316. [308.] There are also continuous or uninterrupted degrees. Each discrete degree has a continuous degree. The continuous degree of each discrete degree exhibits a range of variation, like that of light from daylight to dusk and finally to the darkness of night, and like that of thought from rational thought, which is in a state of light, to sensual thought, and finally to carnal thought, which is in darkness more or less dense to the extent of its descent to the body. In such a continuously decreasing degree is the human mind, and also human minds collectively. In a similar but lower degree is a person's sight, his hearing, his sense of smell, his sense of taste, and his sense of touch. So, too, his speech and singing, for the sound of a person's voice may be like the sound of a lyre or like the sound of a bass drum. So, similarly, instances of harmony in relation to each other and instances of beauty in relation to each other; for these range through a continuous degree from the most harmonious or the most beautiful to the least harmonious and the least beautiful. These degrees are degrees of the cause itself in itself, and of the effect itself in itself. They are distinguished from the prior degrees in that the prior ones are degrees of the cause itself and of the effect in relation to each other. We call continuous degrees purer and cruder degrees. An idea of these latter degrees can be had especially from the example of light and dark, or from that of the air's atmosphere at lower and higher altitudes, for in a lower region it is heavier, denser, more compressed, and in a higher region finer, rarer, and more attenuated.