EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
of lesser particles, and these again of lesser, and so forth—water being in this way the sixth dimension, or the result of the sixth grouping of the particles; that the interstices of the fluids furnish the original moulds of the solids, and the rows of crustal particles forced off one by one by various agencies, furnish the matter of the same; that after solid particles are thus cast in their appropriate moulds, their fracture, aggregation, the filling-in of their pores and interstices by lesser particles, and a number of other and accidental conditions, provide the units of the multiform substances of which the mineral kingdom is composed. According to this theory, then, there is but one substance in the world, namely, the first; the difference of things is difference of form; there are no positive, but only relative, atoms; no metaphysical, but only real elements; moreover, the heights of chemical doctrine can be scaled by rational induction alone, planted on the basis of analysis, synthesis, and observation."
To the above may be added that Swedenborg's crustal particles bear to the interior and interstitial space the ratio in volume of one to two, and
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