226. Because the greatest and least of created things are forms composed of degrees of both kinds, a connection exists between them from the firsts to the lasts of them, for their likeness unites them. At the same time, however, not the least thing is the same as another. Consequently the particular and most elemental constituents of them are distinct from each other. The reason not the least thing in any form or in several forms is the same as another arises from the fact the same degrees exist in the greatest of created things, and the greatest of created things consist of the leasts of them. Since the greatest of created things have in them these same degrees, and perpetual distinctions exist in consequence of them from the highest to the lowest of them, or from the center to the peripheries, it follows that there are no lesser or least constituents of them which, having in them the same degrees, are the same.