272. One pole is nowhere produced, but all are invariably present together. The terrestrial matter completed must therefore consist of the three primary bodies, but occurring in diverse proportions. As light and heat can never subsist without the substance of the æther, so also can no body of light and no body of heat subsist per se without the body of gravity or carbon, and vice versâ. The general materials of nature are therefore combinations of the three primary bodies. 273. The æther is the totality of the primary bodies in equal proportion, where thus no pole is fixed, but all are comprehended in fixation, i. e. in constant change. 274. All other general matters must be also combinations of the three primary bodies, but with different fixation, or in unequal proportion. There can consequently be only four general matters. 275. The first general matters are called _Elements_. There are only four elements, one general and three particular. 1. Element, Fire. 2. - - - - Heat. 3. - - - - Light. 4. - - - - Gravity. 276. Each element is a total representation of the æther. 277. An element is not that which is chemically inseparable, but it is only the _Whole_, which has first originated. But the elemental bodies are chemically non-decomposible, because they are already separate, being moieties or fractions. 278. The heat element is the hydrogen element--_Air._ 279. The light element is the oxygen element--_Water._ 280. The gravity element is the carbon element--_Earth._ 281. In each element, beside the basic or combustible elemental body, there is also oxygen; for they are verily naught else than the æther fixed by light, æther that has become heavy by means of light. AIR. 282. The first condensation of the æther must be that which corresponds to its condition as heat. This element, as being that in which the atoms have no connexion, must be therefore the lightest and rarest. In this element the poles must be fixed in the least degree, and therefore change with the slightest operation. This element is therefore moveable in all directions, is the most unstable, and in form most similar to the æther. 283. Active freedom from form predominates in it, i. e. its atoms are constantly striving to withdraw from each other, or the mass to extend. This endeavour is called elasticity. Elasticity is none other than the endeavour to become a greatest or interminable globe. The terrestrial matter, with this striving towards an universal globe, is called _gas_. 284. The formless internally moveable element, constantly extending itself and changing its pole, is the _Air_.