MINERALOGY. 101 



parent. 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. With- 

 out metal we would see nothing. 



c. In so far as heat is represented in metal is it exten- ; 

 sible, 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 combus- 

 tible properties ; the metal has combined with hydrogen,, 

 has become an Inflammable, as in sulphur or pit-coal.j 

 Sulphur may be regarded as the intimate fusion of hydro- 

 gen with metal ; coal as a combination of the same pro- 

 bably elicited by means of oxygen. Inflammables are 

 idio-electric 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 meta- 

 type 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. It 



