314. The world is twofold, an ætherial and a terrestrial; both are transcripts or copies of each other, and both ultimately of God. The terrestrial world has originated out of the æther; it is therefore further removed from God than the æther; this is the discharged, purified Terrestrial.
315. God is a threefold Trinity; at first the Eternal, then the Ætherial, and finally the Terrestrial, where it is completely divided.
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.
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.