth had without doubt transverse fissures, which have been called hidden pas124sages. These transverse fissures are the transverse valleys, which are consequently less long and deep.

560. The mountains originate of themselves. They do not properly originate, but valleys only originate, and the ridges of the crystal laminæ afford the mountains. The mountains have not been originally upheaved above the surface of the earth, nor the valleys depressed. A valley, which is several miles broad, must originally have been several miles deep, and the mountain wall consequently several miles high. The earth at its origin was a cloven and jagged polyhedron, a polyhedric star, such as the moon is still.

561. The mountains are not therefore large crystals, which crystallized above the surface of the earth. They are only crystal laminæ, and may be as irregular as possible in form; for they are ruptured crystals.

562. The water, which from the beginning had covered the polyhedron, now sunk into the primary valleys. From the water resulted new and final crystallizations, and these deposited themselves in the valleys, upon the level ground and the flanks of the mountains; and thus the fathomless primary valleys have been in part filled up. There are no longer any primary valleys upon the earth.

563. After the water was once confined in narrow canals, it must begin to flow, and by the force of its current many a steep primary wall must have fallen in, been crumbled into ruins, and either been left upon the spot or washed away—Diluvial drift rocks (Trümmersteine), Nagelfluhe, Stratified rocks.

564. The principal direction of the water was formerly, as it is even now, determined by the rotation of the earth; it flowed therefore from east to west under the equator, from north-east to south-west in our temperate zones, and pretty well from the north or from the poles toward the equator in the frigid zones.

565. The primary valleys, which had originated in these directions, were more excavated by aqueous agency than those which ran in other directions, new valleys125 being also produced; the mountain chains therefore upon the earth agree in the main with the water courses, and, though not generated from, have been certainly changed in character by, the latter. Such must be our conclusion, if in the formation of the earth nothing but crystallization be taken into consideration. Condensation alone brings yet other phenomena along with it.

566. The first and most important of these is the elevation of temperature. We cannot think otherwise than at the first precipitation of the earthy a number of huge cavities remained in the interior of the earth, which were filled with water. This being heated, was converted into steam, which thrust up the superincumbent rock, and converted it into new mountains or mountain-chains. These agencies of heat may be called primary volcanoes, although they are not to be confounded with volcanoes proper.

567. The igneous cavities were probably placed in a certain order, according with the original edges and angles of the earth's body. They may have therefore thrown up mountain tops and chains.

568. But the cavities, besides raising mountain chains, could just as well depress or allow them to sink in, and thus produce valleys. By these means the seas have probably been formed. Like the seas so also have the inland seas or lakes originated.

569. Lastly, a similar origin must be ascribed to the world-sea or ocean. Many earthquakes arose, with all their concomitant phenomena, by partial and sudden falling in of the deep descending cavities of the earth. Frequently that which fell in was again driven out by the expansive force of the suddenly compressed air.

2. Organs of the Planet.

570. The principal mass or body of the planet is formed by the earths proper, as being the typical or genuine representatives of the earth-element. The other126 classes, as the metallic minerals or ores, the Inflammables, and salts, are to be regarded only as viscera of this body. If we take a circumspective glance at the planet, we cannot fail to recognize this remarkable relation, that it is properly the elemental families only of the earths that form the mountain masses, while the other families are only scattered within them, like the glands in an animal body. Let us again place the Families in tabular contrast with each other.

571. Now we here observe that only Quartz, Hornstone, Tripoli and Obsidian, occur as mineral aggregates in large masses, while all the others are only rare precious stones. Among the Clays, only Felspar, Clay-Slate, Hornstone and Lava. Among the Talcs, only Mica, Serpentine, Lithomarge, and Basalt. Among the Calcareous-earths, which incline towards the nature of salts, all the first families are of rare occurrence, and the latter only appear as mineral masses. This regularity speaks moreover retrospectively in favour of the correctness of the classification. The families have thus the same import or value in Geology as in Oryctognosy.

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A.—EARTHS.

572. The proper organs of the planet are the mineral aggregates or rocks. These are either presented to us as they have originally been precipitated from water by chemical process, or as they have been changed by the co-operation of the other elements. There are thus genetic and metamorphosed kinds of rock. The former were crystallized previous to the current of the water—Primary rocks. These rocks are changed either—

1. By water—Transition-rocks, or
2. By air—Trappean-rocks.
3. By fire—Volcanic-rocks.

There are properly four kinds of rock formations—

1. Earth-formation, masses that have originated through the crystallizing
force of the earth-element itself—Primary-rocks.
2. Aqueous-formation—Transition-rocks.
3. Aerial-formation—Trappean-rocks.
4. Igneous-formation—Volcanic-rocks.

The stratified rocks, having originated for the most part mechanically, are only the object of Physio-philosophy, in so far as chemical precipitations partly occur amongst them.

573. The earth-formation is represented by the crystallized primary rocks.

a. Earth-Formation.

574. The earths can only be precipitations from the element that immediately precedes them, and thus from water. They have been enveloped in the water, as this has been in the air, and the latter again in the æther, but not mechanically, as we at present dissolve clay in water, nor chemically either, as lime dissolves by corrosion in water, but dynamically. The water did not exist from the beginning as water in the air, but only its principles, which became for the first time water, when they had combined by electricity.

575. Even so was it the case with the earths. The128 primary water, which was present prior to the solid nucleus of the earth, is not the water, with which we are at present acquainted; it had still the earthy principles, the basic in itself, which being separated by a differencing act from the oxygenous of the water, was deposited as carbon specially produced. No calcareous, argillaceous, and silicious earth was imbedded in the primary water. How then could they have been dissolved in it? Some say, by a great quantity of acids which prevailed at that time; but from whence then did these acids come? The largest quantity of them resides in lime, gypsum, and common salt; but how could this quantity, which has not so much as acidified all the calcareous earth, have held the rest of the earths in solution? And then again are all the earths soluble by the process of acidification? We cannot reason in geogeny, as we would of a common chemical precipitation, where we precipitate earths that have been dissolved by elective affinities.

576. The earths originated for the first time, when they were separated from the primary water. The instant of their precipitation was also the instant of their generation, even as rain is, or rather was, a production of the water. It is easy to say that the earths had been dissolved in the water, and were then precipitated by elective affinities. But it is absurd to rest content with such an assertion. The chief question still remains; how did the earthy originate, before the earth was? Every one can say how that which had already originated, and was only suspended in water, was precipitated. But we are in the habit of distinguishing the several earths, before having taken a survey of matters and inquired if earths then existed.

577. It must not, however, be thought, that all had happened in a gradual manner; that air was first converted into water, and lastly, after a lapse of some thousand years, the latter again into earth, without with the one element the principles conducting to the others being already and necessarily imparted. No, everything has been granted and determined at one stroke, even as with129 the impregnation of the ovum all the organs of the future embryo are determined, although they first develop themselves gradually. The same agent, which creates the air solicits also its two principles unto combustion in the water; and the same act, which separates the oxygen gas out of the air as water, separates also the carbon from it to constitute earth. Not one can be posited, without the other being codetermined.

578. The analysing principle cannot be a something internal residing in the planet itself. But all that it is, it is through antagonism with the sun. This antagonism is light. This it is that divorces or separates the elements from their matrix; it is light, which has sundered the æther into the twofold air, and the air again into the denser elements, water and earth, separating the oxygen from the nitrogen and later on from the carbon, which must be taken up in water as an oxide.

579. At the commencement of the separation the fluid must be the first to emerge, because the cohesion or fixation of the poles is possible only in a successive manner, yet not as if water were according to its determination to be the first and the Earthy the second in the order of production. As the oxygen separated from the air to create water, so also must the carbon that was left have been precipitated from the water and metamorphosed into earth. Thence and thence only may we venture to say, that the earths originated out of water; for, properly speaking, they arose as absolutely for themselves as air and water; but as air succeeded æther, and water air, so did the earth the water.

580. Whatever be the bulk of the mass of water, to the same extent is the Earthy, or the germ of the Earthy, diffused throughout it. The whole is a fluid mass of earth. Light, however, penetrates the mass of water as a transparent body. As translucency is not a mechanical but a dynamic act, or process of differentialization in matter; so does this earth-water become separated into a mass of oxygen and carbon, or into ordinary water and into the earth-element.

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581. The genesis of the earths is a process of conduction of light. All transparency is a formation of earth; for it is a separation of the Aqueous from the body of gravity. Where non-transparency exists, there has earth been already formed.

582. As the conducting process of light is an act of deoxydation, so are the earths at the same time also deoxydized by precipitation, and this in four stages which indicate the elements whereby light operates upon the Basic in water; or it might be said, by the four colours of, or by coloured, light. We already know that the earth, which presents in itself the most dismembered character is the calcareous earth; but that those which have preserved a more identical character in themselves are the silicious, argillaceous, and talcose earths. These earths may be viewed as those in which the lime has absorbed a proportion of oxygen, which has in it become carbonic acid. There is indeed only one earth-substance in water. In this substance, which is neither silex nor calx, the polar principle has distributed itself, and that very portion, which has obtained the most thereof, has become calcareous earth.

583. The calcareous earth has originated in the upper parts of the aqueous globe, the other earths, however, in the depths, in the middle of that globe; for in the upper regions of the water, the light can exert a greater polarizing influence, and therefore that very earth is generated which stands nearest to the æther or to the light, viz. the different calcareous earth. But in the depths of the water, the light loses its energy, and is no longer in a condition to elicit the Oxygenous in the Basic; thereby identical and more fixed earths originate.

GRANULAR ROCK OR GRANITE.

584. The differenced calcareous earth has been associated with the differential water, remained for a longer period identical with and dissolved in it, and was therefore the last to be precipitated from it. The silicious earth with its neighbours must necessarily have been the first to separate from the water, as it is in a proper sense,131 that earth from which all water has been withdrawn. Two periods of precipitation exist therefore in geogeny, one that of the identical or fundamental earths, and one of the internally subdivided calcareous earths.

585. The silicious, argillaceous, and talcose earths must occupy, from their having been first precipitated, the middle of the planet. The water being earthy everywhere, had everywhere the capacity to become earth; but different earths originated, where the light was different in the fluid mass of earth. In pure light, or that upon the surface, the Earthy dualized itself into calcareous earth; in situations, where the light exercised less influence, the Earthy became talcose, still deeper argillaceous earth; lastly, at such a depth where the light could scarcely reach, the Earthy became a pure Earthy or silicious earth.

586. Precipitation, both upon a large and small scale, is a process of crystallization; the integral parts of the planet originate, like the nucleus and the perfected crystal, through central action and polar action. The integral forms of the planet impart the crystalline granule or its joints.

587. The integral forms of the three fundamental earths crystallized with and through each other into one mass, or, in other words, the nucleus of the earth consists of a crystalline mass of the three fundamental earths. The solid nucleus of the earth consists of crystals upon a small scale of silex, clay, and talc.

588. As, however, no pole is produced of perfect purity in nature, so are the integral forms not perfectly pure fundamental earths, but other and later factors enter also into their composition, e. g. calcareous earth, with even ores and salts. The silicious earth is crystallized as quartz, the argillaceous as feldspar, the talc as mica.

589. The mixture of the three crystallized fundamental earths, which composes the nucleus of the earth, and upon which the polarized masses of soil have been supported, is therefore a definite species of rock, which has all the properties of Granite, although that which has been extruded from the earth may have been altered by heat.

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590. As the mass of the earth is about five times denser than water; so must the planet, before the Earthy was separated, have been much denser than at present. With its separation the fluid must have suddenly diminished, and moved towards the middle point of the planet. During the descent of water for many miles in extent, it must separate in drops. The separation of the earths was combined with rain.

591. In every falling drop the three fundamental earths, which are insoluble in water, crystallized. The first crystals therefore are only of the size of drops. It is only by this mode of origin that the crystallization into one another of the three constituent parts of granite without any cementing substance can be comprehended. Granite is an earthy hail-storm. The hail-stones crystallized during their fall in a similar manner with each other.

592. Upon the whole the silicious character predominates in granite, as the primary formation of the planet, and must do so, for silicious earth is the primary earth, the principal earth of this precipitation, and one from which clay and talc subsequently proceed, being higher heterogynisms produced by light. Properly speaking only two perfectly different characters of earth exist, the silicious earth as the pure separation of the Earthy, and the calcareous earth, as the last separation of the water from the Earthy. It may also be said that in the calcareous earth fire, in the talcose earths the air, in the argillaceous earth water has exercised its influence and displaced the Earthy. Not only quartz is silicious earth, but feldspar and mica consist in a great measure of the same. Still, however, these last two constituent forms are wholly different from quartz, and very far removed from the nature of silex; the feldspar obviously forming the transition to clay by its resolution into porcellanic earths, but the mica passing over into talc.

593. There does not exist in nature an order of silex, clay, or talc, so soon as we take up these earths in a simply chemical manner. Nature instead of silex produces quartz, instead of clay feldspar, instead of talc mica; and these must be the earths, that determine this part133 of the mineral system; they are the characters of orders; there is thus properly no order of silex but of quartz, none of clay but of feldspar, none of talc but of mica, at least according to their signification.

594. The points of origin for this division of the mineral system or that formed by the fundamental earths are the three fundamental crystallizations, and upon these everything that does not belong to the calcareous earth must and does naturally arrange itself. The mineral system is only the developed and separated granite. The fact cannot rest unobserved, that mica has only one laminar cleavage, feldspar two, quartz three, this being for the first time a perfect crystal, a double tetrahedron with one column.

595. With granite and with it alone the solidity, the body and form of the earth has been given; it is the homogeneous fundamental mass of the planet, and is therefore crystallized throughout to the finest degree in its three constituent forms.

GNEISS AND MICA-SCHIST.

596. If, in addition to granite, several formations are displayed which bear traces of the same mode of origin, of the same component parts and the same aggregation, it may be inferred that they are only metamorphoses of the same precipitate. Granite is the basis of geogeny.

597. Granite is a totality for the earth, it is a representation of the three terrestrial elements under the form of identical earth; it is the earth represented in silex, water in clay, and air in talc; it is an universe represented individually in the earth-elements.

598. The granite can undergo metamorphosis in only three ways; for its essence is indeed only trinity. Nothing can individualize itself from granite but quartz, feldspar, and mica. All the formations of this period are thus quartz, feldspar, or mica formations. The granite appears under a threefold form as quartz, feldspar, and mica-granite.

599. The first quartz formation is properly the granite134 itself, and its character will be also the determinant for all the metamorphoses of quartz—quartz-granite.

600. The first structure, in which the character of feldspar as regards its laminated form and its more argillaceous nature obtains the preponderance, is Gneiss—Feldspar-granite.

601. The first structure in which mica is the predominant character, is the Mica-schist—Mica-granite.

602. All rocks that do not belong to the calcareous formation come under these three forms. The progressive formation of the earth takes a threefold course, since it begins in a threefold and yet single manner in granite.

603. The gneiss and mica-schist precipitations followed subsequently to the completion of granite. For all precipitation is a true process, in which water has a certain tension peculiar to this process, by virtue of which this form of earth and no other has been produced.

604. By granite the silicious principally came out of water, but what was argillaceous and talcose remained behind.

605. Gneiss and mica-schist are indeed subdivided granite, but not in the sense of the already perfected granite having been again stirred up and dissolved, but as already separated in principles, in the primary water.

606. Gneiss and mica-schists are products of a more mighty operation of light than granite. They are nearer to the upper layers of water.

607. After the granitic rain, or after the formation of granite, the sphere of water was no longer perfectly transparent; but water was now found also in the primary valleys, in which the light had more power, and thus greater capacity for splitting. During the formation of granite the water has only become polar by light; but, as it was there wholly transparent without opposition, it could never attain to a perfect dualization. In the second earth-rain and in the valleys, the light on the contrary produces dualization of the fundamental earths, since the sides of the mountains afford opposition to the light, become themselves polar against the water, and at the same time heat is produced.

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608. Gneiss and mica-schist enter into a polar relation with gravity, and that indeed as a Different to an Identical, as periphery to centre or as light to gravity.

609. Now the falling granite had in part lost its quartz and obtained a predominance of feldspar. Furthermore as the water-globe was already greatly collapsed, the crystals thus originated in larger drops, and occurred besides in water already stagnant or flowing. The schistose gefüge must have emerged as well through the preponderance of the laminar felspar, as by the flowing of water and the attraction of the granite-walls. This schistose granite is gneiss.

610. When the gneiss was thrown down the talc predominated in the water; it now fell in the same manner with less quartz and feldspar, and was deposited in a still more schistose form than mica-schist.

611. Granite, gneiss and mica-schist are the first that together form a Whole, each factor whereof has been evolved in an equally perfect manner.

LAMINATION.

612. By this active antagonism of granite to gneiss and mica-schist the Lamination of the latter is determined. Every particle of gneiss is attracted from the granite-wall and placed in a definite direction, corresponding to the polar operation of granite; the particles of gneiss already deposited attract the coming ones, and so on. The parts of the gneiss and mica-schist are not deposited upon the granite by virtue of their dead or inert gravity, but by virtue of living polar attraction. They are not therefore deposited in the depth of the primary valleys, nor do they fill up the latter; but they are attracted by the granite-walls and deposited to a greater or less extent like laminæ of crystallization, in large perpendicular layers.

613. By these two precipitations the primary valleys were in part filled up, and partly narrowed by the polar attraction of the walls. The primary valleys therefore are no longer present upon the earth, unless everything136 be called a primary valley that has not arisen or been excavated by the current of water.

614. Gneiss and mica-schist have indeed taken part in the primary crystallization, yet are, however, only its last movements, as the water had already met with resistance, and was partly stagnant; their mass therefore is not so purely crystallized as granite. They are not parts of the earth's nucleus, but lie only like a crust upon it like hollow crystals.

615. It may be said that gneiss and mica-schist originated only because there were fathomless valleys in the granite, in which the dissevering actions were inclosed, and extended themselves from one mountain-wall to another, while the light could be reflected in them and heat the earth.

616. So long as the granite was devoid of valleys, so long also did no other formation originate. This is proved by the fact that upon the highest mountains the granite is bare and uncovered, while this is not the case upon its lateral walls. It is therefore the second and third earth-rain that first originated, after the earth was heated. Gneiss and mica-schist are, so to speak, precipitated by reflected light.

617. The principal valleys of gneiss and mica-schist have not originated by themselves, but have been modelled according to the form of the granitic valleys. The valleys of those earth-precipitates are properly only subsequent valleys.

618. The lamination is not everywhere a mechanical phenomenon, but without doubt also a polar. It is exactly the same law, which determines the lamination of crystals, that does that of the strata of the earth, and operates also in producing their lamination.

PRIMARY LIMESTONE.

619. The earths must be viewed as one mass, the component parts of which observe a mutual relation. Now, after the silex, clay and talc had been precipitated, a proportionate abundance of lime became free, which was137 then thrown down at the end of this period of precipitation, as Primary limestone.

620. The calcareous mass may be viewed as corrosive earth, from which a certain quantity of carbon has been set free. As such, and combined with the oxygen developed out of the water by the influence of light to form carbonic acid, the lime was insoluble and was precipitated.

621. The primary limestone has also not been mechanically deposited. It has a crystalline texture, is a calcareous granite, and generally succeeds the mica-schist formation.

b. Water-Formation—Transition-Rocks.

METAMORPHOSIS OF THE PRIMARY PRECIPITATIONS.

622. The metamorphosis of the granite did not terminate with these precipitations. They are only the starting points for the metamorphosis, in which the effort was first manifested to free themselves from the primary combination. In the metamorphosis of earths, the fundamental earths, or the constituent parts of granite, strove to become each for itself a particular rock. They were all identified in quartz; in granite they for the first time parted company with each other, yet still formed a common sphere; lastly, in gneiss and mica-schist they all separated into three spheres, but which still did not differ in mass from granite.

623. Individualization had not yet been attained. The gneiss had still all the constituent parts of the granite, as well as the mica-schist; both are only a more peripheric, slaty granite, the one having a preponderance of the Argillaceous, the other of the Talcose. With these formations, however, Geogeny cannot remain stationary; for verily the law of the development of the world is individualization. Instead of granite, simply quartz, instead of gneiss simply clay, instead of mica-schist simply talc must be separated; and then the termination of this period is attained, the trinity of the simple earths has been completely represented.

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624. All the Earthy could not have been separated from the water by the first storm of precipitation. For the water now rested very much collapsed upon the earth's nucleus, and could no longer therefore assume the form of rain. That therefore which was now precipitated could no longer be thoroughly crystallized, but must follow the current and disquietude of the water, and thus emerge from it in a slaty or massive condition.

625. The quartz of the granite endeavours to set itself free from the clay and talc, or it becomes freed by the latter removing from it in virtue of its polar behaviour. There is therefore one series of rocks, in which the granite is constantly rejecting the feldspar and mica more and more, and at last subsists as quartz simply, which quartzose rocks as forming entire mountains are for intelligible reasons not of frequent occurrence.

626. The completion of the gneiss in its entire separation from the granite, and the evolution of feldspar upon a large scale constitutes the clay-slate, and finally clay-stone and clay-porphyry. This yields us a new series of formations, in which the gneiss gradually attains to being divested of quartz and mica and to a pure position as feldspar. The clay-slate is a true gneiss, that has lost the definite particles of quartz and mica.

627. The position of mica-schist constitutes in its purity the talc-formation, talc-slate, chlorite-slate, hornblende-slate.

628. After these several precipitations, the calcareous mass remains behind in the water, and now, as in the first periods of crystallization, is charged with carbonic acid, and is precipitated as transitionary calx under the form of mountain limestone.

629. These formations are found upon the whole to be arranged on the earth, in the order of time at which they were precipitated from the water. In the middle of the loftiest mountains is granite, then gneiss and mica-schist; then follow quartzose rocks, clay-slate or porphyry, talcose rocks, and lastly on the edge of all these runs the chain of alpine or mountain limestone. In the last of139 these formations are found fossil remains of corals and molluscous animals. For these formations fell first of all after the water had a solid bottom, and the granitic mountains projected above it.

SEDIMENTARY OR STRATIFIED ROCKS.

630. The period had now arrived in which the fundamental earths, being upon the whole completed, predominate. That which was separated in a chemical way from the Earthy out of water, has been in great part precipitated. This period, however, although the first and most extensive, indicates but the half of Geogeny, or as yet only one pole in the genesis, which requires the other. In the beginning both poles were in the water, that of the fundamental earths as well as that of the calcareous earth; the light shone upon, dissevered them, and earths, the most heterogeneous in respect to water, were first of all precipitated.

631. While the fundamental earths were precipitated, the calcareous earth was repelled and retained, on account of its homogeneity, in water, because the acid half continued longer fluid than the basic. The water was thus after its separation from these substances a true limewater.

632. Through this separation, however, the great antagonism in the water ceased; and subordinate antagonisms now made their appearance, which were kept united by the former. The calcareous earth is now occupied no more as one pole, but is the whole water itself, upon which, as it is less deep, the light acts anew and with greater force.

633. The dispersions of earths began just at this period to multiply themselves, from the only fettering agent, namely gravity, having betaken itself to rest; every earthy now emerges from its connexions, the factors falling wholly asunder into alkalies and acids, which combine in a multifarious manner.

634. These dispersions associated with the torrents of water that were now everywhere present prevented140 crystallization from taking place upon a large scale; they moreover mingled with the mechanically water-borne and crumbling débris of the earlier species of rocks; their laminations therefore resemble rather a mechanical deposit from water. They are the Stratified rocks.

635. As the first period must include the calcareous earth, so also in the period of strata or in the dualized period this earth is not without a slight antagonism of the fundamental earths; and this it is which for the first time becomes distinct, but always with a preponderance of the calcareous over the fundamental earths, while in the primary periods this relative proportion of the two was the reverse.

636. The primary period repeats itself again in the second, and thus strata consisting of the fundamental earths originate, as we have seen exemplified in the primary and transition formations of limestone. The precipitation of strata is divided also into four formations, into silicious, argillaceous, talcose and calcareous strata, close to which range also the strata of ores, Inflammables and salts.

637. In other respects the chemical deposits of this period are so blended with the mechanical, that their mode of origin seems for the most part to have happened in both ways.

638. The silicious formation returning in the stratified periods is chiefly under the condition of sandstone. Apart from that, which has originated through the detritus of the older kinds of rocks, it may be assumed, that the prevailing lime still held some silicious earth in a state of moisture within itself, and that this during its separation was precipitated as a fine alcohol, namely, as sand. If, however, sand fell, so also must a proportionate quantity of lime fall, by combining itself with an acid. Sand and lime therefore usually accompany each other. If the two be regarded also as only floated freely and suspended in water, still the chemical antagonism manifests itself between them as if they were in a mortar, and they have been precipitated in layers alternating with141 each other. The sandstone is as a rule therefore imbedded in the lime; it is a mortar containing but little lime. The mechanical silicious deposits are exemplified in the Nagelfluh, old red sandstone, Grauwacke, sandstone and drift-sand.

639. The stratified clay appears to have been deposited as clay-stone; it passes over into slate and potters' clay. The talcose strata pass by serpentine and potters' stone into steatite and meerschaum.

STRATIFIED LIMESTONE.

640. The pole which had operated continuously from the fundamental earths contained in the Earthy has now separated from it, and the tension is again extinguished. The Earthy is now contained in a pure state in water without continuance of the silicious pole; the influx of water has now obtained the preponderance. So soon, however, as the antagonism of this water to the stratified silex, clay and talc ceases, the more internal, hitherto restrained by the feebler antagonism, becomes awakened, as it did after the precipitation of the fundamental earths.

641. The principles are necessarily combined more firmly in the fundamental than in the calcareous earths. In this both the oxygenic and basic earth-principle must each attain for itself completion, and represent the two primary bodies in the earth with the same capacity for separation and activity.

642. The production of earths results from a constant antagonism subsisting between them and water. The more the Basic is thrown down, by so much does the Oxygenous preponderate to a greater degree in water. The water becomes oxydized and seeks to divide into its two principles, into oxygen and hydrogen.

643. By this contest tension is also excited in the earth-principles, namely, oxygen and carbon, and they begin in themselves to separate. The metallic basis of the earths strives to become free. During the separation, however, the oxygen snatches as it were some carbon142 along with it and appears as carbonic acid; but the carbon of the earthy lays claim to some of the hydrogen and oxygen to combine with it and appears as corrosive or calcareous earth.

644. The acid is therefore a half of the earth, which passes over into water, and the corrosive earth is also a half of the earth that has lost its Aqueous. The former is the Aqueous in the earths, the latter the Earthy itself separated from the former.

645. The corrosive force is therefore no peculiar action in nature, but only the effort made by the earths to complete themselves and imbibe water or acid. The corrosive force is no synthesis, but a moiety.

646. A total earth may be therefore regarded as a combination of acid and corrosive body. These two component parts are separable in the calcareous and talcose earths; but in the argillaceous and silicious earths they are so intimately dissolved, that they can not be separated from each other.

647. Carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, but not oxygen, fall or range upon the corrosive side of the earth in question.

648. Regarded in this general manner the corrosive principle stands opposite to the principle of combustion, and what is combustible, is in idea corrosive. The corrosive power is, however, but feeble in the gaseous nitrogen, stronger in hydrogen and finally strongest in the body of earth. The earthy carbon is the proper corrosive principle. The direct antagonism is not therefore between the corrosive body and oxygen, but between it and the carbonic acid, and therefore between it and all the acids, or acidity generally. The last earthy antagonism is that between the corrosive body and acid.

649. The corrosive body regarded specially as simply a pure earthy body, must stand opposite to the two moveable elements. The corrodent is therefore constantly striving to draw water and air into itself, and upon this depend also the effects produced by the corroding matters. The corrosive calcareous earth acts in a destructive manner,143 it abstracts water and air from bodies. The action of the corrosive body is a deprivation of water and air, and hence the elevated temperature of burnt lime in water. If again the corrosive lime be full of water and air, it is neutralized. It is now forsooth again a total earth, in a mechanical sense being again provided with water and acid. All earths are an equal or identical mixture. Acids and alkalies are thus to be regarded in this respect as moieties, and thereupon their chemical relation appears to depend. The elemental bodies are desirous to complete themselves. If therefore a base stands in corresponding import with a certain acid, it will thus have a greater affinity for the latter, tending to separate it from some other combination. Upon this principle, which has indeed been hitherto unknown to exist, the grades of affinity appear to depend.

650. As regards the mode of occurrence of the calcareous earth, it also is not of so mechanical a nature as is generally supposed. Its legitimate relation to sandstone and other precipitations, speak against that. But crystallization has for the most part disappeared in it; and it is only in cavities that crystals shoot out, like the ores in metallic veins. In granite the commencement is crystal, but in lime it is the termination; crystallization determines the character in granite, in calx or lime, however, the crystals are only blossoms.

651. The calcareous earth multiplies itself as a reduction of the earth of gravity and that indeed three times. There exists, so to speak, a corrosive silicious as also argillaceous and talcose earth. The three corrosive earths are calcareous earth, strontian and baryta, or it may be said that the first would be salt, the second Inflammable, and the third, metal.

652. Still a polar separation emerges in the stratified calx, while the two earth-principles become more individualized. The carbonate of lime ranks on the lowest stage. In this, however, the differencing process of light had not remained stationary, but elevated the carbon to a higher grade; carburetted hydrogen and sul144phur originate in the calcareous earth combined as gypsum, with oxygen.

653. It may be said, that calx were decomposed into alkali and carbon; water into oxygen and acid. Carbon and oxygen become carbonic acid in limestone. Carbons and hydrogen become sulphur, combined with oxygen sulphuric acid in gypsum. Hydrogen and oxygen become hydrochloric acid in common salt.

654. Gypsum is to be regarded as a calcareous earth, which is inflammable in character, as the fundamental earths were metallic. The philosophical essence of gypsum consists not in its oxydation by sulphuric acid, but in the combination of calcareous earth with sulphur, as occurs in that of iron-spar with iron; in this combination, however, the carbonic acid has still remained, whereby the sulphur became acid. The gypsum was therefore a carbonaceo-sulphate of lime, an oxydized metal with a very large proportion of calcareous earth.

655. Gypsum and chalk are related polarwise to each other, separate during the general precipitation, and are deposited opposite to, or alternately upon, each other.

656. In fluor-spar, apatite and boracite the last differentialization of lime and carbonic acid is lost. The principal masses are the carbonate and sulphate of lime.

657. The strata of the Inflammables, such as of pit-coal, and of the ores, as of iron, calamine, appear to have originated in simply a mechanical manner.

REPEATED SEDIMENTARY PRECIPITATIONS.

658. The precipitating process is a process of polarization, which comprises several stages. In it there are moments of time.

659. If the fluid mass be large, this polarization will then require considerable time to penetrate throughout it.

660. The polarizing process will issue from a definite point, which is different from water, and thus form the point upon which the light operates with greatest force.

661. This is solid ground. During the calcareous precipitation, there was no other ground present save145 that of the mountain tops. It was thus from these that the calcareous precipitation set out.

662. With each precipitation a greater number of mountain tops made their appearance, because the water sank; for the calcareous earth is about three times denser than water.

663. Such being the conditions belonging to the sedimentary periods, several consecutive centuries characterized by precipitations with repeated recessions and elevations of the water, elapsed and have left evidence of the time thus consumed.

664. The recession of the water was not always an ebbing or sinking in, but a diminution or disappearance of the same, like the water in a glass lessens in quantity, or becomes thoroughly solid, if salt crystallizes therein.

665. By such precipitations whole basins of land became dry or freed from sea-water. Streams therefore of fresh water originated, and with them corresponding organizations.

666. These streams gradually filled the basins and formed seas. As the seas coalesced by the constantly descending water, an inland sea arose.

667. This inland sea became again salidified, and that indeed of itself by the influence of light and the dissolution of the salt-banks, which were not overflown. Such is still the Caspian sea and others of that kind. In these marine plants and animals could again originate.

668. Thereupon new precipitations of salt succeeded, the gypsum and calx being again dissolved, and consequently diminutions also of water, whereby rivers again originated. One and the same basin of land was alternately covered with fresh and saline water.

669. Marine and fresh-water animals could therefore originate and perish alternately. And this is the explanation of the fact why banks inclosing both kinds of animals are found above and below each other.

670. An alternating ingress of the sea is not therefore necessary in all cases to explain the occurrence of marine fossil remains. Such an assumption is also146 wholly inconceivable. Nor is alternating elevation and depression of the soil necessary to the explanation of this phenomenon.

671. During the time of precipitation the temperature of the water and consequently of the earth and air also was necessarily raised. All creatures, which then originated, must correspond therefore to those of warmer climates.

672. The fossil remains do not require the assumption of a change having taken place in the inclination or bearing of the earth's axis; nor of a heating of the surface by a fiery interior.

673. With every later precipitation other animals and plants must originate, because the temperature and also the mixture of water was changed. The fossils therefore indicate the age of the sedimentary strata.

674. During the last precipitations the creatures of colder climates must have originated.

675. Land animals cannot, or but rarely, be found in the sedimentary strata, if even they had already been in existence prior to their formation. For the inundations did not break in suddenly, but the water rose by degrees. They had time therefore to retire to the high grounds.

676. Land plants may, on the contrary, lie in the sedimentary strata, because of their inability to escape.

677. The bones of birds and men must be found least of all fossilized, because a retreat by them was most easily effected. It does not follow, from our not finding them, that they have not existed.

678. The different fossil remains have therefore not simply lived, where they are found, but originated there also. Some of course may have been floated also to these localities.

679. The inundations of water were in general necessary, because basins of land and precipitations were everywhere present; but not all on that account at the same time.

680. In this sense there was a general flood, a deluge, namely, for every land.

147

c. Air-formation.

TRAP-ROCKS.

681. Vapours and gases of different kinds may be contained in the interior of the earth in two ways, either chemically combined as carbonic acid, or mechanically inclosed in cavities of the earth. Both may be developed, or expanded by calefaction, and the latter by diminution of pressure.

682. If those that are chemically combined be developed by calefaction, they then form vesicular spaces in the masses of earth whereby the latter are extended and raised above the surface; such as amygdaloid, basalt and others of this kind.

683. Warm springs may originate by subterraneous processes, chemical or volcanic; probably, too, by the compression of air that has forced its way into these situations.

684. Earthquakes may indeed originate in different ways; as in addition to the falling in of cavities, by the chemical development also of gases, by their subjection to heat, by aqueous vapours, and also by the sudden diminution of pressure upon these incarcerated gases.

685. This diminution of pressure proceeds from sudden rarefaction of the atmosphere—due probably to the disappearance of air in a particular place, or resulting from a change of the wind, or the formation of heavy rain. Earthquakes can therefore extend through many countries, without requiring to depend upon each other or on a common focus of action.

686. The silicious trap is silicious sinter, tripoli and polierschiefer.

687. The argillaceous trap, amygdaloid, clinkstone, several porphyries.

688. The talcose trap, basalt.

689. The calcareous trap, probably chalk.

148

d. Fire-formation.

VOLCANIC-ROCKS.

690. Volcanoes are secondary combustions of masses that have originated through the primary combustion, and are therefore only of local occurrence. Such combustible masses are without doubt bodies belonging to the class of Inflammables, and thus carbons, sulphur, sulphuretted metals. Simply burning gases would throw up on high the masses of earth, but not heat them to the degree of fusion.

691. By the heat of these combustions the masses of earth have been fused, forming lavas. The silicious lavas are obsidian, pitch-stone. The argillaceous lavas are the kinds usually met with. Next come the talcose lavas. The calcareous lavas are probably dolomite.

B.—METALLIC ORES AND INFLAMMABLES.

692. Metallic-ores and Inflammables are products of the planet, when completed, and have not originated along with the origin of the latter, like the earths. The question accordingly arises, what have been the forces by which the metals and Inflammables were produced.

a. METALLIC VEINS.

693. Fissures in rocks, so narrow that they cannot be illuminated by the sun, are called passages or veins. They are rarely found in granite, appear generally for the first time in gneiss, more rarely in the later kinds of rocks, and almost cease to be met with in the stratified chain of mountains. They are found principally in mountains, and thus in masses of earth which project above the level land. We must thus arrive at the conclusion that they have there originated by actual fissure, and that indeed for this reason, that masses which project or stand freely out would admit of yielding asunder more easily than the masses of the plains. This fissure may take149 place by mechanical disruption, by land-slips, or even also by desiccation.

694. The veins are not prolonged into the kind of rock that underlies them, as e. g. gneiss veins into granite, and so on; they have hence originated from above.

695. They are open and wider above and strike out below; they have not therefore originated by a force acting from beneath.

696. In the schistose rock they form generally transverse fissures.

697. There was a time in which the veins stood empty, as well as a time in which the primary valleys were empty, namely unreplenished with gneiss, mica-schist, and such like minerals.

b. PRODUCTION OF ORE.

698. Geogeny takes two directions; the one passes upon the periphery into the splitting action of light, the other into the abyss, where darkness reigns.

699. The valleys were the condition that conduced to the differentialization of the earths, because in them light had power to produce the highest polarity. By the valleys the Earthy has been separated into its principles; silex has separated into clay and talc, to which finally carbonate calcareous earths and salts succeeded.

700. The Earthy cannot subsist in its identity in the broad valleys; the earth cannot be represented as the pure symbol of gravity. All bodies that have originated upon the surface of the planet are oxydes or salts.

701. If the earth-difference be generated in the illumined valleys, so must the earth-identity be produced in the dark valleys; for it is the absence of light alone that allows the purely Basic to subsist. This earth generated out of gravity is the ore.

702. The ore is a child and a treasure of darkness; where light is, it must vanish; it cannot endure its gaze. Metal when exposed to day is given up to annihilation, to oxydation.

150

703. Darkness is, however, no power, and can consequently be only the opportunity, not the cause of anything's happening. Other forces, instead of that of light, must have therefore operated in the production of ores. In order to discover these forces the relations of the ores must be carefully weighed or considered.

704. The ore is in a philosophic sense a reduced earth, and so reduced indeed that the basic principle has obtained the preponderance over the oxygenic or supporter of combustion, and attained unto substantiality.

705. In light, in the water forsooth when illuminated, the two earth-principles were already divided internally, but not completely separated; salt only originated, namely an acid and alkali.

706. The ore is, however, a salt wholly reduced, and indeed the reduced alkali has become metal, the reduced acid with the basis of hydrogen, Inflammable, namely, coal or sulphur.

707. Now as light was not able to produce such a separation in the free or full sense of the term, forces must thus have been present in the dark passages, which completed this separation.

708. Ore and Inflammable are the total salt dissevered, and this is the dissolution of the two; the former are blue and yellow, the latter is the compound green.

709. The processes of the formation of salt and of ore are both indeed processes of separation, but yet they stand opposite to, or rather transcend each other. Both mutually conditionate each other.

710. While the earths submitted to the action of light upon the surface of the planet are converted into salt, the process of the formation of ore takes place in the dark or under the earth; or while above the oxygen is predominant, the basic body is that below. The ore imparts upon a large scale its oxygen to the salt, and the salt bestows its basic body on the ores.

711. No ores could originate in the middle of the earth were light even to have no access thereunto. For151 not merely do earth and darkness belong to the genesis of the ore, but earthy water like as unto salt.

712. The ore is not a conversion of earths that have already existed, or been actually separated; but it originates first of all during the process of separation. Where ore is, fluid has thus been, and polarity, which is not directly derived from light. The ore is a mere child of the planet, a pure terrestrial essence generated without the joint assistance of the heaven, and therefore the highest substantiality of the planet, the spirit of the earth.

713. What gneiss and mica-schist, calx and salt, are in the bright valleys, such is the ore in the dark valleys; the former are the differenced ore, and this is their identification.

714. There is no peculiar metallic body or seed, which had already existed in the primary creation as something special or peculiar, and which by one process only, as perhaps even by its gravity, was precipitated or posited from the fluid mass. One and the same substance, if found exposed in a valley to the light, becomes earth; but ore when it is in a dark passage.

715. Of a certainty neither clay, sand, talc, or calx become metal. For these are at once definitions of the spirit, words that have been already completed and expressed, and cannot be recalled; so also the ore will not again become clay, even if it be submitted to light. The indeterminate substance only, which under other conditions might have become clay, becomes in the darkness ore.

716. What is not in idea, prior to the adjustment or fixation of a pole, reduced to ore, can on no account become that out of an already finished mass of earth. Conversions of earth into ore by chemical arts are labours bestowed in vain.

717. Yet if ores do originate, they originate only out of the indefinite Basic, which is still in the water, just as trap stones originate not from a stony dust that pre-existed, but out of the pure indifferent substance of the air.

718. The veins and the formation of ore are one, as152 are the valleys with the calcareous and salt formations; and he who asks how has the ore originated, must forthwith inquire as to what is the essence of the veins.

719. The ore has not originated externally to the veins and been at some time or other conducted into them by means of water. For how should it thus originate? The reply is, a specific action must have been at work in the fluid, which determined it to separate ore and nothing else. But where is this ore-forming action in the free space of water? Nowhere. And if also the ore had been separated or diffused throughout the whole mass of water, what a world-wonder is it that it merely flowed into the veins and some stockworks? What prevented it from filling in large masses the broader valleys? The mechanical theorist upon metallic veins must assume an attraction on the part of the veins for the ore-particles in water; but how could this attraction have drawn these particles for miles in extent out of the water? and were this action strong enough, it must still be gifted with greater power to produce or at least separate the ore out of the water, that is found in the empty spaces formed by the veins.

720. Since ore has on a large scale separated from the calcareous and salt formations like the Identical from the Different, it has done so also upon a small scale in the veins. There the same process of separation has preceded it.

721. Now, however, nothing can be separated, i. e. nothing be reduced, without the oxygen accumulating upon something else. The Earthy must therefore separate during the formation of metal into the Reduced and Peroxydized.

722. The reduced earthy is the metal or inflammable; the peroxydized, however, an earth proper. This earth is called vein-stone.

723. The ore has only originated in opposition to the vein-stone, and when this has taken the Different of the Earthy into itself. Therefore the vein-stones are also different from the kind of rock in which153 they occur, and that through greater differentialization; they have even receded for the most part into acid and alkaline poles, as calc-spar, fluor-spar, heavy-spar, which are the usual vein-stones. All vein-stones are oxyds and as a rule, those in which the oxygen is freely manifested, namely as acid. The vein-stones were the sheath of the ore, which could first appear when this sheath had withdrawn itself.

724. The metal stands in relation to the vein-stone. Thus in argillaceous vein-stones we commonly meet with iron, manganese; in the quartzoze with gold; in the calcareous with lead, &c. There are here also extremes. There are vein-stones, called sterile veins, in whose antagonism no metal has been formed; and there are veins, that are merely filled with metal, such as the Stockwerke, Lager.

725. Since the ore and the vein-stones thus originate together, and in such a manner that they conditionate each other; their fundamental mass must have been one, and a separating force, which is not light, must have operated upon them.

726. Moreover, as the ores occur only in narrow spaces with their vein-stones and both form alternating tables upon the walls of the veins, they must have been attracted by the latter.

727. The walls of the vein consequently exert a polar influence upon the ore and vein-stone. Now, if this be their mode of action, they must be in a condition to separate the fundamental mass.

728. It is thus the vein themselves, which, by a vital force, produce the metals; they are thus a living womb, or matrix as it has been emphatically termed.

729. Two walls in close juxtaposition are requisite for the production of metal. Upon a freely exposed wall or face of rock no metals are found.

730. By this separation, however, two kinds of minerals originate, Inflammables, and ores proper or metals. The action of the walls must be therefore of a twofold nature.

154

731. But two cases also are conceivable, in accordance wherewith this polarity of the vein admits of being divided. It subsists either quite alone between the two walls, as surface-polarity or electricity; or it subsists between the mediate point of the earth and the walls, constituting centroperipheric polarity or magnetism.

732. The product of the surface polarity are the Inflammables, of the radial polarity the metals.

733. Since no more metals and Inflammables originate at the present day, although magnetism and electricity are in continual operation; a third influence moreover must have been in constant activity. Now this cannot be thought of as any other than heat. The metals must thus have originated while the earth was still in a glowing state, and when thus also magnetism and electricity could operate more powerfully towards effecting a reduction of the mass. By heat the mass in the veins was probably converted into gas, through which its separation by means of magnetism and electricity into ore and transition earth could more easily take place. The metals are thus sublimations, which were first deposited, when the earths or rather the mountain-stock began to cool. Thus also zeolithic crystals were deposited in the upper stores of mines. Metals are thus the children of heat, of magnetism and electricity; the heat renders the mass in a fit state for being separated in the next place by the polar forces.

734. Metal is carbon completely reduced, which contains nothing more of the other elements in itself, namely, neither hydrogen nor oxygen. It is consequently the Basic of the earth-element without material admixture, and thus is earth with the properties of its prototype, of fire or of gravity, of light and of heat.

735. In accordance with this interpretation metal can be produced by no other process than the centro-peripheric. Its occurrence in fissures of the earth that are mostly perpendicular likewise proves this.

736. In the deeply situated veins, therefore, the more identical or purer formations of ore must occur; while,155 on the contrary, in those situated higher up or exposed to the day, i. e. in closer proximity to the water, air and light, the more different or compound formations of ore must be produced.

737. The four classes of ores occupy a position in the veins tolerably accordant with these relations; an additional proof that they have originated in the vein and not been floated into it by the action of water.

738. The production of ore which occurs in the upper parts of the veins, furnishes us with the saline ores; for here the water, air and earth are principally active. In the upper depths are found most frequently the oxygenized metals, or as they are called mineral spars, as spathic-iron, malachite, calamine, lead-spar, pyromorphite, &c. Finally, the metallic or ore-spars actually pass over into salts, and by the horn-silver ores into the vitriols. They are for the most part crystallized.

739. The salt-formation of the ores has always decreased in proportion to the light having less access to it, and hence in greater depths, or in wholly mountainous masses. There the ore has not been deposited as a light-difference, but only as a Terrestrial, just as the earths, especially the calcareous earth, have obtained the same. It has not attained to a complete evolution of the polar body so as to constitute an acid, but the two principles have only emerged opposite to each other. They are oxydized ores, consequently those among the ores, that represent the character of earths, namely, the ochres. They are frequently uncrystallized.

740. So far the appearance of these ores is thoroughly earthy and devoid for the most part of metallic lustre; finally, the genesis of the ore turns upon the side of the identity, the principle of gravity having secured itself wholly in the depths, previous to the adverse accession of water and light. In such situations nothing more than heat and the centro-peripheric polarity of the vein-wall operates. The Metallic recedes wholly from the salt and from the earth. The oxygen disappears, but in its156 place comes sulphur, and the sulphuretted ores originate, e. g. the bi-sulphurets of iron, blendes, glance-ores.

741. Lastly, every combination or influence of the other elements and mineral-classes vanishes; acids, oxygen and sulphur are no longer generated in the perfectly dark depths, and the ore stands there in its entire identity, homogeneous, resplendent and heavy as the sterling metal. The same results from sublimation. The heavier metals remain below, the lighter ones and the sulphur ascend.

742. As the orders of earth are placed in the veins, so also are the different metals themselves; for the cause of genesis is alike in both.

743. The earth-like metals, as iron, manganese, &c. which occur constantly oxydized, are usually found upon the surface of the planet; the hydroid or water-like, as lead, tin, lie usually deeper; the aeroid or air-like, as arsenic, zinc, exhibit pretty nearly the same relations as the sulphur metals; lastly, the pyroid or fire-like, e. g. the noble metals such as gold and silver occur frequently in great depths and not unfrequently in granite; the two preceding metals generally occur in gneiss, but the first even in younger or more recently formed rocks.

744. As a certain regularity prevails in the arrangements of ores and of metals in the veins, so also does this hold good in respect to their distribution over the planet.

745. The more the polar earths are separated and deposited in the broad valleys exposed to light, by so much the more in quantity and of greater purity is the ore produced in its own valleys of darkness. The first effect, however, happens through the power of the sun; the more powerful therefore its influence, although indirect, so much the greater in quantity and purity is ore produced in the depths. The greatest quantity of ore and that of the noblest kind was inevitably generated beneath the equator. There also more lime as well as more salt are probably found upon the sur157face of the water; towards the north the oxydized metals, or the whole series of iron-metals, were produced. In the Temperate Zones we find more lead, zinc, bismuth and arsenic.

746. Thus the theory itself of ores furnishes us with a proof, such as the theory of the earth that has been hitherto entertained could not afford, that the equator forsooth has since the formation of the metals not been displaced. The metals formed themselves cotemporaneously with the gneiss, and have thus begun to form prior to the existence of the organic world. It is therefore a vague opinion, devoid also of foundation, that since the earth has been inhabited by animals, even by the higher or hair-clothed vertebrata, its axis has been changed.

747. No earthly phenomenon speaks so clearly and loudly against the mechanical theories in the natural sciences as ore. Not only has the whole planet been included in the ore, but also the whole of science, the whole of philosophy.

748. The first transition of the Earthy into the metallic character is indicated by iron. Iron ranks next to earth, especially to the argillaceous earth, is everywhere associated with it and is most generally distributed, being mixed with almost every earth and even all organic bodies, to their very elements.

749. The whole series of metals has but one root. What the primary earth is for the metamorphosis of earths, that is iron for the metals: it is their silicious earth.

750. The iron as being the first transition from the Earthy into the Metallic has the highest grade of fusion, and all metals which approximate to this, belong to the retinue of iron. This grade may be set down as 20,000F.

751. As iron is the root of all metals, so every division or group of ore has a principal metal, which occurs in more considerable quantity than the rest and characterizes the division. Among the saline ores, copper under158 the form of malachite is the principal metal. Its fusing point is 6000F. Among the sulphurous ores, lead is the chief metal; it has with its neighbours the lowest grade of fusion, which may be set down in round numbers as 600F. Among the volatile, arsenic is the principal metal.

752. Among the standard metals, silver is the principal metal; it has with its affinities a fusing point, which ranges midway between that of iron and lead, being probably about 5000F.

753. There are four grades of fusion of the metals, which are removed from each other by very wide intervals, between which no metal is situated. Quicksilver is fluid at the temperature of the air and becomes volatile like arsenic. Moreover the artificial metals are associated with the alkalies and acids. Lead, with its congeners, melts at 500F.; silver with gold and copper at 5000; iron, platinum and such like at 20,000.

754. There are four metallic characters, which are shown to be peculiar in all their relations, in their affinities for oxygen, acid, and sulphur, in respect to specific gravity, fusibility, extensibility, in their electric relation, in mode of fracture, in occurrence, age, and geographical distribution, &c.

c. POISON.

755. It is a remarkable fact that the principal metal of the elemental metals, obtains mostly by oxydation or acidification poisonous properties, while the proper earth-metal, iron, acts beneficially upon the animal organization. Among the water-metals lead becomes poisonous by acidification; among the fire-metals mercury. Among the air-metals arsenic ranks highest, becoming poisonous by mere oxydation. Among the earth-metals, only one among the salt-metals is poisonous, and that is copper.

756. The metals thus appear to become poisonous, when they enter into or put on the character of salt, or of water.

757. The above are also those very metals, which159 unite most readily with the others, to form alloys, amalgams or metallic compounds. Copper is very readily alloyed; lead almost always contains silver; mercury is susceptible of amalgamation; arsenic metallizes the others almost like sulphur.

758. The air-metals appear to have lost for the most part the metallic character; arsenic therefore destroys also magnetism.

759. The essence of metallic poison thus appears to reside in the endeavour on the part of the metals to suppress the metallic character and convert themselves into the formless elements. The metallic poison is the direct opponent of the metals themselves, and through this, of everything that has form, and thus of the Organic also.

d. MAGNETISM.

760. Two actions are necessarily manifested in iron, one clearing or dividing in so far as it is earth, and one to be identifying, in so far as it is metal. Iron is the fluctuation between oxydation and reduction, between light and gravity, and this conflict of the two latter is Magnetism. Magnetism is the spiritual function of the metals.

761. Magnetism belongs essentially to the metals only. What is not metal, is magnetic only according to idea or signification; it may be therefore aptly said, that such a body hath no magnetism, and that what has it, were metallic.

762. Magnetism is the direct property only of iron; this alone is the hybrid or heterogynous metal.

763. Magnetism appertains only to the other metals in as far as they are positions of iron; and is the more powerful, the nearer they stand in relation to iron. All metals are magnetic in idea, whether magnetism be manifested in them or not.

764. All metals have originated through magnetism, through the radial polarity, or the conflict of light and gravity. Magnetism is the action betwixt light and darkness, periphery and centre. Magnetism as being a metal160generating action tends towards the centre of darkness of gravity. What in the earths and salts is the duplex tendency of crystallization, is in the metals the identifying magnetism, as an everlasting operation of attraction.

765. Magnetism is still, however, not identical with gravity. Gravity is the centre abstractedly from the periphery; but magnetism is the centre only in relation to the periphery or light.

766. Polarity belongs to the essence as well as the genesis of magnetism; the metal subsists only through a constant resistance against the universal process of oxydation, against the developmental process of the earth-principles, which the metal is always striving to conceal. The metal is altogether the most mysterious essence of the planet. This resistance to the disclosure of the Innermost of the earth is magnetism. Where magnetism has wholly attained this concealment, it renders the metal perfectly free and disappears, because it has become completely embodied. In the noble metals it has attained what it is still seeking in iron.

767. Magnetism is a linear action with two different extremities, like the primary radius. By one extremity magnetism runs towards the identical centre, by the other towards the partite, electrical periphery, towards the oxydized earths. One extremity will reduce, the other oxydize; one will become metal, the other earth. This is the difference between north and south pole, the former centre, the latter periphery.

768. There is no peculiar magnetic fluid, any more than there is a matter of light, heat and electricity. In magnetism the spirit only of the earth appears, as in light the spirit of heaven.

769. Magnetism is a constant process of excitation. This process of excitement is the process of imparting and of propagation. Magnetism has not been given, but excited. It breathes life into the iron bar, whereby the latter awakes, and that is magnetism.

770. Every action, which induces differences in a line161 of iron, renders it therefore magnetic; thus electricity, unequal calefaction and a blow, whereby it is thrown into a state of vibration. An iron bar planted perpendicularly becomes magnetic, because it is then a radius to the earth. From the same reason it becomes magnetic, if placed in the magnetic meridian.

e. TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.

771. If all metals are in idea magnetic; so must the metallic veins, as products of magnetism, be magnetic lines. Every vein has a north and a south pole.

772. As every vein is a magnetic line or magnetic needle upon a large scale; so must two veins abutting against each other represent likewise a magnetic tension. A mountain of ores is a net of numerous magnets interlacing each other. As one vein is related to the other, so must one metalliferous mountain be related to the other; and thus two mountains of this character stand in magnetic polarity with each other. The whole earth is surrounded by a magnetic net.

773. As every metal, every vein, every rock is in miniature a magnet, so must the earth be a magnet upon a large scale. There is a Terrestrial magnetism.

774. This magnetism belongs only to the earth only in so far as it possesses a metallic quality, for magnetism is only the spirit of the metals, not of the other terrestrial bodies, as the earths, Inflammables, and salts.

775. Magnetism is no general character of the earth, still less of the whole solar system, except in so far as the metallic principle lies at the basis of every thing earthy. Magnetism does not operate outwardly over the earth.

776. The determinants of terrestrial magnetism are the metallic veins, or the metallic beds in the crust of the earth.

777. Terrestrial magnetism has not been produced or determined by a magnetic nucleus; since a metal in the middle of the earth is a contradiction. All determina162tions of terrestrial magnetism depend upon the nature, character, distribution, number and direction of the metallic veins or beds.

778. Thus the direction of the magnetic axis of the earth, its mutability, the declination of the magnetic meridian, the inclination or dip of the needle, in short every phenomenon without distinction that concerns magnetism, must be derived from the nature of the metallic veins. Another momentum does not indeed exist for magnetism.

779. Terrestrial magnetism can only be based upon the polarity of metallic veins, and this upon the ores they contain. It must therefore accommodate itself to the distribution of the chief masses of metals, especially of the idiomagnetic metal. Now it has been ascertained, that the noble metals are accumulated about the equator, such as gold, silver, copper, which may be regarded as non-magnetic. In the northern temperate zones, the mountains contain for the most part metals that are non-magnetic and semi-noble, as lead, zinc, antimony, which are usually combined as ores with sulphur. Iron, on the contrary, being the only magnetic metal, (a fact which is also determined chiefly by the magnetic needle in terrestrial magnetism) is accumulated in greater quantity towards the north-pole and becomes always rarer in occurrence towards the equator. The southern hemisphere of the earth, is indeed less known in this respect; but, that towards the south-pole iron reincreases in quantity, is rendered evident by the magnetic needle when conveyed beyond the equator, inclining to the south-pole. If the cause of the inclination upon the northern hemisphere be sought for in the presence of iron, the same must be done in regard to the southern. The arrangement of the metallic groups from north-to south-pole is thus; iron, lead, silver, lead, iron.

780. Iron has been deposited at both poles and this in accordance with the genesis of metals, for iron is a half reduced metal, and must consequently be subjected to the demi-action only of light. At or beneath the163 equator the Ferrogeneous is wholly reduced, and becomes noble.

781. There is obviously, however, less iron at the south-than the north-pole, because the greatest part of the planet is there covered with water, and thus in general with less earth less metal also is to be found. From this alone it may be explained why the magnetic needle conveyed beyond the equator still remains horizontal and first inclines about the tenth degree of southern latitude towards the south-pole.

782. The north-pole is thus more energetic than the south-pole, so that the two poles must be also inversely related to each other. It is only from this antagonism of the two poles of the earth that we comprehend, why upon the southern hemisphere the south-pole of the needle dips towards the earth, and why the needle does not turn completely round. For if there was an equal quantity of iron in both hemispheres of the earth, the southern must have the same magnetic pole, and thus attract the north-pole of the needle; and under the equator the needle must have actually no direction. The cause of the direction and dip of the needle rests thus in the antagonism of the two poles of the earth, and this again in the unequal masses of iron.

783. The action of terrestrial magnetism does not reside in the iron formation alone, but in its antagonism to the reduced ores. The terrestrial magnetism is a tension between iron and silver. The lead imparts the poles.

784. As the earth is a globe, so are the two masses of iron situated nearer to its axis than the masses of silver and lead. If therefore the latter exert also any influence upon the direction of the magnetic needle, yet nevertheless the poles of magnetism must coincide nearly with the poles of the earth's axis, because the exciters of magnetism operate in this direction.

785. The magnetic meridian runs indeed in general from pole to pole, but as it is not the earth's axis, which determines the magnetism, but the metallic masses, so164 the direction of the meridian deviates from the earth's axis in accordance with these masses.

786. The magnetic needle can therefore assume a different direction on every part of the earth, according as its relative position is varied between two principal masses of metals, and even as is indicated by the movement of the compass with the change of geographical longitudes, it is removed from one metallic mass, approaches another, and by this becomes more powerfully attracted. Upon the whole, however, the direction must tend toward the poles. Such are the phenomena of declination of the magnetic needle; and we can now comprehend why this is present.

787. But there must be also spots upon the earth, where the needle points straight to the north, probably, when it is between two metallic masses, or stands at a certain angle to them. These are the lines without declination, of which there are many as is well known, but which have not as yet been reduced to any law. Nor can they ever be so, because we shall never become acquainted with the metallic beds.

788. As the solid land, so far as it projects out of the water, forms a horse-shoe figure, of which the two Americas represent one leg, Europe with Asia and Africa the other leg, the sea being interposed between them; so must the lines without declination fall principally in the ocean, between the earth's crura. Moreover as both these crura of the earth are unequal in size, so must the one influence the needle more than the other, and in this respect also there can be therefore no regularity in the lines without declination. Thus everything co-operates, to the effect of rendering the direction of the magnetic needle unequal; such as the distribution of metalliferous mountains, of masses of iron, of the earth's hemispheres, of the earth's crura, and inversely the earth has probably obtained this horse-shoe form through magnetism. The cavities of the earth probably do not fall in there, because the ground, namely the mountains, is supported by metallic plates. On165 this account the earth probably maintains an oblique position in her course. In accordance with this the earth's axis had first changed, when the metals were generated. According to this also, the sea had rushed in first, when the metallic veins were present. Lastly, in accordance with this, the metals would be generated, when the whole earth was still covered, and the veins filled with water. Unto such conclusions the philosophy of nature can alone conduct us. The cause of a horse-shoe magnet acting more powerfully than any other shaped instrument, resides probably in the form of the earth's crura.

789. The magnetic meridian varies, however, not only according to places, but times also. This is explicable from the mutation of metals under the poles, as well as under the equator and in the temperate zones. Processes of oxydation and reduction are always occurring, the more too if the water recedes and tracts of land become dry. To this, culture, the clearing of woods, the draining of swamps and probably mining operations themselves conduce.

790. It must besides be clear to every one, who has learnt to look upon nature as a whole, that the numerous metallic masses of metal upon the earth are not indifferent to the genesis of metal, that they are not foreign to iron; but that they stand invariably in one relation to it, which can only be magnetic; for therein only are they metals.

791. Magnetism is an infinity of tensions spread over the whole earth, of which the tension towards the axis is but the principal, not the sole, tension. The expression hereof is the net of metallic veins.

792. Every magnetic line consists of an endless number of shifting poles; for every magnetic line can be but the metatype of terrestrial magnetism.

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C.—INFLAMMABLES.

Electrism.

793. Coal and sulphur may be regarded as the representatives of the Inflammables, making their appearance in the carbonic acid of lime, and the sulphuric acid of gypsum, just as the metals did among the alkalies.

794. The Inflammables are accordingly associated with the acids or the salts, the ores with the earths. It may be said that the former are reduced acids, the latter reduced earths.

795. The Inflammables are consequently those that succeed next to the salts or water-minerals. Their determining element is in this respect also the air; that of the ores is therefore the fire.

796. The Inflammable, as being the reduced acid, must have the strongest affinity for oxygen. A body, which by its own force, attracts the oxygen from the air, so that it appears luminous, is called combustible.

797. The generating spirit of the Inflammables coincides with the spirit of air, and thus with electricity. The generating spirit of metals coincides with the light; it is the radial action in the Massive, or magnetism.

798. Electricity has become embodied in the Inflammable, i. e. idioelectric; in metal, light has become embodied, i. e. idiomagnetic.

799. Now, as the Inflammable exists under two forms, with the preponderance of the earth-nature as coal, and with that of the air-nature as sulphur, so must the electricity appear fixed chiefly in the latter. This fixation is the idioelectricity.

800. As electricity is in its essence a constantly dualized agent, so can only one pole belonging to it become fixed. In sulphur this is what has been called the negative pole.

a. SULPHUR.

801. As the air stands opposed to the earth, so must167 sulphur to coal. The latter is thus endowed with positive electricity.

802. Coal is, however, the fundamental body of the metals. The metals are consequently related as positive electrics to sulphur. Sulphur is air-metal or idio-negative; metal is earth-or idiopositive sulphur. Sulphur therefore occurs almost solely with metals, as iron, pyrites, glance; yet frequently with arsenic, the metal that resembles it, e. g. in realgar.

803. Sulphur is the basis of all idioelectrism, and this property occurs only in bodies, in so far as they are positions of sulphur.

804. Magnetism and electrism are correlated, as iron and sulphur, as gravity and light, as centre and periphery. The same spirit, which when ruling in the dark, exhibits itself as magnetic, is manifested when it has attained to light in sulphur as electrical. Magnetism is only the electricity identified.

805. We may therefore speak of idiomagnetic metals as well as idioelectric bodies.

806. Magnetism therefore stands in accordance with these relations in opposition to electrism; they mutually change or annihilate each other.

807. Electrism has, in accordance with its signification, the power of manifesting itself with one pole accumulated or set free from the other, as e. g. the negative in a cake of resin; in magnetism, on the contrary, both poles are always together and inseparable. The radius is divided into two in every part of its length.

808. As the functions of metal and of sulphur are correlated, so also are their substances; they are opposed, and hence the metallization by means of sulphur with all its results. This antagonism is, however, dormant or concealed; that of the functions manifests itself much more clearly.

809. The metals, as being dense, central, and linear masses, must fall into a state of tension with electricity as with heat; this is called conduction. The metals are therefore conductors of electrism. In antagonism to168 the conducting power of the metals sulphur is naturally an isolator; for what is idioactive is virtually also isolating. Iron may be likewise called an isolator of magnetism. There is only one series of bodies in nature, belonging to the peripheric and expansive functions, that conducts; the metals only are conductors. Isolation belongs to the essence of electricity. Isolating action and Electricity are one; for electricity is the surface-function, wherein the line, which is the only conductor, disappears.

810. Electrism does not tend towards the metals, and can therefore have no definite direction in the earth; there is neither an electric meridian, nor an electric equator. There is only an electrical surface to the earth, and this is alike in all regions of the world.

811. The metals must accordingly stand opposed to sulphur as positive bodies, if not as idiopositive, yet as such when brought into collision with sulphur. The metals, when rubbed with sulphur, constantly become positive, and the sulphur remains negative.

812. The earths also become positive when rubbed with sulphur; in short, everything which, in the genesis of the earth, ranks below sulphur, is positive. Heated bodies rubbed with cold, and rough bodies with smooth, must become negative.

813. Bodies become positive with sulphur, simply because the essence of sulphur is of a negative character, or because, in other words, it is nothing else but negativity; the persistency of one pole and the counter-resistance to every other, is called isolation. The metals are conductors, because they stand opposed to sulphur.

814. Positive isolation only is evolved opposite to sulphur, in zinc, probably because this belongs to the air-metals.

815. What sulphur is in its series, that is zinc in the metallic series; the isolating electric rod, with which the other bodies are associated; the one the positive, the other the negative isolator; in so far forsooth as one can isolate bodies that have arisen through linear action.169 With zinc the other metals become negative, because it can be nothing else than positive, as sulphur can be none other than negative. (That this does not hold good absolutely, we need scarcely be reminded).

816. Two fixations of electricity thus exist, and from these the electric phenomena must be derived. So long as we imagine that electrical proportions run in a continuous line, so long shall we never be able to avoid contradictions. Two rods stand firmly, and from out and around these two heaps of bodies form, which in reference to their electrical relation (according to the experiments hitherto performed) are naturally exhibited as only one series.

817. Sulphur does not stand alone, but is associated with a series, especially of the higher Inflammables, bitumens or mineral-resins, ætherial oils and hydrogen gas. The higher the inflammability ascends, by so much the more energetic is the negative character, so that, finally, the sulphur itself becomes positive towards such matters.

818. If in every polar action it can be proved, that each polar line consists of infinitely numerous poles, and that each point in it can be alternately changing both polarities, in accordance with the mutation of the principal poles that exert their influence; so is it in electricity. There is scarcely a single body which cannot be positive as well as negative, if it only becomes displaced in its own series, or is transported into the other.

b. COAL.

819. During the electrical separation of the Basic of the earth, or during the communication of the aerial character to the Earthy, a body remains behind with positive character, or the Coal.

820. Coal may be regarded as volatilized metal, as a metal which can change by the action of water or acid upon it into air. Black-lead is a coal, which is directly associated with the metals.

821. Coal appears therefore less in particular places,170 than as expanded into entire rocky masses, as e. g. in the clay-slate and as carbonic-acid in lime.

822. The coal was, during the earth-formation, separated from the sea, yet not, or only rarely, by itself, but along with other masses of earth, while the sulphur rather accompanies the metals. Coal passes over into the earths, the sulphur into the metals.

823. The volatilized earth or coal, i. e. the earth that has ascended through water or salt unto air, is associated with a higher kingdom, and that indeed the general mass of the vegetable kingdom, as is the case in the pit-coals, which are reversions of plants.

824. As the earths and metals extend into pit-coals, so does sulphur lose itself in idioelectric, inflammable substances, which are likewise reversions of a sulphur that has escaped into a higher kingdom. Here belong the amber, mineral resins and naphthas.

825. There are thus two ways, by which the reduced earthy seeks to mount aloft; by the carbon, as belonging to the more inert earth; and the Resinous, as belonging to the more active air. The vegetable kingdom has its root in the simple earths, especially the hydroid argillaceous earths; the animal kingdom in the divided calcareous earths.

826. Sulphur is yellow, because it is the earthy that has come to light, the carbon is black, because it is sulphur volatilized, moistened in the gloom or darkness of the earth.

D.—SALTS.

Salt-periods.

827. So long as the basis of the acid is an earthy, such as carbon or sulphur in the carbonic and sulphuric acids, does the earthy also obtain the preponderance, and the lime as well as the gypsum or sulphate of lime are precipitated as insoluble bodies.

828. It is only through the influence of light con171stantly becoming more powerful by reason of the solid land under the water that the oxydation of water rises to the highest degree, so that this element finally converts itself into an acid, or hydro-oxide. This process must be regarded as a decomposition of water, whereby a portion of the hydrogen forms sulphur with the carbon, the rest with the oxygen an hydro-oxide.

829. The hydro-oxide is hydrochloric acid. This acid must be regarded as peroxydized hydrogen. Its signification is thus that of being water itself, or a whole element with a preponderance of oxygen. It attains this rank by its constituent parts, namely, the two general gaseous primary bodies, by its distribution as a whole element around the earth; by its occurrence as an earth-formation in rock-salt; finally, by its presence in all vegetable and animal juices. Hydrochloric acid is the type of all acids, as the iron is of all metals. All acids are but imitations of the hydrochloric. All abide by the signification of water, or are conversions of elements or earths by oxydation into an hydroid condition.

830. Between the acidified water and the Earthy a higher antagonism now emerges. The Earthy separates a part of its carbon from the carbonic acid and sulphur, so that the rest remains behind peroxydized, and makes its appearance as an alkali.

831. The alkali is to be regarded as the last conversion of calcareous earth in respect to water. It is an earth, whose oxygen has converted itself with a portion of its carbon into acid and been set free; a salt halved upon the basic side. This general alkali, that has originated in water, is soda or natrom.

832. Alkali and acid are the last antagonism in the earthy, moieties, which can never subsist without each other.

833. The alkali is corrosive, because it seeks water and acid, in order to perfect itself; acid is pungent to the taste, because it seeks earth or alkali.

834. Their antagonism is the highest antagonism between water and earth; it is also the representation of172 the antagonism between fire and the terrestrial elements, or also between light and gravity. Therefore this antagonism has a cosmic or universal signification.

835. The combination of this antagonism is the sea-or common salt.

836. Sea-salt is the universal salt. All other salts are to be regarded only as metamorphoses of it, as well as the acids only conversions of the acid of common salt, and the alkalies of soda.

837. The sea-salt is essential to water. It is the product of geogeny, has not entered the water from without, but been generated in it, and is constantly being regenerated, so long as light shines upon the sea. Properly speaking, sea-salt has been in the water from the beginning; but it was previously shrouded in the other earths, and could act substantially for the first time, when they had been separated from it. It has become salt, or water and earth-element by the agency of light.

838. The sea-salt has also been generated in opposition to the calcareous earths, and during its separation been rendered polar towards the latter. The salt mines are therefore associated with the last calcareous formation, the gypsum, and this it is also that determines their lamination.

839. As it may be said, that the metals separate into coal and sulphur, namely, pass over at their iron-extremity into coal, at their arsenical, into sulphur; so may it be said, that the earths separate into acids and alkalies; the one by the conversion of silica into fluoric acid, the other by that of calcareous earth into soda. Carbonic and sulphuric acid take possession of the calcareous earth; the hydro-oxide of the alkali.

840. The sea-salt has been the last to be separated from, because it was last generated in, the water. The salt beds belong to the last precipitation, by not having been mechanically thrown down, but as already observed and as their occurrence proves, by an alternating process of separation from the acidified lime. It is absurd to wish to explain the presence of common salt in the sea173 by a solution of saline beds. For where have the latter come from?

841. With the separation of the ore and the Inflammable out of the primary water and the confluence of the Earthy into marine salt, its metamorphosis upon the surface or when exposed to light is at an end. All forms of the planet have been successively developed out of the earth-element. It can attain no further to anything new, and if nature had not yet been concluded, that which in the sequel is still dynamically developed upon our earth, must be thus a product, which extends beyond the mineral kingdom.

842. As the fundamental earths lose themselves in pure carbon, in resin, and so in the vegetable world, so the series of corrosive earths resolves itself likewise in remnants of an organic, and that indeed the animal, kingdom. As the pit-coals and resins are associated with the metals and Inflammables, so are the fossil animal remains with the calcareous earth; and thus the voice of the organic world speaks already with force and clearness to those that hearken, from out the stones.

843. For the metamorphosis of the earths, nature has twice prepared herself, has planted at the same time two great points of origin, according to which all her action is directed, and which remain in constant correspondence with each other.

844. The main pole is granite. It is at once the primary pole, to which the second main pole, the lime, is directed. The granite brings the series through gneiss and mica-schist down to clay-and talc-slate, then makes a sudden transition to the ores, and terminates at a boundary, where pit-coals and resins conduct us into a new kingdom.

845. The lime rejects from itself the sand and sedimentary clay, progresses through barytes and strontian up to gypsum, makes a sudden bound or transition from thence to the salts, and terminates at a limit, where corals and molluscous animals conduct us into a new kingdom.

174

846. Salt concludes the growth of the earths; it is the eruption or breaking out of the soul, as the metal was the body of earths completed. Both finally pass into a higher world, the metal into the corporeal, the salt into the psychical.

CHEMISM.

847. The spiritual activity, the soul of the earth has declared itself in crystallization, the spirit of the metals in magnetism, that of the Inflammables in electrism. The calcareous epoch is also the manifestation of a peculiar activity, whose ultimate product is salt. It has been already shown what the functions of the latter are, but the signification of its acts has not yet been mentioned.

848. By the influence of light the water becomes elevated in its oxygen-action, enters thus into tension with itself, and this constitutes the tendency to solution which is the function of water. The oxygenous water solicits the basic principle in the earth; this issues forth, but still combined with its oxygen that has become free; the formerly identical earth is a calcareous earth in a state of tension with itself. What does not admit of being brought into a state of tension, is thrown down as fundamental earth. Hitherto this process was a mere process of solution, i. e. it had attained in the solid and fluid only to tension, not to disseverment of the poles.

849. But the light always renders the water more oxygenous, and therefore the earth always more basic; finally, the one portion of the basic in the water, namely the hydrogen, separates itself, and becomes peroxydized or the hydrochloric acid. A portion of the Basic in the Earthy, namely the metallic body or carbon, separates itself also, and the remainder becomes peroxydized or soda. As the calcareous earth was at first dissolved in, and therefore one mass with, water, so at present is the alkali also combined with the acid water; while both dissolved in each other constitute salt.

850. In this process therefore whole elements have been taken only as one primary body, and they have175 combined with each other like the two primary bodies. The water has no longer become an element or Equiponderant, but an Oxygenous, a true light-body; the earth has no longer continued a total earth of equal specific gravity, but by relative peroxydation has become an Aqueous, a Soluble. The salt has thus from the union of the two lower elements, seeing that each was of no more value than one primary body, become a new element.

851. This process converts the elements again into their primary condition, creates new elements and thus actually new matters. It is therefore a struggle of the elements with their primary bodies, a separation and interchange of the same. Such a process is called Chemism. This is the essence or interpretation of chemism, viz. the creation of new elements out of the old, by the reduction of these to the nature of the primary bodies.

852. Chemism, which separates or combines, ranks a step higher than the process of solution, which has the power only of heterogynizing, but not of separating. Thus the electrical spark separates and combines in combustion, while the tension of air enforces only evaporation. Chemistry drives the elements to their utmost. In water the oxygen is the predominating; it becomes, however, perfect first in the acid of salt. In the earth the body of gravity prevails; but it becomes first of all predominant in soda.

853. The opposition of the two primary bodies has been represented in the two inferior elements as chemical tension, and the combination of these primary elements is a chemical product.

854. Chemism is moreover a process of combustion, in which, however, a whole element supplies the place of oxygen, and a whole element the place of the base. It is an elementary process of combustion.

855. Chemism is the metatype of primary creation, both from its being a material process of combustion, as from its creating new elements. It is the union of the antagonism between æther and terrestrial matter occur176ring within the circle of the terrestrial elements. Chemism is a true conversion of substances according to their fixation.

856. All chemism takes place only in water; not only because the particles can move therein, but because chemism is a process of combustion of the elements themselves. The inferior elements, however, such as water and earth, can only undergo combustion with each other, because the two are moreover related to each other as æther and mass; or as oxygen and base, for the two, so to speak, have become unipolar. Without Fluid and Solid we cannot think of chemism.

857. The chemism of air is in the beginning electricity and then the true process of combustion; both are similar, but different in position. In the process of combustion both elements are unipolar in the air, thus moieties; but in chemism two elements unite so as to constitute a Whole. The product of air-chemism is water, as the product of earth-chemism is salt. Water and salt fall into one position, but transcend each other, even as the process of combustion invades the province of chemism. The relation of electrism to chemism has now been expressed in the clearest manner. The one is chemical tension of air, but chemism is the electrical tension of earth and water.

858. Chemism is related to magnetism, as salt is to metal, as the sedimentary to the primary periods. The whole sedimentary period is a product of chemism, as the whole primary period is a product of magnetism; salt and metal are only the last evolution of these periods, and the products for whose sake all the preceding actions and formations have taken place; granite and lime with their ramifications, are but the stems, upon which metal and salt are borne as blossoms.

859. Magnetism and chemism are thus the creating agents for the solid nucleus of the earth, and through both is it completed. The process of earth-formation is a magneto-chemism.

860. Regarding the earth as an entire crystal, mag177netism is the Determinant of its polar axes and polar radii, while chemism is the same in respect to its integral parts.

861. All terrestrial action is an interchange of these two functions or souls, which are none other than the living gravity and the living light upon the planet. The electricity, like the heat, only maintains them in eternal tension or extension.

862. Chemism is the process of space, density, quiescent heat; therefore the latent heat or the temperature must change in every chemical process. Chemism is related to magnetism, as heat is to gravity, to electricity like as to light. Crystallization is point, magnetism line, electrism surface, chemism cube, or expressed according to their powers: O⁰, O¹, O², O³.

863. Nothing can become solid without taking water into admixture with it. This water is the water of admixture. Nothing also can assume form, without taking water into itself—water of crystallization.

864. In so far as magnetism is active in crystallization, it renders the water identical, basic, and this therefore becomes solid; the water is not as water in a crystal, but it first becomes so by separation.

865. All chemical processes are based on the union of bodies, which are elements, but which, like acids and alkalies, have assumed the nature of the primary bodies.

866. The elective affinities are based upon the polarizibility or transmutability of the Fluid and the Solid into the primary bodies. That is decomposed and combined, which during admixture maintains the animation in the strongest degree unto the origin. What cannot be so reduced, is precipitated, as is silex. The chemism is a bin-elementary process, and therefore constitutes the termination of this period of creation, or of the mineral kingdom. So soon as a tri-elementary process originates, the products pass over into a new kingdom.

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PART III.

BIOLOGY—OF THE WHOLE IN SINGULARS.

A.—ORGANOSOPHY.

I.—ORGANOGENY.

A. Galvanism.

867. If we take a retrospective glance at the development of the planet, we find that it commenced with the simplest actions, and then assumed a more elevated character by gradually drawing together several actions and letting them work in common. In magnetism the earth-element alone was active, and this having freed itself from the other elements by crystallization, asserted itself as a particular form upon the planet. By this single act of the planet, an extensive series of positions or numbers originated, which may be called mineral individuals.

868. Up to the formation of the solar system or of the planet, the character of creation is analytic. The three primary ideas emerged from each other as gravity, light and heat, and appeared as fire. These three united actions emerged again from each other and became air, water and earth, which together make up the planet. This was therefore the descending creation. But from and after this period, the character of the development of the planet becomes synthetic, for the divided elements again united with each other. By synthesis only or by combination of the elements does the planet179 progressively advance, and by it only does it divide into lesser planetary masses or bodies, called individuals. This is the ascending creation.

869. To the earth-element, in which the active magnetism is isolated, comes the element-water; and by the identification of both into one body, a new process is evolved, which we have recognized by the term chemism—salt. Then the earth-element combines with air and becomes an Inflammable, in which the process is likewise extinguished and only a dead product is left—the Inflammable. Then it combines with fire and is converted into ore. There never originates therefore from the twofold combination of the earth-element with any other element, but one product, that namely in which the Earthy obtains the preponderance, or a mineral.

870. Two elements only belong to the essence of chemism, and they indeed are the two lowest, the elements carbon and oxygen, both being reduced to their primary condition, i. e. to that of an alkali in natron, and an acid in the hydrochloric or that of common salt.

871. As the principle or rationale of chemical action consists only in the potentiality of two elements to revert to their polar, or the oxygenous, condition, this action must thus become extinct, so soon as the creation of the new or secondary element has resulted. For if the tension equalizes itself in the two, and the two only be coexistent, so in accordance with the compensation no new tension can originate, and yet such is the groundwork of all chemical action. The result of the chemical process is consequently death; and furthermore, because it is also a simple bin-elementary process, it cannot be the ultimate goal or limit attained by the development of the planet.

872. The next stage to which the genesis of the planet ascends consists in the bin-elementary processes being associated with the third terrestrial element. In this manner a process originates in which the powers of earth and of water marry or conjoin with the power of180 air, and thus originates a chemical power or chemism, influenced by the air.

873. The chemism, when influenced by air, is one of a perpetual character; for this power dies only because the tension of its two elements is balanced or equalized; the influence of the air is, however, none other than the constant renewal of the tension.

874. Now, the process of tension in the air is electrism or that action in which the two poles being devoid of indifference range opposite to each other, can therefore never unite, and the end attained by which is oxydation. The new process is consequently a chemical power constantly excited by electrism—it is an electro-chemism. (Ed. 1st, 1810.) This composite process is known under the name of Galvanism.

875. Hereby the galvanism has been most rigorously and characteristically separated from the chemism, and the succession of stages been exactly indicated. By the accession of a single but higher nature-factor, namely, the air, chemism advances one and only one stage higher. We have consequently made no leap or abrupt transition in tracing out our genesis of nature. Magnetism is the uni-elementary, chemism the bin-elementary, galvanism the tri-elementary process of the planet, in so far as it is occupied with its own evolution, or that of the Solid.

876. Considered in relation to the result and also the internal nature of the process, galvanism is in no wise different from chemism, but only in reference to the continuance of the tension. The fluid and solid are in both the co-equal media or means; the decompositions, separations and combinations also, are alike in both. The air has no other office than to sustain the opposition, which in chemism proceeds through the difference of the two unipolar elements, acid and alkali.

877. The air maintains this animosity of the elements only by oxydation, and so far takes part in the contest like a fellow-combatant; yet this invariably happens only while the water is preserved by these means in its primary condition, that of the acid. The air breathes life181 only into the chemical body, without being body itself. No galvanism therefore continues, if it be denied the access of air. The chain or column enters it is true into tension also without air, but remains only for a short time in that state, or so long only as there is a trace of oxygen in the water.

878. Galvanism, as a tri-elementary process, represents the planet in its totality. The galvanic column is an entire planet, a planet upon the planet, the planet individualized.

879. The individual, taken in a strong sense, is an entire planet taken up into Singulars, a triplicity of the elements in the particular or special unity. In galvanism there consequently issues forth for the first time an individual, which is equivalent to a cosmic totality. Galvanism is the metatype of the planet. All other and profounder processes are not total in character, nor metatypes of a whole system, but only moieties thereof.

880. The planet, regarded in itself, in its three elements, apart from its relation to the sun, is a galvanic body, a column, just as inversely this is a planet.

881. The attributes, which consequently belong to the planet, abstractedly from the sun, must belong to every galvanic process, or to such a body. The planet is a Whole included in itself, and thus is galvanism. The latter acts only in a closed chain, or only by its own body or its materiality forming one circle that returns into itself. The three elements are mutually self-excited and moved, and that indeed from internal causes, though not apart from external conditions. Thus galvanism is like an individual planet.

B. Primary Organism.

882. An individual (total, self-included) body, excited and moved by itself, is called Organism. Organism is what individual planet is. The metatype of the planet is organism; or a planet upon the planet is organism.182 The planet is not itself an organism, because it is not individual or galvanic in every point.

883. The self-excitation of the individualized elements, is called life.

884. Galvanism is the principle of life. There is no other vital force than the galvanic polarity. The heterogeneity of the three terrestrial elements in a circumscribed individual body is the vital force. The galvanic process is one with the vital process.

885. Organism is galvanism residing in a thoroughly homogeneous mass. The galvanic column is no organism, because it only admits the galvanic process just as the planet does, in individual places. A body only, which is zinc-pole, silver-pole and moist pulp at every conceivable point, is an organism. A galvanic pile, pounded into atoms must become alive. In this manner nature brings forth organic bodies.

886. Electrism has a basis; it is the air. Magnetism has a basis; it is the metal. Chemism has a basis; it is the salt. So has galvanism a basis; it is the organic mass.

887. Accordingly, what would be organic, must be galvanic; what would be alive, must be galvanic. Life is not different from organism, nor also from galvanism. For life is verily the vital process. But the vital process is an organic, galvanic process. Galvanism lies at the basis of all the processes of the organic world. They are either modifications of it, or only its combinations with other and still higher actions. A living thing, which is not galvanic, is a nonentity.

888. With galvanism consequently the first step has been made out of the inorganic into the organic kingdom. Every aught of nature, which has hitherto originated, is inorganic. These, however, were mere individualities. The character of the Inorganic consists consequently in something being a Singular, a moiety, or a metatype of a Singular; the character of the Organic in its being the metatype of a whole or round number. Organic things are internal self-exciting numbers; the inorganic things are fractions.

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889. Every fraction is dead. No moiety can attain to life, for it does not receive its complement. What is simply fluid, cannot be organic, because it is not the totality of the planet. What is simply solid, cannot be organic. It is only a third of the organism. Every organism is produced according to the laws of galvanism, according to the law of the triplicity.

890. As the terrestrial magnetism is indeed only one, but includes an infinity of magnets, which are rendered manifest in the progress of the earth's life; so also in the great galvanism of the earth an infinite number of subordinate galvanic triplicities reside inclosed, which become gradually detached, and, instead of the universal galvanism, represent an infinity of individual galvanisms. The universal galvanism cannot exist, without establishing itself as an infinity of individual galvanisms. As magnetism is only associated with the net of metallic veins, so is the absolute only, with the universality of its finite positions. The number of organisms is infinite, both in coexistence as also in consecutive existence.

891. An organism is an individual in the rigid sense of the word, because it is ruined, so soon as one of its three members parts from the rest. In this sense only are there properly speaking organic individuals.

892. If we do not confine indivisibility to what is mechanical, but extend it also to the chemical; individuals may be likewise granted to the mineral kingdom. The minerals are chemical individuals; for by separation they are likewise annihilated as such, and moreover the relation of mixture of chemical bodies is not one of an arbitrary kind. The gray ores are a definite mixture of sulphur and antimony, and are thereby individuals. The silver, lead, and copper, that are accidentally mixed in this compound, do not at all alter the individuality, and by no means prove a capacity residing in the matters for mixture in all conceivable numbers. Such a mixture would be a medley only. In plants and animals casual component parts occur also frequently. Thus the individuality of the ruby-silver appears to consist in the defi184nite mixture of sulphur and arsenic, with the addition perhaps of antimony. The silver is only mingled with it, and therefore present in all numbers. The same holds good of the bi-sulphurets of iron, and the glance-ores. (Ed. 1st, 1810.)

Creation of the Organic.

893. It has been demonstrated from the genesis of the Organic, that its essence consists in the universality of the planetary processes. Every organic individual has essentially three processes in itself, which must be regarded as its fundamental processes, whereof no one can ever be wanting. Seeing, that if this be the case, the body is only a chemical or magnetic, a crystallized carcase.

894. The first three planetary processes, namely, the earth-process, water-process, and air-process, or the forming, chemicalizing, and electrifying or oxydizing processes, are also the first three vital processes.

895. It has been shown, that with every new process and with every new combination of processes, the materials also of the same were altered, ennobled, rendered more composite, and thereupon also more decomposible. Herein also nature advances consecutively and creates new materials for the organic world.

896. In the metamorphosis of the earths, when the chemism was added to the process of formation, not only the alkalinity and acidity issued forth in the calcareous earth and the salts, but the pure Earthy also became free from fixity, and manifested itself as carbon in the carbonic acid.

897. The last product of an antecedent stage is always the basis of that which is subsequent. The fundamental matter of the organic world is consequently the carbon.

a. ELEMENTARY BODY—PRIMARY MUCUS.

898. If in this carbon the three processes of the planet, namely, the formative or its special, the chemicalizing or fluidizing, and the electrifying or oxydizing, process, concentrate themselves, and are present with all185 their energy in every atom of the organic body; so must the mass of carbon be at the same time solid, fluid, and aerial, oxydizable in every spot, and thus also soft. Now a carbon mixed identically with water and air is Mucus.

899. Mucus is oxydized, hydrated carbon; or expressed in purely philosophical language, mucus is the universality of the minerals and elements, or the synthesis of earth, salt, Inflammable, and ore in water and air.

900. Every Organic has issued out of mucus, is naught but mucus under different forms. Every Organic is again soluble into mucus; by which naught else is meant, than that the formed mucus becomes one devoid of form.

901. The primary mucus, out of which every thing organic has been created, is the sea-mucus.

902. Mucus belongs originally and essentially to the sea, and has not been mixed with the latter through the dissolution in it of putrefying substances.

903. The sea-mucus has originated in the progress of planetary development, like the calcareous earth has with the carbon and like the sea-salt. As little as this could have entered the sea originally through solution of rock-salt; so little could the mucus through the perishing of animals and plants, for none of these were yet present, but could be first developed, only with the production of this mucus.

904. The sea-mucus was originally generated through the influence of light and by the denudation of the crude masses, especially of the earths and salts, which was thereby effected; while with the metals and Inflammables ranging opposite to these, the carbon thus became free, and betook itself as carbonic acid to the water and air. Thus also has salt been produced.

905. The sea-mucus, as well as the salt, is still produced by the light. Everything takes place through the differentialization, or by the absolution of fixed poles on the earth-element. Light shines upon the water, and it is salted. Light shines upon the salted sea, and it lives.

186

906. All life is from the sea, none from the continent.

907. All mucus is endowed with life.

908. The whole sea is alive. It is a fluctuating, ever self-elevating and ever self-depressing organism.

909. Where the sea-organism by self-elevation succeeds in attaining unto form, there issues forth from it a higher organism. Love arose out of the sea-foam.

910. The primary mucus was and is still generated in those very parts of the sea where the water is in contact with earth and air, and thus upon the shores.

911. The first creation of the Organic took place, where the first mountain summits projected out of the water; and thus indeed without doubt in India, if the Himalaya be the highest mountain.

912. The first organic forms, whether plants or animals, emerged from the shallow parts of the sea.

913. Man also is a child of the warm and shallow parts of the sea in the neighbourhood of the land.

914. It is possible, that Man has only originated on one spot, and that indeed the highest mountain in India. It is even possible, that only one favorable moment was granted, in which Men could arise. A definite mixture of water, definite blood-heat, and definite influence of light must concur to his production; and this has probably been the case only in a certain spot and at a certain time.

915. The first men were the littoral and mountainous inhabitants of warmer countries, and found therefore at once reptiles, fishes, fruit, and game for food.

CHANGE.

916. The number of individual organisms is not persistent. For they are verily only products of a ceaseless polarization or a constant evocation of poles in the great galvanism, positions of the general galvanism in time. Thus, as the poles change, so also do the organic individuals. The kingdom of organisms is an iron bar, in which the magnetic poles originate and187 vanish or change, according as the polarizing magnet is removed. Organisms change, because they are numbers, thoughts of God.

917. The process of change in organic individuals is that of their destruction.

918. But this destruction is as nothing for nature. There originate again in the same moment other organisms in other situations. The process that destroys the poles is only one that effects their change.

919. The world-organism only is eternal, and devoid of change, with the exception of that which is within its poles. It can itself change with no other, because it is only one.

920. No individual organism is eternal, because it is only a changing pole of the world-organism.

921. There is no constancy in the individualities. Change only is persistent.

922. The world only is persistent. Nothing in it is constant. Were individuals not to perish, but live for ever, the world must then die; for the life of the world, like every life, consists only in the change of poles. Individuals could in no way therefore continue alive, if the world were to remain alive, because this is only possible through change of the individuals, which are its organs; nor could they, were the world to die, because the totality of individuals is the world itself.

923. Death is no annihilation, but only a change. One individual emerges out of another. Death is only a transition to another life, not unto death.

924. This transition from one life to another takes place through the primary condition of the Organic, or the mucus.

925. If new individuals originate, they could not therefore originate directly from others; but they must be redissolved into mucus. Every generation is a new creation.

b. FORM—GLOBE.

926. The organism is a metatype of the planet and188 must also have the corresponding form. It is the Sphere. This results also from the combination of the three actions, which being in equiponderance could only produce the globe.

927. The sphere must commence with the idea of the point. For the idea of the sphere is the idea of the centre, which is a point. The point, however, is not different from the sphere. It is only the infinitely small or minute sphere.

928. The primary mucus is globular in form. The primary mucus does not swell into a single sphere, but it divides into infinitely numerous spheres. For were it only one sphere, it would be the planet itself. But it is an individual, or only one sphere in the great sphere. The idea of the great sphere consists however of an infinity of small spheres.

929. The primary mucus consists of an infinity of points. This admits of being proved by its mode of origin. It is formed on the limit between water and earth, consequently in a line. This line, however, becomes constantly dissevered by disquietude, and divides therefore necessarily into infinitely numerous points.

930. The primary Organic is a mucous point.

931. The organic world commences not merely with one point, but with infinitely numerous points. Where earth, water, and air are found in one spot, there also is an organic point.

932. The organic points originate upon the surface of the earth, not in it, and not in the air. For only between earth and air do all three elements enter into collision.

PRIMARY VESICLE.

933. Through the oxydation of the air an opposition of the component parts, or of the Fluid and Solid, issues forth in the organic point, and these mutually conditionate each other. The Fluid and Solid cannot, however, be otherwise conditioned, seeing that the former is the Contained, the latter the Containing. The Solid is only a189 precipitate from the Fluid wrought by the influence of the air. The air, however, is externally related to the mucus-point. The Solid can therefore originate nowhere else than between the Fluid and the air. It consequently surrounds in accordance with its genesis the Fluid. The physical cause thereof is naturally the oxydation of mucus upon its periphery. A globe, the middle of which is fluid, but the periphery solid, is called a bladder or cyst.

934. The first organic points are vesicles. The organic world has for its basis an infinity of vesicles. (Ed. 1st, 1813. §. 922.)

INFUSORIA.

935. The mucous primary vesicle may in a philosophical sense be aptly called infusorium, like as we designate the primary condition of the embryo, by the word vitellus. Now are we making use of definite expressions.

936. Everywhere, where the three elements cooperate, are infusoria present—thus upon the sea-shore, the tide-mark or strand, and shallow watery places.

937. The infusorium is a galvanic point, a galvanic vesicle, a galvanic column or chain.

938. In every infusorium there is triplicity of the poles, or properly speaking, of the processes. Each one maintains itself by the nutritive, digestive, and respiratory process, or what amounts to the same, the infusorial globule of mucus assumes a figure, its peculiar fluidity is formed in its interior, and it becomes oxydized. As is well known, no infusorium can live without moisture, and none if the access of air having been prevented, or the water boiled, it is freed from the air and the Earthy.

939. If the organic fundamental substance consist of infusoria, so must the whole organic world originate from infusoria. Plants and animals can only be metamorphoses of infusoria.

940. This being granted, so also must all organizations consist of infusoria, and during their destruction dissolve into the same. Every plant, every animal is converted190 by maceration into a mucous mass; this putrefies, and the moisture is stocked with infusoria.

941. Putrefaction is nothing else than a division of organisms into infusoria, a reduction of the higher to the primary, life.

942. Organisms are a synthesis of infusoria. Their generation is none other than an accumulation of infinitely numerous mucous points, infusoria. In these the organisms have not forsooth been at once wholly and perfectly depicted as on the smallest scale, nor contained in a state of preformation; but they are only infusorial vesicles, that by different combinations assume different forms, and grow up into higher organisms.

THEORY OF GENERATION.

943. The theory of generation is in this sense a synthetical and epigenetic, not an analytic.

944. The theory of preformation contradicts the laws of nature's development.

945. Generation is a successive formation, both in relation to the quantity as well as the quality, and the specific organs. It having been preposited, that an organism has several organic systems, so must these range according to their importance, and like the systems of nature, behind each other, and be also developed in this order. As the whole of nature has been a successive fixation of æther, so is the organic world a successive fixation of infusorial mucus-vesicles. The mucus is the æther, the chaos for the organic world. The semen of all animals consists also of infusoria; the same may be said of the vitellus. The pollen of flowers consists in like manner of microscopic vesicles with globules, which have a life of their own and move themselves in water. Many confervæ indeed divide evidently into a multitude of living, self-moving globules, which, after they have swam about for some time, again unite to form a stem of conferva.

946. Every generation consequently commences à priori or from the beginning. The organic substance191 must again be dissolved into the original chaos, if any thing new should reoriginate.

947. Out of an organic menstruum only can a new organism proceed, but not one organism out of the other. A finished or perfect organism cannot gradually transform itself into another.

948. The generative juices, or semen and vitellus, are none other than the total organism reduced to the primary menstruum.

949. Physically regarded also every individual originates only from the Absolute, but no one out of the other. The history of generation is a retrogression into the Absolute of the Organic, or the organic chaos—mucus, and a new evocation from the same.

950. This development from mucus is only applicable however to the generation of the perfect organisms, but not to the origin of the organic body, or the infusorial mass. The former originate only from an organic mass that has been already formed; but the infusorial mass, as constituting the organic primary bodies, cannot have originated in the same way. It does and must originate directly from the Inorganic. For whence can the organic matter have otherwise proceeded?

951. The infusorial mucus-mass originated, as has been already remarked, at the moment when the earth's metamorphosis was at an end; at the moment, when the planet succeeded in so bringing together and identifying all the elementary processes, that they were all together or at one and the same time in every point.

952. Hence the organic primary body originated also by synthesis, not by analysis, if regard be paid to its factors. But do we consider this substance as first emerging into view, when the coarse, abundant, isolated materials, such as earth, metals, Inflammables, and salts had separated themselves from it; that this organic primary body then remained behind as it were for the first time: it has then originated through analysis, or was preformed; but so preformed as are also the metals, and as is everything. It need scarcely be observed,192 that this last separation from out the Earthy is the carbon, the dissolution of the earths into atoms, and thus again into points or globules susceptible of form.

953. Everything is preformed in æther, like as every Mathematic is preformed in zero, every Active in God; yet for that very reason nothing individual is preformed therein; but it originates first through fixation of poles on the substance. This is the true meaning of the original generation of the Organic.

954. This origin of the organic primary bodies I designate Generatio originaria, Creation.

955. But infusorial vesicles can also originate by mere division of larger organic carcases, and these can again originate as well through the combination of these secondary as of the primitive vesicles, or as it were by coagulation only, such being the case indeed in the intestinal worms also. I nominate this generation, Generatio æquivoca.

956. All generation is Generatio æquivoca; whether imparted by sexes or not. For the generative juices of the sexual organs themselves are naught else than organic primary mass, and have originated by division.

957. There are only two kinds of generation in the world. The creation proper and the propagation that is sequent thereupon, or the Generatio originaria and secundaria.

958. No organism has been consequently created of larger size than an infusorial point. No organism is, nor has one ever been, created, which is not microscopic.

959. Whatever is larger, has not been created, but developed.

960. Man has not been created, but developed. So the Bible itself teaches us. God did not make man out of nothing; but took an elemental body then existing, an earth-clod or carbon; moulded it into form, thus making use of water; and breathed into it life, namely air, whereby galvanism, or the vital process arose.

961. The original origin of organization has been im193parted by the co-operating influence of heat and light. By the heat, because without this no galvanic and no chemical process is possible; further, because heat is the totality of æther, the moved æther, the ætherial air, and thus the menstruum of all action. But the heat is not sufficient to animate the three terrestrial elements, because it imparts only the possibility of procedure and of action; while it does not differentialize, nor posit tension, but maintains everything in identity, fluidity. In the heat alone every thing must become fluid and finally decompose. Unto heat therefore the accession is yet necessary of the Cosmic-differencing, or the light. The light inspires the body prepared by heat with life, antagonism, polarity.

962. The æther imparts the substance, the heat the form, the light the life. (Oken first started this opinion in his work, 'Die Zeugung,' Frankfurt, Wesche, 1805.)

c. Processes of the Organic.

963. The life of the organic body is not a single but a threefold action, consisting of the actions of the three terrestrial elements, which become the three fundamental processes of the body, or of life, and in which three processes galvanism consists.

1. EARTH-PROCESS, NUTRITIVE PROCESS.

964. The magnetic earth-process is virtually the formative; and in organic bodies is called the nutrient process.

965. The process of nutrition is the principal process in the organic world. Its product or its basis is the fundamental mass of the body itself. As crystal and the process of crystallization are related to each other, so are the body and the process of nutrition.

966. The process of nutrition is the sustaining, and proper fundamental process of the organism.

967. It is present entire and indivisible in every part of the body. Whencesoever it is ablated or withdrawn, there is death.

194

968. It operates according to the laws of crystallization.

969. Its very forms are crystals modified by the organic mass or, what amounts to the same, by the other processes combined therewith. The organic body is an accumulation of an infinity of (organic) crystals (cells).

970. In the planetary process of formation, which is a process of crystallization, the organism is continually comprehended. It is the planetary body ever becoming; the latter is an organic body, which has ceased to become.

2. WATER-PROCESS, DIGESTIVE PROCESS.

971. Another action, that helps to constitute the organic body, is the chemism, which is not only the process of liquefaction, but the process also of the formation or creation of new organic matter. It is known to us under the name of Digestive process.

972. The digestive process elevates the Inorganic up to the organic mass, like the chemism has converted the Earthy into carbonate of lime and finally into muriatic natron. The digestive process is the process of the formation of mucus. Regarded philosophically the nutritive juice (or chyle) is naught else than mucus. This is also correct in a physiological point of view.

973. The digestive process is the second organic process, in so far as it has been fashioned after the type of the water; but the first, in so far as every Organic has originated out of water.

974. As forming only the mucus it is not directly distributed in every part of the body like the nutritive process, which is the body or planet itself. But it interposes, or is mediate, everywhere.

975. As the water of the planet is related to the continent or earth's nucleus, so are the digestive matters or the mucus of nutrition to the body. The Earthy, however, is the principal mass of the planet, upon which the others have been supported. So is the nutritive body195 the principal mass, upon which the digestive body has been supported.

976. No organism is conceivable without a digestive process.

3. AIR PROCESS, RESPIRATORY PROCESS.

977. The action of the air finally settles down also in mucus. It is that which sustains the constant heterogeneity of the organic factors, the electrical tension. The electrical tension has, however, oxydation for its result. The organic process of electricity is thus at the same time a process of oxydation. It is called Respiratory process.

978. Without respiratory process, no organism is conceivable. By its influence difference has been induced in the chyle, and by this difference only does the latter become decomposible or serviceable for the process of nutrition.

979. The respiratory process is also present not immediately in every part of the body, but only mediately. It is the atmosphere of the body.

980. The mutation, which the juices undergo through the process of respiration, is none other than an emergence from their state of indifference. Thereby each point of the juice becomes polar towards every other; all are mutually attracted, all repelled, whereby a decisive vortication originates.

981. As every globule of sap or mucus is indifferent, it has thus naturally an affinity for air. The air itself is comprehended, like the water and the earth, in the organism. And thus it may with full force be said; that the organism is elevated by respiration to the element air, by digestion to the element water, by nutrition to the element earth. So that respiratory process = air-process, digestive process = water-process, and nutritive process = earth-process.

982. The first three organic processes are consequently true synotypes of the planetary processes—are planet-forming processes in miniature in individuals. The funda196mental organism has thus been shown to be in its apparent processes a synotype or likeness of the planet; in other words, a microscopic planet.

983. These three processes constitute the galvanic process. Making use of the expressions applied to the inorganic kingdom, we found the organism to be a combination of magnetism, chemism, and electrism; while in organic parlance it is a nutritive process, maintained by respiration and digestion. The processus nutritorius, digestivus, respiratorius, together constituting galvanism.

4. MOTION.

984. Motion is no peculiar or self-persistent process, but the necessary manifestation of galvanism. Motion has been established with the three organic fundamental processes.

985. Every motion depends upon the galvanic process. Taken in a strict sense, there is no process of motion, but motion only. For motion is verily but the phenomenon of galvanism. The process of motion is synonymous with the galvanic process.

986. The galvanic process is a process of motion effected in circles, in its own factors, in its planet, but not from without; it is consequently an actual vital process.

987. As the process of motion is the phenomenon common to all three organic fundamental processes, so is the whole organism characterized by it. The essence of the Organic depends consequently upon its automatic or self-motion.

988. Self-motion is the only, but essential and ultimate, distinction between the Organic and Inorganic. (Ed. 1st, 1810. § 904.) All other distinctions that have been advanced do not suffice; because they do not comprehend the totality of the organism, nor the three fundamental processes in one phenomenon, but only individual attributes.

989. A circumscribed, closed mass, which moves itself, is an organism. The perpetuum mobile is only the organism.

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990. Every Inorganic moves not itself, but is only moved by external influences; because every Inorganic is only a part of a whole.

991. The organic motion is present and possible in every point of a body. A mass that is automatic, or thoroughly moved by itself, is an organism.

992. The Inorganic consists in motion having vanished from it, and in being simply mass. But the Organic consists exactly in this alone, namely, that the Massive has disappeared, or that the mass is in constant motion. The Organic becomes destroyed, so soon as motion disappears in it; the Inorganic is destroyed, so soon as motion enters it. Motion is therefore the soul, whereby the Organic is elevated above the Inorganic.

2. ORGANOGNOSY.

Division of the Organism.

PLANETARY AND COSMIC ORGANISM.

993. Hitherto we have regarded the organism merely in a general point of view; namely, as regards the substance, form, and processes, which must indiscriminately occur in every organism. We have seen that it is composed of at least three elements, the earth, water and air. There is still, however, one combination that is possible and therefore also actual, namely, with the æther or the fire.

994. The organic world has two stages in its development. Upon each stage, however, it is the totality or synotype of nature, yet is different in each.

995. The organism represents the whole solar system; but this divides into two stages. The lowest of these is the Planetary, or totality of the Earthy, Aqueous and Aerial; the higher is the Solar or Cosmic, namely, the totality of earth, water, air and fire. Thus there is a tri-elementary and a quadri-elementary totality. As the first is already an organism, so much the more too198 must be the second. Thus there must be one organism, which comprehends indeed all systems in itself, but with the preponderance of the Planetary; and one with the preponderance of the Solar.

996. In the planetary organism the æther-systems will be either wanting, or only indicated as mere projections; they are there only, in so far as the planet itself is not without light. In the solar organism, however, the planetary systems are subordinate to the æther processes; the former are only there, because the sun cannot be without planets. In the planetary organism the æther-system has only been taken up into the Terrestrial; but in the Solar the Terrestrial has been taken up into the æther.

997. In the planetary organism all the processes launch out into production or alterations of the matters; it is a chemical organism; in the solar organism there are processes, which neither change, nor produce matters, it may be therefore styled light organism.

998. The chemical organism is associated with the earth, the spiritual with the water and air; the former must therefore consist principally of carbon, the latter of the combination of oxygen with hydrogen, and thus of nitrogen.

999. The carbon-organism must moreover in accordance with its import be associated with the Inflammables and metals, and through these with the silicious earth.

1000. The nitrogen-organism on the contrary with the salts and calcareous earths; thus we have silicious organisms and calcareous organisms; Inflammable organisms and salt organisms. From this it is already clear, that the planetary or primary organism is not general, nor indefinite, but the plant; for no General or Indefinite has existence. The solar or quadri-elementary organism admits in like manner of being recognized as animal. This is the philosophical deduction. But there is also a physiological, which conducts to the same result.

1001. The mucus-vesicle can feasibly pass into two kinds of condition only. It either remains in the water,199 or is cast upon the shore, or in the mud. In the last case it continues to lie, and is only supplied with light, and oxydized by the air upon the upper side; in the first case, on the contrary, it rolls about constantly in the water, and is alternately illumed and oxydized upon all sides. The first vesicle thus obtains a single axis from above downwards, between light and darkness; the second on the contrary gains a multitude of axes from without inwards, where it is alone dark and deoxydized. The first is thus devoid of any middle point, and finds its centre of gravity only in the middle of the earth, while the latter acquires its centre of gravity in its Interior, and this renders the Interior polar towards all points of the circumference. The plant is only one axis, or from having no middle point, is properly only one radius, which has its centre in the centre of the earth; the animal is an infinity of axes or radii, which concur or converge in the creature itself; the plant is an inverted cone, the animal an infinity of cones or a globe.

1002. Thus the planetary organism originates, if the primary vesicle having been taken out of the water is given up to the earth, to immobility and to darkness. But the light-organism arises, if the primary vesicle continue in water, or in the Moveable and Diaphanous. Here then in their genesis an essential difference is declared between the two organic worlds. Planetary organism originates, if the vesicle develops itself apart from the water, in which case it is withdrawn on one side from the light; but the light-organism originates if it remains in water itself, where it can be supplied on all sides with light. The essence of both is expressed by the names darkness-organism and light-organism.

1003. The basis of both kingdoms is therefore exactly similar; the vesicle and the mucus lie at the foundation of both. It depends solely upon the surrounding element, whether out of one and the same mass this or that organism should arise, or rather upon the active influence of the light, this being conditioned only by the elements. Not a word can accordingly be spoken200 about preformation. In darkness-organism the water-vesicle has been placed between earth and air, and thus fettered to the earth; in light-organism, however, the vesicle has been placed in the water and so freed from the earth.

1004. The planetary organism has, in accordance with its situation and import, been bound to the earth. It must originate like the metal in the earth, in the darkness and, as it were, in a vein. But it is at the same time a light-product; it must rise from out of the earth into the air and towards the light. It is a mucus, living metallic vein, which elevates itself from out the earth into the air.

1005. This organism, which originates in the darkness of the earth, and grows therefrom into the air so as to meet the light, is plant.

1006. The solar-organism is, in accordance with its import, void of connexion with the earth; like a planet it revolves freely about the earth, and everywhere receives its image or likeness in the influence of all four elements.

1007. The organism, which, free from the earth, has originated in water, or properly speaking, in the transparency, is animal.

1008. The vegetable and animal are the only organic, kingdoms. In both, nature has exhausted herself, and has in the last kingdom, as in a mirror, been wholly reflected. They are together planet and sun, or thus solar system. But since the animal comprehends all elements in itself, so it contains also the plant, and is therefore for itself vegetable and animal kingdom, or the whole solar-system.

1009. The plant hath no free system of motion, because motion is wanting to it; bound to the elements, by these it is determined. The element of motion, the æther, lies apart from it. It has only motion, if and while the elements act upon, or solicit it, thereunto.

1010. It moves itself only by an external or foreign stimulus. If no foreign stimulus be present, it does not201 move itself. A root grows, moves itself towards one spot, not because it there seeks for moisture, but because it is affected by the moisture which is there found. Were the moisture not to act upon it, it would wither.

1011. The animal has independent motion. For it has indeed taken up the centre, the earth-and the light-system which is the principle of motion, into itself.

1012. Thus the animal moves itself independently of external stimuli. The animal can move itself from want of stimulus. It moves itself to seek for, and thus from want of, nourishment, which consequently does not act upon it; the plant cannot, however, move itself owing to want of food, but only die.

1013. This is the essential and only conclusive distinction between animal and plant. All others that have been advanced are not sufficient.

Processes of the Cosmic Organism.

ÆTHER PROCESSES.

1014. The primary or planetary organism cannot be the last product of nature's development: for it is only indeed the metatype of the three terrestrial elements, and consequently not of the totality of nature. The mucus-organism ascends to a higher stage, since it superadds to its three elements the primary element, or ascends itself to primary elements. It becomes an ætherial globe of mucus.

1015. Hitherto there were merely three processes in the organism; to these consequently the fourth is added, which is the æther-process. It may be called the fire-process.

1016. With the fire-process the development of the organic world has been carried to the highest pitch and therewith closed.

1017. The highest organism is a quadri-elementary individual, or a quadri-elementary mucus.

1018. The four elements are, however, the universe. The higher organism is consequently not merely a syno202type of the planet, but of it and the sun, or of the whole universe. The higher organism is an universe in miniature; in the profoundest, truest sense of the word is it small world, microcosm.

1019. The planetary, terrestrial organisms are related to the solar or cosmic, as the planet is to solar-system.

1020. The cosmic organism has besides the systems of nutrition, digestion, and respiration, those of the æther in itself, and thus of the gravity, light and heat. These are immaterial, spiritual processes, which produce no more matters.

1. Process of Gravity.

1021. The organ of gravity is that of quiescence or rest, the organ constituting the basis of the organic body, or rather of the other æther-organs, the centralization.

1022. It imparts form to the higher organism.

1023. The quiescent, sustaining, form-imparting system is the rigid earth-system, and appears as the osseous system.

2. Process of Heat.

1024. As the heat is the motion of the æther, so is there a system of motion in the organism.

1025. The system, which has no other function to perform than to move, is the muscular system.

1026. The osseous system is related to the muscular system as mass to motion, as Passive to Active. The former maintains the form, the latter changes the same exactly like gravitation and heat.

3. Process of Light.

1027. The light-system must be related to all other spiritual systems and the three fundamental systems of the organism, or to the simply organic systems as light is to matter, being thus polarizing or dominant.

1028. Now the domination of light consists in the sustenance of polarity in all matter. The air itself is preserved in its duplicity only by light. All the points of203 the organism are polarized by the light-system. The light-system acts consequently through the whole body.

1029. The light-system is not capable of producing matter, like the terrestrial systems. This is self-evident.

1030. It does not polarize by effecting chemical changes. If nevertheless these are present, they are thus only results, occurring while the terrestrial processes are set in action by the process of light.

1031. Light polarizes the Material by mere fixation or discharging of poles, and thus in a spiritual manner. So also does the light-system of the organism. It governs the organism not by mechanical power, not by mass, but by a spiritual breath or aura.

1032. The organic light-system is the Animative of the organism. In it the spirit exercises its power over the mucous mass. It is the nervous system.

LIFE OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM.

1033. The light-polarity can bring about no other tension in the mass than that which is peculiar to it, and thus the galvanic tension, whose highest and purest phenomenon is motion. The light-system principally causes motion in the mass, like as in æther.

1034. The nervous system has, however, a life also in itself, or the internal light-polarity that is without any relation to the organic mass. This action of the nerves is called sensibility, and its phenomenon, feeling or sensation. The system of sensation is the nervous system as sun in itself; in the motor-system it is as sun in a centre of planets.

1035. The organism, like the elementary nature, is completed by four systems.

1. By the Nutrient,
2.    "    Digestive,
3.    "    Respiring, and
4.    "    Motive, unto which the nerves, muscles, and bones belong.

1036. It is impossible for more than these to be developed in an organism; impossible, for any thing else204 but what is in nature to originate therein; impossible, that any thing new be born by it. Everything in nature is only repetition of an Antecedent or something that has gone before. How could the organism be aught else, how aught else than the focus of the four elements!

SECOND KINGDOM.
VEGETABLE KINGDOM.

1037. The Vegetable Kingdom is the individual development of the three planetary elements.

I.—PHYTOGENY.

1038. Phytogeny represents the developmental history of individual plants, or, properly speaking, the idea of the plant.

1039. To the plant belong all the definitions that have been hitherto deduced. It is an organism fettered to the earth, is developed only apart from water, only in the dark, in the earth; is associated with the metal, with the carbon; is a magnetic needle that has been attracted out of the earth into the air towards the light. Seeds germinate better if they have been protected beforehand from the access of light; the radicle sinks, indeed, into the earth, because it obeys the gravity, the quiescence or rest; but it is therein maintained, because it is there humid and dark. This is a reason that has not yet been connoted, for the plant having been fettered to the earth. There are indeed plants which also take root in water, but the water is still darker than the air. The root has, in this respect, completely the character of the metal, that is a child of darkness.

1040. Consisting for the greatest part of carbon, plants are associated with the pit-coals, through these pass over into the carbon of the clay-slate rocks; finally, through the black-lead unto the iron. In like manner, through205 their hydrogenous import, they pass over into the inflammable asphalts, and through these unto sulphur. Metal and sulphur have, in the Geogeny, announced themselves as the precursors, or harbingers, of the vegetable world. In this respect, also, can the vegetable kingdom be regarded as the mineral kingdom, that, having continued to grow, has become alive. The ore, which becomes organic, becomes carbon or plant.

PARTS OF THE PLANT.

1041. The character of each development consists in the separation of the Indifferent or Chaotic into its ideas or actions, i. e. the development of every system is first completed, when it is divided into as many substantial systems as it numbers factors, or has processes in itself.

1042. Although the plant is only essentially a planetary-organism, it must yet be developed unto an æther- or light-organism; and it therefore divides into planetary- and solar-or light-organs.

1043. The planetary organs are those that have the earth-, water-, and air-process above them, and which are made known in the root, the stalk and foliage, which together constitute the vegetable stem.

1044. The light-organs begin to be stirring in the blossom, and are divulged as sexual organs. They are a repetition of the trunk.

1045. The vegetable body divides therefore into two great principal parts, which are synotypes of each other, into trunk and blossom or inflorescence. If we regard the vegetable trunk empirically; it is then divisible into three stages, whereof each consists of the organs of the three fundamental processes, which seek to separate from each other.

a. The first stage is that of the three tissues namely of the parenchyma, medulla or pith; of the cells, ducts, and tracheæ or spiral vessels.

b. The second stage is that of the shaft or main axis, where these three have separated concentrically into206 cortex or bark, liber, and wood, constituting the anatomical systems or sheaths.

c. The third stage is that of the caudex proper or the trunk, in which the three tissues have separated in the direction of the longitudinal axis into root, stalk or stem, and leaves, these making up the organs proper or members. The inflorescence divides into two stages, into flower and fruit.

d. The fourth stage or that of the flower repeats root, stalk and leaves, in seeds, pistil and in the corolla.

e. The fifth stage or that of the fruit is a further repetition of these three parts of the flower in the nut, plum and berry, unto which, as synthesis, comes the apple.

A. Vegetable-trunk.

1046. The vegetable-trunk is the development of the three fundamental processes up to their complete separation or substantial representation. It divides itself into the tissues or the pith (parenchyma), into the shaft and into the trunk.

1047. The plant is a galvanic water-vesicle, and as such earth, water and air. Upon this vesicle it is, however, the earth-element that chiefly acts. While the earth seeks to encroach upon the vesicle, the magnetic process becomes active therein, and it enters into opposition with the air. The vesicle becomes now determined by two elements, by the earth and by the air; it stands itself in the category of the water.

1048. The plant may be characterized as organic water which is polarized upon two sides, towards the earth and the air. The vegetable vesicle must therefore maintain two poles. While it would represent in itself the magnetic pole, it endeavours to identify itself, to obey gravity and merge into the darkness towards the mediate point of the earth; but that it may remain a galvanic pole, it becomes excited by the air, strives to become a Different and to attain the light.

1049. The vegetable vesicle receives two opposed ex207tremities, an identical earth-and a dyadic air-extremity; and thus the plant must be regarded as the organism, which manifests a constant endeavour, upon the one side to become earth, on the other air, upon the one side identical metal, on the other duplex air.

1050. The plant is a radius, that towards the centre becomes identical, towards the periphery divides or starts asunder. The plant is not therefore an entire circle or globe, but only a section of such, a cone, whose apex has been turned towards the centre of the earth, or would become earth-centre. It can therefore have no middle-point. It will on the contrary demonstrate that the animal is the totality of radii, is consequently diameter, and has therefore a centre of its own, or is entire globe. As the whole earth is surrounded by plants, and all their roots turn towards the centre; the whole vegetable kingdom only forms a sphere, composed of infinitely numerous cones. On the contrary every individual animal forms a sphere for itself alone, and is therefore worth as much as all plants taken together. Animals are entire heavenly bodies, satellites or moons, which circulate independently about the earth; all plants, on the contrary, taken together are only equivalent to one heavenly body. An animal is an infinity of plants.

1051. In so far as an organism strives unto identity or to gravity, it seeks to produce the Metallic, the carbon, the Alkaline. The indifferent and alkaline character appears in the earth-extremity of the plant. Mucus and acid bodies are evidenced for the most part in the root. In so far as the organism strives unto duplicity, it will produce the salt, the acid and the Inflammable. Acids and electric bodies are manifested in the air-extremity of the plant.

1052. The two vegetable extremities are accordingly related to each other as alkali and acid, and as carbon and hydrogen. In the air the water is divided into oxygen and hydrogen, acids and oils; in the earth it hardens into earths and carbon.

1053. The earth-end or the alkaline extremity of the208 plant is the root; the air-end, or the acid and oily, is the entire stem-fabric, or body. The plant has first of all two cardinal organs, viz. root and stem-fabric. Both together represent the water divided into earth- and air-mucus. The root is the central extremity of the plant, and is therefore prolonged or runs out into magnetic points; the stem-fabric is the peripheric and therefore expands into branches and electric surfaces.

1054. But besides the air, the light also operates upon the plant and stimulates it to grow aloft and produce a light-organ. This light-organ can thus originate only upon the apex or summit. It is the flower. The flower can therefore stand nowhere else than on the summit or end of the plant. The light however acts upon many points of the upper surface of the vegetable trunk and elongates the same. One plant can therefore support numerous flowers, but all of these must stand upon an extremity. Wherever therefore a flower may happen to stand, that spot must be regarded as a summit or end. There is thus also, according to the physiological view of the matter, a light-organ in the plant, which is its animal pre-affection. The chief antagonism in the plant is in this respect therefore between trunk and inflorescence the former is related to the latter as plant to animal. Were the plant to attain unto animal functions; they could thus only take place in the flower.

I. Tissues.

1055. The tissues are the unseparated organs of the three fundamental processes, the earth-, water-, and air-process.

1. WATER-ORGAN, CELLULAR TISSUE.

1056. If a mucus-vesicle lie upon the ground, it thus continues indifferent upon the lower or dark side, and is only affected by the gravity and the water; the upper side, on the contrary, by the differencing air and light. It is consequently prolonged into the earth and into the air. It must pass over from the round into a linear209 form. The elongation is not a mere protraction of the vesicle, but an apposition of new vesicles. For it happens through polarization, and thus by infinite repetition of the primary vesicle. The plant is thus a body of infinitely numerous vesicles.

1057. In so far as the plant is a multiplication of the primary vesicle, it consists of Cellular tissue. The anatomy of plants informs us, that there is nothing originally in the plant but cellular tissue, and that other forms first emerge or make their appearance in the sequel.

1058. The cellular tissue indicates the Indifferent in the plant, for it is only an accumulation of the indifferent primary vesicles. In so far as the plant consists thereof, is it indifference—water-plant.

1059. The cellular tissue is only oxydized, desiccated mucus. Chemistry has proved, that the wood is only oxydized mucus.

1060. The cellular tissue being the water organized and saturated with earth, or the organized mucus, has consequently the chemical function in itself of solution, homogeneous production, or formation of mucus. As therefore the plant originates, so does it enlarge. It originates as vesicle, and its growth is a constant origination of vesicles; from the Indifferent, which is the water. The sap contained in the cells consists of water and starch-granules, which constantly circulate therein in a circle.

1061. The fundamental form of the cells is the rhomboidal-dodecahedron (Kieser's Phytotomie); for around a globe only 6 others of equal size can be placed, whereby its 6 lateral surfaces are pressed in, which during the induration impart to it the form of a six-sided column. Above and below these 7 globes only 3 others admit of being placed, whereby 3 point-converging surfaces originate, which thus complete the middle globe as rhomboidal-dodecahedron.

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2. EARTH-ORGAN, VASCULAR TISSUE.

1062. So long as the vesicles or cells lie as globes upon each other, triangular interspaces are found between them, which stand in conjunction with each other on all sides. As water is found in these interspaces, it is plain that they do not entirely disappear with the transformation of the cells into rhomboidal-dodecahedra. These spaces are called intercellular passages or sap-tubes, Vessels. In many plants, such as those which contain a milky juice, particular sap-tubes run through a part of these intercellular passages, and are probably formed by condensation of the sap. Both are therefore in a physiological respect of one kind. At bottom also the blood-vessels of animals are naught else but passages in felted cellular tissue.

1063. As the principal polarity of plants has been directed upwards, and the cells therefore been protracted lengthwise; so also the chief direction of the vessels is parallel with the axis of the plant.

1064. The vegetable sap ascends in these tubes, which must be therefore viewed indeed as constituting the earth-or nutritive organ.

3. AIR-ORGAN, TRACHEAL TISSUE.

1065. The plant is not merely earth-and water-organism, but also air-organism; and there must therefore be developed in it an anatomical system, which coincides with the process of air.

1066. Besides the cells and tubes naught else is found in vegetable tissue but spiral vessels; what are called scalariform tubes, annular vessels, dotted ducts, vermiform or strangulated vessels, are no peculiar formations in themselves, but only different conditions of the spiral vessels.

1067. The spiral vessels are the air-system of the plant, and therefore rightly deserve the name of Tracheæ. They exhibit the structure of the air-tubes in insects, and contain, according to the most authentic observations,211 air, and not sap, except in the period of adolescence, as occurs in the animal kingdom.

1068. The spiral vessels consist of one or several filaments spirally contorted, and held together by a delicate tubular-shaped membrane.

1069. They must be regarded as elongated cells, upon whose parietes the starch-granules have been placed in serial juxtaposition with each other, so as to form spirally-twisted filaments, as is to be plainly seen in many cells and also in Confervæ. This spiral condition originates without doubt from the spiral-shaped motion of the granules in cell-sap.

1070. The ultimate cause of this spiral motion, as well as the position of the parts, appears to reside in the rotation of the sun.

1071. Upon this also depends probably the winding of the stem of plants, with the spiral-shaped position of the leaves and branches, as probably even the contortions of the snail's shell and of the hairs upon the crown of the head.

1072. The production of the spiral form originates from the antagonism of the light with the matter. The number of spiral vessels is therefore less in those parts that are beneath, than in those above, the earth, or less in the root than the stem. The more indeed an organ has been exposed to the air, by so much the more do the spiral vessels preponderate, as e. g. in the leaves.

1073. An organ must necessarily be nobler in character, the more spiral vessels it contains. The plant also that, with more spiral vessels, exhibits them particularly arranged, must take a higher rank. The lowest plants, as the mushrooms, lichens and mosses, consist therefore entirely of cellular tissue; in the ferns therefore only a single bundle of spiral vessels makes its appearance. When plants become nobler, several fasciculi of spiral vessels originate; and in tracing this feature we ascend from the ferns to the grasses and lilies, up to the lower Dicotyledons. In the higher Dicotyledons the packets of212 the tracheæ increase for the first time to such a degree, that they form a closed circle, the fibrous ring or zone of wood.

1074. The tracheæ extend from one end of the plant to the other; many are wont to terminate only in nodes, while these are to be regarded as arrested branches. The air can therefore penetrate through the spiral vessels from the leaves even to the apices of the roots.

II. Anatomical Systems—Sheaths.

1075. These originate by vagination and separation of the tissues in the transverse direction, and prevail throughout the whole plant. The idea of the whole vegetable structure is extremely simple. Originally the plant is a vesicle in water, or cellular tissue in the seed; root and stalk also consist in their main bulk or proportion of cellular tissue, which is called parenchyma. Therein the three planetary processes reside inclosed. Such a plant is still in the recognizable state of the primary organism. In the sequel, however, through the influence of light, the polarity between light and darkness issues forth in the parenchyma, the cellular tissue obtains a linear direction, and becomes elongated into spiral vessels. The spiral vessels form one or several fasciculi, which emerge out of the parenchyma, by which they, and each packet individually, are circularly surrounded. The cellular tissue is as it were the soil, in which the fasciculi of spiral vessels are rooted as proprietary plants and out of which they grow.

1076. The effort of the three vegetable processes, to separate their organs from, and perfect them independently of, each other, is in incessant operation, both from without inwards, as well as from above downwards, because in both cases is light there, darkness here, dryness there, humidity here. The cellular tissue, that has finally become independent in the transverse direction or from without inwards, is called bark, the self-substantial tubular tissue is called liber, the non-dependent tracheal tissue, wood.

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1. TRACHEAL-SYSTEM, WOOD.

1077. With increased influence of light the tracheal fasciculi also increase, and form a circle of columns in the parenchyma around the centre of the plant. Between the column, externally and internally to the same, is the parenchyma. The more, however, the columns accumulate, by so much the more does it diminish, and whereas the columns previously stood singly in the parenchyma, the appearance is now as if narrow plates only of parenchyma traversed between the columns from without inwards. Finally the columns predominate to such an extent and approximate so closely, that the plates almost disappear. They are now called insertions of cellular tissue, or medullary rays. As the tracheæ convey air, and have thus been more exposed to the process of oxydation, they generally harden sooner than in other parts.

1078. Around the fasciculi of spiral vessels the cellular tissue also strives to elongate, and begins at the same time to harden. Such extended cells, in which the light has almost disappeared, are called fibres. Indurated tracheæ and fibres are called Wood. The wood is always in the vicinity of the spiral vessels. It is a production synchronous with the latter.

1079. Only, where spiral vessels are, can genuine wood originate; but it is not everywhere, where they are found, that woody fibres must be also present, although the cells extend around all bundles of spiral vessels. If the degree of oxydation of the cells be slight, they do not harden, but continue herbaceous in texture. The parenchyma has now been separated by a circle of fibrous columns into an external and internal, or peripheric and central. The central parenchyma becomes void of sap and spongy, because the plant imbibing its nutriment on the surface, and the air and the light operating thereupon, the processes conduct it thither. This withered parenchyma is called pith, which in accordance with its origin merits no physiological consideration,214 nor is worthy and susceptible of any philosophical construction.

2. TUBULAR SYSTEM, LIBER.

1080. As the plant draws in its nourishment from without, so is the main proportion of the sap necessarily present in the periphery of the spiral vessels. The elongated cells in the neighbourhood of the spiral vessels, and which principally contain sap, are called Liber.

1081. Liber is necessarily present around every packet of spiral vessels, and thus with fasciculi everywhere dispersed throughout the stem. The liber is only situated beneath the bark, when the number of the spiro-vascular fasciculi is so great, that they form a closed circle in the parenchyma; it is only beneath the bark, in so far as it accompanies the spiral vessels, but can only surround the latter from without. As it is only the woody plants that have been usually examined, the false idea has thus originated of the liber having, as it were from its very essence, to be beneath the bark.

1082. In the liber is the main seat of vegetable activity. For it is soft cellular tissue with open intercellular passages, wherein the sap can move.

1083. Now as every fascicle of spiral fibres is surrounded by liber, such a fascicle must be regarded as a whole plant. A plant consists accordingly of as many plants, as it has or can have tracheal fasciculi. Every plant is a trunk of infinitely numerous plants; for every one can contain infinitely numerous tracheal fascicles. One plant is a whole vegetable world. (Ed. 1st, 1810. § 1065.)

3. CELLULAR-SYSTEM, BARK.

1084. No spiral vessels lie upon the surface of the plant, for where they originate, there the liber forms around them, and this is consequently the External. The surface of plants is therefore necessarily environed by liber, notwithstanding the greater influence of the light. The cellular tissue upon the surface of plants is, however,215 less rich in sap than the liber around the tracheal fasciculi, because it is too rapidly evaporated and dried up by the immediate contact of the air, light and heat. The surface of the plant is too strongly oxydized by the air, and therefore the cells harden. The sap also decomposes too rapidly and becomes rigid, so that an irregular formation only can proceed from it. The external, more inactive, or irregularly wood-converted layer of cells, is the Bark.

1085. The plant has thus likewise three anatomical systems, which are nothing new, but only the repetition or rather vagination of the three tissues; alburnum and cambium are only transitional, not special formations.

III. Organs of the Vegetable Trunk.—Members.

1086. Organs are separated parts of the body, and combinations of single tissues and systems, and are consequently a Whole in Singulars. There are, however, no uniform combinations; but one or the other system asserts its preponderance and imparts the character.

1087. In conformity with the developmental progress of the whole of nature, namely, that of always separating further its chaotically mingled parts, individualizing and yet forming them with the others into a whole, vegetation cannot continue stationary with the partition into bark, liber and wood, seeing that they are always circumscribed and form a body in common; but they must also sever this body itself into as many members as it has constituent parts. This severance makes its appearance in the longitudinal axis, because in this direction the antagonisms of air and light with water and earth are more powerful.

1088. Through the separation of the vegetable trunk three members only can originate; one with the preponderance of cells or of bark, one with that of vessels or of liber, and one with that of the tracheæ or of wood. The cellular tissue has been posited as vegetable trunk in the root, the vascular tissue as a special member is stalk, the tracheal tissue leaf. In this manner the trunk of the216 plant divides into three great divisions; more are not possible.

1089. Now the root is the perfected water-organ, because it is always fixed in water; the leaf is the perfected air-organ, because it moves in the air; the stalk is the perfected earth-organ, because it removes the mass out of water and air. Root is a heap of cells; leaf a plane of tracheæ; stalk a bundle of vessels.

1. WATER-ORGAN—ROOT.

1090. By the two polar systems, the earth-and air-system, the cellular and tracheal system, is the development of the plant confirmed. Thereby is it in the next place a twofold organism. By the first system it has been turned towards the planet and immersed in earth and water, by the second it has been turned towards the sun and immersed in the air. The root and the fabric of the stem, or root and stem simply, have now obtained their truest significance. Each is the whole plant, each the whole organism; in the root this is only in its original purity, but in the stem it is upon a higher stage. Root is stem in water and earth; stem is root in air and light.

1091. The root has accordingly more cellular tissue, fewer tracheæ; in the stem this condition is reversed. The root resembles young plants, or such as still rank upon a lower stage, and have but few columns of tracheæ. The root has therefore no marrow or pith. It may be said that it should have no pith, because it is usually thinner than the stem and richer in sap; but it has only the latter character, from consisting for the most part merely of cellular tissue. Root is the vegetable trunk with preponderating cellular tissue. In consequence of the antagonism between root and stem, wherein even their difference consists, the one strives to produce the Chemical, the watery earth or the mucus, but the other the Electrical, the combustible air-bodies.

1092. The root, as producing mucus or infusoria, has therefore in itself the organic process of putrefaction, in217 so far as the origin of mucus and infusoria is a result of the putridity. It corresponds to imbibition and digestion. To this is referrible the mouldy, and as it were fetid, condition of the root. Through the process of decomposition, which it evokes in its neighbourhood, it kills its nutriment, takes possession of it, and thus originates completely, as does every first organism, out of putrefaction, out of infusoria. To the essence of the root belong therefore not merely food, but the favouring relations of decomposition, as earth and water, whereby the access of the air, as necessary to every galvanism, has not been suppressed.

1093. The earth is not merely a mechanical station for the plant, in order to give it the perpendicular direction, but it is necessary for polar excitation, whereby the decomposition is imparted. A plant placed upright in pure water, although with the roots, necessarily perishes. Darkness is at the same time the lurking-place of putrefaction, as being that which only plays its part in localities where the polarizing and dissevering influence of light is wanting.

1094. The root always passes perpendicular into the earth, on account of its greater weight due to repletion with water. In all zones therefore the root stands perpendicular to the horizon, and thus the whole plant, although this is somewhat inclined towards the sun.

1095. The developmental stages of the root pass probably parallel to the parts of the vegetable stem.

a. In respect to the tissue, there are thus cellular roots, as is probably the case in the fungi, and with the fibrils of all roots; tubular or vascular roots as in the mosses, tracheal roots in the rest.

b. In respect to the systems the bulbs are the cortical or bark-roots; the tubers the liber-roots; the fibres the woody-roots.

c. In respect to the members of the trunk, the turnip is perhaps the genuine root, the tap-root the stalk-root, the so-called aerial roots, the leaf-roots.

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2. EARTH-ORGAN.—STALK.

1096. The stalk is the idea of the whole plant, posited under the import of the organ of nutrition, of the vessels. The structure of the stalk is therefore accordant with that of the root. The anatomical systems are alike in both, bark, liber and tracheæ being in the same envelope.

1097. In the stalk, however, the opposition of tissues and systems emerges more strongly, and therefore they all become individualized also to a higher degree. The spiral vessels become more freed from the cellular tissue; the bark is more distinctly divided from the liber; this again from the wood, and in its centre the cellular tissue dries up into pith. As, however, the stalk is the first product of the light-influence, the tracheal system cannot attain as yet entire freedom. The cells have nevertheless been extended, and the intercellular passages are formed into regular tubes. The Stalk is the trunk of the plant with a preponderating system of tubes.

1098. This separation of the tissues and systems, with the endeavour upon the part of each to become individually perfect and isolated from the other, is effected by the air and the light. As root imbibes the mucous or slimy water, and sustains the chemical process in the plant, so does the stalk set the water in motion, since it exposes it to the air and light, whereby the chemical earth-process becomes separated into different saps and elemental bodies.

1099. Through the influence of the air, light and heat upon the stalk, as well as by its antagonism with the root, its elongation is determined. The greater amount of energy of the aerial polarity is in the higher regions; it is thus more excited by these than by the lower, and the bud being lighter grows more rapidly in the upper parts, and obtains an elongated form. The excitation is stronger also upon the side exposed to the light. It grows also more strongly in that direction, and thus the stalk stands indeed upwards, but somewhat inclined from the perpendicular line towards the sun.

219

1100. The perpendicular direction of the stalk is, however, as mechanically determined by gravity as the root. Paradoxical as this assertion may appear, it is still correct; for if we think of a moist globe, which is superiorly affected by air, light and heat, the upper aqueous or mucous parts are thus lighter, and necessarily ascend upwards through the pressure of the heavy or unheated parts, just as the air-bubbles in beer ascend to the surface. The light it is true can draw them somewhat sideways, chiefly because this side is more heated, more decomposed, and also undergoes a greater amount of evaporation; but the proper cause invariably resides in the ascent of the light parts between the heavy or immoveable. The stalk therefore grows upwards also in the darkness, and then indeed quite perpendicularly, because it has not been diverted by light. Were the light merely the Dirigent, it could not be comprehended, why towards the poles trees still stand tolerably perpendicular, and do not lie completely upon the earth. Were, however, the air that which determines the direction, plants could not thus have been inclined towards the sun, nor could we comprehend why the flowers and also the leaves obey the sun's course. Finally, were neither air nor light the imparters of direction, then the plant could shoot in no other direction than quite perpendicularly upwards, as is done too for the most part by the fungi.

1101. The winding of the stalk appears to originate from the rotation of the sun. The next cause is probably the greater heating and decomposition that occurs upon one side. In accordance with this assumption the plants upon the northern hemisphere of the earth must wind spirally upwards from left to right, or from morning towards evening, if our gaze be directed towards the meridian, but inversely upon the southern hemisphere. But this is not the case. May we therefore conjecture that plants, twisted contrary to rule, have been transported from their native soil?

1102. The kinds of stalk follow also, without doubt,220 the direction of developmental stages of the vegetable trunk. There are therefore cellular stalks in the fungi, vascular stalks in the mosses, tracheal stalks in the ferns. A bark-stalk is the culm, a liber-stalk the scape, a wood-stalk probably the trunk of a palm. A root-stalk is the rhizoma, a perfect-stalk the stem, a leaf-stalk being probably the shrub.

Ramification.

1103. The differencing, severing character of air and light must never be lost from our thoughts, nor also that at a height this character manifests itself more powerfully than on the surface of the earth, where the stem abandons its androgynous position in relation to the root. Through the constant process of differencing the tracheal fascicles of the plant may finally become so independent that they no longer stand in need of the others, and do not merely represent a particular plant, but are perfected also as such.

1104. This dispersion of the tracheal fasciculi will not easily take place upon the earth's surface, on account of its lesser degree of aerial polarity, but at a certain height. If several stalks emerge from the root, the bush or shrub originates, but if only one, the tree. If the subdivision first commence at a certain distance from the earth, then do Branches originate.

1105. The formation of branches demonstrates in part a great store of tracheal fasciculi, and part by an easy differential capacity in the plant. Both come to the same thing.

1106. Plants devoid of branches are similar or analogous to roots.

1107. The branches again ramify from the same cause by which the stem ramifies. A branch or twig must be regarded as an entire fascicle of tracheæ, which forms superiorly a closed vesicle or bud, that raises the bark, bursts it open into scales and then opens itself. The opening of the external tracheal tubes or vesicle becomes a leaf; a twig can therefore occupy no other221 position than in the sheath or angle of a leaf. Every succeeding leaf upon the twig is in the same manner a ruptured vesicle of tracheæ. As many leaves therefore originate as there are tracheal zones present.

1108. Every branch is an entire plant. All the tissues and systems are found in it. Tracheæ free themselves from the stalk, pass towards the circumference, break through the bark and carry with them the liber, whose external layer again becomes bark. The branch is only an elongated bud. The stalk is the soil or the root of the branches. Branches, that have been cut off and stuck in the earth, grow. There is nothing contradictory, in the tracheal fascicles of the branch growing downwards into the stalk. A branched tree is a complete wood.

1109. From the same cause, or by the influence of water on different situations in the earth, the root has branches. But as this influence is weaker than that of air and light, so the number, density, and length of the roots is less.

1110. The polarization of the tracheal fascicles into branches takes place all around the stalk in one situation. The influence is equal upon all sides. The idea of the formation of branches is the star. All branches have a radiate position around the stalk—all form a verticillum or whorl.

1111. Every other position of branches is only an alteration of the verticillate arrangement.

1112. In most plants the arrangement of the branches admits of being reduced to the spiral line. This position is only the verticil drawn out.

1113. This drawing out takes place through the continued growth of the stalk, in which the bundles of tracheæ, doubtless by the varied operation of light, develop themselves in order, become individualized, and issue from the stalk as branches.

1114. The crucial position of the branches depends upon the same growth of the stalk, but one in which transverse polarities are present. The irregular or dis222persed position is most probably the last completion of the spiriform.

1115. The spiriform arrangement stands in relation with the formation of the tracheæ.

1116. The branches of the root observe no such regularity, partly on account of weaker polarity, partly on account of the obstacles placed in their way, at one time by the impenetrable earth, at another by want of water.

1117. The more the stem is differenced, so much the higher is it developed. Thus the richer in number the branches, by so much the more perfect is the stem. The stelliform branches belong to the first development. The plants, that have this arrangement, stand lower in the scale. To this the crucial appears to succeed, as a mediate position between the former and that which follows. The spiriform ranks higher. In it the stem is manifestly differenced more multilaterally. The dispersed arrangement appears to be the highest, because in it the greatest freedom prevails, because the poles have acted on every part of the plant, because they are everywhere in the air and in light. Plants with dispersed branches are organized air; without branches they are organized water as well as earth. Those plants only which have circles of tracheæ or rings of wood, as e. g. the Dicotyledons, ramify; these alone are, properly speaking, a conjunction by growth of many plants, and one that is truly persistent, or that bears fruit several times. The Monocotyledons being devoid of woody rings, do not, or but very rarely, ramify. Most of them therefore die off after they have once produced fruit. The ramification is a multiplication of the plant, in which the buds continue to stand upon the old stem.

Formation of Nodes.

1118. The formation of nodes, as in the grasses, is an attempt at differentialization, that has not, however, attained to perfection. A node is a branch-whorl which has continued to adhere to the stalk. Therefore the223 tracheæ also terminate in the circumference of the node.

1119. The formation of nodes consequently ranks directly under the stelliform formation of branches. Taken in a strict sense the formation of nodes occurs only in plants with sheathing leaves or in Monocotyledons.

3. AIR-ORGAN, FOLIAGE.

1120. If in the progressive separation of the tissues the tracheæ finally obtain the preponderance, so that they issue forth free from the envelope of cellular tissue, the leaves, or Foliage, then originate.

1121. The ribs of the leaf are the fascicles of tracheæ that have become free, and are still only connected together laterally by a thin layer of cellular tissue.

1122. The leaves can be regarded as gigantic and unrolled spiral vessels, and these again as microscopic and involuted leaves.

1123. As through the root the water-process enters the plant, and through the stalk the earth-process, so does the air-process through the leaves.

1124. It is probably the stomata through which the air is conducted into the tracheæ; the connexion, however, has not yet been proved.

Gemmæ or Buds.

1125. With the formation of branches there is at the same time a diminution of the cellular tissue, and an increase of the tracheæ. Entirely new spiral vessels commence in the branches, and are not continued or prolonged into the stalk. The further indeed the extent of the ramification, by so much less is the quantity of cellular tissue, and by so much greater the number of the tracheæ. It comes at last to this, that the tracheal fascicles, which were from all sides surrounded by dense cellular tissue, are only then loosely connected by a thin layer of such substance. This ramuscule is still therefore only a hollow stalk, consisting of fascicles of tracheæ dis224posed in circles, and so united by a thin cellular integument or membrane, that the whole forms a vesicle.

1126. This vesicle is a Bud. A bud is at bottom none other than the end of a twig that has become hollow.

1127. Several buds are usually involved in each other, i. e. many vesicles of tracheal rings have been encased in each other. They issue gradually forth and become shoots or buds. Buds are bulbs at the end of the branches.

Leaves.

1128. If the bud or the external vesicle ruptures, while the cellular substance becomes consumed at the apex or between two or more tracheal fascicles, it is then manifested as a leaf or Leaves.

1129. Then the second vesicle grows forth, becomes petiolated, ruptures and becomes leaf or leaves. In this manner a twig is formed, surrounded in a spiral manner by leaves.

1130. The younger leaves have been originally inclosed in the older, as in their sheaths.

1131. Every perfect leaf, i. e. every leaf-vesicle, must be regarded as the terminal extremity of an entire twig, from or out of the angle of which a new twig grows forth, that again as a bud ruptures, and from which again a twig grows forth.

1132. All leaves therefore range directly opposite to each other. A branch with many leaves is a system of branches, which grow out of each other, like the articular pieces of the grass-culm or straw.

1133. A leaf is a whole plant with all its tissues and systems; with cells, ducts, tracheæ; bark, liber, wood, stalk and branches. The leaf is a tree of special form, a tree, whose branches or tracheal fascicles all lie in one plane and are held together by parenchyma. It is the bodily expression of the position of the tracheal circle in the stem, only ruptured and to the greatest degree attenuated.

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1134. In the division of the ribs of the leaf the internal arrangement of the woody fasciculi in the stem has been placed before our eyes, as by the scalpel of an anatomist.

1135. From the arrangement of the ribs of the leaf the structure of the whole plant can be recognized and its character determined. The leaf is the table of contents or index of the stem.

1136. Plants, which have no tracheæ, have also no leaf-ribs—Mosses.

1137. Plants, which have only isolated or non-ramifying fascicles of tracheæ, have parallel leaf-ribs that do not ramify—Monocotyledons.

1138. Plants, which have a circle of tracheæ, or rings of wood, have leaves with ramified ribs—reticular leaves or true foliage—Dicotyledons.

1139. The stronger indeed the ramification of the leaf-ribs, by so much the higher is the perfection of the leaf. The lowest leaf is that devoid of ribs, the higher that with parallel ribs, the highest being the reticular-veined leaf.

1140. The number and forms of the leaves that proceed from a bud, depend partly upon the number of tracheal fascicles, which pass out of the ramule into the leaf, partly upon the form of the leaf-bud.

1141. If the bud be simply ruptured at its apex or only between two fascicles of tracheæ, there then originates the spathiform leaf.

1142. If the cellular substance between several tracheal fascicles be consumed by the severing action of light and by the air, then the bud divides into several leaves.

1143. The fundamental form of the leaf is the oviform, because the bud is to be thought of as being round. Through the elongation or compression of the bud, lanciform, cordiform leaves, &c. originate. Besides it appears, that the leaf-buds, at least those of the reticular-veined leaves, burst in a circinate manner, like the ferns, and unroll themselves. Therefore the leaves are unilateral and226 clasp the stem inferiorly; or the petiole displays its spathiform origin. In this case the leaf is not a part of a hollow globe, but the entire globe, that has ruptured in the transverse direction at the extremity of the petiole. Such is the case at least in the demispathiform leaves of the Umbelliferous plants.

1144. The primary position of the leaves like that of the branches is thus verticillate, yet always, however, under the idea of one being encased within the other. The leaves are here only the ultimate branches.

1145. If the leaves upon the ramules issue from each other, then this happens in the same manner as with the branches.

1146. The verticillate position of the leaves is therefore the lowest, next succeeds the crucial, then the spiriform, and lastly the scattered.

1147. The spathose leaves are only to be regarded as a single bud, and therefore differ from the whorl, in so far as we regard this as the development of several leaves, that have not, however, been extruded from each other.

1148. Divided leaves originate through a higher operation of light. In them the formation of ribs preponderates, and therefore they rank higher than the undivided.

1149. From this cause the pinnate leaves are the highest.

1150. From the same cause the radical must be worse developed than the ramular leaves. They are usually non-pinnated, undivided, because they have more cellular substance in their composition than the upper leaves. In the leaf-system, consequently, the whole idea of the plant has been recontained; on the earth resides the chemical character, as is evidenced by cellular, dense and misshapen leaves; above in the air, on the contrary, the leaves are more delicate and are divided—indicating an electric character.

1151. The division and pinnation of leaves can only progress according to the odd numbers, 3, 5, 7, because the midrib determines the odd leaflet.

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1152. Leaflets occurring in pairs, or equally pinnated, are arrests of development.

1153. The even number or the symmetrical form is unnatural in the vegetable kingdom.

1154. The leaves are, like the young bark, and thus the whole trunk of the plant, green, because the vegetable kingdom represents the lower totality of the earth, the planet, whose synthesis is the water.

1155. From the same cause, the chief colour of the animal kingdom is red, the colour of fire. Thus, plant is to animal, as green is to red.

1156. The division of leaves passes also parallel to the stages of rank in plants. Cellular leaves are the scales of mosses and ferns; vascular leaves, the long riband-like leaves of Monocotyledons; tracheal leaves the reticular leaf of Dicotyledons. The cortical leaf is the sheath; the liber leaf is probably the fat leaf; the wood leaf the acicular leaf. The radical leaf is the undivided reticular leaf; the stalk-leaf the free or ragged reticular leaf; the perfect leaf the pinnate. The bracteal leaves repeat all forms in the thyrsus, since they are floral leaves.

1157. The accessory leaves or stipules are none other than the remnant of the sheath-formation, out of which all the leaves, and therefore the wings of the leaf-petioles or phyllodia, have issued forth.

1158. The thyrsus has also its series of leaves; the scale-like or radical leaf is involucre and bractea; the vascular or spathe-leaf is calyx; the tracheal or reticular leaf is corolla.

1159. The vegetable trunk, namely, root, stalk, and leaf, is a perfect organism, which can exercise all the functions which belong to its individual life. If it therefore produces anything, that can be nothing new, but only itself repeated. This repetition of itself is called propagation. The organs of propagation are thus none other than a repetition of the organs of the vegetable trunk. The plant thereby steps forth out of its individuality into the province of the genus.

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B. Æther Organs.
THYRSUS OR FLOWER.

1160. Hitherto we have regarded the plant as simply a planetary organism, namely, as a trunk with water-, earth-, and air-organ. But the primary vesicle does not lie wholly in the dark, but is illuminated upon its apex by the sun. Every operation, however, produces its like; thus in the plant a light-organ must also be developed. As the light evokes heat in the æther, so also does it evoke a heat-organ in the plant. As the heavenly bodies corevolve in æther by means of light and motion, or the gravitation condenses the æther into matter, so also must an organ of gravity originate also in the plant. These organs are not, however, predominant in the plant, because it is essentially planet or vegetable trunk. They can be therefore nothing else than the parts of the trunk itself with the properties of the æther or fire. They are thus a repetition of the trunk, wherein, in place of the material processes of growth, those of the light, heat, and gravity occur. The light-organ excites the heat-organ by polarization unto motion and thereby originates the organ of gravity.

1161. The process in which through polar tension the trunk has been reproduced, as the Whole in miniature, is called sexual process. The æther-organs are thus sexual organs. These sexual organs can only be a leaf-formation, because the last development of the stem is the leaf. The leaf-formations which, by means of polar tension, reproduce the trunk, are the Flower. The light-organ is the corolla. The heat-organ is the pistil. The organ of gravity the seed. The pollen upon the stigma sets the pistil in a state of tension with the trunk, whereby the sap, out of which the seed attains to perfection, ascends. Without this tension the pistil would not have had strength sufficient to perfect the seed. It would wither ere the latter had obtained sufficient nourishment.

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1162. The development of the flower takes place through differentialization, individualization, or complete separation of the trunk-organs. The trunk indeed summons up all power in the leaves, to separate the three vegetable tissues and represent each as a particular organ; only in this formation it does not wholly succeed; for in a leaf the ribs or tracheal fascicles are still held together by cellular tissue. In the first place with the perfect separation of the tissues or, properly speaking, with the ex-organization of each of them unto an independent Whole, the limit of the vegetation is attained and the growth completed. This was the course of the whole of nature; in every system she has proceeded to individual consummation of the factors, to their liberation from chaos; and the developments of the systems were concluded, so soon as all factors became independent, or so soon as every factor had itself become an entire nature. Such was the case in the genesis of elements, and such in the metamorphosis of the earth-element into earths, salts, Inflammables, metals.

1163. This complete severance and individualization can no longer be effected by the air, but must be achieved by the light. The air is itself not the wholly differencing element, but derives its potency only from the light. All ultimate separation and individualization is reserved for the light.

1164. Root and stem are the water-and earth-plant, the leaf is the air-plant, the flower is the light-or rather fire-plant.

1165. In the flower the problem has been solved, of producing an entire plant simply by the light without earth, water, and air, or as it were in a merely spiritual manner.

1166. The plant is a flower that has been posited under three ideas, under the idea of earth, water, and air. As in æther or fire all the elements are dissolved; so are all the elements of the plant in the flower.

1167. The flower is truly, not merely in idea, the whole plant with all systems and formations, posited230 under a single idea, under that of the æther, namely, of the gravity, light and heat, or the fire.

1168. The flower as the æther-organ of the plant is not so independent as an animal, but subordinated to the planetary systems, being only a separation of the parts of the trunk, not a new formation, as in the animal kingdom.

1169. The flower as the highest formative consummation of the plant, or as the highest vegetable organ, is the extremity of the ramules. (Ed. 1st. 1810. § 1176.)

1170. Although the flower is a repetition of the whole plant, namely, of the root, stalk, and leaf; it can still only be a direct transmutation of the leaf. For every Superior proceeds from that which is immediately subjacent. The light-organ can only be developed out of the air-organ, not out of the water-organ. The transition from the water-organ into the light-organ is necessarily indicated through the aerial form. Preparations are necessary, gradual dismemberments must precede, before the isolated consummation can result. The air purifies the organs, in order that they may become participant of light.

1171. The flower is the totality of the leaves of a ramule placed upon the extremity of the latter. For a flower is the whole plant, and is the Ultimate of the plant.

1172. The flower is a terminal leaf-bud. A leaf-bud, after whose rupture the ramule cannot grow any more.

1173. The flower necessarily stands in a whorl-shaped manner, because it is the end of the branch; it is the terminal whorl of the plant.

1174. With the flower the ramule or the plant dies off, partly because it is the extremity, partly because wholly separated tissues cannot live. In the flower therefore the plant reverts to its origin. It is a ramule, whose buds have continued stationary.

1175. The idea of the vesicle lies at the basis of the flower. It is an entire vegetable vesicle, a leaf-bud that has not been drawn asunder. The flower is the last vesicle into which the stalk swells out.

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1176. The flower-vesicle agrees with the leaf-vesicle. The form of the flower must pass parallel to the form of the leaves. This has reference principally to the position and number of parts.

Division.

1177. The flower is the synthesis of the entire plant with complete analysis of the organs. Flower, pistil, and seed are the leaves, stalk, and root separated, and yet all combined to form a common organ. This flower regarded in its analysis is the flower proper; in its dissolution it is called fruit.

1178. The flower-vesicle is according to its essence a threefold vesicle. In it the leaf-system or the air-plant has been represented, but in like manner and of necessity also the earth-and water-plant, or the vesicles in which stalk and root have been taken up into the kingdom of light. Thus there is the leaf-, stalk-, and root-flower.

1179. The leaf-flower is in the periphery, the stalk- and root-flower in the centre of the vesicle. For the former is the metatype or copy of the leaves, the latter of the stalk and the root.

1180. The leaf-flower is the highest and the very first to be developed. It is that, which chiefly corresponds to light; the trunk-flower is, however, the lowest, the last developed, because it is only the trunk that has been prolonged with difficulty to form a flower. It is the child of the heat and gravity.

1181. It may be also said that the leaf-flower is the electrical, the stem-flower, however, the chemical. In the latter the chemical process must still act visibly, it must still be produced mucus; in the former, however, this must disappear and resolve itself into purely electrical bodies.

1182. The flower consists of three leaf-buds. The leaf-bud is the corolla or blossom. The stalk-bud the pistil. The root-bud the seed.

1183. The corolla is the external whorl of leaves, is first developed, has the form of a leaf, is a vesicle,232 secretes in itself electrical, inflammable bodies, and is directed towards the sun.

1184. The difference between corolla and pistil is that of the two principal tissues, the tracheal and cellular tissue. By the light the tracheal fasciculi become finally separated from the cellular substance, evolved to a higher degree as the child or product of light, and planted outwardly. The corolla is the tracheal circle, which has forcibly gained its freedom.

1185. The pistil is the vascular substance that has become freely evolved, yet to the highest stage; in a similar relation likewise does the seed stand to the cellular substance. In the fruit therefore the flower again reverts to the primary condition of the plant.

1186. The flower and pistil are therefore those very organs which have been most antagonized in the plant. They are in the highest state of polar tension, and stand opposite each other like electrism and chemism, or as light and matter. This antagonism in the Organic is called sex.

1. FLORAL ENVELOPES.

1187. The blossom is the leaf-formation, in which the separation of the principal tissues is completely attained, where the tracheal fascicles entirely separate from the cellular substance, and become a leaf with free ribs. The cellular substance becomes the corolla-petal, the rib the stamen.

1188. The blossom passes through the three stages of leaf-varieties before it attains its completion, and divides therefore into three whorls, which correspond to the root-leaves, stalk-, and ramular or perfect leaves. The radical or squamose leaf appears in its repetition as involucrum or spatha. The stalk or vascular leaf as calyx. The perfect or tracheal leaf as corolla.

a. Involucrum.

1189. As the root puts forth numerous branches, so the involucrum or spatha frequently incloses many233 blossoms that constitute the thyrsus or synthetic form of inflorescence.

1190. The thyrsus or dense panicle is the whole ramage or branch-fabric repeated in the involucrum; it is therefore just as manifold as the former.

1191. The inflorescence is still as complex as the arrangement of the branches, because with every flower the ramule dies off or ceases to grow, whereby very numerous and strange relations are brought to light.

1192. The involucrum corresponds to the scale-leaves or bracts, and is therefore as a rule polypetalous. The involucral leaves stand upon a lower stage of development, are for the most part only squamose or spathiform, rarely divided or pinnate.

1193. The involucral leaves necessarily stand, as being the radical leaves of the flower, at the bottom of the peduncles or flower-stalks; each flower-stalk therefore has usually an involucral or bracteal leaf also.

b. Calyx.

1194. The repetition of the cauline or spathe-leaf in the flower is the Calyx. It does not stand therefore at the base of the peduncle, but towards its summit, and is the external bud of the blossom; it is mostly spathiform, rarely or but slightly cloven, and very rarely polysepalous; it is generally green like the leaves. Although the calyx is no essential organ in itself, still it is rarely wanting and is often itself the supporter of the corolla and stamina.

1195. As the calyx is more incomplete than the corolla, so it has usually but three lobes, and if it has five, then they are frequently placed irregularly.

1196. The developmental stages of the calyx are also three. Corresponding to the scale-like leaf or bract, it is only squamiform, as in the catkins of the hazel and fir-cones; corresponding to the spathe-leaf, it is tubular or unisepalous; corresponding to the reticular leaf, it is multisepalous, and mostly deciduous.

1197. The tubular calyx exhibits likewise three stages234 of development. At first it is scale-like, confluent with the ovary or epigynous—ovarial corollæ. It is next spathe-like, simply connected with the corolla or perigynous—calycine corollæ. Lastly, it resembles the reticular-veined leaf, being free from both the above organs, or hypogynous—pedunculate corollæ.

c. Corolla.

1198. From the character of the corolla or crown as being a ramular leaf all its properties admit of being deduced. It is the upper leaf-bud, inasmuch as the ramular leaves stand above those of the stalk. It is, on this account too, the internal, inasmuch as the lower leaves admit within them the upper.

1199. The corolla is homologous with the whole mass of the petiolated or ramular leaves. Thus their arrangement, form, and number taken together are not worth more than the characters of the corolla, nor are they worth less, because they are relations of deeper organs.

1200. The corolla stands also in a whorl, because it is the totality of leaves.

1201. The laws of the leaf-formation are also the laws of the corolla-formation. The corolla will therefore represent at one time a greater, at another a less, ramified leaf-system.

1202. The corolla is the last verticil in the series of leaf-whorls; for it represents the last leaf-form, and must fade, because the tissues have completely separated from each other, namely, the tracheæ as stamina, from the cells that constitute corolla leaflets or petals. No part can carry on life by or for itself.

1203. The parts of the corolla range in an alternating manner with those of the calyx, because they are the next supra-consecutive bud.

1204. In accordance with the three stages of the leaf-formation the corolla is also resolvable into three forms. The scale-or root-leaf returns in the several squamiform micropetals of what have been called the Apetalous plants; it corresponds to the involucrum—squamoid corolla.235 The spathe-or stalk-leaf appears in the tubular-shaped or Monopetalous corolla. It is a leaf-bud, which has only ruptured at the apex, like most calyces, unto which it corresponds—spathoid corolla. Lastly, in the polypetalous corolla the reticular or petiolated leaf appears upon its highest stage—reticular or phylloid corolla. The rank of the leaves consequently determines also that of corollæ.

1205. Although we regard the corolla as a whorl of leaves, namely, as several leaf-buds approximated, a yet clearer insight into its numbers and positional relations is attained, by viewing it only as the lobes of a single leaf.

1206. If we regard the petals of a polypetalous corolla in the import or light of pinnate leaflets, the legitimate regularity of their numerical relations, and the so-called irregularity of their arrangement is easily explained. The papilionaceous corollæ have been manifestly constructed according to the plan of the pinnate leaf; the vexillum or vane corresponds to the odd leaflet, the alæ or wings to the two anterior, the carina or keel to the two posterior pinnate leaflets; and hence their consecutive ratio of decrease in respect to size.

1207. All irregular corollæ admit of being referred to the papilionaceous form. One petal is always found, which separates from the others, is either larger or smaller, or entirely ablated, and consequently corresponds to the odd pinnate leaflet or vane.

1208. The irregular monopetalous or tubular corollæ admit also of being referred to the papilionaceous form. They need only be regarded as a confluence of petals. The labiate corollæ are one of the same character; but, on the contrary, the lower lip is trifid, the upper, and thus the keel, bifid. Here the papilionaceous corolla stands, properly speaking, reversed.

NUMERICAL LAW.

1209. The number of petals in the corolla ranges parallel with the mode of development of the pinnate leaves.236 But at first the odd terminal leaf necessarily originates, because a leaf must have several pairs of ribs, before it splits in a ptiloidal or pinnate manner. The primary number of petals is therefore one. This number is found in those plants called apetalous, where the small lateral petals are abortive, and frequently the terminal petal itself, as in the catkin, where only the calyx has been left remaining.

1210. The normal ratio, in which the numbers of the petals progress, is the odd or uneven. For a leaf is to be regarded as a single fascicle of fibres with cellular substance. This packet of fibres grows straight out. It is solicited by the light to give off bundles of fibres; there is thus no existing cause, why it should only give off such upon one, and not upon the other, side of the bundle. At the first division therefore it must be an odd leaflet, which is the principal bundle of fibres, while two even pinnate leaflets take their origin upon its sides.

1211. The second number of petals is therefore three; for this is the first number in which a pinnate leaf can appear. This number is much more frequently met with than the former, because all division of a terminal bud necessarily strives after the representation of the whorl. Under this head come most Monocotyledons, as grasses, rushes, lilies.

1212. Of the three petals of a corolla all three are not of equal import, two only are alike as being lateral pinnate leaflets; the third, however, is present as the odd or uneven leaflet.

1213. Upon this inequality of import depends the irregularity of many ternary corollæ, e. g. of the Orchideæ, Apiaceæ, and even many Irides and lilies.

1214. If the trinity or ternary division depend upon the pinnated leaf, so must also the next number depend thereupon.

1215. The third prevalent number in the vegetable world is the quinary. The quinary division originates, when to the two pinnate leaflets two others are super237added. The pentapetalous corolla is also an odd pinnate leaf in a whorl-shaped position with four pinnate leaflets.

1216. The pentapetalous is naturally higher in rank than the tripetalous, and this than the monopetalous, corolla.

1217. In the former four petals are of equal rank, but the fifth or odd petal differs from them. This difference is shown in its position, size, form, design, and colouring. The odd leaf is usually larger, of a rounded form, having more ribs and other spots or markings.

1218. It appears as if, with this second liberation of fibrous fascicles from the main bundle, the differentialization were closed. For most corollæ are only quinarily divided, or admit at least of being referred back to that number.

1219. It is readily comprehended why there are only three breaks present in the number of petals, that these are denoted by one, three, and five, and that they rarely ascend to seven, nine, and so on. For the posterior pinnate leaflets are wont also to abort or be arrested in the leaves.

1220. There can be no plant with originally two corolla-lobes or petals; for the fibrous bundle does not thus divide itself; one main fasciculus is always left. The cause why the principal bundle does not divide into two equal fasciculi resides in the very nature or essence of the stalk. The idea of the stalk operates throughout the whole plant. The odd or uneven leaflet is only the last expansion of the stalk. The even leaflets are its branches.

1221. For the same reason there can be no originally quaternary corolla.

1222. There can be none that is originally sexanary.

1223. But an originally septenary corolla is conceivable, if forsooth the energy of light is still in a condition to separate two bundles of fibres. How rarely this occurs is well known, and thus it still continues doubtful whether this form is not to be explained by an arrest of development.

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1224. Nature can produce no originally octo-, deka-, or dodeka-petalous, &c. corolla.

1225. Corollæ with originally nine, eleven, and more numbers are not impossible. The last seem only to exist.

1226. All corollas having even numbered petals, originate through arrest of the odd leaflet.

1227. The number two originates most usually and in the simplest manner from the arrest of the number three. If it originates from the quinary quantity, two pinnate leaflets are then coarrested.

1228. The aberration is recognized either from the position of the lobes or petals that have been left remaining, or from comparison of the number in other parts, in the calyx and capsule.

1229. The quaternary corolla is a quinary without the uneven leaflet.

1230. The hexapetalous is a doubling of the tripetalous, corolla. There are two whorls of petals, provided the calyx has not become corolla-like in character. Both cases are demonstrable through the alternating arrangement of the parts.

1231. The number eight is a doubled four.

1232. Nine is indeed in most instances a product of three multiplied by three.

1233. The number ten is a doubled five.

1234. In every number of petals the law of unequal development consequently prevails.

1235. The original arrangement of the parts of the corolla is bilateral, and therefore symmetrical. In the papilionaceous corollæ this originally symmetrical arrangement is most perfectly maintained. They repeat the position of their pinnate leaves.

1236. This symmetrical arrangement is shown even in many tubular, as in the labiate and personate, corollæ. The trifid lower lip is the standard and wings; the bifid upper lip, on the contrary, the keel.

1237. The small liguliform petal of the lettuce's corolla is a tubular corolla entirely slit up; it is therefore mostly quinque-dentate.

239

1238. Corollæ which have only a single petal (the tubular-shaped corollæ should not be styled monopetalous, but those which actually have a single petal to the corolla) are indeed to be regarded for the most part as an odd leaflet; yet still much variety appears to take place in these developmental arrests. Thus here no division of the fibrous bundle was attained, or the lateral leaflets have wholly disappeared.

1239. In many this one leaflet also is arrested, and the corolla is wholly wanting. Such a corolla is to be viewed as a stem with radical, but without ramular leaves.

1240. It is not a matter of indifference whether the single involucre that is left remaining be called calyx or corolla; the distinction between both is philosophically correct, though at the same time also it may be frequently difficult to determine. Colour and relation to the stamina and fruit determine much; but respect must be also paid to the whole idea of the plant, whether it has radical leaves or not, whether the leaf-ribs do or do not ramify. Alternating stamina afford evidence of its being the corolla.

COLORATION.

1241. As the colour ranges parallel with the import or quality of the matter, or since the matter and colour are of one and the same kind, so also must this hold good of the colour of the light-flower.

1242. As the corolla only, and not the calyx, is the proper light-organ, so also will it only obey the light in the coloration.

1243. The corolla can no longer be coloured green, for it is no longer a leaf. Now that which obtains another signification, which passes over into another element, must, with the function, lay aside also the old colour. The corolla is besides the perishing, fading leaf; as this begins to turn yellow or red in the autumn, so does the corolla immediately at its origin. It is a born autumnal leaf.

240

1244. The whole plant must be regarded as a green synthetic colour; the corolla as the analysis of the Green.

1245. The first division of the Green is Yellow and Blue. These two colours are the first which make their appearance in the corolla.

1246. Yellow is the earth-colour, corresponds to the root, and consequently indicates the lowest colour. Yellow corollæ are less developed than those which are otherwise coloured. The corollæ of spring flowers are therefore yellow; so likewise is the middle of the corolla, as is specially exemplified in the disk of the Syngenesious plants.

1247. Blue is the second colour of corollæ in the scale of dignity, or rank. Blue is displayed on the better developed corolla, and is frequently the colour in the rays of the Syngenesiæ. Blue belongs to the temperate zones.

1248. If Yellow and Blue be the divided Green of the leaves, the complementary colour to that of the corollæ must thus remain in the trunk. The trunks of plants having blue corollæ should therefore be yellow; those with yellow corollæ should furnish blue colouring matters, like the Woad.

1249. Red is the third corolla-colour, the true light-colour, in the which properly all corollæ have been immersed; and if they exhibit any other colours, these should be viewed only as instances of aberration from Red. The Reds are the splendid colours, which develop themselves in the middle of summer; in flaming red mantles are the flowers of the torrid zone veiled.

1250. Finally, the form triumphs over the colour. The light has in Red done everything which it could do for colour, having allured as it were all the colours out of the plant; it now, on the contrary, bestows its attention upon the form and delicacy of the substance. The white colour makes its appearance in antithesis to the red, and is mostly associated with very delicate structure.

241

1251. The cells of the red corollæ are replete with starch-granules, but those of the white are quite empty. The yellow and blue corollæ range in the middle. Red is a superabundance, White a deficiency, of nutriment. The most noble and beautiful corollæ, as well as the lowest also, may therefore be white. White and red are the general colours for all families of plants, but yellow and blue are special colours. In general the trunk is green, the corolla white, the seed black. The mediate stages are red, yellow, and blue.

STAMEN-FILAMENTS.

1252. At length we come to the last work achieved by the light in the corolla, or to complete separation of the systems or tissues. If ever bundles of fibres may entirely separate from the cellular substance, this is possible only in the corolla, as being the final light-organ. Separation must, however, be attained: for thus far do the claims of light extend. But no development remains stationary before it has corresponded with the operations of the developing agent.

1253. In the corolla, as being the highest kind of leaf, the ribs, as the fibrous fascicles, must finally separate themselves from the leaf-substance as cellular tissue. The corolla is a double organ.

1254. In conformity with the whole structure of the plant, the ribs are placed internally, the membranes externally.

1255. The leaf-ribs, isolated and perfected as a particular organ, are the Stamen-filaments.

1256. The leaf-membranes, or probably the phyllodia, isolated and evolved into a particular organ, are the corolla-petals. These compose in the strongest sense the corolla. The filaments consist for the greatest part of spiral fibres, and the corolla-petals of the finest cellular tissue, which may be almost designated as granular. This then would be the rational import of the corolla and its stamen-filaments. Both are of similar production; they exhibit like substance, colour, and deli242cacy, with cotemporaneous development and cotemporaneous death.

1257. Not only are the ribs of the corolla, but those also of the calyx, liberated to become filaments. There are calyx-and corolla-filaments.

1258. As ribs, the filaments must stand in the middle of their petals, i. e. opposite to them.

1259. Filaments, which alternate with the parts of the corolla, are consequently calyx-filaments; such as alternate with the lobes of the calyx, or stand opposite to the petals of the corolla, are corolla-filaments.

1260. Most filaments, and consequently the calycine, are alternating in their arrangement. Most corollæ therefore have no longer strength sufficient to produce filaments.

1261. Flowers provided with opposite and alternating filaments have consequently two circles of them, as is the case in many Pinks. With the determination of the number of filaments the race has been therefore specified.

1262. The number of filaments stands in relation to the parts of the corolla; therefore three and five are the prevailing numbers.

1263. There is no absolute number in the filaments, but only one of relation. Corollæ with three petals have invariably also three filaments, and those with five of the former, the same number too of the latter.

1264. The number of filaments is always the simple or multiple of the parts of the corolla. Three calyx-or corolla-parts have 3 × 1 or 3 × n, filaments. 6 is not 6, but 3 × 2; 9 is 3 × 3; 10 is 5 × 2; 20 is 5 × 4; or 5 × 3 + 5 × 1, and so on.

1265. The filaments do not simply follow the number, but also the conjunction, position and arrest, of the corolla. They are epigynous, peri-or hypogynous.

1266. In irregular corollæ the filaments are usually abortive; as in those of the orchideous, labiate and papilionaceous plants.

1267. The arrest of the filaments usually stands in243 inverse relation with the corolla. In the case of a larger-sized petal the filament is small, and, on the contrary, larger in opposite parts of the corolla.

ANTHERS.

1268. The corolla obtains its last function in the production of the highest electrical bodies, which it exhales as sweet odours. Ætherial oils ascend out of the corolla into the air.

1269. The filament, as a leaf-rib that has become free, is a moribund ramuscular extremity, which still strives, according to the law of pinnation, to produce three buds, whereof, however, the terminal one is in general arrested, and the two lateral scarce attain unto apertion.

1270. The two lateral buds of the filaments are the Anthers. They mostly open in a spathose manner, because they have not strength enough to develop themselves as perfect gemmæ or buds.

1271. The anthers are to be regarded as follicles, which mostly rupture upon the dorsal or external aspect.

1272. The starch-flour, which forms the precipitate termed albumen in the seed, here obtains in the light-organ electrical properties, and is called pollen.

1273. The pollen has a light-function in the plant.

1274. The function of the pollen must be differencing, thus vivifying and secernent.

1275. The principal antagonism of the pollen is with the pistil, upon which it must therefore act in a properly differencing manner. The pollen does not hang, like the seed, by a stalk or pedicle to the wall of the anther, but is exudated from it like chemical bodies. It is nevertheless a vesicle, like all organic parts. This vesicle consists of two membranes, and contains yet smaller vesicles, which are called fovilla or pollen-viscus. When the pollen comes into contact with the moist surface of the stigma, its external membrane ruptures, and the internal with its contained fovilla protruding in the form of a tube, penetrates the style in many instances244 down to the seed, whereby the germ first becomes developed or self-subsistent.

2. PISTIL OR OVARY.

1276. If the corolla be the light-flower, the stalk-flower is heat-flower.

1277. The stalk-flower, as being a repetition of the stem, must be developed later than the leaf-flower. It consequently stands superiorly upon, and so far within, this. The corolla is related to the stalk-flower like circumference to centre.

1278. The stalk repeated in the flower is the Ovarium, germen or pistillum. It is frequently converted into wood in the nut and becomes hardened into stone.

1279. Nevertheless, the pistil like the corolla is a leaf-formation, because everything that originates subsequently to, can be none other than, the leaf. It is a leaf-bud under the idea of the stalk. The pistil is thus a leaf-whorl like the corolla, and one which is subject to the same fatalities, only with this difference, that its leaves are wont to open first after it has withered, and consequently through physical forces.

1280. Every leaf that has been closed in a vesicular or tubular form is a follicle or carpel. There are therefore uni-, bi-, and tri-locular ovaria, &c. The loculi or cells of the ovarium are none other than closed carpels. As many therefore as there are of the former, so many are there of the latter, and vice versâ. The septa or partition-walls are none other than the involuted edges of the closed and confluent carpels.

1281. Uni-locular ovaria consist therefore only of one leaf. The legume is only a compressed carpel.

1282. Every carpel or every cell has its raphé or suture directed inwards or along the axis of the flower. For the leaves are always so conjoined that the two halves of the upper or inner side stand counter to each other.

1283. All other sutures are adventitious and, by their mode of dehiscence, determine those parts of the ovarium which are called valves. These sutures are either dorsal245 or on the back of the carpel, e. g. capsula loculicida; conjunctive, where two carpels abut against each other, e. g. capsula septicida; or finally, between both by the side of the dorsal suture, so that the valve springing up resembles a shutter, as in many siliquæ or pods.

1284. The columella of the ovary is none other than the internal edge of the carpels from which the leaf-wall has been freed.

1285. Each carpel-leaf is to be regarded as the common petiole of a pinnate leaf, upon whose lateral petioles the seeds depend. The seeds always hang therefore upon the inner angle of the cells.

1286. As the parts of the corolla alternate with the calyx, so do the carpels or cells of the ovary with the corolla; they stand therefore opposite the parts of the calyx or are situated in front of them.

1287. The parts of the ovary follow also the uneven series of numbers, one, three, five. The number two is usually found in irregular, e. g. the labiate, corollæ.

1288. If few cells be present as parts of the flower, the carpels are then to be regarded as arrested. In the personate corollæ three are arrested, but in the papilionaceous, four. The legumen is only a fifth part of the ovarium.

1289. The development of the carpels stands usually in an inverse relation to the size of the parts of the corolla. Thus the legume is situated between the two insignificant petals of the keel, opposite to the large vexillum; in the Personatæ a carpel is situated in the fissure of the upper lip; upon the lower lip, consisting of three lobes, only one carpel is situated, which consequently supplies the place of four, and is therefore also larger.

1290. The stages of leaf-formation are also displayed in the matured state of the ovarium. The radical or scale-leaf is repeated in the cariopsis; as in the grasses, orachs, nettles, and such like plants.

1291. The spathe-leaf becomes a siliqua, or hollow capsule, in which forsooth the septa are arrested, and the seeds stand upon the conjoined edges of the carpels,246 upon their walls, or also upon a mediate replum and placenta, as in the proper Siliquose plants with the poppies, Resedæ, Primulæ and pinks.

1292. The reticular-leaf is perfected into a capsule, where the carpels are so confluent with each other, that they form septa and bear the seeds upon the internal angle or upon the axis, as in the Rues. If these carpels separate, then polycarpal plants, as the Ranunculaceæ, Malvaceæ, Magnoliaceæ, originate. In these the median columella is the elongated floral peduncle. If they separate, without leaving a median columella between them; they are then simply called follicles, as in the larkspur and celandine. If this capsule be compressed flat; it is called legumen, as in the beans.

1293. The cariopsis generally contains one and that a large seed; the siliqua or hollow capsule is many-or small-seeded; the follicle few-or moderately-seeded; the capsule many-and also few-seeded.

1294. In the cariopsis the seed is attached to the base or apex; in the follicle in a row upon the inner suture; in the siliqua upon the carpellar edges, or their walls, and on a meso-replum or frame; in the capsule upon the inner angle or on a middle axis or column. Seed-bearing alæ to the columella are only the carpellar edges prolonged into the loculi or cells.

STYLE.

1295. What the stamen-filament is for the petal of the corolla, that is the style for the ovarial petal or the carpel, viz. the rib that has become free. As, however, the leaf-formation in the ovary is generally imperfect, so also is the separation of the tissues or systems. The style is not therefore freed at once from its root, but projects only above the leaf-substance.

1296. But as the singular circumstance occurs in the ovary that the midrib is arrested while only the marginal ribs shoot out, so is the style the elongation and coalescence of the two marginal ribs. Every stigma is therefore biacuminate.

247

1297. There must always be as many styles as the ovary has carpels or cells. If only one style appear, in this case it is then made up of several mid-ribs. In most instances the number of styles is recognized in the number of the stigmata.

1298. As being the rib of the ovary the style is the last ramuscular extremity of the stalk, which is resolved into mucus upon the stigma.

1299. Stamen-filament is related to style, as leaf to stalk, thus as air to earth, as Differencing to Differencizable, as electrism to chemism or rather nutrition. This is the lower comparison; in a true sense they are related as light to heat.

1300. The light is the Active, the heat the Passive; light the Moving, heat the Moveable; light the Vitalizing, heat the Inactive, or that which becomes vitalized; light the spirit, heat the matter—male and female principle. Thus are corolla and pistil related to each other.

3. SEED.

1301. The root repeats itself in the interior of the ovary under the æther-form. The root ascends out of the earth to become an organ of gravity.

1302. After the leaves have been made independent in the corolla, and the stalk in the pistil, the root also separates and appears as a free organ, as Seed.

1303. The seeds are necessarily in the interior of the ovary; for the cellular organ can first appear, after the leaf-and stalk-buds have opened as corolla and ovarium. The blossom is a bulb, the external testa or covering of which is the leaf-, the mediate the stalk-, and lastly, the internal the root-vesicle. The stalk is adherent to the leaves, the root to the stalk; so also the seeds to the ovary, and this to the corolla.

1304. The seeds are developed in the ovary under the same relations in which the root is developed in the earth, namely, in the dark.

1305. The darkness does not allow the chemical body248 to attain unto difference; therefore the sap within the capsule must, instead of separating itself into spiral vessels and leaf-substance, continue to remain there undivided and without form, i. e. in the condition of simple granules, or germs of future cells.

1306. The seeds, like the root, are a mass of cells; like it they contain an accumulation of mucus, but of course more highly-formed, being separated into flour, starch, acid matter, oil, and such like substances.

1307. These seminal substances are deposited upon the alkaline, in opposition to the acid, side of the ovary; just as the root also represents the alkaline factor in reference to the stalk, in which appears the formation of acids.

1308. The seeds are the pinnate leaflets of the ovarian leaves, which continue in the condition of buds. They stand therefore as unclosed vesicles upon both edges of the carpel, as is particularly distinct in the legumens.

1309. As both edges are similar to each other, so there can be no ovary that has fewer than two seeds. In all one-seeded ovaries therefore one seed has been arrested, a fact that admits too of being demonstrated in the majority of cases.

1310. Every seed is placed at the extremity of a lateral rib of the carpel. These lateral ribs are called seed-bearers or placentæ. If such lateral ribs terminate before reaching the edge of the carpel, then the seeds stand upon the juncture or wall of the carpel. This does not, however, occur frequently, but only in the Siliquosæ, poppies, and some others. The elongated lateral rib, whereupon the seed hangs, is called umbilical cord. It is no peculiar organ, but only the seed-petiole.

1311. The direction of the seeds is possible in five ways, either upright and horizontal, transverse, or rising obliquely upwards and downwards in relation to the axis of the ovary.

1312. Every perfect seed (of Dicotyledons) is none other than a pentifoliar, involuted, pinnate leaf. The shell of the seed is the leaf-spathe or phyllodium, the two seed-lobes are the two posterior pinnate leaflets,249 while the germinal leaflets, or plumula, are the two anterior pinnate leaflets, together with the odd leaflet. The seed-rib or vascular cord (raphe) is continued into the seed-rootlet or radicle, and this into the petiole of the cotyledons.

1313. Every seed-coat must consist of three integuments; for every leaf consists of the lower and upper membrane, and of the interjacent parenchyma, in which the vessels are dispersed. The external leaf-membrane forms the most hard and coloured covering of the seed (testa), the internal the brown seed-tunic or pellicula; between the two lies the brown fibrous tissue, or desiccated parenchyma with the vessels.

1314. The hilum is the basis of the bud or of the seed-leaf; the seed-hole or micropyle is on the apex of the involuted bud, or rather of the phyllodium, in which the germ lies rolled up.

1315. Umbilicus and micropyle are united with each other by means of seed or leaf-rib (raphe). Both rarely stand opposite to each other, so as that the one should be below, the other above; but the apex of the leaf is usually so involuted that it again reaches the bottom of the leaf, whereby umbilicus and micropyle come into close and mutual approximation, as in the beans. The seed-petiole elongates itself into the seed-rib; this is continued upon the back of the phyllodium or testa, bends round, and returns again to the umbilicus, so as to describe a complete circle. The shell of the seed has consequently the form of the young fern or fern-capsule.

1316. The radicle is the continuation of the seed-rib, which is, however, dismembered itself, moves off, and thereby causes the micropyle to be, or, properly speaking, only renders it, free. The testa or seed-shell is consequently a phyllodium thrown over the germ, but the micropyle is the upper opening of the bud.

1317. The germ of the seed or embryo, namely, radicle, cotyledons and plumule, is therefore only the quinary pinnate leaf without the spathe or testa.

1318. Thus the whole seed, shell and embryo, com250pletely resembles a pinnate leaf with a phyllodium, as we see it in the umbellate plants, only it must be thought of as one so involuted, that the fine leaves adhere reversed in the phyllodium. Seeds may consequently change into leaves. A seed has therefore been formed also in all its parts like a papilionaceous corolla. This resemblance speaks moreover retrogressively, for the petals of the papilionaceous corolla being viewed only as a single leaf-bud. Seeds may therefore change also into corollæ. All parts of the seed are thus an unity, a single pinnate leaf, and it is consequently impossible for them to have been patched up out of what has been called the seed-ovum, namely, the testa and embryo, which would come from some other source or out of the pollen.

1319. The seed is the whole plant in miniature: the root being portrayed in the umbilical cord, and radical leaf in the phyllodium; stalk in the radicle; caudal leaves in the seed-lobes; ramuscule in the cotyledonal petiole; ramular leaves in the cotyledons. Seeds may thus change into an entire plant. The seed is consequently nothing new in the plant, but the repetition of the same under the relations and forms of the root.

1320. It is plain that the seeds must always change into the same plant; for they are indeed nothing else but this. The identity ensuing upon propagation is accordingly nothing singular and incomprehensible; it would be so were it otherwise. With the seed the plant has but reverted again to its primary condition, to the galvanic, mucous vesicle, out of which in a secondary manner the young plant is developed like as is the first plant out of the primary vesicle.

1321. The radicle is not therefore root itself, but only emits rootlets.

1322. The germ or the radicle must observe different positions towards the umbilicus, according as the seed-leaf or the testa has been more or less involuted, and according as the germ is removed from the micropyle.

1323. The albumen or perisperm is no particular organ, but only the deposit from the sap, which the inner251 wall of the testa secretes. The albumen stands in no organic connexion with the parts of the seed. That therefore which has become connate with the kernel or nucleus cannot be albumen.

1324. The arillus can be none other than bud-seeds of the testa, because it is placed under the phyllodium. It corresponds to the floral involucrum or bracteal scales.

1325. As the seeds are none other than leaves that have remained stationary in the condition of root, so must they pass through the three leaf-stages. There can be therefore only three principal differences in the seed-formation.

1326. The seeds of plants with reticular leaves consist of several leaves arranged symmetrically or in pairs. They have necessarily two seed-lobes—Dicotyledones.

1327. The seeds of plants with spathose leaves consist too only of the latter, i. e. the seed-leaves remain encased in each other. They have consequently only one seed-lobe, which also incloses only one plumule—Monocotyledones.

1328. This seed-lobe is a phylloidal leaf, whose parenchyma has been superabundantly filled with farinaceous matter or flour.

1329. That which is named vitellus can be none other than the succeeding counter-leaf.

1330. What in the Monocotyledons, at least in most of them, and in the grasses, is called albumen, is not so, but only the flour of the seed-lobe.

1331. The germination of these seeds is nothing else than an elongating of the spathiform seed-lobe into a culm, from the bottom of which radicles spring forth, as out of a bulb. A monocotyledonous seed is in its structure none other than a small bulb with undivided coverings.

1332. Lastly, the third form of seeds makes its appearance in those plants which have only scale-like leaves. The seed-lobe is wanting in them, and they elongate themselves directly into the plumule or little stalk—Acotyledones.

252

1333. They are devoid of the distinction of testa and embryo, because, on account of the deficiency of genuine leaf-formation, they are none other than the first. For the embryo is only a small leaf. They therefore include only albumen or germinal powder, as it is correctly named.

1334. Here belong not merely fungi, fuci, lichens and mosses, but also the ferns, as being those which have only cells or squamoid leaves. For the frond with the spiral vessels does not rank in the category of leaf, but of stalk.

FRUIT.

1335. The fruit is the coalescence or blending of the three parts of the flower, or the seed, ovarium and corolla. In the flower the individual perfection of every part of the trunk was completely attained; the leaves being separated quite freely from the stalk became corolla; the stalk separated from the leaves and root became pistil; lastly, the root separated from all, became the seed. In this manner indeed each organ attained its ratio of perfection; the perfection, however, of the Whole does not alone consist in the perfection of the several parts for themselves, but in the union or combination of these individual perfections. The vegetable trunk, as being a Partial, has been represented in the parts of the flower, but as a Whole, in the fruit.

1336. The fruit is therefore the last and most perfect consummation of the plant, or the whole vegetable trunk repeated as unity.

1337. In the fruit not merely the sum of all vegetable forms is united, but also that of all vegetable matters. It is the whole vegetable body repeated mathematically, physically and chemically.

1338. The fruit therefore is also that part of the plant in which all vegetable bodies have been concentrated into flesh. Now, as the highest vegetable bodies pass over into the next, and consequently into the animal kingdom, and are therefore palatable as food, so is the fruit also253 in essence the sarcocarp. For this is the directly edible part of the plant, that e. g. which does not need being cooked.

1339. The nutritious substance of the fruit can be none other than a highly elevated and analysed kind of mucus, such as starch and gum, sugar and acids. Flour is that which resembles the root, sugar the stalk, acids the foliage; therefore flour is in the seed, sugar in the pistil, and acid in the calyx.

1340. There can be only three kinds of fruit, that constantly accord with the preponderance of the three parts of the flower, as seed-fruit, pistil-and corolla-fruit.

1341. The fruit that has the preponderance of the seed, or where the edible substance resides in the seed, and the ovary itself has become seed-shaped, is the Nut. The nut is the cariopsis that has become sarcocarp; it is therefore one-seeded—farinaceous sarcocarp.

1342. In the ovarian fruit the ovarium has become demi nut-like, half corolla-like or fleshy, as in the Plum. It is the carpel that has become sarcocarp—acid sarcocarp.

1343. The fruit, in which the whole ovarium together with the calyx is edible, is the corolla-fruit, the Berry. Only those perfectly soft fruits are true berries which are inclosed by the calyx, as being forsooth a part of the blossom. The berry is the siliqua or hollow capsule that has become sarcocarp. Therefore it has numerous and small seeds—saccharine sarcocarp.

1344. Finally, these fruits combine to form a common fruit, which represents the proper synthesis of all parts of the blossom, or in which seed, ovarium and flower, along with the calyx, have become sarcocarp. This is the Apple, a syncarpus. The apple is the calyx become sarcocarp, and as it usually incloses several carpels, it is therefore polycarpal and contains few seeds. It consists of seed, ovarium and calyx, which have become flesh. The apple, as being an unopen calyx-fruit, may probably be regarded as the fruit of the trunk. It furnishes properly drink and food, is the fruit against thirst and hunger—the universal, alimentary sarcocarp. The apple254 contains all the bodies that have been named, viz. flour, acids and sugar. It is thus chemically also the synthetic fruit, which may be converted into the whole animal flesh, and thus become a true medium of nutrition. The nut is only garbage, the plum and berry, cherry and grape, only drinks or delicacies.

1345. Other vegetable substances, which range lower in chemical development, as mucus, bitter and colouring matters, with resins, are associated for the greatest part in root, stalk and leaves.

FRUIT OF THE FLOWERLESS PLANTS.

1346. The flowerless or asexual plants can have no genuine seed or no embryo. For the genuine seed is the repetition of the blossom under the idea of root. (Ed. 1st, 1810. § 1564.)

1347. That which has been called germinal powder is no seed or germ, but only albumen or perisperm. It has no seed-petiole, has only been exuded out of what has been called the wall of the capsule, and exhibits in its composition no seed-lobes. (Ed. 1st. § 1586.)

1348. What is termed capsule in the Acotyledones is none other than the seed-shell, whereupon it follows of itself, that the so-called seeds can have no umbilical cords or seed-petioles. (Ed. 1st; 1810. § 1573.)

1349. The capsules of ferns are involuted like most dicotyledonous seeds. The ring corresponds to the seed-rib or raphe, the fissure to the seed-aperture or micropyle. The involuted fern-capsule is a repetition of the involuted fern-frond. The little heaps of capsules or sori are consequently not pollen, but a nest of seeds surrounded by an indusium or veil, which, probably, corresponds to the ovary.

1350. The capsule of mosses is an antetype of monocotyledonous seeds; it is a spathe-leaf with the lateral suture; it springs up in a tubular manner similar to grass-leaves, that free themselves from the nodes of the culm.

1351. The hollow columella, which likewise con255tains germinal powder, is an internal spathe, which corresponds to the germinal leaf of grasses.

1352. The oral teeth are the dissevered parallel strips of vessels in the culm and leaf of the Monocotyledons.

1353. The urn-supporting pedicel is the seed-petiole or umbilical cord.

1354. The calyptra probably corresponds to the arillus and thus to the bud-scales; or possibly to the indusium of the ferns, and thus to the ovary.

1355. The leaf-roses would consequently be the involucral leaves of the moss-stalk; the moss-stalk itself a peduncle or flower-stalk; so that in the upper involucral leaves rudiments might indeed appear of stamina.

1356. In the lichens and fuci the whole trunk is none other than seed-shell.

1357. In the fungi, the antetype of the Acotyledons, it may be almost said that the whole stem is nothing else but albumen, the external layers of which only cling together in a membranaceous manner, and represent a kind of seed-shell. The fungus is an albumen-body, which has coagulated out of vegetable juices. In the fungus, seed, seed-vessel, ovary, blossom, foliage and trunk have become blended into one.

1358. In a perfect blossom the albumen is therefore the repetition of a fungus; the acotyledonous seed that of lichen; the monocotyledonous seed-vessel that of a moss; the dicotyledonous, however, is the repeated fern. It may be also said that the albumen were fungus; the germ, lichen; the seed-vessel, moss; the ovary perhaps, a fern, namely, its indusium.

II.—PHYTO-PHYSIOLOGY.

1359. The life of the plant consists in the co-operation of its functions. The representation of these functions is the vegetable physiology or the theory of vegetation.

1360. Vegetation depends first of all upon the two principal antagonisms of the plant, or those between the tracheal and cellular systems, or between the stem-and root256systems, sun and planet, air and water with earth, light and matter, electrism and chemism.

1361. The functions divide into those of the æther-organs—blossom, and the planetary organs—stem.

I.—FUNCTIONS OF THE TRUNK.

1362. The functions of the trunk are those of the tissues, systems and members; thus first of the cells, vessels or ducts and tracheæ; secondly, of the bark, liber and wood; lastly, of the root, stalk and foliage.

1. Facts.

1363. The phenomena to be regarded in plants bear relation to their constituent parts, and the changes or preliminary incidents which they undergo.

A. Constituent Parts.

The chemical constituent parts of vegetables are inorganic and organic.

a. INORGANIC BODIES.

Elements.

1364. The plant contains all the primitive bodies; carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. The carbon forms the principal mass, and almost alone constitutes its solid parts. The nitrogen is only present in small quantity, being, as it were, a trace only of the future animal kingdom.

1365. In the plant all the elements are also active, as the æther, which, through the gravitation of the root, strives towards the middle point or centre of the earth. The light, which imparts the general polarity and decomposition, as well as produces colours. The latter appear to reside in the starch-flour. The heat, that sustains the indifference, promotes the evaporation and the course of the sap, as also protects the plant from being killed by frost or cold. The air that penetrates through the spiral vessels to all parts, and is also met with occasionally in257 the hollow stalks, the interstices and cells of the pith and cuticle. It imparts the process of oxydation. The water is the proper mother of the plant, being the medium by which the nutrition is imparted. It contains in a state of absorption some hydrogen and nitrogen, a larger amount of oxygen, and abundance of carbonic acid; besides different salts, mucus, sugar, and acids. The earth, as element, bestows upon the plant a firm station, so that the water-and air-organs continue separate from each other.

Minerals or Earths.

1367. The plant is also a totality in reference to the earths. It contains all the mineral classes, and from each of these indeed the principal or fundamental minerals. It can therefore only thrive in a soil which represents the whole mineral kingdom. Among the earths the siliceous earth is very frequently found in plants, and especially in the graminaceous kinds. This, having been dissolved in the earth by potash and the rich supply even of carbonic acid, appears to be absorbed or imbibed by the plant. The argillaceous earth is scarcely met with in the plant itself; but from imbibing and storing up water for the consumption of the plant, it is without doubt its best and most necessary soil. The talcose earth is rarely found contained in plants; it, however, keeps the soil slacker, by dividing into laminæ, and being present for the most part as mica in sand. The calcareous earth is a more essential constituent part of plants, and is found therein in tolerable quantity, usually combined with phosphoric or carbonic acid. Of the salts, all plants contain a fair proportion of common salt and potash, combined too with carbonic acid; soda with saccharic or oxalic acid; probably also ammonia. Of the acids, carbonic acid appears to be alone contained in a free state in vegetable sap; the other elemental and mineral acids are united to alkalies, talcose and calcareous earths. As regards the Inflammables, almost the whole plant consists of carbon, but contains also some sulphur. The258 metals are represented by iron, which occurs in all plants.

b. ORGANIC VEGETABLE BODIES.

1368. These must be regarded as the repetition of the inorganic bodies. The alcohol, which does not indeed occur ready formed in the plant, but is developed out of the sugar, certainly corresponds to the æther. The ætherial or volatile oils, and the balsams and resins that are thence formed, correspond with the air. The mucus, gelatine, albumen, and sugar correspond to water; the wood, gum, starch and vegetable mould, to the earth. Of the organic salts, plants contain tannin, with azetic, benzoic, mucic, gelatic, saccharic, tartaric, citric, malic, oxalic, tannic, oleic, isatic, and hydrocyanic acids. The alkaline bodies are pungent, bitter, stupefying, and saponaceous; the fixed or greasy oils, the wax and the vegetable butters, are to be regarded as organic Inflammables; the colouring matters, as the organic ores.

1369. These bodies intermixed form the compound vegetable matters. What has been called vegetable sap is for plants, what the blood is for animals. It consists for the greatest part of water and mucus, starch, sugar, acids, and salts. It passes over into vinous and then into acetous fermentation. The starch-granules appear to form in the cells.

1370. To the secreted saps belong the coloured milky juices present in particular vessels, and consisting for the most part of water with resins, as in the celandine and spurge. The particular saps, especially those of the fruits, are very composite, consisting for the most part either of mucus, sugar and acids, or occasionally of gelatine and albumen. Solid compound matters are almost universally made up of flour, which consists principally of starch and gum; or they are furthermore mucus in the roots and seeds. The excreted or separated matters, which no longer interpose in the vegetable process, are the etherial oils, resins, fixed oils, colouring matters, poisonous substances, gum, tannin, nectar-juices, and even water.

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B. Preliminary Events.

a. WROUGHT BY EXTERNAL INFLUENCE.

1371. The influence of the elements produces different phenomena in the plant. I have felt constantly more inclined to consider, that not merely the descent of the root, but even the ascent of the stalk was simply to be viewed as a mechanical event, or one forsooth effected by gravity. The roots obey under all circumstances the gravity and would grow as far as the centre of the earth, were they to meet with no impediment; and there they would follow the revolution of the earth, and consequently become spirally convoluted upon themselves. It is almost beyond doubt that the water, which sinks downwards and, as it were like that in stalactites, invariably rigidifies or hardens at the radical capillaries, is heavier in the root. The cause of this greater weight depends upon the mucus not being decomposed.

1372. The straight ascent of the stalk also depends upon nothing else than gravity. The upper drops of mucus become lighter by means of greater heat and by decomposition in light and air, and they are therefore compressed by the heavier in the upward direction. It is always such a small drop upon the summit, which hardens into its uppermost cell. The stalk, therefore, grows upwards through the same forces and in the same manner, as the air-bubbles ascend in a glass of beer. The cause of their becoming lighter resides certainly in the vital process, which nevertheless effects in this respect nothing else than the extension or increase; but yet the cause of the ascent is naught else than the gravity.

1373. The light likewise acts upon the direction of plants and especially that of their leaves; not simply from its promoting growth by elevation of temperature and by decomposition, but obviously in a mechanical manner also; for not only do the branches of plants in a green-house grow towards the window, but most leaves turn themselves the whole day in obedience to the course260 of the sun. This turning must, nevertheless, have one and the same kind of cause with the growing towards light; it also is only a conatus or effort unto growth. The upper leaf-cells, being illuminated by the sun, become lighter, and are therefore directed at once, like the apices of the branches, toward the influence of light. The cells that stand perpendicularly upon the surface of the leaf are to be regarded as branches conjoined by growth.

1374. The sleep of plants depends also upon the same influence of the light. The upper leaf-cells sleep during the night, while the lower cells, especially those of the petiole, fill and consequently bend the latter upwards. The sleep of the flower must have the same cause. As likewise the alternating motion of many leaves, as in the Mimosæ.

1375. The motion also performed by the staminal filaments towards the pistil must finally depend upon this unequal replenishment of the external and internal cells.

1376. The coloration of the parts of plants is a result of the decomposition of the starch-granules in the cells by the agency of light.

1377. The operation of the heat is more intelligible than any other. That which is to move and separate itself, must have a certain degree of extension, or must be fluid, namely, aquiform. In a cold temperature the upper saps, not becoming warmer than the lower, are consequently not lighter, and on that account also do not ascend upwards. The mortal freezing of trees descends from above downwards. In other respects plants have, like animals, a self-inherent, though very feeble, process of heat. Germination proves this, in cases where many seeds lie upon each other.

1378. The air acts also mechanically and physically upon plants, by causing motion of the solid parts and by promoting evaporation. Electricity is without doubt active in the spring of the year, and evokes the antagonism between the fabric of the stem and root.

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1379. The physical operation of water consists indeed, for the greatest part, in its preserving the solid parts in a supple or pliant state. Its principal office is, however, to convey nourishment to the plant.

1380. The earths act beneficially only upon plants, if they have been all mixed with each other. Mineral salts occurring in moderate quantity in the soil promote growth; alkalies and acids are injurious thereunto. The same holds good of Inflammables and metallic limes.

b. BY INTERNAL ACTIVITY.

1381. That the plant imbibes water, and this indeed in great quantity, by its whole surface is a well-ascertained fact; but it has been by no means equally determined whether it obtains its nourishment simply through the water, or directly also from the air, e. g. the carbon, as well as the nitrogen, from the carbonic acid. The principal imbibition, however, takes place through the root; but experiments that have been made upon this subject leave it doubtful, whether in this case it is simply mucus, extract from the humus or vegetable mould, or simply carbonic acid that has been absorbed.

1382. It is moreover a fact that the green parts of plants exposed to direct sun-light consume or take in carbonic acid, and develop or give out oxygen; on the contrary, during the night, and even in cloudy or gloomy days, they absorb oxygen and exhale or develop carbonic acid. Now, as there are far more gloomy or at least cloudy than clear days, it thus becomes evident that far more oxygen has been taken up, than separated, from the air. During germination oxygen gas is consumed and, on the other hand, carbonic acid developed.

1383. The saps ascend upwards, and chiefly indeed, in the liber; on its passage different substances forming from it, which appear especially in the fruit in greatest proportion and variety.

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2. Processes.

1384. The tissues of plants form three formations, which must be similar in their functions, and can only exhibit subordinate differences. The cell-formation is displayed in the cellular tissue, in the bark and root. The vascular formation in the vascular tissue, in the liber and stalk. The tracheal formation in the tracheal tissue, the wood and the leaves. There can accordingly be only three principal functions in the vegetable stem, and of these each will display minor differences.

A. Cellular Processes.

a. ROOT-PROCESS—ABSORPTION.

1385. As the root is the cellular organ proper, so in it principally resides the water-process or the commencement of chemical elaboration and analysis. Now the chemism in an organic body is called digestion.

1386. The root is the mouth or pharynx of the plant, and is therefore principally concerned with absorption. Its process is therefore the formation of mucus, or as it were of salivation. The root cannot, however, create mucus, as it was created at the conclusion of the earth-metamorphosis in the sea; it can absorb it or in the highest degree compound it out of the constituent parts.

1387. The process of the formation of mucus is a process of putrefaction; the function of the root consists accordingly in supporting a constant process of putrefaction. The soil in which the root stands must contain substances susceptible of, and the conditions necessary to, putrefaction. These substances are organic matters and water; the conditions heat and access of air. Such a soil is called humus or mould. In a pure, dry earth, no root can thrive.

1388. Carbon, from its being the earthy body, is the principal one in the formation of mucus, and the basis also of the vegetable bodies. A root can develop itself, if it stand only in a soil such as the calcareous, which263 contains carbon and water. The calcareous soil is as it were an original mould. It is probable that the calcareous earth is constantly decomposed by the root and its carbon absorbed. The calcareous earth is again neutralized by the carbonic acid of the water and air.

1389. There can be no doubt that the root also abstracts carbon from these elements, and converts it into mucus, or probably separates it from carbonic acid. The mucus approximates the animal nature, so that the root in its constituent parts, in its smell, and even in its structure, exhibits animal properties; animal substances therefore are also the best nutritive media of plants.

1390. That which putrefies most easily is the best manure.

1391. Through the process of putrefaction many kinds of antagonisms and attractions, by which the absorption takes place through the root-filaments, are aroused.

1392. The root has not merely one orifice for absorbing, but it imbibes upon the whole surface, from its being still immersed in the chemical menstruum. The integument of animals does the same.

b. BARK-PROCESS—EVAPORATION.

1393. The bark, as an organ of cellular tissue, which is placed wholly in the outward direction, must principally exercise the process of absorption and evaporation. Now, as there are two kinds of bark, a root-and a stalk-bark, or a water-and air-bark, so upon the former will the business of absorption chiefly devolve, on the latter that of evaporation.

1394. As the bark of the stalk possesses stomata, which are wanting in that of the root, so is this a probable reason for these apertures being organs of evaporation. This opinion is corroborated also by aquatic leaves being without stomata, while they occur in the leaves exposed to air.

1395. Meanwhile the stalk is of a twofold character; it is only the root that has ascended into the air. As an aerial root it absorbs. Without doubt the stalk absorbs264 the same as the root, namely, moisture from the air and carbonic acid. Experiments prove it.

c. CELL-PROCESS—DIGESTION.

1396. The cells are the crystallized drops of mucus, the fundamental mass of the vegetable and consequently the water, which converts itself into the Earthy, or wherein the Solid has been elaborated and precipitated. They construct the Solid that has been absorbed into new cells. But the Solid can only assume other forms by means of water. The solution, however, with mixture of bodies and formation into globules is digestion. The cells are thus the stomachs of which the plant has millions like mouths.

1397. The bodies absorbed must move in the cells; for chemical solution and mixture, being itself nothing else than separation and union of atoms, is consequently motion. In a single cell the motion must be upon all sides, because the atoms are attracted and repelled from all points of the cell-wall. In cells, however, which are united with others and therefore subjected to longitudinal polarity, this motion must be performed in accordance with the axis of the cells.

1398. This motion proceeds to and fro, because the extremities of the cells have different polarities, and therefore repel the same atoms, which they have before attracted. In the cells the mucus appears to be converted into starch-granules.

B. Vascular Processes.

a. Vessel-process—Conveyance of Sap.

1399. The vessels or intercellular passages conduct the sap, or the water of the plant. Their function is therefore the continued conveyance of the sap that has been absorbed from the root, and rendered solid or consistent by the evaporation going on in the bark and elaborated by the cells.

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1400. The vessels of plants are notwithstanding to be compared with the lymphatic vessels of animals, in so far also as these are distributed throughout the whole body, and convey the sap simply in one direction not in a circle.

1401. As the passages between all the cells are in all directions, so the vegetable saps or fluids flow in all directions, and not to one centre as in the animal. Plants have no heart. The sap pursues a tolerably rapid course in the vessels. A fading or drooping cabbage, two feet in length, can gradually become erect in a few minutes after being put to soak in water. In other respects the course of the sap in the vessels may be seen in many plants under the microscope.

b. Liber-process—Mixture of Sap.

1402. In the liber, as being the mass of intercellular passages, the sap contained in the vessels principally accumulates, as in the thoracic duct of animals; in it the matters have not been simply conveyed and dissolved, but also mixed and converted into true vegetable sap, into blood.

1403. The tubes of the liber are those by which the chemical life is sustained.

c. Stalk-process—Secretion.

1404. The stalk is the root planted in air, and consequently its process is the differenced process of putrefaction, in which the mucus becomes further evolved.

1405. The analysis chiefly occurs in the stalk; the mucus, or rather the starch, becoming converted into sugar and acids.

1406. Sugar is the mucus of the stalk, and is found in every vegetable sap, especially that of such plants as are characterized by the systems of the stalk, and have not yet attained the formation of the reticular leaf, as the Monocotyledones, e. g. the grasses.

1407. The sugar originates from a process of fermen266tation; the process of the stalk must consequently be regarded as a vital process of fermentation.

1408. The process of fermentation is that of putrefaction carried on in the air, or the polar process of fermentation. Both processes consequently observe a polar relation towards each other.

1409. The sugar-process passes over finally into acidification.

1410. The Inflammables, as the ætherial oils, balsams, and resins, are formed in the antagonism of the sugar or of the acids. Here also belong most of the peculiar vegetable matters, as the milky saps, colouring matters, medicinally active bodies, poisons, and the alkaloids.

C. Tracheal-processes.

a. Leaf-process—Inspiration.

1411. In the foliage the woody rings have issued freely into the air, in order that they may offer their whole surface to its influence, and thus become electrified and oxydized.

1412. The leaf is the free, external organ of respiration to the plant; it is its lung. Through the leaf the air, and chiefly its oxygen, is transferred into the plant, just as it is through the lungs into the animal.

1413. The leaves take in oxygen gas; this is their essential function, and not that of exhaling it.

1414. The leaves only exhale oxygen gas when exposed to light. The development of oxygen in the plant is accordingly a light-and not an air-process. In consequence of this the leaves give out oxygen gas only during the day, but during the night and even upon gloomy days, where not the light but only the air is active, they take in oxygen and give out carbonic acid.

1415. The light develops the oxygen gas out of the plant in a perfectly inorganic manner, like as from every water, that can be set in a process of tension. Rumford has developed by simple glass tubes oxygen gas out of267 water. The oxygen gas of plants is therefore a result only of the decomposition of water in an inorganic manner by the agency of light, or virtually the separation only of the oxygen that is clinging to the water.

1416. Through the process of respiration in the plant carbonic acid has been formed and excreted. For the mucus becomes oxydized, and thereby the process also of fermentation, the product of which is carbonic acid, is promoted.

1417. The respiratory process of the leaves is the perfected process of fermentation in the stalk, in which finally, namely, in the fruit-saps, the separation of both the products of fermentation, the vinous and acetic, is prepared.

1418. Just as acids and sugar originate in the stalk, so in the foliage does their electrical antagonism, or the ætherial oils and perfumes. Sweet scents or perfumes are properties of the air, and therefore originate also with the aerial process. This is retrospectively a proof that the leaf-process is the respiratory process.

1419. Through the leaves, with which the whole surface of the earth is covered, the planet respires, and thereby the surface of the earth principally obtains its electricity.

1420. Vegetation must therefore effect an important change in the earth's electricity. The earth must be differently polarized after, to what it was before, the fall of the leaf.

1421. Thereby the northern hemisphere is differently polarized to the southern, because the latter has less soil than the former.

b. Wood-process—Nutrition.

1422. As most of the spiral vessels are collected together in the body of wood, and finally in the leaves issue forth quite free and naked into the air, so must the wood conduct for the most part air into the plant. The polarization of the other systems, of the liber and the bark, must therefore proceed from the body of wood.

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1423. The greatest amount of induration must originate in the body of the spiral vessel, because in it the process of oxydation takes place in the most active manner. From the same cause the process of nutrition must also be supported by it in the most powerful manner. The wood is the chief seat of nutrition.

c. Tracheal-process—Oxydation.

1424. The structure of the spiral vessels, their resemblance to the tracheæ or air-tubes of insects, their distribution throughout the whole trunk, the air they contain which is found decidedly free in the plant, leave no doubt that the tracheæ are air-conveying organs, and consequently have, like the arteries in animals, the process of respiration directly intrusted to them.

1425. Now through the process of respiration the general polarity, and consequently the cause or fundamental principle of all life, enters the plant.

1426. The tracheæ penetrate or traverse the whole plant from the apex of the root to that of the flower. Their operation must therefore also extend through the whole plant.

1427. The tracheal system must also govern the plant by polarity, and thus in an immaterial manner.

1428. This polarity acts simply in the direction of the plant's longitude, not transversely, like the material fundamental processes.

1429. The tracheæ impart in a spiritual manner the antagonism between the root and fabric of the stem.

1430. As the tracheæ are, or constitute, the highest system of the plant, so must it be them upon which the light principally acts. The material processes of plants are kept in activity by the antagonism of light.

1431. By this only are the instantaneous changes, which follow upon the influence of light or section of the spiral vessels, to be explained. Upon this, therefore, depends the instantaneous elevation of the processes under the influence of a ray of light, and their depression, if only a cloud pass in front of and obscure the269 sun; hence too does the plant die, so to speak, upon the very spot, if the spiral fibres within the liber be cut through, but the latter left uninjured.

1432. The liber no longer conveys any sap to the divided tracheæ, solely because it has lost the condition to be affected by the light-polarity. On the contrary, a plant does not die so soon, if the liber be cut through, but the spiral vessels preserved. The spiral fibres conditionate consequently the motion and the excitation of the organic processes.

1433. The spiral fibres are therefore, apart even from their function of respiration, or rather because this is the highest vegetable function, that for the plant, which the nerves are for the animal.

1434. The tracheæ of plants do not ramify like the nerves of animals; but if they divide, they separate only as fascicles, which have been liberated from their origin. The tracheæ commence too directly in the mass of cells, wherever that may happen to be, and thus become what governs an organ, exactly like the animal nerves. Their analogy is greatest with the sympathetic nerves. The tracheæ, just as in the animal kingdom, are the mediators, not the founders, of vegetable life.

1435. The principle of motion must reside in the tracheæ, provided that higher, and not merely chemical movements, occur in the plant.

1436. These movements must and can only exist in those organs which consist almost entirely of spiral vessels, and thus only in the highest organs.

1437. Such are the leaves and the corollæ. Is it wished to compare the corolla, apart from its sexual relation, with an organ in animals, it can only be contrasted with the highest nervous organ. The corolla is the brain of plants, that which corresponds to light, but which here remains stationary upon the sexual stage. It may be said that what is sex in the plant, becomes brain in the animal, or the brain is only the animal sex.

1438. The most general function of the brain is,270 however, feeling or touch combined with motion. If the corolla could attain to a sensorial function, it would be to that of touch.

1439. It is conducted thereto; but at the instant, when it is indulged in feeling the mental capacity of the animal, it sinks down exhausted and dies. It is punished for the risk that has been run in wishing to attain unto self-cognition.

1440. Motion and touch are revealed only in the highest organs of the plant, or in the stamina. The filament moves upon the pistil and touches it with the pollen, which at that instant, however, is scattered in small particles, and leaves behind the filament in a withered state.

1441. The motion performed by the filaments appears to be a simple operation of the irritability in the tracheæ that have become soft, without undergoing chemical decomposition, but probably by sudden influx of sap, induced by the tension of air in the spiral vessels.

1442. In the highest, or the pinnate, leaves, movements, which are probably a result of the tracheal irritability, also occur, but are devoid the object of coming into contact with, or of touching, anything. The sensitive plants, as Hedysarum gyrans, move their leaves, not from any intrinsic determination upon their part, but in accordance with an antecedent stimulus, and thus not voluntarily, but probably through the influence merely of polar tension. The movements of leaves are convulsions of plants, although too an afflux of sap be caused or induced by the stimulus.

SAP-MOTION.

Galvanic Process.

1443. The motion of the sap is imparted through the antagonism of the respiratory and digestive processes. For these two processes are the combination of the Chemical with the Electric, which is the galvanism.

1444. The galvanic poles attract and repel the fluidity;271 thus the vegetable sap is attracted by the root and by the stalk. But the differencing or the oxygen pole is the stronger of the two. The determining principle of the movement of the sap resides consequently in the stalk, and the chief direction of the sap-motion tends upwards.

1445. At times, when the air-polarity is elevated, the sap also ascends more rapidly. As in summer, upon clear warm days. It ascends slowly upon gloomy and chill days. That in this also light and heat are playing their parts, is self-intelligible. Thereby the upper particles of sap become lighter and ascend, being pressed upwards by the lower and colder particles. As they are nevertheless by no means changed, this is a proof that, during the time so employed, polar forces also act upon them.

1446. But the root has also the endeavour to attract the sap; but as its pole is feebler in character, the stalk draws the sap from the ultimate extremities of the root into itself. If accordingly the polarity of the air becomes weaker, while the plant is losing its leaves or the organs of polarization; so is it easy to imagine why the motion of the sap becomes slower. As, however, the aerial polarity is always stronger than that of the earth, the sap must thus in winter also take the same, or upward, direction.

1447. A fall or descent of the sap can therefore never take place abstractedly forsooth from the root, in which it sinks by its own gravity. How a part of a plant, e. g. a twig, could continue alive, were the sap to have fallen or receded from it, is not to be conceived. It does not follow from what has been just stated, that movements of sap should not take place in all directions, and consequently too downwards; they must indeed occur rather than otherwise, and that indeed upon all sides; only the principal track or course of the sap must always pass in the direction upwards.

1448. The movement of the sap consists simply in an ascent and impulsion of its particles upon all sides, but without any circulation. A circulation would only be272 possible if the plant were an organism disengaged from the elements; but as the earth and air belong to its organization; it thus necessarily oscillates between both, and its movements also can only be oscillations of a similar intervening character.

1449. There are consequently no arteries and veins, and still less a heart in plants, as some have striven to make out.

1450. The vessels of plants are most properly to be compared with the lymphatic vessels of animals, the fluid or sap of which also tends from all parts towards one summit, namely, the lungs, while still at times retrogressive movements also seem to occur.

1451. The vegetable sap does not move in a straight line upwards, but in all directions, to the right and left, in a zigzag manner, and so on. This is proved by two incisions being made in a branch opposite to each other. The motion of the sap in the plant is more an impulsion of the sap toward all sides, with a predominance in the direction upwards, than a rapid current as in the blood. If we reflect that the motion of the sap when seen under the microscope and then magnified several hundred times, still only resembles a gentle rippling of small drops, it thus becomes clear that the true current or flow occurs only in a very tardy manner. Wherever therefore in the plant the process of differencialization may be brought into play, there the sap is impelled.

1452. Through the polarization of the sap the cells also become polar towards each other, and then even the cell-walls, whereby the cellular sap with its mucous granules is kept in constant motion. The theory of the motion of sap has not consequently been based upon the theory of capillary tubules; nor is heat alone the cause of its ascent; nor the empty space, which originates superiorly by evaporation; nor electricity in an inorganic sense.

II. FUNCTIONS OF THE FLORAL-ORGANS.

1453. These functions correspond to those of the light,273 heat, and gravity in the corolla, pistil and seed. The corolla irradiates, the pistil gives out heat, the seed sinks like the earth towards the centre.

1. Function of the Corolla.

FERTILIZATION.

1454. As in the vegetable trunk the principle function has been the antagonism between the aerial and the terrestriaqueous plant, so must the same function be repeated in the corresponding organs of the blossom. It oscillates in the principal antagonism between the corolla and pistil, which is the antagonism of leaf and stem, that of electrism and chemism, of light and body, of spirit and matter.

1455. The pollen electrifies, animates, or inspirits the ovarium, by which means it becomes stimulated to the development of seeds. Without this animating influence the seed had not been developed.

1456. This relation, whereby through the balance of an antagonism, a whole organism has been evoked into life, is called the sexual relation.

1457. The sex is consequently the antagonism between spirit and matter, light and mass, æther and the terrestrial elements, sun and planet, between electrism and chemism, that has been represented in an organism as totality. In sex consequently the primary antagonism of the world, or that of spirit and matter, centre and periphery, has been organically represented.

1458. The sex has hence from the beginning been established and prophesied; manifests itself also under diverse forms in the Organic, but becomes first individualized in an organic body. This is the lofty sense or signification of the sexual relation, that in it the Spiritual and Material pair together, and thereby sprout forth or germinate into a whole world. In sex the mystery of creation lies concealed.

1459. What is producing the fruit is called the female, that which awakes production, the male.

1460. Mascularity is the spirit of the world, femi274nality the matter which becomes animated by the former; mascularity is the light of the word, which illuminates the feminality, and it is pregnant; mascularity is the electricity of the world, which arouses the female chemism unto galvanic circulation. By the male the female becomes animated; before this it is dead and devoid the differentialization, which is necessary to every action.

1461. Impregnation is a simple act of light upon the matter, an irradiation, as it was termed, with such an exalted appreciation of its significance, by the ancients. The male imparts nothing in impregnation but the solar ray, or fluid nervous mass, in its semen, which awakes, animates, and inspirits the quiescent female. The female supplies or furnishes all the Material or, as in the plant, the fruit. In other respects it is not to be understood, as if no material whatever had been imparted by the male, but only that it is not the matter as such, which the male gives the female, that becomes fruit; but that the tension which resides in male semen, evokes at the same time, as by a process of contagion or fermentation, a similar tension in the female.

1462. The process of tension resides originally in the male, because he is related or akin to the light; but the female first obtains the light through the male.

1463. Impregnation is an excitation by the electrical, of the slumbering chemical, process. The pregnancy is consequently an uninterrupted chemical process.

1464. The female is the first and lies deeper in the developmental history of the planet (but not in the creation), just as the digestive process is prior or antecedent to the respiratory.

1465. In the truest sense is feminality co-ordinated with the digestive, the mascularity with the respiratory, system. The female is (organically considered) abdomen, the male, thorax. Pregnancy is a sexual process of digestion, impregnation a sexual process of respiration. In impregnation the female respires the male, whereby it receives into itself a thoracic function, becomes itself male, i. e. is then capable of producing something out275 of itself. Now, the female produces a fruit, which is synonymous with both principles.

1466. The semen is the fruit of the male. The male is always pregnant, and that indeed by virtue of his own power. This power is deficient in the female, which does not possess the light in itself, but only the elemental bodies that are ready and susceptible of form.

1467. The anthers are the male organs, the pollen is the semen. The pistils are the female organs, the seed-granules are properly speaking, the germ.

1468. The pollen is a most highly differenced, electrical product; the seed-granule a wholly indifferent, and tranquil mucous mass. The pollen falls upon the stigma of the pistil, and irradiation has taken place; the material fruit-capsule gains thereby so much polarity, that saps enough ascend, in order to develop the germless seed-vesicles.

1469. It is quite unnecessary for the pollen, with its sap or gas, to be materially conveyed through the style to the seed. It is only requisite for the style to be excited, dualized, electrified, and then it has life enough of its own. But it does not follow, because it is unnecessary for the sap of the floral dust or pollen to reach the seed-granules, that it cannot or ought not to reach thereunto. In many plants the pollen-tube does actually reach there and penetrate through the micropyle. In many styles it is still held as impossible, for the pollen-tube to penetrate through them to the seeds. The pollen-sap indeed simply evokes on the apex of the seed (upon the summit of the lorical rib, through whose liberation the micropyle originates) the vital process, which, without this stimulus, would perish. Thereby a new cell is secreted, from whence the germ is developed.

IRRITABILITY—MOTION.

1470. In impregnation the heaven is married to the earth; for then the spirit descends, and does not esteem itself too highly to become flesh. Impregnation is the highest immaterial action of the plant.

276

1471. If, therefore, the irritability of the plant at any time, or but once only, makes its appearance independently, it must be in the sexual organs, and in the moments of impregnation. Impregnation ensues, when the two mundane principles of the plant, light and matter, have attained, as corolla and fruit, to the highest pitch of perfection; then the tension of the spiral vessels ranks so high, that they exercise their function independently of what is terrestrial in the plant, move themselves in the male filaments, touch the female organ, and die in this their highest effort.

1472. Thus has it only been conceded to the plant to be, in the instant of impregnation, an animal and enjoy animal passion.

2. Function of the Ovarium.

1473. The ovary, by its own power, is in a condition to draw towards it the chemical saps from out the stem, and as it were by its own heat to thrust new buds from its leaf-ribs, namely, the seed-pellicles or testæ. It has not, however, strength sufficient to put forth also the leaf-work, namely, the embryo, upon the apex of the seed-shell. It requires for this purpose the stimulus of the floral pollen. If the plant is very rich in sap, the ovary is so likewise, and converts itself into fruit or sarcocarp. As a rule, therefore, trees only bear a crop of fruit. If also the impregnation is less perfect, the force of the sap continues to remain inherent in the ovarian leaves; they become rich in sap, fleshy, and likewise fruity in character; trees, therefore, with imperfect or separated blossoms, as the Amentaceæ, Urticaceæ, Euphorbiaceæ, Papilionaceæ, Terebinthaceæ, and Rosaceæ, usually bring forth a crop of fruit.

1474. A stronger degree of refinement appears in these fruit-saps than in the saps of the stem, because corolla and seeds range closer to each other. They are therefore more varied and richer in substance. The fruit-substances range usually upon the side of the water or the salts, while those of the seed range upon the side of277 the earth or the Inflammables. The substances of the seed are flour and oil, those of the fruit sugar and acids; the former supplies food, the latter drink.

1475. Seed and ovary stand therefore in antagonism, like earth and water.

3. Function of the Seed.

GERMINATION.

1476. The seed is the plant contracted upon its centre, it is the heavy mineral mass, which can only undergo changes by the operation of the other elements, like as it arrived only at completion by the operation of the floral pollen. This acts upon it when within the dry ovary, like the water and oxygen in the dry earth. These changes are its development or germination.

1477. All the planetary elements belong to germination, and to growth the Cosmical also with all its actions. To germination belongs earth, water, and air; to growth, light, heat, and gravity; with all the four mineral classes also, such as earth, salt, Inflammable, and metal. The plant contains silicious and calcareous earth, salts, coal with sulphur, and lastly, iron.

1478. Germination is the disjunctive emergence wrought by means of moisture, heat and oxydation in the processes of decomposition and fermentation. No seed germinates in irrespirable kinds of air.

1479. The cotyledons or seed-lobes are the synthesis of the two processes; they are at once root and leaf, therefore resolvable into mucus, and may yet become green.

1480. In germination the elemental bodies of the root-and stalk-polarity directly emerge; the mucus or the flour separates into alcaline gum, that seeks the darkness, and into acid sugar, which elevates itself into the illuminated air.

GROWTH.

1481. Growth is none other than continued germination. The sap being polarized by the air becomes of278 necessity decomposed. One part evaporates as carbonic acid and water, the other coagulates into oxydized mucus or into cell-walls.

1482. Growth proceeds directly from the process of digestion and respiration, while its polar organs constantly remove further from each other.

1483. Properly speaking the digestive and respiratory processes are none other than growth, since both separate from each other. That, which originates between them, is the process of nutrition, the vascular system.

1484. Growth oscillates between the process of decomposition and that of fermentation; it is an uninterrupted fermentation.

FALL OF THE LEAF.

1485. If every pole of the plant has been perfected in an isolated manner, it has thus become identical with the air, and the aerial process ceases.

1486. With the cessation of the aerial process, the respiratory organ must also die off or perish.

1487. The decadence, or falling off, of the leaves is the result of the tension having been abrogated between them and the stem; it is a death by suffocation.

1488. The fall of the leaf therefore occurs in the autumn, or after the fruit is matured.

DURATION OF LIFE.

1489. The age of a plant is included between the the limits of the sap's impulse, and that which has been called its fall or descent.

1490. The actual fall of the sap is the death of the plant.

1491. If with the cessation of the influence of light, the polarity ceases entirely in the plant; it is then one year old or an annual. Every part of it dies off.

1492. In biennial plants the aerial polarity indeed disappears, but the polarity of the root remains. Flower, leaf, and stalk die.

1493. Perennial plants, also, do not entirely lose the279 stem-polarity, but only while they develop a new plant about the old. Flower and leaf only perish, while the water-and earth-organs remain alive.

1494. The old liber dies with every maturation of the fruit, because there the difference attains solution. But a new life develops itself in the parenchyma of the plant, and forms new liber or, properly speaking, a new plant about the old.

1495. Persistent plants consist of numerous plants, which gradually grow round about each other.

1496. In accordance with the idea of the plant, each one perishes with the maturation of the fruit.

1497. On account of the addition of the new plant about the old, the plant has also been confined to no definite magnitude and to no definite number in its mode of ramification.

1498. Indefiniteness in form, size and number, is the character of the plant, although a law lies at the basis of all this. The animal has a definite size, because several animals do not grow around each other.

III.—PHYTOLOGY.

1499. Hitherto the organs of the plant have been considered in a general point of view or as to their idea in time; to this now follows the development of the plant in a special sense, or its representation in space.

1500. The vegetable tissues, systems, and organs have only by degrees been disengaged from each other and independently perfected. The independent or self-substantial development of the organs constitutes definite or individual plants.

1501. A plant, in which all the organs are present, separately or self-substantially developed and yet combined, is without doubt the highest in point of rank.

1502. Before it attains to this separation, nature can only produce lower forms, in which fewer organs have attained to independence. These forms constitute the diversity of plants and their plurality, for nature establishes every principal form as a finished organization.

280

1503. There are as many plants different from each other as there are organs, namely, tissues, anatomical systems and members.

1504. The sum of all plants is called the vegetable kingdom; this is the self-substantial representation of all vegetable organs. (Ed. 1st, 1810, p. 123.)

1505. The vegetable kingdom is consequently the expression of the vegetable idea, or of the perfect plant represented in the multiplicity of individuals; it is the plant disintegrated, or anatomised, by nature herself.

1506. Were we therefore acquainted with all vegetable organs, we should know their rank and developmental series; and thus also recognize the character, rank, and developmental series of the plants themselves, or their divisions. There can be no doubt that the lowest organs, e. g. the tissues, have been first developed and independently perfected as plants; later on they separate into anatomical systems and finally into members, whereby perfect plants must originate. The division or classification of the vegetable kingdom is consequently that of the vegetable organs. The Systematic of plants is a copy of that of their organs, or a plastic representation of the philosophical vegetable anatomy. With this every thing has been granted, which is requisite for the building or erection of the vegetable system. All principles, together with the methods, rest in the proposition that has been expressed.

1507. The artificial systems of plants are related to the vegetable kingdom, as the lexicon or dictionary is to language. Those systems which have hitherto been termed natural, but which should properly be called methodical, are related to the vegetable kingdom, as the ordinary grammar is to a language. The vegetable system must, however, be related to the vegetable kingdom, as the philosophical or genetic grammar is to language. This only agrees with the essence of the language, or is natural. The vegetable system is necessarily a philosophical or genetic one, that alone being truly or legitimately natural. (This system was first propounded281 by Oken, in the Ed. 1st of the Naturphilosophie, 1810; further developed in Dietrich's Garten Journal, 1813; carried out in his Naturgeschichte fur Schülen, 1821, and in his Lehrbuch der Nat. Gesch. Botanik. Weimar, 1825.) The artificial system collects the materials for the edifice, but leaves them to lie without order and in confusion; the methodical or what has been called the natural system separates these materials and arranges them in homogeneous groups; the genetic, philosophical or truly natural, system, again mixes them amongst each other, but thereby actually erects the edifice. All three systems are therefore necessary and good, and no one of them merits being despised by the other; it is only when one of them imagines that it is the other, or can render the others unnecessary, that it trespasses from out its circle, and deserves reproach. Thus for Floras, whose ultimate object is to find out rapidly the names of plants upon botanical excursions, as also for the labelling of specimens in botanic gardens, the artificial system is the best; for the description, however, of foreign plants the methodical; but for insight into the whole vegetable world the philosophical or natural system. Would we compare Floras with each other, the latter system must certainly come into play; but then the matter to be dealt with is not about an excursion-book.

VEGETABLE SYSTEM.

1508. Taken in a strict sense all the diversity of vegetable structure of vegetables has reference first of all to the difference in the tissues; these being either unseparated, or separated, into special systems and members. At first the tissues lie confusedly, or without order, amongst themselves. They then separate in a concentric and tubular form into systems, that are encased within each other, like the bark, liber, and wood, which form the shaft. Furthermore they separate into members, and appear one above the other, as root, stalk, and foliage, which collectively may be called the stem; these are282 repeated as seed, pistil, and corolla, which together are called flower, and combined, fruit, namely, nut, plum, berry and apple. I designate by the term stock or trunk all the parts as far as the blossom; and this together with the fruit I name thyrsus. The vegetable stock, whose tissues have not yet separated into members, I style, from want of a better word, thallus. As we divide political kingdoms into provinces and circles, so also may these titles be suitably applied here. It is evident, that the plants which simply consist of tissues and have as yet no sheaths and members, are the Acotyledones; those, however, provided with sheaths, but devoid of true roots, stalk, and foliage, Monocotyledones; those with true foliage or reticular-veined leaves are, on the contrary, Dicotyledones. The natural system of vegetables stands accordingly in the following manner.

A.—STOCK-PLANTS.

Province I. Histophyta, or Tissue-plants—Acotyledones.
Class 1. Cell-plants.
2. Duct-
3. Trachea-

II. Thecophyta, or Sheath-plants—Monocotyledones.

4. Bark-plants.
5. Liber-
6. Wood-

III. Arthrophyta, or Member-plants—Dicotyledones.

Circle 1. Axis-plants—Tubulifloræ.
7. Root-plants.
8. Stalk-
9. Leaf-

B.—BLOSSOM-PLANTS.

Circle 2. Flower-plants—Thalamopetalæ.
10. Seed-plants.
11. Ovarium-
12. Corolla-

Circle 3. Fruit-plants—Calycopetalæ.
13. Nut-plants.
14. Plum-
15. Berry-
16. Apple-

283

1509. A slight glance at the above table shows us the procedure of Nature. The higher she ascends, the more and more she separates, and thereby increases, the organs. There may therefore be plants which have only a single organ or tissue, as well as others, which possess all.

1510. There cannot, however, be any plant which could simply possess the higher without the lower organs. Higher organized plants are not such therefore, by virtue of their having some one organ more perfectly developed, or separated into several parts; but through this, that they actually possess several different organs. The higher grade of organization depends accordingly not upon the perfection of the Singular, but the number of the Different. The Perfected consists in the multiplicity combined to constitute unity, but by no means in the simply homogeneous multitude of the parts. Numerous stamina may render a corolla higher, but not on that account the whole plant; many digits may make a hand nobler, but not on that account, the animal. But with many digits also that hand is nobler, in which the digits are dissimilar.

First Province.

HISTOPHYTA—ACOTYLEDONES.

Devoid of, or without true spiral-vessels, leaves, corollæ, and pistil.

The vegetable kingdom ascends, in accordance with the five main positions of the organs, by five stages; these are again separable into larger groups, which may be called asexual and sexual plants.

1511. The tissues are a something internal, being, as it were, the viscera of plants or their parenchyma, which does not meet the light, and can therefore have no light-organs, which are developed only out of the foliage or leaves. The anatomical systems and organs are tissues that have become external, have attained to air and light, and are hence developed into air-and light-organs. Now, the light-organs are sexual organs. The Tissue-plants284 can therefore have no sexual organs; and plants divide accordingly into asexual and sexual plants. The asexual are female plants, and are consequently the first or lowest. Thus there can be thus no sexual or male plants, without the female being found that belong to them.

1512. Male or androgynous plants are only possible, if spiral vessels or tracheæ be present. They first, however, originate when the tracheæ become external, or form a circle in the stalk, i. e. are accessible by light; as in the Mono-and Dicotyledones.

1513. The asexual plants are not cryptogamic, but agamic. They do not perform self-impregnation clandestinely, but not at all; for they do not attain light-difference, and consequently not male organs. Analogues of stamina may make their appearance in the mosses, but they invariably fail to attain the development of pollen. What have been called male parts in other cryptogamia, do not merit consideration. Such projections or prefigurations are besides to be found everywhere.

1514. The asexual plants are simply formations of the tissues, of the galvanic vesicle, and are thus of a female nature. They are nothing more than a great utricle full of small vesicles, which by desiccation subdivide into germinal dust or sporules, each granule whereof attracts other mucous vesicles out of the moisture, in order to form again a large utricle.

1515. The asexuals cease in the process of vegetation, where the other plants begin. With the rupture of the gemmal-or bud-vesicle in the higher plants a new world for the first time emerges into view, such as stem, leaves, blossom, and then the ultimate bud ruptures for the first time as the pericarp, and scatters its higher organized germinal powder as true seeds.

1516. An asexual plant is one, which, without all the intermediate organs of the stem, at once represents the capsule or ovary. It consists only of the beginning and end of the plant.

285

1517. The higher plants differ from the lower by the interposition of new organs between the two terminal organs, namely, the primary vesicle and the true seed. It may be said, that the asexual plant is naught but seed, and that the seed of the higher plants is a fungus upon a leafy peduncle, a fungus more highly organized by light.

1518. The asexual plants have no true root, stalk, and leaf; they have not even a true bark, liber, and wood, in so far as these first make their appearance through separation. Tracheæ are first exhibited in the higher ferns, and then only as constituting a single string, which occupies the middle of the plant, and consequently forms no circle or zone.

1519. As again the true seed is a leaf-formation, and possesses therefore cotyledons or seed-lobes, such seeds must be wanting in the asexual plants; they are therefore Acotyledones. From the same cause, however, the germinal leaves or plumula must be also wanting; they are therefore germless, or anembryonic.

1520. The farinaceous or granular matter, lying next to the germ when within the shell of the true seeds, is called the albumen or perisperm; the seeds of the asexual plants are therefore nothing else but albumen. They are therefore devoid of the funiculus or, what has been called, umbilical cord.

1521. The involucre, wherein, in true seeds, the germ and albumen are found, is the seed-coat or testa; consequently what has been called the capsule of the asexual plants (of mosses and ferns) corresponds simply to this spermoderm or seed-covering, and is no true ovarium. The capsules of mosses and ferns are therefore seeds full of albuminous dust.

1522. If any of these be regarded as a capsule, it can be the calyptra of the mosses. This, too, is probably nothing else than the external testa; the proper capsule being its internal coat.

1523. The indusium of ferns incloses several capsules286 as they have been called, or properly seeds, and might therefore, if considered alone, be compared with an ovarium, but it is probably none other than the covering corresponding to the perichœtium that surrounds the base of the setæ in mosses. The sorus is an accumulation of seeds with pulverulent albumen contained in a membranaceous covering, the indusium.

1524. The life of the asexual plants consists simply in the galvanic process. They are the primary organisms, planted in air.

1525. As being simply galvanic process, they would require but little light and air; they therefore seek the darkness, like the roots, and thrive also in a corrupt atmosphere, in caves, mines, cellars, and such like situations. They can from the same cause thrive only in moisture, in water, upon marshy meadow lands, after rain, copious dew, and so on.

1526. They are devoid the process of fermentation, as being that which is imparted by the oxydation of air, and they therefore yield neither sugar nor acids. They are simply the organized process of putrefaction; their ultimate product is therefore germinal powder, infusorial matter. Their remaining secretions are alkaline bodies; to which belong the pungent, fetid, and nauseous excretions, as the hydrogen gas and ammonia of the fungi, the mucus of the fuci, the carbonate of lime in the lichens, the cell-threads of the mosses, the fetid principle of ferns.

1527. Very few of these plants require the course of a summer in order to perfect or complete the vital course; a single ray of light of one day's, aye, of one hour's duration, is sufficient with most of them to evoke the feeble difference, to rouse the swell of the sap, and precipitate the infusorial powder.

1528. Automatic movements, as in the leaves and stamina of the higher plants, scarcely occur in them, or at most in the ferns, from their possessing spiral vessels. They divide, according to the tissues, into three classes, into Cell-, Vessel-, and Trachea-plants.

287

CLASS I.

Cell-plants—Fungi.

Here belong those plants which consist simply of cellular tissue, having no sap-tubes and tracheæ. Such plants, too, possess no regular or hexagonal cellular tissue.

1529. The cellular tissue, in which there is only a single active process, cannot essentially alter its primary form. It is therefore an accumulation of round or cylindrical mucus-vesicles.

1530. Mucus-vesicles, in which the air-process is not as yet active, cannot be coloured green; but must have the colour of the earth.

1531. Plants, composed of amorphous and earth-coloured cellular tissue, are Fungi. The fungi are simply clusters of mucus-vesicles joined together in a more or less regular manner, their union being effected in dark, hollow and wet situations.

1532. They may therefore originate wherever mucous juices are evolved by the potential agency of a higher organization, and thus by putrefaction. The fungi originate by æquivocal generation. They are the anal-organizations of the higher plants and animals; the corrupted and luxuriating juices.

1533. Nevertheless the fungus is propagated by division of its vesicles, which again, in accordance with their peculiar laws of polarity, attract mucus-vesicles, and thus obtain the form of the earlier or parent fungus. This is only a more regulated kind of æquivocal generation.

1534. The origin of the fungi may therefore happen in a twofold manner, namely, by formation from other juices, and by that of their own, which is called propagation. Still at bottom both are one in kind.

1535. Their granules or vesicles are seeds, properly sporules, which are self-developed without male polarization.

DIVISION.

1536. The fungi pass moreover through stages of288 development, which range parallel to the vegetable classes; since it is impossible for any other organs to originate in them but such as belong to the idea of the plant. The lowest fungus can therefore change only, by endeavouring to develop in itself ducts, tracheæ, roots, and such like parts.

1537. There are accordingly as many developmental stages of the fungi as there are vegetable classes. These divisions are called families.

1538. The vegetable families range parallel to the classes. This law must hold good of all the classes. There are therefore in each class 16 families. An association of families upon each stage may be called an order.

1539. At first the fungus is none other than a mucus-vesicle or a small cluster of vesicles, e. g. an uredo or mildew. Such a vesicle next becomes longitudinally extended, and includes within itself other vesicles or granules, e. g. mould. These mould-filaments or threads unite again so as to form a common mass, which is surrounded by an external membrane, and is then called puff-ball. The pulverulent granules, which were irregularly accumulated in the puff-balls, unite at length in a regular manner to constitute a trunk of varied form, as in the ascomycetes, e. g. sphæriæ. Finally, the mould-filaments with their sporules are regularly collected together in an investing membrane, which, like a puff-ball, is supported upon a stipes or stem, e. g. the sarcomycetes or agarics. There are therefore 5 developmental stages of the fungi, which correspond to those of the classes; viz. the parenchyma, shaft, stem, flower, and fruit; and constitute orders.

1540. Each order is resolvable again into three divisions or families, which correspond to the organs. Thus there are in each class 16 tribes or families, which obviously range parallel to the vegetable organs or classes. (Vid. Tab. B.)

1541. A tribe or family is consequently the representation of a vegetable organ within a class.

1542. The genera obey the same law; for essential289 differences are only conceivable through the presence of different organs.

1543. Species is in the animal kingdom that which copulates without necessity and compulsion. The same definition is applicable to plants. The species range, without doubt, according to the diversities in the individual organs themselves, which admit of a great multitude of combinations, the number of which is not as yet to be determined.

1544. The component parts of the fungi are either perfectly indifferent, mucous or gelatinoid matter; or they are of an alcaline nature, being acrid, poisonous, and such like. Their odour is usually dead, disagreeable, and loathsome, or analogous to their essential process of decomposition.

CLASS II.

Vessel-or Duct-plants—Mosses.

1545. The intercellular passages or succigerent vessels of plants make their first appearance in a state of perfection, when, the cells being extended lengthways, have become hexagonal and are placed in regular juxtaposition. In these plants therefore we meet with regular cellular tissue, but still without spiral vessels or tracheæ.

1546. As the vessels or ducts constitute the fundamental tissue of the liber, while this is the principal system of the stalk; so now does the stem begin to be manifested and separated from the fruit. The seeds are no longer therefore distributed in the present class throughout the whole trunk, but developed in a special involucrum or theca, which corresponds to the puff-ball, or to the pileus of the higher organized fungi.

1547. Plants with vessels, and consequently a cauliform formation, have at once also the commencement of a bark, and next the green colour. The vascular are the first green plants, and differ chiefly through that character from the fungi. They are the Fucacæ or Sea-wracks.

1548. They have the colour of the water, because the290 course of the sap corresponds to the aqueous process; they are aquatic, just as the brown fungi are terrestrial, plants. Their component parts are aqueous, indifferent, mucous, and filose. Their habitation is the water itself or bogs. If they occupy dry situations, they live only when it rains.

1549. They likewise pass through the five stages of vegetation, and form therefore five orders.

1550. Order 1. The lowest or Tissue-mosses, corresponding to the Uredines; are again naught but cells or mucous pellicles, but, from growing in water, and being consequently exposed to light and a stronger oxydation, they are green—Tremellini.

1551. They multiply by subdivision, since new vesicles or granules are developed in their interior, which become separated, and subsist or continue to grow for themselves. They therefore originate also by æquivocal generation, but by such an one as constantly occurs in water and light.

1552. The second order, or the Vascular mosses corresponds to the sheaths, or to the Hyphomycetes. They are long filaments replete with granules, growing in water, and therefore green—Confervaceæ. These plants begin to ramify, and either increase by this means or by effusion of granular matter.

1553. The third order, that of the Tracheal mosses, corresponds to the stem, or to the Gasteromycetes. A membranous trunk originates in water, which in certain places secretes the seeds in special vesicles or cysts—Fucales or connate Confervæ. The fuci have at once the form of a stalk with root and leaves, because they correspond to these three organs of the axis.

1554. The fourth order, the Floral mosses, endeavours to obtain the blossom, and therefore elevates itself out of the water, but loses on that account the trunk-like character, and exhibits for the most part only membranous expansions, upon which seeds are secreted, which being usually of a beautiful colour, thus assume the appearance of corollæ—Lichenales. The lichens are291 fuci in dry situations. They correspond to the Pyrenomycetes or Sphæriaceæ.

1555. As the variegated colours appear in the blossom, so do they also in the lichens; but here they are for the first time chemically developed, distributed throughout the whole substance, and concealed. Most lichens yield colouring matters.

1556. As the stem is, in accordance with their signification, wanting to the lichens, they thus require a foreign trunk for their nutrition. They are therefore developed for the most part upon other plants, and principally upon the bark.

1557. Lastly, the fifth order, Fruit-mosses, originates through the development of a self-substantial fruit upon a cauliform stem—the Mosses proper.

1558. As these are the highest plants of this class, and those that directly precede the tracheal formation, so the bark already resolves itself into individual leaves, which are, however, still destitute of spiral vessels.

1559. What have been called the seeds or sporules are accumulated in a capsule-like fruit upon the summit of the stalk. This fruit corresponds to the pileated fungus, and therefore springs up in an opercular manner like the latter.

1560. But this capsule is only a spermoderm, which incloses albuminous granules that have no proper germ or seed-lobes; they are plants with seed-vessels or pyxidia, upon an open-leaved stalk.

1561. They divide likewise into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)

CLASS III.

Trachea-plants—Ferns.

1562. At first a fascicle only of spiral vessels can originate, which is necessarily surrounded by cellular tissue, and therefore lies in the middle of the plant. Such plants are the Filices or ferns.

1563. As the spiral vessels are the antetype of the292 leaves, so does the trunk here obtain the form of the leaf, without itself producing true leaves. For, in the ferns, the fruits lie upon the back of the apparent leaf, which can only be the trunk.

1564. The fruits, being further removed from the fungi, no longer spring up in an opercular, but in a valvular, manner like the higher capsules.

1565. Green plants with imperfect spiral vessels and blossoms, and also with naked seeds devoid of true capsules, belong to the class of Ferns.

1566. I therefore place in this class the Coniferæ or trees with acicular foliage, because they have no ovarium, but naked seeds; and besides these, some other plants, though doubtfully, on account of their very abortive blossoms, as the Naiadaceæ. There are therefore Tracheal plants without and with stamina. The first portray the stock or trunk, the second, the thyrsus or blossom; they live mostly in dry situations, and produce resins or fetid matters.

1567. First order. Parenchymatous ferns—Aquatic ferns. I here place the aquatic ferns, because, as water-plants, they occupy a lower situation, because they support the fruits upon a radical trunk, and finally, because these fruit-vesicles have two kinds of contents, all of which seems to remind us of the fuci and lichens; they correspond to the Tremellini.

1568. Second order. Sheath-ferns—Club-ferns. Here commence the land ferns, and those kinds indeed whose so-called capsules open in a valvular manner, just as in the liverworts; or almost after the fashion of a pyxidium by an orifice, somewhat as in the mosses; the trunk is provided with squamose leaves or lobes, e. g. Lycopodiaceæ and Osmundaceæ; they correspond to the Confervaceæ.

1569. Third order. Stem-ferns—Annular or Ring-ferns. Here we meet with phylloidal involuted capsules or seeds upon the back of a stem that is likewise leaf-like; e. g. the typical or true ferns.

1570. They have rudiments of roots and a stem, toge293ther with foliage, because they are the prototypes of these three organs.

1571. The ring of their capsules corresponds to the midrib of the leaf. In the preceding order the capsule was only an upsprung stalk; but it is here an upsprung and unfolded leaf, the prototype of the bud-development.

1572. The fern-capsules, namely, the true seeds, are an accumulation of leaf-buds at the extremity of the fascicle of spiral vessels. The indusium is the upraised epidermis, which opens in a spathose manner; it consequently stands in the signification perhaps of the floral spathe or involucrum. They correspond to the Fuci.

1573. Fourth order. Floral ferns—Fluviales. If the tracheal plants be exalted unto the flower, male organs cannot fail in at once beginning to develop. I place therefore in this order the Naiadaceæ with very arrested blossoms, and simply stamina without calyx and corolla. The spiral vessels are rather doubtful.

1574. Fifth order. Fruit ferns—Coniferæ. Tree with imperfectly-formed spiral vessels, stamina without corollæ, seeds without ovarium; thus agreeing with the Cryptogamia even to the stamina; they form likewise sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)

SEXUAL PLANTS.

1575. So soon as the three tissues separate completely from each other into bark, liber, and wood, while the tracheæ are arranged circularly into several clusters or groups, does the antagonism of these organs also make its appearance, and exhibit itself as sex in the floral organs.

1576. This separation can only be attained through the influence of the air and light, whereby the sexual organs are conditionated. These plants have therefore the several organs of the trunk and blossom.

1577. Anthers can be wanting to none of the following plants. Now, the anthers are leaf-buds; the leaf-formation must be therefore developed also in their antagonism, or in the seed. The leaves of the seed, however, are called294 seed-lobes; consequently all seeds of sexual plants have seed-lobes or cotyledons.

1578. Now the perfect seed is the whole plant in miniature with root, stalk, and leaf. This formation is, however, only possible where there is a sex, or where the vegetable tissues have emerged self-substantially from each other.

1579. But the anthers are buds upon a floral rib; consequently all sexual plants must have a part of the blossom, which ranks in the signification of leaf, and thus either the calyx or, with this also, the corolla.

1580. All sexual plants must have a shaft or scape, in which its three parts, bark, liber, and wood, are to be distinguished; even so must the three parts of the stem, the root, stalk, and leaf, have the parts of the blossom which correspond to them, viz. seed, ovarium, and calyx or corolla.

1581. The sexual plants next divide into Stock-and Blossom-plants, the former of these parting into Shaft-and Stem-plants.

Second Province.

SHAFT-PLANTS—MONOCOTYLEDONES.

1582. In the Shaft-plants the invaginate character is predominant, the wood being surrounded by liber, and this by bark; they are therefore tubular in form—tubular plants.

1583. The cellular tissue preponderates in them, and the tracheal fascicles form therefore no closed circle, but are dispersed; scattered fasciculi cannot, however, ramify but only pursue a straight course and form streaks—striated plants.

1584. Ramification is wanting unto these plants, partly on account of their tubular form, partly on account of the smaller quantity of tracheal fascicles—aramose plants. A vegetable stem without branches is called shaft or scape; thus they are shaft-plants.

1585. The blossoms do not stand upon ramules, but295 upon the stem itself; thus, if ever ramification originates, it can first occur in the floral peduncles.

1586. As they are deficient in branches, so also are they in buds—agemmal or budless plants.

1587. The tendency to produce branches forms nodes, which are only imperfect ramal zones—nodose plants.

1588. Where the formation of branches is wanting, the minor ramification of ribs must be also wanting in the leaves; they are parallel-ribbed.

1589. The leaf is only a ruptured and expanded tube or spathe, which surrounds the shaft—spathose plants.

1590. Where branches are wanting, there can be also no petiolated leaves; they have therefore only radical leaves, from the midst of which the shaft or scape sprouts forth, only as a floral-peduncle—radical-leaved plants.

1591. If all these leaves be still sheathed or encased within each other, they are called bulbs—bulbose plants.

1592. Since the corolla is the repetition of the leaves, so also must its structure resemble theirs—spathose corollæ.

1593. But as there are here only radical leaves, so also is the corolla only a radical leaf-corolla. In the blossom, however, the radical leaf has become spathe, the cauline leaf, calyx, the ramuscular leaf, corolla. Such blossoms consist therefore either of a spathe only, as in the Aroideæ, or of a calyx—calycine plants.

1594. The stamina originate from the calyx. In calycine flowers therefore all the stamina must range opposite to the corolla-petals. These plants have only opposite, no alternate stamina. It has been generally assumed that the Monocotyledones have no true corollæ, but only coloured calyces. Philosophy agrees with this opinion; but adds thereunto that the corollæ of the Monocotyledones may be also merely spathes or involucra.

1595. The separation of the bud-formation here takes place for the first time in the blossom, namely, in the stamina. The number of the floral parts must be limited296 to three; for this is the first number, in which the leaf-ribs may divide. Corollæ, stamina, and capsules are ternary—trinity-plants.

1596. As the seed is only an undeveloped leaf-bud, so in it only can the number of the leaf be found. Since, however, the leaf does not ramify in the present group of plants, but is only a single spathose leaf; so also does the seed consist only of one such leaf or of one seed-lobe—Monocotyledones. The wheat-seed or grain is none other than a grass-leaf with a short spathe and very dense, highly farinaceous, lamellæ. In germinating a new leaf emerges from the short spathe; it is the germinal leaf.

1597. Thus plants having a tubular stem, and such kind of foliage, corollæ and seeds, are Monocotyledones.

1598. The chemical bodies are more diversified in these than in the remaining members of the vegetable kingdom. In the roots, as in the tubers of the Orchideæ we meet with distinct mucilage; in the bulbs with alkalies or acrid matter; and with sugar, as being a feeble conversion of the starch in the stalk. The mucilage of the root becomes, when repeated in the seed, flour. Oily matters or acids seldom occur, and fleshy fruits scarcely ever.

1599. The ovary is almost throughout this region of plants either a single spathose leaf or caryopsis; or three spathe-leaves are united together, which thus, as follicles or carpels, usually burst open upon the internal edge.

DIVISION.

1600. If we now proceed to survey the Monocotyledons, in the order just set before us, we shall recognize among them three typical groups, to which the others are allied; they are the Gramineæ, Liliaceæ, and Palmaceæ.

1601. The Grasses obviously rank the lowest as well in respect of their root, stalk, and foliage, as also of their stunted blossoms, ovarium, and seeds.

1602. To them succeed the Lilies, which have a well-marked root, a more perfect, though still always herbaceous, stalk, and a few spathoid, more numerously297 ribbed leaves; lastly, their corollæ, ovaria, and seeds are perfect; but still they invariably have no genuine fruits.

1603. Finally, the Palms are elevated above all by their stem being rich in tracheæ and wooded, as also by the perfection of their fruit. Scientifically, the scapose or shaft-plants must also resolve themselves into three classes; into Bark-, Liber-, and Wood-plants.

CLASS IV.

Bark-plants—Gramineæ.

1604. In these plants the whole stalk must have assumed the form of the cortex or bark, and consequently be hollow—tubular, or culmaceous plants.

1605. A mere bark cannot ramify. But the tendency unto ramification is manifested as nodes—nodose plants.

1606. The leaf which still represents the bark, is only imperfectly slit up, and therefore still forms a tube. Such leaves are called tubular or spathe-leaves proper.

1607. Such tubular leaves being only half slit up can only shoot forth gradually from each other, and that indeed in such a manner that they stand actually by twos, encased in, or opposite to, each other.

1608. Since the blossom is, as it were, an impression, or copy of the leaves, so will it here also consist only of spathiform, involucral, or calycine leaves, and only of two, one of which, though opposite to, is surrounded by the other. Such floral parts are called glumes—glumaceous plants. If four glumes are present, then the external pair of them corresponds to the involucrum or spatha, the internal to the calyx.

1609. The corolla-petals are of necessity arrested in plants such as these, where no true leaf is as yet developed; frequently two only are left persistent as pellicles or lodiculæ.

1610. This is still more the case with the ovary and seed; in each only one leaf attains development, and the seed has entirely coalesced with the ovarium. This kind of fruit is called caryopsis.

298

1611. Nodose plants with hollow scape or shaft, tubular leaves, glumose blossoms, and cariopsidal fruits are Grasses.

DIVISION.

1612. The Bark-plants pass moreover, together with their subdivisions, through the five stages of vegetable organs, and they will therefore produce also a more perfect stalk, leaves, and flowers. The whole calyx will, however, never be coloured or corolla-like in its character. Cortical plants are thus herbaceous plants with hollow stalk, and with an arrested or green calyx, without sarcose or fleshy fruit.

1613. Those, which have simply glumose flowers, are without doubt the lowest in rank, as corresponding to the tissues and stock, but not yet to the flower.

1614. These again divide into two great groups, whereof the one includes plants with simply uni-seminal cariopsides, the other, on the contrary, capsules containing a free seed—Grasses and Reed-grasses. The grasses which have a cariopsis or grain-fruit reascend by two stages; the most inferior in rank do not attain to a ramification, but the flowers stand crowded together in spikes; the others, on the contrary, are pedunculated and ramify in panicles.

1615. Among the higher kinds instead of glumes there are regular flowers, of which, however, the calyx is still glumose or at least green. The cariopsis is converted into a multilocular capsule, as in the Restiaceæ, Commelineæ, &c.

1616. The first order, or the Parenchymatous grasses, have glumose flowers with a cariopsis for fruit, borne upon culms or nodose straws, and do not attain to any ramification—spicate grasses. In their seeds we meet with the greatest amount of starch developed, though doubtless at the cost of the trunk.

1617. The second order of Spathose grasses are similar, and support ramified flowers—paniculate grasses. In this division occur grasses of a dendroidal character,299 and having occasionally fruit-like ovaria, as in the bamboos.

1618. The third order consists of the Cauline grasses. Here the leaves at once separate completely from the shaft, which is therefore free from nodes. Nut-like capsules, though still inclosed in glumes, also make their appearance—reed-grasses.

1619. The fourth order, Floral grasses. The leaves are still only radical; the shaft is anodal; the flowers are separated into green calyx and coloured corolla, with three or six stamina, and mostly with a trilocular capsule—Junceæ, to which the Commelinaceæ are allied.

1620. The fifth order, Carpal grasses. Hollow anodal shafts, with scarcely spathiform, mostly broad leaves, the ribs of which begin to ramify; with similar calyces and corollæ, and numerous capsules—Seeroseæ, to which the Alismaceæ and Hydrocharideæ are related.

1621. The highest kind of fruit attained by this class is nut-like, never fleshy in character. The stalk is nowhere woody as in some grasses. The grasses divide, as do all other orders of plants, into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)

CLASS V.

Liber-plants—Liliaceæ.

1622. The substance of the stalk is soft and succulent; its structure devoid of nodes; the leaves are tolerably free and ribbed; calyx and corolla coloured, both being perfectly formed and invariably tripartite, as is likewise the capsule, which has many seeds upon its inner angle. These plants are the Lilies. In the present class all parts have been developed in conformity to the liber, are rich in sap, and have become dense and fleshy.

1623. The roots are mostly tubers or bulbs, containing a superior kind of mucilage, or aromatic principles. The shaft is not hollow but, though herbaceous, filled up; the leaves are elevated upon the stalk. One division of these plants has irregular corollæ with stunted stamina and capsules, the latter containing mostly dust-like seeds, as in the Orchideæ and aromatic plants.

300

1624. The other division has regular 2 × 3ary corollæ, with, perfect glume-capsules and middling-sized seeds, as the Irideæ and Liliaceæ proper.

1625. The first order, Parenchymatose lilies. The corollæ are irregular, bilabiate, and stand upon the calyx and a membranous sexlocular capsule with very small seeds; are divided according to the pollen—e. g. pulverulent Orchideæ.

1626. The second order, Sheath-lilies. Characters similar to those of the preceding order, but the pollen is agglomerated into waxy granules—granular orchideæ.

1627. The third order, Stem-lilies. The corollæ are likewise bilabiate and situated above the calyx, but the ovarium contains few seeds, and the capsule is mostly nut-like—aromatic plants, such as the Scitamineæ and Musaceæ.

1628. The fourth order Floral-lilies, have regular blossoms, separated into calyx and corolla, placed above the capsule, and mostly furnished with three stamina. Here belong the Hypoxideæ, Hæmodoraceæ and Irideæ.

1629. The fifth order, Fruit-lilies. The leaves have not yet completely separated from each other, but still form bulbs; the corollæ are regular, have six stamina, and are placed beneath the capsule, as in the true lilies. To this order belong the Colchicaceæ, Aloinæ and Liliaceæ. Their bulbs contain mostly acrid matters. They divide into sixteen families. (Vid. Tab. B.)

CLASS VI.

Wood-plants—Palmaceæ.

Plants with woody shaft and with fruits, mostly enclosed in spadices.

1630. The desiccation of the cells and fibres is promoted by the increased process of oxydation. Where therefore the tracheæ attain the preponderance, there the conversion into wood originates.

1631. The stalks of these plants are not hollow, but have a dense interior, because the fasciculi of tracheæ lie within the liber, and there increase.

301

1632. The main bulk of the stalk will consist of tracheæ.

1633. As the tracheæ are longitudinal organs, and the other tissues also extend lengthways, so does the stalk or stem in these plants predominate over the other parts.

1634. In this class the most perfect leaves as regards their present stage are developed; for they are only expansions of the tracheæ, which are here present in superabundance. As regards the form also, these leaves must rank higher than those of the preceding class; the spathe is shorter, the leaf itself usually broad, many-ribbed, and frequently pinnate. The leaves are also perfect as to position, being no longer mere radical leaves, but situated upon the stalk, even on its apical extremity.

1635. The ramification gradually emerges into view, where forsooth its occurrence is possible in the shaft-plants, or in the inflorescence. It is always multiple in character, mostly spadici-, muscari-, and paniculiform.

1636. As regards the blossom the ovarium is most perfectly evolved, because it is developed out of the stalk; it is ternary and becomes elevated into a fruit with few seeds.

1637. The corollæ are frequently stunted, yet regular and 2 × 3ary, though insignificant on account of the preponderance in size of the fruit.

1638. In this class we meet with the first true or genuine fruits; because in it for the first time the three anatomical systems are completely separated.

1639. Plants having a ligneous stalk, free and many-ribbed leaves, ramified inflorescence and ternary fleshy fruits, are the Palmaceæ. The Palmaceæ have a woody, very hollow stem, with many-ribbed, divided, and often pinnate leaves; a muscariform inflorescence lodged in spathes, sexanary corollæ with nuts, berries, or drupes. With the palms are associated the Typhaceæ, Aroideæ, Piperales, Pandanales, Dioscoreæ, Smilaceæ, Asparagi, Convallariæ, and Bromeliæ; for their stalks are mostly302 woody, the leaves broad, and placed upon the stalk, the corollæ stunted, while, on the contrary, the ovarium is carpoidal or fruit-like. The five orders may be disposed as follows: