90 ONTOLOGY. 



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 pro- 

 cess of cohesion ; this is called the Process of Crystal- 

 lization. 



444. The process of crystallization is perfectly equi- 

 valent to the process of fixation of the aether, 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 aether is con- 

 stantly 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 pro- 

 cess of fixation, and with it also is furnished the theory 

 of crystallization. The process of crystallization is a pro- 

 cess of polarization, and one indeed that proceeds from a 

 centre ; or, properly speaking, the point, from which the 

 polarizing process emerges in a fluidity that is fixable or 



