Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 2.djvu/43

 The careful inquirer will discover that in all created things whatsoever, and in every part of them, there are such degrees of production and composition; namely, that from one thing proceeds another, and from that a third, and so on.

Whoever fails to comprehend these degrees cannot possibly understand the distinctions of the heavens, and the distinctions of the interior and exterior faculties of man; nor the distinction between the spiritual world and the natural world; nor the distinction between the spirit of man and his body; and consequently he cannot understand what and whence correspondences and representations are, not what influx is. Sensual men do not comprehend these distinctions, for they make increments and decrements, even according to these degrees, continuous. Hence they are unable to conceive of what is spiritual otherwise than as a purer natural. Therefore they also stand without, and far removed from intelligence.

Lastly, I am permitted to relate a certain arcanum concerning the angels of the three heavens, which has never before entered the mind of any one, because no one has hitherto understood the subject of degrees.

The arcanum is this: that with every angel and also with every man there is an inmost or supreme degree, or an inmost or supreme something, into which the