GEOLOGY. 151 



not merely do earth and darkness belong to the genesis 

 of the ore, but earthy water like as unto salt. 



712. The ore is not a conversion of earths that have 

 already existed, or been actually separated ; but it origi- 

 nates first of all during the process of separation. Where 

 ore is, fluid has thus been, and polarity, which is not 

 directly derived from light. The ore is a mere child 

 of the planet, a pure terrestrial essence generated without 

 the joint assistance of the heaven, and therefore the high- 

 est substantiality of the planet, the spirit of the earth. 



713. What gneiss and mica-schist, calx and salt, are 

 in the bright valleys, such is the ore in the dark val- 

 leys; the former are the differenced ore, and this is 

 their identification. 



714. There is no peculiar metallic body or seed, 

 which had already existed in the primary creation as 

 something special or peculiar, and which by one process 

 only, as perhaps even by its gravity, was precipitated or 

 posited from the fluid mass. One and the same sub- 

 stance, if found exposed in a valley to the light, becomes 

 earth ; but ore when it is in a dark passage. 



715. Of a certainty neither clay, sand, talc, or calx 

 become metal. For these are at once definitions of the 

 spirit, words that have been already completed and ex- 

 pressed, and cannot be recalled ; so also the ore will not 

 again become clay, even if it be submitted to light. The 

 indeterminate substance only, which under other con- 

 ditions might have become clay, becomes in the darkness 

 ore. 



71G. What is not in idea, prior to the adjustment or 

 fixation of a pole, reduced to ore, can on no account 

 become that out of an already finished mass of earth. 

 Conversions of earth into ore by chemical arts are labours 

 bestowed in vain. 



717. Yet if ores do originate, they originate only out 

 of the indefinite Basic, which is still in the water, just as 

 trap stones originate not from a stony dust that pre- 

 existed, but out of the pure indifferent substance of the air. 



718. The veins and the formation of ore are one, as 



