This point forms a nexus, or connection, between the Infinite and the finite world, and by its motion it creates aggregates of elements that build up the Cartesian vortexes, which are interpreted as the fundamentals of nature. The original motion in the Infinite, however, is not a mechanical motion but a kind of Leibnizian conatus, a motive force in nature that corresponds to will in human minds. In the first point there is a corresponding tendency, which transmits itself to the subsequent aggregates in this great chain of being.
The outlines of Swedenborg's natural philosophy are derived from René Descartes, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and other rationalists, but in the Principia Swedenborg was also inspired by empirical philosophy, especially that of John Locke. A similar English influence can be observed in Swedenborg's cosmology, which is set forth in the Principia and in a short hexaemeron titled De Cultu et Amore Dei (London, 1745). In these works Swedenborg presents a nebular hypothesis according to which the planets are formed of solar matter. It has been maintained that the planet theory of Immanuel Kant and Pierre Simon de Laplace might have been derived from Swedenborg via the comte de Buffon, but most probably the similarities between Swedenborg and Buffon depend on their common source of inspiration, Thomas Burnet's Telluris Theoria Sacra (The sacred theory of the earth; 1681).
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