86. Goodness and truth are present in their created vessels according to each one's form because whatever flows into any vessel is received by it according to its form. The preservation of the whole is nothing but the constant flowing in of Divine goodness and Divine truth into forms created by that influx - continued existence or preservation being thus constant birth or creation.
The fact that whatever flows into any vessel is received by it according to its form can be illustrated by various examples. It may be illustrated, for instance, by the flowing in of heat and light from the sun into species of plant life of every kind. Each one of these receives that influx according to its form. Thus every tree receives it according to its form, every bush according to its form, every plant and every kind of grass according to its form. That which flows in is the same in every case, but the way it is received causes each species to remain the species it was, because the reception is according to the form.
The same point may also be illustrated by the influx into animals of every kind, according to each one's form.
Even an simple peasant can see that whatever flows in is received according to the form of the particular recipient if he reflects on various kinds of wind instruments - pipes, flutes, trumpets, horns, and pipe organs - and considers that from the same breath or influx of air they each make a sound according to their form.
