88 ONTOLOGY. 



been absorbed ; but upon the earth also the water exer- 

 cises 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 re- 

 assuming 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 esta- 

 blished by that which is to undergo solution ; for every- 

 thing 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 inde- 

 pendently self-evolved, chemistry then originates ; but of 

 this we shall discourse in the sequel. The process of 

 solution may be characterized as the equilibrium of the 

 process of tension between the object that is to undergo 

 solution and the solvent, and between the two principles 

 of the latter, whereby separation is not thus attained. As 



