409. The conduction of light is likewise a process of deoxydation, or a disintegration of matter. By the conduction of light the bodies are chemically analysed, and finally resolve themselves into their principles; such after all is the case with every glass and crystal. As the process of conduction of light may be called a process of deoxydation, so also may it be called a process of the generation of colour. The conduction is an offuscation of light, a colouring; the deoxydation is a solution of the material bonds, an elevation unto colour.
410. The air is the slightest combination of the primary bodies, and stands in opposition with the two other elements, as more solid combustions. In this antagonism the air lays claim upon the other elements to analyse them; these, however, upon the air, to combine, and undergo more vivid combustion.
411. This antagonism is on a large scale an antagonism of periphery and centre, like the primary antagonism, by which planets and suns have withdrawn from each other. The tension of air with the other elements is called _Electricity_. The centroperipheric antagonism between the sun and the planet, between light and colour, represented in an elementary manner is electricity.
412. Sun and planet are electrically related to each other, and the circumrotation of the latter may be viewed as conditioned by the change of electrical poles. Colours also are only electrical productions. Light itself is similar to an electrical tension of the æther.
413. Electricity is an action of the periphery or limit and thus of the surface of the globe. The surface of the globe is, however, everywhere +-without centre. The principles of electricity are therefore eternally separated without having a middle point, as occurs in magnetism. The electrical poles live in eternal animosity, because they have no point of union. Such is then the essence of electricity. Electricity is therefore only a function of surfaces without any line. It clings only to the upper surface of the bodies, and does not penetrate into their thickness. It is only the tension of the surfaces of bodies against each other, of the apices of divided radii.
414. The air is the periphery, the _limit_ or boundary of the earth. Electricity is therefore the spirit of air. It is in its most active state in that stratum of air which is in contact with the earth, because there the limits are situated. Upon this lightning depends.
