314. XVIII. BECAUSE THERE IS SUCCESSIVE ORDER AND SIMULTANEOUS ORDER, AND THE LATTER IS FROM THE FORMER AND ACCORDING TO IT. This is adduced as a cause confirming what has preceded. That there is succession and simultaneity, is known, but that simultaneous order is from successive order and according to it, is not known. It is extremely difficult, however, to present to the perception the mode in which things successive carry themselves into things simultaneous, and the nature of the order they form there; for among the learned there is as yet no idea that can serve for the elucidation of the matter. And since a preliminary idea of this arcanum cannot be presented in a few words, and to present it here at length would draw the mind away from a clearer view of conjugial love, it will suffice as serving to throw light on the subject, to adduce what is said in summary form concerning these two orders, the successive and the simultaneous, and concerning the influx of the former into the latter, in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, no. 38, where are these words:
[2] "Both in heaven and in the world there is successive order and simultaneous order. In successive order, one thing follows after another from the highest to the lowest, but in simultaneous order one thing is next to another from the inmost to the outmost. Successive order is like a column with steps from the top to the bottom; simultaneous order is like a work coherent from the center to the circumference. In the ultimate, successive order becomes simultaneous in the following way: The highest things of successive order become the inmost of simultaneous order; and the lowest things of successive order become the outmost of simultaneous order. It is comparatively like as when a column of steps by subsiding becomes a body cohering in a plane. In this way, what is simultaneous is formed from things successive, and this in each and every thing of the spiritual world, and in each and every thing of the natural world." See also no. 65 in that work, and further on this subject in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, nos. 205-29. [3] It is the same with the successive order leading to marriage and the simultaneous order in marriage, that is to say, the latter is from the former and according to it. He who knows the influx of things successive into things simultaneous can comprehend the reason why angels are able to see in a man's hand all the thoughts and intentions of his mind; and also why it is, that wives, from their husbands' hands upon their breasts, can feel their affections, of which matter mention has been made at times in the Memorable Relations. The reason is because the hands are the ultimates of man into which the deliberations and conclusions of his mind are determined and become simultaneous. Therefore it is said in the Word that it is "written upon the hands" (Isa. 49:16).
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