and eternal from itself is evident from the fact that every created thing
proceeds from a first, which is the infinite and eternal, to things last,
and from things last to the first whence it is (as was shown in the work
_Divine Love and Wisdom,_ in the part in which the creation of the world
is treated of). But the first whence anything is, is inmostly in all the
progression, and therefore the proceeding Divine or divine providence in
all that it does has in view some image of the infinite and eternal. It
does so in all things, in some obviously so that it is perceptible, in
others not. It makes that image evident to perception in the variety, and
in the fructification and multiplication, of all things.

[2] _An image of the infinite and eternal is apparent in the variety of
all things,_ in that no one thing is the same as another nor can be to
eternity. The eye beholds this in the variety of human faces ever since
creation; in the variety of minds, of which faces are types; and in the
variety of affections, perceptions and thoughts, for of these the mind
consists. In all heaven, therefore, no two angels or spirits are the
same, nor can be to eternity. The same is true of every object to be seen
in either the natural or the spiritual world. Plainly, the variety is
infinite and eternal.

[3] _An image of the infinite and eternal is manifest in the
fructification and multiplication of all things,_ in the vegetable
kingdom in the capacity implanted in seeds, and in the animal kingdom in
reproduction, especially in the family of fishes. Were the seeds to bear
fruit and the animals to multiply in the measure of ability, they would
fill all the world, even the universe, in a generation. Obviously there
is latent in that ability an endeavor after self-propagation to infinity.
And as fructification and multiplication have not failed from the
beginning of creation and never will, plainly there is in that ability an