166 ONTOLOGY. 



C. INFLAMMABLES. 



Ulectrism. 



793. Coal and sulphur may be regarded as the repre- 

 sentatives of the Inflammables, making their appearance 

 in the carbonic acid of lime, and the sulphuric acid of 

 gypsum, just as the metals did among the alkalies. 



794. The Inflammables are accordingly associated with 

 the acids or the salts, the ores with the earths. It may 

 be said that the former are reduced acids, the latter 

 reduced earths. 



795. The Inflammables are consequently those that 

 succeed next to the salts or water-minerals. Their deter- 

 mining element is in this respect also the air ; that of the 

 ores is therefore the fire. 



796. The Inflammable, as being the reduced acid, 

 must have the strongest affinity for oxygen. A body, 

 which by its own force, attracts the oxygen from the air, 

 so that it appears luminous, is called combustible. 



797. The generating spirit of the Inflammables coin- 

 cides with the spirit of air, and thus with electricity. 

 The generating spirit of metals coincides with the light ; 

 it is the radial action in the Massive, or magnetism. 



798. Electricity has become embodied in the Inflam- 

 mable, i. e. idioelectric ; in metal, light has become em- 

 bodied, i. e. idiomagnetic. 



799. Now, as the Inflammable exists under two forms, 

 with the preponderance of the earth-nature as coal, and 

 with that of the air-nature as sulphur, so must the elec- 

 tricity appear fixed chiefly in the latter. This fixation is 

 the idioelectricity. 



800. As electricity is in its essence a constantly dual- 

 ized agent, so can only one pole belonging to it become 

 fixed. In sulphur this is what has been called the nega- 

 tive pole. 



a. SULPHUR. 



801. As the air stands opposed to the earth, so must 



