Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 2.djvu/83

 whatever the industry of man prepares from them for his own use, are also correspondences, such as food of every kind, garments, houses, temples and other things.

The things above the earth, as the sun, moon and stars, likewise those in the atmospheres, as clouds, mists, rain, lightnings and thunders are also correspondences. Those, too, which result from the presence and absence of the sun, as light and darkness, heat and cold, are correspondences. Likewise those which thence follow in succession, as the seasons of the year which are called spring, summer, autumn and winter; and the times of the day, as morning, noon, evening and night.

In a word, all things which exist in nature, from the least to the greatest, are correspondences. They are correspondences, because the natural world and all that belongs to it exists and subsists from the spiritual world, and both from the Divine. Subsists, I say; because everything subsists from that which gave it existence, for subsistence is perpetual existence; and because nothing can subsist from itself, but from a cause prior to itself, that is, from the First. Should it, therefore, be separated from the First, it would utterly perish and disappear.

Everything in nature which exists and subsists from divine order is a correspondent. The divine good which proceeds from the Lord makes divine order. It commences from Him, proceeds from Him through the heavens successively into the world, and there termi-