tters of which lands consist are
endings and closings of atmospheres which proceed as uses from the
spiritual sun (as may be seen above, n. 305, 306). And because the
substances and matters of which lands consist are from that source, and
their aggregations are held in connection by the pressure of the
surrounding atmospheres, it follows that they have from that a perpetual
conatus to bring forth forms of uses. The very quality that makes them
capable of bringing forth they derive from their source, as being the
outmosts of atmospheres, with which they are constantly in accord. Such
a conatus and quality are said to be in lands, but it is meant that they
are present in the substances and matters of which lands consist, whether
these are in the lands or in the atmospheres as exhalations from the
lands. That atmospheres are full of such things is well known. That there
is such a conatus and such quality in the substances and matters of lands
is plain from the fact that seeds of all kinds, opened by means of heat
even to their inmost core, are impregnated by the most subtle substances
(which can have no other than a spiritual origin), and through this they
have power to conjoin themselves to use, from which comes their prolific
principle. Then through conjunction with matters from a natural origin
they are able to produce forms of uses, and thereafter to deliver them
as from a womb, that they may come forth into light, and thus sprout up
and grow. This conatus is afterwards continuous from the lands through
the root even to outmosts, and from outmosts to firsts, wherein use itself
is in its origin. Thus uses pass into forms; and forms, in their
progression from firsts to outmosts and from outmosts to firsts, derive
from use (which is like a soul) that each and every thing of the form is
of some use. Use is said to be like a soul, since its form is like a body.
It also follows that there is a conatus more interior, that is, the conatus
to produce uses for the animal kingdom through vegetable growths, since by
these animals of every kind are nourished. It further follows that in all
these there is an inmost conatus, the conatus to perform use to the human
race. From all this these things follow: (1) that there are outmosts, and
in outmosts are all prior things simultaneously in their order, according
to what has been frequently explained above; (2) that as there are degrees
of both kinds in the greatest and least of all things