annot be
understood unless it is known what degrees of height are, and how
they differ from degrees of length and breadth. What these different
degrees are may be seen above (n 38).

212. When it comes to the particulars of the form of heaven and how
it proceeds and flows, this not even the angels can comprehend. Some
conception of it can be gained from the form of all things in the
human body, when this is scanned and investigated by an acute and
wise man; for it has been shown above, in their respective chapters,
that the entire heaven reflects a single man (see n. 59-72) and that
all things in man correspond to the heavens (n. 87-102). How
incomprehensible and inexplicable that form is is evident only in a
general way from the nervous fibers, by which each part and all parts
of the body are woven together. What these fibers are, and how they
proceed and flow in the brain, the eye cannot at all perceive; for
innumerable fibers are there so interwoven that taken together they
appear like a soft continuous mass; and yet it is in accord with
these that each thing and all things of the will and understanding
flow with the utmost distinctness into acts. How again they
interweave themselves in the body is clear from the various plexuses,
such as those of the heart, the mesentery, and others; and also from
the knots called ganglions, into which many fibers enter from every
region and there intermingle, and when variously joined together go
forth to their functions, and this again and again; besides like
things in every viscus, member, organ, and muscle. Whoever examines
these fibers and their many wonders with the eye of wisdom will be
utterly bewildered. And yet the things seen with the eye are few, and
those not seen are still more wonderful because they belong to an
inner realm of nature. It is clearly evident that this form
corresponds to the form of heaven, because all the workings of the
understanding and the will are within it and are in accordance with
it; for it is in accordance with this form that whatever a man wills
passes spontaneously into act, and whatever he thinks spreads through
the fibers from their beginnings even to their terminations, which is
the source of sensations; and inasmuch as it is the form of thought
and will, it is the form of intelligence and wisdom. Such is the form
that corresponds to the form of heaven. And from this it can be known
that such is the form in accordance with which every