DLW 184 [2]
Continuous degrees is the term we use
for diminutions or decreases in a progression
from coarser to finer, or from denser to rarer;
or rather they are as the increments or increases
in a progression from finer to coarser,
or from rarer to denser,
precisely as is the case in the progression
of light to dark or of heat to cold.
Discrete degrees, on the other hand,
are completely different.
They are like prior, subsequent and last elements,
or like end, cause and effect.
We call these discrete degrees,
because the prior element exists in itself,
the subsequent element in itself,
and the last element in itself,
but yet taken together they form a single entity.
DLW 187
From these few observations it can be seen
that one who knows nothing
of discrete degrees or degrees of height
can know nothing as well of a person's state
as regards his reformation and regeneration,
which are achieved
by his receiving love and wisdom from the Lord,
and by an opening then
of the interior degrees of his mind in succession.
Nor can he know anything of the influx
that comes through the heavens from the Lord,
nor anything of the hierarchical order
into which he was created.
For if anyone thinks of these,
not in accordance with discrete degrees
or degrees of height,
but in accordance with continuous degrees
or degrees of breadth,
he cannot in that case see anything relating to them
except what is discernible from effects,
and nothing of their causes;
and to see on the basis of effects alone
is to do so on the basis of fallacious appearances,
from which spring errors, one after another,
which can be so multiplied by inductive reasonings
that at last egregious falsities are called truths.
DLW 188
. . . the purpose of this volume
is to uncover causes
and from their standpoint view effects,
and thus dispel the darkness
which envelops the person of the church
in regard to God, to the Lord,
and to those Divine matters in general
which are called spiritual.
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