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a. GRAVITY. (First form of the World. Rest.)

148. In arithmetic the divine acts are only undetermined = numbers. In geometry the numbers obtain determinate or finite directions, become figures. All figures have, however, an especial direction to the centre. Figures are nought but centres manifoldly posited.

149. The direction to a centre is, however, an act, which never ceases to operate. The primary act strives therefore to posit ad infinitum nought else than a centre, i. e. points.

150. If there are points without the centre, it so happens only because the succeeding points have been displaced by the points that were first posited. The peripheric points are only with reluctance out of the centre. The globe only exists in an uneasy state, because it has no place in the centre.

151. Every finite thing strives towards the centre. The finite is only something, in so far as it is posited in the centre, and it maintains its value according to its distance from the centre. This exertion or endeavour, by virtue of which things would be in the centre, is Gravity.

152. What the retrogression of numbers into 0 is, that is the gravity in the sphere. The gravity is a geometrical reduction of position unto nothing. The sphere is only produced by action, and that indeed by the centroperipheric. This action must therefore manifest itself in two ways, as centrifugality and centripetality. The first is the dispersion of the primary act or of points, the second is the collection of the primary acts or points into the unity, and this is gravity. Centrifugality originates only in a constrained manner or with reluctance, for the primary act always seeks the centre, and only moves towards the periphery, because it has no longer any place there. If centripetality be regarded as a force, then is centrifugality no force, but only centripetality itself retreating from the centre; even as cold and darkness are probably no particular forces in themselves, but only weaker degrees of heat or light.

153. Gravity is not motion simply, but motion unto a centre, unto rest.

154. That which is itself in the very centre is therefore not heavy. The primary act is not heavy.

155. As all finite things are positions of the primary act in the sphere out of the centre, so are all of them heavy. Gravity is the force that strives unto the centre, and which is there impeded by other forces already present therein. A finite thing, that is not heavy, is a contradiction. The gravity of the single thing is weight. The world itself has no weight, or else it must be heavy in relation to something else without it. The ideas of gravity and weight, as we speak of them in reference to individual things, are not applicable to the world, still less to God.

156. Gravity is also nothing new in the world, but it is only the positing of the centre in space. As necessarily as the Eternal, when it manifests itself, must appear under a definite form, so also must it be necessary with the eternal effort, to return into itself or appear as gravity. Gravity is nothing different from the primary act, nothing specially created; but the spherical position of the same tending unto the centre.

157. Now, as the sphere has originated out of nothing, so also has gravity originated out of the same. The form is a formed nothing: the form is, however, no form without internal forming force, and to this gravity belongs. The being of form and the being of gravity are one. Gravity is a weighty nothing, a heavy essence, striving towards centre, a realization of the first divine idea. Gravity cannot, therefore, be perceived in the universe as a whole, but only in its parts.

158. If gravity is the primary act that has become real, so must everything originate out of gravity, or everything must acknowledge gravity to be the common mother of the finite. It is in all cases, or in every individual thing, only the gravity, the Ponderose, which exists, otherwise nothing exists; for verily nothing exists without the divine primary, which is incessantly a central, act.

MATTER.

159. Points, which strive towards the centre, are compressed, because they would all occupy one and the same spot. These points, however, are forces, which take up space and therefore exclude other points. A space that excludes another is Matter. Everything which has been said of gravity holds good in respect to matter; for matter is only another word for gravity. A heavy thing is a material thing.

160. To the totality of a thing belongs not merely its figure nor its tension or motion simply, but also its gravity. This is, however, a whole sphere. Matter is, consequently, a total position of the primary act, a trinity of ideas.

161. Matter has been imparted with space and time. All space is material; ay, matter is itself the space and the time, the form and the motion; for space is nothing special, but only extended or formed force. It is here also shown that the nothing does not exist. There is as little nothing in the universe as there is an 0 in mathematics. So soon as the nothing is, there is something. The whole universe is material, is nothing but matter; for there is the primary act eternally repeating itself in the centre. The universe is a rotating globe of matter.

162. But the universe is an acting gravity, a matter, in which the centroperipheric antagonism is active; it is therefore everywhere matter only, which acts. There is no activity without matter, but also no matter without activity, both being one; for gravity is itself the activity, and itself the matter. Matter is only limited activity. A matter which does not move is not; it can only subsist through continuous origination, through life. There is no dead matter; it is alive through its being, through the eternal that is in it. Matter has no existence in itself, but it is the Eternal only that exists in it. Everything is God, that is there, and without God there is absolutely nothing.

163. It is an illusion to believe that matter were an actual something subsisting in itself. It is even so with numbers, upon which a reality also is bestowed, when they are still demonstrable nothings. A number is nothing truly than an affirmation several times repeated, a reiterated deposition of what is nothing, what is no number. This deposition happens likewise in the universe, where it is the primary act, that is deposited. Where, however, this is, no other station can occur. This exclusive property is usually called the Impenetrable, the Material. It cannot be said in what spot matter arises, so secretly and suddenly does it start into existence. It is matter properly at the first manifestation of being, of time and of space; for at the same instant also the line, surface, density and gravity have been given. The line does not exist if it does not act; the sphere does not exist if it be not inert, i. e. if its forces do not strive towards the centre, and consequently to connexion. Nothing exists if it is not material. Matter is accordingly coexistent with the presence of God.

164. The Immaterial does not exist; for even the Material which is not, is the Immaterial. Everything that is, is material. Now, however, there is nothing that is not; consequently, there is everywhere nothing immaterial. Immateriality is only a postulate principle, by which to get at matter, like the 0 in mathematics, which is nothing in itself, does not even exist, but that still must be posited, in order that numbers may bear a reference to it.

165. God only is immaterial; he is the only permanent immaterial invention, and the axiom being the Formless, Polarless, Timeless. A spirit with form is a contradiction. But the matter also does not exist, because matter is nothing, because it is only a sphere of central actions, which is gravity.

166. The material universe is called nature. There can be only one nature, as well according to time as to space and to divine animation. There is only one God, whose operations expressed, or materially posited, are nature. Nature has originated out of nothing like time and space; or with these has nature also been. God has made heaven and earth out of nothing.

167. God has not found matter co-eternal with himself, and, like an architect, arranged this to his fancy; but he has, out of his own eternal omnipotence, by his will simply, evoked the world out of nothing unto existence. He has thought and spoken, and it was.

168. The doctrine of matter is the Philosophy of Nature. It is therefore the science also of all Singulars, like geometry and arithmetic; thus at bottom is only the third part of mathematics, and is even as certain and demonstrable as this.

ÆTHER.

169. The matter, which is the direct position of God, which fills the whole universe, which is the time in a state of tension and motion, the formed space, the heavy primary essence, I call the Primary matter, the matter of the world, cosmic matter, Æther. The æther is the first realization of God, the eternal position of the same. It is the first matter of creation. Everything has consequently originated out of it. It is the highest, divine element, the divine body, the primary substance = 0 + -.

170. The æther fills out the whole universe, and is, consequently, a sphere, yea, the world's sphere itself; the world is a rotating globe of æther.

171. The sphere of æther, not as yet individualized, I call chaos. From the beginning was chaos, and this was æther, and unto the end will chaos become æther. The æther is the apparent nothing, and thus it is the chaos. This was not the latter and not the former, but an existing nothing.

172. The æther is the imponderable matter, because it is gravity and totality itself, because it is the infinite matter.

173. The æther has no life; it is the only mortuum, because it is the heavy 0. In æther, however, reside all the principles of life, all numbers; it is the substratum, the essence of life. There is only one universal substratum in nature.

HEAVENLY BODY, POINT, CENTRE, GRAVITY.

174. Everything which emerges out of æther and is posited as a finite matter, can be nought else than a repetition of the sphere.

175. The æther subdivides into an endless number of subordinate rotating spheres, and so it must, because the world is not a whole devoid of parts, but only a whole in the parts, only a repetition of positions. The chaotic sphere of æther consists essentially at one and the same time of an infinity of spheres.

176. A chaos has never existed. The General never exists, but only the Particular. Chaos was from eternity a multiplicity of ætherial globes. Chaos is only postulate.

177. Every sphere of æther is complete in itself and closed, and therefore rotating around its axis and around the universal axis of the æther.

178. The new rotation in the heavenly bodies condensed in the periphery of the æther, follows as a necessary result, on account of the unequal velocity of its outwardly and inwardly lying points.

179. Every individual sphere has two motions in itself; the one depends upon the representation of the primary act in itself by the special rotation; the other re-attempts to regain the primary centre, through the general rotation around the universal axis.

180. Such a sphere rotating for itself is called a Heavenly body. A heavenly body again is the image or metatype of the Eternal; it is a whole, it is alive; everything, even the highest, can originate out of it; everything develop itself out of the coagulated, individualized æther. The heavenly body has a double life, an individual and an universal, since it is for itself and at the same time in the general centre. Every Individual must have a double life.

181. The heavenly bodies are as old as the æther, consequently they are from the beginning, and endure also without end. As they are only coagulated æther, so are they susceptible of being resolved into the same, such as are probably the comets.

b. LIGHT, LINE. (Second form of the World. Motion.)

182. The æther is from eternity, not merely monas, but also dyas; from eternity it stands in a state of tension with itself, when, as the image of the existing primary act, it has emerged out of itself into two poles. This self-egression or self-manifestation of æther, or of substance simply, is the self-egression of the point into the periphery. As dyas, æther exists under the form of polarity, of central and peripheric effort; the æther in a state of tension is a centroperipheric antagonism.

183. The æther is separated from eternity into a central and peripheric substance, and that indeed through its simple position as a globe. The universe is a duplicity in the form of æther; it is both indifferent and different æther, both central and peripheric. The central mass of æther may be called sun, the peripheric planet. Only one sun can originate in a globe of æther, but many planets.

184. Between the central and peripheral mass of the æther, between the sun and planets, there is tension. Through this solar-planetary tension the æther fluctuating between the two becomes polarized.

185. The tension of the æther proceeds from the centre and thus from the sun. Were the sun to be removed, the polarity of the æther would be annulled; it would be again the indifferent chaotic æther, the null and void matter. For the absolute substance to exist it needed not simply itself, but an identical centre and a dissevered periphery. Is there no peripheric mass, no planet, so also is the tension annulled; centre cannot be without periphery, sun not without planet, nor vice versâ. The tension of æther is thus excited by the sun and conditioned by the planet. The planet is not the principle, but the Redintegrant of the tension of æther by the opposition.

186. At that part of the universe where no periphery stands opposed to centre, no planet to the sun, the æther is not tense, but indifferent, annulled. There can thus only be columns of æther, which are rendered tense, namely, those columns of æther which are found between the sun and the planets. Near to the planets the æther is void of action, indifferent, non-apparent. There are consequently as many apparent æther-columns, as there are heavenly bodies, that stand in the process of polarity opposed to each other. These columns move with the planets around the suns. The indifferent æther of the world-space is, therefore, successively rendered tense, as the planets move around suns, and becomes again indifferent behind the planets.

187. But besides this, that columns of tension only exist, and therefore that the æther is nowhere active as a sphere, there is still no spot in the world-space where there would be only indifferent æther, nothing; for the æther consists of many globes of æther. There is thus nowhere an indifferent æther, consequently nowhere an empty space. The idea of the repletion of space is not that of the sphere, but of the columns of tension, which by their crossing in every direction form a sphere only externally.

188. That which is thought of as originally filling space is not the quiescent but only the moved, tensed æther. The former is the void space, the nothing.

189. The tension of æther is an action, which operates according to the line. This linear activity, which makes its exit from the central mass and is excited hence to the peripheral mass, is Light, or in short, light is tension of æther.

190. Light is a traction of lines or radial action; consequently an antetype of magnetism. A ray of light is a radius. The ray of light has two extremities different from each other; that turned towards the sun is 0, that which comes in contact with the planets is ±. Light is, therefore, a splitting, rending action.

191. Light is the life of the æther. Hitherto the æther was an inactive nothing, mere substratum for a future. This nothing, when it becomes centroperipheric, seeks to tear the mathematical point into radii and circumferences, appears; and this centroperipheric manifestation we call light.

192. The untensed, indifferent æther is, therefore, darkness, and this is the essence, the rest of æther. Chaos was thus darkness; the world arose out of darkness when light became. Light has originated out of darkness when the chaos was moved. Were it possible therefore for all light to vanish, the world would again return into its old nothing; for darkness and nothing are one. God has separated the light from the darkness.

193. If light be only a column of æther in a state of tension, light is or exists only between the planet and the sun; near to the planet and behind it is darkness. The primary sphere is a dark sphere, transpierced only by single rays of light. Each star, however, stands in a state of tension with another; thus many thousand rays of light stream forth from each, and fill out the world-space in all directions. There is therefore no absolute darkness, because there are infinitely numerous rays of light. In the night also there is always as much light present as is necessary to maintain the heavenly bodies in their action. For the world there is no night, but only for the planets. It will be shown that the air maintains its existence simply through the operation of light; were it therefore always dark, were night to endure for ever, the air must soon assume another composition or mixture, and everything that lives in it must fall to ruin. This is shown also by the diseases and crises of the same.

194. Light is from eternity, for the tense æther was from eternity. The dark chaos exists only as postulate. Light is time that has become real, the first manifestation of God; is God himself positing, is the dyadic God. The dyas is not merely radiality but light; or both are one, time and light are one, motion and light are one. When God numbers, when he draws lines, he thus creates light. God becoming self-conscious is light. Light is God illuminating. Darkness has accordingly never existed, although the light is derived from the darkness, like numbers and figures are out of nothing.

195. Light is no matter. There is no substance called light, but the æther is illuminant through its binary division. The sun does not, therefore, stream forth when it illumines the planets, and loses nothing of its magnitude; it is not to be feared that we shall ever lose it. That the sun is an undulating sea of flame, that it is throughout a volcano, that combustions or electrical processes of light, appearing to us as light, occur in its atmosphere; that the velocity of rotation hurls about the light-particles, and that these particles scattered in the world-space are, by an unknown route, or by means of comets, again brought back to the sun, are opinions unworthy the inquirer into nature. The sun gives out nothing but the impulse, not, however, the mechanical, which makes the space of heaven tremble upon which it shines; but the purely spiritual, as the nerves rule the muscle. The sun can never be extinguished, never become dark; for it gives out light, not as a fire, but simply by reason of its standing in the midst; its simple position, its enchainment to the planets is light. A fire upon the sun would not be perceived by us; it would not lighten nor warm us, because of its having no relation to us. The central relation of the sun toward us cannot, however, remain unobserved, and this observation is even that of light.

196. Matter has become by means of light, is a child of light, is but illuminating æther. Every binary division of matter manifests itself as light.

197. The whole universe is transparent, because everything has issued out of the tension of æther. Everything which is matter is light, and without light there is nothing. Without light the universe is not only dark but it is even not. Light is the universe, and every Finite is only a different position of light. The world is a thoroughly illuminating globe, a rotating globe of light. The solar system must have been created according to the laws of light. The phenomena of the world are only representations of optics, consequently of living geometry. What we see is nothing but optical construction or figuration. (Vid. Oken's 'Essay über das Licht;' Jena. Fromann. 1808.)

c. HEAT, DENSITY. (Third form of the World. Shape.)

198. Light is not simply a motion in itself, a mere continuous excitation of polarity in the æther, but it is also the æther itself set in motion thereby. All polar actions resolve themselves finally into motion of the polarized masses. The end of electricity, galvanism, magnetism, is motion. It will be, however, shown that all these polar functions are only repetitions of the primary polarity; this must therefore produce what the former did, namely, ætherial motion.

199. Every point of the æther becomes polar, every one attracts and repels the other; whereby motion arises in the innermost parts of the æther itself. Not a portion of the æther is moved on, but motion originates in the mass of æther itself. The æther-atoms quit each other.

200. The æther is, however, that which is filling space, is space itself, the Expansissimum of the world, the Formless and therefore that which adopts all forms. The formless æther, when it moves itself, must be connected with a phenomenon, that depends upon its expansion and identification, which is polarized by light. This action of the æther does not therefore depend upon the tension of æther, not upon production from differences in the same, but upon dissolution of the tension, therefore upon extension, upon the indifferent representation of space. This action, which is at the same time universal, can only be heat. Moved æther is Heat.

201. Heat is the contest of the indifferent æther with light; light alone produces heat. Without light the world were not only dark, but also absolutely cold. Cold is untensed and quiescent æther, death, nothing; dark and cold are one. Heat is therefore the result of light, but equally eternal with it; it is space represented really, as that is real time.

202. Heat is not moved indifferent ether, which is = nothing; but moved and tensed or the moved light.

203. Heat penetrates into thickness as an extending function, but does not oscillate between two poles like light. It is only the function of density, and depends upon nothing else, not upon lines or mere surfaces, but upon the living sphere.

204. Heat and light, although characters of one substance, yet stand in an antagonism like thickness and line, or as indifference and difference. Heat is properly the first perfected position of the primary act, while light is only the act of positing; the latter therefore is +, the former-. Or also, gravity is the absolute position, simply = 0; light is the commencing egression of this position out of itself + -, heat the completion + 0-, and therefore the position everywhere; it will everywhere deposit, therefore it is motion, repletion of space, expansion. Light is gravity become real, or 0 become real; 0 however, rendered real, is + -. Heat is as-at the same time + - and 0, or light and gravity, material light, light that is filling. Both will also assert the antagonism of their genesis through all forms of the world. The heat seeks to destroy the line, which the light endeavours to establish; heat seeks to produce homogeneity in the Dissimilar, light to effect the reverse. Heat is slow in its motion; with it the mass of æther must continually move, or move whither it will operate; light, however, acts spiritually and rapidly, without motion of the mass, but only glides continually with the latter. Heat is not created, it is no special matter different from æther. There is no body of heat.

205. Heat is everywhere where the æther is, and must consequently be regarded as a sphere. Heat is not present merely in the columns of æther between the heavenly bodies, but everywhere. Therefore heat does not move itself in the direction of the line, but it extends itself on all sides, as real space.

FIRE.

206. Light and heat were the first phenomena of the world. Heat with light, however, are Fire. Fire is the totality of æther, is God manifested in his totality. God, previous to his determination to create a world, was darkness; in the first act of creation, however, he appeared as fire. There is no higher, more perfect symbol of divinity than fire. God's whole consciousness, apart from individual thoughts, is fire. The Holy Scriptures therefore usually admit of God appearing under the form of a fire, as a fiery bush, a flame. The world is none other than a rotating globe of fire.

207. Everything that is, has originated out of fire; everything is only cooled, rigidified fire. As everything has become out of fire, so must everything to be annihilated have recourse to fire. If finite things be only fire singly posited, so must every change occurring in the same be an igneous change. Nothing changes in the world but fire. The essential change of things take place only by fire.

RETROSPECT.

208. The Triplicity of the primary act in the universe has now been completely demonstrated. The first manifestation of God is monas; to this corresponds Gravity, Æther, darkness, the cold of chaos. The second manifestation of God is the dyas; to this corresponds the æther in a state of tension, the Light. The third manifestation of God is the trias; to this corresponds the want of form, Heat. God being in himself is Gravity; acting, self-emergent, Light; both together, or returning into himself, Heat. These are the three Primals in the world, and equal to the three which were prior to the world. They are the manifested triunity = Fire.