386. 1. Two universal atmospheres emanate from the Lord to preserve the universe in its created state, one of which is an atmosphere of procreating, and the other an atmosphere of protecting what has been procreated. We call the Divinity emanating from the Lord an atmosphere, because it goes out from Him, surrounds Him, fills both worlds - the spiritual and the natural - and brings about the effects of the ends which the Lord ordained at creation and which He subsequently provides.

Everything that flows out from an object, surrounds it and envelops it, is called an atmosphere. As, for example, the atmosphere of light and heat from the sun around it; the atmosphere of life from a person around him; the atmosphere of aroma from a shrub around it; the atmosphere of attraction from a magnet around it; and so on.

[2] But the universal atmospheres which we are discussing here are from the Lord around Him; and they emanate from the sun of the spiritual world, at whose center He is. From the Lord through that sun emanates an atmosphere of warmth and light, or to say the same thing, an atmosphere of love and wisdom, to bring about ends which are of use. However, that atmosphere is designated by various names according to the uses it serves. The Divine atmosphere in regard to the preservation of the universe in its created state by successive generations, is called an atmosphere of procreating; and the Divine atmosphere in regard to the preservation of those generations in their beginnings and afterwards in their advances, is called an atmosphere of protecting what has been procreated.

In addition to these two, there are a number of other Divine atmospheres, which are named according to the uses they serve, having thus various names, as may be seen above in no. 222. Effectuations of useful ends by means of these atmospheres are Divine providence.

391. 4. The atmosphere of a love for little children is an atmosphere of protecting and maintaining those who cannot protect and maintain themselves. We said above in no. 386 that effectuations of useful ends by the Lord by means of the atmospheres emanating from Him are Divine providence. This providence is also meant therefore by an atmosphere of protecting and maintaining those who cannot protect and maintain themselves. For it exists from creation that things created must be preserved, safeguarded, protected, and maintained - otherwise the universe would fall to ruin. But because this cannot be done by the Lord directly in the case of living beings to whom He has bequeathed free judgment, He does it indirectly through His love implanted in fathers, mothers and nurses. They are not aware that their love is a love from the Lord in them, because they do not perceive the influx and still less the omnipresence of the Lord. However, who does not see that this is not attributable to nature, but to Divine providence operating in and through nature? And who does not see that such a universal phenomenon could not exist except from God, through some spiritual sun which is at the center of the universe, and whose operation, being without space and time, is immediate and present from first things in last ones?

[2] But how this Divine operation, which is the Lord's Divine providence, is received by animate beings, will be told in the discussions that follow.

Although mothers and fathers protect and maintain their little children because they cannot protect and maintain themselves, that is not the cause of this love, but is a rational reason arising from the love as it enters into the intellect. For in consequence of that reason alone, without the infusion of love to inspire it, or without the law and its penalty to compel him, a person would no more provide for his children than a statue.

434. 9. There is an atmosphere of licentious love, and an atmosphere of conjugial love. What we mean by atmospheres, and the fact that they are multiple, also that those atmospheres which have to do with love and wisdom emanate from the Lord, descend through the angelic heavens into the world, and pervade it even to the lasts of it - this we showed earlier in nos. 222-225 and nos. 386-397.

Since there is nothing in the universe which does not have its opposite (see above, no. 425), it follows on that ground that, because there is an atmosphere of conjugial love, there is also an atmosphere opposite to it, which we call an atmosphere of licentious love; for those atmospheres are opposed to each other, as the love of adultery is opposed to the love of marriage - an opposition which we have described in the preceding discussions of this chapter.