Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 2.djvu/42

 into another; and thus He accomplishes his purpose, that the three heavens may be one, that all may be in connection from First to last, and that nothing be unconnected. Whatever is not connected by intermediates with, cannot subsist, but is dissipated and becomes nothing.

He who is unacquainted with the nature of divine order as to degrees, cannot comprehend in what manner the heavens are distinct, nor even what is meant by the internal and external man. Most people have no other idea concerning things interior and exterior, or concerning things superior and inferior, than as of something continuous, or cohering by continuity from purer to grosser: whereas things interior and exterior are not continuous with respect to each other, but discrete.

Degrees are of two kinds; namely, degrees continuous and degrees not continuous. Degrees continuous are as the degrees of the waning light from flame even to its extinction; or as the degrees of the waning sight, from things which are in light to those which are in shade; or as the degrees of the purity of the atmosphere from its lowest to its highest parts. Distances determine these degrees. Whereas degrees not continuous but discrete are distinguished like prior and posterior, like cause and effect, and like what produces and what is produced.