receive means of propagation; the subjects of the animal
kingdom through seed, in the egg or in the womb or by spawning; and the
subjects of the vegetable kingdom through seeds in the ground. From which
it can be seen that although the more imperfect and the noxious animals
and plants originate through immediate influx out of hell, yet afterwards
they are propagated mediately by seeds, eggs, or grafts; consequently,
the one position does not annul the other.

348. That all uses, both good and evil, are from a spiritual origin,
thus from the sun where the Lord is, may be illustrated by this
experience. I have heard that goods and truths have been sent down
through the heavens by the Lord to the hells, and that these same,
received by degrees to the lowest deep, were there turned into evils and
falsities, which are the opposite of the goods and truths sent down. This
took place because recipient subjects turn all things that inflow into
such things as are in agreement with their own forms, just as the white
light of the sun is turned into ugly colors or into black in those objects
whose substances are interiorly of such a form as to suffocate and
extinguish the light, and as stagnant ponds, dung-hills, and dead bodies
turn the heat of the sun into stenches. From all this it can be seen that
even evil uses are from the spiritual sun, but that good uses are changed
in hell into evil uses. It is evident, therefore, that the Lord has not
created and does not create any except good uses, but that hell produces
evil uses.

349. THE VISIBLE THINGS IN THE CREATED UNIVERSE BEAR WITNESS THAT NATURE
HAS PRODUCED AND DOES PRODUCE NOTHING, BUT THAT THE DIVINE OUT OF ITSELF,
AND THROUGH THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, HAS PRODUCED AND DOES PRODUCE ALL THINGS.

Speaking from appearances, most men say that the sun by heat and light
produces whatever is to be seen in plains, fields, gardens, and forests;
also that the sun by its heat hatches worms from eggs, and makes prolific
the beasts of the earth and the fowls of the air; and that it even gives
life to man. Those who speak from appearances only may speak in this way
without ascribing these things to nature, because they are not thinking
about the matter; as there are those who speak of the sun as rising and
setting, and causing days and years, and being now at this or that
altitude; such persons speak from appearances, and in doing so, do not
ascribe such effects to the sun, because they are n