CONDENSATION.
253. Through its separation into polar masses the æther becomes condensed, heavy and material.
254. This condensation is the result of the fixation of a definite pole on a definite mass of æther. The essence of the æther consists in its having no fixed pole, but that all the poles oscillate to and fro with the greatest facility from one particle of æther to the other. This is what is meant by indifference, by equivalency of poles; no part of the æther differs from another, because none retains permanently a definite pole, but each of them all the poles. The formation of the heavenly bodies is none other than an union of poles to a definite mass of æther.
255. A mass of æther with a fixed pole is a dense matter; such a mass of æther I call terrestrial matter, but the æther itself the cosmic. Sun and planet must be terrestrial matters, for the essence of both consists in the difference of their poles.
256. The cause of the fixation of poles resides in light.
257. The heavenly bodies go to ruin by removal of the fixation of the pole abiding on the mass, substratum or substance, not by mechanical demolition. The destruction of the heavenly bodies is a retrogression of their mass into æther by means of fire. Heat does not drive the bodies, after the manner of a wedge, from each other, but only suppresses their polarity, and then the atoms must withdraw from each other. Heat depends only on the destruction of poles, not upon extension. The heavenly bodies are ruined in the same way that they have originated, namely, through the primary act in its retrogression.
258. It is only the pole, no other concealed property, which maintains the being of the mass. The mass is not a terrestrial mass subsisting simply by its own rest. Nothing material is the cause of the form of matter, but the Spiritual. Matter has therefore no quality, no consistence of itself, but is nothing, is æther. Mass cannot supplant mass, nor mechanism destroy anything material. The destruction must proceed from within.
259. The fixation of poles in the substance is the impenetrability of matter. It is only the spirit in matter which renders this impenetrable, not the mass itself.
260. The æther is penetrable, and therefore also penetrating. Heat is penetrating; light, as æther in a state of tension, is only partially penetrating.
261. All the diversity of matter depends upon the fixation of poles in the substance. For there is no diversity in the universe without poles, without binary division. The substance always remains the same, it is only the poles that change. The substance is the Indestructible, the Persistent, the æther, the nothing.