It was shown above in the chapter devoted to the subject [V] that love and wisdom, or what is the same thing, good and truth, proceed from the Lord. These two proceed from the Lord continually wedded together, because they are the Lord and He is the source of all things. What proceeds from the Lord fills the universe; for without this nothing that has come into existence could continue to exist.

[2] There are a number of spheres proceeding from Him; for instance, the sphere which keeps the created universe in being, the sphere which protects good and truth against evil and falsity, the sphere which reforms and regenerates mankind, the sphere of innocence and peace, the sphere of mercy and grace, and many more. But the one which is universally present in all is the conjugial sphere, because this is also the reproductive sphere, and so it is the one which ranks above all others as keeping the created universe in being by a succession of generations.

[3] This conjugial sphere fills the universe, pervading it from first to last, as is plain from what was shown before: that there are marriages in the heavens, and the most perfect ones in the third or highest heaven; and apart from existing among human beings, this sphere is present in all the members of the animal kingdom on earth, down to worms. It is moreover present in all the members of the vegetable kingdom, from olive and palm trees down to small grasses.

[4] This sphere is more universal than the sphere of heat and light which is radiated from the sun of our world, as can be proved to reason by the fact that it also works in the absence of its heat, as in winter, and in the absence of its light, as at night, especially among human beings. The reason it so works is that it is from the sun of the heaven of angels, so that it has a constant balance of heat and light, that is, a constant linking of good and truth; for it is springtime all the time in heaven. The variations in good and truth, that is, in its heat and light, are not due to variation in that sun, as are the variations on earth resulting from the differing amounts of heat and light received from the sun there; but these variations are due to the objects affected by it.