17. XV
ENDS ARE IN THE FIRST DEGREE, CAUSES IN THE SECOND, AND EFFECTS IN THE THIRD.
Who does not see that the end is not the cause, but that it produces the cause, and that the cause is not the effect, but that it produces the effect, consequently, that these are three distinct things which follow one another in order? The end with a man is the love of his will; for what a man loves, this he proposes to himself and intends: the cause with him is the reason of his understanding; for by means of reason the end seeks for middle or efficient causes: and the effect is the operation of the body, from and according to the end and the cause. Thus there are three things in a man which follow one another in order, in the same manner as the degrees of altitude follow one another. When these three are established, the end is inwardly in the cause, and, by means of the cause, the end is in the effect: thus these three exist together in the effect. On this account it is said in the Word that every one shall be judged according to his works; for the end, or the love of his will, and the cause, or the reason of his understanding, are simultaneously present in the effects, which are the works of his body: thus in them is contained the quality of the whole man.
[2] Those who do not know these truths, and thus do not distinguish the objects of reason, cannot avoid terminating the ideas of their thought either in the atoms of Epicurus, the monads of Leibnitz, or the simple substances of Wolff. Inevitably, therefore, they shut up the understanding as with a bolt, so that it cannot even think from reason concerning spiritual influx, because it cannot think of any progression; for, says the author concerning his simple substance, if it is divided it falls to nothing. Thus the understanding remains in its own first light [lumen], which merely proceeds from the senses of the body, and does not advance a step further. Hence it is not known but that the spiritual is the natural attenuated; that beasts have rationality as well as men; and that the soul is a puff of wind, like that breathed forth from the chest when a person dies; besides several ideas which are not of the light, but of thick darkness.
[3] As all things in the spiritual world, and all things in the natural world, proceed according to these degrees, as was shown in the preceding article, it is evident that intelligence properly consists in knowing and distinguishing them, and seeing them in their order. By means of these degrees, also, every man is known as to his quality, when his love is known; for, as observed above, the end which is of the will, the causes which are of the understanding, and the effects which are of the body follow from his love, as a tree from its seed, and as fruit from a tree.
[4] There are three kinds of loves: the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self; the love of heaven is spiritual, the love of the world material, and the love of self corporeal. When the love is spiritual, all the things which follow from it, as forms from their essence, derive a spiritual quality: so, also, if the principal love is the love of the world or of wealth, and thus material, all the things which follow from it, as derivatives from their first origin, derive a material quality: so, again, if the principal love is the love of self, or of eminence above all others, and thus corporeal, all the things which follow from it derive a corporeal quality; because the man who cherishes this love regards himself alone, and thus immerses the thoughts of his mind in the body. Therefore, as just remarked, he who knows the reigning love of any one, and is at the same time acquainted with the progression of ends to causes and of causes to effects, which three things follow one another in order according to the degrees of altitude, knows the whole man. In this way the angels of heaven know every one with whom they speak: they perceive his love from the sound of his voice; from his face they see an image of him; and from the gestures of his body his character.