158. Since the sun of the natural world is nothing but fire and consequently lifeless, therefore the warmth emanating from it is also lifeless, and the light emanating from it, too, is lifeless. The atmospheres as well, which we call the ether and air, and which receive in their embrace and transmit the warmth and light of that sun, are lifeless. Since these are lifeless, each and every one of the world's constituents which lie below and are called earths is also lifeless. Yet each and every one is nevertheless surrounded by spiritual forces which emanate and flow out from the sun of the spiritual world. If they were not surrounded by these forces, the elemental earths could not have been activated to produce forms of useful service, which are plants, nor forms of life, which are animals. Nor could they have supplied the materials which enable mankind to exist and endure.