m this, that all effects, which are
called last ends, become anew first ends in uninterrupted succession
from the First, who is the Lord the Creator, even to the last end, which
is the conjunction of man with Him. That all last ends become anew first
ends is plain from this, that there can be nothing so inert and dead as
to have no efficient power in it. Even out of sand there is such an
exhalation as gives aid in producing, and therefore in effecting something.

173. PART THIRD.

IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD THERE ARE ATMOSPHERES, WATERS AND LANDS, JUST AS
IN THE NATURAL WORLD; ONLY THE FORMER ARE SPIRITUAL, WHILE THE LATTER ARE
NATURAL.

It has been said in the preceding pages, and shown in the work Heaven
and Hell, that the spiritual world is like the natural world, with the
difference only that each and every thing of the spiritual world is
spiritual, and each and every thing of the natural world is natural. As
these two worlds are alike, there are in both, atmospheres, waters, and
lands, which are the generals through and from which each and all things
take their form [existunt] with infinite variety.

174. As regards the atmospheres, which are called ethers and airs, they
are alike in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, with the
difference only that they are spiritual in the spiritual world, and
natural in the natural world. The former are spiritual, because they
have their form from the sun which is the first proceeding of the Divine
Love and Divine Wisdom of the Lord, and from Him receive within them the
Divine fire which is love, and the Divine light which is wisdom, and
carry these down to the heavens where the angels dwell, and cause the
presence of that sun there in things greatest and least. The spiritual
atmospheres are divided substances, that is, least forms, originating
from the sun. As these each singly receive the sun, its fire, distributed
among so many substances, that is, so many forms, and as it were enveloped
by them, and tempered by these envelopments, becomes heat, adapted finally
to the love of angels in heaven and of spirits under heaven. The same is
true of the light of that sun. In this the natural atmospheres are like
spiritual atmospheres, that they also are divided substances or least
forms originating from the sun of the natural world; these also each
singly receive the sun and store up its fire in themselves, and temper
it, and carry it down as heat to the earth, where men dwell.