which is Divine Life. The angelic idea of the fire of the sun
of the natural world, and of the fire of the sun of the spiritual world,
is this; that in the fire of the sun of the spiritual world the Divine
Life is within, but in the fire of the sun of the natural world it is
without. From this it can be seen that the actuating power of the natural
sun is not from itself, but from a living force proceeding from the sun
of the spiritual world; consequently if the living force of that sun were
withdrawn or taken away, the natural sun would have no vital power. For
this reason the worship of the sun is the lowest of all the forms of
God-worship, for it is wholly dead, as the sun itself is, and therefore
in the Word it is called "abomination."

158. As the sun of the natural world is pure fire, and therefore dead,
the heat proceeding from it is also dead, likewise the light proceeding
from it is dead; so also are the atmospheres, which are called ether and
air, and which receive in their bosom and carry down the heat and light
of that sun; and as these are dead so are each and all things of the earth
which are beneath the atmospheres, and are called soils, yet these, one
and all, are encompassed by what is spiritual, proceeding and flowing
forth from the sun of the spiritual world. Unless they had been so
encompassed, the soils could not have been stirred into activity, and
have produced forms of uses, which are plants, nor forms of life, which
are animals; nor could have supplied the materials by which man begins
and continues to exist.

159. Now since nature begins from that sun, and all that springs forth
and continues to exist from it is called natural, it follows that nature,
with each and every thing pertaining thereto, is dead. It appears in man
and animal as if alive, because of the life which accompanies and actuates
it.

160. Since these lowest things of nature which form the lands are dead,
and are not changeable and varying according to states of affections and
thoughts, as in the spiritual world, but unchangeable and fixed, therefore
in nature there are spaces and spatial distances. There are such things,
because creation has there terminated, and abides at rest. From this it
is evident that spaces are a property of nature; and because in nature
spaces are not appearances of spaces according to states of life, as they
are in the spiritual world, these also may be called dead.

161. Since times in like manner