altitude. Continuous degrees are like degrees from hard to soft, from gross to subtile, or from dense to rare, and the like. Light diminishing in degree of intensity from light to shade, or the inverse; the decrease in the degree of sound, as one travels from a sounding body, and of heat as one removes from fire, or the inverse, are illustrations of continuous degrees. The difference between any two degrees marked on a thermometer is a difference in continuous degrees. Discrete degrees are invariably in a series. The discrete degrees of a series, like the continuous degrees of any thing, always proceed from the same origin; but they differ from continuous degrees in existing on different planes. Will, understanding, and act are three discrete degrees. A certain amount of act will not make the understanding, nor will any increase in the understanding necessarily make a like increase in the will. They are three different things on three distinct planes. Yet the will proceeds by the understanding, and produces the act.
Acts are on the plane of the body; thoughts are predicated of the understanding; and affection, or desire, is from the will; consequently affection, thought, and act constitute a like series of discrete degrees. Every work of man exists first in the affections. Take speech for illustration.
