270. Simple bodies cannot exist for themselves, for there can nowhere be an æther, which merely belongs to gravity, or merely to light or to heat.
271. An elemental body is never a Total, but invariably a Polar, a something not whole, properly a half or rather but a third essence, a fraction. One-sidedness is therefore the character of the elemental body.
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.