321. We need to realize that to all outward appearances, the spiritual world is just like the physical world. You can see lands there, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, lakes, rivers, and springs like the ones in our earthly world; everything, then, that belongs to the mineral kingdom. You can see parks as well, gardens, groves, and woods, with all kinds of trees and shrubs with their fruits and seeds, smaller plants, flowers, herbs, and grasses; everything, then, that belongs to the plant kingdom. You can see all kinds of animals, birds, and fish--everything that belongs to the animal kingdom. The people there are angels and spirits.

This is prefaced to let it be known that the whole spiritual world is just like the whole physical world, the sole difference being that things there are not static and stable the way they are in a physical world because there is nothing of nature there. Everything is spiritual.

201. We will not speak here of perfections of life, forces and forms as they increase or decrease in accordance with degrees of breadth or continuous degrees, since these degrees are known in the world. Instead we will speak of perfections of life, forces and forms as they ascend or descend in accordance with degrees of height or discrete degrees, because these degrees are not known in the world.

Still, how perfections ascend and descend in accordance with these degrees can be little discerned from visible phenomena in the natural world, but clearly from visible phenomena in the spiritual world. From visible phenomena in the natural world one discovers only that the more interiorly things are viewed, the more marvelous the wonders that occur - as for example, in the eyes, in the ears, in the tongue, in muscles, in the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and in the rest of the organs. So, too, in seeds, fruits, and flowers. And likewise in metals, ores, and stones. People know that more and more marvelous wonders are found in all of these the more interiorly they are viewed. And yet it has become but little known from them that these wonders are more interiorly perfect in accordance with degrees of height or discrete degrees. Ignorance of these degrees has concealed the fact.

However, because these same degrees are clearly visible in the spiritual world - since that entire world from its highest point to its lowest has been divided discretely into such degrees - therefore a concept of them may be gained from it. From these one may then draw conclusions regarding the perfection of forces and forms which exist in like degrees in the natural world.