and in living organisms, we will now turn to phenomena of a
macrotelluric nature which reveal the participation of sulphur and
phosphorus. There, sulphur points unmistakably to the earth's
volcanism. It is a fact that, wherever mineral sulphur occurs in the
earth, there we find a spot of former or present volcanic activity.
Similarly, there is no such spot on the earth without sulphur being
present in one form or another. Hence the name Solfatara for the
fumarole described in Chapter IX.

Once again it is the Solfatara which offers us a phenomenon, this time
in connexion with the special role sulphur plays in its activities,
which, regarded with the eye of the spirit, assumes the significance of
an instance 'worth a thousand'.

In spite of the very high temperature of the sulphurous fumes emitted
from various crevices on the edge of the Solfatara, it is possible,
thanks to the complete dryness of the fumes, to crawl a little way into
the interior of these crevices. Not far away from the opening of the
crevice, where the hot fumes touch the cooler rock surface, one is met
by a very beautiful spectacle - namely, the continual forming, out of
nothing as it seems, of glittering yellow sulphur crystals, suspended
in delicate chains from the ceiling.

In this transformation of sulphurous substance from a higher material
state, nearer to levity, to that of the solid crystal, we may behold an
image of the generation of matter. For every physical substance and,
therefore, every chemical element, exists originally as a pure function
in the dynamic processes of the universe. Wherever, as a result of the
action of gravity, such a function congeals materially, there we meet
it in the form of a physical-material substance. In the same sense,