That Good and Truth are the Universals of Creation and hence
are in All Created Things;
but that They are in Created Subjects According to the
Form of Each.
That good and truth are the universals of creation is
because the two are in the Lord God, the Creator, yea, are Himself; for He is
Divine Good Itself and Divine Truth Itself. But this falls more clearly into
the perception of the understanding and so into the idea of the thought, if for
good be substituted love and for truth wisdom, thus: That in the Lord God the
Creator is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and that these are Himself; that is,
that He is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, these two being the same as Good and
Truth. The reason is because good pertains to love and truth to wisdom, for
love consists of goods and wisdom of truths. As the latter two and the former
two are the same, in the following pages they will be referred to, sometimes as
the latter and sometimes as the former, and by either name the same thing will
be meant. This preliminary explanation is made now, lest hereafter when the
terms are used the understanding should conceive of a difference between them.
Since, therefore, the Lord God the Creator is Love Itself
and Wisdom Itself, and the universe was created by Him, being thus as a work
proceeding from Him, it must needs be that in each and every created thing
there is something of good and truth from Him; for what is made by any one and
proceeds from him, bears his likeness. Moreover, reason can see that such is
the case, from the order in which each and everything in the universe has been
created, this order being, that one thing is for the sake of another and that
one therefore depends upon another like a chain on its links; for all things
are for the sake of the human race, to the end that from that race there may be
an angelic heaven whereby creation returns to its Source, the Creator Himself.
Thence is the conjunction of the created universe with its Creator, and by
conjunction, everlasting preservation. It is on this account that good and
truth are said to be the universals of creation. That such is the case is plain
to every one who reflects upon the matter from reason; for in every created
thing he sees that which refers itself to good, and that which refers itself to
truth.
That good and truth are in created subjects according to the
form of each, is because every subject receives influx according to its form.
The preservation of the whole is nothing else than the perpetual influx of
Divine Good and Divine Truth into forms created by that influx. Thus
subsistence or preservation is perpetual existence or creation. That every
subject receives influx according to its form may be illustrated in various
ways, as for instance, by the influx of heat and light from the sun into plants
of every kind. Each one of these receives this influx according to its form;
thus every tree according to its form, every shrub according to its, every herb
and every blade of grass according to its. The influx is the same into them
all; but the reception, being according to the form, causes each species to
remain the same. It may also be illustrated by the influx into animals of every
kind, according to the form of each. That influx is according to the form of
each thing, can be seen even by a rustic if he gives heed to the fact that
various wind instruments, such as pipes, flutes, cornets, trumpets, and organs,
give forth sound from the same blowing or inflow of air, according to their
forms.
That There is No Solitary Good, and No Solitary Truth, but that
They are Everywhere Conjoined.
A man wishing to get an idea of good from any sensation will
be unable to find it, in the absence of some adjunct which presents it and
makes it manifest. Without this, good is a nameless entity. That by which it is
presented and manifested refers itself to truth. Say merely good, and not at
the same time this thing or that to which it is adjoined; or define it
abstractly, that is, apart from any cohering adjunct, and you will see that it
is not anything, but that with its adjunct it is something. And if you strain
the keen sight of reason, you will perceive that good without any adjunct is a
thing of no predication, and hence of no relation, no affection, and no state,
in a word, of no quality. It is the same with truth, if that word is heard
without an inner adjunct; and cultivated reason can see that this inner adjunct
has reference to good.
[2] But because goods are innumerable, and each rises to its
maximum and descends to its minimum as by the steps of a ladder, and also
varies its name according to its progression and its quality, it is difficult
for any but the wise to see the relation of good and truth to objects, and
their conjunction in those objects. That, nevertheless, there is no good
without truth and no truth without good, is evident from common perception, as
soon as It is acknowledged that each and everything in the universe has
reference to good and truth….
[3] That there is no solitary good and no solitary truth can
be illustrated and at the same time confirmed in various ways; as, for
instance, that there is no essence without form, nor any form without essence—and
good is the essence or esse of a thing, while truth is that by which the
essence is formed and the esse comes into existence. Again, in man there is
will and understanding, good belonging to the will and truth to the
understanding. The will alone does nothing; it acts only through the understanding;
nor does the understanding alone do anything but acts from the will. Again, in
man there are two fountains of his bodily life, the heart and the lungs. The
heart cannot produce any sensitive and motory life without the respiration of
the lungs; nor can the lungs without the heart. The heart has relation to good,
and the respiration of the lungs to truth; there is also a correspondence.
[4] It is the same in each and everything of man's mind as
it is in each and everything of his body. But time does not permit the offering
of further confirmations, The matter can be seen more fully confirmed in The Angelic Wisdom Concerning Divine
Providence, nos. 3-26, where it is explained in this order:
I. That the universe, with each
created thing thereof, is from Divine Love by Divine wisdom, or, what is the
same thing, from Divine Good by Divine Truth.
2. That Divine Good and Divine
Truth proceed from the Lord as a unit.
3. That this unit is present in an
image in every created thing.
4. That good is not good save as it
is united with truth; and that truth is not truth save as it is united with
good.
5. That the Lord does not suffer
that anything shall be divided; therefore, a man must either be in good and at
the same time in truth, or in evil and at the same time in falsity.
Besides much else.
(Conjugial Love 84 – 87)
