ELEMENTS. 61 



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 aether becomes fixed, the 

 rarest, most mobile and lightest body must originate. 

 The body of heat is Hydrogen. 



267. If the light of the aether 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 aether 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, caloric, oxy- 

 gen and hydrogen, there can be no other simple bodies. 

 All other bodies must be only different degrees of fixa- 

 tion of the above-mentioned bodies, or combinations 

 of the same. Different degrees of carbon are without 

 doubt the metals. Different degrees of oxygen are pro- 

 bably 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 aether, which merely belongs to 

 gravity, or merely to light or to heat. 



271. An elemental body is never a Total, but inva- 

 riably 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 inva- 

 riably present together. The terrestrial matter completed 



