195. THE FIRST DEGREE IS THE ALL IN EVERYTHING OF THE SUBSEQUENT DEGREES.

This is because the degrees of each subject and of each thing are

homogeneous; and they are homogeneous because produced from the first

degree. For their formation is such that the first, by bundlings or

groupings, in a word, by aggregations of parts, produces the second,

and through this the third; and discretes each from the other by a

covering drawn around it; from which it is clear that the first degree

is chief and singly supreme in the subsequent degrees; consequently that

in all things of the subsequent degrees, the first is the all.

196. When it is said that degrees are such in respect to each other, the

meaning is that substances are such in their degrees. This manner of

speaking by degrees is abstract, that is, universal, which makes the

statement applicable to every subject or thing which is in degrees of

this kind.

197. This can be applied to all those things which have been enumerated

in the preceding chapter, to the muscles, the nerves, the matters and

parts of both the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, to the organic

substances that are the subjects of thoughts and affections in man, to

atmospheres, to heat and light, and to love and wisdom. In all these,

the first is singly supreme in the subsequent things; yea, it is the

sole thing in them, and because it is the sole thing in them, it is the

all in them. That this is so is clear also from these well-known truths;

that the end is the all of the cause, and through the cause is the all

of the effect; and thus end, cause, and effect are called first, middle,

and last end. Further, that the cause of the cause is also the cause of

the thing caused; and that there is nothing essential in causes except

the end, and nothing essential in movement excepting effort [conatus];

also, that the substance that is substance in itself is the sole substance.

198. From all this it can clearly be seen that the Divine, which is

substance in itself, that is, the one only and sole substance, is the

substance from which is each and every thing that has been created; thus

that God is the All in all things of the universe, according to what has

been shown in Part First, as follows. Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are

substance and form (n. 40-43); Divine Love and Divine Wisdom are

substance and form in itself, therefore the Very and the Only (n. 44-46);

all things in the universe were created by Divine Love and Divine Wisdom

(n. 52-60); consequently the created universe is His image (n. 61-65);

the Lord alone is heaven where angels are (n. 113-118).

199. ALL PERFECTIONS INCREASE AND ASCEND ALONG WITH DEGREES AND ACCORDING

TO THEM.

That degrees are of two kinds, degrees of breadth and degrees of height

has been shown above (n. 185-188); also that degrees of breadth are like

those of light verging to shade, or of wisdom verging to ignorance; but

that degrees of height are like end, cause and effect, or like prior,

subsequent and final. Of these latter degrees it is said that they ascend

or descend, for they are of height; but of the former that they increase

or decrease for they are of breadth. These two kinds of degrees differ so

much that they have nothing in common; they should therefore be perceived

as distinct, and by no means be confounded.

200. All perfections increase and ascend along with degrees and according

to them, because all predicates follow their subjects, and perfection and

imperfection are general predicates; for they are predicated of life, of

forces and of forms.

Perfection of life is perfection of love and wisdom; and because the will

and understanding are receptacles of love and wisdom, perfection of life

is also perfection of will and understanding, consequently of affections

and thoughts; and because spiritual heat is the containant of love, and

spiritual light is the containant of wisdom, perfection of these may also

be referred to perfection of life.

Perfection of forces is perfection of all things that are actuated and

moved by life, in which, however, there is no life. Atmospheres as to

their active powers are such forces; the interior and exterior organic

substances with man, and with animals of every kind, are such forces;

all things in the natural world that are endowed with active powers both

immediately and mediately from its sun are such forces.

Perfection of forms and perfection of forces make one, for as the forces

are, such are the forms; with the difference only, that forms are

substances but forces are their activities; therefore like degrees of

perfection belong to both. Forms that are not at the same time forces

are also perfect according to degrees.

201. The perfection of life, forces, and forms that increase or decrease

according to degrees of breadth, that is, continuous degrees, will not

be discussed here, because there is a knowledge of these degrees in the

world; but only the perfections of life, forces, and forms that ascend

or descend according to degrees of height, that is, discrete degrees;

because these degrees are not known in the world. Of the mode in which

perfections ascend and descend according to these degrees little can be

learned from things visible in the natural world, but this can be seen

clearly from things visible in the spiritual world. From things visible

in the natural world it is merely found that the more interiorly they

are looked into the more do wonders present themselves; as, for instance,

in the eyes, ears, tongue; in muscles, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas,

kidneys, and other viscera; also, in seeds, fruits and flowers; and in

metals, minerals and stones. That wonders increase in all these the more

interiorly they are looked into is well known; yet it has become little

known thereby that the objects are interiorly more perfect according to

degrees of height or discrete degrees. This has been concealed by

ignorance of these degrees. But since these degrees stand out

conspicuously in the spiritual world (for the whole of that world from

highest to lowest is distinctly discreted into these degrees), from that

world knowledge of these degrees can be drawn; and afterwards conclusions

may be drawn therefrom respecting the perfection of forces and forms that

are in similar degrees in the natural world.

202. In the spiritual world there are three heavens, arranged according

to degrees of height. In the highest heavens are angels superior in

every perfection to the angels in the middle heaven; and in the middle

heaven are angels superior in every perfection to the angels in the

lowest heaven. The degrees of perfections are such, that angels of the

lowest heaven cannot attain to the first threshold of the perfections

of the angels of the middle heaven, nor these to the first threshold of

the perfections of the angels of the highest heaven. This seems incredible,

yet it is a truth. The reason is that they are consociated according to

discrete, not according to continuous degrees. I have learned from

observation that the difference between the affections and thoughts,

and consequently the speech, of the angels of the higher and the lower

heavens, is such that they have nothing in common; and that communication

takes place only through correspondences, which have existence by

immediate influx of the Lord into all the heavens, and by mediate influx

through the highest heaven into the lowest. Such being the nature of

these differences, they cannot be expressed in natural language,

therefore not described; for the thoughts of angels, being spiritual,

do not fall into natural ideas. They can be expressed and described

only by angels themselves, in their own languages, words, and writings,

and not in those that are human. This is why it is said that in the

heavens unspeakable things are heard and seen. These differences may be

in some measure comprehended when it is known that the thoughts of

angels of the highest or third heaven are thoughts of ends; the thoughts

of angels of the middle or second heaven thoughts of causes, and the

thoughts of angels of the lowest or first heaven thoughts of effects.

It must be noted, that it is one thing to think from ends, and another

to think about ends; that it is one thing to think from causes, and

another to think about causes; and that it is one thing to think from

effects, and another to think about effects. Angels of the lower heavens

think about causes and about ends, but angels of the higher heavens

from causes and from ends; and to think from these is a mark of higher

wisdom, but to think about these is the mark of lower wisdom. To think

from ends is of wisdom, to think from causes is of intelligence, and to

think from effects is of knowledge. From all this it is clear that all

perfection ascends and descends along with degrees and according to them.

203. Since the interior things of man, which are of his will and

understanding, are like the heavens in respect to degrees (for man,

as to the interiors of his mind, is a heaven in least form), their

perfections also are like those of the heavens. But these perfections

are not apparent to any one so long as he lives in the world, because

he is then in the lowest degree; and from the lowest degree the higher

degrees cannot be known; but they are known after death, because man

then enters into that degree which corresponds to his love and wisdom,

for he then becomes an angel, and thinks and speaks things ineffable

to his natural man; for there is then an elevation of all things of

his mind, not in a single, but in a threefold ratio. Degrees of height

are in threefold ratio, but degrees of breadth are in single ratio. But

into degrees of height none ascend and are elevated except those who in

the world have been in truths, and have applied them to life.

204. It seems as if things prior must be less perfect than things

subsequent, that is, things simple than things composite; but things

prior out of which things subsequent are formed, that is, things simple

out of which things composite are formed, are the more perfect. The

reason is that the prior or the simpler are more naked and less covered

over with substances and matters devoid of life, and are, as it were,

more Divine, consequently nearer to the spiritual sun where the Lord

is; for perfection itself is in the Lord, and from Him in that sun which

is the first proceeding of His Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and from

that in those things which come immediately after; and thus in order

down to things lowest, which are less perfect as they are farther removed.

Without such preeminent perfection in things prior and simple, neither

man nor any kind of animal could have come into existence from seed, and

afterwards continue to exist; nor could the seeds of trees and shrubs

vegetate and bear fruit. For the more prior anything prior is, or the

more simple anything simple is, the more exempt is it from injury,

because it is more perfect.

205. IN SUCCESSIVE ORDER THE FIRST DEGREE MAKES THE HIGHEST, AND THE

THIRD THE LOWEST; BUT IN SIMULTANEOUS ORDER THE FIRST DEGREE MAKES THE

INNERMOST, AND THE THIRD THE OUTERMOST.

There is successive order and simultaneous order. The successive order

of these degrees is from highest to lowest, or from top to bottom. The

angelic heavens are in this order; the third heaven there is the highest,

the second is the middle, and the first is the lowest; such is their

relative situation. In like successive order are the states of love and

wisdom with the angels there, also states of heat and light, and of the

spiritual atmospheres. In like order are all the perfections of the

forms and forces there. When degrees of height, that is, discrete degrees,

are in successive order, they may be compared to a column divided into

three stories, through which ascent and descent are made. In the upper

rooms are things most perfect and most beautiful; in the middle rooms,

things less perfect and beautiful; in the lowest, things still less

perfect and beautiful. But simultaneous order, which consists of like

degrees, has another appearance. In it, the highest things of successive

order, which are (as was said above) the most perfect and most beautiful,

are in the inmost, the lower things are in the middle, and the lowest in

the circumference. They are as if in a solid body composed of these three

degrees: in the middle or center are the finest parts, round about this

are parts less fine, and in the extremes which constitute the

circumference are the parts composed of these and which are therefore

grosser. It is like the column mentioned just above subsiding into a

plane, the highest part of which forms the innermost of the plane, the

middle forms the middle, and the lowest the outermost.

206. As the highest of successive order becomes the innermost of

simultaneous order, and the lowest becomes the outermost, so in the Word,

"higher" signifies inner, and "lower" signifies outer. "Upwards" and

"downwards," and "high" and "deep" have a like meaning.

207. In every outmost there are discrete degrees in simultaneous order.

The motor fibers in every muscle, the fibers in every nerve, also the

fibers and the little vessels in all viscera and organs, are in such

an order. Innermost in these are the most simple things, which are the

most perfect; the outermost is a composite of these. There is a like

order of these degrees in every seed and in every fruit, also in every

metal and stone; their parts, of which the whole is composed, are of

such a nature. The innermost, the middle, and the outermost elements

of the parts exist in these degrees, for they are successive compositions,

that is, bundlings and massings together from simples that are their first

substances or matters.

208. In a word, there are such degrees in every outmost, thus in every

effect. For every outmost consists of things prior and these of their

firsts. And every effect consists of a cause, and this of an end; and

end is the all of cause, and cause is the all of effect (as was shown

above); and end makes the inmost, cause the middle, and effect the

outmost. The same is true of degrees of love and wisdom, and of heat

and light, also of the organic forms of affections and thoughts in man

(as will be seen in what follows). The series of these degrees in

successive order and in simultaneous order has been treated of also in

The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Sacred Scripture

(n. 38, and elsewhere), where it is shown that there are like degrees

in each and all things of the Word.

209. THE OUTMOST DEGREE IS THE COMPLEX, CONTAINANT AND BASE OF THE PRIOR

DEGREES.

The doctrine of degrees which is taught in this Part, has hitherto been

illustrated by various things which exist in both worlds; as by the

degrees of the heavens where angels dwell, by the degrees of heat and

light with them, and by the degrees of atmospheres, and by various things

in the human body, and also in the animal and mineral kingdoms. But

this doctrine has a wider range; it extends not only to natural, but

also to civil, moral, and spiritual things, and to each and all their

details. There are two reasons why the doctrine of degrees extends also

to such things. First, in every thing of which anything can be predicated

there is the trine which is called end, cause, and effect, and these

three are related to one another according to degrees of height. And

secondly things civil, moral, and spiritual are not something abstract

from substance, but are substances. For as love and wisdom are not

abstract things, but substance (as was shown above, n. 40-43), so in

like manner are all things that are called civil, moral, and spiritual.

These may be thought of abstractly from substances, yet in themselves

they are not abstract; as for example, affection and thought, charity

and faith, will and understanding; for it is the same with these as

with love and wisdom, in that they are not possible outside of subjects

which are substances, but are states of subjects, that is, substances.

That they are changes of these, presenting variations, will be seen in

what follows. By substance is also meant form, for substance is not

possible apart from form.

210. From its being possible to think of will and understanding, of

affection and thought, and of charity and faith, abstractly from the

substances which are their subjects, and from their having been so

thought of, it has come to pass, that a correct idea of these things,

as being states of substances or forms, has perished. It is altogether

as with sensations and actions, which are not things abstract from the

organs of sensation and motion. Abstracted, that is, separate, from these

they are mere figments of reason; for they are like sight apart from an

eye, hearing apart from an ear, taste apart from a tongue, and so forth.

211. Since all things civil, moral, and spiritual advance through

degrees, just as natural things do, not only through continuous but

also through discrete degrees; and since the progressions of discrete

degrees are like progressions of ends to causes, and of causes to

effects, I have chosen to illustrate and confirm the present point,

that the outmost degree is the complex, containant, and base of prior

degrees, by the things above mentioned, that is, by what pertains to

love and wisdom, to will and understanding, to affection and thought,

and to charity and faith.

212. That the outmost degree is the complex, containant, and base of

prior degrees, is clearly seen from progression of ends and causes to

effects. That the effect is the complex, containant, and base of causes

and ends can be comprehended by enlightened reason; but it is not so

clear that the end with all things thereof, and the cause with all things

thereof, are actually in the effect, and that the effect is their full

complex. That such is the case can be seen from what has been said above

in this Part, particularly from this, that one thing is from another in

a threefold series, and that the effect is nothing else than the end in

its outmost. And since the outmost is the complex, it follows that it is

the containant and also the base.

213. As regards love and wisdom:-Love is the end, wisdom the instrumental

cause, and use is the effect; and use is the complex, containant, and

base of wisdom and love; and use is such a complex and such a containant,

that all things of love and all things of wisdom are actually in it; it

is where they are all simultaneously present. But it should be borne in

mind that all things of love and wisdom, which are homogeneous and

concordant, are present in use, according to what is said and shown

above (in chapter, n. 189-194).

214. Affection, thought, and action are also in a series of like degrees,

because all affection has relation to love, thought to wisdom, and action

to use. Charity, faith, and good works are in a series of like degrees,

for charity is of affection, faith of thought, and good works of action.

Will, understanding, and doing are also in a series of like degrees; for

will is of love and so of affection, understanding is of wisdom and so

of faith, and doing is of use and so of work; as, then, all things of

wisdom and love are present in use, so all things of thought and affection

are present in action, all things of faith and charity in good works, and

so forth; but all are homogeneous, that is, concordant.

215. That the outmost in each series, that is to say, use, action, work,

and doing, is the complex and containant of all things prior, has not

yet been known. There seems to be nothing more in use, in action, in

work, and in doing than such as there is in movement; yet all things

prior are actually present in these, and so fully that nothing is lacking.

They are contained therein like wine in its cask, or like furniture in

a house. They are not apparent, because they are regarded only externally;

and regarded externally they are simply activities and motions. It is as

when the arms and hands are moved, and man is not conscious that a

thousand motor fibers concur in every motion of them, and that to the

thousand motor fibers correspond thousands of things of thought and

affection, by which the motor fibers are excited. As these act deep

within, they are not apparent to any bodily sense. This much is known,

that nothing is done in or through the body except from the will through

the thought; and because both of these act, it must needs be that each

and all things of the will and thought are present in the action. They

cannot be separated; consequently from a man's deeds or works others

judge of the thought of his will, which is called his intention. It has

been made known to me that angels, from a man's deed or work alone,

perceive and see every thing of the will and thought of the doer; angels

of the third heaven perceiving and seeing from his will the end for which

he acts, and angels of the second heaven the cause through which the end

operates. It is from this that works and deeds are so often commanded in

the Word, and that it is said that a man is known by his works.

216. It is according to angelic wisdom that unless the will and

understanding, that is, affection and thought, as well as charity and

faith, clothe and wrap themselves in works or deeds, whenever possible,

they are only like something airy which passes away, or like phantoms in

air which perish; and that they first become permanent in man and a part

of his life, when he practices and does them. The reason is that the

outmost is the complex, containant, and base of things prior. Such an

airy nothing and such a phantom is faith separated from good works; such

also are faith and charity without their exercise, with this difference

only, that those who hold to faith and charity know what is good and can

will to do it, but not so those who are in faith separated from charity.

217. THE DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE IN FULLNESS AND IN POWER IN THEIR OUTMOST

DEGREE.

In the preceding chapter it is shown that the outmost degree is the

complex and containant of prior degrees. From this it follows that prior

degrees are in their fullness in their outmost degree, for they are in

their effect, and every effect is the fullness of causes.

218. That these ascending and descending degrees, also called prior and

subsequent, likewise degrees of height or discrete degrees, are in their

power in their outmost degree, may be confirmed by all those things that

have been adduced in the preceding chapters as confirmations from objects

of sense and perception. Here, however, I choose to confirm them only by

the conatus, forces and motions in dead and in living subjects. It is

known that conatus does nothing of itself, but acts through forces

corresponding to it, thereby producing motion; consequently that conatus

is the all in forces, and through forces is the all in motion; and since

motion is the outmost degree of conatus, through motion conatus exerts

its power. Conatus, force, and motion are no otherwise conjoined than

according to degrees of height, conjunction of which is not by continuity,

for they are discrete, but by correspondences. For conatus is not force,

nor is force motion, but force is produced by conatus, because force is

conatus made active, and through force motion is produced; consequently

there is no power in conatus alone, nor in force alone, but in motion,

which is their product. That this is so may still seem doubtful, because

not illustrated by applications to sensible and perceptible things in

nature; nevertheless, such is the progression of conatus, force, and

motion into power.

219. But let application of this be made to living conatus, and to living

force, and to living motion. Living conatus in man, who is a living

subject, is his will united to his understanding; living forces in man

are the interior constituents of his body, in all of which there are

motor fibers interlacing in various ways; and living motion in man is

action, which is produced through these forces by the will united to

the understanding. For the interior things pertaining to the will and

understanding make the first degree; the interior things pertaining to

the body make the second degree; and the whole body, which is the complex

of these, makes the third degree. That the interior things pertaining to

the mind have no power except through forces in the body, also that forces

have no power except through the action of the body itself, is well known.

These three do not act by what is continuous, but by what is discrete;

and to act by what is discrete is to act by correspondences. The interiors

of the mind correspond to the interiors of the body, and the interiors of

the body correspond to the exteriors, through which actions come forth;

consequently the two prior degrees have power through the exteriors of

the body. It may seem as if conatus and forces in man have some power

even when there is no action, as in sleep and in states of rest, but still

at such times the determinations of conatus and forces are directed into

the general motor organs of the body, which are the heart and the lungs;

but when their action ceases the forces also cease, and, with the forces,

the conatus.

220. Since the powers of the whole, that is, of the body, are determined

chiefly into the arms and hands, which are outmosts, "arms" and "hands,"

in the Word, signify power, and the "right hand" signifies superior power.

And such being the evolution and putting forth of degrees into power, the

angels that are with man and in correspondence with all things belonging

to him, know merely from such action as is effected through the hands,

what a man is in respect to his understanding and will, also his charity

and faith, thus in respect to the internal life pertaining to his mind

and the external life derived therefrom in the body. I have often wondered

that the angels have such knowledge from the mere action of the body

through the hands; but that it is so has been shown to me repeatedly by

living experience, and it has been said that it is from this that

inductions into the ministry are performed by the laying on of the hands,

and that "touching with the hand" signifies communicating, with other

like things. From all this the conclusion is formed, that the all of

charity and faith is in works, and that charity and faith without works

are like rainbows about the sun, which vanish away and are dispersed by

a cloud. On this account "works" and "doing works" are so often mentioned

in the Word, and it is said that a man's salvation depends upon these;

moreover, he that doeth is called a wise man, and he that doeth not is

called a foolish man. But it should be remembered that by "works" here

are meant uses actually done; for the all of charity and faith is in uses

and according to uses. There is this correspondence of works with uses,

because the correspondence is spiritual, but it is carried out through

substances and matters, which are subjects.

221. Two arcana, which are brought within reach of the understanding by

what precedes, may here be revealed. The First Arcanum is that the Word

is in its fullness and in its power in the sense of the letter. For there

are three senses in the Word, according to the three degrees; the celestial

sense, the spiritual sense, and the natural sense. Since these senses are

in the Word according to the three degrees of height, and their conjunction

is effected by correspondences, the outmost sense, which is the natural

and is called the sense of the letter, is not only the complex, containant

and base of the corresponding interior senses, but moreover in the outmost

sense the Word is in its fullness and in its power. This is abundantly

shown and proved in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the

Sacred Scripture (n. 27-35, 36-49, 50-61, 62-69). The Second Arcanum is

that the Lord came into the world, and took upon Him the Human, in order

to put Himself into the power of subjugating the hells, and of reducing

all things to order both in the heavens and on the earth. This Human He

put on over His former Human. This Human which He put on in the world was

like the human of a man in the world. Yet both Humans are Divine, and

therefore infinitely transcend the finite humans of angels and men. And

because He fully glorified the natural Human even to its outmosts, He

rose again with the whole body, differently from any man. Through the

assumption of this Human the Lord put on Divine Omnipotence not only

for subjugating the hells, and reducing the heavens to order, but also

holding the hells in subjection to eternity, and saving mankind. This

power is meant by His "sitting at the right hand of the power and might

of God." Because the Lord, by the assumption of a natural Human, made

Himself Divine Truth in outmosts, He is called "the Word," and it is said

that "the Word was made flesh;" moreover, Divine Truth in outmosts is

the Word in the sense of the letter. This the Lord made Himself by

fulfilling all things of the Word concerning Himself in Moses and the

Prophets. For while every man is his own good and his own truth, and man

is man on no other ground, the Lord, by the assumption of a natural Human,

is Divine Good itself and Divine Truth itself, or what is the same, He is

Divine Love itself and Divine Wisdom itself, both in Firsts and in Lasts.

Consequently the Lord, since His advent into the world, appears as a sun

in the angelic heavens, in stronger radiance and in greater splendor than

before His advent. This is an arcanum which is brought within the range

of the understanding by the doctrine of degrees. The Lord's omnipotence

before His advent into the world will be treated of in what follows.

222. THERE ARE DEGREES OF BOTH KINDS IN THE GREATEST AND IN THE LEAST

OF ALL CREATED THINGS.

That the greatest and the least of all things consist of discrete and

continuous degrees, that is, of degrees of height and of breadth, cannot

be illustrated by examples from visible objects, because the least things

are not visible to the eyes, and the greatest things which are visible

seem undistinguished into degrees; consequently this matter does not

allow of demonstration otherwise than by universals. And since angels

are in wisdom from universals, and from that in knowledge of particulars,

it is allowed to bring forward their statements concerning these things.

223. The statements of angels on this subject are as follows: There can

be nothing so minute as not to have in it degrees of both kinds; for

instance, there can be nothing so minute in any animal, or in any plant,

or in any mineral, or in the ether or air, as not to have in it degrees

of both kinds, and since ether and air are receptacles of heat and light,

and spiritual heat and spiritual light are the receptacles of love and

wisdom, there can be nothing of heat and light or of love and wisdom so

minute as not to have in it degrees of both kinds. Angels also declare

that the minutest thing of an affection and the minutest thing of a

thought, nay, the minutest thing of an idea of thought, consists of

degrees of both kinds, and that a minute thing not consisting of these

degrees would be nothing; for it would have no form, thus no quality,

nor any state which could be changed and varied, and by this means have

existence. Angels confirm this by the truth, that infinite things in God

the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity, are one distinctly; and that

there are infinite things in His infinites; and that in things infinitely

infinite there are degrees of both kinds, which also in Him are one

distinctly; and because these things are in Him, and all things were

created by Him, and things created repeat in an image the things which

are in Him, it follows that there cannot be the least finite in which

there are not such degrees. These degrees are equally in things least

and greatest, because the Divine is the same in things greatest and in

things least. That in God-Man infinite things are one distinctly, see

above (n. 17-22); and that the Divine is the same in things greatest

and in things least (n. 77-82); which positions are further illustrated

(n. 155, 169, 171).

224. There cannot be the least thing of love and wisdom, or the least

thing of affection and thought, or even the least thing of an idea of

thought, in which there are not degrees of both kinds, for the reason

that love and wisdom are substance and form (as shown above, n. 50-53),

and the same is true of affection and thought; and because there can be

no form in which these degrees are not (as was said above), it follows

that in these there are like degrees; for to separate love and wisdom,

or affection and thought, from substance in form, is to annihilate them,

since they are not possible outside of their subjects; for they are states

of their subjects perceived by man varyingly, which states present them

to view.

225. The greatest things in which there are degrees of both kinds, are

the universe in its whole complex, the natural world in its complex,

and the spiritual world in its complex; every empire and every kingdom

in its complex; also, all civil, moral and spiritual concerns of these

in their complex; the whole animal kingdom, the whole vegetable kingdom,

and the whole mineral kingdom, each in its complex; all atmospheres of

both worlds taken together, also their heats and lights. Likewise things

less general, as man in his complex; every animal in its complex, every

tree and every shrub in its complex; as also every stone and every metal

in its complex. The forms of these are alike in this, that they consist

of degrees of both kinds; the reason is that the Divine, by which they

were created, is the same in things greatest and least (as was shown

above, n.77-82). The particulars and the veriest particulars of all

these are like generals and the largest generals in this, that they are

forms of both kinds of degrees.

226. On account of things greatest and least being forms of both kinds

of degrees, there is connection between them from first to last; for

likeness conjoins them. Still, there can be no least thing which is the

same as any other; consequently all particulars are distinct from each

other, likewise all veriest particulars. In any form or in different

forms there can be no least thing the same as any other, for the reason

that in greatest forms there are like degrees, and the greatest are made

up of leasts. From there being such degrees in things greatest, and

perpetual differences in accordance with these degrees, from top to

bottom and from center to circumference, it follows that their lesser

or least constituents, in which there are like degrees, can no one of

them be the same as any other.

227. It is likewise a matter of angelic wisdom that from this similitude

between generals and particulars, that is, between things greatest and

least in respect to these degrees, comes the perfection of the created

universe; for thereby one thing regards another as its like, with which

it can be conjoined for every use, and can present every end in effect.

228. But these things may seem paradoxical, because they are not explained

by application to visible things; yet things abstract, being universals,

are often better comprehended than things applied, for these are of

perpetual variety, and variety obscures.

229. Some contend that there can be a substance so simple as not to be

a form from lesser forms, and out of that substance, through a process

of massing, substantiated or composite things arise, and finally

substances called material. But there can be no such absolutely simple

substances. For what is substance without form? It is that of which

nothing can be predicated; and out of mere being of which nothing can

be predicated, no process of massing can make anything. That there are

things innumerable in the first created substance of all things, which

are things most minute and simple, will be seen in what follows, where

forms are treated of.

230. IN THE LORD THE THREE DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE INFINITE AND UNCREATE,

BUT IN MAN THE THREE DEGREES ARE FINITE AND CREATED.

In the Lord the three degrees of height are infinite and uncreate,

because the Lord is Love itself and Wisdom itself (as has been already

shown); and because the Lord is Love itself and Wisdom itself, He is

also Use itself. For love has use for its end, and brings forth use by

means of wisdom; for without use love and wisdom have no boundary or

end, that is, no home of their own, consequently they cannot be said

to have being and have form unless there be use in which they may be.

These three constitute the three degrees of height in subjects of life.

These three are like first end, middle end which is called cause, and

last end which is called effect. That end, cause and effect constitute

the three degrees of height has been shown above and abundantly proved.

231. That in man there are these three degrees can be seen from the

elevation of his mind even to the degrees of love and wisdom in which

angels of the second and third heavens are; for all angels were born men;

and man, as regards the interiors pertaining to his mind, is a heaven in

least form; therefore there are in man, by creation, as many degrees of

height as there are heavens. Moreover, man is an image and likeness of

God; consequently these three degrees have been inscribed on man, because

they are in God-Man, that is, in the Lord. That in the Lord these degrees

are infinite and uncreate, and in man finite and created, can be seen from

what was shown in Part First; namely, from this, that the Lord is Love and

Wisdom in Himself; and that man is a recipient of love and wisdom from the

Lord; also, that of the Lord nothing but what is infinite can be

predicated, and of man nothing but what is finite.

232. These three degrees with the angels are called Celestial, Spiritual,

and Natural; and for them the celestial degree is the degree of love, the

spiritual the degree of wisdom, and the natural the degree of uses. These

degrees are so called because the heavens are divided into two kingdoms,

one called the celestial, the other the spiritual, to which is added a

third kingdom wherein are men in the world, and this is the natural

kingdom. Moreover, the angels of whom the celestial kingdom consists

are in love; the angels, of whom the spiritual kingdom consists are in

wisdom; while men in the world are in uses; therefore these kingdoms

are conjoined. How it is to be understood that men are in uses will be

shown in the next Part.

233. It has been told me from heaven, that in the Lord from eternity,

who is Jehovah, before His assumption of a Human in the world, the two

prior degrees existed actually, and the third degree potentially, as

they do also with angels; but that after the assumption of a Human in

the world, He put on over these the third degree, called the natural,

thereby becoming Man, like a man in the world; but with the difference,

that in the Lord this degree, like the prior degrees, is infinite and

uncreate, while in angel and in man they are all finite and created. For

the Divine which, apart from space, had filled all spaces (n. 69-72),

penetrated even to the outmosts of nature; yet before the assumption of

the Human, the Divine influx into the natural degree was mediate through

the angelic heavens, but after the assumption it was immediate from

Himself. This is the reason why all churches in the world before His

Advent were representative of spiritual and celestial things, but after

His Advent became spiritual-natural and celestial-natural, and

representative worship was abolished. This also was the reason why the

sun of the angelic heaven, which, as was said above, is the first

proceeding of His Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, after the assumption

of the Human shone out with greater effulgence and splendor than before

the assumption. And this is what is meant by these words in Isaiah:

In that day the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun,

and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven

days (30:26).

This is said of the state of heaven and of the church after the Lord's

coming into the world. Again, in the Apocalypse:

The countenance of the Son of man was as the sun shineth in his

strength (1:16);

and elsewhere (as in Isaiah 60:20; 2 Sam. 23:3, 4; Matt. 17:1, 2). The

mediate enlightenment of men through the angelic heaven, which existed

before the coming of the Lord, may be compared to the light of the moon,

which is the mediate light of the sun; and because after His coming

this was made immediate, it is said in Isaiah,

That the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun (30:26);

and in David:

In His days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace

until there is no longer any moon (72:7).

This also is said of the Lord.

234. The reason why the Lord from eternity, that is, Jehovah, put on

this third degree by the assumption of a Human in the world, was that

He could enter into this degree only by means of a nature like human

nature, thus only by means of conception from His Divine and by birth

from a virgin; for in this way He could put off a nature which, although

a receptacle of the Divine, is in itself dead, and could put on the

Divine. This is meant by the Lord's two states in the world, which are

called the state of exinanition and the state of glorification, which

are treated of in The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord.

235. Of the threefold ascent of the degrees of height this much has been

said in general; but these degrees cannot here be discussed in detail,

because (as was said in the preceding chapter) there must be these three

degrees in things greatest and things least; this only need be said, that

there are such degrees in each and all things of love, and therefrom in

each and all things of wisdom, and from both of these in each and all

things of use. In the Lord all these degrees are infinite; in angel and

man they are finite. But how there are these three degrees in love, in

wisdom, and in uses cannot be described and unfolded except in series.

236. THESE THREE DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE IN EVERY MAN FROM BIRTH, AND CAN

BE OPENED SUCCESSIVELY; AND, AS THEY ARE OPENED, MAN IS IN THE LORD AND

THE LORD IN MAN.

That there are three degrees of height in every man, has not until now

become known for the reason that these degrees have not been recognized,

and so long as they remained unnoticed, none but continuous degrees could

be known; and when none but continuous degrees are known, it may be

supposed that love and wisdom increase in man only by continuity. But

it should be known, that in every man from his birth there are three

degrees of height, or discrete degrees, one above or within another;

and that each degree of height, or discrete degree, has also degrees of

breadth, or continuous degrees, according to which it increases by

continuity. For there are degrees of both kinds in things greatest and

least of all things (as was shown above, n. 222-229); for no degree of

one kind is possible without degrees of the other kind.

237. These three degrees of height are called natural, spiritual, and

celestial (as was said above, n. 232). When man is born he comes first

into the natural degree, and this grows in him, by continuity, according

to his knowledges and the understanding acquired by means of knowledges

even to the highest point of understanding, which is called the rational.

Yet not by this means is the second degree opened, which is called the

spiritual. That degree is opened by means of a love of uses in accordance

with the things of the understanding, although by a spiritual love of

uses, which is love towards the neighbor. This degree may grow in like

manner by continuous degrees to its height, and it grows by means of

knowledges of truth and good, that is, by spiritual truths. Yet even by

such truths the third degree which is called the celestial is not opened;

for this degree is opened by means of the celestial love of use, which

is love to the Lord; and love to the Lord is nothing else than committing

to life the precepts of the Word, the sum of which is to flee from evils

because they are hellish and devilish, and to do good because it is

heavenly and Divine. In this manner these three degrees are successively

opened in man.

238. So long as man lives in the world he knows nothing of the opening

of these degrees within him, because he is then in the natural degree,

which is the outmost, and from this he then thinks, wills, speaks, and

acts; and the spiritual degree, which is interior, communicates with the

natural degree, not by continuity but by correspondences, and

communication by correspondences is not sensibly felt. But when man puts

off the natural degree, which he does at death, he comes into that degree

which has been opened within him in the world; he in whom the spiritual

degree has been opened coming into that degree, and he within whom the

celestial degree has been opened coming into that degree. He who comes

into the spiritual degree after death no longer thinks, wills, speaks,

and acts naturally, but spiritually; and he who comes into the celestial

degree thinks, wills, speaks, and acts according to that degree. And as

there can be communication between the three degrees only by

correspondences, the differences of love, wisdom, and use, as regards

these degrees are such as to have no common ground by means of anything

continuous. From all this it is plain that man has three degrees of

height that may be successively opened in him.

239. Since there are in man three degrees of love and wisdom, and

therefore of use, it follows that there must be in him three degrees,

of will, of understanding, and of result therefrom, thus of determination

to use; for will is the receptacle of love, understanding the receptacle

of wisdom, and result is use from these. From this it is evident that

there are in every man a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial will and

understanding, potentially by birth and actually when they are opened.

In a word the mind of man, which consists of will and understanding, is

from creation and therefore from birth, of three degrees, so that man

has a natural mind, a spiritual mind, and a celestial mind, and can

thereby be elevated into and possess angelic wisdom while he lives in

the world; but it is only after death, and then only if he becomes an

angel, that he enters into that wisdom, and his speech then becomes

ineffable and incomprehensible to the natural man. I knew a man of

moderate learning in the world, whom I saw after death and spoke with in

heaven, and I clearly perceived that he spoke like an angel, and that

the things he said would be inconceivable to the natural man; and for

the reason that in the world he had applied the precepts of the Word to

life and had worshiped the Lord, and was therefore raised up by the Lord

into the third degree of love and wisdom. It is important that this

elevation of the human mind should be known about, for upon it depends

the understanding of what follows.

240. There are in man from the Lord two capacities whereby he is

distinguished from beasts. One of these is the ability to understand

what is true and what is good; this is called rationality, and is a

capacity of his understanding. The other is an ability to do what is true

and good; this is called freedom, and is a capacity of his will. For man

by virtue of his rationality is able to think whatever he pleases, either

with or against God, either with or against the neighbor; he is also able

to will and to do what he thinks; but when he sees evil and fears

punishment, he is able, by virtue of his freedom, to abstain from doing

it. By virtue of these two capacities man is man, and is distinguished

from beasts. Man has these two capacities from the Lord, and they are

from Him every moment; nor are they taken away, for if they were, man's

human would perish. In these two capacities the Lord is with every man,

good and evil alike; they are the Lord's abode in the human race; from

this it is that all men live for ever, both the good and evil. But the

Lord's abode in man is nearer as by the agency of these capacities man

opens the higher degrees, for by the opening of these man comes into

higher degree of love and wisdom, thus nearer to the Lord. From this it

can be seen that as these degrees are opened, man is in the Lord and the

Lord in him.

241. It is said above, that the three degrees of height are like end,

cause, and effect, and that love, wisdom, and use follow in succession

according to these degrees; therefore a few things shall be said here

about love as being end, wisdom as being cause, and use as being effect.

Whoever consults his reason, if it is enlightened, can see that the end

of all things of man is his love; for what he loves that he thinks,

decides upon, and does, consequently that he has for his end. Man can

also see from his reason that wisdom is cause; since he, that is, his

love, which is his end, searches in his understanding for its means

through which to attain its end, thus consulting its wisdom, and these

means constitute the instrumental cause. That use is effect is evident

without explanation. But one man's love is not the same as another's,

neither is one man's wisdom the same as another's; so it is with use.

And since these three are homogeneous (as was shown above, n. 189-194),

it follows that such as is the love in man, such is the wisdom and such

is the use. Wisdom is here spoken of, but by it what pertains to man's

understanding is meant.

242. SPIRITUAL LIGHT FLOWS IN WITH MAN THROUGH DEGREES, BUT NOT SPIRITUAL

HEAT, EXCEPT SO FAR AS MAN FLEES FROM EVILS AS SINS AND LOOKS TO THE LORD.

It is evident from what has been shown above that from the sun of heaven,

which is the first proceeding of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom (treated

of in Part Second), light and heat proceed - light from its wisdom, and

heat from its love; also that light is the receptacle of wisdom, and heat

of love; also that so far as man comes into wisdom he comes into that

Divine light, and so far as he comes into love he comes into that Divine

heat. From what has been shown above it is also evident that there are

three degrees of light and three degrees of heat, that is, three degrees

of wisdom and three degrees of love, and that these degrees have been

formed in man in order that he may be a receptacle of the Divine Love

and the Divine Wisdom, thus of the Lord. It is now to be shown that

spiritual light flows in through these three degrees in man, but not

spiritual heat, except so far as man shuns evils as sins and looks to

the Lord - or, what is the same, that man is able to receive wisdom even

to the third degree, but not love, unless he flees from evils as sins

and looks to the Lord; or what is still the same, that man's understanding

can be raised into wisdom, but not his will, except so far as he flees

from evils as sins.

243. That the understanding can be raised into the light of heaven, that

is, into angelic wisdom, while the will cannot be raised into the heat

of heaven, that is, into angelic love, unless man flees from evils as

sins and looks to the Lord, has been made plainly evident to me from

experience in the spiritual world. I have frequently seen and perceived

that simple spirits, who knew merely that God is and that the Lord was

born a man, and who knew scarcely anything else, clearly apprehended the

arcana of angelic wisdom almost as the angels do; and not these simple

ones alone, but many also of the infernal crew. These, while they

listened, understood, but not when they thought within themselves;

for while they listened, light entered from above, and when they thought

within themselves, no light could enter except that which corresponded

to their heat or love; consequently when they had listened to and

perceived these arcana, as soon as they turned their ears away they

remembered nothing, those belonging to the infernal crew even rejecting

these things with disgust and utterly denying them, because the fire of

their love and its light, being delusive, induced darkness, by which the

heavenly light entering from above was extinguished.

244. The same thing happens in the world. A man not altogether stupid,

and who has not confirmed himself in falsities from the pride of

self-intelligence, hearing others speak on some exalted matter, or

reading something of the kind, if he is in any affection of knowing,

understands these things and also retains them, and may afterwards

confirm them. A bad man as well as a good man may do this. Even a bad

man, though in heart he denies the Divine things pertaining to the

church, can still understand them, and also speak of and preach them,

and in writing learnedly prove them; but when left to his own thought,

from his own infernal love he thinks against them and denies them. From

which it is obvious that the understanding can be in spiritual light even

when the will is not in spiritual heat; and from this it also follows

that the understanding does not lead the will, or that wisdom does not

beget love, but only teaches and shows the way, - teaching how a man

ought to live, and showing the way in which he ought to go. It further

follows that the will leads the understanding, and causes it to act as

one with itself; also that whatever in the understanding agrees with the

love which is in the will, the love calls wisdom. In what follows it will

be seen that the will does nothing by itself apart from the understanding,

but does all that it does in conjunction with the understanding; moreover,

that it is the will that by influx takes the understanding into

partnership with itself, and not the reverse.

245. The nature of the influx of light into the three degrees of life in

man which belong to his mind, shall now be shown. The forms which are

receptacles of heat and light, that is, of love and wisdom in man, and

which (as was said) are in threefold order or of three degrees, are

transparent from birth, transmitting spiritual light as crystal glass

transmits natural light; consequently in respect to wisdom man can be

raised even into the third degree. Nevertheless these forms are not

opened except when spiritual heat conjoins itself to spiritual light,

that is, love to wisdom; by such conjunction these transparent forms are

opened according to degrees. It is the same with light and heat from the

sun of the world in their action on plants on the earth. The light of

winter, which is as bright as that of summer, opens nothing in seed or

in tree, but when vernal heat conjoins itself to that light then the heat

opens them. There is this similarity because spiritual light corresponds

to natural light, and spiritual heat to natural heat.

246. This spiritual heat is obtained only by fleeing from evils as sins,

and at the same time looking to the Lord; for so long as man is in evils

he is also in the love of them, for he lusts after them; and the love of

evil and the lust, abide in a love contrary to spiritual love and

affection; and such love or lust can be removed only by fleeing from

evils as sins; and because man cannot flee from evils from himself, but

only from the Lord. He must look to the Lord. So when he flees from

evils from the Lord, the love of evil and its heat are removed, and the

love of good and its heat are introduced in their stead, whereby a higher

degree is opened; for the Lord flowing in from above opens that degree,

and then conjoins love, that is, spiritual heat, to wisdom or spiritual

light, from which conjunction man begins to flourish spiritually, like a

tree in spring-time.

247. By the influx of spiritual light into all three degrees of the mind

man is distinguished from beasts; and, as contrasted with beasts, he can

think analytically, and see both natural and spiritual truth; and when he

sees them he can acknowledge them, and thus be reformed and regenerated.

This capacity to receive spiritual light is what is meant by rationality

(referred to above), which every man has from the Lord, and which is not

taken away from him, for if it were taken away he could not be reformed.

From this capacity, called rationality, man, unlike the beasts, is able

not only to think but also to speak from thought; and afterwards from his

other capacity, called freedom (also referred to above), he is able to do

those things that he thinks from his understanding. As these two

capacities, rationality and freedom, which are proper to man, have been

treated of above (n. 240), no more will be said about them here.

248. UNLESS THE HIGHER DEGREE WHICH IS THE SPIRITUAL IS OPENED IN MAN,

HE BECOMES NATURAL AND SENSUAL.

It was shown above that there are three degrees of the human mind, called

natural, spiritual, and celestial, and that these degrees may be opened

successively in man; also, that the natural degree is first opened;

afterwards, if man flees from evil as sins and looks to the Lord, the

spiritual degree is opened; and lastly, the celestial. Since these

degrees are opened successively according to man's life, it follows that

the two higher degrees may remain unopened, and man then continues in

the natural degree, which is the outmost. Moreover, it is known in the

world that there is a natural and a spiritual man, or an external and an

internal man; but it is not known that a natural man becomes spiritual

by the opening of some higher degree in him, and that such opening is

effected by a spiritual life, which is a life conformed to the Divine

precepts; and that without a life conformed to these man remains natural.

249. There are three kinds of natural men; the first consists of those

who know nothing of the Divine precepts; the second, of those who know

that there are such precepts, but give no thought to a life according to

them; and the third, of those who despise and deny these precepts. In

respect to the first class, which consists of those who know nothing of

the Divine precepts, since they cannot be taught by themselves they must

needs remain natural. Every man is taught respecting the Divine precepts,

not by immediate revelations, but by others who know them from religion,

on which subject see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the

Sacred Scriptures (n. 114-118). Those of the second class, who know that

there are Divine precepts but give no thought to a life according to

them, also remain natural, and care about no other concerns than those

of the world and the body. These after death become mere menials and

servants, according to the uses which they are able to perform for those

who are spiritual; for the natural man is a menial and servant, and the

spiritual man is a master and lord. Those of the third class, who despise

and deny the Divine precepts, not only remain natural, but also become

sensual in the measure of their contempt and denial. Sensual men are the

lowest natural men, who are incapable of thinking above the appearances

and fallacies of the bodily senses. After death they are in hell.

250. As it is unknown in the world what the spiritual man is, and what

the natural, and as by many he who is merely natural is called spiritual,

and conversely, these subjects shall be separately discussed, as follows:

(1) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man.

(2) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is

opened.

(3) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is not

opened and yet not closed.

(4) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree is

entirely closed.

(5) Lastly, The nature of the difference between the life of a man

merely natural and the life of a beast.

251. (1) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man. Man is not

man from face and body, but from understanding and will; therefore by

the natural man and the spiritual man is meant that man's understanding

and will are either natural or spiritual. The natural man in respect to

his understanding and will is like the natural world, and may be called

a world or microcosm; and the spiritual man in respect to his

understanding and will is like the spiritual world, and may be called

a spiritual world or heaven. From which it is evident that as the natural

man is in a kind of image a natural world, so he loves those things which

are of the natural world; and that as the spiritual man is in a kind of

image a spiritual world, so he loves those things which are of that world,

or of heaven. The spiritual man indeed loves the natural world also but

not otherwise than as a master loves his servant through whom he performs

uses. Moreover, according to uses the natural man becomes like the

spiritual, which is the case when the natural man feels from the spiritual

the delight of use; such a natural man may be called spiritual-natural.

The spiritual man loves spiritual truths; he not only loves to know and

understand them, but also wills them; while the natural man loves to

speak of those truths and also do them. Doing truths is performing uses.

This subordination is from the conjunction of the spiritual world and the

natural world; for whatever appears and is done in the natural world

derives its cause from the spiritual world. From all this it can be seen

that the spiritual man is altogether distinct from the natural, and that

there is no other communication between them than such as there is between

cause and effect.

252. (2) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree

is opened. This is obvious from what has been said above; to which it

may be added, that a natural man is a complete man when the spiritual

degree is opened in him, for he is then consociated with angels in

heaven and at the same time with men in the world, and in regard to

both, lives under the Lord's guidance. For the spiritual man imbibes

commands from the Lord through the Word, and executes them through the

natural man. The natural man who has the spiritual degree opened does

not know that he thinks and acts from his spiritual man, for it seems

as if he did this from himself, when yet he does not do it from himself

but from the Lord. Nor does the natural man whose spiritual degree has

been opened know that by means of his spiritual man he is in heaven,

when yet his spiritual man is in the midst of angels of heaven, and

sometimes is even visible to them; but because he draws himself back to

his natural man, after a brief stay there he disappears. Nor does the

natural man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened know that his

spiritual mind is being filled by the Lord with thousands of arcana of

wisdom, and with thousands of delights of love, and that he is to come

into these after death, when he becomes an angel. The natural man does

not know these things because communication between the natural man and

the spiritual man is effected by correspondences; and communication by

correspondences is perceived in the understanding only by the fact that

truths are seen in light, and is perceived in the will only by the fact

that uses are performed from affection.

253. (3) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree

is not opened, and yet not closed. The spiritual degree is not opened,

and yet not closed, in the case of those who have led somewhat of a life

of charity and yet have known little of genuine truth. The reason is,

that this degree is opened by conjunction of love and wisdom, or of heat

with light; love alone or spiritual heat alone not opening it, nor wisdom

alone or spiritual light alone, but both in conjunction. Consequently,

when genuine truths, out of which wisdom or light arises, are unknown,

love is inadequate to open that degree; it only keeps it in the

possibility of being opened; this is what is meant by its not being

closed. Something like this is seen in the vegetable kingdom, in that

heat alone does not cause seeds and trees to vegetate, but heat in

conjunction with light effects this. It is to be known that all truths

are of spiritual light and all goods are of spiritual heat, and that

good opens the spiritual degree by means of truths; for good, by means

of truths, effects use, and uses are goods of love, which derive their

essence from a conjunction of good and truth. The lot, after death, of

those in whom the spiritual degree is not opened and yet not closed,

is that since they are still natural and not spiritual, they are in the

lowest parts of heaven, where they sometimes suffer hard times; or they

are in the outskirts in some higher heaven, where they are as it were in

the light of evening; for (as was said above) in heaven and in every

society there the light decreases from the middle to the outskirts, and

those who above others are in Divine truths are in the middle, while

those who are in few truths are in the outskirts. Those are in few

truths who from religion know only that there is a God, and that the

Lord suffered for them, and that charity and faith are essentials of

the church, not troubling themselves to know what faith is or what

charity is; when yet faith in its essence is truth, and truth is

manifold, and charity is all the work of his calling which man does

from the Lord; he does this from the Lord when he flees from evils as

sins. It is just as was said above, that the end is the all of the cause,

and the effect the all of the end by means of the cause; the end is

charity or good, the cause is faith or truth, and effects are good works

or uses; from which it is plain that from charity no more can be carried

into works than the measure in which charity is conjoined with the truths

which are called truths of faith. By means of these truths charity enters

into works and qualifies them.

254. (4) The character of the natural man in whom the spiritual degree

is entirely closed. The spiritual degree is closed in those who are in

evils as to life, and still more in those who from evils are in falsities.

It is the same as with the fibril of a nerve, which contracts at the

slightest touch of any thing heterogeneous; so every motive fiber of a

muscle, yea, the muscle itself, and even the whole body shrinks from the

touch of whatever is hard or cold. So also the substances or forms of the

spiritual degree in man shrink from evils and their falsities, because

these are heterogeneous. For the spiritual degree, being in the form of

heaven, admits nothing but goods, and truths that are from good; these

are homogeneous to it; but evils, and falsities that are from evil, are

heterogeneous to it. This degree is contracted, and by contraction closed,

especially in those who in the world are in love of ruling from love of

self, because this love is opposed to love to the Lord. It is also closed,

but not so much, in those who from love of the world are in the insane

greed of possessing the goods of others. These loves shut the spiritual

degree, because they are the origins of evils. The contraction or closing

of this degree is like the twisting back of a spiral in the opposite

direction; for which reason, that degree after it is closed, turns back

the light of heaven; consequently there is thick darkness there instead

of heavenly light, and truth which is in the light of heaven, becomes

nauseous. In such persons, not only does the spiritual degree itself

become closed, but also the higher region of the natural degree which

is called the rational, until at last the lowest region of the natural

degree, which is called the sensual, alone stands open; this being

nearest to the world and to the outward senses of the body, from which

such a man afterwards thinks, speaks, and reasons. The natural man who

has become sensual through evils and their falsities, in the spiritual

world in the light of heaven does not appear as a man but as a monster,

even with nose drawn back (the nose is drawn in because the nose

corresponds to the perception of truth); moreover, he cannot bear a ray

of heavenly light. Such have in their caverns no other light than what

resembles the light from live coals or from burning charcoal. From all

this it is evident who and of what character are those in whom the

spiritual degree is closed.

255. (5) The nature of the difference between the life of a natural man

and the life of a beast. This difference will be particularly discussed

in what follows, where Life will be treated of. Here it may be said only

that the difference is that man has three degrees of mind, that is, three

degrees of understanding and will, which degrees can be opened

successively; and as these are transparent, man can be raised as to his

understanding into the light of heaven and see truths, not only civil

and moral, but also spiritual, and from many truths seen can form

conclusions about truths in their order, and thus perfect the

understanding to eternity. But beasts do not have the two higher

degrees, but only the natural degrees, and these apart from the higher

degrees have no capacity to think on any subject, civil, moral, or

spiritual. And since the natural degrees of beasts are incapable of

being opened, and thereby raised into higher light, they are unable to

think in successive order, but only in simultaneous order, which is not

thinking, but acting from a knowledge corresponding to their love. And

because they are unable to think analytically, and to view a lower

thought from any higher thought, they are unable to speak, but are able

only to utter sounds in accordance with the knowledge pertaining to their

love. Yet the sensual man, who is in the lowest sense natural, differs

from the beast only in this, that he can fill his memory with knowledges,

and think and speak therefrom; this power he gets from a capacity proper

to every man, of being able to understand truth if he chooses; it is this

capacity that makes the difference. Nevertheless many, by abuse of this

capacity, have made themselves lower than beasts.

256. THE NATURAL DEGREE OF THE HUMAN MIND REGARDED IN ITSELF IS CONTINUOUS,

BUT BY CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE TWO HIGHER DEGREES IT APPEARS WHEN IT IS

ELEVATED AS IF IT WERE DISCRETE.

Although this is hardly comprehensible, by those who have as yet no

knowledge of degrees of height, it must nevertheless be revealed, because

it is a part of angelic wisdom; and while the natural man is unable to

think about this wisdom in the same way as angels do, nevertheless it can

be comprehended by his understanding, when it has been raised into the

degree of light in which angels are; for his understanding can be elevated

even to that extent, and enlightened according to its elevation. But this

enlightenment of the natural mind does not ascend by discrete degrees; but

increases in a continuous degree, and as it increases, that mind is

enlightened from within by the light of the two higher degrees. How this

occurs can be comprehended from a perception of degrees of height, as

being one above another, while the natural degree, which is the lowest,

is a kind of general covering to the two higher degrees. Then, as the

natural degree is raised up towards a degree of the higher kind, the

higher acts from within upon the outer natural and illuminates it. This

illumination is effected, indeed, from within, by the light of the higher

degrees, but the natural degree which envelops and surrounds the higher

receives it by continuity, thus more lucidly and purely in proportion to

its ascent; that is, from within, by the light of the higher degrees, the

natural degree is enlightened discretely, but in itself is enlightened

continuously. From this it is evident that so long as man lives in the

world, and is thereby in the natural degree, he cannot be elevated into

very wisdom, such as the angels have, but only into higher light, even up

to angels, and can receive enlightenment from their light that flows in

from within and illuminates. But these things cannot as yet be more

clearly described; they can be better comprehended from effects; for

effects present causes in themselves in clear light, and thus illustrate

them, when there is some previous knowledge of causes.

257. The effects are these: (1) The natural mind may be raised up to the

light of heaven in which angels are, and may perceive naturally, thus not

so fully, what the angels perceive spiritually; nevertheless, man's

natural mind cannot be raised into angelic light itself. (2) By means of

his natural mind, raised to the light of heaven, man can think, yea,

speak with angels; but the thought and speech of the angels then flow

into the natural thought and speech of the man, and not conversely; so

that angels speak with man in a natural language, which is the man's

mother tongue. (3) This is effected by a spiritual influx into what is

natural, and not by any natural influx into what is spiritual. (4) Human

wisdom, which so long as man lives in the natural world is natural, can

by no means be raised into angelic wisdom, but only into some image of

it. The reason is, that elevation of the natural mind is effected by

continuity, as from shade to light, or from grosser to purer. Still the

man in whom the spiritual degree has been opened comes into that wisdom

when he dies; and he may also come into it by a suspension of bodily

sensations, and then by an influx from above into the spiritual parts

of his mind. (5) Man's natural mind consists of spiritual substances

together with natural substances; thought comes from its spiritual

substances, not from its natural substances; these recede when the man

dies, while its spiritual substances do not. Consequently, after death,

when man becomes a spirit or angel, the same mind remains in a form like

that which it had in the world. (6) The natural substances of that mind,

which recede (as was said) by death, constitute the cutaneous covering

of the spiritual body which spirits and angels have. By means of such

covering, which is taken from the natural world, their spiritual bodies

maintain existence; for the natural is the outmost containant:

consequently there is no spirit or angel who was not born a man. These

arcana of angelic wisdom are here adduced that the quality of the natural

mind in man may be known, which subject is further treated of in what

follows.

258. Every man is born into a capacity to understand truths even to the

inmost degree in which the angels of the third heaven are; for the human

understanding, rising up by continuity around the two higher degrees,

receives the light of their wisdom, in the manner stated above (n. 256).

Therefore man has the ability to become rational according to his

elevation; if raised to the third degree he becomes rational from that

degree, if raised to the second degree he becomes rational from that

degree, if not raised he is rational in the first degree. It is said

that he becomes rational from those degrees, because the natural degree

is the general receptacle of their light. The reason why man does not

become rational to the height that he might is, that love, which is of

the will, cannot be raised in the same manner as wisdom, which is of the

understanding. Love, which is of the will, is raised only by fleeing from

evils as sins, and then by goods of charity, which are uses, which the

man thereafter performs from the Lord. Consequently, when love, which is

of the will, is not at the same time raised, wisdom, which is of the

understanding, however it may have ascended, falls back again down to its

own love. Therefore, if man's love is not at the same time raised into

the spiritual degree, he is rational only in the lowest degree. From all

this it can be seen that man's rational is in appearance as if it were of

three degrees, a rational from the celestial, a rational from the

spiritual, and a rational from the natural; also that rationality, which

is the capacity whereby man is elevated, is still in man whether he be

elevated or not.

259. It has been said that every man is born into that capacity, namely,

rationality, but by this is meant every man whose externals have not been

injured by some accident, either in the womb, or by some disease after

birth, or by a wound inflicted on the head, or in consequence of some

insane love bursting forth, and breaking down restraints. In such the

rational cannot be elevated; for life, which is of the will and

understanding, has in such no bounds in which it can terminate, so

disposed that it can produce outmost acts according to order; for life

acts in accordance with outmost determinations, though not from them.

That there can be no rationality with infants and children, may be seen

below (n. 266, at the end).

260. THE NATURAL MIND, SINCE IT IS THE COVERING AND CONTAINANT OF THE

HIGHER DEGREES OF THE HUMAN MIND, IS REACTIVE; AND IF THE HIGHER DEGREES

ARE NOT OPENED IT ACTS AGAINST THEM, BUT IF THEY ARE OPENED IT ACTS WITH

THEM.

It has been shown in the preceding chapter that as the natural mind is

in the outmost degree, it envelops and encloses the spiritual mind and

the celestial mind, which, in respect to degrees, are above it. It is

now to be shown that the natural mind reacts against the higher or

interior minds. It reacts because it covers, includes, and contains them,

and this cannot be done without reaction; for unless it reacted, the

interior or enclosed parts would become loosened and press outward and

thus fall apart, just as the viscera, which are the interiors of the

body, would push forth and fall asunder if the coverings which are about

the body did not react against them; so, too, unless the membrane

investing the motor fibers of a muscle reacted against the force of

these fibers in their activities, not only would action cease, but all

the inner tissues would be let loose. It is the same with every outmost

degree of the degrees of height; consequently with the natural mind with

respect to higher degrees; for, as was said above, there are three

degrees of the human mind, the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial,

and the natural mind is in the outmost degree. Another reason why the

natural mind reacts against the spiritual mind is, that the natural mind

consists not only of substances of the spiritual world but also of

substances of the natural world (as was said above, n. 257), and

substances of the natural world of their very nature react against the

substances of the spiritual world; for substances of the natural world

are in themselves dead, and are acted upon from without by substances of

the spiritual world; and substances which are dead, and which are acted

upon from without, by their nature resist, and thus by their nature

react. From all this it can be seen that the natural man reacts against

the spiritual man, and that there is combat. It is the same thing whether

the terms "natural and spiritual man" or "natural and spiritual mind"

are used.

261. From this it is obvious that when the spiritual mind is closed the

natural mind continually acts against the things of the spiritual mind,

fearing lest anything should flow in therefrom to disturb its own states.

Everything that flows in through the spiritual mind is from heaven, for

the spiritual mind in its form is a heaven; while everything that flows

into the natural mind is from the world, for the natural mind in its form

is a world. From which it follows that when the spiritual mind is closed,

the natural mind reacts against all things of heaven, giving them no

admission except so far as they are serviceable to it as means for

acquiring and possessing the things of the world. And when the things

of heaven are made to serve the natural mind as means to its own ends,

then those means, though they seem to be heavenly, are made natural; for

the end qualifies them, and they become like the knowledges of the

natural man, in which interiorly there is nothing of life. But as things

heavenly cannot be so joined to things natural that the two act as one,

they separate, and, with men merely natural, things heavenly arrange

themselves from without, in a circuit about the natural things which are

within. From this it is that a merely natural man can speak and preach

about heavenly things, and even simulate them in his actions, though

inwardly he thinks against them; the latter he does when alone, the

former when in company. But of these things more in what follows.

262. By virtue of the reaction which is in him from birth the natural

mind, or man, when he loves himself and the world above all things, acts

against the things that are of the spiritual mind or man. Then also he

has a sense of enjoyment in evils of every kind, as adultery, fraud,

revenge, blasphemy, and other like things; he then also acknowledges

nature as the creator of the universe; and confirms all things by means

of his rational faculty; and after confirmation he either perverts or

suffocates or repels the goods and truths of heaven and the church, and

at length either shuns them or turns his back upon them or hates them.

This he does in his spirit, and in the body just so far as he dares to

speak with others from his spirit without fear of the loss of reputation

as a means to honor and gain. When man is such, he gradually shuts up

the spiritual mind closer and closer. Confirmations of evil by means of

falsities especially close it up; therefore evil and falsity when

confirmed cannot be uprooted after death; they are only uprooted by means

of repentance in the world.

263. But when the spiritual mind is open the state of the natural mind

is wholly different. Then the natural mind is arranged in compliance

with the spiritual mind, and is subordinated to it. For the spiritual

mind acts upon the natural mind from above or within, and removes the

things therein that react, and adapts to itself those that act in harmony

with itself, whereby the excessive reaction is gradually taken away. It

is to be noted, that in things greatest and least of the universe, both

living and dead, there is action and reaction, from which comes an

equilibrium of all things; this is destroyed when action overcomes

reaction, or the reverse. It is the same with the natural and with the

spiritual mind. When the natural mind acts from the enjoyments of its

love and the pleasures of its thought, which are in themselves evils and

falsities, the reaction of the natural mind removes those things which

are of the spiritual mind and blocks the doors lest they enter, and it

makes action to come from such things as agree with its reaction. The

result is an action and reaction of the natural mind opposite to the

action and reaction of the spiritual mind, whereby there is a closing

of the spiritual mind like the twisting back of a spiral. But when the

spiritual mind is opened, the action and reaction of the natural mind

are inverted; for the spiritual mind acts from above or within, and at

the same time it acts from below or from without, through those things

in the natural mind which are arranged in compliance with it; and it

twists back the spiral in which the action and reaction of the natural

mind lie. For the natural mind is by birth in opposition to the things

belonging to the spiritual mind; an opposition derived, as is well known,

from parents by heredity. Such is the change of state which is called

reformation and regeneration. The state of the natural mind before

reformation may be compared to a spiral twisting or bending itself

downward; but after reformation it may be compared to a spiral twisting

or bending itself upwards; therefore man before reformation looks

downwards to hell, but after reformation looks upwards to heaven.

264. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL IS FROM THE ABUSE OF THE CAPACITIES PROPER TO

MAN, THAT ARE CALLED RATIONALITY AND FREEDOM.

By rationality is meant the capacity to understand what is true and

thereby what is false, also to understand what is good and thereby what

is evil; and by freedom is meant the capacity to think, will and do these

things freely. From what precedes it is evident, and it will become more

evident from what follows, that every man from creation, consequently

from birth, has these two capacities, and that they are from the Lord;

that they are not taken away from man; that from them is the appearance

that man thinks, speaks, wills, and acts as from himself; that the Lord

dwells in these capacities in every man, that man by virtue of that

conjunction lives to eternity; that man by means of these capacities

can be reformed and regenerated, but not without them; finally, that by

them man is distinguished from beasts.

265. That the origin of evil is from the abuse of these capacities will

be explained in the following order:

(1) A bad man equally with a good man enjoys these two capacities.

(2) A bad man abuses these capacities to confirm evils and falsities,

but a good man uses them to confirm goods and truths.

(3) Evils and falsities confirmed in man are permanent, and come to be

of his love, consequently of his life.

(4) Such things as have come to be of the love and life are engendered

in offspring.

(5) All evils, both engendered and acquired, have their seat in the

natural mind.

266. (1) A bad man, equally with a good man enjoys these two capacities.

It was shown in the preceding chapter that the natural mind, as regards

the understanding, can be elevated even to the light in which angels of

the third heaven are, and can see truths, acknowledge them, and then give

expression to them. From this it is plain that since the natural mind can

be elevated, a bad man equally with a good man enjoys the capacity called

rationality; and because the natural mind can be elevated to such an

extent, it follows that a bad man can also think and speak about heavenly

truths. Moreover, that he is able to will and to do them, even though he

does not will and do them, both reason and experience affirm. Reason

affirms it: for who cannot will and do what he thinks? His not willing

and doing it is because he does not love to will and do it. This ability

to will and to do is the freedom which every man has from the Lord; but

his not willing and doing good when he can, is from a love of evil, which

opposes; but this love he is able to resist, and many do resist it.

Experience in the spiritual world has often corroborated this. I have

listened to evil spirits who inwardly were devils, and who in the world

had rejected the truths of heaven and the church. When the affection for

knowing, in which every man is from childhood, was excited in them by

the glory that, like the brightness of fire, surrounds each love, they

perceived the arcana of angelic wisdom just as clearly as good spirits

do who inwardly were angels. Those diabolical spirits even declared that

they were able to will and act according to those arcana, but did not

wish to. When told that they might will them, if only they would flee

from evils as sins, they said that they could even do that, but did not

wish to. From this it was evident that the wicked equally with the good

have the capacity called freedom. Let any one look within himself, and

he will observe that it is so. Man has the power to will, because the

Lord, from whom that capacity comes, continually gives the power; for,

as was said above, the Lord dwells in every man in both of these

capacities, and therefore in the capacity, that is, in the power, of

being able to will. As to the capacity to understand, called rationality,

this man does not have until his natural mind reaches maturity; until

then it is like seed in unripe fruit, which cannot be opened in the soil

and grow up into a shrub. Neither does this capacity exist in those

mentioned above (n. 259).

267. (2) A bad man abuses these capacities to confirm evils and falsities,

but a good man uses them to confirm goods and truths. From the intellectual

capacity called rationality, and from the voluntary capacity called

freedom, man derives the ability to confirm whatever he wishes; for

the natural man is able to raise his understanding into higher light

to any extent he desires; but one who is in evils and in falsities

therefrom, raises it no higher than into the upper regions of his natural

mind, and rarely as far as the border of the spiritual mind; for the reason

that he is in the delights of the love of his natural mind, and when he

raises the understanding above that mind, the delight of his love perishes;

and if it is raised still higher, and sees truths which are opposed to the

delights of his life or to the principles of his self-intelligence, he

either falsifies those truths or passes them by and contemptuously leaves

them behind, or retains them in the memory as means to serve his life's

love, or the pride of his self-intelligence. That the natural man is able

to confirm whatever he wishes is plainly evident from the multitude of

heresies in the Christian world, each of which is confirmed by its

adherents. Who does not know that evils and falsities of every kind can

be confirmed? It is possible to confirm, and by the wicked it is

confirmed within themselves, that there is no God, and that nature is

everything and created herself; that religion is only a means for keeping

simple minds in bondage; that human prudence does everything, and Divine

providence nothing except sustaining the universe in the order in which

it was created; also that murders, adulteries, thefts, frauds, and revenge

are allowable, as held by Machiavelli and his followers. These and many

like things the natural man is able to confirm, and even to fill volumes

with the confirmations; and when such falsities are confirmed they appear

in their delusive light, but truths in such obscurity as to be seen only

as phantoms of the night. In a word, take what is most false and present

it as a proposition, and ask an ingenious person to prove it, and he will

do so to the complete extinction of the light of truth; but set aside his

confirmations, return and view the proposition itself from your own

rationality, and you will see its falsity in all its deformity. From all

this it can be seen that man is able to abuse these two capacities, which

he has from the Lord, to confirm evils and falsities of every kind. This

no beast can do, because no beast enjoys these capacities. Consequently,

a beast is born into all the order of its life, and into all the knowledge

of its natural love, but man is not.

268. (3) Evils and falsities confirmed in man are permanent, and come to

be of his love and life. Confirming evil and falsity is nothing else

than putting away good and truth, and if persisted in, it is their

rejection; for evil removes and rejects good, and falsity truth. For

this reason confirming evil and falsity is a closing up of heaven, - for

every good and truth flows in from the Lord through heaven, - and when

heaven is closed, man is in hell, and in a society therein which a like

evil prevails and a like falsity; from which hell he cannot afterwards

be delivered. It has been granted me to speak with some who ages ago

confirmed themselves in the falsities of their religion, and I saw that

they remained in the same falsities, in the same way as they were in

them in the world. The reason is, that all things in which a man confirms

himself come to be of his love and life. They come to be of his love

because they come to be of his will and understanding; and will and

understanding constitute the life of every one; and when they come to be

of man's life, they come to be not only of his whole mind but also of his

whole body. From this it is evident that a man who has confirmed himself

in evils and falsities is such from head to foot, and when he is wholly

such, by no turning or twisting back can he be reduced to an opposite

state, and thus withdrawn from hell. From all this, and from what precedes

in this chapter, it can be seen what the origin of evil is.

269. (4) Such things as have come to be of the love, and consequently of

the life, are engendered in offspring. It is known that man is born into

evil, and that he derives it by inheritance from parents; though by some

it is believed that he inherits it not from his parents, but through

parents from Adam; this, however, is an error. He derives it from the

father, from whom he has a soul that is clothed with a body in the mother.

For the seed, which is from the father, is the first receptacle of life,

but such a receptacle as it was with the father; for the seed is in the

form of his love, and each one's love is, in things greatest and least,

similar to itself; and there is in the seed a conatus to the human form,

and by successive steps it goes forth into that form. From this it follows

that evils called hereditary are from fathers, thus from grandfathers and

great-grandfathers, successively transmitted to offspring. This may be

learned also from observation, for as regards affections, there is a

resemblance of races to their first progenitor, and a stronger resemblance

in families, and a still stronger resemblance in households; and this

resemblance is such that generations are distinguishable not only by the

disposition, but even by the face. But of this ingeneration of the love

of evil by parents in offspring more will be said in what follows, where

the correspondence of the mind, that is, of the will and understanding,

with the body and its members and organs will be fully treated of. Here

these few things only are brought forward, that it may be known that evils

are derived from parents successively, and that they increase through the

accumulations of one parent after another, until man by birth is nothing

but evil; also that the malignity of evil increases according to the

degree in which the spiritual mind is closed up, for in this manner the

natural mind also is closed above; finally, that there is no recovery

from this in posterity except through their fleeing from evils as sins

by the help of the Lord. In this and in no other way is the spiritual

mind opened, and by means of such opening the natural mind is brought back

into correspondent form.

270. (5) All evils and their falsities, both engendered and acquired,

have their seat in the natural mind. Evils and their falsities have their

seat in the natural mind, because that mind is, in form or image, a world;

while the spiritual mind in its form or image is a heaven, and in heaven

evil cannot be entertained. The spiritual mind, therefore, is not opened

from birth, but is only in the capability of being opened. Moreover, the

natural mind derives its form in part from substances of the natural

world; but the spiritual mind from substances of the spiritual world

only; and this mind is preserved in its integrity by the Lord, in order

that man may be capable of becoming a man; for man is born an animal, but

he becomes a man. The natural mind, with all its belongings, is coiled

into gyres from right to left, but the spiritual mind into gyres from left

to right; the two thus curving in directions contrary to each other - a

proof that evil has its seat in the natural mind, and that of itself it

acts against the spiritual mind. Moreover, the gyration from right to left

is turned downward, thus towards hell, but the gyration from left to right

tends upward, thus toward heaven. This was made evident to me by the fact

that an evil spirit can gyrate his body only from right to left, not from

left to right; while a good spirit can gyrate his body from right to left

only with difficulty, but with ease from left to right. Gyration follows

the flow of the interiors, which belong to the mind.

271. EVILS AND FALSITIES ARE IN COMPLETE OPPOSITION TO GOODS AND TRUTHS,

BECAUSE EVILS AND FALSITIES ARE DIABOLICAL AND INFERNAL, WHILE GOODS AND

TRUTHS ARE DIVINE AND HEAVENLY.

That evil and good are opposites, also the falsity of evil and the truth

of good, every one acknowledges when he hears it. Still those who are in

evil do not feel, and therefore do not perceive, otherwise than that evil

is good; for evil gives enjoyment to their senses, especially sight and

hearing, and from that gives enjoyment also to their thoughts, and thus

their perceptions. While, therefore, the evil acknowledge that evil and

good are opposites, still, when they are in evil, they declare from their

enjoyment of it that evil is good, and good evil. For example:-One who

abuses his freedom to think and to do what is evil calls that freedom,

while its opposite, namely, to think the good which in itself is good,

he calls bondage; when, in fact, the latter is to be truly free, and the

former to be in bondage. He who loves adulteries calls it freedom to

commit adultery, but not to be allowed to commit adultery he calls

bondage; for in lasciviousness he has a sense of enjoyment, but of the

contrary in chastity. He who is in the love of ruling from love of self

feels in that love an enjoyment of life surpassing other enjoyments of

every kind; consequently, everything belonging to that love he calls

good, and everything contrary to it he declares to be evil; when yet

the reverse is true. It is the same with every other evil. While every

one, therefore, acknowledges that evil and good are opposites, those who

are in evils cherish a reverse conception of such opposition, and only

those who are in good have a right conception of it. No one so long as he

is in evil can see good, but he who is in good can see evil. Evil is below

as in a cave, good is above as on a mountain.

272. Now as many do not know what the nature of evil is, and that it is

entirely opposite to good, and as this knowledge is important, the subject

shall be considered in the following order:

(1) The natural mind that is in evils and in falsities therefrom is a

form and image of hell.

(2) The natural mind that is a form and image of hell descends through

three degrees.

(3) The three degrees of the natural mind that is a form and image of

hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind which is

a form and image of heaven.

(4) The natural mind that is a hell is in every respect opposed to the

spiritual mind that is a heaven.

273. (1) The natural mind that is in evils and in falsities therefrom is

a form and image of hell. The nature of the natural mind in man in its

substantial form cannot here be described, that is, its nature in its own

form woven out of the substances of both worlds, in the brains where that

mind in its first principles, has its seat. The universal idea of that

form will be given in what follows, where the correspondence of the mind

and body is to be treated of. Here somewhat only shall be said of its form

as regards the states and their changes, whereby perceptions, thoughts,

intentions, volitions, and their belongings are manifested; for, as

regards these states and changes, the natural mind that is in evils and

their falsities is a form and image of hell. Such a form supposes a

substantial form as a subject; for without a substantial form as a

subject, changes of state are impossible, just as sight is impossible

without an eye, or hearing without an ear. In regard, then, to the form

or image wherein the natural mind images hell, that form or image is such

that the reigning love with its lusts, which is the universal state of

that mind, is like what the devil is in hell; and the thoughts of the

false arising out of that reigning love are, as it were, the devil's

crew. By "the devil" and by "his crew" nothing else is meant in the Word.

Moreover, the case is similar, since in hell there is a love of ruling

from love of self, a reigning love, called there the "devil;" and the

affections of the false, with the thoughts arising out of that love, are

called "his crew." It is the same in every society of hell, with

differences resembling the differences of species in a genus. And the

natural mind that is in evils and in falsities therefrom is in a similar

form; consequently, a natural man who is of this character comes, after

death, into a society of hell similar to himself, and then, in each and

every particular, he acts in unison with it; for he thus enters into his

own form, that is, into the states of his own mind. There is also another

love, called "satan," subordinate to the former love that is called the

devil; it is the love of possessing the goods of others by every evil

device. Cunning villainies and subtleties are its crew. Those who are in

this hell are generally called satans; those in the former, devils; and

such of them as do not act in a clandestine way there do not disown their

name. From this it is that the hells, as a whole, are called the Devil

and Satan. The two hells are generically divided in accordance with these

two loves, because all the heavens are divided into two kingdoms, the

celestial and the spiritual, in accordance with two loves; and the devil

- hell corresponds, by opposites, to the celestial kingdom, and the satan -

hell corresponds, by opposites, to the spiritual kingdom. That the heavens

are divided into two kingdoms, the celestial and the spiritual, may be

seen in the work Heaven and Hell (n. 20-28). The reason why a natural

mind of such a character is in form a hell, is that every spiritual form

is like itself both in what is greatest and in what is least; therefore

every angel is, in lesser form, a heaven, as is also shown in the work on

Heaven and Hell (n. 51-58); from which it follows that every man or spirit

who is a devil or a satan is, in lesser form, a hell.

274. (2) The natural mind that is a form or image of hell descends

through three degrees It may be seen above (n. 222-229) that both in

the greatest and in the least of all things there are degrees of two

kinds, namely, degrees of height and degrees of breadth. This is also

true of the natural mind in its greatest and its least parts. Degrees

of height are what are now referred to. The natural mind, by its two

capacities called rationality and freedom, is in such a state as to be

capable of ascending through three degrees, or of descending through

three degrees; it ascends by goods and truths, and descends by evils and

falsities. When it ascends, the lower degrees which tend to hell are

shut, and when it descends, the higher degrees which tend to heaven are

shut; for the reason that they are in reaction. These three degrees,

higher and lower, are neither open nor shut in man in earliest infancy,

for he is then ignorant both of good and truth and of evil and falsity;

but as he lets himself into one or the other, the degrees are opened

and shut on the one side or the other. When they are opened towards hell,

the reigning love, which is of the will, obtains the highest or inmost

place; the thought of the false, which is of the understanding from that

love, obtains the second or middle place; and the result of the love

through the thought, or of the will through the understanding, obtains

the lowest place. The same is true here as of degrees of height treated

of above; they stand in order as end, cause, and effect, or as first end,

middle end, and last end. The descent of these degrees is towards the

body, consequently in the descent they wax grosser, and become material

and corporeal. If truths from the Word are received in the second degree

to form it, these truths are falsified by the first degree, which is the

love of evil, and become servants and slaves. From this it can be seen

what the truths of the church from the Word become with those who are in

the love of evil, or whose natural mind is in form a hell, namely, that

they are profaned because they serve the devil as means; for the love of

evil reigning in the natural mind that is a hell, is the devil, as was

said above.

275. (3) The three degrees of the natural mind that is a form and image

of hell, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual mind which

is a form and image of heaven. It has been shown above that there are

three degrees of the mind, called natural, spiritual, and celestial, and

that the human mind, made up of these degrees, looks towards heaven, and

turns itself about in that direction. From this it can be seen that the

natural mind, looking downwards and turning itself about towards hell,

is made up in like manner of three degrees, and that each degree of it is

opposite to a degree of that mind which is a heaven. That this is so has

been made very clear to me by things seen in the spiritual world; namely,

that there are three heavens, and these distinct according to three

degrees of height; that there are three hells, and these also distinct

according to three degrees of height or depth; that the hells are opposed

to the heavens in each and every particular; also that the lowest hell is

opposite to the highest heaven, and the middle hell to the middle heaven,

and the uppermost hell to the lowest heaven. It is the same with the

natural mind that is in the form of hell; for spiritual forms are like

themselves in things greatest and least. The heavens and hells are thus

opposite, because their loves are opposed. In the heavens, love to the

Lord, and consequent love to the neighbor, constitute the inmost degree;

in the hells, love of self and love of the world constitute the inmost

degree. In the heavens, wisdom and intelligence, springing from their

loves, constitute the middle degree; in the hells folly and insanity,

springing from their loves and appearing like wisdom and intelligence,

constitute the middle degree. In the heavens, the results from the two

other degrees, either laid up in the memory as knowledges, or determined

into actions in the body, constitute the lowest degree; in the hells, the

results from the two other degrees, which have become either knowledges

or acts, constitute the outermost degree. How the goods and truths of

heaven are turned, in the hells, into evils and falsities, thus into what

is opposite, may be seen from this experience: I heard that a certain

Divine truth flowed down out of heaven into hell, and that in its descent

by degrees it was converted on the way into what is false, until at the

lowest hell, it became the exact opposite of that truth; from which it

was manifest that the hells according to degrees are in opposition to the

heavens in regard to all goods and truths, these becoming evils and

falsities by influx into forms turned the reverse way; for all inflowing,

it is well known, is perceived and felt according to recipient forms and

their states. This conversion into the opposite was made further evident

to me from this experience: it was granted me to see the hells as they

are placed relatively to the heavens; and those who were there appeared

inverted, the head downward and the feet upward; but it was said that

they nevertheless appear to themselves to be upright on their feet;

comparatively like the antipodes. By these evidences from experience,

it can be seen that the three degrees of the natural mind, which is a

hell in form and image, are opposite to the three degrees of the spiritual

mind which is a heaven in form and image.

276. (4) The natural mind that is a hell is in complete opposition to

the spiritual mind which is a heaven. When the loves are opposite all

things of perception become opposites; for out of love, which makes the

very life of man, everything else flows like streams from their source;

the things not from that source separating in the natural mind from those

which are. Whatever springs from man's reigning love is in the middle,

and other things are at the sides. If these latter are truths of the

church from the Word, they are transferred from the middle further away

to the sides, and are finally exterminated; and then the man, that is,

the natural mind, perceives evil as good, and sees falsity as truth; and

conversely. This is why he believes perfidy to be wisdom, insanity to be

intelligence, cunning to be prudence, and evil devices to be ingenuity;

moreover, he makes nothing of Divine and heavenly things pertaining to

the church and worship, while he regards bodily and worldly things as of

the greatest worth. He thus inverts the state of his life, making what

is of the head to be of the sole of the foot, and trampling upon it; and

making what is of the sole of the foot to be of the head. Thus from being

alive he becomes dead. One is said to be alive whose mind is a heaven,

and one is said to be dead whose mind is a hell.

277. ALL THINGS OF THE THREE DEGREES OF THE NATURAL MIND ARE INCLUDED

IN THE DEEDS THAT ARE DONE BY THE ACTS OF THE BODY.

By the knowledge of degrees, which is set forth in this Part, the

following arcanum is disclosed: all things of the mind, that is, of the

will and understanding of man, are in his acts or deeds, included

therein very much as things visible and invisible are in a seed or

fruit or egg. Acts or deeds by themselves appear outwardly as these do,

but in their internals there are things innumerable, such as the

concurring forces of the motor fibers of the whole body and all things

of the mind that excite and determine these forces, all of which, as

shown above, are of three degrees. And since all things of the mind are

in these, so also are things of the will, that is, all the affections

of man's love, which make the first degree; all things of the

understanding, that is, all thoughts from his perception, which makes

the second degree; and all things of the memory, that is, all ideas of

the thought nearest to speech, taken from the memory, which compose the

third degree. Out of these things determined into act, deeds come forth,

in which, seen in external form, prior things are not visible although

they are actually therein. That the outmost is the complex, containant,

and base of things prior may be seen above (n. 209-216); and that degrees

of height are in fullness in their outmost (n. 217-221).

278. The acts of the body when viewed by the eye, appear thus simple and

uniform, as seeds, fruits, and eggs do, in external form, or as nuts and

almonds in their shells, yet they contain in themselves all the prior

things from which they exist, because every outmost is sheathed about and

is thereby rendered distinct from things prior. So is each degree

enveloped by a covering, and thereby separated from other degrees;

consequently things of the first degree are not perceived by the second,

nor those of the second by the third. For example: The love of the will,

which is the first degree of the mind, is not perceived in the wisdom of

the understanding, which is the second degree of the mind, except by a

certain enjoyment in thinking of the matter. Again, the first degree,

which is, as just said, the love of the will, is not perceived in the

knowledge of the memory, which is the third degree, except by a certain

pleasure in knowing and speaking. From all this it follows that every

deed, or bodily act, includes all these things, although externally it

appears simple, and as if it were a single thing.

279. This is corroborated by the following: The angels who are with man

perceive separately the things that are from the mind in the act, the

spiritual angels perceiving those things therein that are from the

understanding, and the celestial angels those things therein that are

from the will. This appears incredible, but it is true. It should be

known, however, that the things of the mind pertaining to any subject

that is under consideration, or before the mind, are in the middle, and

the rest are round about these according to their affinities therewith.

The angels declare that a man's character is perceived from a single

deed, but in a likeness of his love, which varies according to its

determinations into affections, and into thoughts therefrom. In a word,

before the angels every act or deed of a spiritual man is like a

palatable fruit, useful and beautiful, which when opened and eaten

yields flavor, use, and delight. That the angels have such a perception

of the acts and deeds of men may also be seen above (n. 220).

280. It is the same with man's speech. The angels recognize a man's love

from his tone in speaking, his wisdom from his articulation, and his

knowledge from the meaning of the words. They declare, moreover, that

these three are in every word, because the word is a kind of resultant,

involving tone, articulation, and meaning. It was told me by angels of

the third heaven that from each successive word that a man speaks in

discourse they perceive the general state of his disposition, and also

some particular states. That in each single word of the Word there is

something spiritual from the Divine wisdom, and something celestial from

the Divine love; and that these are perceived by angels when the Word is

devoutly read by man, has been abundantly shown in The Doctrine of the

New Jerusalem Concerning the Sacred Scripture.

281. The conclusion is, that in the deeds of a man whose natural mind

descends through three degrees into hell there are all his evils and his

falsities of evil; and that in the deeds of a man whose natural mind

ascends into heaven there are all his goods and truths; and that both are

perceived by the angels from the mere speech and act of man. From this

it is said in the Word that a man "shall be judged according to his

deeds," and that he shall render an account of his words.