315. [305] In each kingdom there are two degrees, in the natural two, in the spiritual two, and in the celestial two; thus in the three kingdoms there are six degrees.
[306] All these degrees are discrete, or discontinuous, and are called degrees of altitude.
[307] Discrete degrees are to each other as thought to speech, or as the affection to gesture, or as the affection of the mind to the countenance; and in the material world as the ether to the air, or as a nerve to the fibers of which it is composed. All compositions in the whole natural world and in the spiritual world are of this character, and they consist either of two or three degrees of this kind in their order. These degrees are called prior and posterior, higher and lower, interior and exterior; and, in general, they are as cause and effect, or as a substance and a substantiate, or as the aggregate from substances, or as a principle and the principiates, or the thing formed from principles.
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