COMETS. 57 



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 pre- 

 cipitations, 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 per- 

 sistent 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 aether. This is the case with 

 those comets that never return. These comets are tem- 

 poral coagulations of aether by light, and thus continued 

 creation. 



245. The aether coagulates where the light, already 

 polarized in part by the operations of other heavenly 

 bodies, encounters it. This depends upon fortuitous 

 constelktions. 



246. These comets originate like the planets; they 



