nything about the order into which he was created. For if
anyone thinks about these, not from discrete degrees or degrees of
height but from continuous degrees or degrees of breadth, he is not able
to perceive anything about them from causes, but only from effects; and
to see from effects only is to see from fallacies, from which come
errors, one after another; and these may be so multiplied by inductions
that at length enormous falsities are called truths.

188. I am not aware that anything has been known hitherto about discrete
degrees or degrees of height, only continuous degrees or degrees of
breadth have been known; yet nothing of the real truth about cause can
become known without a knowledge of degrees of both kinds. These degrees
therefore shall be treated of throughout this Part; for it is the object
of this little work to uncover causes, that effects may-be seen from
them, and thus the darkness may be dispelled in which the man of the
church is in respect to God and the Lord, and in respect to Divine things
in general which are called spiritual things. This I may mention, that
the angels are in grief for the darkness on the earth; saying that they
see light hardly anywhere, and that men eagerly lay hold of fallacies
and confirm them, thereby multiplying falsities upon falsities; and to
confirm fallacies men search out, by means of reasonings from falsities
and from truths falsified, such things as cannot be controverted, owing
to the darkness in respect to causes and the ignorance respecting truths.
The angels lament especially over confirmations respecting faith separate
from charity and justification thereby; also over men's ideas about God,
angels and spirits, and their ignorance of what love and wisdom are.

189. DEGREES OF HEIGHT ARE HOMOGENEOUS, AND ONE IS FROM THE OTHER IN
SUCCESSION LIKE END, CAUSE, AND EFFECT.

As degrees of breadth, that is continuous degrees, are like gradations
from light to shade, from heat to cold, from hard to soft, from dense
to rare, from thick to thin, and so forth; and as these degrees are
known from sensuous and ocular experience, while degrees of height, or
discrete degrees, are not, the latter kind shall be treated of especially
in this Part; for without a knowledge of these degrees, causes cannot be
seen. It is known indeed that end, cause, and effect follow in order,
like prior, subsequent, and final; also that the end begets the cause,
and, through the cause, the effe