Page:The Philosophy of Creation.djvu/129

 and the outer bark of trees; by the nut-meat, shell, and bur; by the fluids of fruit, the containing sac or cell, and the rind, and the like. This three-fold order exists in minerals through the collection and arrangement of the constituent units. These examples, taken from similar degrees, illustrate discrete degrees, and show how they are related in a series. The aura, ether, and air, which constitute the earth's atmospheres, are three discrete degrees. So also are charity, faith, and act; love, wisdom, and use; affection, thought, and deed; the soul, the body, and the outward act. A still larger series of discrete degrees is the Creator, the spiritual world, and the natural world.

The discrete degrees constituting any one thing are always in a series, a lower one of the series being derived from the higher, like end, cause, and effect. End, cause, and effect follow in order, like prior, middle, and ultimate, the end or prior producing the cause or middle, and the cause or middle producing the effect or ultimate. Affection, thought, and act are related as end, cause, and effect. Take the example of speech for illustration. The end existed first as a desire or