316. The holy primary number is 3; the second is 9. The æther is 1 in 3; the other elements are simply the 3 of the æther, together 4. 2 × 3, however, or 6, lies at the bottom of this 4. The symbolic numbers are consequently 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, which fundamentally are one and the same, but in different combinations. With this, however, all formation does not yet terminate; to the 4 elements is added the vegetable and animal kingdom. The number of the days of creation is 6. C.--_STÖCHIOLOGY._ FUNCTIONS OF THE ELEMENTS. 1. _Functions of the Æther._ 317. The spiritual activity of æther manifests itself as a _process of combustion_, which appears as fire. The combination of the substance with light and heat is fire; the elements have therefore originated by a process of combustion. All matter has undergone combustion, and indeed æther has been submitted to the same process. The process of fixation of the æther or the process of condensation, is consequently a process of combustion. 318. Each heavenly body has originally burnt, was nothing but fire; the Vulcanic has preceded the Neptunian agency. It was, however, the primary process of combustion, through which the at present combustible matters first originated. The present volcanoes must not be regarded as synonymous with the primary combustion. There it was not Vesuvii that burnt, but æther. 319. What has not been burnt upon the planet, is again reduced. A something that has not originally suffered combustion is a contradiction. The metal is therefore not the Original, as for obvious reasons also, the solid cannot proceed directly out of the æther, without having been first gaseous and fluid. The processes of combustion upon the planet are all secondary, are imitations of the primary combustion in matter, in the elements. Fire consists of the combinations of the three activities, gravity, light, and heat, which are now to be separately considered. a. GRAVITY. 320. The functions of gravity are exhibited principally in the motion of the heavenly bodies, and are so completely unfolded in works upon Physics and Astronomy, that they may here be passed over in silence. b. LIGHT. 321. The æther and the terrestrial matter are correlative, like Higher and Lower, unity and multiplicity, and therefore stand in the same antagonism with each other, as the air with the two inferior elements. The æther is constantly seeking to convert the matter into itself, to render it indifferent by depolarization, this, however, to condense it. Matter is only condensed æther. This condensation proceeds, however, from the polarization of light, and it is consequently the activity of light by which the æther hardens into matter.