150 ONTOLOGY. 



703. Darkness is, however, no power, and can con- 

 sequently be only the opportunity, not the cause of any- 

 thing' s happening. Other forces, instead of that of light, 

 must have therefore operated in the production of ores. 

 In order to discover these forces the relations of the ores 

 must be carefully weighed or considered. 



704. The ore is in a philosophic sense a reduced 

 earth, and so reduced indeed that the basic principle 

 has obtained the preponderance over the oxygenic or 

 supporter of combustion, and attained unto substan- 

 tiality. 



705. In light, in the water forsooth when illuminated, 

 the two earth-principles were already divided internally, 

 but not completely separated ; salt only originated, 

 namely an acid and alkali. 



706. The ore is, however, a salt wholly reduced, and 

 indeed the reduced alkali has become metal, the reduced 

 acid with the basis of hydrogen, Inflammable, namely, 

 coal or sulphur. 



707. Now as light was not able to produce such a 

 separation in the free or full sense of the term, forces 

 must thus have been present in the dark passages, which 

 completed this separation. 



708. Ore and Inflammable are the total salt dissevered, 

 and this is the dissolution of the two ; the former are 

 blue and yellow, the latter is the compound green. 



709. The processes of the formation of salt and of ore 

 are both indeed processes of separation, but yet they 

 stand opposite to, or rather transcend each other. Both 

 mutually conditionate each other. 



710. While the earths submitted to the action of light 

 upon the surface of the planet are converted into salt, the 

 process of the formation of ore takes place in the dark or 

 under the earth ; or while above the oxygen is predo- 

 minant, the basic body is that below. The ore imparts 

 upon a large scale its oxygen to the salt, and the salt 

 bestows its basic body on the ores. 



711. No ores could originate in the middle of the 

 earth were light even to have no access thereunto. For 



