o like
degrees of heat and light, and of love and wisdom; for the same principle
applies to the latter as to the former.

192. That these degrees are homogeneous, that is, of the same character
and nature, appears from what has just been said. The motor fibers of
muscles, least, larger, and largest, are homogeneous. Woody filaments,
from the least to the composite formed of these, are homogeneous. So
likewise are parts of stones and metals of every kind. The organic
substances which are receptacles and abodes of thoughts and affections,
from the most simple to their general aggregate which is the brain, are
homogeneous. The atmospheres, from pure ether to air, are homogeneous.
The degrees of heat and light in series, following the degrees of
atmospheres, are homogeneous, therefore the degrees of love and wisdom
are also homogeneous. Things which are not of the same character and
nature are heterogeneous, and do not harmonize with things homogeneous;
thus they cannot form discrete degrees with them, but only with their
own, which are of the same character and nature and with which they are
homogeneous.

193. That these things in their order are like ends, causes, and effects,
is evident; for the first, which is the least, effectuates its cause by
means of the middle, and its effect by means of the last.

194. It should be known that each degree is made distinct from the others
by coverings of its own, and that all the degrees together are made
distinct by means of a general covering; also, that this general covering
communicates with interiors and inmosts in their order. From this there
is conjunction of all and unanimous action.

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, t