712. The ore is not a conversion of earths that have already existed, or been actually separated; but it originates 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 highest 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 valleys; 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 substance, 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 expressed, 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 conditions might have become clay, becomes in the darkness ore. 716. 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 are the valleys with the calcareous and salt formations; and he who asks how has the ore originated, must forthwith inquire as to what is the essence of the veins.