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.