  Starting from the Lovelock action and its supplementation by the relevant
Gibbons-Hawking-York boundary term, the curvature action corresponding to
second-order General Relativity is stated in accordance to the topological
properties of the space-time manifold $\mathcal{M}$ with metric solutions being
interpreted as topological solitons. Furthermore, this is shown to arise
naturally from a topological interpretation of Mach's principle, with the
appropriate manifestation of general covariance. Mach's principle is again
invoked to suggest formulations of the curvature action in alternative elliptic
complexes. The extent of these deviations from the curvature action as
constructed in the first part of this paper are remarked upon in the context of
contemporary modified theories of gravity.
