CL 27. That there are marriages in heaven cannot enter into the faith of those who believe that after death man is a soul or spirit, and cherish an idea of the soul and spirit as of a tenuous ether or breath; and who believe that man will not live as a man until after the day of the Last Judgment; in general, who know nothing about the spiritual world wherein are angels and spirits, and, consequently, wherein are the heavens and the hells. Because that world has been hitherto unknown, and because it has been entirely unknown that the angels of heaven are men in perfect human form--and infernal spirits also, but in imperfect form--therefore, nothing could be revealed concerning marriages there; for men would have said, How can a soul be conjoined with a soul, or a breath with a breath, as one married partner with the other on earth? besides much else which, the moment it was said, would take away faith concerning marriages there and dissipate it. But now, because many things have been revealed concerning that world, and because its nature has been described, which was done in the work HEAVEN AND HELL and also in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, marriages there can be set forth before the reason also, and this by the following propositions:

1. That man lives as a man after death.

2. That the male is then a male, and the female a female.

3. That his own love remains with everyone after death.

4. That especially does love of the sex remain, and with those who come into heaven, being those who become spiritual on earth, conjugial love.

5. These statements fully confirmed by ocular experience.

6. That consequently there are marriages in the heavens.

7. That spiritual nuptials are meant by the Lord‘s words, that after the resurrection they are not given in marriage.

Now follows the explanation of these propositions in their order.

CL 28. I. That man lives as a man after death. That man lives as a man after death has been hitherto unknown in the world for the reasons given just above; and, what is remarkable, it is unknown even in the Christian world where is the Word, and from it enlightenment respecting eternal life, and where the Lord himself teaches that all the dead rise again, and that God is not the God of the dead but of the living (Matt. 22:31-32; Luke 20:37-38). Moreover, as to the affections and thoughts of his mind, man is in the midst of angels and spirits, and is so consociated with them that if torn away from them he would die. That it is unknown is still more remarkable, when yet, after his decease, every man who has died from first creation, has come and does come or, as it is said in the Word, has been gathered and is gathered to his own. Besides this, man has common perception, and this is one with that influx from heaven into the interiors of his mind from which, inwardly in himself, he perceives truths and sees them, as it were; and especially this truth, that he lives as a man after death, happy if he has lived well, unhappy if he has lived ill; for who does not think this, when he elevates his mind a little above the body and above the thought next to his senses? as is the case when he is inwardly in Divine worship, and when he lies upon his bed about to die and awaits the end; likewise when he hears about the deceased and their lot. I have related a thousand things about them, such as, what was the lot of the brothers of certain persons, of their married partners and friends; I have also written about the lot of Englishmen, Dutchmen, Papists, Jews, Gentiles, and also about the lot of Luther, Calvin, and Melancthon; and as yet I have never heard anyone say: "How can their lot be such when they have not yet risen from their graves, seeing that the Last Judgment has not yet taken place? are they not in the meantime souls, which are breaths? and in some Pu or Ubi?" By no one have I yet heard such things said; and from this, I can conclude that everyone perceives within himself that he lives as a man after death. What man who has loved his wife and his infants and children, if in thought he is elevated above the sensual things of the body, does not say within himself when they are dying or have died, that they are in God’s hand, and that he will see them again after his own death, and will again be conjoined with them in a life of love and joy!

CL 29. Who cannot see from reason, if he is willing to see, that man after death is not a breath? of which there is no other idea than as of a puff of wind or as of air or ether; a breath, namely, which or in which is a man‘s soul, desiring and awaiting conjunction with its body that it may have the enjoyment of its senses and the delights thereof, as before in the world. Who cannot see that if such were the case with man after death, his state would be worse than that of fishes and birds and of animals of the earth, whose souls do not live, and who therefore are not in such anxiety from desire and expectation. If, after death, man were such a breath and puff of wind, then he must either be flitting about in the universe or, according to the traditions of some, be reserved in some Pu, or, according to the Fathers, in limbo, until the Last Judgment. Who cannot thence conclude from reason, that those who have lived since first creation--a period computed to be six thousand years--would still be in a like anxious state, and progressively more anxious; for all expectation from desire causes anxiety and from time to time increases it. They would then either be still flitting about in the universe or be kept shut up in Pu, and so would be in extreme misery. Such would be the case with Adam and his wife; with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and likewise with all others since that time. Hence it would follow that nothing would be more lamentable than to be born a man. On the contrary, it is provided by the Lord, who is Jehovah from eternity and the Creator of the universe, that the state of the man who conjoins himself with Him by a life according to His Commandments, is more blessed and happy after death than before it in the world; and that it is the more blessed and happy from the fact that the man is then spiritual, and the spiritual man sensates and perceives spiritual delight, which is pre-eminently above natural delight, exceeding it a thousandfold.

CL 30. That angels and spirits are men is evident from those seen by Abraham, Gideon, Daniel, and the prophets; and especially from those seen by John when he wrote the Apocalypse, and also by the women at the Lord’s sepulchre; yea, after His resurrection, the Lord Himself was seen by the disciples. They were seen because the eyes of the spirit of the one who saw them were then opened, and when these are opened, angels appear in their own form, which is the human form. But when those eyes are closed, that is, are veiled over by the sight of the eyes which derive their all from the material world, they are not seen.

CL 31. It should be known, however, that after death, man is not a natural but a spiritual man; and yet that to himself he seems exactly the same as before, and so much so that he knows no other than that he is still in the natural world; for he has a like body, a like face, a like speech and like senses--because a like affection and thought, or a like will and understanding. Actually indeed, he is not the same because he is a spiritual and hence an interior man; but the difference does not appear to him because he cannot compare his state with his previous natural state, having put off the latter and being in the former. Therefore, I have often heard them say that they know no other than that they are in the former world, with the sole distinction that they no longer see those whom they had left in that world, but see those who have departed from that world, that is, have died. The reason why they now see the latter and not the former, is because they are not natural but spiritual or substantial men, and the spiritual or substantial man sees the spiritual or substantial man, as the natural or material man sees the natural or material man. The spiritual man does not see the natural man, on account of the distinction between the substantial and the material, which is as the distinction between the prior and the posterior; and the prior, being in itself purer, cannot appear to the posterior which in itself is grosser; nor can the posterior, being grosser, appear to the prior which in itself is purer. Consequently, an angel cannot appear to a man of this world, nor a man of this world to an angel. The reason why man after death is a spiritual or substantial man, is because the latter lay inwardly concealed within the natural or material man. To him, the natural was as a garment or as exuviae, by the casting off of which he comes forth a spiritual or substantial, thus a purer, more interior, and more perfect man. Though the spiritual man does not appear to the natural, yet that he is a perfect man, is clearly manifest from the fact that the Lord was seen by the Apostles after the resurrection; that He appeared and presently did not appear; and yet, both when seen and when not seen, He was a man like unto Himself. They also said that when they saw Him their eyes were opened.

CL 32. II. That the male is then a male, and the female a female. Since man lives as a man after death, and man is male and female, and the masculine is one thing and the feminine another, being so different that the one cannot be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male lives as a male, and the female as a female, each being a spiritual man. It is said that the masculine cannot be changed into the feminine, nor the feminine into the masculine, and that therefore after death the male is a male and the female a female; but because it is not known in what the masculine essentially consists, and in what the feminine, it shall here be told in a few words. The distinction essentially consists in the fact that in the male, the inmost is love and its clothing wisdom, or, what is the same thing, he is love veiled over with wisdom; and that in the female, the inmost is that wisdom of the male, and its clothing, the love therefrom. This love, however, is feminine love, and is given by the Lord to the wife through the wisdom of her husband, while the former love is masculine love, being the love of growing wise, and this is given by the Lord to the husband according to his reception of wisdom. It is from this that the male is the wisdom of love, and the female the love of that wisdom. Therefore, from creation there is implanted in each the love of conjunction into a one. But of this, more will be said in the following pages. That the feminine is from the masculine, or that woman was taken out of man, is evident from these words in Genesis:

As to what is signified by rib, and what by flesh, this will be told elsewhere.

CL 33. From this primitive formation it follows, that the male is born intellectual and the female voluntary; or, what is the same thing, that the male is born into the affection of knowing, understanding, and being wise, and the female into the love of conjoining herself with that affection in the male. And because interiors form exteriors after their own likeness, and the masculine form is the form of the understanding, and the feminine the form of the love of that understanding, it follows that the male has a face, voice, and body different from the female; that is, a harder face, a harsher voice, and a stronger body, and, moreover, a bearded chin--in general, a form less beautiful than the female. They differ also in their attitudes and their ways. In a word, nothing whatever in them is alike; and yet, in their single parts, there is what is conjunctive; yea, in the male, the masculine is masculine in every part of his body even the most minute, and also in every idea of his thought, and in every grain of his affection; and so likewise, the feminine in the female. And since the one cannot be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male is a male and the female a female.

CL 34. III. That his own love remains with everyone after death. Man knows that love is, but does not know what it is. He knows that love is, from common speech, such as the expressions, he loves me; a king loves his subjects, and the subjects love their king; a husband loves his wife, and a mother her children, and vice versa; also this or that man loves his country, his fellow citizens, his neighbour. Love is likewise said of things apart from person, as that one loves this thing or that. But although love is so universal in speech, yet scarcely anyone knows what love is. When he reflects upon it, being unable to form any idea of thought about it, and so to set it in the light of the understanding (for the reason that it is not a thing of light but of heat), he says either that it is not anything or that it is merely something flowing in from sight, hearing, and conversation, and thus affecting. It is entirely unknown to him that it is his very life, not only the general life of his whole body and the general life of all his thoughts, but also the life of all the single parts thereof. A wise man can perceive this from the following: If you take away the affection of love, can you think anything? can you do anything? Is it not a fact that, so far as affection, which is of the love, grows cold, the thought, speech, and action also grow cold? and that, so far as it grows warm, these grow warm? Love then, is the heat of man‘s life, that is, his vital heat; the heat of the blood and its redness are from no other source. What makes all this, is the fire of the angelic sun, which is pure love.

CL 35. That everyone has his own love, or a love distinct from another’s love, that is, that the love of one man is not the same as that of another, is evident from the infinite variety of faces. Faces are the types of loves; for it is well known that countenances change and vary according to the affections of the love. Moreover, desires, which are desires of the love, and also the love‘s joys and sorrows, shine forth from the face. It is clear from this that a man is his love, yea, the form of his love. But it should be known that the form of man’s love is the inner man, being the same as his spirit which lives after death, and not in the same way the outer man (which lives) in the world; for the latter has learned from infancy to conceal the desires of his love, yea, to simulate and make a show of desires other than his own.

CL 36. The reason why his own love remains with every man after death is because, as said above (n. 34), love is man‘s life, and hence is the man himself. A man is also his own thought, and so his own intelligence and wisdom, but these make one with his love; for man thinks from his love and according to it, yea, if in freedom, he speaks and acts from it and according to it. From this it can be seen, that love is the esse or essence of a man’s life, and that thought is the existere or existence of his life therefrom. Therefore the speech and action, which flow forth from thought, flow not from the thought but from the love by means of the thought. It has been given me to know from much experience, that after death man is not his thought but his affection and the thought therefrom, or that he is his love and his intelligence therefrom; and that after death he puts off everything that is not concordant with his love; yea, that he successively puts on the face, tone, speech, gestures, and manners of his life‘s love. Hence it is that the entire heaven is ordinated according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of good; and the entire hell according to all the (varieties of the) affections of the love of evil.

CL 37. IV. That especially does love of the sex remain, and with those who come into heaven, being those who become spiritual on earth, conjugial love. The reason why love of the sex remains with man after death is because the male is then a male, and the female a female; and the masculine in the male is masculine in the whole and in every part of him, likewise the feminine in the female; and the conjunctive is present in their single parts, yea, in their most single. Now because this conjunctive was implanted in them from creation and thence is within them perpetually, it follows that the one desires and yearns for conjunction with the other. Regarded in itself, love is nothing but a desire and thence a striving for conjunction, and conjugial love for conjunction into a one; for the male man and the female man were so created that from two they may become as one man or one flesh; and when they become one, then, taken together, they are man in his fullness. Without this conjunction they are two, and each, as it were, is a divided or half man. Now since the conjunctive is inmostly latent in the single parts of the male, and in the single parts of the female; and since the faculty and desire for conjunction into a one lies within their single parts; it follows that the mutual and reciprocal love of the sex remains with men after death.

CL 38. It is said love of the sex and conjugial love, because love of the sex is different from conjugial love. Love of the sex dwells with the natural man, but conjugial love with the spiritual. The natural man loves and desires only external conjunctions, and from these, the pleasures of the body; but the spiritual man loves and desires internal conjunction and from this, the happiness of the spirit. Moreover, he perceives that this happiness is possible (only) with one wife, with whom he can be perpetually more and more conjoined into a one. And the more he is thus conjoined, the more he perceives his happiness ascending in like degree and remaining constant to eternity; but of this, the natural man has no thought. Hence it is said that conjugial love remains after death with those who come into heaven, being those who become spiritual on earth.

CL 39. V. These statements fully confirmed by ocular experience. That man lives as a man after death, that the male is then a male and the female a female, and that with everyone his own love remains and especially love of the sex and conjugial love, are propositions which I have thus far sought to confirm by considerations such as belong to the understanding and are called rational. But because in childhood, from his parents and masters, and in later years from the learned and the clergy, man has acquired the belief that after death he will not live as a man until after the day of the Last Judgment, in expectation whereof men have now been for six thousand years; and because many have placed this matter among things which must be received by faith and not by the understanding; it has been necessary to confirm them by the testimony of experience. Otherwise, the man who believes only in the senses would say from the faith impressed upon him: "If men were living as men after death, I would see and hear them"; and also, "Who has come down from heaven or risen up from hell and told us this?" But because it could not and cannot be that any angel of heaven should descend, or any spirit of hell ascend, and talk with a man, save with those, the interiors of whose mind which are those of his spirit have been opened by the Lord; and because this cannot be done to the full save with those who have been prepared by the Lord for the reception of the things of spiritual wisdom; therefore, it has pleased the Lord to do this with me, to the end that the state of heaven and of hell, and the state of the life of men after death, may not be unknown and be put to sleep in ignorance, and finally buried in denial. But the testimonies of experience with respect to the above-mentioned propositions cannot be adduced here on account of their abundance. They have been adduced, however, in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, and afterwards in the CONTINUATION CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, and later in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED. Moreover, as specifically regards marriages, they will be given in the present work, in the Memorable Relations which follow the paragraphs or chapters.

CL 40. VI. That consequently there are marriages in heaven. Since this has now been confirmed by reason and also by experience, it needs no further demonstration.

CL 41. VII. That spiritual nuptials are meant by the Lord’s words, that after the resurrection they are not given in marriage. In the Gospels are found these words:

There are two things which the Lord taught by these words: First, that man rises again after death; and second, that in heaven they are not given in marriage. That man rises again after death, He taught by saying, that God is not the God of the dead but of the living, and that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are living. He also taught the same in the parable of the rich man in hell and Lazarus in heaven (Luke 16:22-31).

[2] The second point, that in heaven they are not given in marriage, He taught by the statement, that those who are accounted worthy to attain to another age neither marry nor are given in marriage. That here no other nuptials are meant than spiritual nuptials is very evident from the words which immediately follow: that they cannot die any more because they are like unto angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. By spiritual nuptials is meant conjunction with the Lord. This is effected on earth, and when effected on earth, it is effected in heaven also. Therefore, in the heavens they are not again married and given in marriage. This is also meant by the words, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but they which are accounted worthy to attain to another age, neither marry nor are given in marriage. They are also called by the Lord sons of the nuptials (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19); and, in the present passage, angels, sons of God, and sons of the resurrection.

[3] That marrying means being conjoined with the Lord, and that entering into marriage means being received into heaven by the Lord, is clear from the following passages:--

From verse 13 in that chapter, where it is said, Watch, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh, it is evident that by the bridegroom, the Lord meant himself. Also from the Apocalypse:

That there is a spiritual meaning in each and every word which the Lord spoke, is fully shown in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, published in Amsterdam in the year 1763.

CL 42. To the above, I will subjoin two Memorable Relations from the spiritual world. First:

One morning, looking up to heaven, I beheld above me expanse upon expanse. And I saw that the first expanse, which was nearby, opened, and presently the second, which was higher, and lastly the third, which was the highest; and by enlightenment therefrom, I perceived that upon the first expanse were angels who form the first or lowest heaven; upon the second expanse, angels who form the second or middle heaven; and upon the third expanse, angels who form the third or highest heaven. At first I wondered what this was and why; and presently a voice as of a trumpet was heard from heaven, saying: "We have perceived and do now see that you are meditating on Conjugial Love; and we know that, as yet, no one on earth knows what love truly conjugial is in its origin and in its essence, yet it is important that this be known. Therefore it has pleased the Lord to open the heavens to you, that enlightening light and thence perception may flow into the interiors of your mind. With us in the heavens, especially in the third heaven, our heavenly delights are chiefly from conjugial love. Therefore, by leave given us, we will send down to you a married pair that you may see."

[2] And lo, a chariot was then seen descending from the highest or third heaven, and in it was seen a single angel, but as it drew near, two were seen. At a distance, the chariot glittered before my eyes like a diamond. Harnessed to it were young horses, white as snow; and they that sat in the chariot held two turtle-doves in their hands. They then called to me, saying: "You wish us to come nearer, but take heed that the scintillation from our heaven whence we have descended, and which is a flamy scintillation, do not penetrate interiorly. By its influx, the higher ideas of your understanding, which in themselves are celestial, are indeed illumined, but in the world in which you are, these ideas are inexpressible. Therefore, receive rationally what you are about to hear, and in the same way present it to the understanding."

I answered, "I will take heed; come nearer." They then drew near, and lo! it was a husband and his wife; and they said: "We are married partners. From the first age, called by you the Golden Age, we have lived happily in heaven and always in the same flower of youth in which you now see us."

[3] I observed them both attentively, for I perceived that they represented conjugial love in its life and in its adornment--in its life in their faces, and in its adornment in their apparel. All angels are affections of love in human form. Their ruling affection shines forth from their faces; and from their affection and in harmony with it are their garments appointed. Therefore it is said in heaven that everyone is clothed with his own affection. The husband appeared to be of an age midway between adolescence and early manhood. From his eyes beamed a light sparkling from the wisdom of love, from which light his face was as though inmostly radiant, and by this radiation, the surface of his skin was as though refulgent. Thus his whole face was one resplendent comeliness. He was clothed in a long robe reaching to his ankles, and under the robe was a vestment of blue, girded with a golden girdle on which were three precious stones, two sapphires at the sides and a ruby in the middle. His stockings were of shining linen interwoven with threads of silver, and his shoes were of silk. Such was the representative form of conjugial love with the husband.

[4] As to the wife, her appearance was as follows: To me, her face was both visible and not visible--visible as beauty itself, and not visible because such beauty is inexpressible; for in her face was a splendour of flaming light like the light with angels of the third heaven, and this light so dulled my sight that I became merely stupified with amazement. Observing this, she spoke to me, saying: "What do you see?" I answered: "I see only conjugial love and its form; but I see and do not see." At this, she turned partly away from her husband, and then I was able to observe her more intently. Her eyes sparkled with the light of her heaven which, as was said, is flamy and therefore partakes of the love of wisdom; for in that heaven, wives love their husbands from their husband’s wisdom and in that wisdom; and husbands love their wives from that love towards themselves and in it. Thus they are united. Hence her beauty--a beauty which no painter can emulate and portray in its form, there being no such sparkle in his colours; nor is such beauty expressible by his art. Her hair was gracefully arranged in correspondence with her beauty, and in it were inserted flowers consisting of diamonds. She wore a necklace of carbuncles, from which hung a rosary of chrysolites; and she had bracelets of pearls. She was arrayed in a flowing robe of scarlet, under which was a stomacher of purple clasped in front with rubies. But what I marvelled at, the colours varied according to her aspect towards her husband. According to this aspect, they also sparkled now more, now less, more When they faced each other directly, and less when their glance was somewhat aslant.

[5] When I had seen all this, they again spoke with me; and when the husband was speaking, he spoke at the same time as though from his wife, and when the wife, she spoke at the same time as though from her husband, such being the union of the minds from which the speech flowed; and then also I heard the sound of conjugial love, that it was inwardly simultaneous and, moreover, was a sound proceeding from the delights of a state of peace and innocence.

At last they said, "We are recalled; we must depart." And then, as before, they again appeared to be conveyed in a chariot, being conveyed along a road laid out between flower beds, from the borders of which rose olive trees and trees laden with oranges. And as they drew near their heaven, maidens came out to meet them and received them and led them in.

CL 43. After this, an angel of that heaven appeared to me, holding in his hand a parchment which he unrolled, saying: "I saw that you were meditating on conjugial love. In this parchment are arcana of wisdom concerning it, not as yet made known in the world. They are now disclosed because it is a matter of importance. In our heaven there are more such arcana than in other heavens because we are in the marriage of love and wisdom. But I predict that none will appropriate that love to themselves save those who are received by the Lord into the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem."

Saying this, the angel let down the unrolled parchment; and an angelic spirit took it up and laid it on a table in a room which he immediately shut up. Then, handing me the key, he said, "Write."

CL 44. The Second Memorable Relation:

I once saw three spirits newly arrived from the world, who were wandering about, observing and inquiring. They were in wonderment at the fact that they were living as men, just as before, and that they saw the same things as before; for they knew that they had departed from the former or natural world, and that there they had thought they would not live as men until after the day of the Last Judgment, when they would be clothed with the flesh and bones which had been laid in their graves. Therefore, to free themselves of all doubt whether they really were men, they now and again inspected and touched themselves and others. Moreover, they felt objects, and by a thousand proofs convinced themselves that they were now men as in the former world, except that they saw each other in brighter light, and saw objects in greater splendour and thus more perfectly.

[2] Just then, two angelic spirits chanced to meet them and, stopping, they asked them: "Whence are you?" They answered: "We have departed from a world, and are again living in a world; thus we have migrated from one world to another. We are now wondering at this."

The three novitiates then questioned the two angelic spirits about heaven; and because two of the novitiates were adolescents, and from their eyes gleamed a fire as though of lust for the sex, the angelic spirits said: "Perchance you have seen women?" and they replied, "We have."

Since they had inquired about heaven, the angelic spirits spoke as follows: "In heaven all things are magnificent and splendid such as eye has never seen. There are there maidens and young men, maidens of such beauty that they may be called beauty in its very form, and young men of such morality that they may be called morality in its very form; and the beauty of the maidens and the morality of the young men correspond to each other as reciprocal and mutually adaptable forms."

The two novitiates then asked whether human forms in heaven were exactly the same as those in the natural world, and they were answered: "They are exactly the same; nothing is taken from man and nothing from woman. In a word, a man is a man and a woman a woman, in all the perfection of form in which they were created. If you like, step aside and examine yourselves and see whether anything whatever is lacking, and whether you are not men just as before."

[3] The novitiates further said: "In the world from whence we have departed, we heard that in heaven they are not given in marriage because they are angels. Is there then no love of the sex?" The angelic spirits replied: "Not your love of the sex but angelic love of the sex which is chaste, being devoid of all the allurement of lust.

To this the novitiates said: "If it is love of the sex without allurement, what then is love of the sex?" And, thinking of this love, they sighed and exclaimed: "Oh, how dry is the joy of heaven. What young man can then wish for heaven? Is not such a love barren and void of life?

The angelic spirits, laughing, made answer: "Yet the angelic love of the sex, being that love as it is in heaven, is full of inmost delights. It is a most pleasing expansion of all things of the mind, and thence of all things of the breast; and within the breast it is like the heart sporting with the lungs, from which sport comes respiration, sound, and speech. These delights make the companionship between the sexes, that is, between young men and women, to be heavenly sweetness itself, which is pure.

[4] All novitiates ascending into heaven are explored as to their chastity; for they are admitted into the companionship of maidens, the beauties of heaven, and from their tone, their speech, their face, their eyes, their gestures, and the sphere emanating from them, these maidens perceive what their nature is in respect to love of the sex. If it is unchaste, they flee away and tell their companions that they have seen satyrs or priapi. Moreover, before the eyes of angels, such newcomers actually undergo a change, appearing hairy, and as to their feet like calves or leopards; and soon they are cast down, lest with their lust they pollute the aura of heaven.

Hearing this, the two novitiates again said: "Then there is no love of the sex in heaven. What is a chaste love of the sex but a love emptied of the essence of its life? Are not then the companionships of young men and women there dry joys? We are not stones and stocks but perceptions and affections of life."

[5] Hearing this, the two angelic spirits indignantly replied: "Because you are not yet chaste, you are entirely ignorant of what chaste love of the sex is. That love is the very delight of the mind, and thence of the heart, but not at the same time of the flesh below the heart. Angelic chastity, which is common to both sexes, prevents the passing of that love below the barrier of the heart; but within that barrier and above it, the morality of the youth is delighted with the beauty of the maid, being delighted with the delights of a chaste love of the sex, delights which are too interior and too rich in pleasantness to be described in words. Angels have this love of the sex because they have conjugial love, and this is not possible simultaneously with an unchaste love of the sex. Love truly conjugial is a chaste love and has nothing in common with unchaste love. It is with one only of the sex, all others being removed; for it is a love of the spirit and thence of the body, and not of the body and thence of the spirit, that is, not a love that infests the spirit.

[6] The two novitiate adolescents rejoiced at hearing this and said: "Then there is love of the sex there; what else is conjugial love?" But to this the angelic spirits replied: "Think more deeply, reflect, and you will perceive that your love of the sex is an extra-conjugial love, and that conjugial love is wholly different being as distinct from the other love as wheat from chaff, or rather as the human from the bestial. Ask women in heaven what extra-conjugial love is, and I assure you they will answer, `What thing is that? what are you speaking of? How can such an expression which so offends the ears come from your mouth? How can a love not created, be generated in man?‘ And if you were to ask them what love truly conjugial is, I know they would answer that it is not love of the sex but love of one of the sex. This exists only when a young man sees the virgin provided by the Lord, and the virgin the young man, and both feel the conjugial to be enkindled in their hearts, and perceive, he that she is his, and she that he is hers; for when love meets love, it meets itself, and causes it to recognize itself and at once conjoins their souls and then their minds; and from there it enters into their bosoms, and after the nuptials still farther, and so becomes plenary love; and from day to day this grows into conjunction until they are no more two but as though one.

[7] I know also that they would swear that they know no other love of the sex; for they say, `How can there be love of the sex unless it be so mutual and reciprocal that it breathes eternal union, a union which makes the two to be one flesh?’

To this, the angelic spirits added: "In heaven, they are entirely ignorant of what whoredom is, not knowing that it exists or that it is possible. Angels are cold in their whole body to an unchaste or extra-conjugial love, and, on the other hand, are warm in their whole body from chaste or conjugial love. With men there, all the nerves collapse at sight of a harlot, and recover their tension at sight of the wife."

[8] Hearing this, the three novitiates asked whether there is the same love between married partners in heaven as on earth, and the two angelic spirits answered that it is the same in every respect. Then, perceiving that they wished to know whether there were the same ultimate delights there, they said: "They are the same in every respect, but far more blessed, inasmuch as angelic perception and sensation is far more exquisite than human perception and sensation. And what is the life of that love if not from a vein of potency. If this fails, does not the love fail and grow cold? and is not that vigour the very measure, degree, and basis of the love? is it not its beginning, its foundation, and its completion? It is a universal law, that primes exist, subsist, and persist from ultimates. So is it also with this love. Therefore, unless there were ultimate delights, there would not be any delights of conjugial love.:

[9] The novitiates then asked whether offspring are born there from the ultimate delights of that love? and if offspring are not born, of what use are those delights? The angelic spirits replied that there are no natural offspring but spiritual offspring.

The novitiates then asked, "What are spiritual offspring?" They answered: "By means of ultimate delights, married partners become more united in the marriage of good and truth, and the marriage of good and truth is the marriage of love and wisdom. It is love and wisdom that are the offspring born of that marriage; and because the husband there is wisdom, and the wife the love of that wisdom, and because both are spiritual, therefore no other than spiritual offspring can be conceived and born there. Hence it is, that angels do not become sad after the delights, as some do on earth, but cheerful. This comes from the continual influx of fresh powers which succeed the former and at the same time bring renovation and enlightenment; for all who come into heaven return into their vernal youth and into the vigour of that age, and remain so to eternity."

[10] Hearing this, the three novitiates said, "Do we not read in the Word that in heaven there are no nuptials because they are angels?" To this the angelic spirits replied, "Look up into heaven and you will be answered." And they asked, "Why look up into heaven?" They said, "Because it is from thence that we have all interpretations of the Word. The Word within is spiritual, and angels, being spiritual, will teach its spiritual meaning."

Then, after some delay, heaven was opened above their head and two angels came into sight; and they said: "There are nuptials in heaven as on earth; but for none save those who are in the marriage of good and truth, nor are any others angels. Thus it is spiritual nuptials that are there meant, being the nuptials of the marriage of good and truth. These nuptials take place on earth and not after death, thus not in the heavens. Therefore it is said of the five foolish virgins who also were invited to the wedding, that they could not enter because there was in them no marriage of good and truth, for they had no oil but only lamps, by oil being meant good, and by lamps truth; and to be given in marriage is to enter into heaven where the marriage of good and truth is."

On hearing this, the three novitiates were made glad; and, filled with desire for heaven and with the hope of nuptials there, they said, "We will strive eagerly after morality and a virtuous life, that we may realize our desires."

CL 45. That there are marriages in the heavens has been shown just above. It is now to be shown whether or not the conjugial covenant entered into in the world will continue after death and be enduring. This is not a matter of judgment but of experience, and since this experience has been granted me through consociation with angels and spirits, the question may be answered by me, but yet in such wise that reason also will assent. Moreover, it is among the wishes and desires of married partners to have this knowledge; for men who have loved their wives, and wives who have loved their husbands, desire to know whether it is well with them after their death, and whether they will meet again. Furthermore many married partners desire to know beforehand whether after death they will be separated or will live together--those who are of discordant dispositions, whether they will be separated, and those who are of concordant dispositions, whether they will live together. This information, being desired, shall be given, and this in the following order:

1. That after death, love of the sex remains with every man such as it had been interiorly, that is, in his interior will and thought, in the world.

2. That the same is true of conjugial love.

3. That after death, two married partners, for the most part, meet, recognize each other, again consociate, and for some time live together; which takes place in the first state, that is, while they are in externals as in the world.

4. But that successively, as they put off their externals and come into their internals, they perceive the nature of the love and inclination which they had for each other, and hence whether they can live together or not.

5. That if they can live together, they remain married partners; but if they cannot, they separate, sometimes the man from the wife, sometimes the wife from the man, and sometimes each from the other.

6. And that then a suitable wife is given to the man, and a suitable husband to the woman.

7. That married partners enjoy similar intercourse with each other as in the world, but more delightful and blessed, yet without prolification; for which, or in place of it, they have spiritual prolification, which is that of love and wisdom.

8. That this is the case with those who go to heaven; but not so with those who go to hell.

The explanation now follows whereby these articles are illustrated and confirmed.

CL 46. I. That after death love of the sex remains with every man such as it had been interiorly, that is, in his interior will and thought, in the world. Every love follows man after death, love being the esse of his life; and the ruling love, which is the head of all the rest, continues with man to eternity, and with it the subordinate loves. The reason why they continue, is because love pertains properly to man‘s spirit, and to his body from the spirit; and after death man becomes a spirit and so carries his love with him. And because love is the esse of man’s life, it is evident that as the man‘s life was in the world, such will be his lot after death.

As to love of the sex, this is the universal of all loves, for it is implanted by creation in man’s very soul, from which is the essence of the whole man, and this for the sake of the propagation of the human race. This love especially remains because, after death, man is a man and woman a woman, and there is nothing in their soul, mind, or body which is not masculine in the male and feminine in the female. Moreover, the two have been so created that they strive for conjunction, yea, for such conjunction that they may become one. This striving is the love of the sex which precedes conjugial love. Now, because the conjunctive inclination is inscribed upon each and all things of the male and of the female, it follows that this inclination cannot be obliterated and pass away with the body.

CL 47. The reason why love of the sex remains after death such as it had been interiorly in the world is this: With every man there is an internal and an external, these two being also called the internal and external man. Hence there is an internal and external will and thought. When a man dies, he leaves his external and retains his internal; for externals pertain properly to his body, and internals properly to his spirit. Now because a man is his own love, and his love resides in his spirit, it follows that his love of the sex remains after death such as it had been within him interiorly. For example, if interiorly that love had been conjugial or chaste, it remains conjugial and chaste after death; and if interiorly it had been scortatory, it also remains such after death. But it must be known that love of the sex is not the same with one man as with another. Its differences are infinite in number; yet, such as it is in the spirit of each man, such also it remains.

CL 48. II. That conjugial love likewise remains such as it had been with the man interiorly, that is, in his interior will and thought, in the world. Since love of the sex is one thing, and conjugial love another, therefore both are named, and it is said that the latter also remains with man after death such as it had been in his internal man while he lived in the world. But because few know the difference between love of the sex and conjugial love, therefore, at the threshold of this treatise, I will premise something respecting it.

Love of the sex is love towards many of the sex and with many; but conjugial love is love towards one of the sex and with one. Love towards many and with many is a natural love, for man has it in common with beasts and birds, and these are natural; but conjugial love is a spiritual love and peculiar and proper to men, because men were created and are therefore born to become spiritual. Therefore, so far as a man becomes spiritual, he puts off love of the sex and puts on conjugial love. In the beginning of marriage, love of the sex appears as if conjoined with conjugial love; but in the progress of marriage, they are separated, and then, with those who are spiritual, love of the sex is expelled and conjugial love insinuated, while with those who are natural, the opposite is the case. From what has now been said, it is evident that love of the sex, being a love shared with many and in itself natural, yea, animal, is impure and unchaste; and being a roving and unlimited love, is scortatory; but it is wholly otherwise with conjugial love. That conjugial love is spiritual and properly human, will be clearly evident from what follows.

CL 48a. III. That after death, two married partners, for the most part, meet, recognize each other, (again) consociate, and for some time live together; which takes place in the first state, that is, while they are in externals as in the world. There are two states through which man passes after death, an external and an internal. He comes first into his external state and afterwards into his internal. If both married partners have died, then, while in the external state, the one meets and recognizes the other, and if they have lived together in the world, they again consociate and for some time live together. When in this state, neither of them knows the inclination of the one to the other, this being concealed in their internals; but afterwards, when they come into their internal state, the inclination manifests itself, and if this is concordant and sympathetic, they continue their conjugial life, but if discordant and antipathetic, they dissolve it. If a man has had several wives, he conjoins himself with them in turn while in the external state; but when he enters the internal state, in which he perceives the nature of the inclinations of his love, he either takes one or leaves them all; for in the spiritual world as in the natural, no Christian is allowed to take more than one wife because this infests and profanes religion. The like happens with a woman who has had several husbands; women, however, do not adjoin themselves to their husbands but only present themselves, and their husbands adjoin them to themselves. It must be known that husbands rarely know their wives, but wives readily know their husbands. The reason is because women have an interior perception of love, and men only an exterior perception.

CL 48b. IV. But that successively, as they put off their externals and come into their internals, they perceive the nature of the love and inclination which they had for each other, and hence whether they can live together or not. This need not be further explained since it follows from what has been set forth in the preceding article. Here it shall only be shown how, after death, a man puts off his externals and puts on his internals.

After death, everyone is first introduced into the world which is called the world of spirits--which is in the middle between heaven and hell--and is there prepared, the good for heaven and the evil for hell.

[2] This preparation has for its end, that the internal and external may be concordant and make a one, and not be discordant and make two. In the natural world they make two, and only with the sincere in heart do they make a one. That they are two is evident from crafty and cunning men, especially from hypocrites, flatterers, dissemblers, and liars. In the spiritual world, a man is not permitted thus to have a divided mind, but he who had been evil in internals must be evil also in externals; so likewise the good must be good in both; for after death every man becomes what he had been internally, and not what he had been externally.

[3] To this end, he is then let into his external and his internal alternately. While in his external, every man, even the evil, is wise, that is, wishes to appear wise, but in his internal, an evil man is insane. By these alternations, the man is able to see his insanities and repent of them; but if he had not repented in the world, he cannot do so afterwards, for he loves his insanities and wishes to remain in them, and therefore brings his external to be likewise insane. Thus his internal and his external become one, and when this is the case, he is prepared for hell.

[4] With a good man, it is the reverse. Because in the world he had looked to God and had repented, he is wiser in his internal than in his external. Moreover, in his external, by reason of the allurements and vanities of the world, he sometimes became insane. Therefore, his external must be brought into concordance with his internal, which latter, as was said, is wise. When this is done, he is prepared for heaven. This illustrates how the putting off of the external and the putting on of the internal is effected after death.

CL 49. V. That if they can live together they remain married partners; but if they cannot they separate, sometimes the man from the wife, sometimes the wife from the man, and sometimes each from the other. That separations take place after death is because conjunctions made on earth are seldom made from any internal perception of love, being for the most part from an external perception, which holds the internal in hiding. External perception of love derives its cause and origin from such things as pertain to love of the world and the body. To love of the world pertain especially wealth and possessions, and to love of the body, dignities and honours. Besides these, there are also various allurements which entice, such as beauty and a simulated propriety of behaviour; sometimes even unchastity. Moreover, marriages are contracted within the district, city or village of one‘s birth or abode, where there is no choice save one that is restricted and limited to the families of one’s acquaintances, and among these to those in the same station of life as oneself. Hence it is that, for the most part, marriages entered into in the world are external and not at the same time internal, when yet it is internal conjunction, or conjunction of souls, which makes marriage. This conjunction, however, is not perceptible until man puts off his external and puts on his internal, which takes place after death. Hence it is that there is then separation and afterwards new conjunctions with those who are similar and homogeneous--unless these had been provided on earth, as is the case with those who from youth have loved, chosen, and asked of the Lord a legitimate and lovely partnership with one, and who spurn and reject wandering lusts as an offence to their nostrils.

CL 50. VI. That then a suitable wife is given to the man, and likewise a suitable husband to the woman. The reason is, because no other married partners can be received into heaven and remain there save those who are inwardly united or can be united as into a one; for there, two partners are not called two but one angel. This is meant by the Lord‘s words, They are no more two but one flesh. That no other married partners are received into heaven, is because there, no others can live together, that is, can be together in one house and one chamber and bed; for in heaven all are consociated according to the affinities and relationships of love, and it is according to these that they have their abodes. In the spiritual world, there are not spaces but appearances of spaces, and these are according to the states of their life, the states of their life being according to the states of their love. For this reason, no one there can abide in any house but his own. This also is provided, and it is assigned to him according to the quality of his love. If he abides elsewhere, he is troubled in his breast and breathing. Moreover, two persons cannot live together in the same house unless they are similitudes; and by no means married partners unless they have mutual inclinations. If their inclinations are external and not at the same time internal, the very house or very place separates, rejects, and expels them. This is the reason why, for those who after preparation are introduced into heaven, a marriage is provided with a consort whose soul so inclines to union with that of the other that they do not wish to be two lives but one. It is for this reason that after separation, a suitable wife is given to the man, and a suitable husband to the woman.

CL 51. VII. That married partners enjoy similar intercourse with each other as in the world, but more delightful and blessed, yet without prolification; for which, or in place of it, they have spiritual prolification, which is that of love and wisdom. That married partners enjoy similar intercourse as in the world, is because, after death, the male is a male and the female a female, and in both, an inclination to conjunction is implanted from creation. This inclination is an inclination of the spirit and thence of the body. Therefore, after death, when man becomes a spirit, the same mutual inclination continues, and this cannot exist without similar intercourse. For man is man as before, nor is there anything lacking either in the male or in the female. They are like themselves as to form, and equally so as to affections and thoughts. What else can follow then, but that they have similar intercourse? and since conjugial love is chaste, pure, and holy, that the intercourse is also complete? But see further on this subject in the Memorable Relation, (n. 44). That the intercourse is then more delightful and blessed, is because, when that love becomes a love of the spirit, it becomes more interior and purer and therefore more perceptible; for every delight increases according to perception, and it so increases that its blessedness is observed in its delight.

CL 52. That marriages in the heavens are without prolification, in place whereof is spiritual prolification which is the prolification of love and wisdom, is because, with those who are in the spiritual world, the third thing, which is the natural, is lacking. This is the containant of spiritual things, and without their containant, spiritual things are not set as are those which are procreated in the natural world. Regarded in themselves, spiritual things relate to love and wisdom. It is these, therefore, that are born of their marriages. It is said that they are born, because conjugial love perfects an angel, so uniting him with his consort that he becomes more and more a man; for, as said above (n. 50), two partners in heaven are not two but one angel. Therefore, by conjugial unition they fill themselves with the human, which consists in willing to become wise, and in loving that which pertains to wisdom.

CL 53. VIII. That this is the case with those who go to heaven; not so with those who go to hell. The statements, that after death a suitable wife is given to the man, and likewise a suitable husband to the wife, and that they enjoy delightful and blessed intercourse but without other than spiritual prolification, are to be understood of those who are received into heaven and become angels. The reason is because they are spiritual, and marriages in themselves are spiritual and thence holy. But all who go to hell are natural, and merely natural marriages are not marriages but conjunctions which originate in unchaste lust. What the nature of these conjunctions is, will be shown hereafter when treating of the chaste and the unchaste, and further when treating of scortatory love.

CL 54. To what has been related thus far respecting the state of married partners after death should be added the following:

1. All married partners who are merely natural are separated after death, for the reason that with them the love of marriage grows cold, and the love of adultery warm. Yet, after separation they sometimes consociate as married partners with others, but after a short time they mutually separate. Frequently this is done again and again, until at last the man is given up to some harlot and the woman to some adulterer. This takes place in an infernal prison where promiscuous whoredom is forbidden to both under penalty; respecting this, see Apocalypse Revealed (AR n. 153).

2. Married partners, one of whom is spiritual and the other natural, are also separated after death, and to the spiritual is given a suitable partner; but the natural is relegated to his or her like, in places of lasciviousness.

3. Those who in the world have lived unmarried and have wholly estranged their minds from marriage, if they are spiritual, remain single, but if natural, become whoremongers. It is different with those who, in their single state, have desired marriage, and still more with those who have solicited it without success. For them, if they are spiritual, blessed marriages are provided, though not until they are in heaven.

4. Those, both virgins and men, who in the world have been shut up in monasteries, at the conclusion of their monastic life, which continues for some time after death, are set free and discharged. They then enjoy the longed-for liberty of their desires, as to whether they wish to live a conjugial life or not. If they desire a conjugial life, they obtain it; if not, they are conveyed to those who live in celibacy at the side of heaven; but those who have burned with forbidden lust are cast down.

5. The reason why celibates are at the side of heaven is because the sphere of perpetual celibacy infests the sphere of conjugial love, which is the sphere of heaven. That the sphere of conjugial love is the sphere of heaven, is because it descends from the heavenly marriage of the Lord and the Church.

CL 55. To the above, I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

A melody of the utmost sweetness was once heard from a heaven where wives together with virgins were singing a song, the sweetness of which was like the harmonious flowing forth of the affection of some love. Heavenly songs are nothing else than sonorous affections, that is, affections expressed and modified by sounds; for, as thoughts are expressed by speech, so affections are expressed by songs. Angels perceive the subject of the affection from the symmetry and flow of the melody.

There were many spirits about me at the time, and from some of them I learned that they had heard that sweet melody and that it was the song of some lovely affection, the subject of which they did not know. For this reason they made various conjectures, but in vain. Some conjectured that the song was an expression of the affection of a bridegroom and bride when betrothed; some, that it expressed the affection of a bridegroom and bride when going to their wedding; and others, that it expressed the honey moon love of husband and wife.

[2] An angel from heaven then appeared in their midst and said that they were singing the chaste love of the sex. But those standing around asked, "What is chaste love of the sex?" The angel answered: "It is the love of a man for a virgin or wife of beautiful form and becoming manners--a love free from any idea of lasciviousness--and the like love of a virgin or wife for a man." Saying this, the angel vanished.

The singing continued, and because they then knew the subject of the affection it expressed, they heard it quite variously, each one according to the state of his love. Those who looked chastely upon women heard the song as something harmonious and sweet; but those who looked unchastely upon women heard it as inharmonious and sad, while those who looked upon women with loathing heard it as discordant and harsh.

[3] Then suddenly the plain on which they were standing was changed into a theatre, and a voice was heard, saying, "Investigate this love." And suddenly spirits were present from various societies, and in their midst several angels in white. These angels then spoke, and they said: "In this spiritual world we have inquired into all kinds of love, not only into the love of a man towards a man and of a woman towards a woman, and into the reciprocal love of husband and wife, but also into the love of a man towards a woman and of a woman towards a man. Moreover, it has been granted us to pass through societies and make investigation, and thus far we have not found the general love of the sex to be chaste, except with those who from love truly conjugial are in continual potency, and these are in the highest heavens. It has also been granted us to perceive the influx of this love into the affections of our own hearts; and we clearly felt it to exceed in sweetness every other love except the love of two married partners whose hearts are one. But we beg you to inquire into this love, for to you it is new and unknown. By us in heaven it is called heavenly sweetness because it is pleasantness itself."

[4] When they then discussed the matter, those spoke first who could not think of chastity as pertaining to marriages. They said: "Who, when he sees a beautiful and lovely maiden or wife, is able so to restrain and purify from concupiscence the ideas of his thought as to love her beauty and yet in no way desire to taste it if permitted? Who is able to change the concupiscence innate in every man into such chastity--that is, into what is not himself-- and yet love? Can love of the sex, when entering by the eyes into the thoughts, stop at the face of a woman? Does it not instantly descend to her breast and beyond? The angels spoke empty words when they said that that love can be chaste and yet be the sweetest of all loves, and that it can exist only with husbands who are in love truly conjugial and thence in pre-eminent potency with their wives. When they see beautiful women, can they any more than others keep the ideas of their thoughts on high and hold them in the air, as it were, so that they do not descend and press on to that which makes that love?"

[5] After these, those spoke who were both in cold and in heat; in cold towards their wives and in heat towards the sex. They said: "What is chaste love of the sex? When chastity is added to it, is not love of the sex a contradiction? and what is the contradiction in the addition, other than a thing from which its predicate is removed? and that is not anything. How can chaste love of the sex be the sweetest of all loves when chastity deprives it of its sweetness? You all know wherein the sweetness of that love lies; if then the conjunctive idea associated with the love is banished, where and whence is its sweetness?: Other speakers then took up the matter and said, "We have been with the most beautiful women and felt no desire; therefore we know what chaste love of the sex is." But their companions, who knew their lewdness, answered: "You were then in a state of loathing of the sex from lack of potency, and this is not chaste love of the sex but is the last state of unchaste love."

[6] Indignant at hearing these sentiments, the angels asked that those would speak who were standing on the right or at the south. These then said: "There is a love of man and man, and of woman and woman; and there is a love of a man for a woman and of a woman for a man. These three pairs of loves are entirely different from each other. The love of man and man is as the love of understanding and understanding; for man was created and thence born that he may become understanding. The love of woman and woman is as the love of affection and affection, the affection being the affection of the understanding of men; for woman was created and is born to become the love of man’s understanding. These loves, that is, the love of man and man and of woman and woman, do not enter deeply into the breast but stand without and merely touch each other; thus they do not inwardly conjoin the two. Therefore, two men fight each other with an abundance of arguments like two athletes; and sometimes two women fight each other with an abundance of concupiscences, like two stage players fighting with their fists.

[7] But the love between man and woman is the love between the understanding and its affection, and this enters deeply and conjoins. Such conjunction is the love itself. Conjunction of minds and not at the same time of bodies, that is, the striving towards such conjunction alone, is a spiritual and thence a chaste love. This love exists only with those who are in love truly conjugial and from this in eminent potency; for, by reason of their chastity, they do not admit the influx of love from the body of any woman other than their wife; and, being in supereminent potency, they cannot but love the sex and at the same time hold in aversion what is unchaste. Hence they have a chaste love of the sex, and, regarded in itself, this is interior spiritual friendship which derives its sweetness from eminent but chaste potency. They have this eminent potency by reason of their total renunciation of whoredom; and because the wife only is loved, it is chaste. Now because with them that love does not partake of the flesh but only of the spirit, it is chaste; and because, at the same time, from an implanted inclination the woman‘s beauty enters into their mind, it is sweet."

[8] On hearing this, many of the bystanders put their hands to their ears, saying, "These utterances hurt our ears; the words you have spoken are empty nothings."

They were unchaste. Then the singing from heaven was again heard, and now sweeter than before. But to the unchaste it grated so discordantly that, because of the harshness of the discord, they threw themselves out of the theatre and fled, a few only remaining who from wisdom loved conjugial chastity.

CL 56. The Second Memorable Relation:

Once, while talking with angels in the world of spirits, I was inspired with a pleasant desire to see the Temple of Wisdom which I had seen once before; and I asked them the way. They said, "Follow the light and you will find it." I said, "What do you mean by `Follow the light’?" and they said: "Our light shines more and more brightly as we draw nearer to that temple. Therefore, follow the light according to the increase of its brightness; for our light proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, and hence, considered in itself, is wisdom." Then, walking in company with two angels, I followed the increasing brightness of the light and ascended by a steep path to the summit of a hill which lay in the southern quarter. There was a magnificent gate there. Seeing the angels with me, the keeper opened it and, lo, there was seen an avenue of palm trees and laurels, and along this we walked. It was a winding avenue and terminated in a garden in the midst of which was the TEMPLE OF WISDOM. As I looked around me, I saw also small buildings, similar to the temple, and in them were wise men. We approached one of these buildings and, at the entrance, spoke to the host there and told him the reason of our coming and the manner of our approach. He then said, "Welcome; come in; be seated and let us join together in discourse on wisdom."

[2] Within the house, I saw that it was divided into two and yet was one. It was divided into two by a transparent partition; and it seemed to be one because of the transparency of the partition which was as though of purest crystal. I asked why this was the case. He said, "I am not alone. My wife is with me; and we are two and yet not two but one flesh." I then said, "I know that you are a wise man, but what has a wise man or wisdom to do with woman?" At this our host, with some indignation, changed countenance. He then stretched out his hand and, lo, from neighbouring houses other wise men were present. To these, he said jestingly, "Our new-comer here, for the purpose of learning, asks what a wise man or wisdom has to do with woman?" At this they all laughed and said, "What is a wise man or wisdom without woman, that is, without love? The wife is the love of a wise man‘s wisdom."

[3] Our host then said, "Let us now join together in some discourse on wisdom. Let the discourse be concerning causes, and for the present concerning the cause of the beauty of the female sex." They then spoke in turn. The first gave this as the cause: "Women were created, by the Lord, affections of the wisdom of men; and the affection of wisdom is beauty itself." A second gave this: "Woman was created by the Lord through the wisdom of man because from man. Hence, being a form of wisdom inspired with the affection of love, and the affection of love being life itself, woman is the life of wisdom. The male is wisdom, and the life of wisdom is beauty." A third gave this: "To women is given a perception of the delights of conjugial love; and because their whole body is an organ of that perception, it cannot be otherwise than that the abode of the delights of conjugial love with its perception is beauty."

[4] A fourth gave this: "The Lord has taken the beauty and grace of life from man and transcribed them into woman. Hence, without reunion with his beauty and grace in woman, a man is stern, austere, dry, and unlovely; nor is he wise save for himself alone, and then he is stupid. But when man is united with his beauty and grace of life in his wife, he becomes agreeable, pleasant, animated, and lovely, and thus wise." A fifth gave this: "Women are created beauties for the sake not of themselves but of men, that men, of themselves hard, may be softened; that their minds, of themselves severe, may become mild, and their hearts, of themselves cold, warm; and they do become such when they become one flesh with their wives."

[5] A sixth gave this: "The universe was created by the Lord a most perfect work; but in that universe nothing was created more perfect than woman, beautiful in face and graceful in manners; and this to the end that man may render thanks to the Lord for this bounty, and may repay it by the reception of wisdom from Him." After these and many like sentiments had been expressed, the wife appeared through the crystal partition and said to her husband, "Speak, if you please." And when he spoke, the life of wisdom from his wife was perceived in his speech; for her love was in the tone of his voice. Thus experience bore witness to truth.

After this we examined the Temple of wisdom, and also its paradisal surroundings, and then, filled thereby with joy, we departed, and, passing through the avenue to the gate, went down by the way we had come.

CL 57. Conjugial love is of infinite variety, not being the same with one person as with another. With many it does indeed appear to be the same, but it appears so only before the judgment of the body, and from this judgment, seeing that it is gross and dull, man has little discernment of such things. By the judgment of the body is meant the judgment of the mind from the external senses. Before those who see from the judgment of the spirit, the differences are apparent; and more distinctly apparent before those who can elevate the sight of this judgment still higher, which is done by its withdrawal from the senses and its exaltation into higher light. Such men can then confirm themselves by the understanding and so can see that conjugial love is not the same with one person as with another. Yet no one can see the infinite varieties of that love in any light of the understanding, even though elevated, unless he first know the nature of the love itself in its essence and integrity; thus its nature when together with life it was implanted in man by God. Unless its state then be known, a state which was most perfect, its differences cannot be discovered by any inquiry, there being no stable point from which, as a commencement, those differences can be deduced, and to which, by keeping it in view, they can refer themselves and so be seen truly and not fallaciously. This is the reason why we have set out to describe this love in its genuine essence; and, since it was in this essence when together with life it was infused into man by God, to describe it as it was in its primeval state. In this state it was truly conjugial, and therefore this chapter is entitled LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL. The description shall be given in the following order:

1. That there is a love truly conjugial, which is so rare at this day that it is not known what it is and scarcely that it is.

2. That the origin of this love is from the marriage of good and truth.

3. That the correspondence of this love is with the marriage of the Lord and the Church.

4. That, regarded from its origin and correspondence, this love is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, above every love which is from the Lord with the angels of heaven and the men of the Church.

5. That it is also the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, and thence of all natural loves.

6. And that into this love are gathered all joys and delights from their first to their last.

7. But that no others come into this love and can be in it save those who approach the Lord, love the truths of the Church and do its goods.

8. That this love was the love of loves with the ancients who lived in the Golden, Silver, and Copper Ages, but that afterwards it gradually departed.

The explanation of these points now follows:

CL 58. I. That there is a love truly conjugial, which is so rare at this day that it is not known what it is and scarcely that it is. That there is a conjugial love such as is described in the following pages, can indeed be acknowledged from the first state of that love when it is insinuating itself and entering into the heart of a young man and woman; thus as it is with those who begin to love one only of the sex and to desire her as their bride; and still more during the time of betrothal and during the continuance of this time as it progresses towards the nuptials, and then in the nuptial ceremony and during the first days that follow. Who does not then give acknowledgment and consent to the following: That this love is the fundamental of all loves, and that into it are gathered all joys and all delights from their first to their last. And who does not know, that after this happy time these states of gladness successively decline and pass away till at last the married pair become scarcely sensible of them? If it be said to them then, as before, that this love is the fundamental of all loves and that into it is gathered every joy and gladness, they neither assent to it nor acknowledge it, and perhaps they will say that these are idle words or that they are transcendental mysteries. It is evident from this, that the primitive love of marriage emulates love truly conjugial and presents it to view in an image; and this because love of the sex, which is unchaste, is then cast out and, implanted in its place, resides love of one of the sex, which is love truly conjugial and is chaste. Who does not then look upon other women with a loveless nod and upon his own with a loving?

CL 59. The reason why love truly conjugial is so rare that it is not known what it is and scarcely that it is, is because the state of pleasure before the nuptials is afterwards changed into a state of indifference arising from insensibility to that pleasure. The causes of this change of state are more than can here be adduced, but they will be adduced in the following pages when the causes of colds, separations, and divorces are disclosed in their order. There it will be seen that with most men at this day, the image and with it the knowledge of conjugial love is so far effaced that it is not known what it is and scarcely that it is.

It is known that every man when born is merely corporeal, and that from being corporeal he becomes natural, more and more interior, and then rational, and finally spiritual. The reason why this takes place progressively, is because the corporeal is as the ground wherein, in their due order, are implanted things natural, rational, and spiritual; thus the man becomes more and more a man.

[2] It is almost the same when he enters into marriage; the man then becomes a fuller man because conjoined with a consort with whom he acts as one man. In the first state, spoken of above, this is effected in an image; then in like manner he commences from the corporeal and advances into the natural, but now as to the conjugial life and hence as to conjunction into a one. They who then love corporeal natural things, and only from them love things rational, cannot be conjoined with a consort as into a one except as to those externals. And when the externals fail, cold invades the internals and dispels the delights of that love, first expelling them from the mind and so from the body, and then from the body and so from the mind, and this until nothing is left of the remembrance of the early state of their marriage, and consequently no knowledge concerning it. Now since this is the case with most men at the present day, it is clear that it is not known what love truly conjugial is and scarcely that it is. Not so with those who are spiritual. With them, the first state is an initiation into perpetual states of happiness; and these states are promoted in the degree that the spiritual rational of the mind of the one, and from this the sensual natural of the body, conjoins and unites itself with that of the other. But such men are rare.

CL 60. II. That the origin of this love is from the marriage of good and truth. Being a universal truth, it is acknowledged by every intelligent man that all things in the universe have relation to good and truth. It must also be acknowledged that in each and everything of the universe, good is conjoined with truth and truth with good, for this also is a universal truth cohering with the other. The reason why all things in the universe have relation to good and truth, and why good is conjoined with truth and truth with good, is because both proceed from the Lord, and proceed from Him as a one. The two things which proceed from the Lord are love and wisdom, for these are Himself and are therefore from Him; and all things pertaining to love are called goods, and all pertaining to wisdom are called truths. And since these two proceed from Him as the Creator, it follows that these two are in the things created. This can be illustrated by the heat and light which proceed from the sun. From these are all things on the earth, it being according to their presence and according to their conjunction that things germinate; and natural heat corresponds to spiritual heat which is love, and natural light to spiritual light which is wisdom.

CL 61. That conjugial love proceeds from the marriage of good and truth will be shown in the treatise or chapter that follows. It is mentioned here merely that it may be seen that this love is celestial, spiritual, and holy, because from a celestial, spiritual, and holy origin. That it may be seen that the origin of conjugial love is from the marriage of good and truth, it is important that here something concerning it be presented in a brief summary. It was said just above, that there is a conjunction of good and truth in each and every created thing, and conjunction is not possible unless it be reciprocal, for conjunction from the one side and not in turn from the other is dissolved of itself. Now since there is a conjunction of good and truth, and since it is reciprocal, it follows that there is a truth of good or truth from good and a good of truth or good from truth. That the truth of good or truth from good is in the male and is the masculine itself, and that the good of truth or good from truth is in the female and is the feminine itself, and that there is a conjugial union between these two, will be shown in the chapter that next follows. It is mentioned here that some preliminary idea may be had concerning it.

CL 62. III. That the correspondence of this love is with the marriage of the Lord and the Church, that is, as the Lord loves the Church and wills that the Church shall love Him, so husband and wife mutually love each other. That there is a correspondence between these marriages is known in the Christian world, but not as yet its nature. This correspondence, therefore, shall be explained in a particular chapter which also follows. It is mentioned here to the end that it may be seen that conjugial love is celestial, spiritual, and holy, because it corresponds to the celestial, spiritual, and holy marriage of the Lord and the Church. This correspondence, moreover, follows from the origin of conjugial love from the marriage of good and truth, treated of in the preceding article, the marriage of good and truth being the Church with man. The marriage of good and truth is the same as the marriage of charity and faith, since good pertains to charity and truth to faith. That this marriage makes the Church must needs be acknowledged for it is a universal truth, and every universal truth is acknowledged as soon as heard. This is due to influx from the Lord and at the same time to confirmation by heaven. Now, as the Church is the Lord’s because from the Lord, and as conjugial love corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the Church, it follows that this love is from the Lord.

CL 63. As to how the Church, and thereby conjugial love, is formed by the Lord with two married partners, this shall be illustrated in the chapter above referred to. Suffice it to say here that the Church is formed by the Lord with the man and through the man with the wife; and that when it is formed with both, it is a full Church for there is then a full conjunction of good and truth, and the conjunction of good and truth is the Church. That the conjunctive inclination, which is conjugial love, is present in the same degree as the conjunction of good and truth, which is the Church, will be confirmed by demonstrative arguments in what follows in this series.

CL 64. IV. That, (regarded) from its origin and correspondence, this love is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, above every love which is from the Lord with the angels of heaven and the men of the Church. That conjugial love is such from its origin, which is the marriage of good and truth, was confirmed above in a few words but then only as a foretaste; likewise, that this love is such, from its correspondence with the marriage of the Lord and the Church. These two marriages, from which conjugial love descends as an offshoot, are holiness itself. Therefore if that love is received from its Author, who is the Lord, holiness from Him follows, and this continually refines and purifies it. If then, there is a desire and striving for it in man‘s will, the love is being perpetually cleansed and purified from day to day.

[2] Conjugial love is called celestial and spiritual because it is with the angels of the heavens, being celestial with the angels of the highest heaven because these angels are called celestial, and spiritual with the angels below that heaven because these angels are called spiritual. The angels are so called because the celestial are loves and hence wisdoms, and the spiritual are wisdoms and hence loves; so likewise their conjugial.

[3] Now since conjugial love is with the angels of both the higher and the lower heavens, as also was shown in the first chapter, on Marriages in Heaven, it is evident that it is holy and pure. That this love, regarded in its essence from its derivation, is holy and pure above every love with angels and with men, is because it is the head, as it were, of all other loves. Of this its eminence, something shall be said in the article which now follows.

CL 65. V. That it is also the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, and thence of all natural loves. The reason why conjugial love, regarded in its essence, is the fundamental love of all the loves of heaven and the Church, is because its origin is from the marriage of good and truth, and from this marriage proceed all the loves which make heaven and the Church with man. The good of this marriage makes the love, and the truth thereof makes the wisdom; and when love approaches wisdom and conjoins itself therewith, then love becomes love; and when wisdom in turn approaches love and conjoins itself therewith, then wisdom becomes wisdom. Love truly conjugial is nothing else than the conjunction of love and wisdom. Two married partners, between whom is this love, that is, who are in it simultaneously, are an effigy and form of the love; and in the heavens, where faces are genuine types of the affections of their love, all angels are likenesses of it, for, as already shown (n. 37), it is within them in their whole being and in every part thereof. Now since two married partners are this love in effigy and form, it follows that every love which proceeds from the very form of love is a likeness thereof. Therefore, if conjugial love is celestial and spiritual, the loves proceeding from it are also celestial and spiritual. Conjugial love, therefore, is like a parent, and all other loves like his offspring. Hence it is, that from the marriages of angels in the heavens are generated spiritual offspring which are the offspring of love and wisdom or good and truth. Concerning this generation, see (n. 51) above.

CL 66. The same is clearly evident from the creation of men into this love, and from their subsequent formation by it. The male was created that he might become wisdom from the love of growing wise, and the female that she might become the love of the male from his wisdom and so according to it. It is clear from this, that two married partners are the very forms and effigies of the marriage of love and wisdom or of good and truth. It must be clearly recognized that there is no good nor any truth which is not in a substance as its subject. Abstract goods and truths, being nowhere because they have no abode, are not possible. They certainly cannot be seen as things floating in the air. Therefore they are mere entities, of which reason seems to think abstractly but of which, nevertheless, it cannot think unless they are in subjects. For all man’s ideas, even though sublimated, are substantial, that is, are attached to substances. It must further be recognized that there can be no substance unless it be a form. A substance not formed is not anything, for nothing can be predicted of it, and a subject without predicates is also an entity of no reason. These philosophic considerations are added, that in this way also it may be seen that two married partners who are in love truly conjugial are actually forms of the marriage of good and truth or love and wisdom.

CL 67. Since natural loves emanate from spiritual loves, and spiritual loves from celestial, therefore it is said that conjugial love is the fundamental of all celestial and spiritual loves, and hence of all natural loves. Natural loves have reference to the loves of self and the world, while spiritual loves have reference to love towards the neighbour, and celestial loves, to love to the Lord. Such being the relationship of these loves, the order of their sequence and the order in which they are inwardly present with man, is clear. When present in this order, then the natural loves live from the spiritual, and these from the celestial, and in this order they all live from the Lord from whom they are.

CL 68. VI. And that into this love are gathered all joys and all delights from their first to their last. All delights whatsoever which are felt by man are delights of his love, it being by delights that love manifests itself, yea, that it exists and lives. That delights are exalted in the degree that the love is exalted and also according as incidental affections more nearly touch the ruling love, is known. Now because, as already shown, conjugial love is the fundamental of all good loves and is inscribed upon the very least parts of man, it follows that its delights exceed the delights of all other loves, and also that it makes all other loves delightful according to its presence and at the same time its conjunction with them; for it expands the inmost parts of the mind, and at the same time the inmost parts of the body, as the delicious current of its fountain flows through them and opens them up.

[2] That all delights from their first to their last are gathered into this love, is because of the excellence of its use above all other uses. Its use is the propagation of the human race, and thence of the angelic heavens; and because this use was the end of ends of creation, it follows that all the states of blessedness, happiness, delight, pleasantness, and pleasure which, by the Lord the Creator, could ever be conferred on man, are gathered into this his love. That delights follow use and are present with man according to the love thereof, is manifest from the delights of the five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Each of these has its own delights with variations according to their specific uses. What then should not be the delights of the sense of conjugial love, whose use is the complex of all other uses!

CL 69. I know that few will acknowledge that all joys and delights from the first to the last are gathered into conjugial love, because, as explained and confirmed above (n. 58, 59), the love truly conjugial into which they are gathered is at this day so rare that it is not known what it is and scarcely that it is, and these joys and delights are present in no other conjugial love than that which is genuine. And since this is so rare on earth, it is impossible to describe its supereminent felicities from any other source than the mouth of angels, for they are in it. These have said that its inmost delights, which are those of the soul-- and it is into the soul that the conjugial of love and wisdom or good and truth from the Lord first flows--are imperceptible and hence ineffable, being delights of peace and at the same time of innocence; that in their descent they become more and more perceptible--in the higher regions of the mind as beatitudes, in the lower as happiness, and in the bosom, as delights therefrom; and that from the bosom, they pour themselves into each and every part of the body, and finally, uniting in ultimates, into the delight of delights.

[2] Moreover, angels have related wonders concerning them, saying that their varieties in the souls of married partners, and from these in their minds, and from these in their bosoms, are infinite in number and are also eternal; and that they are exalted according to the wisdom with the husbands, and this because the husbands live to eternity in the flower of their age, and nothing is more blessed to them than to grow ever more wise. But more concerning these delights as told by the mouth of angels, may be seen in the Memorable Relations, especially in those which follow after some of the later chapters.

CL 70. VII. But that no others come into this love and can be in it save those who approach the Lord, love the truths of the Church and do its goods. The reason why no others come into that love save those who approach the Lord, is because monogamous marriages, or marriages of one man with one wife, correspond to the marriage of the Lord and the Church, and because their origin is the marriage of good and truth, of which above (n. 60-62). From this origin and correspondence it follows, that love truly conjugial is from the Lord and is with those who approach Him directly. This, however, cannot be fully confirmed unless the above two arcana be taken up specifically, which will be done in the next following chapters, the one on the Origin of Conjugial Love from the Marriage of Good and Truth, and the other on the Marriage of the Lord and the Church and its Correspondence. That from this origin and correspondence, it follows that conjugial love is with man according to the state of the Church with him, will also be shown there.

CL 71. The reason why no others can be in love truly conjugial save those who receive it from the Lord, being those who approach Him directly and from Him live the life of the Church, is because, as shown above (n. 64), that love, regarded from its origin and correspondence, is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure, and clean, above every other love which is with the angels of heaven and with the men of the Church; and these its attributes cannot exist save with those who are conjoined with the Lord and by Him are consociated with angels of heaven; for such men shun extra-conjugial loves, which are conjunctions with others than their own partner, as injuries to the soul and as the stagnant pools of hell; and so far as partners shun such conjunctions even as to the lusts of the will and the intentions therefrom, so far that love is purified with them and successively becomes spiritual, first during their life on earth and afterwards in heaven.

[2] Neither with men nor with angels can any love ever become pure. So also with this love. But since it is the intention which is of the will that is primarily regarded by the Lord, therefore, so far as a man is in this intention and perseveres therein, so far he is initiated into the purity and holiness of this love and successively progresses therein. That no others can be in spiritual conjugial love save those who from the Lord are of this character, is because in that love is heaven, and the natural man, with whom the love derives its pleasure solely from the flesh, cannot draw near to heaven or to any angel, nay, and not to any man in whom this love is; for it is the fundamental of all celestial and spiritual loves;see above (n. 65-67).

[3] That such is the case has been proved to me by experience. In the spiritual world, I have seen genii who were being prepared for hell, approach an angel who was in delight with his consort. At a distance, as they were approaching, they became like furies and sought for caves and ditches as places of refuge into which they might cast themselves. That evil spirits love what is homogeneous with their affection, howsoever unclean it is, and hold in aversion the spirits of heaven as heterogeneous to their affections, heaven being pure, may be concluded from what is told in the Preliminaries, (n. 10).

CL 72. That those come into this love and can be in it, who love the truths of the Church and do its goods, is because no others are received by the Lord; for these are in conjunction with Him, and by Him can be held in this love. There are two things which make the Church and thence heaven with man: the truth of faith and the good of life. The truth of faith effects the Lord‘s presence, and the good of life according to the truths of faith, effects conjunction with Him and thus makes the Church and heaven. That the truth of faith effects the Lord’s presence is because it pertains to light, spiritual light being nothing else. That the good of life effects conjunction, is because it pertains to heat; nor is spiritual heat anything else, for it is love, and the good of life pertains to love. It is well known that all light, even that of winter, effects presence, and that heat united with light effects conjunction; for gardens and flower-beds are seen in all kinds of light, but do not blossom and bear fruit except when heat conjoins itself to light. From the above, the conclusion is evident, that not those who merely know the truths of the Church are endowed by the Lord with love truly conjugial but those who both know its truths and do its goods.

CL 73. VIII. That this love was the love of loves with the ancients who lived in the Golden, Silver, and Copper Ages. That conjugial love was the love of loves with the most ancient and ancient peoples who lived in the primitive ages which are so named, cannot be learned from history because their writings are not extant, and the writings that are extant are by writers posterior to those ages, it being by these writers that the ages were named and the purity and integrity of their life described, and also its gradual descent as from gold to iron. The last or iron age, however, which commenced from the time of these writers, can in some measure be gathered from the history of certain kings and judges and of those wise men who in Greece and elsewhere were called sophi. It is foretold that this age did not hold firm as does iron when by itself, but became like iron mixed with clay, which do not stick together (Daniel 2:43).

[2] Now since the Ages named from gold, silver, and copper had passed away before the days of (the above-mentioned) writings, and since knowledge concerning their marriages is thus not possible on earth, it has pleased the Lord to reveal these marriages to me in a spiritual way, by leading me to the heavens where are the dwellings of the men (of those ages), that there, from their own lips, I might learn concerning the nature of marriages with them when they were living in their Ages. For all who have passed away from the natural world since the creation, are in the spiritual world; and as to their loves they are all like themselves (as they had been in the world) and remain so to eternity. Since these particulars merit being known and related, and since they confirm the sacredness of marriages, I wish to make them public as they were shown me while I was awake in the spirit, and were recalled to my memory by an angel and so described. And since they are relations from the spiritual world, like the others which follow the chapters, I have thought to distribute them into six Memorable Relations, following the progress of the Ages.

CL 74. These six Memorable Relations from the spiritual world concerning conjugial love reveal what the nature of that love was in the First Ages, what it was after those Ages, and what it is at the present day. From them it is evident that this love has successively fallen away from its holiness and purity until it has become scortatory, but that, nevertheless, there is hope of its being brought back to its primeval or ancient holiness.

CL 75. The First Memorable Relation:

Once when meditating on conjugial love, my mind was seized with a desire to know what that love had been with those who lived in the Golden Age, and what it had been later with those who lived in the Ages that followed and which are named from silver, copper, and iron; and, knowing that all who had lived well in those Ages are in the heavens, I prayed the Lord that He would allow me to speak with them and be instructed. And lo, an angel stood by me and said: "I am sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion. First I will guide and accompany you to those who lived in the first age or period called GOLDEN"; and he added, "The way to them is hard. It lies through a dark. forest through which no one can pass without a guide given him by the Lord."

[2] Being in the spirit, I girded myself for the journey, and we turned our faces towards the east. As we went on, I saw a mountain whose height extended above the region of the clouds. We passed through a great desert and came into the forest of which the angel had spoken. It was thick with trees of various kinds, and dark by reason of their density. The forest was intersected by many narrow paths, and the angel said: "These paths are so many tortuous paths of error, and unless his eyes are opened by the Lord to see the olive trees entwined with vine tendrils, and his steps directed from tree to tree, the traveller would wander off into the Tartarean shades which lie round about at the sides. This forest is such, to the end that it may guard the approach; for none but the primeval race dwells on that mountain."

[3] After entering the forest, our eyes were opened and here and there we saw olive trees entwined with vines from which hung clusters of grapes of a dark blue colour. The trees were arranged in continuous gyres, and following these as they came into view we went round and round. At last we saw a grove of lofty cedars and on their branches some eagles. Seeing these, the angel said, "We are now not far from the top of the mountain."

We continued on, and lo, beyond the grove, a circular plain whereon male and female lambs were feeding. These were forms representative of the state of innocence and peace of those who dwelt on the mountain. We crossed this plain, and lo, in front and at the sides, in every direction as far as the eye could reach, were seen tabernacles after tabernacles to the number of many thousands. The angel then said: "We are now in the camp where dwells the Army of the Lord Jehovih, this being what they call themselves and their habitations. While living in the world, these most ancient peoples dwelt in tabernacles, and therefore they dwell in them now also. But let us bend our way to the south where are the wiser of them, that we may meet some one with whom to converse."

[4] Walking on, I saw at a distance three boys and three girls sitting at the door of one of the tents, but when we drew near, they were seen as men and women of middle stature. The angel then said: "At a distance, all the inhabitants of this mountain appear like little children, for they are in a state of innocence, and infancy is the appearance of innocence." On seeing us, the men ran up to us and said: "Whence are you, and how came you hither? Your faces are not of the faces of our mountain." In reply, the angel told them the means of our approach through the forest and the reason of our coming. Hearing this, one of the three men invited us to his tabernacle and took us in. The man was clothed with a mantle the colour of hyacinth, and a tunic of white wool, and his wife with a crimson robe, beneath which on her bosom was a tunic wrought with fine needlework.

[5] Desiring in my thought to learn about the marriages of the most ancients, I looked now at the husband, now at his wife, and in their faces I observed the unity, as it were, of their souls. So I said, "You two are one." The man replied: "We are one; her life is in me and mine in her. We are two bodies but one soul. The union between us is like the union of the two tents in the breast which are called heart and lungs, she being my heart and I her lungs. But here, by heart we mean love and by lungs wisdom. Thus she is the love of my wisdom and I am the wisdom of her love. Therefore her love veils my wisdom from without, and my wisdom is in her love from within. Hence, as you said, the appearance in our faces of the unity of our souls."

[6] I then asked him: "If such is the union, can you look at any other woman than your own?" He replied: "I can; but as my wife is united to my soul, we two look together and then nothing of lust can enter in; for when I look at the wives of others, I look at them through my own wife whom alone I love. And because she, my wife, has a perception of all my inclinations, therefore, as an intermediary she directs my thoughts, and removes everything discordant. At the same time she imparts cold and horror for everything unchaste. Therefore it is as impossible for us here to look upon a companion‘s wife from lust as it is to look at the light of our heaven from Tartarean shade. With us therefore, there is no idea of thought, still less any word of speech, for the allurements of libidinous love." He could not utter the word whoredom because the chastity of their heaven strove against it. Speaking to me, the angel-guide then said, "You now hear the speech of the angels of this heaven, that it is the speech of wisdom; for they speak from causes."

[7] After this, while looking around, I saw their tabernacle. It seemed as though overlaid with gold, and I inquired as to the cause of this. The man replied: "It is from a flaming light which glitters like gold, and whenever we are in discourse concerning conjugial love, this irradiates and tinges the coverings of our tabernacle; for the heat from our sun, which in its essence is love, then bares itself and tinges the light, which in its essence is wisdom, with its own golden colour. This is done because in its origin conjugial love is the sport of wisdom and love, man being born that he may be wisdom and woman that she may be the love of the man’s wisdom. Hence, in conjugial love and from it come the delights of that sport between us and our wives. Here, for thousands of years, we have seen clearly that these delights are superlative and eminent in abundance, degree, and vigour, according to the worship among us of the Lord Jehovih, from whom inflows that heavenly union or marriage which is the union or marriage of love and wisdom."

[8] When he had finished speaking, I saw upon a hill in the centre of the tabernacles a great light, and I asked, "Whence comes that light?" He replied, "It is from the sanctuary of the tabernacle of our worship."

I then asked him whether it was allowed to approach that tabernacle, and he said it was. Going to it, I then saw that both without and within, it was exactly like the tabernacle built for the sons of Israel in the wilderness, the pattern of which was shown to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25:40; 26:30), and I asked the man, "What is inside that sanctuary from whence comes so great a light?" He replied, "A tablet on which is the inscription, THE COVENANT BETWEEN JEHOVAH AND THE HEAVENS. He said no more.

[9] Since we were then ready to depart, I asked him, "When living in the natural world, did any of you live with more than one wife?" He answered, "I know not one, for we could not think of more. Those who had thought of more have told us that the heavenly blessedness of their souls at once withdrew from the inmost parts of their bodies to the extremities, even to the fingernails, and with it the honourable badges of virility. When this was perceived, they were expelled from our land." Saying this, the man ran to his tent and returned with a pomegranate wherein was an abundance of golden seeds. This he gave to me, and I brought it away as a sign that we had been with those who had lived in the Golden Age. After a salutation of peace, we then departed and returned home.

CL 76. The Second Memorable Relation:

The next day, the same angel came to me and said, "You wish me to guide and accompany you to the peoples who lived in the SILVER AGE or period, that from them we may hear about the marriages of their time"; and he added, "These also may not be approached save under the Lord‘s auspices."

Being in the spirit as before, I accompanied my guide. We came first to a hill on the border between the east and the south. And when we were on its summit, he showed me a widely extended stretch of country. In the far distance we saw a height resembling a mountain, between which and the hill on which we stood, was a valley, and beyond that, a plain from which rose a gentle acclivity.

We descended the hill to cross the valley, and here and there on either side we saw images of men and of various beasts, birds, and fishes carved in wood and stone, and I asked the angel, "What are these? Are they idols?" He replied: "No, indeed. They are figures representative of various moral virtues and spiritual truths. Among the peoples of this age flourished the science of correspondences; and as every man, beast, bird, and fish corresponds to some quality, therefore each sculptured form represents some particular aspect of a virtue or truth, and many together represent the virtue or truth itself in a general extended form. They are what in Egypt were called hieroglyphics."

[2] We pursued our way through the valley, and when we entered the plain, lo, we saw horses and chariots--horses variously harnessed and caparisoned, and chariots of different forms, some carved like eagles, some like whales, some like stags with horns, some like unicorns; and also, at the farther end, some wagons, and round about at the sides, stables. As we drew near, however, both horses and chariots disappeared and in their stead we saw men in couples, walking, talking with each other, and discussing. The angel then said to me: "Seen at a distance, the different kinds of horses, chariots, and stables are appearances of the rational intelligence of the men of this Age; for, from its correspondence, a horse signifies the understanding of truth, a chariot the teaching thereof, and stables the places of instruction. You know that in this world all things appear according to correspondences."

[3] Passing these by, we went up a long ascent and at last saw a city. This we entered, and walking through its streets and public places, we examined its houses which were so many palaces built of marble. In front of them were steps of alabaster, and at the sides of the steps, columns of jasper. We also saw temples built of precious stone of the colour of sapphire and lapis lazuli. The angel then told me: "Their houses are of stone because stones signify natural truths, and precious stones spiritual truths, and all those who lived in the Silver Age had intelligence from spiritual truths and thence from natural. Silver also has a like signification."

[4] As we wandered through the city, we saw here and there consorts walking in pairs; and as they were husbands and wives, we hoped that we might be invited in somewhere. As we were walking along with this in mind, one couple called us back into their house, and we mounted the steps and entered. Speaking for me, the angel then explained to them the reason why we had come to this heaven, that it was "for the sake of information respecting marriages among the ancients from whom you in this heaven are." They answered: "We were from a people in Asia; and the study of our Age was the study of truths, by which we had intelligence. This study was the study of our souls and minds while the study of our bodily senses was the representation of truths in forms; and the science of correspondences conjoined the sensations of our bodies with the perceptions of our minds and gave us intelligence."

[5] On hearing this, the angel requested that they would tell us something about marriages among them. The husband then said: "There is a correspondence between spiritual marriage, which is that of truth with good, and natural marriage which is that of a man with one wife. Having studied correspondences, we have seen that the Church with its truths and goods can by no means exist save with those who live with one wife in love truly conjugial; for the marriage of good and truth is the Church with man. Therefore, we who are here, all say that the husband is truth and the wife the good thereof, and that good cannot love any other truth than its own, nor, in return, can truth love any other good than its own. If any other were loved, the internal marriage which makes the Church would vanish. Marriage would then become merely external, and to this corresponds, not the Church, but idolatry. For this reason, we call marriage with one wife a sacrament, but were it to take place among us with more than one, we would call it a sacrilege."

[6] After he had thus spoken, we were introduced into a room adjoining the bed-chamber. Here, on the walls, were many works of art and some small images as though cast in silver; and I asked "What are these?" He said: "They are pictures and forms representative of the many qualities, attributes, and delights which belong to conjugial love. Some represent the unity of souls, some the conjunction of minds, some the concord of hearts, and some the delights arising therefrom."

While examining these representations, we saw upon the wall a rainbow, as it were, composed of three colours, crimson, hyacinthine, and white; and we saw how that the crimson passed through the hyacinthine and tinged the white with dark blue, while the white flowed back through the hyacinthine into the crimson and raised it to a flamy beam, as it were.

[7] The husband then asked me, "Do you understand this?" I answered, "Instruct me"; whereupon he said: "From its correspondence, the crimson signifies the conjugial love of the wife, the white the intelligence of the husband, the hyacinthine the beginning of conjugial love in the husband’s perception from the wife, and the dark blue with which the white was tinged, conjugial love then in the husband. The flowing back of this colour through the hyacinthine into the crimson and the raising of the latter to a flamy beam, as it were, signifies the conjugial love of the husband flowing back to the wife. Such things are represented on these walls whenever, from meditation on conjugial love and its mutual, successive, and simultaneous union, we look with intent gaze at the rainbows there pictured." To this I said: "At the present day, such things are more than mystical for they are representative appearances of the arcana of the conjugial love of one man with one wife." He replied: "They are; but to us here they are not arcane and therefore are not mystical."

[8] When he had thus spoken, there appeared at some distance a chariot drawn by small white horses. Seeing this, the angel said, "That chariot is a sign for us to depart." Then, as we descended the steps, our host gave us a cluster of white grapes with the vine leaves attached; and lo (in our hands), the leaves became silver; and we brought them away as a sign that we had spoken with people of the Silver Age.

CL 77. The Third Memorable Relation:

The next day, the angel-guide and companion came again and said: "Make ready and let us go to the heavenly inhabitants in the west who are from the men who lived in the third or COPPER AGE. Their dwelling-places extend from the south over the west towards the north, but not into the north." So I made ready and accompanied him.

We entered their heaven at the southern side, where was a magnificent grove of palm trees and laurels. Having passed through this grove, we then saw, just on the western border, giants of a stature twice as high as the ordinary human stature; and they asked us, "Who let you in through the grove?" "The God of heaven," said the angel. They responded, "We are guards to the ancient western heaven; but pass through," and we passed on.

[2] Then from a watch-tower we saw a mountain towering to the clouds; and between us on the watch-tower and that mountain, we saw villa after villa with gardens, groves, and fields between them. Passing by these villas, we went on to the mountain and this we ascended. And lo, its summit was not a peak but a plain, and on this plain was an extensive and spacious city, all whose houses were of the wood of resinous trees and their roofs of planks.

I asked the angel, "Why are the houses here of wood?" and he answered, "Because wood signifies natural good, and in that good were the men of the third Age of the earth. Copper also signifies natural good, and therefore the Age in which they lived was named by the ancients from copper. Here also are sacred buildings constructed of olive wood. In their centre is a sanctuary, and there in an Ark lies the Word given to the inhabitants of Asia before the Israelitish Word. The historical books of this Word are called THE WARS OF JEHOVAH, and the prophetical books, ENUNCIATIONS; both are mentioned by Moses (Numbers 21:14, 15, 27-30). In the kingdoms of Asia, this Word is now lost, being preserved only in Great Tartary." He then conducted me to one of these sacred buildings, and looking in we saw in its centre the sanctuary, the whole sanctuary being in a white light of the utmost brightness. The angel then said, "That light is from that Ancient Asiatic Word; for in the heavens all Divine Truth shines."

[3] Passing out of the building, we heard that it had been announced in the city that two strangers were there and that they were to be examined as to whence they came and what was their business. An attendant of the court then came up and ordered us to the judgment seat.

To the question whence we came and what was our business there, we answered: "We have come through the grove of palm trees and have also passed the abodes of the giants who are the guards of your heaven, and afterwards through the region of villas; from which you can conclude that it is not of ourselves but of the God of heaven that we are come hither. The business for which we came, is that we may be instructed respecting your marriages, whether they are monogamous or polygamous." They responded: "What are polygamous marriages? Are they not scortatory?"

[4] The judicial tribunal then delegated an intelligent man to instruct us concerning this matter in his own home. There, in his home, having his wife by his side, he spoke to us in these words: "Preserved among us, we have precepts concerning marriages which have come down to us from primeval or most ancient peoples who, in the world, had been in love truly conjugial and hence above others in the virtue and potency of that love. They are now in a most blessed state in their heaven, which is in the east. We are their posterity, and, as fathers, they gave to us as their sons canons of life, among which is the following respecting marriages: Sons, if you would love God and the neighbour, and if you would be wise and happy to eternity, we counsel you to live as monogamists. If you depart from this precept, all heavenly love and with it internal wisdom will flee from you and you will be destroyed. This precept of our fathers, we as their sons have obeyed. Moreover, we have perceived its truth, which is, that so far as one loves his consort alone, he becomes heavenly and internal, and so far as he does not love his consort alone, he becomes natural and external, and then loves only himself and the images of his own mind and is silly and stupid.

[5] It is because of these canons that we in this heaven are all guarded against polygamists, adulterers, and whoremongers. If polygamists invade, they are cast out into the darkness of the north; if adulterers, they are cast out into the fires of the west; and if whoremongers, they are cast out into the fatuous lights of the south."

On hearing this, I asked him what he meant by the darkness of the north, the fires of the west, and the fatuous lights of the south. He answered: "The darkness of the north is dullness of mind and ignorance of truth; the fires of the west are the loves of evil; and the fatuous lights of the south are falsifications of truth, which are spiritual whoredoms."

[6] He then said, "Follow me to our treasure house." We followed him and he showed us the writings of the most ancient peoples, that they were on tablets of wood and stone, and later, on waxed tablets, and that those of the second Age were inscribed on parchments. He then brought us a parchment on which the canons of the primeval men had been copied from stone tablets, and among them was the precept concerning marriages.

[7] Having seen these and other memorable things of ancient times, the angel said, "It is now time for us to depart." Our host then went out into his garden and plucked some twigs from a tree. These he tied in a bunch which he gave us, saying,"These twigs are from a tree native or proper to our heaven, the sap of which has a balsamic fragrance."

Bringing the bunch away with us, we descended by a way neighbouring on the east, which was not guarded. And lo, the twigs were turned into shining brass, and their tips into gold, as a sign that we had been with a nation of the third Age which is named from copper or brass.

CL 78. The Fourth Memorable Relation:

Two days later, the angel again spoke to me, saying: "Let us complete the period of the Ages; there still remains the last Age which is named from IRON. The people of that Age live in the north, at the side of the west, inwards, that is to say, breadth-wise. They are all from the ancient inhabitants of Asia, with whom was the Ancient Word and worship therefrom; consequently, they lived before the time of the advent of our Lord into the world. This is evident from the writings of the ancients in which those times are so named. The same Ages are meant by the statue seen by Nebuchadnezzar, the head of which was of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron, and the feet of iron and also of clay" (Dan. 2:32, 33).

[2] All this the angel told me on the way, which was shortened and hastened by changes of state induced upon our minds according to the genius of the inhabitants whom we passed; for in the spiritual world, spaces and hence distances are appearances according to the states of minds. When we raised our eyes, behold, we were in a forest consisting of beeches, chestnuts, and oaks; and there, when we looked about, on the left were seen bears, and on the right leopards. I was wondering at this, when the angel said: "These are neither bears nor leopards. They are men who guard these inhabitants of the north. With their nostrils, they catch the life-spheres of passers-by and rush upon all who are spiritual, for these inhabitants are natural. Those who merely read the Word and draw nothing of doctrine therefrom, appear at a distance like bears, and those who confirm falsities therefrom, appear like leopards." On seeing us, however, they turned away and we passed on.

[3] After the forest, appeared thickets, and then grassy plains divided into plots and surrounded by box trees. Behind these, the country descended gently into a valley wherein were cities upon cities. Passing by some of these, we entered into a city of large size. Its streets were irregular, as likewise were its houses. The latter were built of brick with intersecting timbers and were plastered over. In the public places were fanes of hewn limestone, the substructure of which was below the ground, and the super-structure above. Into one of these we descended by three steps. Around the walls we saw idols in various forms and a crowd upon their knees adoring them. In the centre was a choir, from which the tutelary god of that city emerged as far as his head. As we were going out, the angel told me, that among the ancients who lived in the Silver Age, spoken of above, idols were representative images of spiritual truths and moral virtues; and that when the knowledge of correspondences fell from memory and became extinct, these images first became objects of worship and then were adored as gods, whence arose idolatry.

[4] Outside the fane, we examined the men and their dress. They had a steel-like face of a bluish grey colour, and were dressed like clowns, with cloths about their loins hanging from a close-fitting tunic on the chest; and on their heads were caps crimped into the shape of boats. "But enough of this," said the angel. "Let us get information respecting the marriages of the peoples of this age." We then entered the house of one of the magnates, on whose head was a cap in the shape of a turret. He received us courteously and said, "Walk in and let us engage in conversation." We walked into the vestibule and there sat down. I then asked him about the marriages of that city and country. He said: "We do not live with one wife, but some with two, some with three, and some with more, and this because variety and obedience and honour as of majesty are pleasing to us. These we receive from our wives when there are several. With only one, there would be, not delight from variety but wearisomeness from sameness; not soothing calm from obedience but trouble from equality; not happiness from domination and the honour resulting therefrom but annoyance from contention respecting superiority. And what is a woman? Was she not born subject to the will of man? to serve and not to rule? Therefore, in his own house every husband here has royal majesty, as it were. This, as belonging to our love, is also the blessedness of our life."

[5] "But," I asked, "where then is conjugial love which of two souls makes one and which conjoins minds and blesses man? That love cannot be divided; if divided, it becomes a burning heat which effervesces and passes away." To this he replied: "I do not understand what you are saying. What else blesses a man but the rivalry of his wives for the honour of supereminence with their husbands?" Saying this, the man went into his harem and opened two doors. But from the harem came a libidinous effluvium which stank like filth; it was from polygamous love, a love which is connubial and at the same time scortatory. I therefore rose up and shut the doors.

[6] I then said, "How can you continue to live on this land when you have nothing of love truly conjugial, and when, moreover, you worship idols?" To this he answered, "As to connubial love, we are so fiercely jealous of our wives that we do not permit anyone to enter our houses farther than the vestibule; and because there is jealousy, there is also love. As to the idols, we do not worship them; but we are not able to think of the God of the universe except by means of images set before our eyes; for we cannot raise our thoughts above things sensible to the body, and our thoughts concerning God above things visible thereto." I then further asked him, "Are not your idols of different forms? how can these bring the vision of one God?" to which he answered, "That is a mystery to us; something of the worship of God lies hidden in each form." I then said: "You are merely sensual corporeal. You have no love of God, nor any love of a married partner which derives anything from what is spiritual, and it is these loves together, that form man and from being sensual make him heavenly."

[7] When I had said this, there was seen through the outer door something like lightning; and I asked, "What is that?" He said: "To us such lightning is a sign that the Ancient One is about to come from the East who teaches us about God, that He is One, the only Omnipotent, who is the First and the Last. He also admonishes us not to worship idols but to look upon them merely as images representative of the virtues proceeding from the one God, which together form the worship of Him. This Ancient One is our Angel whom we revere and to whom we hearken; and when, by reason of some fantasy respecting the images, we fall into an obscure worship of God, he comes to us and raises us up."

[8] On hearing this, we left the house and the city; and on our way, we drew conclusions from what we had seen in the heavens, as to the circle and progression of conjugial love--as to its circle, that it passed from the east to the south, thence to the west, and from there to the north; and as to its progression, that it decreased according to its circling, that is to say, that in the east it was celestial, in the south spiritual, in the west natural, and in the north sensual. We also concluded that it decreased in even step with the love and worship of God. From this comes the following conclusion: In the first Age, that love was like gold, in the second like silver, in the third like brass, and in the fourth like iron; and finally it was lacking.

My angel-guide and companion then said, "Yet I am nourished by the hope that this love will be resuscitated by the God of heaven, who is the Lord; for its resuscitation is possible."

CL 79. The Fifth Memorable Relation:

The angel who had previously been my guide and companion to the ancient peoples who had lived in the four Ages, the Golden, Silver, Copper, and Iron, came to me once more and said: "You would like to see the nature of the Age which followed these ancient Ages and which still continues. Follow me then, and you shall see. They are those of whom Daniel prophesied:

A kingdom shall arise after those four, wherein iron shall be mixed with miry clay; they shall mingle themselves through the seed of man, but they shall not cleave the one with the other, even as iron is not commingled with clay." (Dan. 2:41-43).

And he added, "By the seed of man through which the iron shall be mingled with clay and yet they shall not cleave together, is meant the truth of the Word falsified."

[2] After he had thus spoken, I followed him, and on the way he told me the following: "They dwell on the border between the south and the west, but at a great distance behind those who lived in the four former Ages, and also at a greater depth."

Proceeding through the south to a region bordering upon the west, we passed through a dreadful forest; for in it were stagnant pools, from which crocodiles raised their heads and gaped at us with their wide open jaws beset with teeth. Moreover, between the pools were terrible dogs, some with three heads like Cerberus, some with two; and as we passed they all glared at us with a horrible ravenous look and fierce eyes. We entered the western part of this region and saw dragons and leopards such as are described in the Apocalypse (Apoc 12:3; 13:2).

[3] The angel then told me: "All those wild beasts which you saw are not beasts but correspondences. Thus they are representative forms of the lusts in which are the inhabitants whom we are to visit. Their lusts are represented by those horrible dogs; their deceits and cunning by the crocodiles; their falsities and their depraved inclinations in respect to things pertaining to worship, by the dragons and leopards. The inhabitants who are thus represented do not dwell immediately behind the forest but behind a great desert, the desert itself being an intermediate region; and this to the end that they may be kept entirely separate and apart from the peoples of the preceding Ages. Moreover, they are utter aliens, being entirely different from them. Like the primeval men, they do indeed have heads above their breasts, breasts above their loins, and loins above their feet, but there is nothing of gold in their heads, nothing of silver in their breasts, nothing of brass in their loins, yea, nothing of pure iron in their feet; but in their heads is iron mixed with clay; in their breasts, both these mixed with brass; in their loins, both mixed also with silver; and in their feet, all these mixed with gold. By this inversion they have been changed from men into graven images of men within whom nothing is coherent. That which was the highest has become the lowest. Thus what was the head has become the heel, and vice versa. From heaven they appear to us like clowns who rest on their elbows and move forwards with their body upside down; or like beasts lying on their backs, with upraised legs and looking at the sky from a head which they bury in the earth."

[4] We passed through the forest and entered the desert, which was no less terrible. It consisted of heaps of stones, and between them ditches from which crawled hydras and vipers, and out of which flew fiery flying serpents. The whole desert was one continuous descent. Descending the long declivity, we came at last into the valley where dwell the inhabitants of that region and Age.

Here and there were huts, and finally these were seen to be closer to each other and to be joined together into the form of a city. This we entered, and lo, the houses were constructed of scorched branches of trees stuck together with mud. The roofs were of black slate. The streets were irregular, all narrow at their beginnings but wider as they went on, and quite spacious at their end where they terminated in an open space or forum, there being as many such spaces as there were (converging) streets.

As we entered the city, it became dark because heaven was not visible. We therefore looked up, and light was given us and we saw. I then asked those whom I met, "Can you see, now that the heaven above you is not visible?" They replied, "What are you asking? We see clearly. We walk in full light." Hearing this, the angel said to me, "To them, just as to birds of night, darkness is light and light darkness, for they look downwards and not upwards."

[5] Here and there we went into the hovels, and in each hovel we saw a man with his woman. We asked whether all here live in their own house with one wife only. The men answered this with a hissing, (and our host said). "Why with only one wife? Why do you not ask whether we live with only one harlot? What is a wife but a harlot? Our laws do not permit us to go a-whoring with more than one woman, yet we do not count it dishonourable or disgraceful to do this with many--but outside the house. Among ourselves we boast of it. In this way we enjoy licence and its pleasures more than do polygamists. Why is a plurality of wives denied us, when yet it was formerly allowed; and even now it is allowed in all the countries around us? What is life with one woman alone but captivity and imprisonment? Here we break down the barrier of this prison and, delivering ourselves from servitude, set ourselves free. Who can be angry with a captive if he sets himself free when he can?"

[6] To this we answered: "Friend, you talk as if you were without religion. Who that is imbued with any reason does not know that adulteries are profane and infernal, and that marriages are holy and heavenly? Do not adulteries exist with the devils in hell, and marriages with the angels in heaven? Have you not read the seventh commandment of the Decalogue? and in Paul, that adulterers can in no wise come into heaven?" At this, our host laughed heartily and looked upon me as a simpleton and almost as a madman.

At that moment a messenger from the chief man of the city rushed up and said, "Bring the two strangers into the forum, and if they will not come, drag them. We have seen them in the shade of night. They came in secret; they are spies."

The angel then said to me: "The reason we were seen in a shade was because to them the light of heaven, in which we were, is shade, while the shade of hell is light, and this because they count nothing as a sin, not even adultery. Therefore they regard that which is false as being wholly true. Moreover, to satans in hell, that which is false shines, and that which is true darkens their eyes like the shade of night."

[7] We then said to the messenger, "We will not be forced to the forum, still less will we be dragged, but will go with you of our own accord." So we went. And lo, a great crowd was there, and from the crowd came men skilled in the law who whispered in our ears, "Take heed that you say nothing against religion, the form of government, and good manners." We replied, "We speak not against these but for them and from them."

We then asked them, "What is your religion regarding marriages?" At this, the crowd murmured and said, "What have you to do here with marriages? marriages are marriages."

We then asked, "What is your religion respecting whoredoms?" At this also the crowd murmured, saying, "What have you to do here with whoredoms? whoredoms are whoredoms. Let him who is without guilt cast the first stone."

And thirdly we asked, "Does your religion teach concerning marriages, that they are holy and heavenly? and concerning adulteries, that they are profane and infernal?" At this, many in the crowd laughed aloud and mocked and jeered, saying: "As to matters of religion, ask our priests not us; we give entire assent to their utterances, for nothing of religion falls within the judgment of the understanding. Have you not heard that the understanding is insane as regards the mysteries of which the whole of religion consists? And what have deeds to do with religion? Is it not the murmurings of a devout heart concerning expiation, satisfaction, and imputation, and not works, that beatify souls?"

[8] But then some of the city‘s wise men, so called, came to us and said, "Go away from here; the crowd is getting angry and soon there will be an outbreak. Let us talk with you on this matter in private. Behind the court is an ambulatory; let us retire thither. Come with us." So we followed them. They then asked us, "From where do you come and what is your business here?" and we said, "To be informed concerning marriages with you, whether they are sacred as they were with the ancients who lived in the Golden, Silver, and Copper Ages."

They replied, "Why sacred? are they not deeds of the flesh and the night?" and we answered, "Are they not also deeds of the spirit? What the flesh does from the spirit, is not that spiritual? and whatever the spirit does, it does from the marriage of good and truth. Is not this the spiritual marriage which enters into natural marriage which is the marriage of husband and wife?"

To this, the so-called wise men responded: "You refine and sublimate this thing overmuch. You are passing over things rational and mounting to things spiritual. Who can commence there? Come down and then form a judgment." To this they added in derision, "Perhaps you have the wings of an eagle and can fly into the uppermost region of heaven and see such things. We cannot."

[9] We then asked them to tell us from the height or region in which the winged ideas of their minds fly, whether they knew or could know that there is such a thing as the conjugial love of one man with one wife, into which are gathered all the blessings, happiness, delights, amenities and pleasures of heaven; and that this love is from the Lord, according to the reception of good and truth from Him, that is, according to the state of the Church.

[10] Hearing this, they turned away and said, "These men are insane; they enter into the ether with their judgment and, conjecturing vanities, act like little children."

Thereupon, turning to us they said, "We will give a straight answer to your windy conjectures and dreams." They then said: "What has conjugial love in common with religion and with inspiration from God? Is not that love with every man according to the state of his potency? And is it not just as much with those who are outside the Church as with those who are within it? just as much with Gentiles as with Christians? nay, just as much with the impious as with the pious? And has not everyone the strength of that love from heredity, or from good health, or from temperance of life, or from the heat of the climate? Can it not also be strengthened and stimulated by medicines? Is it not the same with beasts, especially birds, which love in pairs? Is not that love carnal? and what has a carnal matter in common with the spiritual state of the Church? As to the ultimate effect, does love with a wife differ in the least from love with a harlot? Is not the lust the same? and the delight the same? Therefore it is wrongful to deduce the origin of conjugial love from the holy things of the Church."

[11] On hearing this, We said to them: "You are reasoning from the heat of lasciviousness and not from conjugial love. You are wholly ignorant of what conjugial love is because with you it is cold. From what you have said, we are assured that you are of that Age which has its name from and consists of iron and clay which do not cohere, according to the prediction by Daniel (Daniel 2:43); for you make conjugial love and scortatory love to be one and the same thing. Do these two loves cohere any more than iron and clay? You are believed to be wise and are called wise; yet you are anything but wise."

Inflamed with anger at hearing these words, they raised a cry and called the crowd together to cast us out. But then, by power given us by the Lord, we stretched forth our hands, and lo, the fiery flying serpents, vipers, and hydras from the desert were at hand, and also the dragons; and they rushed in and filled the city, from which the inhabitants fled in terror.

The angel then told me: "New arrivals from the earth come into this region every day and, by turns, the former inhabitants are sent away and cast down into gulfs at the west which at a distance appear like pools of fire and brimstone. All who are there are spiritual adulterers and also natural."

CL 80. The Sixth Memorable Relation:

When these words had been spoken, I looked to the border of the west, and behold, there appeared pools as though of fire and brimstone, and I asked the angel, "Why do the hells there appear like that?"

He answered: "They appear as pools from their falsifications of truth, water in the spiritual sense being truth; and fire, as it were, appears around and within them, from the love of evil, and brimstone from the love of what is false. These three, the pool, fire, and brimstone, are appearances because they are correspondences of the evil loves in which they are. All who are there are shut up in eternal workhouses where they labour for food, clothing, and bed; and when they do evil, they are severely and miserably punished."

[2] I further asked the angel, "Why did you say that in that place are spiritual and natural adulterers? Why not say evil doers and the impious?" He answered, "Because all who repute adulteries as nothing, that is, who believe from confirmation that they are not sins and so commit them of set purpose, are at heart evil doers and impious; for the human conjugial and religion go together in even pace. Every step and every move made from religion and into religion is also a step and a move made from the conjugial which is peculiar and proper to the Christian, and into the conjugial."

To the question, "What is that conjugial?" he said, "It is the desire to live with one wife alone; and a Christian has this desire according to his religion."

[3] After this I grieved in spirit that marriages, which in the ancient Ages had been most holy, are so hopelessly changed into adulteries. And the angel said: "It is the same at this day with religion; for the Lord says:

In the consummation of the age there shall be the abomination of desolation foretold by Daniel. And there shall be great affliction, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world. (Matt. 24:15, 21).

The abomination of desolation signifies the falsification and deprivation of all truth; affliction signifies the state of the Church infested by evils and falses; and the consummation of the age, of which these words are spoken, signifies the last time or end of the Church. The end is now; for there is no truth left which has not been falsified, and falsification of truth is spiritual whoredom which acts as one with natural whoredom because they cleave together."

CL 81. As we were talking about these things, and grieving, suddenly there appeared a stream of light powerfully affecting my eyes. I therefore looked up, and lo, the whole heaven above us appeared luminous, and from east to west in a long series was heard therefrom a glorification. The angel then said to me,"That glorification is a glorification of the Lord, which is being made by angels of the eastern and western heavens on account of His advent." From the southern and northern heavens only a gentle murmur was heard.

Because the angel understood all this, he told me, first that glorifications and celebrations of the Lord are made from the Word because then they are made from the Lord, He being the Word, that is, the Divine Truth therein. He then added: "Now, in particular, they are glorifying and celebrating the Lord by these words spoken by Daniel the prophet:

[2] After this I heard, as it were, the sound of a song, and more deeply in the east, I saw that the sparkling of the light was more brilliant than before; so I asked the angel, "By what are they glorifying there." He said: "By these words in Daniel:

In addition to the above, they are celebrating the Lord from these words in the Apocalypse:

And also from the words in (Matthew 24:30, 31).

[3] I again looked into the eastern heaven. On the right side it had become luminous, and the luminosity entered the southern expanse. Hearing a sweet sound, I asked the angel, "What of the Lord are they glorifying there?" He said: "These words in the Apocalypse:

And also these:

[4] After these and other glorifications, then, from the east of heaven to the west and also from the south to the north, was heard a general glorification. And I asked the angel, "What is it now?" He said: "These words from the Prophets:

[5] Hearing and understanding these glorifications, my heart exulted, and I went home in joy. There, from the state of the spirit I returned into that of the body, in which state I wrote down what had been seen and heard. To this I now add the following: After His advent, conjugial love will be raised up anew by the Lord, such as it was with the ancients; for this love is from the Lord alone and is with those who are made spiritual by Him through the Word.

CL 82. After this, a man from the northern quarter rushed up in a vehement mood and looked at me with a threatening countenance. Addressing me in an excited tone, he then said: "Are you the man who wishes to seduce the world by establishing a New Church, which you understand to be meant by the New Jerusalem about to come down from God out of heaven? and by teaching that to those who embrace the doctrinals of that Church, the Lord will grant love truly conjugial, the delights and felicity of which you exalt to heaven? Is not that a fiction? and do you not offer it as a bait and enticement for the acceptance of your novelties? But tell me briefly what those doctrinals of the New Church are, and I will see whether they are concordant or discordant."

I replied: "The doctrinals of the Church which is meant by the New Jerusalem are these:

1. That there is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. That saving faith is to believe in Him.

3. That evils are to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil.

4. That goods are to be done because they are of God and from God.

5. That these are to be done by man as of himself, but that he must believe that they are done by the Lord with him and through him."

[2] On hearing this, the man‘s fury abated for a few moments; but after some deliberation, he again looked at me with a grim countenance and said, "Are these five precepts the doctrinals of the faith and charity of the New Church?" and I answered, "They are."

He then asked sharply, "How can you demonstrate the first: That there is one God, in whom is the Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord Jesus Christ?" I said: "I demonstrate it thus: Is not God one and indivisible? is there not a Trinity? If God is one and indivisible, is He not one Person? if one Person, is not the Trinity in that Person? That He is the Lord Jesus Christ, I demonstrate by the following:

that as to His soul He is God, and hence, as He himself says,

thus by Him because He is in Him; and, according to Paul, that

and that

[3] He then asked me, "How do you demonstrate the second: That saving faith is to believe in Him?" I replied: "I demonstrate it by these words of the Lord Himself:

[4] He then said, "Demonstrate also the third and those that follow." I answered: "What need is there to demonstrate that evils are to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil? that goods are to be done because they are of God and from God? and that these are to be done by man as of himself, yet that he must believe that they are done by the Lord with him and through him? That these three doctrinals are true, is confirmed by the whole Sacred Scripture from beginning to end; for in one sum, what else does the Scripture contain save the shunning of evils, the doing of goods, and the believing in the Lord God? Moreover, without these three, there is no religion. Is not religion a matter of life? and what is life but the shunning of evils and the doing of goods? and how can a man do the latter and shun the former except as of himself? Therefore, if you remove these doctrinals from the Church, you remove the Sacred Scripture, and you also remove religion, and when these are removed from the Church, it is not a Church."

On hearing this, the man withdrew and pondered. Yet he departed in indignation.

CL 83. The origins of conjugial love are internal and external. The internal origins are many and likewise the external, but the inmost of all, being the universal origin, is one. That this inmost origin is the marriage of good and truth will be shown in what now follows. No one has hitherto deduced the origin of that love from this source because it has not been known that there is any union between good and truth; and the reason why this has not been known is because good does not appear in the light of the understanding as does truth. Therefore knowledge of it has concealed itself and eluded investigation. And since, from this cause, good is among things unknown, no one could conjecture that there is a marriage between it and truth. Nay, before the natural rational sight, good appears to be so far removed from truth as to have no conjunction with it. That such is the case can be seen from common speech when the two are mentioned. Thus, when it is said, "This is good," there is no thought about truth; and when it is said, "This is true," there is no thought about good. Therefore it is believed by many at this day that truth is something entirely separate, and likewise good; and by many, it is also believed that a man is intelligent and wise, and thus is a man, according to the truths which he thinks, speaks, writes, and believes, and not at the same time according to the goods (which he does). That, nevertheless, there is no good without truth, nor any truth without good; consequently, that there is an eternal marriage between them, and that this marriage is the origin of conjugial love, shall now be explained. This shall be done in the following order:

1. That good and truth are the universals of creation and hence are in all created things; but that they are in created subjects according to the form of each.

2. That there is no solitary good, and no solitary truth, but that they are everywhere conjoined.

3. That there is the truth of good and from this the good of truth, or truth from good and good from that truth; and that in these two there is implanted from creation an inclination to conjoin themselves into a one.

4. That in subjects of the animal kingdom, the truth of good or truth from good is masculine; and that the good of truth therefrom or good from that truth is feminine.

5. That from the influx of the marriage of good and truth from the Lord, there is love of the sex and there is conjugial love.

6. That love of the sex belongs to the external or natural man, and hence is common to every animal.

7. But that conjugial love belongs to the internal or spiritual man, and hence is proper to man.

8. That with man, conjugial love is in love of the sex as a gem in its matrix.

9. That with man, love of the sex is not the origin of conjugial love but is the first thereof; thus is as a natural external wherein is implanted a spiritual internal.

10. That when conjugial love has been implanted, love of the sex is inverted and becomes chaste love of the sex.

11. That the male and female were created to be the very form of the marriage of good and truth.

12. That they are that form in their inmosts, and hence, as the interiors of their mind are opened, in all that follows therefrom.

Now follows the explanation of these points.

CL 84. I. That good and truth are the universals of creation and hence are in all created things; but that they are in created subjects according to the form of each. That good and truth are the universals of creation is because the two are in the Lord God, the Creator, yea, are Himself; for He is Divine Good Itself and Divine Truth Itself. But this falls more clearly into the perception of the understanding and so into the idea of the thought, if for good be substituted love and for truth wisdom, thus: That in the Lord God the Creator is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, and that these are Himself; that is, that He is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, these two being the same as Good and Truth. The reason is because good pertains to love and truth to wisdom, for love consists of goods and wisdom of truths. As the latter two and the former two are the same, in the following pages they will be referred to, sometimes as the latter and sometimes as the former, and by either name the same thing will be meant. This preliminary explanation is made now, lest hereafter when the terms are used the understanding should conceive of a difference between them.

CL 85. Since, therefore, the Lord God the Creator is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, and the universe was created by Him, being thus as a work proceeding from Him, it must needs be that in each and every created thing there is something of good and truth from Him; for what is made by anyone and proceeds from him, bears his likeness. Moreover, reason can see that such is the case, from the order in which each and everything in the universe has been created, this order being, that one thing is for the sake of another and that one therefore depends upon another like a chain on its links; for all things are for the sake of the human race, to the end that from that race there may be an angelic heaven whereby creation returns to its Source, the Creator Himself. Thence is the conjunction of the created universe with its Creator, and by conjunction, everlasting preservation. It is on this account that good and truth are said to be the universals of creation. That such is the case is plain to everyone who reflects upon the matter from reason; for in every created thing he sees that which refers itself to good, and that which refers itself to truth.

CL 86. That good and truth are in created subjects according to the form of each, is because every subject receives influx according to its form. The preservation of the whole is nothing else than the perpetual influx of Divine Good and Divine Truth into forms created by that influx. Thus subsistence or preservation is perpetual existence or creation. That every subject receives influx according to its form may be illustrated in various ways, as for instance, by the influx of heat and light from the sun into plants of every kind. Each one of these receives this influx according to its form; thus every tree according to its form, every shrub according to its, every herb and every blade of grass according to its. The influx is the same into them all; but the reception, being according to the form, causes each species to remain the same. It may also be illustrated by the influx into animals of every kind, according to the form of each. That influx is according to the form of each thing, can be seen even by a rustic if he gives heed to the fact that various wind instruments, such as pipes, flutes, cornets, trumpets, and organs, give forth sound from the same blowing or inflow of air, according to their forms.

CL 87. II. That there is no solitary good, and no solitary truth, but that they are everywhere conjoined. A man wishing to get an idea of good from any sensation will be unable to find it, in the absence of some adjunct which presents it and makes it manifest. Without this, good is a nameless entity. That by which it is presented and manifested refers itself to truth. Say merely good, and not at the same time this thing or that to which it is adjoined; or define it abstractly, that is, apart from any cohering adjunct, and you will see that it is not anything, but that with its adjunct it is something. And if you strain the keen sight of reason, you will perceive that good without any adjunct is a thing of no predication, and hence of no relation, no affection, and no state, in a word, of no quality. It is the same with truth, if that word is heard without an inner adjunct; and cultivated reason can see that this inner adjunct has reference to good.

[2] But because goods are innumerable, and each rises to its maximum and descends to its minimum as by the steps of a ladder, and also varies its name according to its progression and its quality, it is difficult for any but the wise to see the relation of good and truth to objects, and their conjunction in those objects. That, nevertheless, there is no good without truth and no truth without good, is evident from common perception, as soon as It is acknowledged that each and everything in the universe has reference to good and truth, as shown in the preceding article, (n. 84, 85).

[3] That there is no solitary good and no solitary truth can be illustrated and at the same time confirmed in various ways; as, for instance, that there is no essence without form, nor any form without essence--and good is the essence or esse of a thing, while truth is that by which the essence is formed and the esse comes into existence. Again, in man there is will and understanding, good belonging to the will and truth to the understanding. The will alone does nothing; it acts only through the understanding; nor does the understanding alone do anything but acts from the will. Again, in man there are two fountains of his bodily life, the heart and the lungs. The heart cannot produce any sensitive and motory life without the respiration of the lungs; nor can the lungs without the heart. The heart has relation to good, and the respiration of the lungs to truth; there is also a correspondence.

[4] It is the same in each and everything of man’s mind as it is in each and everything of his body. But time does not permit the offering of further confirmations, The matter can be seen more fully confirmed in THE ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE PROVIDENCE (DP n. 3-26), where it is explained in this order.

1. That the universe, with each created thing thereof, is from Divine Love by Divine wisdom, or, what is the same thing, from Divine Good by Divine Truth.

2. That Divine Good and Divine Truth proceed from the Lord as a unit.

3. That this unit is present in an image in every created thing.

4. That good is not good save as it is united with truth; and that truth is not truth save as it is united with good.

5. That the Lord does not suffer that anything shall be divided; therefore, a man must either be in good and at the same time in truth, or in evil and at the same time in falsity. Besides much else.

CL 88. III. That there is the truth of good and from this the good of truth, or truth from good and good from that truth; and that in these two there is implanted from creation an inclination to conjoin themselves into a one. It is necessary that some distinct idea be acquired respecting these points because, upon this, depends a knowledge of the essential origin of conjugial love; for, as explained below, the truth of good or truth from good is masculine, and the good of truth or good from that truth is feminine. But this can be more distinctly comprehended if for good is substituted love and for truth wisdom; and that these are one and the same may be seen above (n. 84). Wisdom cannot exist with man except by the love of growing wise. If this love be taken away, man is entirely incapable of becoming wise. It is wisdom from this love that is meant by the truth of good or truth from good. But when, from this love, man has acquired wisdom and loves that wisdom in himself, or loves himself on account of it, he forms a love which is the love of wisdom; this is what is meant by the good of truth or good from that truth.

[2] There are, therefore, two loves with the male, of which the one, which is prior, is the love of becoming wise, and the other, which is posterior, is the love of wisdom. But this latter love, if it remains with the man, is an evil love and is called pride or the love of self-intelligence. That this love was taken from man lest it destroy him, and was transcribed into woman that it might become conjugial love which reintegrates him, and that this was foreseen from eternity, will be confirmed in what follows. Something regarding these two loves, and the transcription of the latter into woman, may be seen above (n. 32, 33), and in the preliminaries (n. 20). If, therefore, for love, good is understood, and for wisdom truth, then, from what is said in those passages and also here, it is evident that there is the truth of good or truth from good and from this, the good of truth or good from that truth.

CL 89. That in these two is implanted from creation an inclination to conjoin themselves into a one, is because the one is formed from the other--wisdom from the love of growing wise, or truth from good, and the love of wisdom from that wisdom, or the good of truth from that truth. From this formation, it can be seen that in them there is a mutual inclination to reunite and conjoin themselves into a one. This reunion is effected with men who are in genuine wisdom, and with women who are in the love of that wisdom in their husband, thus, with those who are in love truly conjugial. As to the wisdom which must be with the man and which must be loved by the wife, this will be spoken of later.

CL 90. IV. That in subjects of the animal kingdom, the truth of good or truth from good is masculine; and that the good of truth therefrom or good from that truth is feminine. That a perpetual union of love and wisdom or marriage of good and truth flows in from the Lord, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and that created subjects receive it, each according to its form, has been shown above, (n. 84-86). That from this marriage or union the male receives the truth or wisdom to which the good of love is conjoined by the Lord according to reception; that this reception takes place in the understanding; and that from this the male is born to become intellectual--all this can be seen by reason from its own lumen, from various characteristics with the male, especially from his affection, his application, his ways, and his form.

[2] FROM THE AFFECTION OF THE MALE, in that it is an affection of learning, understanding, and being wise--the affection of learning in boyhood, the affection of understanding in adolescence and early manhood, and the affection of being wise from this manhood to old age; from all which, it is plain that his nature or innate disposition inclines to the formation of an understanding; consequently, that he is born to become intellectual. But because this cannot be effected except from love, therefore the Lord adjoins love to him according to his reception, that is, according to his animus that he wishes to become wise.

[3] FROM HIS APPLICATION, which is to such things as are intellectual or in which the understanding predominates, most of which are forensic and regard public uses. FROM HIS WAYS, all of which partake of the predominance of the understanding. From this it is that the actions of his life, which are meant by ways, are rational, or if not, he wishes them to seem so. Moreover, masculine rationality is conspicuous in his every virtue. FROM HIS FORM, in that it is different and entirely distinct from the female form, respecting which, something may also be seen above, (n. 33). Add to this, that in him is the prolific principle, and this is from no other source than the understanding, being from the truth from good there. That it is from this source will be seen in what follows.

CL 91. That the female is born to be voluntary--but voluntary from the intellectual of the man--or, what is the same thing, that she is born to be the love of man‘s wisdom, having been formed through his wisdom (n. 88, 89), is evident from the affection of the female, from her application, her ways, and her form. FROM THE AFFECTION OF THE FEMALE, in that it is an affection of loving science, intelligence, and wisdom, yet, not in herself but in the man, and so of loving the man; for a man cannot be loved from his form alone just because this appears as a man, but only from the endowment which is in him and which makes him a man. FROM HER APPLICATION, in that it is to such works as are done with the hands, called knitting embroidery, and by other names, and which serve for ornament and for the adornment of her person and the enhancement of her beauty; also to various offices which are called domestic and which adjoin themselves to the offices of men, which, as said above (n. 90), are called forensic. Women apply themselves to these from an inclination to marriage, that they may become wives and so be one with their husbands. That it is apparent FROM HER WAYS AND HER FORM is clear without explanation.

CL 92. V. That from the influx of the marriage of good and truth from the Lord, there is love of the sex and there is conjugial love. That good and truth are the universals of creation, and hence are in all created subjects; that they are in them according to the form of each; and that good and truth proceed from the Lord, not as two but as one, has been shown above (n. 84-87.) It follows from this, that a UNIVERSAL CONJUGIAL SPHERE proceeds from the Lord and pervades the universe from its primes to its ultimates, thus from angels even to worms. That this sphere, being the sphere of the marriage of good and truth, proceeds from the Lord, is because it is also the sphere of propagation, that is, of prolification and fructification; and this is the same as the Divine Providence for the preservation of the universe by successive generations. Now because this universal sphere, which is the sphere of the marriage of good and truth, flows into subjects according to the form of each (n. 86), it follows that the male receives it according to his form, that is, in the understanding, he being an intellectual form, and that the female receives it according to her form, thus, in the will, she being a voluntary form from the intellectual form of the man. And because that same sphere is the sphere of prolification, it follows that from this comes love of the sex.

CL 93. That conjugial love is also thence, is because that sphere flows into the form of wisdom with men and also with angels. Man can grow in wisdom to the end of his life in the world and afterwards in heaven to eternity; and as he increases in wisdom, so his form is perfected, and this form receives, not love of the sex but love of one of the sex, it being with this one that he can be united even to his inmost wherein is heaven with its felicities. This union is the union of conjugial love.

CL 94. VI. That love of the sex belongs to the external or natural man, and hence is common to every animal. Every man is born corporeal and becomes more and more interiorly natural; then, according as he loves intelligence, he becomes rational; and afterwards, if he loves wisdom, he becomes spiritual; what that wisdom is by which man becomes spiritual will be told later (n. 130). Now, as man progresses from science to intelligence and from intelligence to wisdom, so also does his mind change its form; for it is more and more opened and more closely conjoins itself with heaven and through heaven with the Lord. Hence the man becomes a greater lover of truth and more intent on the good of life. If, therefore, he stops at the first threshold of his progress towards wisdom, the form of his mind remains natural; and this receives the influx of the universal sphere--the sphere of the marriage of good and truth--no otherwise than as do the lower subjects of the animal kingdom which are called beasts and birds. And since these are merely natural, he becomes like them, and so loves the sex in the same way they do. This is what is meant by the statement that love of the sex belongs to the external or natural man and hence is common to every animal.

CL 95. VII. But that conjugial love belongs to the internal or spiritual man, and hence is proper to man. That conjugial love belongs to the internal or spiritual man, is because the more a man becomes intelligent and wise, the more does he become internal or spiritual and the more is the form of his mind perfected. It is this form that receives conjugial love; for in that love he perceives and feels a spiritual delight which is inwardly beatific, and from this, a natural delight which draws its soul and life and essence from the former.

CL 96. That conjugial love is proper to man is because man alone can become spiritual; for he can elevate his understanding above his natural loves, and from that height can see those loves beneath him and judge of them as to their quality; he can also amend, chasten, and remove them. This, no animal can do, for its loves are wholly united with its connate science, for which reason that science cannot be elevated into intelligence, still less into wisdom. Hence an animal is led by the love implanted in its science, like a blind man led through the streets by a dog. This is the reason why conjugial love is proper to man. It can also be called native and germane to man, because man has within him the faculty of being wise, with which this love makes one.

CL 97. VIII. That with man, conjugial love is in love of the sex as a gem in its matrix. Being only a comparison, this will be explained in the article which next follows. The comparison, however, illustrates the truth that love of the sex belongs to the external or natural man, and conjugial love to the internal or spiritual man (n. 95).

CL 98. IX. That with man, love of the sex is not the origin of conjugial love but is the first thereof; thus is as a natural external wherein is implanted a spiritual internal. The subject here treated of is love truly conjugial, and not the common love which is also called conjugal and which with some is no other than a limited love of the sex. But love truly conjugial is with those only who desire wisdom and more deeply enter into it. These the Lord foresees, and for them He provides conjugial love. With them, this love does indeed commence from love of the sex, or rather by means of that love, yet it does. not arise from it; for it arises in proportion as wisdom with the man advances its step and comes into the light, wisdom and that love being inseparable companions.

[2] That conjugial love has its commencement by means of love of the sex is

(1) because, before a consort is found, the sex in general is loved, being regarded with a fond eye and treated with courteous morality; for an adolescent is in the period of choosing, and then, from an implanted inclination to marriage with one, which is latent in the shrine of his mind, his external grows pleasantly warm.

And (2) because, for various reasons, determinations to marriage are delayed even to the middle of manhood, and meanwhile that love commences as lust, and with some this goes off into actual love of the sex, though with such men its bridle is loosed no further than is conducive to health. The above, however, is said of the male sex, because that sex, but not the female sex, has the allurement which inflames actually. From this it is evident that love of the sex is not the origin of love truly conjugial but is the first thereof in time, though not in end; for what is the first in end, being the primary thing, is the first in the mind and its intention. There is no approaching this first except gradually and by means. The means are not in themselves the first things; they are merely advances to that which is the first in itself.

CL 99. X. That when conjugial love has been implanted, love of the sex is inverted and becomes chaste love of the sex. It is said that love of the sex is then inverted, because, while conjugial love is coming to its origin which is in the interiors of the mind, it sees love of the sex not in front of itself but behind, that is, not above itself but below. Thus it sees it as something which it leaves behind in passing, in like manner as is the case when one climbs from one office, through other offices, to an office of supereminent dignity, and then looks back or below to the offices through which he has passed; or, as when one intends a journey to the court of some king, and after his arrival, turns his gaze back to the things which he saw on the way. That with those who are in love truly conjugial, love of the sex then remains and becomes chaste, and yet sweeter than the former love, can be seen from its description by those who are in the spiritual world, as given in the two Memorable Relations therefrom, (n. 44, 45).

CL 100. XI. That the male and female were created to be the very form of the marriage of good and truth. The reason is because the male was created to be the understanding of truth, thus truth in form, while the female was created to be the will of good, thus good in form; from their inmosts, both are endowed with an inclination to conjunction into a one (n. 88). The two thus make one form, which emulates the conjugial form of good and truth. It is said that it emulates this form, because it is not the same but is like it; for, with the man, the good which conjoins itself with truth is from the Lord immediately, while the wife’s good which conjoins itself with truth in the man is from the Lord mediately through the wife. Thus there are two goods, one internal, the other external, which conjoin themselves with truth in the husband, and by means of love truly conjugial make the husband to be constantly in the understanding of truth and thence in wisdom. But more on this subject in what follows.

CL 101. XII. That two married partners are that form in their inmosts, and hence, as the interiors of their mind are opened, in all that follows therefrom. There are three things of which every man consists and which follow in order--soul, mind, and body. His inmost is the soul, his intermediate is the mind, and his ultimate is the body. All that flows into man from the Lord flows into his inmost, which is the soul, and descends thence into his intermediate, which is the mind, and through this into his ultimate, which is the body. It is in this way that the marriage of good and truth flows into man from the Lord. It flows immediately into his soul, from this it goes on to the parts that follow, and through these to the outmost parts. In this way all these conjointly make conjugial love. From the idea of this influx, it is evident that two married partners are that form in their inmosts, and thence in all that follows therefrom.

CL 102. That married partners become that form as the interiors of their mind are opened, is because the mind is opened successively, from infancy to extreme old age. Man is born corporeal, and, as the mind next above the body is opened, he becomes rational. As this rational is purified and, as it were, decanted from the fallacies flowing in from the bodily senses and the concupiscences flowing in from the allurements of the flesh, it is opened, this being done solely by means of wisdom; and when the interiors of the rational mind are opened, then the man becomes a form of wisdom--a form which is the receptacle of love truly conjugial. The wisdom which makes this form and receives this love is rational and at the same time moral. Rational wisdom regards the truths and goods which appear interiorly in man, not as his own but as flowing in from the Lord; and moral wisdom shuns evils and falses as leprosies, shunning especially things lascivious which contaminate its conjugial love.

CL 103. To the above I will add two Memorable Relations. First this:

One morning before sunrise, when looking towards the east in the spiritual world, I saw four horsemen flying as from a cloud resplendent with the flame of dawn. Upon the horsemen‘s heads appeared crested helmets, upon their arms wings, as it were, and about their bodies light orange-coloured tunics. Thus clad as racers, they rose up, pulled tight the reins over the manes of their horses, and the horses speeded off as though with winged feet. With my eyes, I followed their course or flight with a mind to know whither they were going; and lo, three of the horsemen spread out to the three quarters, south, west, and north, and after a short course the fourth stopped in the east.

[2] Wondering at this, I looked up to heaven and asked whither those horsemen were going. I received the answer: "To the wise in the kingdoms of Europe--men of keen reason and acute discernment in the investigation of subjects, and eminent among their fellow countrymen for their ingenuity--that they may come and solve the secret concerning THE ORIGIN OF CONJUGIAL LOVE AND OF ITS VIRTUE OR POTENCY".

Angels then said from heaven, "Wait a little and you will see twenty-seven chariots, three with Spaniards in them, three with Frenchmen or Gauls, three with Italians, three with Germans, three with Batavians or Hollanders, three with Englishmen, three with Swedes, three with Danes, and three with Poles." Two hours later the chariots appeared, drawn by small light-bay horses elegantly caparisoned. Their riders were swiftly carried towards a spacious house which was seen in the common boundary of the east and the south. Around this house all the riders alighted from their chariots and entered the house in high spirits.

[3] It was then said to me, "Go you also and enter and you shall hear." So I went and entered. Examining the building within, I saw that it was square, the sides looking to the four quarters. On each side were three lofty windows of crystalline glass, with posts of olive wood. On either side of the posts were projections from the walls, like rooms, vaulted above and containing tables. The walls of these rooms were of cedar, the roof was of noble thyine wood, and the floor was boarded with poplar. Against the eastern wall, where no windows were seen, was set a table overlaid with gold, whereon was placed a tiara set around with precious stones. This was to be given as a prize or reward to him who should search out the secret about to be propounded.

[4] As I looked at the several roofed projections which were like stalls set by the windows, I saw in each, five men from one or other of the countries of Europe, all ready, awaiting the subject for the exercise of their judgment. Then, all at once an angel stood in the middle of the palace and said: The subject for the exercise of your judgment will be CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CONJUGIAL LOVE AND OF ITS VIRTUE OR POTENCY. Discuss this subject, come to a decision, and write your decision on paper, signing it with the initial letter of the kingdom from which you come; that is, F for the Frenchmen or Gauls, B for the Batavians or Hollanders, I for the Italians, A for the Anglians or Englishmen, P for the Poles, G for the Germans, H for the Hispanians or Spaniards, D for the Danes, and S for the Swedes. Then put the paper into this silver urn which you see placed beside the golden table." With these words, the angel departed, saying, "I will return."

The five compatriots in each of the stalls by the windows then turned their attention to the subject that had been proclaimed, examined into it, and made their decision in accordance with the excellence of their judicial endowments. These decisions they wrote down on papers signed with the initial letter of their kingdom, and put them into the silver receptacle. In three hours, this business being finished, the angel returned and, drawing the papers out of the urn one after the other, read them before the assembly.

CL 104. From the FIRST paper which his hand took at random, he read as follows: "We five compatriots in our stall have concluded that conjugial love had its origin from the most ancient people in the Golden Age, and with them from the creation of Adam and his wife. Thence is the origin of marriages and with marriages the origin of conjugial love. As regards the virtue or potency of conjugial love, we derive this from no other source than the climate, that is, the position of the sun and the consequent heat upon the land. We have considered the subject, not from vain conjectures of reason but from the evident indications of experience; as, for instance, from the peoples who live under the equinoctial line or circle where the heat of day is ardent; also from peoples dwelling near that circle, and from peoples farther removed therefrom; and furthermore, from the co-operation of solar heat and vital heat, as seen in the animals of the earth and the birds of heaven in spring-time when they are prolific. Besides, what is conjugial love but heat? and if to this be added the supplementary heat of the sun, it becomes virtue or potency." To this was subscribed the letter H, the initial letter of the kingdom from which they were.

CL 105. The angel then put his hand into the urn a SECOND. time and took from it a paper, from which he read as follows: "We compatriots in our compartment have agreed that the origin of conjugial love is the same as the origin of marriages. These have been sanctioned by laws for the restraining of the innate desire of men for adulteries, which ruin the soul, debase the reason of the mind, defile the morals, and consume the body with wasting disease; for adulteries are not human but bestial, not rational but brutish, thus in no way Christian but barbarian. It is for the condemnation of such practices that marriages arose and, at the same time, conjugial love. It is the same with the virtue or potency of that love, because this virtue depends upon chastity, and chastity is abstinence from roving whoredoms. The reason is, because with him who loves his partner alone, virtue or potency is reserved for one and so is gathered and concentrated, as it were. It then becomes like a noble quintessence purged of defilements, which otherwise would be dissipated and scattered in every direction. One of us five, who is a priest, adds also predestination as a cause of that virtue or potency, saying, `Are not marriages predestined? and granting this, are not the resultant prolifications and the efficacies thereto also predestined?’ He insists on this as a cause because he has sworn to it" To this was subscribed the letter B. Hearing this, some one said in a mocking tone, "Predestination! Oh, what a fine apology for defect or impotence!"

CL 106. Then for the THIRD time the angel drew a paper out of the urn. From this he read as follows: "We compatriots in our stall have reflected on the causes of the origin of conjugial love, and have seen that the chief cause is the same as with the origin of marriage; for before marriage, that love did not exist, and it exists then because when one seeks or desperately loves a virgin, he desires with heart and soul to have her as a possession to be loved above all else; and as soon as she pledges herself, he regards her as self regards self. That this is the origin of conjugial love is very clear from the fury of every man against rivals, and from his zeal against violators. We then considered the origin of the virtue or potency of that love, and three against two have decided that with a married partner its virtue or potency is from some licence with the sex. They said that they know from experience that the potency of love of the sex surpasses the potency of conjugial love." This was subscribed with the letter I. Hearing this, the men at the tables cried out, "Remove this paper and draw another from the urn."

CL 107. The angel then at once drew out a FOURTH paper, from which he read as follows: "We compatriots, under our window, have decided that the origin of conjugial love and of love of the sex is one and the same, the former being from the latter, except that love of the sex is unlimited, indeterminate, loose, promiscuous, and roving, while conjugial love is limited, determinate, restrained, bounded, and constant. Therefore, the latter love has been sanctioned and established by the prudence of human wisdom. Otherwise no empire or kingdom or republic or even society could exist, but men in countless troops would roam over fields and woods with harlots and ravished women, and would flee from place to place to escape from bloody murders, violations, and rapine. Thus the whole human race would be wiped out. This is our judgment concerning the origin of conjugial love. As to the virtue or potency of conjugial love, this we deduce from bodily health enduring continually from birth to old age; for a man who is continuously sound and enjoys stable health, is not lacking in vigour. His fibres, nerves, muscles, and cremasters do not become torpid, relaxed, or feeble, but continue in the strength of their powers. Farewell." This was subscribed with the letter A.

CL 108. For the FIFTH time the angel drew a paper from the urn, from which he read as follows: "We compatriots at our table, from the rational light of our minds, have looked into the origin of conjugial love and the origin of its virtue or potency, and, from reasons carefully examined, have seen and affirmed that conjugial love has no other origin than the fact that from the foments and the resultant incitements concealed in the secret chamber of his mind and body, every man, after various lusts of his eyes, at last directs his mind to one of the sex to whom he inclines, until he grows inwardly warm towards her. From this time his heat proceeds from flame to flame until it becomes a consuming fire. In this state, the lust of the sex is banished and in place of lust comes conjugial love. In this burning, a youthful husband knows no other than that the virtue or potency of that love will never cease; for he lacks experience and thence knowledge respecting the state of deficiency of powers and of the consequent cooling of love after its delights. The origin of conjugial love, therefore, is from that first ardour before the nuptials; and from this is its virtue or potency. After the nuptials, this potency alternates its flames and has its decrease and increase; yet, by the exercise of moderation from prudence, and by restraining the lusts which rush out from the caverns of a mind not yet purified--for lust precedes wisdom--it endures with stable alternation or decrease and increase even to old age. This is our judgment respecting the origin and long continuance of conjugial virtue and potency." To this was subscribed the letter P.

CL 109. For the SIXTH time the angel drew out a paper, from which he read as follows: "We compatriots, from our fraternity, have considered the causes of the origin of conjugial love, and have agreed upon two, one being the right education of children, and the other the distinct possession of inheritances. We have assumed these two because they look to and aim at one mark, namely, the public good. This is secured (by marriage) because children conceived and born of conjugial love become truly one‘s own, being members of the family by birth; and from parental love, exalted because the offspring is of legitimate descent, such children are educated as heirs of all their parents’ possessions, both spiritual and natural. That the public good is founded on the right education of children, and on the distinct possession of inheritances, is evident to reason. There is love of the sex and there is conjugial love. The latter love appears as though it were one with the former, but it is distinctly different. Nor are the two collateral, but the one is within the other, and what is within is more noble than that which is without. We saw, that from creation conjugial love is within love of the sex, being concealed therein as an almond in its shell. Therefore, when conjugial love is drawn out from its shell, which is love of the sex, it shines before the angels like a gem, a beryl, and an astroid, and this because on conjugial love is inscribed the welfare of the whole human race, which is what we mean by the public good. This is our judgment respecting the origin of this love. As to the origin of its virtue or potency, we have concluded from a consideration of its causes that it is the withdrawal and separation of conjugial love from love of the sex. This is effected on the man‘s part by means of wisdom, and on the wife’s by means of love of the man‘s wisdom. Love of the sex is a love held in common with beasts, but conjugial love is proper to man. So far, therefore, as conjugial love is withdrawn and separated from love of the sex, man is a man and not a beast; and man acquires virtue or potency from his love, and the beast from its." This was subscribed with the letter G.

CL 110. For the SEVENTH time the angel drew out a paper, from which he read as follows: "In the chamber under the light of our window, we compatriots have enlivened our thoughts and hence our judgment by meditation upon conjugial love. Who is there that would not be enlivened by that love? for when in the mind, it is at the same time in the whole body. We judge of the origin of the love from its delights. Who knows or ever has known a trace of any love except from its delight and pleasure? The delights of conjugial love are felt in their origins as blessedness, happiness, and felicity, in their derivations as amenities and pleasures, and in their ultimates as the delight of delights. Love of the sex, therefore, has its origin when the interiors of the mind and thence the interiors of the body are being opened up for the influx of these delights; but conjugial love has its origin when, by entry into betrothal, the primitive sphere of that love promotes them ideally. As regards the virtue or potency of that love, this comes from the ability of the love, with its current, to pass from the mind into the body; for when the mind sensates and acts, and especially when it is in delight from this love, then from its seat in the head it is present in the body. From this we judge the degrees of potency and the constancy of its alternations. Moreover, we also deduce the virtue of potency from the stock. If this be noble with the father, then by derivation it becomes noble with the offspring also. That such nobility is generated, inherited, and by derivation descends--as to this, reason agrees with experience." To this was subscribed the letter F.

CL 111. For the EIGHTH time a paper came forth, from which he read as follows: "In our compartment, we compatriots have not found the actual origin of conjugial love because that origin is inmostly laid up in the sanctuaries of the mind. Not even the most consummate wisdom can reach that love in its origin with any ray of the understanding. We have made many conjectures, but after vainly revolving subtleties, we know not whether our surmises are trifles or judgments. He, therefore, who wishes to draw forth the origin of that love from the sanctuaries of the mind and set it before his eyes, let him go to Delphi. We have contemplated the love below its origin--that in the mind it is spiritual, being there like the fountain-head of a sweet current; that from the mind it flows down into the breast where it becomes delightful and is called bosom-love, which, considered in itself, is full of friendship and, from a plenary inclination to mutuality, is full of confidence; and that when it has passed through the breast it becomes genital love. When a young man revolves these and like things in his thoughts, as he does when he chooses one of the sex for himself, they kindle in his heart the fire of conjugial love; and this fire, being the primitive of that love, is its origin. As to the origin of its virtue or potency, we acknowledge none other than the love itself, for they are inseparable companions and yet of such sort that sometimes the one precedes and sometimes the other. When love precedes and virtue or potency follows both are noble because the potency is then the virtue of conjugial love. But if potency precedes and love follows, then both are ignoble because the love is then from carnal potency. We therefore judge the quality of each from the order in which the love descends or ascends, and so proceeds from its origin to its goal." To this was subscribed the letter D.

CL 112. For the last or NINTH time the angel took up a paper, from which he read as follows: "We compatriots, from our committee room, have addressed our judgment to the two points of the proposition, the origin of conjugial love and the origin of its virtue or potency. In discussing the subtleties of the origin of conjugial love, in order to avoid obscurity in our reasonings, we distinguished between spiritual, natural, and carnal love of the sex. By spiritual love of the sex, we mean love truly conjugial because this is spiritual; by natural love of the sex, we mean polygamous love because this is natural; and by merely carnal love of the sex, we mean scortatory love because this is merely carnal. When with our judgments we looked into love truly conjugial, we saw clearly that this love exists only between one male and one female, and that from creation it is heavenly and inmost love and the soul and father of all good loves--a love which was inspired into our first parents and which can be inspired into Christians. Moreover, it is so conjunctive that through it two minds can become one mind, and two human beings can be as one, this being meant by becoming one flesh. That this love was inspired from creation is plain from these words in the book of Creation:

That it can be inspired into Christians is plain from these words:

Thus far respecting the origin of conjugial love. As to the origin of the virtue or potency of love truly conjugial, this we surmise arises from a similarity and unanimity of minds. For when two minds are conjoined conjugially, their thoughts kiss each other spiritually, and these thoughts breathe their virtue or potency into the body." To this was subscribed the letter S.

CL 113. Standing behind an oblong partition set up in the palace, facing the doors, were some strangers from Africa. These called out to the natives of Europe, "Permit one of us also to offer an opinion concerning the origin of conjugial love and its virtue or potency"; and all at the tables signified with their hands that it was allowed. One of the strangers then entered and, standing by the table whereon the tiara had been placed, he said: "You Christians deduce the origin of conjugial love from the love itself, but we Africans deduce it from the God of heaven and earth. Is not conjugial love a love chaste, pure, and holy? Are not the angels of heaven in that love? Is not the whole human race and thence the whole angelic heaven the seed of that love? Can a thing so supereminent spring from any other source than God himself, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe? You Christians deduce conjugial virtue or potency from various rational and natural causes, but we Africans deduce it from the state of the conjunction of man with the God of the universe, a state which we call the state of religion, but you the state of the Church; for when the love is from this source and is stable and perpetual, it cannot do otherwise than operate its virtue, and this is like itself and so is also stable and perpetual. Love truly conjugial is known only to those few who are near to God, and therefore to no others is the potency of that love known. This potency with the love is described by angels in the heavens as the delight of perpetual spring."

CL 114. After this speech, all arose; and lo, behind the golden table whereon lay the tiara, appeared a window, not seen before; and through the window was heard a voice, The tiara shall go to the African. It was then given him by the angel, who placed it in his hand but not upon his head; and he went home with it. The inhabitants of the kingdoms of Europe then went out and, getting into their chariots, returned to their own peoples.

CL 115. The second Memorable Relation:

Awaking from sleep at midnight, I saw, on an eminence towards the east, an angel holding in his right hand a paper which, from the inflowing light of the sun, was seen in a bright radiance. On the middle of the paper was a writing in letters of gold; and I saw written there: THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH. From this writing flashed a splendour which spread out in a wide circle around the paper so that the circle or ambit seemed like the dawn as seen in spring-time.

After this, I saw the angel descending with the paper in his hand. And as he descended, the paper seemed less and less bright, and the writing, which was THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH, changed from the colour of gold to that of silver, then to that of copper, afterwards to that of iron, and finally to that of iron and copper rust. Finally, the angel was seen to enter a dark cloud and to descend through the cloud and alight upon the earth. There the paper, though still held in his hand, was no longer visible. This was in the world of spirits where all men first come together after death.

[2] The angel then spoke to me, saying, "Ask those who come hither whether they see me or see anything in my hand." A great number of spirits was approaching, one company from the east, one from the south, one from the west, and one from the north; and I asked those who came from the east and the south, being those who in the world had been in the pursuit of learning, whether they saw anyone with me in this place, and anything in his hand. They all said that they saw nothing at all. I then asked those who came from the west and the north, being those who in the world had put faith in the words of the learned. They also said that they saw nothing. But after those in front had gone away, those in the rear, being those who in the world had been in simple faith from charity, or in some truth from good, said that they saw a man with a paper--a man in becoming apparel and a paper upon which, on closer view, they traced letters. Bringing their eyes still closer, they said that they read, THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH. They then addressed the angel, asking him to tell them what this meant.

[3] The angel then said: "All things in the whole heaven and all things in the entire world are nothing but a marriage of good and truth; for created things, both those which live and breathe and those which do not live and breathe, are one and all created from and into the marriage of good and truth, nothing whatever being created into truth alone, and nothing whatever into good alone. Alone, the latter and the former are not anything; but by marriage they exist and become a thing of like quality as the marriage. In the Lord the Creator is Divine Good and Divine Truth in its very substance, the esse of Substance Itself being Divine Good, and the existere of Substance Itself Divine Truth. They are also in their very union; for in Him they make one infinitely. Since these two are one in the Creator, therefore they are also one in each and every thing created by Him. Moreover, by this the Creator is conjoined with all things created by Himself in an eternal covenant as of marriage."

[4] The angel said further, that the Sacred Scripture, which proceeded immediately from the Lord, is in general and in particular a marriage of good and truth. And since with Christians, the Church, which is formed by the truth of doctrine, and religion, which is formed by the good of life according to the truth of doctrine, are solely from the Sacred Scripture, it is evident that the Church in general and in particular is the marriage of good and truth.

That such is the case can be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, (n. 373, 483). What has been said above respecting the marriage of good and truth is also said of THE MARRIAGE OF CHARITY AND FAITH, since good is the good of charity and truth the truth of faith.

Certain of those in front, who had not seen the angel and the writing, were still standing by, and on hearing these words they said, with half-closed lips, "Yes, truly, we comprehend that." But then the angel said to them, "Turn away from me a little and say the same thing." And they turned away and said, with open lips, "It is not so."

[5] After this the angel spoke of THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH as it is with married partners, saying that if their minds were in that marriage, the husband being truth and the wife the good thereof, they would both be in the delights of the blessedness of innocence, and thence in the happiness in which are the angels of heaven. In that state, the prolific principle of the husband would be in continual spring and thence in the effort and strength to propagate his truth; and the wife, from love, would be in a continual reception of it: "(In heaven), the wisdom which is with men from the Lord feels nothing more delightful than to propagate its own truths; and the love of wisdom which is with wives there, feels nothing more pleasing than to receive them as though in a womb, and thus to conceive, carry in the womb, and bring forth. Such is the nature of spiritual prolification with the angels of heaven; and if you will believe it, from this origin are also natural prolifications."

After a salutation of peace, the angel then raised himself from the earth, and passing through the cloud, ascended into heaven; and then, according to the degrees of ascent, the paper shone as before. And lo, the circle of light which had previously appeared as the dawn, then descended and dispelled the cloud which had brought darkness upon the earth, and it became sunny.

CL 116. That here the marriage of the Lord and the Church and the correspondence thereof is also treated of, is because, in the absence of knowledge and understanding concerning it, hardly anyone can know that in its origin, conjugial love is holy, spiritual, and celestial, and that it is from the Lord. Some in the Church do indeed say that marriages have relation to the marriage of the Lord with the Church, but the nature of that relation is not known. In order, therefore, that the subject may be so presented as to be seen in some light of the understanding it is necessary to treat in detail of that holy marriage which is with and in those who are of the Lord’s Church. Moreover, it is these and no others who have love truly conjugial. For the elucidation of this arcanum, the present chapter will be distributed under the following articles:

1. That in the Word, the Lord is called Bridegroom and Husband, and the Church Bride and Wife; and that the conjunction of the Lord with the Church, and the reciprocal conjunction of the Church with the Lord, is called Marriage.

2. Also that the Lord is called Father, and the Church Mother.

3. That the offspring from the Lord as Husband and Father and the Church as Wife and Mother are all spiritual, and in the spiritual serve of the word are meant by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and by other names belonging to generation.

4. That the spiritual offspring which are born from the marriage of the Lord with the Church are truths, from which are understanding, perception, and all thought; and goods, from which are love, charity, and every affection.

5. That from the marriage of good and truth which proceeds and flows in from the Lord, man receives truth, and to this the Lord conjoins good; and that thus the Church is formed by the Lord with man.

6. That the husband does not represent the Lord, and the wife the Church, because both together, the husband and his wife, make the Church.

7. Therefore, that in the marriages of angels in the heavens and of men on earth, there is not a correspondence of the husband with the Lord and of the wife with the Church.

8. But that there is a correspondence with conjugial love, semination, prolification, the love of infants, and similar things which are in marriages and from them.

9. That the Word is the medium of conjunction because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord.

10. That the Church is from the Lord and is with those who approach Him and live according to His commandments.

11. That conjugial love is according to the state of the Church because according to the state of wisdom with man.

12. And because the Church is from the Lord, that conjugial love also is from Him.

The explanation of the above now follows:

CL 117. I. That in the Word, the Lord is called Bridegroom and Husband, and the Church Bride and Wife; and that the conjunction of the Lord with the Church, and the reciprocal conjunction of the Church with the Lord, is called Marriage. That in the Word, the Lord is called Bridegroom and Husband, and the Church Bride and Wife, may be seen from the following passages:

these words were spoken by John the Baptist concerning the Lord.

That by the New Jerusalem is meant the Lord’s New Church may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 880, 881). The angel said to John:

By the Bridegroom whom the five virgins who were ready went forth to meet, and with whom they entered into the wedding (Matt. 25:6-10), is meant the Lord (Matt. 25:13) where it is said: "Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour wherein the SON OF MAN cometh." Besides many passages in the Prophets.

CL 118. II. Also that the Lord is called Father, and the Church Mother. That the Lord is called Father is seen from these passages:

That the Lord and His Father are one as soul and body are one; that God the Father descended from heaven and assumed the Human to redeem and save men; and that His Human is what is called the Son sent into the world, is fully shown in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED.

CL 119. That the Church is called Mother is evident from the following passages:

The above passages are said of the Jewish church.

By the disciples of the Lord is meant the Church.

By this is meant that the Lord did not acknowledge Mary as mother, but the Church; for which reason He called her woman and the mother of the disciple. He called her the mother of this disciple, that is, of John, because John represented the Church as to the goods of charity, these being the Church in very fact; therefore it is said that he took her unto his own. That Peter represented truth and faith, James charity, and John the works of charity, may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 5, 6, 790, 798, 879); and that the twelve disciples together represented the Church as to all things thereof, in (AR n. 233, 790, 903, 915).

CL 120. III. That the offspring from the Lord as Husband and Father and the Church as Wife and Mother are all spiritual, and in the spiritual sense of the word are meant by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and by other names belonging to generation. That no other offspring are born of the Lord by the Church needs no demonstration because reason sees it without demonstration; for it is the Lord from whom every good and truth proceeds, and it is the Church which receives them and brings them into effect; and all the spiritual things of heaven and the Church have reference to good and truth. Hence it is, that in the word in its spiritual sense, by sons and daughters are meant truths and goods--by sons, truths conceived in the spiritual man and born in the natural, and by daughters, goods in like manner. Therefore, in the word they who are regenerated by the Lord are called sons of God, sons of the kingdom, born of Him, and the Lord called His disciples sons. Nothing else is signified by the male child which the woman brought forth and which was caught up to God (Rev. 12:5); see (AR n. 543). Because by daughters are signified the goods of the Church, therefore, the daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Israel, and of Judah is so often mentioned in the word, and by her is signified no other daughter than the affection of good which is of the Church; see (AR n. 612). Moreover, the Lord calls those who are of His Church, brothers and sisters (Matt. 12:49; 25:40; 28:10; Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21).

CL 121. IV. That the spiritual offspring which are born from the marriage of the Lord with the Church are truths, from which are understanding, perception, and all thought; and goods, from which are love, charity, and every affection. That truths and goods are the spiritual offspring born of the Lord by the Church is

(1) because the Lord is good itself and truth itself, and in Him these are not two but one, and

(2) because nothing else can proceed from the Lord but what is in Him and is Himself.

That the marriage of good and truth proceeds from the Lord and flows in with men and is received according to the state of the mind and life of those who are of the Church, has been shown in the preceding chapter on The Marriage of Good and Truth. That by truths, man has understanding, perception, and all thought, and by goods, love, charity, and every affection, is because all things of man have reference to truth and good, and there are two things in him which make him, namely, will and understanding, the will being the receptacle of good and the understanding the receptacle of truth. That the things proper to the will are love, charity, and affection, and those proper to the understanding are perception and thought, needs no light from demonstration, for in the statement is light from the understanding itself.

CL 122. V. That from the marriage of good and truth which proceeds and flows in from the Lord, man receives truth, and to this the Lord conjoins good; and that thus the Church is formed by the Lord with man. That from the good and truth which proceed as one from the Lord, man receives truth, is because he receives it as his own, and appropriates it to himself as his own; for he thinks it as if of himself, and speaks from it in like manner. This is the case because truth is in the light of the understanding, therefore he sees it; and when one sees anything in himself or in his own mind, he knows not whence it is, for he does not see its influx as he sees the things which come into the sight of his eye; therefore he supposes it to be in himself. That it so appears is granted man by the Lord, that he may be a man and that he may have a reciprocal of conjunction. Add to this, that man is born a faculty of knowing, understanding, and being wise, and this faculty receives the truths whereby he has knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. And because the female was created by means of the truth of the male and after marriage, is formed more and more into the love thereof, it follows that she also receives her husband’s truth into herself and conjoins it with her good.

CL 123. That to the truths which man receives, the Lord adjoins and conjoins good, is because man cannot take good as of himself, since it is not seen by him, and this because it is not a matter of light but of heat, and heat is felt not seen. Wherefore, when man sees a truth in his thought, he rarely reflects upon the good which flows into it from the love of the will and gives it life. Nor does the wife reflect upon the good with herself, but upon the inclination of her husband towards her, which is according to the ascent of his understanding to wisdom. The good which is with her from the Lord, she applies without the husband knowing anything of the application. From this, the truth is now manifest that man receives truth from the Lord, and that the Lord adjoins good to that truth according to the man‘s application of the truth to use, thus according as he wills to think wisely and thence to live wisely.

CL 124. That the Church is thus formed with man by the Lord is because then he is in conjunction with the Lord, being in good from Him and in truth as if from himself. Thus man is in the Lord and the Lord in him, according to His words (John 15:4, 5). It is the same if for good we say charity, and for truth, faith; for good pertains to charity, and truth to faith.

CL 125. VI. That the husband does not represent the Lord, and the wife the Church, because both together, the husband and his wife, make the Church. It is a common saying in the Church that, as the Lord is the head of the Church, so the husband is the head of the wife; from which it would follow that the husband represents the Lord and the wife the Church. But the Lord is the head of the Church, and man, man and woman, and still more husband and wife together, are the Church. With these, the Church is first implanted in the man and through the man in his wife; for the man receives its truth in his understanding, and the wife receives it from the man. If the reverse is the case, it is not according to order. Sometimes, however, it is the case, but with men who are not lovers of wisdom and therefore are not of the Church; also with those who depend as slaves on the bidding of their wives. But of this matter, something may be seen in the Preliminaries, (n. 21).

CL 126. VII. Therefore, that in the marriages of angels in the heavens and of men on earth, there is not a correspondence of the husband with the Lord and of the wife with the Church. This follows from what has just been said; to which, however, it must be added that it appears as though truth were the primary thing of the Church because it is its first in time. It is from this appearance that prelates of the Church have given the palm to faith which pertains to truth, rather than to charity which pertains to good. In like manner, the learned have given the palm to thought which pertains to the understanding, rather than to affection which pertains to the will. Therefore, as regards any knowledge of what they are, the good of charity and the affection of the will lie hidden away as though in a tomb, and by some, earth is thrown over them as over the dead, lest they rise again. That, nevertheless, the good of charity is the primary thing of the Church can be seen with open eyes by all who have not closed the way from heaven into their understanding by confirmations in favour of faith, that it alone makes the Church, and in favour of thought, that it alone makes the man. Now because, with man, the good of charity is from the Lord, and the truth of faith is as if from himself, and these two make that conjunction of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord which is meant by the Lord’s words that He is in them and they in him (John 15:4, 5), it is plain that this conjunction is the Church.

CL 127. VIII. But that there is a correspondence with conjugial love, semination, prolification, the love of infants, and similar things which are in marriages and from them. But these matters are too arcane to admit of entering into the understanding with any light unless a knowledge of correspondence has preceded. Wherefore, unless this knowledge is disclosed and is present in the understanding, the matters belonging to the present article, howsoever explained, are apprehended in vain. As to what correspondence is, and that there is a correspondence of natural things with spiritual, this has been abundantly shown in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, also in THE ARCANA COELESTIA, and specifically in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, also in detail in a Memorable Relation respecting it, which is to follow later (n. 326). Until knowledge concerning it has been acquired, it is only before an understanding which is in shade, that the following few statements will be set forth, namely: That conjugial love corresponds to the affection of genuine truth and to the chastity, purity, and holiness thereof; that semination corresponds to the potency of truth; that prolification corresponds to the propagation of truth; and that the love of infants corresponds to the protecting of truth and good. Now because truth in man appears as his own, and good is adjoined to it by the Lord, it is evident that these correspondences are correspondences of the natural man with the spiritual or internal man. But some light will be thrown on these subjects in the Memorable Relations which follow.

CL 128. IX. That the Word is the medium of conjunction because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord. That the Word is the medium of the conjunction of the Lord with man and of man with the Lord, is because in its essence, it is Divine Truth united to Divine Good, and Divine Good united to Divine Truth. That this unition exists in each and every thing of the Word in its celestial and spiritual sense, may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, (AR n. 373, 483, 689, 881). From this it follows that the word is the perfect marriage of good and truth; and because it is from the Lord, and what is from Him is also Himself, it follows that when man reads the word and draws truths therefrom, the Lord adjoins good; for man does not see the goods which affect him, because he reads the word from his understanding, and the understanding draws from it nothing but what pertains to itself, namely, truths. That to these, good is adjoined by the Lord, this, the understanding sensates from the delight which flows in when it is enlightened. But this is not interiorly the case save with those who read the word with the end of becoming wise; and those have the end of becoming wise who wish to learn genuine truth there, and by means thereof to form the Church with themselves. Those who read it only for the glory of erudition, and those who read it from an opinion that the mere reading or hearing of it inspires faith and conduces to salvation, do not receive any good from the Lord; for with the latter, the end is to save themselves by the mere words there, wherein is nothing of truth; and with the former, the end is to become eminent for erudition, and with this end is conjoined, not any spiritual good but the natural delight which comes from worldly glory. Because the word is the medium of conjunction, it is therefore called a Covenant, Old and New, and a covenant signifies conjunction.

CL 129. X. That the Church is from the Lord and is with those who approach Him and live according to His commandments. It is not denied at this day that the Church is the Lord‘s, and, being the Lord’s, that it is from the Lord. That it is with those who approach Him, is because in the Christian world His Church is from the Word, and the Word is from Him, being from Him in such wise that it is Himself. In the Word is Divine Truth united with Divine Good, and this also is the Lord. Nothing else is meant by the Word which was with God and which was God, from which men have life and light, and which was made flesh (John 1:1-14). Furthermore, that the Church is with those who approach Him, is because it is with those who believe in Him; and the belief that He is God, the Saviour and Redeemer, Jehovah our Justice, the Door by which to enter into the sheepfold--that is, into the Church--the Way the Truth and the Life, that no one comes to the Father but by Him, that the Father and He are one, and much else which He Himself teaches, this belief, I say, is possible to no one except from Him. That it is not possible unless He is approached, is because He is the God of heaven and earth, as He also teaches. Who else is to be approached? and who else can be approached? That He is with those who live according to His commandments, is because with others there is no conjunction; for He says:

Love is conjunction; and conjunction with the Lord is the Church.

CL 130. XI. That conjugial love is according to the state of the Church because according to the state of wisdom with man. That conjugial love is according to the state of wisdom with man has often been said before and will often be said hereafter. Here, therefore, light shall be given as to what wisdom is, and that it makes one with the Church.

With man there is science, intelligence, and wisdom. Science pertains to cognitions, intelligence to reason, and wisdom to life. Considered in its fullness, wisdom pertains simultaneously to cognitions, reason, and life. Cognitions precede, reason is formed by means of them, and wisdom by means of both--and this when a man lives rationally according to the truths which are his cognitions. Wisdom, therefore, pertains to reason and at the same time to life. It is becoming wisdom when it is the wisdom of reason and thence of life; and it is wisdom when it has become the wisdom of life and thence of reason. The most ancient people in this world recognized no other wisdom than wisdom of life. This was the wisdom of those who of old were called SOPHI. The ancients who succeeded the most ancient recognized the wisdom of reason as wisdom, and they were called PHILOSOPHERS. But at this day many call even science wisdom; for learned doctors are called wise, and also the erudite and mere knowers. Thus has wisdom fallen from its mountain peak to its valley.

[2] Something shall also be said as to what wisdom is in its origin and progress, and thence in its full state. With man, things which pertain to the Church and are called spiritual, reside in his inmosts; those which pertain to the commonwealth and are called civil, occupy a place below them; and those which pertain to science, experience, and skill, and are called natural, make the seat on which they rest. That those which pertain to the Church and are called spiritual, have their abode in man‘s inmosts is because they conjoin themselves with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; for with man, it is these alone that enter in from the Lord through heaven. That those which pertain to the commonwealth and are called civil, occupy a place below the spiritual, is because they conjoin themselves with the world; for they are things of the world, being the statutes, laws, and regulations which bind men, to the end that from them may be formed a stable and well-knit society and state. That those which pertain to science, experience, and skill, and are called natural, make their seat, is because they closely conjoin themselves with the five senses of the body, and these are the ultimates on which interior things belonging to the mind, and inmost things belonging to the soul, are seated, as it were.

[3] Now because those which pertain to the Church and are called spiritual reside in inmosts, and those which reside in inmosts make the head, while those which follow under them and are called civil make the body, and ultimate things which are called natural make the feet, it is evident, that when these three follow in their order, man is a perfect man; for then they flow in, in the same way that the things of the head flow into the body and through the body into the feet. So spiritual things flow into civil things and through these into natural. Now because spiritual things are in the light of heaven, it is evident that by their light they enlighten the things which follow in order, and by their heat which is love they animate them; and that when this is the case, the man has wisdom.

[4] Since wisdom pertains to life and thence to reason, as said above, the question arises, What is wisdom of life? In a comprehensive summary it is this: To shun evils because they are hurtful to the soul, hurtful to the commonwealth, and hurtful to the body; and to do goods because they are beneficial to the soul, the commonwealth and the body. This is the wisdom that is meant by the wisdom with which conjugial love binds itself; for it binds itself by shunning the evil of adultery as the pest of the soul, the commonwealth, and the body. And since this wisdom springs from the spiritual things which pertain to the Church, it follows that conjugial love is according to the state of the Church with man because according to the state of wisdom. By this, the same thing is meant as that which has been frequently said in the preceding pages, namely, that so far as a man becomes spiritual, so far he is in love truly conjugial, it being by means of the spiritual things of the Church that man becomes spiritual. More respecting the wisdom with which conjugial love conjoins itself may be seen in (n. 163-165) below.

CL 131. XII. And because the Church is from the Lord, that conjugial love also is from Him. As this follows from what has been said above, I refrain from further confirmation. Moreover, that love truly conjugial is from the Lord is testified to by all the angels of heaven; and also that that love is according to the state of wisdom with them, and the state of wisdom according to the state of the Church. That such is the testimony borne by the angels of heaven is plain from the Memorable Relations following the chapters, being Relations of things seen and heard in the spiritual world.

CL 132. To the above, I will add two Memorable Relations. First this:

I once conversed with two angels, one from the eastern heaven, the other from the southern heaven. When they perceived that I was meditating on the arcana of wisdom concerning conjugial love, they said, "Do you know anything about the sports of wisdom in our world?" When I answered, "Not as yet," they said: "There are many. Those who love truths from spiritual affection, that is, who love truths because they are truths and because they are the means to wisdom, come together at a given signal to discuss matters requiring a deeper understanding, and to form conclusions." They then took me by the hand, saying, "Follow us and you shall see and hear. Today the signal has been given for a meeting."

I was led across a plain to a hill; and lo, at the foot of the hill an avenue of palm trees stretching all the way to the summit. We entered it and ascended; and on the top or crown of the hill was seen a grove, the trees of which, growing on an elevated piece of ground, formed a kind of theatre. Within this theatre was a level space paved with small stones of various colours, around which, arranged in the form of a square, were chairs of state on which sat the lovers of wisdom. In the centre of the theatre was a table whereon lay a paper sealed with a seal.

[2] The men who were sitting on the chairs invited us to seats still vacant; but I answered them, "I have been led hither by two angels to see and hear, not to sit down." The two angels then went to the table in the centre of the level area, and in the presence of those who were seated they broke the seal of the paper and read the arcana of wisdom inscribed thereon which they were now to discuss and unfold. They had been written and let down upon the table by angels of the third heaven.

There were three arcana: FIRST, What is the image of God and what the likeness of God into which man was created? SECOND, Why is man not born into the science of any love, when yet beasts and birds, the noble as well as the ignoble, are born into the sciences of all their loves? THIRD, What is signified by the tree of life, what by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what by the eating of them? Underneath was written: "Combine these three into one statement, write it on a fresh sheet of paper, and place the paper on the table and we shall see. If the statement appears well balanced and just, there shall be given to each of you a reward of wisdom." After reading this, the two angels withdrew and were taken up into their heavens.

[3] Those who were sitting on the chairs then began to discuss and unfold the arcana proposed to them. They spoke in order, first those who sat at the north, then those at the west, after them those at the south, and finally those at the east. They took up the first subject of discussion, namely, WHAT IS THE IMAGE OF GOD AND WHAT THE LIKENESS OF GOD INTO WHICH MAN WAS CREATED? To begin with, the following from the Book of Genesis was then read out in the presence of all:

Those who sat at the north spoke first, saying, "The image of God and the likeness of God are the two lives breathed into man by God, being the life of his will and the life of his understanding; for we read that Jehovah God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Into his nostrils means into the perception that within him was the will of good and the understanding of truth and thus the breath of lives; and because life was breathed into him by God, the image and likeness of God signify the integrity that was in him from wisdom and love, and from righteousness and judgment." Those who sat at the west favoured these views, but they added the following, "This state of integrity breathed into Adam by God is being continually breathed into every man after him; but it is in man as a receptacle, and man is an image and likeness of God according as he is a receptacle."

[4] The third in order, being those who sat at the south, then said: "The image of God and the likeness of God are two distinct things, but in man they are united from creation; and we see, as from interior light, that the image of God may be destroyed by man but not the likeness of God. This is seen as through a lattice, from the fact that Adam retained the likeness of God after he had lost the image of God; for after the curse it is said:

and later he is called the likeness of God and is not called the image of God (Gen. 5:1). But let us leave it to our associates who sit at the east, and thus are in superior light, to say what the image of God properly is, and what the likeness of God."

[5] Then, after a period of silence, those sitting at the east rose from their seats and looked up to the Lord. Resuming their seats, they then said: "An image of God is a receptacle of God; and because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, the image of God in man is the receptacle in him of love and wisdom from God. But the likeness of God is the perfect likeness and full appearance as though the love and wisdom were in the man and so were his own; for man feels no other than that he loves from himself and is wise from himself, or that it is from himself that he wills good and understands truth, when yet it is not in the least from himself but from God. God alone loves from Himself and is wise from Himself because God is Love itself and Wisdom itself. The likeness or appearance that love and wisdom or good and truth are in man as his own, makes man a man and able to be conjoined to God and so to live to eternity. Hence it follows that man is man from the fact that he can will good and understand truth altogether as if from himself, and yet can know and believe that it is from God; for, according as man knows and believes this, God puts His image in him; not so if he believed that it is from himself and not from God."

[6] Having said this, a zeal from the love of truth came over them, and from this they spoke as follows: "How can man receive anything of love and wisdom and retain and reproduce it, unless he feel it as his own? And how can there be conjunction with God through love and wisdom unless there be given man some reciprocal of conjunction? Without a reciprocal, there can be no conjunction; and the reciprocal of conjunction is this: Man loves God, and is wise in the things which are of God, as if from himself, and yet believes that it is from God. Moreover, how can man live to eternity unless he is conjoined with the eternal God? Consequently, how can man be man without this likeness of God within him?"

[7] On hearing these words, all expressed their approval. They then said: "Let the conclusion from this discussion be as follows: Man is a receptacle of God, and a receptacle of God is an image of God; and as God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, it is of these that man is a receptacle; and the receptacle becomes an image of God according as it receives. Man is a likeness of God from the fact that he feels in himself that the things which are from God are in him as his own; but from this likeness he is an image of God only so far as he acknowledges that the love and wisdom or the good and truth in him are not his own and thus are not from himself, but are solely in God and thus from God."

CL 133. After this they took up the second subject of discussion: WHY IS MAN NOT BORN INTO THE SCIENCE OF ANY LOVE, WHEN YET BEASTS AND BIRDS, BOTH THE NOBLE AND THE IGNOBLE, ARE BORN INTO THE SCIENCES OF ALL THEIR LOVES? First they confirmed the truth of the proposition by various considerations, as, with respect to man, that he is born into no knowledge, not even into the knowledge of conjugial love. And making inquiry, they heard from investigators that an infant cannot apply itself to the mother’s breast from any connate knowledge but must be applied to it by the mother or nurse; that it knows only how to suck, and that it has acquired this from continual suction in the womb; that later, it does not know how to walk; nor how to articulate sound into any human word, nay, nor even how to express by sound the affections of its love, as do beasts; and further, that it does not know any food suitable to itself as do all beasts, but seizes upon whatever is before it, clean or unclean, and puts it into its mouth. The investigators said, that without instruction man does not know even the distinction of sex, and knows absolutely nothing of the modes of loving the sex; and that even maidens and young men, though educated in various sciences, are ignorant of these modes unless they have learned them from others. In a word, that man is born corporeal like a worm, and remains corporeal unless he learns from others how to know, to understand, and to become wise.

[2] They then confirmed the statement that beasts, noble and ignoble, such as animals of the earth, birds of the air, reptiles, fishes, grubs which are called insects, are born into all the sciences of their life‘s loves, thus into all that pertain to nourishment, into all that pertain to habitation, into all that pertain to love of the sex and procreation, and into all that pertain to the rearing of their young. This they confirmed by the marvels which they recalled to memory from what they had seen, heard, and read in the natural world--so they called our world in which they had formerly lived--where the beasts are not representative but real.

The truth of the proposition being thus established, they then directed their minds to investigate and discover the ends and causes whereby they might unfold and disclose this arcanum. They all said that such things must needs come from Divine Wisdom, to the end that man may be man and beast beast; thus that man’s imperfection at birth becomes his perfection, and the beast‘s perfection at birth is its imperfection.

CL 134. Then first, those on the NORTH began to express their mind. They said: "Man is born without knowledges that he may be able to receive knowledges. Were he born into knowledges, he could receive none but those into which he was born, and then he could not himself appropriate any." This they illustrated by the following comparison: "A man just born is like ground wherein no seeds have been planted but which yet can receive all kinds of seed and bring them forth and make them fruitful; but a beast is like ground already sown, and which, being filled with grasses and herbs, will not receive other seeds than those which have been sown; and if it did, it would choke them. Hence it is that man’s growth to maturity extends through many years, and during these years he can be cultivated like ground and can bring forth, as it were, grains and flowers and trees of every kind; while a beast‘s growth extends through but few years, and during these years no other knowledge can be cultivated than that which was connate."

[2] Those at the WEST spoke next. They said: "Man is not born with knowledge like a beast, but is born an ability and an inclination--an ability to learn and an inclination to love. And he is born an ability, not merely to learn but also to understand and be wise. He is also born a most perfect inclination to love, not only things which are of self and the world, but also those which are of God and of heaven. Consequently, from his parents man is born an organ which at first lives in the external senses alone and in none that are internal; and this, that he may successively become a man, first natural, then rational, and finally spiritual. This he would not become were he born into knowledges and loves like the beasts; for connate knowledges and affections limit that progress, but connate ability and inclination limit nothing. Therefore man can be perfected in science, intelligence, and wisdom to eternity."

[3] Those on the SOUTH then took up the subject and expressed their opinion, saying: "Man cannot possibly acquire any knowledge from himself but must acquire it from others; and being unable to acquire any knowledge from himself, he is also unable to acquire any love, for where there is no knowledge, there is no love. Knowledge and love are inseparable companions and can no more be separated than can will and understanding or affection and thought, yea, no more than essence and form. Therefore, as man acquires knowledge from others, love adjoins itself thereto as its companion. The universal love which adjoins itself is the love of knowing, of understanding, and of being wise. This love, man alone has, and no beast; and it flows in from God.

[4] We agree with our companions on the west, that man is not born into any love and thence not into any knowledge, but that he is born only into an inclination to love and thence into an ability to receive knowledge, not from himself but from others, that is, through others. It is said through others because neither have they received any knowledge from themselves but from God. We agree also with our companions on the north, that when first born, man is like ground wherein no seeds have been planted but in which may be planted all kinds of seed, noble as well as ignoble. To this we add, that beasts are born into natural loves and thence into the sciences corresponding thereto. Yet, from these sciences, they do not learn anything, do not think, understand and become wise, but by their means they are carried along by their loves, almost like blind men led through the streets by dogs. As to understanding, they are blind, or rather are like somnambulists who, with their understanding asleep, do what they do from blind science."

[5] Lastly spoke those on the EAST. They said: "We assent to what our brothers have said, that man knows nothing from himself but from others and through others, and this to the end that he may learn and acknowledge that all that he knows, understands, and is wise in, is from God; also that in no other way can man be conceived, born, and brought forth by the Lord and become His image and likeness. For he becomes an image of the Lord by acknowledging and believing that he has received and does receive every good of love and charity, and every truth of wisdom and faith from the Lord, and not the least thing thereof from himself; and he becomes a likeness of the Lord by sensating them in himself as if they were from himself. He has this sensation because he is not born into knowledges but receives them, and what he receives appears to him as if it were from himself. Moreover, it is granted man by the Lord so to sensate, in order that he may be a man and not a beast; for it is by the fact that he wills, thinks, loves, knows, understands, and is wise, as if from himself, that man receives knowledges and exalts them into intelligence and by their uses into wisdom. In this way the Lord conjoins man to Himself and man conjoins himself to the Lord. All this would not be possible had it not been provided by the Lord that man should be born in total ignorance."

[6] After this speech, it was the desire of all that some conclusion be formed from the discussion, and the following was formed: "Man is born into no knowledge, that he may come into all knowledge and may advance into intelligence and by means of intelligence into wisdom. And he is born into no love, that by applications of knowledges from intelligence, he may come into all love, and by love towards the neighbour, into love to the Lord, and so may be conjoined to the Lord, and by this conjunction become a man and live to eternity."

CL 135. They then took the paper and read the third subject of discussion, which was, WHAT IS SIGNIFIED BY THE TREE OF LIFE, WHAT BY THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL, AND WHAT BY THE EATING OF THEM? Because this was an arcanum requiring a more profound understanding, they all requested that those who were at the east would unfold it; for those who are at the east are in flamy light, that is, in the wisdom of love, which wisdom is meant by the garden in Eden wherein those two trees were placed. The men at the east then answered, "We will speak; but because man cannot acquire anything whatever from himself but receives all from the Lord, we will speak from Him, but still from ourselves as if of ourselves."

They then said: "A tree signifies man, and its fruit signifies the good of life. By the tree of life, therefore, is meant man living from God, or God living in man. And because love and wisdom, and charity and faith, or good and truth, make the life of God in man, it is these that are signified by the tree of life, and from them man has life eternal. The like is signified by the tree of life in the Apocalypse of which it will be granted man to eat (Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14).

[2] By the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is signified the man who believes that he lives from himself and not from God; thus that love and wisdom, charity and faith, or good and truth, are his own in man and not God’s, believing this because he thinks and wills, and speaks and acts, in all likeness and appearance as if from himself. And because from this belief he persuades himself that God has implanted in him, that is, has infused into him, His own Divine, therefore the serpent said:

[3] By eating of those trees is signified reception and appropriation--by eating of the tree of life, the reception of life eternal, and by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the reception of damnation. Therefore both Adam and his wife were accursed together with the serpent. By the serpent is meant the devil, as to the love of self and the pride of self-intelligence. This love is the possessor of that tree; and men who are in pride from this love are such trees. They, therefore, are in enormous error who believe that Adam was wise and did good from himself, and that this was his state of integrity, when yet Adam was himself accursed on account of that very belief, this being what is signified by his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, he then fell from the state of integrity in which he had been by virtue of believing that he was wise and did good from God and not at all from himself, this being meant by eating of the tree of life. The Lord alone, when He was in the world, was wise of Himself and did good from Himself, because the Divine itself was in Him and was His from birth. Therefore He became the Redeemer and Saviour by His own power."

[4] From this and the preceding discussions, they then formed the following conclusion: "By the tree of life, and by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and by eating from them, is signified that for man life is God in him, and he then has heaven and eternal life; but that death for man is the persuasion and belief that life in man is not God but is himself; whence he has hell and eternal death, which is damnation!"

CL 136. After this, they looked at the paper left on the table by the angels and saw written at the bottom, "COMBINE YOUR THREE CONCLUSIONS INTO A SINGLE STATEMENT." They then put the three together and saw that they were in one coherent series, and that this series or statement was as follows: "Man was created to receive love and wisdom from God, and yet in all likeness as if it were from himself, and this for the sake of reception and conjunction. For this reason he is not born into any love or into any knowledge or even into any power of loving or of being wise from himself. Therefore, if he ascribes all the good of love and all the truth of wisdom to God, he becomes a living man; but if he ascribes them to himself, he becomes a dead man."

These words they wrote upon a fresh sheet of paper which they placed upon the table. And lo, suddenly angels were present in a bright white light, and they carried the paper to heaven. After it had been read there, those who were sitting on the seats heard thence the words, thrice repeated, "Well said." And immediately an angel therefrom was seen as though flying. He had two wings about his feet, and two about his temples, and in his hand he held the awards, which consisted of robes, caps, and wreaths of laurel. After alighting, he gave to those sitting at the north, robes of the colour of opal; to those at the west, robes of scarlet; to those at the south, hats, the brims of which were adorned with fillets of gold and pearls, and the risings at the left side with diamonds cut in the form of flowers; and to those at the east, wreaths of laurel in which were rubies and sapphires. Adorned with these awards, they all went home from the sport of wisdom; and when they would show themselves to their wives, the latter came out to meet them, they also being distinguished with adornments given them from heaven, whereat the men wondered.

CL 137. The second Memorable Relation:

While I was meditating on conjugial love, lo, afar off were seen two naked infants with baskets in their hands and turtle-doves flying around them. When they were nearer, they seemed like naked infants becomingly adorned with garlands of flowers, their heads adorned with chaplets of flowers, and their breasts with garlands of lilies and of roses of a hyacinthine colour hanging obliquely from their shoulders to their loins. Around the two and uniting them, as it were, was a common bond, woven of little leaves with olives interspersed. When they came yet nearer, however, they appeared, not as infants, nor naked, but as two persons in the first flower of their age, clad in robes and tunics of shining silk on which were woven flowers of a most beautiful appearance; and when they were beside me, there breathed through them out of heaven a vernal warmth, with a sweet-smelling odour as of the earliest blossomings in gardens and fields. They were two married partners from heaven.

They then spoke to me, and because what I had just seen was in my thought, they asked me, "What have you seen?"

[2] When I told them that they had first appeared to me as naked infants, then as infants adorned with garlands, and at last as adults clothed in garments embroidered with flowers, and that then forthwith an odour of spring breathed upon me with all its delights, they smiled pleasantly and said, that on their way, they had not seemed to themselves as infants, nor naked, nor with garlands, but continually the same in appearance as now. What at a distance had been thus represented was their conjugial love--its state of innocence by their appearing as naked infants, its delights by garlands of flowers, and the same now by the flowers woven in their robes and tunics. "And because you said that as we approached, a vernal warmth breathed upon you with its pleasant odours as though from a garden, we will tell you the cause of this."

[3] They then said: "We have been partners now for ages, and continually in the flower of age in which you now see us. Our first state was like the state of a virgin and a young man when they first consociate in marriage; and we then believed that that state was the very blessedness of our life. But we heard from others in our heaven, and afterwards we ourselves perceived, that that state was a state of heat not tempered with light, and that it is tempered according as the husband is perfected in wisdom and the wife loves that wisdom in her husband; also that this is effected by and according to the uses which each of them with mutual aid performs in society; and that delights follow in accordance with the tempering of heat and light, that is, of wisdom and its love.

[4] A warmth as of spring breathed upon you as we approached because in our heaven conjugial love and vernal heat act as one; for with us, heat is love and the light with which heat is united is wisdom; and use is as the atmosphere which contains both of them in its bosom. What are heat and light without their containant? and so, what are love and wisdom without their use? There is no conjugial in them, for there is no subject wherein to contain them. In heaven, wherever the heat is vernal, there is love truly conjugial; and it is there because nothing vernal is possible save where heat is united with light in equal measure, that is, where there is as much of heat as of light, and the reverse. Moreover, we affirm that, as heat delights itself with light and light in turn with heat, so love delights itself with wisdom and wisdom in turn with love."

[5] He said further: "With us in heaven there is perpetual light and never any shade of evening, still less darkness; for our sun does not set and rise as does yours, but remains continually midway between the upper pole of the sky and the horizon, which, according to your manner of speech, is in the sky at an angle of forty-five degrees. Therefore, the heat and light proceeding from our sun make perpetual spring and cause something perpetually vernal to breathe upon those with whom love is united with wisdom in equal measure. By the eternal union of heat and light, our Lord breathes forth nothing but uses. From this, moreover, come the germinations on your earth in the spring-time, and the matings of your birds and animals; for the vernal heat opens their interiors even to the inmost things thereof which are called their souls. These it affects; and it imparts to them its own conjugial, causing what is prolific in them to come into its delights, and this from a continual striving to produce the fruits of use, the use being the propagation of their kind.

[6] But with men, the influx of vernal heat from the Lord is perpetual, and therefore they can enjoy delights in marriage at any time, even in midwinter; for men were created to receive from the Lord light, that is, wisdom, and women were created to receive from the Lord heat, that is, the love of the wisdom of the man. This then is the reason why, as we approached, a vernal warmth breathed on you, with a sweet-smelling odour as of the early blossomings in gardens and fields."

[7] Having thus spoken, the man gave me his right hand and led me to homes where were partners in the same flower of age as themselves. He then said: "In the world, these wives whom you now see as maidens were old women; and their husbands, now seen as young men, were infirm and old. They have all been restored by the Lord to this flower of age because they mutually loved each other and from religion shunned adulteries as enormous sins." He said further: "No one knows the blessed delights of conjugial love save he who rejects the horrid delights of adultery; and no one can reject these save he who is wise from the Lord; and no one is wise from the Lord unless he performs uses from the love of uses."

Moreover, I then saw their household utensils. They were all in heavenly forms; and from the gold, they were glittering as though in flames from the rubies with which they were studded.

CL 138. Since I am still at the threshold of the treatment of conjugial love in detail; and since conjugial love in detail can be known only indistinctly and thus obscurely unless in some measure its opposite also be seen, which is the unchaste, and this is seen in a measure or in shade when the chaste is described together with the non-chaste, for chastity is only the removal of the unchaste from the chaste; (therefore, the chaste and the non-chaste shall now be treated of). The unchaste, which is entirely opposite to the chaste, is treated of in the latter part of this work, under the title THE PLEASURES OF INSANITY FROM SCORTATORY LOVE, where it is described in its full extent and with its varieties. What the chaste is and the non-chaste, and with whom they are, will be made clear in the following order:

1. That the chaste and the non-chaste are predicated only of marriages and of such things as belong to marriages.

2. That the chaste is predicated only of monogamous marriages, or those of one man with one wife.

3. That the Christian conjugial alone is chaste.

4. That love truly conjugial is chastity itself.

5. That all the delights of love truly conjugial, even the ultimate, are chaste.

6. That with those who are made spiritual by the Lord, conjugial love is more and more purified and made chaste.

7. That the chastity of marriage comes into existence by the total renunciation of whoredoms from religion.

8. That chastity cannot be predicated of infants; nor of boys and girls; nor of youths and virgins before they feel the love of the sex in themselves.

9. That chastity cannot be predicated of eunuchs born such, nor of eunuchs made such.

10. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who do not believe adulteries to be evils of religion, and still less of those who do not believe adulteries to be hurtful to society.

11. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who abstain from adulteries solely on account of various external reasons.

12. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who believe marriages to be unchaste.

13. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who have renounced marriages by vowing perpetual celibacy, unless there be and remain in them the love of a life truly conjugial.

14. That the state of marriage is to be preferred to the state of celibacy.

The explanation of the above now follows.

CL 139. I. That the chaste and the non-chaste are predicated (only) of marriages and of such things as belong to marriages; for, as shown in what follows, love truly conjugial is chastity itself, and the love opposite thereto, which is called scortatory, is unchastity itself. In so far, therefore, as the former love is purified from the latter, so far it is chaste, for so far is its destructive opposite taken away. From this it is evident that it is the purity of conjugial love that is called chastity. Yet there is a conjugial love which is non-chaste and which nevertheless is not unchastity; as, for instance, the love between partners who, for various external reasons, abstain from the effects of lasciviousness so far as not to think of them; nevertheless, if this love has not been purified in their spirits, it still is not chaste. Its form is chaste, but the essence within it, is not chaste.

CL 140. That the chaste and the non-chaste are predicated of such things as belong to marriage, is because the conjugial is inscribed upon both sexes, from their inmost parts to their outmost, and such as this conjugial is, such is the man as to his thoughts and affections and thence inwardly as to the acts and gestures of his body. That such is the case is more evidently apparent from the unchaste. With these, the unchastity inseated in their minds comes to the ear from the sound of their speech, and from the application of all the topics of their conversation, even when the latter is chaste, to things libidinous, the sound of the speech being from the affection of the will, and the speech itself from the thought of the understanding. This is a sign that the will with all things thereof, and the understanding with all things thereof, thus the whole mind and hence all the parts of the body from the inmost to the outmost, abound in things unchaste. I have heard from angels, that with the most consummate hypocrites, however chastely they may speak, the unchastity within them is perceived by the ear and is also felt from the sphere which pours forth from them. This too, is a sign that unchastity resides in the inmost regions of their minds and thence in the inmost parts of their bodies, and that these inmosts are veiled over as with an outer shell on which are painted beautiful forms in various colours. That a sphere of lasciviousness pours forth from the unchaste is plain from the statutes among the sons of Israel, that each and every thing contacted by those defiled with such impurities, even by the mere touch of their hand, was itself unclean. From this, the conclusion can be made that it is the same with the chaste; that is to say, that from their inmost parts to their outmost, each and every thing in them is chaste, and that the chastity of conjugial love makes it so. Hence the saying in the world that, to the pure all things are pure, and to the impure all are impure.

CL 141. II. That the chaste is predicated only of monogamous marriages, or those of one man with one wife. That the chaste is predicated of these only, is because with them conjugial love does not reside in the natural man but enters into the spiritual and successively opens for itself a way to the spiritual marriage, being the marriage of good and truth, which is its origin and with which it conjoins itself; for that love enters according to the increase of wisdom, and, as previously shown in many places, this is according to the implantation of the Church by the Lord. The Church cannot be implanted with polygamists because they divide conjugial love, and when divided, this love is not unlike love of the sex which in itself is natural. But on this subject, something worthy of note will be seen in the chapter on Polygamy.

CL 142. III. That the Christian conjugial alone is chaste, is because love truly conjugial in man keeps equal pace with the state of the Church with him; and, as shown in the preceding chapter, (n. 130, 131), and elsewhere, this state is from the Lord; also because the Church is in the Word in its genuine truths, it being in these that the Lord is present there. From this it follows, that there is no chaste conjugial except in the Christian world; and that if it is not there, it is nevertheless possible. By the Christian conjugial is meant the marriage of one man with one wife. That this conjugial can be implanted among Christians and by inheritance can descend from parents who are in love truly conjugial to their offspring, and that from it arises a connate ability and inclination to become wise in the things of the Church and heaven, will be seen in its proper place. That Christians, if they marry more wives than one, commit not only natural but also spiritual adultery, will be shown in the chapter on Polygamy.

CL 143. IV. That love truly conjugial is chastity itself. The reasons are:

1. Because it is from the Lord and corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the Church.

2. Because it descends from the marriage of good and truth.

3. Because it is spiritual, as is the Church with man.

4. Because it is the fundamental love and the chief of all celestial and spiritual loves.

5. Because it is the lawful seminary of the human race and thence of the angelic heaven.

6. Because for this reason it is also with the angels of heaven, and from it, with them, are born spiritual offspring which are love and wisdom.

7. Because its use is thus more excellent than all other uses of creation. From this it follows that love truly conjugial, regarded from its origin and in its essence, is pure and holy, so that it may be called purity and holiness itself and consequently chastity itself.

That yet, it is not absolutely pure with either men or angels, may be seen in article VI, (n. 146), which follows presently.

CL 144. V. That all the delights of love truly conjugial, even the ultimate, are chaste. This follows from what has been explained above, namely, that love truly conjugial is chastity itself; and delights are what make its life. It has been noted above, that the delights of that love ascend and enter into heaven, and on the way pass through the joys of the heavenly loves wherein are the angels of heaven; and that they conjoin themselves with the delights of their conjugial love. Moreover, I have heard from angels, that when these delights ascend from chaste partners on earth, they perceive them to be exalted with themselves and infilled. Because of some bystanders who were unchaste, to the question as to whether this applied also to the ultimate delights, they nodded assent and said tacitly, "How can it be otherwise? are not those delights the other delights in their fullness?" The source and nature of the delights of that love may be seen above, (n. 69), and also in the Memorable Relations, especially in those that follow.

CL 145. VI. That with those who are made spiritual by the Lord, conjugial love is more and more purified and made chaste. The reasons are: 1. Because the first love, by which is meant the love before the nuptials and just after them, partakes somewhat of love of the sex, thus of an ardour belonging to the body, not yet moderated by the love of the spirit.

[2] 2. Because man from being natural becomes spiritual successively; for he becomes spiritual according as his rational, which is midway between heaven and the world, begins to draw its soul from influx out of heaven. It does this in the degree that it is affected and gladdened by reason of wisdom, of which above, (n. 130). So far as this takes place, man‘s mind is elevated into a superior aura which is the containant of heavenly light and heat, or, what is the same thing, of the wisdom and love wherein are the angels; for heavenly light acts as one with wisdom, and heavenly heat with love. As wisdom and its love increase with the partners, so conjugial love with them is purified; and since this takes place successively, it follows that the love becomes more and more chaste. This spiritual purification can be compared with the purification of natural spirits which is effected by chemists and is called defecation, rectification, castigation, cohobation, fractionation, decantation, sublimation; and the wisdom purified can be compared with alcohol, which is a spirit most highly rectified.

[3] 3. Now because, regarded in itself, spiritual wisdom is such that it grows more and more warm with the love of becoming wise, and from this love takes increase to eternity, this being done as it is perfected as though by defecations, castigations, rectifications, fractionations, decantations, and sublimations; and because these operations are effected by withdrawals and abstractions of the understanding from the fallacies of the senses, and of the will from the allurements of the body; it is evident that conjugial love, whose parent is wisdom, is successively made more and more pure, thus chaste, in a like way. That the first state of love between married partners is a state of heat not yet tempered by light, but that it is successively tempered as the husband is perfected in wisdom and the wife loves that wisdom in her husband, may be seen in the Memorable Relation (n. 137).

CL 146. It should be known, however, that neither with men nor with angels is conjugial love wholly chaste or pure. There is still something not chaste or not pure which adjoins or subjoins itself; but this something is of a different nature than that from which comes what is unchaste. With those who are in conjugial love, the chaste is above and the non-chaste below, and between the two is interposed, by the Lord, a hinged door, as it were, which is opened by determination, care being taken that it does not stand open, lest the one should pass over into the other and they should commingle; for man’s natural is contaminated and surcharged with evils from birth. Not so his spiritual, because its birth is from the Lord, this birth being regeneration, and regeneration is a successive separation from the evils which are related to the native inclinations. That no love with men or angels is entirely pure, or can ever become so, but that the end, purpose, or intention of the will is what is primarily regarded by the Lord, may be seen in (n. 71) above; also that therefore, so far as a man is in these and perseveres in them, he is initiated into purity and makes progress towards it.

CL 147. VII. That the chastity of marriage comes into existence by the total renunciation of whoredoms from religion. The reason is because chastity is the removal of unchastity. It is a universal rule that so far as anyone removes evil, so far an opportunity is given for good to succeed it; and further, so far as evil is hated, so far good is loved, and vice versa; consequently, so far as whoredom is renounced, so far the chastity of marriage enters in. That conjugial love is purified and rectified in proportion to the renunciation of whoredoms, is seen by everyone from common perception, as soon as it is stated and heard, thus prior to any confirmation; but because all men do not have common perception, it is important that this be made clear by confirmations also. The confirmations are as follows: As soon as conjugial love is divided, it grows cold, and this coldness causes it to perish; for the heat of unchaste love extinguishes it, it being impossible for two opposite heats to be together without the one rejecting the other and depriving it of its power. When therefore the heat of conjugial love removes and rejects the heat of scortatory love, conjugial love begins to grow pleasantly warm, and from the sensation of its delights, begins to bud and blossom, like an orchard and rosebed in the time of spring, the one from the vernal temperature of the light and heat of the sun of the natural world, the other from the vernal temperature of the light and heat of the sun of the spiritual world.

CL 148. Implanted in every man from creation and thence by birth is an internal conjugial and an external conjugial. The internal is spiritual and the external natural. Man comes first into the latter, and he comes into the former as he becomes spiritual. If therefore he remains in the external or natural conjugial, the internal or spiritual conjugial is being veiled over until at last he knows nothing of it, yea, and calls it a vain idea. But if man becomes spiritual, then he begins to know something of it, and later to have some perception of its nature, and successively to feel its pleasantness, its delights, and its delightsomeness; and as this takes place, the above-mentioned veiling between the external and the internal begins to grow thin, then, as it were, to melt away, and finally, to dissolve and disappear. When this comes to pass, the external conjugial does indeed remain, but it is being continually purged and purified of its dregs by the internal, and this until the external becomes, as it were, the face of the internal and derives its delight and at the same time its life and the delights of its potency from the blessedness which is in the internal. Such is the renunciation of whoredoms by which the chastity of marriage comes into existence.

[2] It may be thought that the external conjugial which remains after the internal has separated itself from it, or it from itself, is the same as the external not separated. But I have heard from angels that they are so entirely unlike, that the external from the internal, which they called the external of the internal, is devoid of all lasciviousness, inasmuch as the internal cannot be lascivious but can be delighted only chastely; and that it carries the like into its external wherein it feels its own delights. It is wholly otherwise with the external separated from the internal. This, they said, is lascivious in its whole and in every part. They compared the external conjugial from the internal to a noble fruit whose pleasant savour and fragrance insinuate themselves into its surface and form this into correspondence with themselves.

[3] They also compared the external conjugial from the internal to a granary whose store never diminishes, what is taken from it being constantly restored anew. But the external separated from the internal, they compared to wheat in a winnower, which, if it is scattered about, there remains only chaff which is dissipated by the wind. Such is the case with conjugial love unless what is scortatory is renounced.

CL 149. That the chastity of marriage does not exist by the renunciation of whoredoms unless this be done from religion, is because, without religion, a man does not become spiritual but remains natural, and even if his natural man renounces whoredoms, his spirit does not renounce them. Thus, though to himself it appears that by the renunciation he is chaste, nevertheless, unchastity lurks within, like corruption in a wound but superficially healed. That conjugial love is according to the state of the Church with man, may be seen above (n. 130). More on this subject may be seen in the exposition of article XI below.

CL 150. VIII. That chastity cannot be predicated of infants; nor of boys and girls: nor of youths and virgins before they feel the love of the sex in themselves. The reason is because the chaste and the unchaste are predicated solely of marriages and of such things as pertain to marriages (n. 139), and with those who know nothing concerning things conjugial, there is no predication of chastity. With them, it is as nothing, and there can be no affection of nothing, nor can there be any thought concerning it. But with the first sensation of the conjugial, which pertains to love of the sex, then, after that nothing, springs up a something. That virgins and youths are commonly called chaste until they feel the love of the sex within themselves, comes from ignorance of what chastity is.

CL 151. IX. That chastity cannot be predicated of eunuchs born such, nor of eunuchs made such. By eunuchs born such are meant especially those with whom the ultimate of love has been lacking from birth; and because the first and the middle are then without a foundation on which to rest, they do not stand forth, and if they do, it is of no concern to such persons to distinguish between the chaste and the unchaste, for to them, both are indifferent. Among such persons, however, there are many differences. With eunuchs made such, it is almost the same as with some eunuchs who are born such. But eunuchs made such, being both men and women, cannot but regard conjugial love as a fantasy and its delights as mere words. If there is anything of inclination within them, it becomes neuter, that is, neither chaste nor unchaste; and that which is neuter has no name either from the one side or from the other.

CL 152. X. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who do not believe adulteries to be evils of religion, and still less of those who do not believe adulteries to be hurtful to society. That chastity cannot be predicated of the former is because they do not know what chastity is, nor even that it is; for, as shown in the first article of the present chapter, chastity pertains to marriage, and those who do not believe adulteries to be evils of religion make marriages also unchaste, when yet, with married partners, it is religion that makes their chastity. Thus, to them nothing is chaste, and therefore it is vain to speak to them of chastity. Such men are adulterers from conviction.

As to those who do not believe adulteries to be hurtful to society, these know still less than the former what chastity is, or even that it is; for they are adulterers from purpose. If they say that marriages are less unchaste than adulteries, they say this with the mouth, not from the heart; for with them marriages are cold, and those who, from this cold, speak of chaste heat, can have no idea of chaste heat with respect to conjugial love. Their character and the nature of the ideas of their thoughts and hence of the interiors of their speech, will be seen in Part II respecting the insanities of adulterers.

CL 153. XI. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who abstain from adulteries solely on account of various external reasons. Many believe that mere abstinence from adulteries in bodily act is chastity, when yet this is not chastity unless at the same time the abstinence be in the spirit also. It is man‘s spirit--by which is here meant his mind as to its affections and thoughts--which makes what is chaste and unchaste; for it is from the spirit that these exist in the body, the body being altogether such as is the mind or spirit. Hence it follows that those who abstain from adulteries in bodily act and not from the spirit, are not chaste, as neither are those who abstain from them in spirit by reason of the body. There are many reasons which cause a man to desist from them in bodily act, and also in the spirit by reason of the body; yet he who does not desist from them in bodily act from the spirit is unchaste. For the Lord says, if any man has looked on another woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28).

[2] The reasons for abstinence from adulteries in bodily act only, cannot be enumerated, for they vary according to the state of the marriage and also according to the state of the body. There are those who abstain from them from fear of the civil law and its penalties; from fear of the loss of reputation and thence of honour; from fear of diseases therefrom; from fear of upbraidings by the wife at home, and so of an unquiet life; from fear of the vengeance of the husband or of relatives; and from fear of being beaten by the servants. Then there are those who abstain on account of poverty, or avarice, or weakness arising from disease, abuse, age, or impotence. Among these are also those who, being unable or not daring to commit adulteries in bodily act, condemn them in their spirit and so talk morally against them and in favour of marriages. But if they do not execrate adultery in their spirit and this from religion, they are still adulterers; for though not committing adulteries in bodily act, they yet commit them in spirit. Therefore, after death when they become spirits, they speak openly in favour of them. From this it is clear that even a wicked man can shun adulteries as hurtful, but that none but a Christian can shun them as sins. From the above, the truth of the proposition is now established, that chastity cannot be predicated of those who abstain from adulteries solely on account of various external reasons.

CL 154. XII. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who believe marriages to be unchaste. Such men do not know what chastity is, or even that it is, as neither do those spoken of in (n. 152) above, nor those now to be spoken of, who make chastity to consist only in celibacy.

CL 155. XIII. That chastity cannot be predicated of those who have renounced marriages by vowing perpetual celibacy, unless there be and remain in them the love of a life truly conjugial. That chastity cannot be predicated of these is because, after the vow of perpetual celibacy, conjugial love is cast out, though to this love alone belongs the predication of chastity; also because inclination to the sex is still within from creation and thence from birth, and when restrained and repressed, it cannot be otherwise than that this inclination will go off into heat, and with some into burning heat; and this, when it rises up from the body into the spirit, infests and with some defiles it. Moreover, it may be that the spirit, thus defiled, will defile also the things of religion and cast them down from their internal seat where they are in holiness, into mere externals where they become things of the mouth and gesture alone. Therefore it is provided by the Lord that such celibacy exists only with those who are in external worship (alone), being in this because they do not approach the Lord or read the Word. With such men, the injunction of celibacy, with the vow of chastity, does not endanger eternal life as it would with those who are in internal worship. Add to this, that many do not enter into that state of life of their own free will, some entering it before they are in freedom from reason, and some because of causes drawing them away from the world.

[2] Among those who adopt that state of life for the separation of their mind from the world that they may spend their days in Divine worship, they only are chaste with whom the love of a life truly conjugial remains, whether it was with them before that state or came after it, it being the love of this life, of which chastity is predicated. It is for this reason that after death, all who have lived in monasteries are finally released from their vows and set at liberty, that they may be brought to choose either a conjugial life or a life apart from the conjugial, according to their interior prayers and the desires of their love. Moreover, those who have loved the spiritual things of worship, if they then enter into the conjugial life, are given in marriage in heaven; but those who choose an extra-conjugial life are sent to their like who dwell at the sides of heaven.

[3] I have asked angels whether women who have devoted themselves to piety and given themselves up to Divine worship, and so have withdrawn from the illusions of the world and the lusts of the flesh and have therefore vowed perpetual virginity, are received into heaven and there become the first among the blessed in accordance with their own belief. The angels answered: "They are indeed received into heaven, but when they feel the sphere of conjugial love there, they become sad and anxious; and then, some of their own free will, some by requested permission, and some by command, they depart and are let out; and when they are outside that heaven, a way is opened for them to their companions who, in the world, were in a similar state of life. Then, from being anxious, they become cheerful and happy in each other’s company."

CL 156. XIV. That the state of marriage is to be preferred to the state of celibacy is evident from what has thus far been said concerning marriage and celibacy. That the state of marriage is to be preferred is because this state exists from creation; because its origin is the marriage of good and truth; because its correspondence is with the marriage of the Lord and the Church; because the Church and conjugial love are constant companions; because its use is more excellent than the uses of all else in creation, for thence is the propagation of the human race according to order, and also of the angelic heaven, this being from the human race. Add to this, that marriage is the fullness of man; for by its means man becomes a complete man, as will be shown in the following chapter. In celibacy, all these things are lacking.

[2] If the proposition is made that the state of celibacy is more excellent than the state of marriage, and if this is submitted to examination that it may receive assent and be established by confirmation, the result of the confirmation will then be, that marriages are not holy nor any of them chaste; nay, that in the female sex, those only are chaste who abstain from marriage and vow perpetual virginity; and further, that it is those who vow perpetual celibacy who are meant by eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:12); besides many other conclusions which, as coming from a proposition which is not true, are themselves not true. By eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God are meant spiritual eunuchs, being those who in marriages abstain from the evils of whoredom. That Italian eunuchs are not meant, is evident.

CL 156a. To the above I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

Returning home from the sport of wisdom spoken of above (n. 132), I saw on the way an angel in raiment of the colour of hyacinth. He came to my side and said: "I see that you have come from a sport of wisdom, and have been gladdened by what you heard there. I also perceive that you are not fully in this world, since you are at the same time in the natural world. Therefore you do not know about our Olympic Gymnasiums where the ancient Sophi meet together and learn from those who come from your world what changes and successions of state wisdom has undergone and is still undergoing. If you wish, I will conduct you to a place where dwell many of the ancient Sophi and their sons, that is, their disciples."

He then led me to the border-land between the north and the east. Looking thitherward from a high place, lo, I saw a city, and on one side of it two hills, the one nearer the city being lower than the other; and the angel remarked, "That city is called Athens, the lower hill Parnassus, and the higher Helicon. They are so called because in and about the city dwell the ancient Sophi of Greece, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristippus, Xenophon, together with their disciples and novices." When I asked about Plato and Aristotle, he said: "They and their followers dwell in another region because they taught matters of reason which pertain to the understanding, while the others taught morals which pertain to life.

[2] From the city of Athens," he continued, "studious men are frequently sent to the literati among Christians, that the latter may tell them what men think at this day concerning God, the creation of the universe, the immortality of the soul, the state of man relative to that of beasts, and other subjects which are matters of interior wisdom." He added that a herald had that day announced an assembly, a sign that their emissaries had met new-comers from the earth, from whom they had heard some curious news.

We then saw many men coming from the city and its vicinity, some with laurels on their heads, some carrying palms in their hands, some with books under their arms, and some with pens under the hair of the left temple. We mingled with them and went up together. And lo, on the hill an octagonal palace which was called the Palladium. This we entered, and behold, therein were eight hexagonal recesses, and in each a library and also a table at which were sitting the laureates. In the body of the Palladium were seen seats cut out of the rock, and on these the rest had seated themselves.

[3] Then a door at the left was opened, through which were introduced two new-comers from the earth. When they had been duly received, one of the laureates asked them, "WHAT NEWS FROM THE EARTH? They said: "The news is that in the woods have been found men like beasts or beasts like men. From face and body, however, it was recognized that they had been born men and had been lost or abandoned in the woods when they were two or three years old." They went on to say, "They could not utter a single thing pertaining to thought, nor could they be taught to articulate sound into any word. They did not know what food was suitable to them as do beasts, but put into their mouth the wild growths of the woods, both clean and unclean; not to speak of much else of the same sort. From this, some of the learned among us have made many surmises, and others, many conclusions respecting the state of men relative to that of beasts."

[4] On hearing this, some of the ancient Sophi asked what the surmises and conclusions from these facts were, and the two new-comers answered: "There were a number of them, but they can be reduced to the following:

1. That of his own nature and by birth, man is more stupid and hence viler than any beast, and if not instructed, he remains such.

2. That he can be instructed, for he has learned to articulate sound and hence to speak, and thereby he began to express thoughts, and this gradually more and more until at last he could put forth laws of society, many of which, however, are impressed on beasts by birth.

3. That beasts have rationality equally with men.

4. Therefore, if beasts could talk, they would reason on any subject as cleverly as men, an indication of which lies in the fact that they think from reason and prudence equally as do men.

[5] 5. That understanding is merely a modification of light from the sun by the mediation of ether, and with the co-operation of heat; thus that it is only an activity of interior nature; and this activity can be heightened until it appears as wisdom.

6. That therefore it is idle to believe that a man lives after death any more than a beast; except that possibly, from the exhalation of the life of his body he may appear for a few days after his decease as a vapour under the appearance of a spectre, until this is dissipated into nature--scarcely otherwise than as a plant resuscitated from its ashes has the appearance of being in the likeness of its original form.

7. Consequently, that religion, which teaches a life after death, is an invention for the purpose of inwardly holding the simple in bonds by its laws, as they are held outwardly by the laws of the state." To this they added, that the merely ingenious reason in this way, but not the intelligent. When asked what the intelligent think, they said that they had not heard, but this was their opinion.

CL 156b. Hearing these things, all who were sitting at the tables exclaimed,"What times are now on earth! Alas, what changes has wisdom undergone! Is it not turned into fatuous ingenuity? The sun is set and is below the earth diametrically opposite to its meridian! Who cannot see, from the example of those lost and found in the woods, that such is the nature of man when not instructed? Is he not a man according as he is instructed? Is he not born in greater ignorance than beasts? Must he not learn to walk and to talk? If he did not learn to walk, would he stand erect upon his feet? and if he did not learn to talk, could he give utterance to any thought? Is not everyone a man according as he is taught, insane from falsities, or wise from truths? and, when insane from falsities, is he not entirely possessed with the fantasy that he is wiser than one who is wise from truths? Are there not fatuous and insane men who are no more men than those found in the woods? Are not those who have lost their memory like them?

[2] From all this, we conclude that, without instruction, man is neither man nor beast, but is a form which can receive that which makes a man; thus, that he is not born a man but becomes a man; and that man is born such a form in order that he may be an organ receiving life from God, to the end that he may be a subject into which God can bring every good, and which by union with Himself, He can render blessed to eternity. From what you have said, we perceive that at this day wisdom is so far extinguished or infatuated that men know nothing whatever about the state of man‘s life relative to that of beasts. Hence it is, that neither do they know the state of man’s life after death; and those who might have known this but do not wish to know it and therefore deny it, as do many of your Christians, we may liken to those found in the woods; not that they have become thus stupid for want of instruction, but that they have made themselves stupid by fallacies of the senses, which are the darkness of truths."

CL 156c. Upon this, a man standing in the middle of the Palladium and holding a palm in his hand, said: "I beg you to unfold this arcanum: How could man created in the form of God be changed into the form of the devil? I know that the angels of heaven are forms of God, and that the angels of hell are forms of the devil; and these two forms are opposites, the latter being forms of insanity, the former forms of wisdom. Explain how man, created a form of God, could pass from day into such night that he could deny God and eternal life."

[2] To this, the teachers replied in order, first the Pythagoreans, then the Socratists, and afterwards the others, among whom was a Platonist. This man spoke last and his view, prevailed. It was as follows: "In the Saturnian era or Golden Age, men knew and acknowledged that they were forms receptive of life from God. Wisdom was therefore inscribed on their souls and hearts, and hence they saw truth from the light of truth, and by means of truths perceived good from the delight of the love thereof. But in subsequent ages, as the human race fell away from the acknowledgment that every truth of wisdom with them and thence every good of love continually flowed in from God, they ceased to be habitations of God. Then discourse with God, and consociation with angels also ceased. For from its former direction, their mind, which as to its interiors had been raised upwards to God by God, was bent more and more in an oblique direction outwards to the world and so to God by God through the world; and finally it was turned in the opposite direction, which is downwards to self. And since God cannot be held in view by man when the man is inwardly inverted and thus averted, men separated themselves from God and became forms of hell or of the devil.

[3] Whence it follows, that in the first Ages, men acknowledged in heart and soul that every good of love and hence every truth of wisdom was theirs from God; and also, that these were God‘s in them, and thus that they themselves were mere receptacles of life from God, and hence were called images of God, sons of God, and born of God. But in the succeeding Ages, they acknowledged this, not in heart and soul but from persuasive and later from historical faith, and finally with the mouth only; and to acknowledge this with the mouth only is not acknowledgment, nay, at heart it is denial. From this it can be seen what is the nature of wisdom among Christians at this day, when, despite the fact that from written revelation they can be inspired by God, they do not know the difference between man and beast, and many therefore believe that if man lives after death so also will a beast, or because a beast does not live after death, neither will man. Has not our spiritual light which enlightens the sight of the mind become thick darkness with them? and their natural light which enlightens only the sight of the body become splendour?"

CL 156d. After this, they all turned to the two new-comers and, thanking them for their coming and their narration, begged them to report what they had heard to their brethren. The new-comers replied that they would confirm their brethren in the truth, that so far as they attribute every good of charity and truth of faith to the Lord and not to themselves, so far are they men and so far do they become angels of heaven.

CL 156e. The second Memorable Relation:

One morning some sweet singing, heard from a height above me, woke me from sleep. Hence, in the first waking moments which are more internal, peaceful, and sweet than the following hours of the day, I could be held for some time in the spirit, as though out of the body, and could give exquisite attention to the affection which was being sung. The singing of heaven is nothing else than an affection of the mind issuing from the mouth as melody; for the tone springing from an affection of love is what gives life to speech, and this apart from the words of the speaker. In that state, I perceived that it was the affection of the delights of conjugial love which was being expressed in melody by wives in heaven. This I observed from the sound of the singing wherein those delights were varied in marvellous ways.

After this, I arose and looked abroad into the spiritual world. And there, in the east below the sun, was seen what seemed like A GOLDEN SHOWER. It was the morning dew coming down in such abundance that, when touched by the rays of the sun, it presented before my sight the appearance of a golden shower. More fully awakened by this sight, I walked forth in the spirit and asked an angel whom I then chanced to meet, whether he had seen the golden shower coming down from the sun.

[2] He answered that he sees it whenever he is in meditation on conjugial love. Then, directing his eyes thither, he said: "That shower is falling upon a hall in which are three husbands with their wives who dwell in the centre of an eastern paradise. Such a shower is seen falling from the sun upon that hall because with them abides wisdom concerning conjugial love and its delights--with the husbands, concerning conjugial love and with the wives concerning its delights. But I perceive that you are in meditation on the delights of conjugial love. I will therefore conduct you to that hall and introduce you."

He then led me through paradisal scenes to houses constructed of olive wood, with two columns of cedar before the entrance; and introducing me to the husbands, he asked that I might be permitted, in their presence, to speak with their wives; and the husbands gave their assent and called them. The wives looked searchingly into my eyes, and I asked why. They said, "We are able exquisitely to see what your inclination is in respect to love of the sex, and hence what your affection, and from this what your thought; and we see that you are meditating on it intensely but yet chastely." They then asked, "What do you wish us to tell you about it?"

I answered, `Tell me, I pray, something about the delights of conjugial love." Nodding assent, the husbands then said, "If agreeable to you, disclose something about them. Their ears are chaste."

[3] The wives then asked me, "Who instructed you to question us about the delights of that love? Why not question our husbands?" I answered, "This angel who is with me whispered in my ear that wives are receptacles and sensories of those delights because they are born loves, and all delights pertain to love."

To this they answered with smiling lips: "Be prudent and do not say any such thing save in an ambiguous sense, for it is a wisdom deeply reserved in the hearts of our sex and not disclosed to any husband unless he is in love truly conjugial. There are many reasons for this--reasons which we hide within ourselves."

The husbands then said: "Our wives know all the states of our mind, nothing whatever being hidden from them. They see, perceive, and feel all that proceeds from our will, while we on the other hand know nothing of what passes with them. Wives have this gift because they are most tender loves and ardent zeals, as it were, for the preservation of conjugial friendship and confidence, and so for the happiness of the life of both partners; for, from the wisdom implanted in their love, they have this in view both for their husbands and for themselves. This wisdom is so full of prudence that they do not wish, and so are not able, to say that they love, but only that they are loved."

I asked the wives why they do not wish and so are not able? They replied that if the least such thing escaped their lips, cold would come over their husbands and separate them from bed and chamber and sight. "But this is the case with husbands who do not regard marriages as holy and therefore do not love their wives from spiritual love. Not so with those who do. In the minds of these, that love is spiritual, and it is from this that it is natural in the body. We in this hall are in the latter love from the former, and therefore entrust to our husbands arcana that concern our delights of conjugial love."

[4] I courteously requested that they disclose something of these arcana to me also. They at once looked towards a window in the south, and lo, there was seen a white dove, its wings shining as from silver, and its head marked with a crown as of gold. It was perched on a bough from which grew an olive. When the dove was in the effort of spreading its wings, the wives said, "We will disclose something. So long as this dove is seen, it is a sign to us that we may." They then said: "Every man has five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch; but we have in addition a sixth sense, being the sensation of all the delights of the husband’s conjugial love. We have this sense in the palms of our hands, when touching the breasts, arms, hands or cheeks of our husbands, especially the breasts, and also when touched by them; and all the gladness and pleasantness of the thought of their mind, and all the joys and delights of their animus, and the festive and cheerful things of their bosom, pass from them to us and take form and become perceptible, sensible, tangible. We then discern them as exquisitely and distinctly as the ear discerns the modulations of song, or the tongue distinguishes the flavour of delicacies. In a word, in us, the spiritual delights of our husbands put on, as it were, a natural embodiment, and for this reason we are called by our husbands the sensory organs of chaste conjugial love and hence of its delight. But this sense of our sex exists, subsists, persists, and is exalted, in the degree that our husbands love us from wisdom and judgment, and we in turn love them for the same in them. In the heavens, this sense of our sex is called the sport of wisdom with its love, and of love with its wisdom."

[5] Stirred by these words with the desire of learning more, I asked concerning the variety of the delights. They answered, "It is infinite but we do not wish to say more and therefore cannot; for the dove at our window, with the olive branch under its feet, has flown away."

I then waited for its return, but in vain. Meanwhile I asked the husbands, "Have you a like sense of conjugial love?" They answered: "We have it in general but not in particular. We have a general blessedness, a general delight, and a general pleasantness from the particulars of these as they are with our wives; and this general sense, which we get from them, is like the serenity of peace."

After these words, behold, through the window was seen a swan standing on the branch of a fig tree; and he spread his wings and flew away. Seeing this, the husbands said, "That is a sign to us for silence about conjugial love. Return at another time and perhaps more may be disclosed." They then withdrew and we departed.

CL 156f. That from creation there was implanted in man and woman an inclination to conjunction as into a one, and also the faculty thereof, and that these are in man and woman still, is evident from the Book of Creation and at the same time from the Lord’s words. In the Book of Creation, which is called Genesis, we read:

The same was said by the Lord in Matthew:

[2] From these passages it is evident that woman was created out of man, and that there is in both an inclination and a faculty of reuniting themselves into a one. That the reunion is into one man is also evident from the Book of Creation where both together are called Man; for we read, In the day that God created man, male and female created he them, and called their name Man. It is said here, He called their name Adam, but in the Hebrew language, Adam and Man are the same word. Moreover, in (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:22-24), both together are again called Man. "One man" is also meant by "one flesh," as is evident from passages in the Word where it speaks of all flesh, by which is meant every man; as in (Genesis 6:12, 13, 17, 19; Isaiah 40:5, 6; 49:26; 66:16, 23, 24; Jeremiah 25:31; 32:27; 14:5; Ezekiel 20:48; 21:4, 5).

[3] As to what is meant by the rib of the man which was built into a woman; what by the flesh which was closed up in the place thereof; and so, what by "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," and by the father and mother whom after marriage man is to leave; also by "cleave unto his wife"; this has been shown in THE ARCANA COELESTIA where the two books, Genesis and Exodus are explained as to their spiritual sense. It is there shown that by rib is not meant a rib, nor by flesh flesh, nor by bone bone, nor by cleave cleave, but the spiritual things which correspond to them and so are signified by them. That what are meant are the spiritual things which of two make one man, is plain from the fact that it is conjugial love that conjoins them, and this love is spiritual. That love of the man‘s wisdom is transcribed into the wife has been stated several times above and will be more fully confirmed in the chapters which follow. But for the present we must not turn aside and thus digress from the subject here proposed, which is the conjunction of two married partners into one flesh by the union of souls and minds. This union shall be elucidated in the following order.

1. That from creation there has been implanted in each sex, a faculty and inclination, giving them the ability and the will to be conjoined as into a one.

2. That conjugial love conjoins two souls and thence minds into one.

3. That the wife’s will conjoins itself with the man‘s understanding, and hence the man’s understanding with the wife‘s will.

4. That the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual with the wife, but inconstant and alternating with the man.

5. That conjunction is inspired into the man by the wife according to her love, and is received by the man according to his wisdom.

6. That from the first days of marriage this conjunction is effected successively, and with those who are in love truly conjugial, more and more deeply to eternity.

7. That the conjunction of the wife with the rational wisdom of the husband is effected from within, but with his moral wisdom from without.

8. That with this conjunction as an end, the wife is given a perception of the affections of the husband and also the highest prudence in moderating them.

9. That for causes which are necessities, wives store up this perception with themselves and conceal it from their husbands, in order that conjugial love, friendship, and confidence, and thus the blessedness of cohabitation and the happiness of life, may be firmly established.

10. That this perception is the wife’s wisdom, and that it is not possible with the man; nor is the man‘s rational wisdom possible with the wife.

11. That from her love, the wife is continually thinking about the inclination of the man to herself with the purpose of conjoining him to herself, not so the man.

12. That the wife conjoins herself to the man by applications to the desires of his will.

13. That the wife is conjoined to her husband by the sphere of her life going forth from her love.

14. That the wife is conjoined to the husband by the appropriation of the forces of his manhood, but that this takes place according to their mutual spiritual love.

15. That the wife thus receives into herself the image of her husband, and hence perceives, sees, and feels his affections.

16. That there are offices proper to the man and offices proper to the wife; and that the wife cannot enter into the offices proper to the man, nor the man into the offices proper to the wife, and rightly perform them.

17. That according as there is mutual aid, these offices also conjoin the two into a one, and at the same time make one home.

18. That according to the above-mentioned conjunctions, married partners become more and more one man.

19. That those who are in love truly conjugial feel themselves to be a united man and as one flesh.

20. That, regarded in itself, love truly conjugial is a union of souls, a conjunction of minds, and an effort to conjunction in breasts and thence in the body.

21. That the states of this love are innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and a mutual desire of animus and heart to do the other every good; and from these, blessedness, happiness, delight, pleasure; and from the eternal fruition of these, heavenly felicity.

22. That these are by no means possible except in the marriage of one man with one wife.

The explanation of the above now follows.

CL 157. I. That from creation there has been implanted in each sex, a faculty and inclination, giving them the ability and the will to be conjoined as into a one. That woman was taken out of man has been shown just above from the Book of Creation. That hence in each sex there is a faculty and inclination to conjoin themselves into a one, follows as a consequence; for that which has been taken out of another draws on, and retains the proprial characteristic of that other which it makes its own; and this, being homogeneous, breathes reunition, and when reunited, it is as though in itself when in the other, and the reverse. The statement that there is such a faculty of conjunction of the one sex with the other, or that they can be united, presents no difficulty as neither does the statement that there is an inclination to be conjoined, for personal experience teaches both.

CL 158. II. That conjugial love conjoins two souls and thence minds into a one. Every man consists of soul, mind, and body. Being man’s inmost, the soul from its origin is celestial; being his mediate, the mind from its origin is spiritual; and being his ultimate, the body from its origin is natural. Things which from their origin are celestial, and those which from their origin are spiritual, are not in space but in the appearances of space. This, moreover, is known in the world; wherefore it is said, that neither extension nor place can be predicated of things spiritual. Since, therefore, spaces are appearances, distance and presence also are appearances. That in the spiritual world the appearances of distance and presence are according to the nearness, relationship, and affinity of love, has been frequently pointed out and confirmed in treatises on that world.

[2] It is mentioned here, that it may be known that the souls and minds of men are not in space as are their bodies; for from their origin, as said above, they are celestial and spiritual. And, not being in space, they can be conjoined as into a one, though not at the same time their bodies. This is especially the case between married partners who inmostly love each other. But because woman is from man, and this conjunction is a kind of reunition, it can be seen from reason that it is not conjunction into a one but adjunction, near and close, according to the love, and, in the case of those who are in love truly conjugial, even to contact. This adjunction may be called spiritual cohabitation, and it exists with partners who tenderly love each other, however distant they are in body. There are many evidences of experience even in the natural world which confirm this. From the above it is evident that conjugial love conjoins two souls and minds into a one.

CL 159. III. That the wife‘s will conjoins itself with the man’s understanding, and hence the man‘s understanding with the wife’s will. The reason is, because the male is born to become understanding and the female to become a will loving the understanding of the male; from which it follows, that conjugial conjunction is a conjunction of the wife‘s will with the man’s understanding, and reciprocally, of the man‘s understanding with the wife’s will. Any one can see that there is the closest conjunction of the understanding and the will, and also that it is such that the one faculty can enter into the other and can be delighted by reason of the conjunction and in it.

CL 160. IV. That the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual with the wife, but inconstant and alternating with the man. The reason is, because love cannot do otherwise than love and unite itself (to another) that it may be loved in return, its essence and life being nothing else; and women are born loves, but men, with whom they unite themselves that they may be loved in return, are receptions. Moreover, love is continually working. It is like heat, flame, and fire, which perish if restrained from doing their work. Hence it is, that with the wife, the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual. That with the man, there is not the same inclination to the wife, is because man is not love but only a recipient of love, and the state of reception is absent or present according to interrupting cares, according to the changes of heat and non-heat in the mind from various causes, and according to the increase and decrease of virile powers, in the body; and since these do not return constantly and at set times, it follows, that with men the inclination to that conjunction is inconstant and alternating.

CL 161. V. That conjunction is inspired into the man by the wife according to her love, and is received by the man according to his wisdom. That love and thence conjunction is inspired into the man by the wife is at this day concealed from men, yea, is universally denied by wives. The reason is because they persuade the men that it is they alone who love, and themselves who receive the love; or that men are loves and themselves obediences. They also rejoice in heart when the men believe this. There are many reasons why they thus persuade them, all of which pertain to the prudence and circumspection of wives. Of this, something shall be told in the following pages, and specifically in the chapter on The Causes of Colds, Separations, and Divorces between Married Partners. That the inspiration or insinuation of love is from the wives into the men is because there is nothing of conjugial love with men, nor even of love of the sex, but only with wives and women. That such is the case was shown me in a living way in the spiritual world.

[2] Once during a conversation there on this subject, the men, persuaded by their wives, insisted that it is they who love, and not the wives, and that the wives receive that love from them. To settle the controversy about this arcanum, all the women, including the wives, were withdrawn from the men, and with them was removed the sphere of love of the sex. With this removed, the men came into a state altogether strange and never before perceived, at which they greatly complained. Then, while they were in this state, the women were brought to them, and the wives to their husbands, and both the women and the wives spoke sweetly to them; but the men were cold to their blandishments and, turning away, said among themselves, "What is this? What is a woman?" And when some of the women said that they were their wives, they answered, "What is a wife? We do not know you." But when the wives began to grieve over this utterly cold indifference on the part of the men, and some of them to weep, the sphere of the love of the female sex and the conjugial sphere which till then had been taken away from the men was restored, and the men at once returned into their former state, the lovers of marriage into theirs, and the lovers of the sex into theirs. In this way the men were convinced that nothing of conjugial love or even of love of the sex resided with them, but solely with wives and women. Nevertheless, after this the wives from their prudence induced the men to believe that love resides with the men, and that from them some spark thereof may pass into themselves.

[3] This experience is adduced here, that it may be known that wives are loves and men receptions. That men are receptions according to the wisdom with them, especially according to that wisdom from religion which teaches that the wife alone is to be loved, is evident from the consideration that when the wife alone is loved, the love is concentrated; and, being thereby also ennobled, it remains in its strength and is steadfast and enduring. Otherwise it would be as when wheat from the granary is thrown to the dogs, whereby there is want at home.

CL 162. VI. That from the first days of marriage this conjunction is effected successively, and with those who are in love truly conjugial, more and more deeply to eternity. The first heat of marriage does not conjoin, for it partakes of love of the sex which is a love belonging to the body and thence to the spirit, and what is in the spirit from the body does not stay long, while love which is in the body from the spirit does. Love which belongs to the spirit and from the spirit to the body is insinuated into the souls and minds of married partners together with friendship and confidence. When these two conjoin themselves with the first love of marriage, that love becomes conjugial; and this opens the breasts and breathes into them the sweets of love, doing this more and more deeply as friendship and confidence adjoin themselves to the primitive love, and the latter enters into them and they into it.

CL 163. VII. That the conjunction of the wife with the rational wisdom of the husband is effected from within, but with his moral wisdom from without. Wisdom with men is twofold, rational and moral, their rational wisdom belonging to the understanding alone, and their moral wisdom to the understanding and at the same time to the life. This can be concluded and seen from mere intuition and exploration. But that it may be known what is meant by the rational wisdom of men, and what by their moral wisdom, some specimens thereof shall be enumerated. The things pertaining to their rational wisdom are designated by various names, being called in general, science, intelligence, and wisdom, and in particular, rationality, judgment, genius, learning, sagacity. Science, however, is manifold, there being sciences peculiar to each individual in his particular office--sciences peculiar to the clergy, peculiar to government officials and their subordinates, peculiar to judges, peculiar to physicians and chemists, peculiar to soldiers and sailors, peculiar to mechanics and workmen, peculiar to farmers, and so on. To rational wisdom pertain also all the sciences into which young men are initiated in schools, whereby they are later initiated into intelligence. These also are called by various names, such as philosophy, physics, geometry, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, jurisprudence, politics, ethics, history, etc., and by them, as by gateways, there is entrance into the rational things from which rational wisdom is formed.

CL 164. The things with man which pertain to moral wisdom are all the moral virtues which have regard to life and enter into it; also all the spiritual virtues which flow from love to God and love towards the neighbour, and which together flow into the moral virtues. The virtues which pertain to the moral wisdom of men are likewise of various names and are called temperance, sobriety, probity, benevolence, friendship, modesty, sincerity, readiness to serve, courtesy; also assiduity, industry, alertness, alacrity, munificence, liberality, generosity, earnestness, intrepidity, prudence, besides many other virtues. The spiritual virtues with men are love of religion, charity, truth, faith, conscience, innocence, and many others. These and the former virtues may in general be referred to love and zeal for religion, for the public good, for country, for fellow-citizens, for parents, for the married partner, and for the children. In all these virtues, justice and judgment are dominant, justice pertaining to moral wisdom and judgment to rational wisdom.

CL 165. That the conjunction of the wife with the rational wisdom of the man is from within, is because this wisdom is proper to the understanding of men and climbs into a light in which women are not. This is the reason why women do not speak from it, and when in the company of men where such matters are discussed, they are silent and simply listen. That nevertheless these rational things are with wives from within, is manifest from their listening, in that they inwardly recognize and favour what they hear and have heard from their husbands.

That the conjunction of the wife with the moral wisdom of the men is from without, is because the virtues of that wisdom are for the most part akin to the like virtues with women and partake of the intellectual will of the man, with which the will of the wife unites itself and makes a marriage. And because the wife knows these virtues in a man better than the man knows them in himself, it is said that the wife‘s conjunction with them is from without.

CL 166. VIII. That with this conjunction as an end, the wife is given a perception of the affections of the husband and also the highest prudence in moderating them. That wives know the affections of their husbands, and that they prudently moderate them, is also among the arcana of conjugial love stored up with wives. They know them by three senses, sight, hearing, and touch; and they moderate them all unknown to their husbands. Since these matters are among the arcana of wives, it does not become me to disclose them circumstantially; but for wives themselves to do so, is becoming. Therefore, at the end of the chapters follow four Memorable Relations in which these arcana are disclosed by them; two (n. 156e, 208) by the three wives dwelling in the hall upon which was seen falling a golden shower, as it were, and two (n. 293, 294) by the seven wives sitting in a rose garden. If these are read, this arcanum will be seen unveiled.

CL 167. IX. That for causes which are necessities, wives store up this perception with themselves and conceal it from their husbands, in order that conjugial love, friendship, and confidence, and thus the blessedness of cohabitation and the happiness of life, may be firmly established. The storing up and concealing by wives of their perception of their husband’s affections, are called necessities because, if revealed, they would alienate their husbands from bed, from chamber, and from home. The reason is because, with most men, deeply seated within is conjugial cold, and this from many causes which will be set forth in the chapter on The Causes of Colds, Separations, and Divorces between Married Partners.

[2] If wives were to disclose the affections and inclinations of their husbands, this cold would break forth from its hiding places and would chill, first the interiors of the mind, then the breast, and from this the ultimate organs of love which are dedicated to generation; and with these chilled, conjugial love would be so far exiled that there would no longer remain any hope of friendship, confidence, and blessedness of cohabitation, or of happiness of life therefrom, when yet it is by this hope that wives are continually nourished. The disclosing of the fact that they know the affections and inclinations of love in their husband carries with it a declaration and publication of their own love; and it is well known that, so far as wives open their mouths about that, men grow cold and desire separation. From this, the truth of the present article is clear, that the reasons why wives store up their perception within themselves and conceal it from their husbands are necessities.

CL 168. X. That this perception is the wife‘s wisdom, and that it is not possible with the man; nor is the man’s rational wisdom possible with the wife. This follows from the difference between the masculine and the feminine. It is masculine to perceive from the understanding, and feminine to perceive from love; and the understanding perceives things which are above the body and beyond the world, it being to these that rational and spiritual sight extends; while love does not go beyond what it feels. When it does go beyond, it does this by drawing on that conjunction with the male understanding which was established from creation; for understanding pertains to light, and love to heat, and that which pertains to light is seen, while that which pertains to heat is felt. From this it is manifest, that because of the universal difference which exists between the masculine and the feminine, the wife‘s wisdom is not possible with the man, nor the man’s (rational) wisdom with the wife; nor is man‘s moral wisdom possible with women so far as it partakes of his rational wisdom.

CL 169. XI. That (from her love), the wife is continually thinking about the inclination of the man to herself with the purpose of conjoining him to herself; (not so the man.) This coheres with what was previously explained (n. 160), namely, that the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual with the wife, but inconstant and alternating with the man. From this it follows, that the thought of the wife about the inclination of her husband to herself with the purpose of conjoining him to herself is continual. The thought of the wife about the husband is indeed interrupted by the domestic affairs which are under her care, still it remains in the affection of her love, and with women this does not separate itself from their thoughts as is the case with men. But these things I report as they were told me; see the two Relations by the seven wives sitting in the rose garden (n. 293, 294) which follow some of the chapters.

CL 170. XII. That the wife conjoins herself to the man by applications to the desires of his will. Being among things familiar to all, explanation of these words is superfluous.

CL 171. XIII. That the wife is conjoined to her husband by the sphere of her life going forth from her love. A spiritual sphere, being the sphere of the affections of his love, emanates, nay, pours forth from every man and encompasses him. Moreover, this sphere implants itself in his natural sphere, being the sphere of the body, and the two join together. That a natural sphere is continually flowing forth from the body, not only from man but also from beasts, yea, from trees, fruits, flowers, and even from metals, is a matter of common knowledge. It is the same in the spiritual world; but the spheres flowing from subjects there, are spiritual, and those which emanate from (good) spirits and angels are deeply spiritual, because with them, affections of love and perceptions and thoughts therefrom are more interior. It is from this that all sympathy and antipathy takes its origin, and also all conjunction and disjunction. In that world, presence and absence are according to these spheres, for what is homogeneous or concordant makes conjunction and presence, and what is heterogeneous and discordant makes disjunction and absence. Therefore, it is these spheres that make distances there. Moreover, some men know what the operation of these spiritual spheres is in the natural world; nor are the inclinations of married partners towards each other from any other origin. Unanimous and concordant spheres unite them, and opposing and discordant spheres disunite them; for concordant spheres are delightful and grateful, and discordant spheres undelightful and ungrateful.

[2] I have heard from angels who are in clear perception of these spheres, that in man there is not a single part, whether within him or on the surface, which does not renew itself, doing this by dissolutions and reparations, and that from this comes the sphere which is continually pouring forth. They also said that this sphere presses around man at the back and at the breast, but somewhat thinly at the back, and densely at the breast; that the sphere from the breast conjoins itself with the respiration, and that it is because of this that two partners who disagree in dispositions and are discordant in affections lie in bed turned back to back, while those who are concordant in dispositions and affections turn towards each other.

[3] They said further, that because spheres go forth from every part of man and are continually around him in great abundance, they conjoin and disjoin two partners, not only from without but also from within, and that thence are all the differences and varieties of conjugial love. Finally, they said that the sphere of love going forth from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as a sweet fragrance, far more pleasant than that perceived in the world by a newly married husband during the first days after the nuptials. From this, the truth here asserted is evident, namely, that the wife is conjoined to the man by the sphere of her life going forth from her love.

CL 172. XIV. That the wife is conjoined to the husband by the appropriation of the forces of his manhood, but that this takes place according to their mutual spiritual love. That such is the case, this also I have taken from the mouth of angels. They said that the prolific things expended by husbands are received by wives universally and add themselves to their life; that wives thus lead a life unanimous with their husbands, and successively more unanimous; and that hence the union of souls and conjunction of minds exists in effect. The cause of this, they said, was that in the prolific of the husband is his soul and also his mind as to its interiors which are conjoined to the soul. They added that this was provided from creation in order that the wisdom of the man which makes his soul may be appropriated to the wife, and that thus they may become one flesh, in accordance with the Lord’s words; also that this was provided, lest, after conception, the man, from some fantasy, should leave his wife. But they added that with wives, the applications and appropriations of the life of husbands are effected according to the conjugial love, it being love, which is spiritual union, that conjoins; and that for many reasons this too has been provided.

CL 173. XV. That the wife thus receives into herself the image of her husband, and hence perceives, sees, and feels his affections. From the reasons adduced above, it follows as an attested truth that wives receive into themselves the things pertaining to the wisdom of their husbands, thus the properties of their souls and minds, and so, from being virgins, make themselves wives. The causes from which this follows are:

1. That woman was created from man.

2. That in her there is thus an inclination to unite and, as it were, reunite herself with man.

3. That from this union with her fellow pair and for the sake of it, woman is born the love of man, and by marriage becomes more and more the love of him inasmuch as her love is continually devoting its thoughts to the conjoining of the man to herself.

4. That she is conjoined to her only one by applications to the desires of his life.

5. That they are conjoined by the spheres encompassing them and uniting the one with the other, both universally and as to every single part, according to the nature of the conjugial love with the wives, and according also to the nature of the recipient wisdom with the husbands.

6. That they are conjoined also by the appropriation by wives of the virile forces of their husbands.

7. From which appropriation, it is clear that something of the husband is continually being transcribed into the wife and is inscribed upon her as her own.

From all this it follows, that an image of the husband is being formed in the wife, and from this image, the wife perceives, sees, and feels within herself the things which are in her husband, and thence, as it were, herself in him. She perceives from the communication, sees from the aspect, and feels from the touch. That from the touch, she feels the reception of her love by her husband in the palms of his hands, on his cheeks, arms, hands, and breasts, was disclosed to me by the three wives in the hall and the seven wives in the rose garden spoken of in the Memorable Relations (n. 156e, 208, 293-294).

CL 174. XVI. That there are offices proper to the man, and offices proper to the wife; and that the wife cannot enter into the offices proper to the man, nor the man into the offices proper to the wife, and rightly perform them. That there are offices proper to the man, and offices proper to the wife, has no need of being illustrated by a recountal of those offices; for they are many and various, and everyone knows how to classify them according to their genera and species if only he exert his mind to the distinguishing of them. The offices above all others by which women conjoin themselves to their husbands are the education of the little children of both sexes, and of girls up to the age when they are given in marriage.

CL 175. That the wife cannot enter into the offices proper to the man, nor, on the other hand, the man into the offices proper to the wife, is because they differ as do wisdom and the love thereof, or thought and its affection, or the intellect and its will. In the offices proper to men, understanding, thought, and wisdom play the leading part, but in the offices proper to wives, the leading part is played by will, affection, and love; and the wife performs her offices from the latter, and the man performs his from the former. Therefore, by their very nature their offices are divergent, yet in their successive series they are conjunctive.

[2] It is thought by many that women can perform the offices of men if only they are initiated into them from their earliest age, as are boys. They can indeed be initiated into the exercise of them, but not into the judgment on which the right performance of the offices inwardly depends. Therefore, in matters of judgment, women who have been initiated into the offices of men are constrained to consult men; and then, if they are in the enjoyment of their own right, they choose from their counsels what favours their own love.

[3] By some it is also supposed that women are equally able to elevate the sight of their understanding into the sphere of light in which men are, and to view things in the same altitude. This opinion has been induced upon them by the writings of some learned authoresses. But in the spiritual world, when these writings were explored in the presence of those authoresses, they were found to be works, not of judgment and wisdom, but of genius and eloquence; and works which proceed from these two, by reason of the elegance and fine style of the verbal composition, appear as though sublime and erudite--but only before those who call all ingenuity wisdom.

[4] That men, on the other hand, cannot enter into the offices proper to women and rightly perform them, is because they cannot enter into the affections of women, these being entirely distinct from the affections of men. Because from creation and hence by nature, the affections and perceptions of the male sex are so distinctive, therefore, among the statutes given to the sons of Israel was also this, "The garment of a man shall not be upon a woman, neither the garment of a woman upon a man, for it is an abomination." (Deut. 22:5).

The reason was, because in the spiritual world all are clothed according to their affections, and the two affections, that of woman and that of man, can be united only as between two, and never in a single person.

CL 176. XVII. That according as there is mutual aid, these offices also conjoin the two into a one, and at the same time make one home. That in some affairs, the offices of the husband conjoin themselves with the offices of the wife, and the offices of the wife adjoin themselves to the offices of the husband; also that these conjunctions and adjunctions are a mutual aid and are effected according to that aid--this is among things well known in the world. But the main office which confederates and consociates the souls and lives of two partners, and gathers them into a one, is their common concern in the education of their children. In this the offices of the husband and those of the wife are distinct, and at the same time conjoint. They are distinct because the charge of suckling and educating the infants of both sexes, and also the instruction of girls up to the age when they may be addressed by men and associate with them, is an office proper to the wife, while the charge of the instruction of boys from childhood to puberty and from then until they become their own masters, is an office proper to the husband. But these offices become conjoint by consultations and mutual support and by much else which is of mutual assistance. That these offices, both the joint and the distinct, or those that are common to both partners and those that are individual, bind the animi of the partners together into a one, and that the love called storge also has this effect is well known. It is also well known that these offices, regarded in their separation and in their conjunction, make one home.

CL 177. XVIII. That according to the above-mentioned conjunctions, married partners become more and more one man. This coincides with the contents of article VI, where it was explained that from the first days of marriage, conjunction is effected successively, and with those who are in love truly conjugial, more and more deeply to eternity. They become one man according to the increase of conjugial love; and because in the heavens that love is genuine by reason of the celestial and spiritual life of the angels, therefore two partners are there called two when named husband and wife, but one when named angels.

CL 178. XIX. That those who are in love truly conjugial feel themselves to be a united man and as one flesh. That this is the case must be confirmed, not from the mouth of any inhabitant of earth but from the mouth of inhabitants of heaven; for with men on earth at this day, there is no love truly conjugial. Moreover, men are enveloped with a gross body, and this dulls and absorbs the sensation that two partners are a united man and as one flesh. Furthermore, those in the world who love their partners only outwardly and not inwardly, do not wish to hear this; they also think of this matter from the flesh, lasciviously. Such is not the case with angels of heaven, inasmuch as they are in spiritual and celestial conjugial love and are not enveloped in so gross a body as are men on earth. I have heard it attested by those who have lived for ages with their partners in heaven, that they feel themselves to be thus united, the husband feeling himself to be united with his wife, and the wife with her husband, and each having the feeling of being in the other, as though united even in the flesh, although they are separate beings.

[2] They said that on earth, the cause of this rare phenomenon was that the unition of their souls and minds is felt in their flesh, and this because the soul makes not only the inmost things of the head but also the inmost of the body. So likewise the mind, which is midway between soul and body; this appears to be in the head, yet actually it is also in the whole body. Furthermore, they said that it is because of this that actions which the soul and mind intend, flow out from the body in an instant; also that it is because of this that after the rejection of the body they had in the former world, they themselves are perfect men. Now since the soul and mind closely adjoin themselves to the flesh of the body to the end that they may operate and produce their effects, it follows that with married partners, the unition of soul and mind is felt as being one flesh even in the body. When the angels said this, I heard from some spirits who were standing by, "These are matters of angelic wisdom which are transcendental"; but these spirits were natural-rational and not spiritual-rational.

CL 179. XX. That, regarded in itself, love truly conjugial is a union of souls, a conjunction of minds, and an effort to conjunction in breasts and thence in the body. That it is a union of souls and a conjunction of minds may be seen above (n. 158). That it is an effort to conjunction in the breast is because the breast is a place of assembly and a royal court, as it were, with the body as a populous city around it. That the breast is as a place of assembly is because everything determined from the soul and mind into the body flows first into the breast. That it is a royal court, as it were, is because the breast is the seat of dominion over all things of the body; for there, are the heart and lungs, and these reign everywhere, the heart by the blood, and the lungs by the respiration. That the body is as a populous city round about, is apparent. When, therefore, the souls and minds of partners are united--and it is love truly conjugial that unites them--it follows that this loving union flows into their breasts and through these into their bodies and causes a striving to conjunction, and this the more, because, for the fulfilment of its blissful pleasures, conjugial love determines this striving to its ultimates; and since the breast is the place where the two ways meet, it is clear whence it is that conjugial love has there found the seat of its delicate sense.

CL 180. XXI. That the states of this love are innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and a mutual desire of ANIMUS and heart to do to the other every good; and from all these, blessedness, happiness, delight, pleasure; and from the eternal fruition of these, heavenly felicity. The reason why all these are within conjugial love and thus come from it, is because its origin is the marriage of good and truth, and this marriage is from the Lord. The nature of love is such that it desires to be in communion with another whom it loves from the heart, yea, to confer joys on that other and therein to take its own joys. Infinitely more is this true of the Divine Love which is in the Lord, in respect to man whom He created a receptacle of the love and wisdom proceeding from Himself. And because He created him for the reception of these--man for the reception of wisdom, woman for the reception of the love of man‘s wisdom-- therefore, from their very inmost, He infused into them conjugial love, that into this, and consequently into those who are in love truly conjugial, these alone being recipients, He might gather all things blessed, happy, delightful, and pleasurable, which, together with life, proceed and flow in solely from His Divine Love through His Divine Wisdom. Innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and the mutual desire of animus and heart to do to the other every good, are mentioned, because innocence and peace are predicated of the soul, tranquillity of the mind, inmost friendship of the breast, full confidence of the heart, and the mutual desire of animus and heart to do to the other every good, of the body from these.

CL 181. XXII. That these are by no means possible except in the marriage of one man with one wife. This is the conclusion from all that has hitherto been said. It also forms the conclusion from all that is to be said hereafter. Therefore there is no need to confirm it by any special comment.

CL 182. To the above shall be added two Memorable Relations. First:

Some weeks after (the meeting on Parnassus (n. 156a)), I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Lo, there is again an assemblage on Parnassus. Come hither, we will show you the way." I went, and when I was close by, I saw upon Helicon a man with a trumpet, with which he proclaimed the assembly and appointed the place where it was to meet. As on the previous occasion, I then saw the inhabitants of the city of Athens and its suburbs going up, and in their midst three new-comers from the world. All three were from Christian societies, one being a priest, another a statesman, and the third a philosopher. On the way the citizens entertained them with varied conversation, especially about wise men of old whom they mentioned by name. The new-comers asked whether they were to see them, and were told that they were, and if they wished they could pay their respects to them, for they were affable men. They asked about Demosthenes, Diogenes, and Epicurus, and were told: "Demosthenes is not here but with Plato. Diogenes sojourns with his scholars at the foot of Helicon, and this because he esteems worldly things as naught, and employs his mind solely with things heavenly. Epicurus lives on the border at the west and does not come among us, because we distinguish between good and evil affections, and say that good affections are one with wisdom while evil affections are contrary to wisdom."

[2] When they had ascended the hill Parnassus, some guards of the place brought water in crystal goblets from a fountain there, and said: "This is water from the fountain of which the ancients fabled that it was broken open by the hoof of the horse Pegasus, and was afterwards consecrated to the nine virgins; but by the winged horse Pegasus they meant the understanding of truth by which comes wisdom; by the hoofs of his feet they meant experience by which comes natural intelligence; and by the nine virgins they meant cognitions and sciences of every kind. At this day, these are called fables, but they were correspondences, it being from correspondences that primeval men spoke."

The companions of the three new-comers said to the latter, "Do not be surprised. The guards have been instructed to speak thus. By drinking water from a fountain, we understand being instructed concerning truths, and, by truths, concerning goods, and thus becoming wise."

[3] After this they entered the Palladium, and with them the three novitiates from the world, the priest, the statesman and the philosopher. The laureates who sat at the table then asked them, "WHAT NEWS FROM EARTH?" They answered: "This is new. A certain man asserts that he speaks with angels and has open sight into the spiritual world, just as he has open sight into the natural world. From there, he brings many new things, among which are these: That after death, man lives as a man just as he lived before in the world; that he sees, hears, speaks, as before in the world; that he is clothed and adorned as before in the world; that he hungers and thirsts, as before in the world, and eats and drinks; that he enjoys conjugial delight as before in the world; that he sleeps and wakes as before in the world; that there are lands and lakes there, mountains and hills, plains and valleys, fountains and rivers, paradises and groves; also that there are palaces and houses there, and cities and villages, just as in the natural world; and furthermore, that there are writings and books; and employments and trades; also precious stones and gold and silver; in a word, that in that world is found everything that is found on earth, and in the heavens things infinitely more perfect, the only difference being that all things in the spiritual world, being from the sun there which is pure love, are from a spiritual origin and are therefore spiritual, while all things in the natural world, being from the sun there which is pure fire, are from a natural origin and are therefore natural and material. In a word, that after death man is perfectly a man, yea, more perfectly a man than he was before in the world; for formerly, in the world, he had been in a material body, but in this world he is in a spiritual body."

[4] When the novitiates had thus spoken, the wise men of old asked them, "What do men on earth think about these things?" The three replied: "We know that they are true because we are here and have examined and explored them all. We will therefore tell you what men on earth have said and how they have reasoned about them."

The priest then said: "Men of our order, when they heard of those things, first called them visions and then inventions. Later they said that he had seen ghosts, and finally they hesitated and said, Believe if you wish; hitherto we have taught that after death man will not be in a body until the day of the Last Judgment."

[5] They then asked him, "Are there not any intelligent men among them who are able to demonstrate the truth and convince them that man lives as a man after death?" The priest replied: "There are men who demonstrate it, but they do not convince. Those who demonstrate it say, `It is against sound reason to believe that man does not live as a man until after the day of the Last Judgment, and that meanwhile he is a soul without a body. What is the soul? and where is it meanwhile? Is it a breath? or a thing of wind flying about in the air? or an entity hidden away in the centre of the earth? Where is its Pu? And now, after six thousand years or sixty centuries, are the souls of Adam and Eve and of all who followed them still flying about in the universe? or still being held shut up in the centre of the earth? and are they awaiting the Last Judgment? What could be more distressing and miserable than such a waiting? May not their lot be likened to the lot of men in prison, bound with chains and fetters? If such is to be the lot of man after death, would it not be better to be born an ass than a man? Moreover, is it not contrary to reason to believe that a soul can be again clothed with its body? Is not the body eaten up by worms, mice, and fishes? and is the bony skeleton, burned up by the sun or fallen into dust, to be clothed anew with that body? How shall these cadaverous and putrid elements be gathered together and united to their soul?’ But to such arguments, when they listen to them, men do not give any answer based on reason but stick to their faith, saying, `We hold reason captive under obedience to faith.‘ As to the gathering of all bodies from their graves at the day of the Last Judgment, they say, This is the work of Omnipotence, and when they name Omnipotence and Faith, reason is banished; and I can say that sound reason is then as nothing, and to some it is a spectre; indeed, they can say to sound reason, You are Insane."

[6] Hearing this, the wise men of Greece said: "Are not such paradoxes dissipated of themselves as contradictions? And yet, in the world at this day they cannot be dissipated by sound reason! What greater paradox could be believed than what is said of the Last Judgment that the universe will then perish and the stars fall from heaven upon the earth, which is smaller than the stars; and that the bodies of men, which will then be corpses, or mummies disembowelled by men, or bits of dust, will coalesce with their souls? When we were in the world, we believed in the immortality of men’s souls on the basis of inductions furnished us by reason. Moreover, we assigned places of abode for the blessed, which we called the Elysian fields, and we believed departed souls to be human effigies or semblances, but tenuous because spiritual."

[7] Saying this, they turned to the second new-comer, who in the world had been a statesman. He confessed that he had not believed in a life after death. As to the new things concerning that life, he had heard about them but had thought them to be fictions and inventions. "When meditating on them, I said: How can souls be bodies? Does not every part of the man lie dead in the grave? Is not the eye there? How can he see? Is not the ear there? How can he hear? Whence has he a mouth with which to speak? If anything of the man were to live after death, would it be other than the likeness of a ghost? How can a ghost eat and drink? and how can it enjoy conjugial delight? Whence has it clothes, house, food and so on? Moreover, ghosts, which are airy effigies, appear as if they were beings and yet are not. It was such thoughts and the like that I had in the world respecting the life of man after death; but now, having seen all things and touched all with my hands, I am convinced by my own senses that I am a man as in the world, so that I know no other than that I am living as I have lived, the only difference being that now I have sounder reason. Sometimes I have been ashamed of my former thoughts."

[8] The philosopher told a similar story about himself, but with this difference, that he had classed the new things which he had heard concerning the life after death among opinions and hypotheses which the teller had gathered from ancient and modern authors.

On hearing all this, the Sophi were astonished. Those who were of the Socratic School then said, that from this news from earth they perceived that the interiors of men‘s minds had been successively closed, and that in the world the faith of falsity now shines as truth, and fatuous ingenuity as wisdom; and that, since their times, the light of wisdom has gone down from the interiors of the brain into the mouth under the nose. There it appears before the eyes as a brightness of the lip, and the speech of the mouth therefrom seems like wisdom.

Hearing this, one of the pupils added, "And how stupid are the minds of the inhabitants of earth at this day! If only the disciples of Heraclitus and Democritus were here, who laugh at all things and weep at all, we would hear great laughter and great weeping."

When the meeting was ended, they gave the three new-comers from the earth the insignia of that domain, being small copperplates on which were engraved hieroglyphics; and with these the new-comers departed.

CL 183. The second Memorable Relation:

Seen by me in the eastern quarter was a grove of palm trees and laurels arranged in spiral gyres. I approached it, and entering, walked on its paths which wound around in several spirals. At the end of the windings, I saw a garden which formed the centre of the grove. Separating the two was a small bridge, and on it, a gate on the grove side and another on the garden side. I drew near, and the gates were opened by a guard. To my question, "What is the name of this garden?" he answered, "Adramandoni," which means the delight of conjugial love. I entered in, and lo, I saw olive trees, and from tree to tree vines hanging in festoons, while under the trees and between them were bushes in flower-beds. In the middle of the garden was a grassy circle on which husbands and wives and young men and maidens were sitting in pairs; and on a raised ground in the centre of the circle was a small fountain leaping high by reason of the force of its stream. When close to the circle, I saw two angels in purple and scarlet speaking with those who were sitting on the grass. They were speaking about the origin of conjugial love and about its delights. Because their speech concerned this love, there was eager attention and complete acceptance, and this produced an exaltation in the discourse of the angels as from the fire of love.

[2] From their speech, I gathered the following summary: They spoke first of the difficulty in investigating and perceiving the origin of conjugial love, inasmuch as its origin is Divine-celestial, being Divine Love, Divine Wisdom, and Divine Use. These three proceed from the Lord as one, and hence inflow as one into the souls of men and through their souls into their minds and into the interior affections and thoughts there. Through these they flow into the desires next to the body, and from these through the breast into the genital region. There all the derivatives from the first origin are present simultaneously, and, together with the successives, make conjugial love.

After this, the angels said, "Let us have an exchange of speech by questions and answers; for when a subject is taken in solely from hearing, the perception of that subject does indeed flow in, but unless the hearer think of it from himself and ask questions, it does not remain."

[3] Some among that conjugial gathering then said to the angels, "We have heard that the origin of conjugial love is Divine-celestial because it is from influx from the Lord into men’s souls; and that, being from the Lord, it is love, wisdom, and use, these being the three essentials which together make the one Divine essence, and nothing can proceed from Him and flow into man‘s inmost which is called his soul save what is of the Divine essence; also that, in their descent into the body, these three essentials are changed into things analogous and correspondential. Therefore, we now ask you first, What is meant by the third essential--the proceeding Divine which is called use?"

The angels replied: "Without use, love and wisdom are merely abstract ideas of thought, and after some tarrying in the mind, these pass away like the wind; but in use, the two are brought together and become a one which is called real. Love, being the activity of life, cannot rest unless it is doing something; nor can wisdom exist and subsist except when doing something from love and with it; and doing is use. Therefore we define use as the doing of good from love by means of wisdom. Use is good itself.

[4] Since these three, love, wisdom, and use, flow into the souls of men, it can be evident whence comes the saying that all good is from God; for every deed done from love by means of wisdom is called good, and use is also a deed. What is love without wisdom but something fatuous? and, without use, what is love together with wisdom but a state of the mind? But with use, love and wisdom not only make the man, they are the man. Indeed, and this perhaps will astonish you, they propagate man; for in man’s seed is his soul in perfect human form, covered over with substances from the purest things of nature, from which, in the mother‘s womb, is formed a body. This use is the supreme and ultimate use of Divine Love by means of Divine Wisdom."

[5] Finally the angels said: "The conclusion then must be that in its origin all fructification, all propagation, and all prolification is from the influx of love, wisdom, and use from the Lord---from immediate influx from the Lord into the souls of men, from mediate influx into the souls of animals, and from influx yet more mediate into the inmost parts of plants; and all are effected in ultimates from firsts. That fructifications, propagations, and prolifications are continuations of creation is evident; for creation can come from no other source than Divine Love by means of Divine wisdom in Divine Use. Therefore, all things in the universe are procreated and formed from use, in use, and for use."

[6] After this, those sitting on the grassy couches asked the angels, "Whence are the delights of conjugial love, which are innumerable and ineffable?" The angels answered: "They are from the uses of love and wisdom. This can be seen from the fact, that so far as one loves to be wise for the sake of genuine use he is in the vein and potency of conjugial love, and so far as he is in these two he is in its delights. It is use that does this; for when love acts by means of wisdom, the two are in mutual delight, and they sport together like little children, as it were. Then, as they come to adolescence, they join together productively, this being done as though by betrothals, nuptials, marriages, and propagations, and this continually and with variety, to all eternity. This is what takes place between love and wisdom, inwardly present in use. In their beginnings, however, these delights are imperceptible, but by degrees as they descend therefrom and enter the body they become more and more perceptible. From the soul they enter by degrees into the interiors of man’s mind, from these into its exteriors, thence into his breast, and from this into the genital region.

[7] The heavenly nuptial sports in the soul are not in the least perceived by man; but from there they insinuate themselves into the interiors of the mind, under the appearance of peace and innocence, and into the exteriors of the mind under the appearance of blessedness, happiness, and delight. In the breast, they are present under the appearance of the delights of inmost friendship, and in the genital region from continuous influx from the soul itself, together with the actual sensation of conjugial love, as the delight of delights. In the soul, these nuptial sports of love and wisdom in use are persistent in their proceeding towards the breast, and in that breast they present themselves sensibly under an infinite variety of delights. Then, by reason of the marvellous communication of the breast with the genital region, in the latter these delights become the delights of conjugial love--delights which are exalted above all delights in heaven and in the world. This is because the use of conjugial love is the most excellent of all uses, for thence is the procreation of the human race, and from the human race, the angelic heaven."

[8] To this, the angels added: "Those who are not in the love of becoming wise from the Lord for the sake of use, know nothing of the variety of the innumerable delights of love truly conjugial; for with those who do not love to become wise from genuine truths but love to be insane from falsities, and by means of this insanity do evil uses from some love, the way to the soul is closed. Hence the heavenly nuptial sports of love and wisdom in the soul, being more and more intercepted, cease, and with them conjugial love, with its vein, its potency, and its delights."

Thereupon the hearers said that they perceived that conjugial love is according to the love of becoming wise from the Lord for the sake of use. The angels replied that it was so. And then, upon the heads of some of the audience appeared wreaths of flowers, and they asked, "Why is this?" The angels said, "Because they have understood more profoundly." They then left the garden with these men in their midst.

CL 184. What is meant by states of life and their changes is well known to the learned and wise, but is unknown to the unlearned and simple. Something concerning them must therefore be premised. The state of a man‘s life is its quality; and because in every man there are two faculties which make his life, being the faculties called understanding and will, the state of a man’s life is its quality as to understanding and will. It is clear from this that by changes of the state of life are meant changes in respect to the things which belong to the understanding, and to those which belong to the will. That every man is continually changing in respect to these two, but with a difference in the varieties of the changes before marriage and after marriage, will be taken up for demonstration in the present chapter. This shall be done in the following order:

1. That the state of man‘s life from infancy to the end of life, and afterwards to eternity, is continually changing.

2. So likewise the internal form which is that of his spirit.

3. That these changes are of one kind with men and of another kind with women, because, by creation, men are forms of science, intelligence, and wisdom, and women, forms of the love of these with men.

4. That with men there is elevation of the mind into superior light, and with women elevation of the mind into superior heat; and that woman feels the delights of her heat in the light of the man.

5. That the states of life with men and women are of one kind before marriage and of another after marriage.

6. That with married partners, the states of life after marriage are changed, and follow one after the other according to the conjunctions of their minds by conjugial love.

7. That marriages also induce new forms upon the souls and minds of the partners.

8. That the woman is formed into the man’s wife actually according to the description in the Book of Creation.

9. That this formation is effected by the wife in secret ways; and that this is what is meant by the woman being created while the man slept.

10. That this formation by the wife is effected by the conjunction of her will with the internal will of the man.

11. To the end that the will of both may become one will, and thus the two, one man.

12. That this formation by the wife is effected by the appropriation of the affections of the husband.

13. That this formation is effected by the wife by the reception of the propagations of the soul of the husband with the delight arising from this, that she wills to be the love of her husband‘s wisdom.

14. That thus a virgin is formed into a wife, and a young man into a husband.

15. That in the marriage of one man with one wife between whom there is love truly conjugial, the wife becomes more and more a wife, and the husband more and more a husband.

16. That thus their forms also are successively perfected from within, and ennobled.

17. That offspring born of two who are in love truly conjugial derive from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they have an inclination and faculty, if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom, and if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches.

18. That this comes to pass because the soul of the offspring is from the father, and its clothing from the mother.

CL 185. I. That the state of man’s life from infancy to the end of life, and afterwards to eternity, is continually changing. The general states of man‘s life are called infancy, childhood, youth, manhood, and old age. It is well known that every man whose life continues in the world passes successively from the one state to the other, thus from the first state to the last. The transitions into these ages are apparent only by intervals of time, but reason sees that they are progressive from moment to moment, thus continually. It is the same with man as with a tree; from the time the seed is cast into the earth, this grows and increases every moment, even the least. These momentary progressions are also changes of state; for the subsequent adds something to the antecedent, and this perfects the state.

[2] The changes which take place in man’s internals are more perfectly continuous than those which occur in his externals, and this because man‘s internals, by which are meant the things of his mind or spirit, are in a higher degree, being elevated above his externals; and in things which are in a higher degree, a thousand changes take place in the same moment that a single one occurs in things external. The changes which take place in man’s internals are changes of state of the will as to affections, and changes of state of the understanding as to thoughts. It is the successive changes of state of the latter and the former that are especially meant in the proposition.

[3] The reason why the changes of state of these two lives or faculties are perpetual with man from infancy to the end of his life and afterwards to eternity, is because there is no end to knowledge, still less to intelligence, and least of all to wisdom; for in their wide extent is infinity and eternity, and this from the Infinite and Eternal from whom they are. Hence the philosophical doctrine of the ancients, that everything is divisible to infinity; to which should be added, that it is likewise multiplicable. Angels assert that they are perfected in wisdom by the Lord to eternity, which means also to infinity, eternity being the infinity of time.

CL 186. II. So likewise the internal form which is that of his spirit. That this is continually changing, as the state of the man‘s life is changing, is because there is nothing whatever that is not in a form; and state induces form. Wherefore it is the same thing whether it be said that the state of man’s life is changed or that his form is changed. All man‘s affections and thoughts are in forms and hence from forms, forms being their subjects. Were affections and thoughts not in subjects which are formed, they might exist even in skulls devoid of brains. This would be the same as sight without an eye, hearing without an ear, and taste without a tongue. That these organs are the subjects of those senses, and that they are forms, is well known.

[2] That with man, the state of life and consequently the form is continually changing, is because there is no such thing as the sameness or absolute identity of two things, still less of many-- a truth which the wise have taught and still teach. For example, no two human faces are the same, still less many faces. It is the same in things successive, there being no such thing as the identity of a subsequent state of life with a past state. From this it follows that there is a perpetual change of the state of life with man, especially of his internal states, and consequently a perpetual change of form also. But since these considerations do not teach anything respecting marriages but only prepare the way to knowledges concerning them; and since they are only philosophical matters examined into from the understanding, and to some these are difficult of perception, therefore, with these few words, they are passed by.

CL 187. III. That these changes are of one kind with men and of another kind with women, because, by creation men are forms of science, intelligence, and wisdom, and women, forms of the love of these with men. That men were created forms of the understanding, and women, forms of the love of the understanding of men, has been explained above (n. 90); and from this it follows that with them, the changes of state which follow one after the other, from the age of infancy to maturity, are for the perfecting of their forms--the intellectual form with men, and the voluntary with women. From this it is evident that the changes are of one kind with men and of another with women. With both, however, the external form, which is that of the body, is perfected in accordance with the perfecting of the internal form which is that of the mind; for the mind acts upon the body, and not the reverse. This is the reason why, in heaven, infants become men of stature and comeliness according to their growth in intelligence. Not so infants on earth, for they, like animals, are invested with material bodies. They agree, however, in this, that they grow in their inclination first to things which are pleasing to their bodily senses, then step by step to things which affect the internal cogitative sense, and by degrees to things which imbue the will with affection. Then, at the age when maturity and immaturity meet, comes the conjugial inclination, which is that of a virgin to a young man, and of a young man to a virgin. And because, in the heavens equally as on earth, virgins from innate prudence conceal their inclinations to marriage, the young men there know no other than that they affect virgins with love. Moreover, it so appears to them by reason of their masculine ardour; but even this is theirs from the influx of love from the fair sex--an influx which will be expressly spoken of in another place; (n. 223). From this, the truth of the proposition is manifest, that changes of state are of one kind with men and of another with women, because, by creation, men are forms of science, intelligence, and wisdom, and women, forms of the love of these with men.

CL 188. IV. That with men there is elevation of the mind into superior light, and with women elevation of the mind into superior heat; and that woman feels the delights of her heat in the light of the man. By the light into which men are elevated is meant intelligence and wisdom; for spiritual light, which proceeds from the sun of the spiritual world and which in its essence is wisdom, plays an equal part with these two, that is, acts as one with them. And by the heat into which women are elevated is meant conjugial love; for in its essence spiritual heat which proceeds from the sun of that world is love, and with women it is love conjoining itself with the intelligence and wisdom with men. In its complex, this love is called conjugial love and by determination it becomes that love.

[2] It is said elevation into superior light and superior heat because the elevation is into the light and heat in which are the angels of the higher heavens. Moreover, it is an actual elevation, as from a mist into the air, and from a lower region of the latter into a higher, and from this into the ether. Therefore, with men, elevation into superior light is elevation into superior intelligence, and from this into wisdom, there being also an ever higher elevation into the latter. But the elevation into superior heat with women is elevation into a more chaste and purer conjugial love, and ever upwards towards that conjugial which from creation is latent in their inmost being.

[3] Regarded in themselves, these elevations are openings of the mind; for the human mind is distinguished into regions just as the world is distinguished into regions in respect to its atmospheres, the lowest of which is aqueous, the higher, aerial, and the still higher, ethereal, above which, moreover, is the highest. Into like regions is the human mind elevated as that mind is opened--with men by wisdom and with women by love truly conjugial.

CL 189. It is said that woman feels the delights of her heat in the light of the man; but this is to be understood thus: woman feels the delights of her love in the man’s wisdom because this is its receptacle, and where love finds this receptacle corresponding to itself, it is in its joys and delights. This does not mean that heat is delighted with its light outside forms, but within them; and within these forms, spiritual heat is the more delighted with spiritual light as the forms are living from wisdom and love, and so are receptive. This can be illustrated in some measure by the sports, so called, of heat with light in vegetable forms. Outside these forms there is but the simple conjunction of heat and light, but within them, heat and light are as though sporting with each other; for there they are in forms or receptacles, passing through them by marvellous windings; and in the inmost forms they breathe the fruits of use. Moreover, they breathe out their pleasures into the air round about, which they fill with fragrance. Far more living is the delectation of spiritual heat with spiritual light in human forms, wherein the heat is conjugial love and the light wisdom.

CL 190. V. That the states of life with men and women are of one kind before marriage and of another after marriage. With both men and women there are two states before marriage, one before the inclination to marriage, the other after it. The changes of both these states, and the consequent formations of minds, go on in successive order in accordance with their continual increase. But here time does not allow of any description of these, for they vary and are diverse in different subjects. Prior to marriage, the inclinations thereto in the mind are merely imaginative, and in the body they become more and more sensitive; but after marriage the states are states of conjunction and also of prolification. That these differ from the former, as realizations from intentions, is evident.

CL 191. VI. That with married partners, the states of life after marriage are changed, and follow one after the other according to the conjunctions of their minds by conjugial love. That with both man and wife the changes and successions of state after marriage are according to the conjugial love with them, and so are either conjunctive of their minds or disjunctive, is because, with married partners, conjugial love is not only varied but is also diverse. It is varied with those who inwardly love each other, for with these it has its alternate intermissions, though inwardly it remains continually in its heat. But the love is diverse with those partners who love each other only outwardly. With them, the alternations do not come from the same causes but from alternate cold and heat.

[2] The reason of these differences is because, with the latter, the body plays the chief part and its ardour spreads around and forces the lower parts of the mind into communion with itself; but with the former who love each other inwardly, the mind plays the chief part and draws the body into communion with itself. It appears as though love ascends from the body into the soul; for as soon as the body seizes upon allurements, these enter through the eyes as doors into the mind, and so through sight as a court into the thoughts, and straightway into the love. Nevertheless, it descends from the mind and acts upon the parts below according to their disposition. Therefore, a lascivious mind acts lasciviously, and a chaste mind chastely; and the latter disposes the body, while the former is at the disposal of the body.

CL 192. VII. That marriages also induce new forms upon the souls and minds (of the partners). That marriages induce new forms upon souls and minds cannot be observed in the natural world because there, souls and minds are encompassed with a material body, and the mind rarely shows itself. Moreover, the men of this age, more than the ancients, learn from infancy to put expressions on their face whereby they deeply conceal the affections of their mind. This is the reason why the forms of the mind as they are before marriage and as they are after marriage are not distinguished the one from the other. Yet that the forms of souls and minds are different after marriage from what they had been before, is manifestly apparent from these same minds in the spiritual world; for then they are spirits and angels, and these are no other than minds and souls in human form, stripped of the coverings which were composed of elements found in waters or earths, and of exhalations diffused therefrom. When these are cast off, the forms of men‘s minds are seen, such as they had been inwardly in their bodies, and then it is clearly seen that they are of one kind with those who are living in marriage, and of another with those who are not. In general, married partners have an interior comeliness of face, the man taking from his wife the charming glow of her love, and the wife from the man the lustre of his wisdom; for there, two partners are united as to their souls, and a human fullness is apparent in each. This is in heaven, for nowhere else are there marriages. Below heaven are only connubial ties which are made and broken.

CL 193. VIII. That the woman is formed into (the man’s) wife actually according to the description in the book of creation. It is said in that Book, that the woman was created out of the rib of the man, and that when she was brought to him, the man said, "This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; and she shall be called Ishah (woman), because she was taken out of Ish (man)". (Gen. 2:22, 23). In the Word in its spiritual sense, by a rib of the breast nothing else is signified than natural truth. This is signified by the ribs which the bear carried between his teeth (Daniel 7:5), by bears, being signified those who read the Word in its natural sense and see truths therein without understanding. By the breast of a man is signified that essential and characteristic thing which is distinct from the breast of a woman. This is wisdom, as may be seen above (n. 187); for truth supports wisdom as a rib supports the breast. These are the significations because the breast is the region in which everything belonging to the man is present as in its centre.

[2] From the above it is evident, that woman was created out of man by the transcription of his proprial wisdom, which is wisdom from natural truth; and that the love of this wisdom was transferred from man into woman that it might become conjugial love; also that this was done, to the end that in the man there may be, not self love but love of his wife, and she from her innate disposition cannot do otherwise than convert the self love with the man into his love to her. Moreover, I have heard that this is effected by the wife‘s love, neither the man nor the wife being conscious of it. Hence it is that no man can ever truly love his partner conjugially if he is in the pride of self-intelligence from love of self.

[3] When this arcanum of the creation of woman out of man is understood, it can be seen that in marriage woman is likewise created, as it were, that is, is formed from man; and that this is effected by the wife, or rather through the wife, by the Lord, it being the Lord who infuses into women the inclination so to act; for the wife receives the man’s image into herself by appropriating to herself his affections (n. 183); also by conjoining the man‘s internal will to her own will, of which hereafter; and, moreover, by appropriating to herself the propagations of his soul, of which likewise hereafter. From this it is evident, that in accordance with the description in the Book of Creation interiorly understood, a woman is formed into a wife by means of such things as she takes from her husband and from his breast and inscribes on herself.

CL 194. IX. That this formation is effected by the wife in secret ways; and that this is what is meant by the woman being created while the man slept. We read in the Book of Creation that Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, that he might fall asleep, and then took one of his ribs and built it into a woman (Gen. 2:21, 22). That by the man’s sleep and by his falling asleep is signified his entire ignorance that a wife is being formed and, as it were, created from him, is evident from what was shown in the preceding and also in the present chapter, concerning the innate prudence and circumspection of wives in not divulging anything whatever about their love or about their assumption of the affections of the man‘s life and so about the transcription of his wisdom into themselves. That this is effected by the wife in secret ways, the husband all unaware and as though sleeping, is clear from what has been explained above (n. 166-168). There it was also explained that for reasons which are necessities, the prudence to accomplish this is implanted in women from creation and hence from birth, to the end that conjugial love, friendship, and confidence may be established, and so the blessedness of cohabitation and the happiness of life. That this may be rightly done, it was therefore enjoined on the man that he should leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4, 5).

[2] In the spiritual sense, by the father and mother whom the man is to leave is meant the proprium of his will and the proprium of his understanding, the proprium of man’s will being to love himself, and the proprium of his understanding to love his own wisdom; and by cleaving is signified devoting himself to the love of his wife. That these two propriums are evils deadly to man if they remain with him, and that the love of the two is changed into conjugial love so far as the man cleaves to his wife, that is, receives her love, may be seen just above (n. 193) and in other passages. That by sleeping is signified being in ignorance or unconcern; that by father and mother are signified the two propriums of man, that of his will and that of his understanding; and that by cleaving is signified devoting one‘s self to the love of some one, can be abundantly confirmed by passages from other parts of the Word, but this is not the place.

CL 195. X. That this formation by the wife is effected by the conjunction of her will with the internal will of the man. That with the man are rational wisdom and moral wisdom, and that the wife conjoins herself with those things with the man which pertain to his moral wisdom, has been shown above (n. 163-165). All things pertaining to rational wisdom make his understanding, and all things pertaining to moral wisdom make his will. It is with these latter, being those which form the man’s will, that the wife conjoins herself. It is the same whether it be said that the wife conjoins herself or that she conjoins her will to the man‘s will; for a wife is born voluntary and hence does what she does from the will. It is said with the man’s internal will because man‘s will has its seat in his intellect, and the intellectual of man is the inmost of woman, according to what was said above (n. 32) and frequently thereafter respecting the formation of woman from man. Men have also an external will, but this often partakes of simulation and dissimulation. A wife sees this will clearly but does not conjoin herself with it except in pretence or playfully.

CL 196. XI. To the end that the will of both may become one will, and thus the two, one man, for he who conjoins to himself the will of anyone, conjoins to himself his understanding also, the understanding regarded in itself being merely the minister and servant of the will. That this is the case is apparent from the affection of love, in that it moves the understanding to think at its bid. Every affection of love is a property of the will, for what a man loves, that he also wills. From this it follows that he who conjoins to himself a man’s will, conjoins to himself the whole man. Hence it is, that it is implanted in a wife‘s love to unite her husband’s will with her own, for in this way the wife becomes the husband‘s and the husband the wife’s; thus the two become one man.

CL 197. XII. That this formation is effected by the appropriation of the affections of the husband. Since affections pertain to the will, this makes one with the two preceding articles; for affections, which are nothing else than derivations of the love, form the will and make and compose it. But with men, these affections are in the understanding, while with women they are in the will.

CL 198. XIII. That this formation is effected by the wife by the reception of the propagations of the soul of the husband, with the delight arising from this, that she wills to be the love of her husband‘s wisdom. This coincides with what was explained above (n. 172, 173), therefore further explanation is omitted. With wives conjugial delights spring from no other source than their will to be one with their husband, just as good is one with truth in the spiritual marriage; and that it is from this marriage that conjugial love descends has been shown in detail in its own chapter (n. 84). From this it can be seen as in effigy, that the wife conjoins the man to herself as good conjoins truth to itself, and that the man reciprocally conjoins himself to his wife according to the reception of her love into himself, as truth reciprocally conjoins itself to good according to the reception of good into itself; also that thus the wife’s love forms itself by the man‘s wisdom, as good forms itself by truth, truth being the form of good. From this it is also evident, that with the wife, conjugial delights are principally from this, that she wills to be one with her husband, consequently, that she wills to be the love of her husband’s wisdom; for, as explained in article IV, (n. 188), she then feels the delights of her heat in the man‘s light.

CL 199. XIV. That thus a virgin is formed into a wife, and a young man into a husband. This follows as a consequence from what has previously been said in the present and the preceding chapter on the conjunction of married partners into one flesh. That a virgin becomes or is made a wife is because, in a wife are things taken from the husband and thus acquired, which were not in her before as a virgin. That a young man becomes or is made a husband is because, in a husband are things taken from the wife which were not in him before as a young man, and in him these exalt his capability of receiving love and wisdom. This, however, is the case with those who are in love truly conjugial. That these are among those who feel themselves to be a united man and as one flesh, can be seen in the preceding chapter (n. 178). It is clear from this, that with women the virginal is changed into the wifely, and with men, the youthful into the marital.

[2] That such is the case, of this I had confirmation from the following experience in the spiritual world: Certain men said that conjunction with a female before marriage is the same as conjunction with a wife after marriage. On hearing this, the wives were exceedingly indignant and said, "There is no similarity whatsoever; the difference between them is like the difference between the fatuous and the real," to which the men retorted, "Are you not females as before?" At this the wives replied in a louder voice, "We are not females but wives. You are in fatuous love, not in real; therefore you talk foolishly." The men then said, "If not females, you are yet married women." They replied, "In the first days of marriage we were married women, but now we are wives."

CL 200. XV. That in the marriage of one man with one wife between whom there is love truly conjugial, the wife becomes more and more a wife, and the husband more and more a husband. That love truly conjugial conjoins two more and more into one man may be seen above (n. 178, 179); and because the wife becomes a wife from conjunction with her husband and according to it, likewise the husband from conjunction with his wife; and because love truly conjugial endures to eternity, it follows that the wife becomes more and more a wife, and the husband more and more a husband. The reason is, because in a marriage of love truly conjugial, each becomes an ever more interior man; for that love opens the interiors of their minds, and as these are opened man becomes more and more a man. To become more a man is, on the part of the wife, to become more a wife, and on the part of the husband, to become more a husband. I have heard from angels, that a wife becomes more and more a wife as her husband becomes more and more a husband, but not the reverse, for rarely if ever is it lacking that a chaste wife loves her husband. What is lacking is love in return on the part of the husband; and this is lacking on account of there being no elevation of wisdom, which alone receives a wife’s love. Respecting this wisdom, see (n. 130, 163-165). This, however, is said of marriages on earth.

CL 201. XVI. That thus their forms also are successively perfected from within, and ennobled. The most perfect and noblest human form is that which exists when by marriage two forms become one single form, thus when two fleshes become one flesh in accordance with creation. That the mind of the man is then elevated into superior light, and the mind of the wife into superior heat; and that they then bud and blossom and bear fruit, as do trees in the time of spring; this the reader may see above (n. 188, 189). That from the ennobling of this form, noble fruits are born, spiritual in the heavens, natural on earth, will be seen in the article which now follows.

CL 202. XVII. That offspring born of two who are in love truly conjugial derive from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they have an inclination and faculty, if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom, and if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches. That offspring derive from their parents inclinations to such things as were of the parent‘s love and life is a matter of common knowledge based in general on history and specifically on experience. That they do not derive or inherit from them their actual affections and thence their lives, but only inclinations thereto and also faculties, was proved by the wise men in the spiritual world spoken of in two Memorable Relations adduced above (n. 156e, 182).

[2] Moreover, that from their innate inclinations, if these are not broken, descendants are led into affections, thoughts, speech, and lives similar to those of their parents, is clearly manifest from the Jewish race, in that at this day it is like its fathers in Egypt, in the desert, in the land of Canaan, and at the time of the Lord, being like them, not only in their minds but also in their faces. Who does not know a Jew from his looks? It is the same with other progenies, and from this it can be concluded, and this not fallaciously, that inclinations to things like those of their parents are connate. That the actual thoughts and deeds of their parents may not follow, it is of Divine Providence that depraved inclinations can be corrected, and that the faculty for this has been implanted, from which comes the efficacy of the correction of their morals by parents and masters, and later, when they come to act from their own judgment, by themselves.

CL 203. It is said that offspring derive from their parents the conjugial of good and truth because this is imparted to the soul of everyone from its creation, it being this that inflows from the Lord into man and makes his human life. But from the soul this conjugial passes into the parts that follow, even to the ultimates of the body; and in the latter and the former, it is changed by the man himself in many ways, and sometimes into the opposite which is called the conjugal or connubial of evil and falsity. When this takes place, the mind is closed from below, and sometimes is contorted like a spiral in the opposite direction. With some, however, it is not closed but remains half open above, and with some wholly open. It is from the latter and the former conjugial that offspring derive inclinations from their parents, a son in one way, a daughter in another. That it is from the conjugial, is because, as shown above (n. 65), conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves.

CL 204. That offspring born of those who are in love truly conjugial derive inclinations and faculties, if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom, and if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches, is because the conjugial of good and truth is implanted by creation in the soul of everyone, and also in all that follows after the soul. That this conjugial fills the universe from first things to last and from man to worm, was shown above (n. 92). It has also been pointed out that the faculty for opening the lower regions of the mind, even to conjunction with its higher regions which are in the light and heat of heaven, is imparted to every man by creation. From this it is evident that the ability to conjoin good with truth and truth with good, and thus to become wise, and this with facility, is inherited from birth by those above others who are born of such a marriage; consequently, a facility in imbibing things which are of heaven and the Church; and that conjugial love is conjoined with such things, has many times been made manifest. From the above, the end for which marriages of love truly conjugial have been provided by the Lord the Creator, and are still being provided, is clearly exposed before the reason.

CL 205. I have heard from angels, that those who lived in most ancient times are at this day living in heaven, house by house, family by family, nation by nation, in like manner as they had lived on earth, with scarcely anyone missing from a household; and, furthermore, that the reason is because with them was love truly conjugial. As a consequence, their offspring inherited inclinations to the conjugial of good and truth, and through education by their parents, were easily initiated into it more and more interiorly, and later, when they came to act of their own judgment, were introduced into it by the Lord as of themselves.

CL 206. XVIII. That this comes to pass because the soul of the offspring is from the father, and its clothing from the mother. That the soul is from the father is not called into question by any wise man. Moreover, in the case of posterities descended in a legitimate series from fathers of families, it is clearly seen from their dispositions, and also from their faces, the face being a type of the disposition; for the father returns as in effigy, if not in his sons, yet in his grandsons and great-grand-sons. This is because the soul makes the inmost of a man; and though this may be covered over by the proximate offspring, it yet comes out and reveals itself in a later progeny. That the soul is from the father and its clothing from the mother, can be illustrated by analogous things in the vegetable kingdom. In this kingdom, the earth or ground is the common mother; this receives seeds into itself as into a womb and clothes them, yea, as it were, conceives them, carries them, brings them forth, and educates them, as a mother her offspring from the father.

CL 207. To the above, I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

Some time after (the second visit to Parnassus (n. 182)), I looked towards the city Athens, of which something was said in a former Relation (n. 156a), and heard thence an unusual clamour. There was something of laughter in it, in this something of indignation, and in this something of sadness; yet the clamour was not therefore dissonant but harmonious, because the one sound was not simultaneous with the other but the one was within the other. In the spiritual world, the variety and commingling of affections in sound are distinctly perceived.

While still at some distance, I asked what it meant, and received the answer: "A messenger has come from the place where new-comers from the Christian world first appear, saying that he had heard from three new-comers there, that in the world whence they came, they with others had believed that after death the blessed and happy would have entire rest from labours; and since administrations, offices, and employments are labours, that they would have rest from these. Clamour was made because the three have now been conducted hither by our emissary and are standing at the gate waiting. It has been decreed in council that for the purpose of disclosing their news from the Christian world, they were to be introduced, not into the Palladium on Parnassus like the previous new-comers, but into the great auditorium there; and some delegates have been sent to introduce them formally."

[2] Because I was in the spirit, and with spirits distances are according to the states of their affections; and because my affection was then moved to see and hear these new-comers, I seemed to myself to be present in the auditorium. There I saw the new-comers introduced and heard them speak. The seniors or wiser men were seated at the sides, the rest being in the middle. In front of the latter was a raised platform. Thither, in formal procession through the middle of the auditorium, the three new-comers and the herald were conducted by some younger men; and when silence had been obtained and they had been greeted by one of the elders, the new-comers, being asked, "What news from earth?" answered, "There is much news, but tell us, pray, on what subject?" When the elder replied,"What is the news from earth respecting our world and respecting heaven", they answered: "On first coming into this world, we heard that here and in heaven there were administrations, ministries, employments, businesses, studies in all kinds of learning, and wonderful handicrafts; and yet we had thought that after removal or transition from the natural world to this spiritual world, we should come into eternal rest from labours; and what are employments but labours?"

[3] To this the elder replied: "By eternal rest from labours, did you mean eternal idleness in which you would be continually sitting and lying down, inhaling delights into your breasts and drinking in joys with your mouth?" Smiling blandly, the three new-comers said that they had supposed something of the kind.

Answer was then given them: "What have joys and delights and the happiness therefrom in common with idleness? By idleness the mind becomes, not expanded, but collapsed, that is, a man is not enlivened but deadened. Picture a man sitting in complete idleness, hands hanging down, eyes withdrawn; and suppose that at the same time he is surrounded by an aura of gladness; would not drowsiness take possession of his head and body? Would not the living expansion of his face fall away? and at last, with fibres relaxed, would he not nod again and again until he fell to the ground? What keeps the whole bodily system expanded and tense but intentness of mind? and whence comes intentness of mind but from administrations and occupations when done from delight? Let me, therefore, tell you something new from heaven: There are administrations and ministries there, and courts of justice, higher and lower, and also mechanical arts and handicrafts."

[4] When the three new-comers heard that there were higher and lower courts of justice in heaven, they said: "Why these; are not all in heaven inspired and led of God, and so, do they not know what is just and right? What need then of judges?"

The presiding elder replied: "In this world we are taught what is good and true and what is just and equitable, and we learn this just as in the natural world, learning it, not immediately from God, but mediately through others. Every angel, like every man, thinks truth and does good as of himself; and this good is not pure but mixed, according to the state of the angel. Moreover, among angels there are the simple and the wise; and when, from simplicity and ignorance, the simple are in doubt as to what is just, or when they swerve from it, the wise must give judgment. But since you have newly come into this world, follow me into our city, if that is your pleasure, and we will show you everything."

[5] They then left the auditorium, some of the elders accompanying them. They went first into a large library which was divided into smaller libraries according to the sciences. The three new-comers were amazed at seeing so many books, and said, "Are there also books in this world? Where do the parchment and paper come from? and the pens and ink?"

To this the elders replied: "We perceive that in the former world you thought that this world was empty because spiritual; and that you so thought because the idea you entertained concerning the spiritual world was an idea abstracted from what is material, and to you, what is abstracted from the material appeared as nothing and thus as a vacuum. Yet in this world is a plenitude of all things. Here all things are SUBSTANTIAL not material; and material things derive their origin from things substantial. We who are here are spiritual men because substantial and not material. Hence all things which are found in the natural world are here in their perfection, even books and writings and much else.

When the three new-comers heard them called SUBSTANTIAL, they thought that they were substantial, and this both because they saw the written books and because they heard the statement that matter originated from substances. That they might be still further confirmed, they were taken to the dwellings of scribes who were making copies of the writings of the wise men of the city; and they inspected the writings and admired their neatness and elegance.

[6] After this they were conducted to museums, gymnasiums and colleges, and to places where literary sports were being held. Some of these were called sports of the Heliconians, some sports of the Parnassians, some sports of the Athenians, and some sports of the Virgins of the Fountain. They were told that these latter were so called because virgins signify affections for the sciences, and everyone has intelligence according to his affection for the sciences. The so-called sports were spiritual exercises and trials of skill. They were then taken around the city to its rulers and administrators and their subordinate officials; and by the latter they were shown the marvellous productions wrought by artisans in a spiritual manner.

[7] After they had seen all this, the presiding elder, again addressing them on the subject of the eternal rest from labour into which the blessed and happy come after death, said: "Eternal rest is not idleness, for from idleness come languor, torpidity, stupor and drowsiness of the mind and so of the whole body. These are death not life, still less the eternal life in which are the angels of heaven. Eternal rest, therefore, is a rest which dispels them and makes a man live. Such rest can be nothing else than something which elevates the mind, and therefore some study and work whereby the mind is aroused, vivified and delighted, being thus affected according to the use from which, in which, and for which the work is done. Hence it is that the whole of heaven is regarded by the Lord as a containant of uses, and every angel is an angel according to his use. The delight of use carries him along as a favouring current carries a ship, and causes him to be in eternal peace and in the rest that belongs to peace. This is what is meant by eternal rest from labours. That an angel is living, according to the devotion of his mind (to use) from use, is clearly manifest from the fact that every angel has conjugial love, with its virtue, its potency, and its delights, according to his devotion to the genuine use in which he is."

[8] When the three new-comers had been convinced that eternal rest is not idleness but the delight of some work which is of use, there came some virgins with pieces of embroidery and netting, the work of their own hands. These they gave them; and when the novitiates were leaving, these virgins sang an ode wherein, in an angelic melody, they expressed the affection for works of use together with the pleasantness thereof.

CL 208. The second Memorable Relation:

When I was in meditation on the arcana of conjugial love stored up with wives, the GOLDEN SHOWER described above (n. 156e) was again seen, and I remembered that it was falling upon a hall in the east where lived three conjugial loves, that is, three consorts who tenderly loved each other. Seeing the shower, I hastened thither as though invited by the sweetness of the meditation on that love. As I drew near, the shower, from being. golden became purple, then scarlet, and when I was close by, it was opalescent like dew. I then knocked at the door, and when it was opened, I said to the attendant, "Announce to the husbands that one who previously came here with an angel is again here and begs that he be allowed to enter and talk with them." On his return, the attendant, on behalf of the husbands, gave his assent and I went in.

The three husbands with their wives were together in an open court and returned my greeting with good-will. I then asked the wives whether the white dove had appeared at the window later. They said, "(Yes, and) also today. Moreover, it spread out its wings, and from this we surmised your presence and your solicitation for the disclosure of yet one more arcanum respecting conjugial love."

[2] When I asked, "Why do you say one, when yet I have come hither to learn many?" they answered: "There are (many) arcana, and some so far surpass your wisdom that the understanding of your thought cannot apprehend them. You men glory over us on account of your wisdom, but we do not glory over you on account of ours; and yet ours excels yours because it enters into your inclinations and affections and sees, perceives, and feels them. You know nothing whatever about the inclinations and affections of your love, though it is these from which and according to which your understanding thinks: consequently, from which and according to which you are wise. Yet wives know them in their husbands so well that they see them in their face and hear them in the tones of the speech of their mouth, yea, feel them by touch on their breasts, arms, and cheeks; but from the zeal of love for your happiness, and at the same time for our own, we feign not to know them. Yet we moderate them so prudently that, by permission and sufferance, we acquiesce in everything that pertains to the desire, pleasure, and will of our husbands, merely bending it when possible but never forcing."

[3] I asked, " Whence do you have that wisdom?" They answered: "It is implanted in us from creation and thence from birth. Our husbands liken it to instinct, but we say it is of Divine Providence, in order that men may be made happy by their wives. We have heard from our husbands that the Lord wills that the male man shall act from freedom according to reason, and that his freedom which has regard to his inclinations and affections is therefore moderated from within by the Lord Himself, and from without by means of his wife; also that in this way the Lord forms the man with his wife into an angel of heaven. Moreover, if forced, the love changes its essence and does not become conjugial love. But let us speak of this more openly. We are moved to this, that is, to prudence in so moderating the inclinations and affections of our husbands that they appear to themselves to act from freedom according to their reason, because we are in delight from their love and love nothing more than that they shall be in delight from our delights; and if these become cheap to them, they also become dulled with us."

[4] After these words, one of the wives went into her bed-chamber, and on returning said, "My dove still flutters its wings, which is a sign that we may disclose more." They then added: "We have observed various changes in the inclinations and affections of men; as, for instance, that husbands grow cold to their wives when they think vain thoughts against the Lord and the Church; that they are cold when in the pride of their own intelligence; that they are cold when they look upon other women from concupiscence; that they are cold when urged by their wives in respect to love, besides on many other occasions; also that they are cold with varying coldness. We observe this from the withdrawal of sensation from their eyes, ears, and body at the presence of our senses. From these few examples you can see that we know better than the men whether it is well with them or ill. If they are cold towards their wives, it is ill with them, and if they are warm towards their wives it is well with them. Therefore, in their minds wives are continually reflecting on the means whereby their men shall be warm towards them and not cold; and they reflect on them with a penetration inscrutable to men."

[5] When they had thus spoken, a sound was heard as though the dove were moaning. The wives then said, "That is a sign to us that though we are eager to divulge deeper arcana, it is not allowed us. Perhaps you will disclose to men what you have heard." I answered, "I intend to do so; what harm can come from that?"

After speaking about this among themselves, the wives said: "Disclose them if you will. The power of persuasion that wives possess is not hidden from us; for they will say to their husbands, `The man is fooling you. These are fables. He is jesting from appearances and from the silly fancies common to men. Do not believe him; believe us. We know that you are loves and we obediences.’ Disclose them, then, if you will, but husbands will not put any dependence on your mouth, but on the mouths of their wives which they kiss."

CL 209. There are many things about marriages which, if treated of in detail, would swell this small work into a large volume; for it might treat in detail of similitude and dissimilitude in married partners; of the elevation of natural conjugial love into spiritual conjugial love and of their conjunction; of the increments of the one and the decrements of the other; of the varieties and diversities of each; of the intelligence of wives; of the universal conjugial sphere from heaven and of its opposite from hell; of their influx and reception, besides much else which, if set forth in detail, would swell this work into a book so bulky as to tire the reader. For this reason and to avoid empty prolixity, these subjects are condensed into Universals concerning Marriages, and these, like the preceding subjects, shall be distributed into articles, as follows:

1. That the sense proper to conjugial love is the sense of touch.

2. That with those who are in love truly conjugial, the faculty of becoming wise increases, but with those who are not in conjugial love it decreases.

3. That with those who are in love truly conjugial, the happiness of cohabitation increases, but with those who are not in conjugial love it decreases.

4. That with those who are in love truly conjugial, conjunction of minds and therewith friendship increases, but with those who are not in conjugial love, the latter together with the former decreases.

5. That those who are in love truly conjugial continually will to be one man, but those who are not in conjugial love will to be two.

6. That those who are in love truly conjugial look to what is eternal in marriage; not so those who are not in conjugial love.

7. That conjugial love resides with chaste wives, yet their love depends on their husbands.

8. That wives love the bonds of marriage if only the men love those bonds.

9. That in itself the intelligence of women is modest, elegant, pacific, yielding, gentle, tender; and the intelligence of men in itself is grave, harsh, hard, spirited, fond of licence.

10. That wives are in no excitation as men are, but that with them there is a state of preparation for reception.

11. That men have abundance according to their love of propagating the truths of their wisdom, and according to their love of performing uses.

12. That determinations are at the good pleasure of the husband.

13. That there is a conjugial sphere which inflows from the Lord through heaven into every single thing of the universe even to its ultimates.

14. That this sphere is received by the female sex, and through this sex is transferred into the male sex, and not the reverse.

15. That where there is love truly conjugial, this sphere is received by the wife and by the husband solely through the wife.

16. That where there is no conjugial love, this sphere is indeed received by the wife but not by the husband through her.

17. That love truly conjugial may exist with one of the partners and not at the same time with the other.

18. That with married partners there are various similitudes and various dissimilitudes, both internal and external.

19. That various similitudes can be conjoined, but not with dissimilitudes.

20. That for those who desire love truly conjugial, the Lord provides similitudes; and if not given on earth, He provides them in the heavens.

21. That according to the defect and loss of conjugial love, man approaches to the nature of a beast.

Now follows the explanation of these articles.

CL 210. I. That the sense proper to conjugial love is the sense of touch. Every love has its own sense. The love of seeing from the love of understanding has the sense of sight, the pleasures whereof are symmetry and beauty. The love of hearing from the love of hearkening and obeying has the sense of hearing, the pleasures whereof are harmonies. The love of learning what things float about in the air, from the love of perceiving, has the sense of smell, the pleasures whereof are fragrant odours. The love of nourishing one‘s self from the love of imbuing one’s self with goods and truths, has the sense of taste, the delights whereof are delicious foods. The love of recognizing objects, from the love of being circumspect and defending one‘s self, has the sense of touch, the pleasures whereof are titillations.

That the love of conjoining one’s self with one‘s consort, from the love of uniting good and truth, has the sense of touch is because that sense is common to all the senses and hence takes tribute from all. That this love brings all the above-mentioned senses into communion with itself and appropriates to itself their pleasures, is well known. That the sense of touch is dedicated to conjugial love and is the sense proper thereto, is evident from its every sport and from the exaltation of its refinements to the supremely exquisite. But the further pursuit of this subject is left to lovers.

CL 211. II. That with those who are in love truly conjugial, the faculty of becoming wise increases, but with those who are not in conjugial love it decreases. That the faculty of becoming wise increases with those who are in love truly conjugial is because with married partners, as shown with abundant reasons in the preceding chapters, this love is from wisdom and according to it. Moreover, because the sense belonging to this love is touch, and because this is common to all the senses and is also full of delights, therefore it opens the interiors of the mind just as it opens the interiors of the senses, and with them the organic parts of the whole body. Hence it follows that those who are in this love, love nothing more than to become wise; for a man becomes wise in proportion as the interiors of his mind are opened, since by this opening, the thoughts of his understanding are elevated into superior light and the affections of his will into superior heat; and superior light is wisdom, and superior heat is the love thereof. The spiritual delights conjoined with natural delights, which those have who are in love truly conjugial, make it pleasant to become wise and hence give the ability so to become. Hence it is, that angels have conjugial love according to their wisdom; and that the increments of that love and at the same time of its delights, are according to the increments of wisdom; also, that the spiritual offspring which are born of their marriages are such things as pertain to the wisdom from the father and the love from the mother. These they love from a spiritual love of offspring, and this love adds itself to their conjugial love, continually elevating it and conjoining the partners.

CL 212. The contrary is the case with those who, by reason of not being in any love of wisdom, are not in any conjugial love. These enter into marriages only with the end of indulging in lasciviousness, and within that end is also the love of being insane; for, viewed in itself, every end is a love, and lasciviousness in its spiritual origin is insanity. By insanity is meant delirium of mind from truth falsified; and pre-eminent delirium is that delirium of mind which arises from truths so falsified that the falsifications are believed to be wisdom. In the spiritual world there is manifest confirmation or proof that such men are opposed to conjugial love. There, at the first scent of conjugial love, they flee into caverns and shut the doors; and if these are opened, they rave like maniacs in the world.

CL 213. III. That with those who are in love truly conjugial the happiness of cohabitation increases, but with those who are not in conjugial love it decreases. That the happiness of cohabitation increases with those who are in love truly conjugial is because they love each other mutually with every sense. The wife sees nothing more lovable than the man, and the man nothing more lovable than the wife; yea, neither do they hear, smell, or touch anything more lovable. Hence the happiness of cohabitation that is theirs in house, chamber, and bed. You who are husbands can confirm this from the first delights of marriage, these being in their fullness because then, of all the sex, it is the wife alone who is loved. That the opposite is the case with those who are not in any conjugial love is well known.

CL 214. IV. That with those who are in love truly conjugial, conjunction of minds and therewith friendship increases, but with those who are not in conjugial love, the latter together with the former decreases. That conjunction of minds increases with those who are in love truly conjugial has been shown in the chapter treating of the conjunction of souls and minds by marriage, which is meant by the Lord’s words,

[2] They are no more two but one flesh (n. 156-181); and that this conjunction increases as friendship conjoins itself to love, is because friendship is as the face of that love and also as its garment; for it not only adjoins itself to the love as a garment but it also conjoins itself with it as a face. The love preceding friendship is similar to love of the sex, and after the vows, this love grows feeble; but when conjoined with friendship, the love remains after the vows and is also made stable. Moreover, it enters more deeply into the bosom. Friendship introduces it and makes it truly conjugial; and then the love makes this its friendship also conjugial, and such friendship, being complete, differs greatly from the friendship of every other love.

[3] That the contrary is the case with those who are not in conjugial love is well known. With these, the first friendship, which is insinuated at the time of betrothal and then during the first days after the nuptials, recedes more and more from the interiors of the mind, and gradually departing therefrom, goes finally to the cuticles. Then, with those who think of separation, it passes away altogether, but with those who do not think of separation, the love remains in externals but is cold in internals.

CL 215. V. That those who are in love truly conjugial continually will to be one man, but those who are not in conjugial love will to be two. In its essence, conjugial love is nothing else than the willing of two to be a one, that is, their will that the two lives shall become one life. This will is the love‘s perpetual conatus from which flow all its effects. That conatus is the very essence of motion; and that with man, will is living conatus, is confirmed by the researches of philosophers, and, moreover, is evident to those who contemplate matters from a cultivated reason. It follows from this that those who are in love truly conjugial are in the continual conatus, that is, the continual will to be one man. That the contrary is the case with those who are not in conjugial love, they themselves well know. Therefore, from the disunion of their souls and minds, such persons do not comprehend what is meant by the Lord’s words, They are no longer two but one flesh. (Matt. 19:6).

CL 216. VI. That those who are in love truly conjugial look to what is eternal in marriage; not so those who are not in conjugial love. That those who are in love truly conjugial look to what is eternal, is because eternity is in the love, its eternity being due to the fact that it increases to all eternity with the wife, as also does wisdom with the husband. In this increase or progression, the partners enter ever more deeply into that blessedness of heaven which their wisdom and the love thereof, simultaneously store up within themselves. Therefore, if the idea of what is eternal were to be taken away, or if by any chance it should slip from their minds, it would be as though they were cast down from heaven.

[2] As for myself, the nature of the state with married partners in heaven when the idea of what is eternal falls from their minds and in its place comes an idea of what is temporal, came into the open from the following experience: Once, when two married partners from heaven were with me by permission, a certain worthless spirit, by cunning speech, took away from them the idea of what is eternal in respect to marriage. With this gone, they began to lament, saying they could no longer live and that they felt a wretchedness such as never before. When this was perceived by their fellow angels in heaven, the worthless spirit was removed and cast down, and with this done, the idea of what is eternal instantly came back to them, whereat they rejoiced with gladness of heart and embraced each other with the utmost tenderness.

[3] In addition to this, I have heard two married partners who, in respect to their marriage, entertained, now the idea of what is eternal, and now the idea of what is temporal, the reason being that within them was an internal dissimilitude. When they were in the idea of what is eternal, they were in mutual gladness, but when in the idea of what is temporal, they said, "It is no longer a marriage"; and the wife said, "I am no longer a wife but a concubine"; and the man, "I am no longer a husband but an adulterer." Therefore, when their internal dissimilitude became clear to them, the man left the woman and the woman the man; but afterwards, because both had the idea of what is eternal in respect to marriage, they were consociated with partners who were similitudes.

[4] From these experiences, it can be clearly seen that those who are in love truly conjugial look to what is eternal; and that if from inmosts this slips from their thought, they are disunited as to conjugial love though not at the same time as to friendship; for the latter dwells in externals but conjugial love in internals. It is the same in marriages on earth. There, when the partners tenderly love each other, they think of their covenant as being eternal and have no thought whatever concerning its end by death; and if they do think of this, they grieve; yet, at the thought of its continuance after death, they are revived by hope.

CL 216a. VII. That conjugial love resides with chaste wives, yet their love depends on their husbands, and this because wives are born loves. Hence it is implanted in them to will to be one with their husbands, and from this thought of their will, they continually nurse their love. Therefore, to recede from the endeavour to unite themselves with their husbands would be to recede from their very selves. Not so with husbands, these being born, not loves but recipients of that love from their wives. Therefore, in proportion as they receive, the wives enter in with their love, but in proportion as they do not receive, the wives with their love stand without and wait. This, however, is the case with chaste wives; not so with the unchaste. From the above it is evident that conjugial love resides with (chaste) wives, but that their love depends on their husbands.

CL 217. VIII. That wives love the bonds of marriage if only the men love those bonds. This follows from what was said in the preceding article. Add to this that from what is implanted in them, wives wish to be wives and to be called wives. To them, this is a name of beauty and honour and for that reason they love the bonds of marriage. Moreover, chaste wives wish to be wives not in name only but actually, and because this is effected by an ever closer tie with their husbands, therefore they love the bonds of marriage by reason of the stability of its covenant; and this the more, as they in turn are loved by their husbands or, what is the same thing, as the men love those bonds.

CL 218. IX. That in itself the intelligence of women is modest, elegant, pacific, yielding, gentle, tender; and the intelligence of men in itself is grave, harsh, hard, spirited, fond of licence. That such is the nature of women and such the nature of men, is very manifest from the body, face, voice, speech, bearing, and manners of each. From their BODY, in that with men the skin and flesh are hard, but with women soft. From their FACE, in that with men it is harder, more resolute, rougher, darker, also bearded, thus less beautiful, and with women, softer, more yielding and tender, fairer and hence more beautiful. From their VOICE, in that with men it is hard but with women soft. From their SPEECH, in that with men it is fond of licence and bold but with women modest and pacific. From their BEARING, in that with men it is more vigorous and firmer and with women less vigorous and weaker. From their MANNERS, in that with men they are more unrestrained, with women more elegant.

[2] How greatly, from their very birth, the genius of men differs from that of women was made clearly manifest to me from seeing gatherings of boys and girls. In a great city, looking through my window, I have several times seen them in the street where more than twenty were gathered together every day. There the boys, following their connate disposition, played together by making a great noise, shouting, fighting, striking blows, and throwing stones at each other; while the girls sat quietly at the doors of the houses, some playing with infants, some dressing dolls, some embroidering pieces of linen, some kissing each other and, what astonished me, they yet watched the boys just as they were, with pleased looks. From this I could clearly see that man is born understanding and woman love. I could also see the nature of understanding and love in their beginnings; and thus, what the understanding of man would be in its progression without conjunction with feminine and later with conjugial love.

CL 219. X. That wives are in no excitation as men are, but that with them there is a state of preparation for reception. That men have semination and hence excitation, and that women do not have the latter because not the former, is evident. That women have a state of preparation for reception and so for conception, this I relate from what I have heard, though what this state with women is, I am not permitted to describe. Moreover, it is known only to themselves. Whether when they are in that state their love is in its delight or, as some women say, in undelight, they have not divulged. This only is commonly known: That it is not lawful for a husband to say to his wife that he is able and not willing, for thus grievous hurt is done to her state of reception which is prepared in accordance with the state of her husband‘s ability.

CL 220. XI. That men have abundance according to their love of propagating the truths of (their) wisdom, and according to their love of performing uses. That such is the case is one among the arcana which were known to the ancients and which are now lost. The ancients knew that every least thing done in the body is done from a spiritual origin; as for instance, that actions flow from the will which in itself is spiritual; that speech flows from thought which is likewise spiritual; also that natural sight is from spiritual sight which is understanding, natural hearing from spiritual hearing which is the attention of the understanding and at the same time the compliance of the will, and natural smell from spiritual smell which is perception, and so on. The ancients saw that virile semination is likewise from a spiritual origin; and from many testimonials of both reason and experience, they concluded that it is from the truths of which the understanding consists. They said further that from the spiritual marriage which inflows into every single thing of the universe, being the marriage of good and truth, nothing else is received by males but truth and that which relates to truth; that in its progress into the body, this is formed into seed, and that thence it is that seeds, spiritually understood, are truths.

[2] As regards the formation, they said that the masculine soul, being intellectual, is truth, the intellectual being nothing else; and, therefore, when the soul descends, truth also descends; that this comes to pass by reason of the fact that, from an implanted endeavour to propagate itself, the soul, which is the inmost of man and of every animal and in its essence is spiritual, follows in the descent and wills to procreate itself; that when this takes place, the whole soul forms and clothes itself and becomes seed; and that this can be done thousands and thousands of times because the soul is a spiritual substance which has not extension but impletion and from which there is no taking away of a part but a production of the whole without any loss thereof. Thence it is that it is fully present in its least receptacles which are seeds just as in its greatest receptacle which is the body.

[3] Since therefore the truth of the soul is the origin of seed, it follows that men have abundance according to their love of propagating the truths of their wisdom. That it is also according to their love of performing uses is because uses are the goods which truths produce. Moreover, it is known to some in the world that the industrious have abundance, and not the idle. When I asked how the feminine is propagated from a masculine soul, I received the answer that it is from intellectual good, this in its essence being truth; for the intellect can think that a thing is good, thus that it is a truth that the thing is good. Not so with the will; this does not think of good and truth but loves and does them. Therefore, in the Word, by sons are signified truths and by daughters goods, as can be seen above (n. 120); and that by seed in the Word is signified truth, may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 565).

CL 221. XII. That determinations are at the good pleasure of the husband. The reason is because men have the aforesaid abundance, and this varies with them according to the state of their mind and also according to the state of their body. The understanding is not so constant in its thoughts as the will is in its affections; for it is carried now up, now down; is now in a state serene and clear, now in a state disturbed and obscure; now engaged in agreeable subjects, now in disagreeable. And because when the mind acts it is also in the body, it follows that the body has similar states. Hence it is that the husband now recedes from conjugial love, now approaches it; and that in the one state abundance is withdrawn, and in the other it is restored. These are the reasons why determinations are to be left to the good pleasure of the husband. Hence it is that, from the wisdom implanted in them, wives never suggest anything with respect to such matters.

CL 222. XIII. That there is a conjugial sphere which inflows from the Lord through heaven into every single thing of the universe even to its ultimates. That love and wisdom, or what is the same thing, good and truth continually proceed from the Lord, has been shown above in the chapter on that subject (n. 83). These two continually proceed from the Lord in marriage, because they are Himself, and from Him are all things.

[2] Moreover, what proceeds from Him fills the universe, for without Him nothing which exists would subsist. There are many spheres which proceed from Him, such as the sphere of the preservation of the created universe, the sphere of the protection of good and truth against evil and falsity, the sphere of reformation and regeneration, the sphere of innocence and peace, the sphere of mercy and grace, besides many others. But of all these the universal sphere is the conjugial; for this is also the sphere of propagation and is thus the supereminent sphere of the preservation of the created universe by successive generations.

[3] That this conjugial sphere fills the universe and pervades it from first things to last, is evident from the fact, as shown above, that there are marriages in the heavens, the most perfect being in the third or highest heaven; and that on earth, besides being with men, this conjugial sphere is in all subjects of the animal kingdom even to worms, and also in all subjects of the vegetable kingdom, from olive trees and palms even to lowly grasses.

[4] That this sphere is more universal than the sphere of heat and light which proceeds from the sun of our world--of this, reason can be convinced from the fact that it continues to operate, more especially in the case of man, in the absence of the sun’s heat as in winter, and in the absence of its light as at night. The reason why it thus operates is because it proceeds from the sun of the angelic heaven, and from this there is a constant equality of heat and light, that is, a constant conjunction of good and truth; for the angelic heaven is in perpetual spring. The changes of the good and truth or of the heat and light thereof are not variations such as are the variations on earth due to the changes of the heat and light from the sun there, but arise from the recipient subjects.

CL 223. XIV. That this sphere is received by the female sex, and through this sex is transferred into the male sex. That there is no conjugial love with the male sex and that it is with the female sex alone, and from this sex is transferred into the male, this I have seen attested by experience; see (n. 161). In agreement with this experience is the following reason: The masculine is intellectual and the feminine voluntary, and an intellectual form cannot grow warm with conjugial heat from itself but only from the conjunctive heat of one in whom that heat has been implanted by creation. Consequently, it cannot receive that love except through the voluntary form of a female adjoined to itself, that form being a form of love.

[2] This could be more fully confirmed from the marriage of good and truth, and, for the natural man, from the marriage of the heart and lungs, inasmuch as the heart corresponds to love and the lungs to understanding. But since most men are deficient in the science of these organs, confirmation by them might obscure rather than enlighten. It is from the transfer of this sphere from the female sex into the male that the mind is enkindled even at the mere thought of the sex; consequently, thence also comes propagative formation, and thus excitation; for on earth, unless heat is added to light, nothing flourishes and nothing is aroused for the production of fruit.

CL 224. XV. That where there is love truly conjugial, this sphere is received by the wife and by the husband solely through the wife. That with those who are in love truly conjugial this sphere is received by the husband solely through the wife, is at this day an arcanum; yet in itself it is not an arcanum, it being possible for the bridegroom and the newly married husband to know it. Does not everything which proceeds from the bride and the newly married wife then affect him conjugially, and not what proceeds from others of the sex? It is the same with those who live together in love truly conjugial. And since the sphere of his life accompanies everyone, both man and woman, densely at the breast and thinly at the back, it is evident whence it is that husbands who dearly love their wives turn themselves to them, and in the daytime look on them with favouring countenance; while those who do not love their wives turn themselves away from them and in the daytime look on them with averted gaze. It is by the reception of the conjugial sphere by the husband solely through the wife that love truly conjugial is recognized and distinguished from spurious, false, and frigid conjugial love.

CL 225. XVI. That where there is no conjugial love, this sphere is indeed received by the wife but not by the husband through her. In its origin, this conjugial sphere inflowing into the universe is Divine; in its progress in heaven with the angels it is celestial and spiritual; with men it is natural, with beasts and birds animal, with worms merely corporeal, and with plants it is devoid of life. Moreover, it varies in individual subjects according to their forms. Now because this sphere, which in itself is holy, is received by the female sex immediately and by the male sex mediately; and because it is received according to forms; it follows that in its subjects it may be turned into a sphere which is not holy, and may even be turned into the opposite sphere. In such subjects, this opposite sphere with women is called meretricious, and with men scortatory; and since such men and women are in hell, this sphere is from hell. This sphere also is of great variety, and so is of many kinds; and that kind is attracted and drawn in by the male which is congruous with him, conforming with his genius and corresponding to it. From this it can be evident that a man who does not love his wife receives that sphere from another source than his wife. Yet on occasions it is also inspired by the wife but unknown to the man, and when he grows warm.

CL 226. XVII. That conjugial love may exist with one of the partners and not at the same time with the other; for the one may from the heart wish for chaste marriage, and the other not know what chastity is. The one may love the things of the Church, and the other, things of the world alone. The one, as to his mind, may be in heaven, the other as to his, in hell. Thus conjugial love may be with the one and not with the other. Their minds, being of an opposite turn, are inwardly in collision, and if not outwardly, yet he who is not in conjugial love looks upon his consort by covenant as a tiresome old woman. And so in other cases.

CL 227. XVIII. That with married partners there are various similitudes and various dissimilitudes, both internal and external. It is well known that among married partners there are similitudes and dissimilitudes, and that those which are external are apparent but not those which are internal, except to the partners themselves after living together for a time, and to others by various indications. But to make the similitudes and dissimilitudes known by enumerating them would be vain, for many pages can be filled with a recital and description of their varieties. Deductions and conclusions with respect to similitudes can be made to some extent from the dissimilitudes treated of in the next chapter, on account of which conjugial love passes off into cold. In general, similitudes and dissimilitudes take their rise from connate inclinations, varied by education, associations with others, and imbibed persuasions.

CL 228. XIX. That various similitudes can be conjoined, but not with dissimilitudes. Similitudes and dissimilitudes exist in great variety and are more or less remote. Yet, those which are remote can in time be conjoined by various means, especially by accommodations to desires, by mutual offices, by civilities, by abstinence from things unchaste, by a common love of infants and care of children, and above all, by conformity in things of the Church. By means of things of the Church, conjunction is effected of similitudes inwardly remote, but by other means only of those which are outwardly remote. With dissimilitudes, no conjunction can be effected because they are antipathetic.

CL 229. XX. That for those who desire love truly conjugial, the Lord provides similitudes; and if not given on earth, He provides them in the heavens. The reason is because all marriages of love truly conjugial are provided by the Lord. That they are from Him may be seen above (n. 130, 131). As to how they are provided in the heavens, this I have heard described by angels as follows: "The Lord‘s Divine Providence is most singular and most universal in regard to marriages and in marriages, because all the delights of heaven stream from the delights of conjugial love, as sweet waters from the vein of a fountain. Therefore it is provided that conjugial pairs be born and that, under the Lord’s auspices, they be continually educated for their marriage, neither the boy nor the girl knowing it. Then when the due time has passed, she, now a marriageable maid, and he, now a young man ripe for marriage, meet somewhere as if by fate, see each other, and at once know as by a kind of instinct that they are mates; and within themselves as though from some dictate, they think, the young man, She is mine, and the maid, He is mine. Then, after this thought has been seated for some time in the mind of each, they deliberately speak to each other and betroth themselves. It is said, as if by fate, instinct, and dictate, though what is meant is by Divine Providence, because when this is unknown, it so appears; for the Lord opens their internal similitudes that they may see themselves."

CL 230. XXI. That according to the defect and loss of conjugial love, man approaches to the nature of a beast. The reason is, because so far as he is in conjugial love he is spiritual, and so far as he is spiritual he is a man. Man is born for life after death, and he attains that life because within him is a spiritual soul, and to this he can be elevated through the faculty of his understanding. If then, from the faculty which is given to it, his will also is elevated at the same time, then after death he lives the life of heaven. The contrary is the case if he is in a love opposed to conjugial love; for so far as he is in this, he is a natural man, and as to lusts, appetites, and their delights, the merely natural man is like a beast, with the sole difference that he has the faculty of elevating his understanding into the light of wisdom, and also the faculty of elevating his will into the heat of heavenly love. These faculties are never taken away from any man; and therefore, a merely natural man, although like a beast as to concupiscences, appetites and their delights, yet lives after death--but in a state corresponding to his past life. From this it is evident, that according to the defect of conjugial love, man approaches to the nature of a beast. This may seem open to contradiction because defect and loss of conjugial love exist with those who nevertheless are men; but what is meant concerns those who from scortatory love make light of conjugial love and so are in the defect and loss thereof.

CL 231. To the above shall be added three Memorable Relations. The First:

I once heard shouts which gurgled up from the lower regions as though through water; one on the left, OH, HOW JUST! another on the right, OH, HOW LEARNED! and a third from behind, OH, HOW WISE! And because I fell to thinking as to whether there were just, learned, and wise men even in hell, I felt a desire to see whether there are such men there. It was then said to me out of heaven, "You shall see and hear." In spirit I then went out of the house and saw before me an open hole. Drawing near, I looked down it and lo, a ladder. Descending by this, I saw at the bottom plains overgrown with trees intermingled with thorns and nettles, and I asked whether this was hell. They said, "It is the lower earth which is next above hell."

Following the cries in order, I then went to the first cry, OH, HOW JUST! and saw an assembly of those who in the world had been judges with an eye to friendship and bribes; then to the second cry, OH, HOW LEARNED! and saw an assembly of those who in the world had been reasoners; then to the third cry, OH, HOW WISE! and saw an assembly of those who in the world had been confirmers.

[2] From the latter I turned back to the first cry, where were judges with an eye to friendship and bribes who were being proclaimed as just. At one side I saw something like an amphitheatre built of brick and roofed over with black tiles, and it was told me that they called it the Tribunal. It had three entrances on the north side and three on the west, but none on the south side or on the east, a sign that their judgments were not judgments of justice but arbitrary decisions. In the middle of the amphitheatre was seen a fire-place, into which the servants of the hearth were throwing logs full of sulphur and pitch, the flickering lights from which presented on the plastered walls pictured images of birds of evening and night. This fire-place and the flickerings of the light into the forms of these images were representations of their judgments, in that they could illumine the facts of any case with coloured paints, and induce upon them appearances in accordance with their inclinations.

[3] After half an hour, I saw men, old and young, enter, wearing long robes and cloaks. Putting off their caps, they took their seats at the tables to sit in judgment. I then heard and perceived how, with a view to friendship, they skillfully and ingeniously bent and twisted their judgments into the appearance of justice, and this even to the point that they themselves viewed what was unjust no otherwise than as just, and conversely, what was just as unjust. Their persuasions in these respects were apparent from their faces, and they came to the ear from their speeches. From the enlightenment which was then given me from heaven, I perceived the several judgments, as to whether or not they were judgments of justice; and I saw how assiduously they covered over what was unjust and induced upon it the appearance of what is just; and how they selected from the laws one that favoured them and, by skilful reasonings, forced the others to their side. Following the judgments, the decisions were conveyed outside to the judges‘ clients, friends, and favourers, and these, in return for their favours, were shouting all along a lengthy road, OH, HOW JUST! OH, HOW JUST!

[4] After this, I spoke of the matter with angels of heaven, telling them something of what I had seen and heard; and the angels said: "Such judges appear to others as gifted with the most penetrating acuteness of understanding, when yet they do not see the least thing of what is just and equitable. If you take away their friendship for a party in a suit, they sit in judgment mute as statues and say merely `I agree, I adjust myself to this or that judgment.’ The reason is because all their judgments are prejudices, and prejudice together with favour follows the case from beginning to end. Hence they see nothing but what favours their friend. Everything which is against him they set aside, and if they again take it up, they involve it in reasonings, as a spider its captives in the threads of its web, and distort it. Hence it is that, when not following the thread of their prejudice, they see nothing of justice. They have been explored as to whether they can, and it was found that they cannot. The inhabitants of your world will wonder at this, but tell them that it is a truth explored by angels of heaven. Because these judges see nothing of what is just, we in heaven view them, not as men, but as monsters whose heads are made of matters of friendship, their bodies of matters of injustice, their feet of matters of confirmation, and the soles of their feet of matters of justice; and if the latter do not favour their friend, they throw them to the ground and trample them under foot. But you yourself will see how they appear to us from heaven, for their end is at hand."

[5] Then, behold, the ground suddenly yawned open, the tables fell one upon another, and the judges together with the whole amphitheatre were swallowed up and cast into caverns and imprisoned.

The angels then said to me, "Do you wish to see them there?" And lo, they were seen with faces as of polished steel, their bodies from the neck to the loins like sculptures carved of stone and dressed in leopard skins, and their feet like serpents. And I saw the law-books which they had laid upon the tables, turned to playing-cards. Instead of sitting in judgment, they are now given the task of making vermilion into rouge, wherewith to deck the faces of harlots and thus transform them into beauties.

[6] After seeing this, I wished to go to the two other assemblies the one where they were mere reasoners and the other where they were mere confirmers, but it was told me, "Rest a while; angel companions will be given you from the society next above them. Through these, light will be given you by the Lord and you will see marvels."

CL 232. The second Memorable Relation:

Some time later I again heard from the lower earth the voices previously heard, OH, HOW LEARNED! and OH, HOW WISE! As I looked around to see what angels were then present, lo, they were angels from the heaven immediately over those who were crying, OH, HOW LEARNED. When I spoke to them about the cry, they said: "These learned men are men who merely reason, Is this so or Is it not so, and rarely think It is. They are therefore like winds which blow and pass away, or like the bark around trees without a core, or like the shells of almonds without a kernel, or the rinds upon fruits with no pulp; for their minds are devoid of interior judgment, being united only with the senses of the body, and if the senses do not make the judgment, they can come to no conclusion. In a word, they are merely sensual. By us they are called Reasoners, because they never come to any conclusion but take up whatever they hear, and then, with perpetual contradictions, dispute as to whether it is. They like nothing better than to attack truths, and by bringing them into dispute to tear them to pieces. They are men who think themselves more learned than all the world."

[2] Hearing this, I asked the angels to take me down to them. They then brought me to a cavern from which steps led to the lower earth. We descended and followed the cry OH, HOW LEARNED! And behold, some hundreds were standing in one place beating the ground with their feet. At first I wondered at this and asked, "Why do they stand in that way and beat the ground with the soles of their feet?" and I added, "They may thus make a hole in the ground with their feet." At this the angels smiled and said, "They appear to stand thus because they do not think of anything that it is so, but only whether it is, and this they make a matter of controversy; and since their thought makes no further progress, they appear merely to tread on a single clod and trample it without any progression."

I then approached the men there assembled, and lo, they seemed to me to be men with faces not unhandsome and in fine clothes; but the angels said, "They appear thus in their own light, but when light from heaven flows in, their faces are changed and also their clothes." This indeed came to pass, and they were then seen with swarthy countenances and clothed in black sacking; but when the light was withdrawn, they appeared as before.

Presently I spoke to some of them and said: "I heard the cry of the crowd around you, Oh, how learned; may I therefore be allowed to exchange some words with you on matters which are of the highest learning?" to which they answered, "Say whatever you please and we will satisfy you."

[3] I then asked them, "What must be the nature of religion whereby man is saved?" They replied: "We must distribute this question into several questions, and until we have come to some conclusion respecting these, we cannot give you any answer. The questions that must be discussed are:

1. Is religion anything?

2. Is there or is there not such a thing as salvation?

3. Is one religion more effective than another?

4. Is there a heaven and a hell?

5. Is life after death eternal? besides many other questions."

When I asked about the first question, "Is religion anything?" they began, with an abundance of arguments, to discuss whether there is such a thing as religion, and whether what is so called is anything. I then begged them to refer the question to the assembly. This they did, and the general answer was that this proposition required so much investigation that it could not be finished within the evening. To my question, "Can you finish it in a year?" one of them said that it could not be finished in a hundred years, whereupon I said, "Meanwhile you are without religion," and he answered: "Must it not first be shown whether there is such a thing as religion, and whether what is so called is anything? If it is, it must be for the wise also; if not, then it must be only for the common people. It is well known that religion is called a bond, but the question is, For whom? If it is only for the common people, then in itself it is not anything; if also for the wise, it is something."

[4] On hearing this, I said to them: "You are anything but learned, for you are only able to think whether a thing is, and to turn the answer to either side. Who can become learned unless he knows something for certain and progresses into it as a man progresses into wisdom, step by step and so successively. Otherwise you do not touch truths even with the finger-nail but remove them more and more out of sight. Reasoning merely as to whether a thing is, is it not like reasoning from a cap which is never put on? or a shoe which is never worn? What comes of it except that you do not know whether there is anything; yea, whether there is such a thing as salvation; whether life after death is eternal; whether one religion is more effective than another; whether there is a heaven and a hell. You cannot think anything about these things so long as you stick fast in the first step and, beating the sand there, do not set foot beyond foot and go forwards. Beware lest your minds, standing thus on the outside at the door of judgment, grow inwardly hard and become statues of salt, and you yourselves friends of Lot‘s wife."

[5] Saying this, I went away, and in their indignation they threw stones at me. They then seemed to me like stone sculptures wherein is nothing of human reason. I asked the angels respecting their lot, and they said, "Their lot is, that they are sent down into the deep and there into a desert where they are driven to carrying loads. Being unable to proffer anything from reason, they then chatter and indulge in empty talk. From a distance they appear there like asses carrying burdens."

CL 233. The third Memorable Relation:

After this one of the angels said, "Follow me to the place where they are shouting, OH, HOW WISE; and he added, "You will see monstrosities of men. You will see faces and bodies which are those of men and yet they are not men."

To my question, "Are they then beasts?" he answered: "They are not beasts but beast-men, being entirely unable to see whether a truth is true or not, and yet able to make whatever they will to be true. With us, such men are called Confirmers." Following the shouting, we came to the place and, behold, a group of men. Around the group was a crowd, and in the crowd, some men of noble descent. These, when they heard them confirming every statement they made, and favouring them with such manifest assent, turned around and said, "Oh, how wise!"

[2] The angel then said to me, "Let us not go to them but let us call out one of the group." We then called one out and with him we went aside and conversed on various subjects. He then so confirmed every statement that it seemed as though it was absolutely true. We asked him whether he could also confirm the opposite statement. He answered, "Just as easily as the former." Then, speaking openly and from the heart, he continued: "What is truth? Is there anything true in the nature of things other than what a man makes true? Tell me anything you please and I will make it true."

I said, "Make it true that faith is the all of the Church." This he did, and so dexterously and skillfully that the learned standing around were astonished and gave their applause. I then asked him to make it true that charity is the all of the Church, and this also he did; and afterwards, that charity is nothing of the Church; and he so clothed and adorned both propositions with appearances that the bystanders looked at each other and said, "Is he not wise?"

But I said: "Do you not know that to live well is charity, and that to believe well is faith? that he who lives well also believes well? thus that faith is of charity and charity of faith? Do you not see that this is true?" He replied, "Let me make it true and I shall see it." And he did so and said, "Now I see it." But presently he made its opposite true and said,"I see that this also is true."

Smiling at this, we said, "Are they not opposites? How can two opposites be seen as truth?" Indignant at this, he replied, "You are in error. Each is true, for nothing is true but what a man makes true."

[3] Standing near by was one who in the world had been an ambassador of the first rank. He was astonished at this statement and said,"I acknowledge that there is something like this in the world, but still you are insane. Make it true, if you can, that light is darkness and darkness light."

The confirmer replied: "I can do that easily. What are light and darkness but states of the eye? Is not light changed to shade when the eye passes out of a sunny place? and also when it looks intently at the sun? Who does not know that the state of the eye is then changed, and that hence light appears as shade; and on the other hand, that when the state of the eye returns, the shade appears as light. Does not an owl see the darkness of night as the light of day, and the light of day as the darkness of night, and even the sun itself as an opaque and dusky globe? If any man had eyes like an owl, which would he call light and which darkness? What then is light but a state of the eye; and being a state of the eye, is not light darkness and darkness light? Therefore the one statement is true and the other also is true."

[4] The ambassador then asked him to make it true that the raven is white and not black; and he answered. "That also I can do easily." He then said: "Take a needle or a razor and open the feathers or quills of a raven. Are they not white within? Then remove the feathers and quills and look at the raven’s skin, is it not white? What is the black which is around it but a shade from which no judgment should be made respecting the raven‘s colour. As to black being only shade, consult experts in the science of optics and they will tell you; or grind black stone or glass to a fine powder and you will see that the powder is white."

"But," the ambassador answered, "does not the raven appear black to the sight?" To this the confirmer replied: "Do you, who are a man, wish to think anything from appearances. From appearance you can indeed say that the raven is black, but you cannot think it. For example, you can say from appearance that the sun rises, progresses, and sets, but being a man, you cannot think it because the sun stands unmoved and it is the earth that progresses. It is the same with the raven. Appearance Is appearance. Say what you will, the raven is entirely white; moreover, it grows white as it grows old. This I have seen."

[5] We then asked him to tell us, from the heart, whether he was jesting or whether he believed that nothing is true but what a man makes true, and he answered, "I swear that I believe it."

After this, the ambassador asked him if he could make it true that he was insane. He said, "I can, but I do not wish to. Who is not insane?"

This universal confirmer was then sent to angels who explored him as to his true nature. After the exploration, they said that he did not possess a single grain of understanding, because with him all that is above the rational was closed and that only was open which is below the rational. Above the rational is heavenly light, while below it, is natural light, and the latter is such that one can confirm whatsoever he pleases; but if heavenly light does not flow into his natural light, he does not see whether any truth is true or, consequently, whether any falsity is false. The ability to see the latter and the former comes from heavenly light in natural light; and heavenly light comes from the God of heaven who is the Lord. Wherefore, this universal confirmer is neither a man nor a beast but a beast-man.

[6] I asked the angel concerning the lot of such men, and whether they are able to be with the living, since man has life from heavenly light and from this light is his understanding. He answered: "When alone, such men are not able to think anything and so are not able to speak, but stand dumb as machines and as though in deep sleep; but as soon as they catch anything with their ears, they wake up." He then added, "Such do they become who inmostly are evil. Heavenly light cannot flow into them from above, but only a spiritual something through the world, and from this they have the faculty of confirming."

[7] When he had said this, I heard a voice from the angels who had explored the confirmer saying to me, "From what you have heard, form now a universal conclusion." I then formed the following: To be able to confirm whatsoever one pleases is not the mark of an intelligent man; but to be able to see that truth is true and falsity false, and to confirm it, is the mark of an intelligent man.

After this, I looked towards the group where the confirmers were standing with the crowd around them shouting "Oh, how wise!" and lo, a dusky cloud covered them, and in the cloud were flying screech-owls and bats. It was then told me: "The screech-owls and bats flying in the dusky cloud are the correspondences and thus the appearances of their thoughts; for in this world, confirmations of falsities so that they seem like truths are represented under the forms of birds of night whose eyes are illumined inwardly by a fatuous light, whereby they see objects in the dark as though in light. A fatuous spiritual light of this kind is in those who confirm falsities until they seem like truths. The falsities are then believed to be truths and are so called. All such men are in vision a posteriori and not in any vision a priori."

CL 234. Here, together with the causes of colds in marriages, the causes of separations and also of divorces are likewise treated of. The reason is because they cohere, the one with the other, for separations come solely from cold gradually engendered after the marriage, or from causes giving rise to cold, which come to view after the marriage; while divorces are from adulteries inasmuch as these are directly opposed to marriages, and opposites induce cold, if not in both partners, yet in one. This is the reason why the causes of colds, separations, and divorces are brought together in a single chapter. The close connection of these causes will become more clearly evident from seeing them in a series. This series is as follows:

1. That there is spiritual heat and spiritual cold; and that spiritual heat is love and spiritual cold the deprivation thereof.

2. That in marriages, spiritual cold is disunion of souls and disjunction of minds, whence comes indifference, discord, contempt, loathing, aversion; from which, with many, comes finally separation from bed, chamber, and house.

3. That the causes of cold in their successions are many, some internal, some external, and some accidental.

4. That the internal causes of cold are from religion.

5. That of these causes, the First is rejection of religion by both partners.

6. The Second, that the one has religion and the other has not.

7. The Third, that the one has one religion and the other another.

8. The Fourth, is imbued falsity of religion.

9. That these are causes of internal cold, but with many, not at the same time of external cold.

10. That the external causes of cold are also many, and of these the First is dissimilitude in animus and manners.

11. The Second, the believing that conjugial love is one with scortatory love except that by law, the latter is illicit and the former is not.

12. The Third, rivalry for supremacy between the partners.

13. The Fourth, lack of determination to any study or business, whence comes wandering lust.

14. The Fifth, inequality of station and condition in externals.

15. That there are also several causes of separation.

16. That of these the First is a blemish of the mind.

17. That the Second is a blemish of the body.

18. The Third is impotence before marriage.

19. That Adultery is the cause of divorce.

20. That there are also many accidental causes; and of these the First is commonness from being continually allowed.

21. The Second, that because of the covenant and the law, living with the married partner seems forced and not free.

22. The Third, affirmation by the wife and talk by her about love.

23. The Fourth, the man’s thought of the wife day and night, that she is desirous; and on the other hand, the wife‘s thought of the man, that he is not willing.

24. That when cold is in the mind, it is also in the body; and according to the increase of the former cold, the externals of the body are closed.

The explication of the above now follows.

CL 235. I. That there is spiritual heat and spiritual cold; and that spiritual heat is love and spiritual cold the deprivation thereof. Spiritual heat is from no other source than the sun of the spiritual world; for there is a sun there, proceeding from the Lord who is in the midst of it; and being from the Lord, that sun in its essence is pure love. Before the angels, it appears as fiery, just as the sun of our world appears before men--that it appears fiery is because love is spiritual fire. From it proceed both heat and light; but because that sun is pure love, the heat therefrom in its essence is love, and the light therefrom in its essence is wisdom. From this it is evident whence comes spiritual heat, and that this heat is love.

[2] The source of spiritual cold shall also be explained in a few words. It is from the sun of the natural world and from the heat and light thereof. The sun of the natural world was created, that its heat and light may receive into themselves spiritual heat and light, and by the mediation of atmospheres, may convey them to things ultimate on earth, in order to make actual the effects of the ends which are the Lord’s in His sun; and also to clothe spiritual things with adequate garments, that is, with matters, that ultimate ends may become operative in nature. This is effected when spiritual heat is joined from within to natural heat. But the opposite comes to pass when natural heat is separated from spiritual heat, which is the case with those who love natural things and reject spiritual. With them, spiritual heat becomes cold. That these two (heats or) loves, which from creation are concordant, then become opposed, is because the master heat then becomes the servant, and the reverse. That this may not happen, spiritual heat, which by its lineage is the master, withdraws. In these subjects, spiritual heat then grows cold because it becomes the opposite. What spiritual cold is, namely, that it is the deprivation of spiritual heat, is thus evident.

[3] In what has been said above, by (spiritual) heat is meant love, because in living subjects that heat is felt as love. I have heard in the spiritual world that spirits who are merely natural grow intensely cold when they place themselves at the side of an angel who is in a state of love, and that it is the same with the spirits of hell when heat flows into them out of heaven; and yet, that among themselves, when the heat of heaven is shut off from them, they burn with great heat.

CL 236. II. That in marriages, spiritual cold is disunion of souls and disjunction of minds, whence comes indifference, discord, contempt, loathing, aversion; from which, with many, comes finally separation from bed, chamber, and house. That such is the case with married partners if their first love declines and becomes cold, is too well known to need comment. The reason is because conjugial cold resides in human minds above all other colds; for the conjugial is inscribed upon the soul to the end that soul may be propagated from soul, and the soul of a father into his offspring. Hence it is that this cold begins there and passes down successively into the parts that follow, and infects them, and so turns the gladsome and delightful things of the first love into things sad and undelightful.

CL 237. III. That the causes of cold in their successions are many, some internal, some external, and some accidental. That there are many causes of cold in marriages is known in the world; and also that cold arises from many external causes. But that the origins of these causes lie concealed in man‘s inmost parts, and that from these they betake themselves into the parts that follow, until at last they appear in externals, is not known. In order, therefore, that it may be known that the external causes are not causes in themselves but are derived from causes which are causes in themselves and which, as was said, are in man’s inmosts, the causes are first divided generally into internal and external, and are then examined in detail.

CL 238. IV. That the internal causes of cold are from religion. That the true origin of conjugial love resides with man in his inmosts, that is, in his soul, is a matter of conviction with everyone, from the mere fact that the soul of the offspring is from the father--a fact which is recognized from the similarity of inclinations and affections, and also from the general similarity of features derived from the father, this remaining in his posterity even when remote. It is further evident from the propagative faculty implanted in souls from creation, and also, by analogy, in the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, in that, inmostly latent in their germinations lies the propagation of seed and hence of the whole plant, whether tree, bush, or shrub.

[2] This propagative or plastic force in seeds of the vegetable kingdom and in the souls of the other kingdom, is from no other source than the conjugial sphere--being the sphere of good and truth treated of above (n. 222-225)--perpetually emanating and flowing in from the Lord the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, and the striving therein of these two, namely, good and truth, to conjoin themselves into a one. It is this conjugial striving inseated in souls, from which as its origin, conjugial love exists. That this same marriage, whence comes that universal sphere, makes the Church with man, has been shown abundantly and to spare in the chapter on the Marriage of Good and Truth, and many times elsewhere. With this evidence set before the reason, it is clear that the origin of the Church and the origin of conjugial love are in one and the same seat, and that they are in continual embrace. But more on this subject may be seen above (n. 130) where it is demonstrated that conjugial love is according to the state of the Church with man, and so is from religion, it being religion that makes this state.

[3] Moreover, man was so created that he can become ever more interior, and thus can be introduced or elevated into that marriage, and so into love truly conjugial, ever more intimately until he perceives the state of its blessedness. That the sole means of this introduction or elevation is religion, is clearly evident from what was said above, namely, that the origin of the Church and the origin of conjugial love are in the same seat, and that, being there in mutual embrace, they must needs be conjoined.

CL 239. From what has now been said, it follows that where there is no religion there is no conjugial love, and that where this is lacking, there cold is present. That conjugial cold is the deprivation of that love may be seen above (n. 235); consequently, conjugial cold is also the deprivation of the state of the church or religion. A very evident confirmation of this may be drawn from the common ignorance at the present day concerning love truly conjugial. Who at this day knows that the origin of conjugial love is deduced from this source? who at this day is willing to acknowledge this? and who at this day will not wonder at it? This is due to no other cause than the fact that though there is religion, there are no truths of religion; and what is religion without truths? That there are no truths has been fully shown in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED; see also in the Memorabilia there (AR n. 566).

CL 240. V. That of the internal causes of cold, the first is rejection of religion by both partners. With those who cast the holy things of the Church, from the face to the occiput or from the breast to the back, there is no good love. If any comes to view from the body, there is still none in the spirit. With such men, goods place themselves outside evils and veil them over like a garment resplendent with gold covering a corrupt body. The evils which reside within and are veiled over are, in general, hatreds and thence intestine combats against everything spiritual--all the things of the Church which they reject being in themselves spiritual. And because love truly conjugial is the fundamental of all spiritual loves, as shown above (n. 65) it is evident that their intrinsic hatred is against this love, and that with them the intrinsic or proprial love is for the opposite which is the love of adultery. Wherefore they, more than others, will deride the truth that with everyone, conjugial love is according to the state of the Church with him. Indeed, they will perhaps laugh aloud at the very mention of love truly conjugial. Be that as it may, they are yet to be excused because, for them, it is just as impossible to think differently of embraces in marriage than of embraces in whoredom, as it is for a camel to push through the eye of a needle. Those who are such, are cold in respect to conjugial love with more extreme cold than others. If they cleave to their partners, it is only for external reasons such as are recounted above (n. 153), which restrain and bind them. With them, the interiors which pertain to the soul and thence to the mind are more and more closed, and in the body they are stopped up; and then, in the interiors of their body and thence in the lowest things of their thoughts, love of the sex also grows vile or becomes insanely lascivious. These also are they who are meant in the Memorable Relation (n. 79), which they may read if they please.

CL 241. VI. That of the internal causes of cold, the second is that the one has religion and the other has not. The reason is because their souls cannot but be discordant, the soul of the one being open for the reception of conjugial love, and that of the other closed to the reception of that love. It is closed with the one who has no religion and open with the one who has religion. Hence no cohabitation is possible in the soul, and when conjugial love is banished therefrom, cold ensues--but this only with the partner who has no religion. This cold is not dissipated except by the reception of a religion congruous with that of the other, if the latter is true religion. Otherwise, with the partner who has no religion, there comes a cold which descends from the soul into the body even to the cuticles. As the final effect of this cold, that partner cannot bear to look the other directly in the face, or to address that other with any feeling of breathing the same air, that is, save with a restrained tone of voice, or to touch that other with the hand, and scarcely with the back, to say nothing of the insanities which from that cold creep into the thoughts and which they do not divulge. This is the reason why such marriages are dissolved of themselves. Moreover, it is well known that an impious man holds his partner in low esteem; and all who are without religion are impious.

CL 242. VII. That of the internal causes of cold, the third is that the one has one religion and the other another. The reason is because with such partners, good cannot be conjoined with its corresponding truth; for, as shown above, the wife is the good of the husband‘s truth, and he is the truth of the wife’s good. Hence, from the two souls there cannot be made one soul; consequently, the fountain from which that love springs is closed, and with this closed they come into a conjugial which has a lower seat, being the conjugial of good with another truth than its own, or of truth with another good, and between these there is no concordant love. Thence with the partner who is in falsities of religion begins cold, and this is intensified as the one departs farther away from the other. Once when going through the streets of a great city, seeking a place of abode, I entered a house where dwelt married partners who were of diverse religions. While I was still unaware of this, angels addressed me and said, "We cannot stay with you in this house because the partners there are in discordant religions." They perceived this from the internal disunion of their souls.

CL 243. VIII. That of the internal causes (of cold), the fourth is (imbued) falsity of religion. The reason is because falsity in spiritual things either takes away religion or defiles it. It takes it away with those with whom genuine truths are falsified. It defiles it with those with whom there are indeed falsities but no genuine truths and consequently none which could be falsified. With such men there may be goods with which by application those falsities can be conjoined by the Lord; for their falsities are like various discordant tones which, by skilful combinations and insinuations, are drawn into a harmony with its resultant gratefulness. With these, some conjugial love is possible; but with those who have falsified the genuine truths of the Church, it is not possible. From the latter comes the prevailing ignorance as to love truly conjugial, or the negative doubt as to whether it is possible. From them also is the insanity inseated in the minds of many, that adulteries are not evils of religion.

CL 244. IX. That the causes above named are causes of internal cold, but with many, not at the same time of external cold. If the causes thus far defined and confirmed, being causes of cold in internals, were to produce a like cold in externals, the result would be as many separations as there are internal colds, and the latter are as many as the marriages, treated of above, between those who are in falsities of religion, those who are in diverse religions, and those who are in no religion. Yet it is well known that many live together as though love and mutual friendship were theirs. The source of this love and friendship with those who are in internal cold shall be told in the following chapter on the causes of apparent love, friendship, and favour between married partners.

[2] There are many causes which conjoin animi but yet do not conjoin souls, among which are some of the causes recounted above (n. 183). Yet cold lies hidden within, and at times this results in its being observed and sensed. With such persons, their affections are mutually divergent, but, for the sake of apparent friendship and favour, their thoughts, when these go forth into speech and conduct, are mutually accordant. Therefore they know nothing of the pleasantness and delight of love truly conjugial, still less of its happiness and bliss, these being to them little more than fables. Such persons are among those who make the origins of conjugial love to be from the same causes as did the nine companies of the wise brought together from different kingdoms, concerning whom see the Memorable Relation, (n. 103-114).

CL 245. Against what has been confirmed above, the objection may be made that a soul is propagated from the father even though it is not conjoined with the soul of the mother, yea, even though the cold there residing separates them. The reason why souls or offspring are propagated despite this, is because the man‘s understanding is not so closed but that it can be elevated into the light in which the soul is, though the love of his will is not elevated into the heat corresponding to the light there, except by a life which from natural makes him spiritual. Hence it is, that the soul is still procreated; but in its descent, while becoming seed, it is covered over by such things as are of the man’s natural love. From this springs hereditary evil. To the above I will add an arcanum which comes from heaven: Between the disunited souls of two, especially partners, a conjunction is effected in a mediate love; otherwise there would be no conceptions among men. In addition to what has been said concerning conjugial cold and concerning its seat as being in the supreme region of the mind, see the last Memorable Relation of this chapter (n. 270).

CL 246. X. That the external causes of cold are also many, and of these the First is dissimilitude in ANIMUS and manners. Similitudes and dissimilitudes are internal and external. The internal take their origin from no other source than religion; for this is implanted in souls, and through souls is derived from parents to offspring as a supreme inclination. The soul of every man derives its life from the marriage of good and truth, and from this marriage is the Church; and because the latter is various and diverse in different parts of the globe, the souls of all men are likewise various and diverse. From this source, therefore, come the internal similitudes and dissimilitudes and the consequent conjugial conjunctions here treated of.

[2] External similitudes and dissimilitudes are not predicated of the soul but of the animus. By the animus is meant external affections and the inclinations therefrom. After birth, these are insinuated chiefly by education, associations with others, and the resultant habits; for when one says, "I have a mind (animus) to do this or that," his affection is perceived and his inclination to that thing. Moreover, the animus is usually formed by accepted persuasions concerning this or that kind of life. Hence come inclinations to enter into marriage even with unequals, and also to refuse entering into marriage with equals. Yet, after the partners have lived together for a time, these marriages vary according to the similitudes and dissimilitudes contracted from heredity and at the same time by education, the dissimilitudes inducing cold.

[3] So likewise dissimilitudes in manners, as, for example, in the marriage of an uncultured man or woman with a refined man or woman; of a cleanly man or woman with an uncleanly; of a quarrelsome man or woman with a peaceable; in a word, of an ill-bred man or woman with a well-bred. Marriages of such dissimilitudes are not unlike conjunctions of different kinds of animals which do not consociate because of their dissimilitudes; as of sheep and goats, of stags and mules, of hens and geese, of sparrows and noble birds, yea, of dogs and cats. In the human race, faces do not indicate these dissimilitudes but habits. Therefore, from this source come colds.

CL 247. XI. That of the external causes of cold, the Second is the believing that conjugial love is one with scortatory love except that by law, the latter is illicit and the former is not. That from this comes cold is clearly seen by reason when it considers that scortatory love is diametrically opposed to conjugial love. Therefore, when conjugial love is believed to be one with scortatory love, then, in idea the two loves become alike, and the wife is looked upon as a harlot and marriage as uncleanness. Then also the man is an adulterer, if not in body yet in spirit. That from this source flow contempt, loathing and aversion between the man and his woman, and thus intense cold, follows as an inevitable conclusion; for nothing stores up conjugial cold within itself more than scortatory love. Moreover, because this love passes off into cold, it may not undeservedly be called conjugial cold itself.

CL 248. XII. That of the external causes of cold, the Third is rivalry for supremacy between the partners. The reason is because, among its principal objects, conjugial love looks to union of wills and thus to liberty of agreement. Rivalry for supremacy or rule, ejects these two objects from the marriage; for it divides and sunders the wills into sides, and turns the liberty of agreement into servitude. So long as this rivalry continues, the spirit of the one meditates violence against the other. Were their minds then opened and observed by spiritual sight, they would appear as antagonists fighting with daggers, and it would be seen that they regarded each other with alternate hatred and favour--with hatred when in the ardour of rivalry, and with favour when in the hope of dominion and when in lust.

[2] After the victory of the one over the other, the antagonism withdraws from the externals of the mind and betakes itself to the internals, and there with its disquiet it remains concealed. Hence comes cold both to the subjugated or servant and to the victor or master. Cold comes to the latter also because there is no longer conjugial love, and the deprivation of this love is cold (n. 235). Instead of conjugial love comes heat from supremacy; but this heat, though utterly discordant with conjugial heat, yet, by the mediation of lust, may be outwardly concordant. After tacit agreement between them, it appears as if conjugial love had become friendship; but the difference between conjugial friendship in marriages and servile friendship is as the difference between light and shade, between living fire and fatuous fire, yea, as between a man in full flesh and a man consisting only of skin and bone.

CL 249. XIII. Of the external causes of cold, the Fourth is lack of determination to any study or business, whence comes wandering lust. Man was created for use because use is the containant of good and truth, and from the marriage of these is creation and also conjugial love, as shown in the chapter on the Origin of Conjugial Love. By study and business is meant every application to uses; for while a man is in some study and business, that is, in some use, his mind is limited and circumscribed as by a circle, within which it is successively co-ordinated into a form truly human. From this as from a house he sees the various concupiscences as outside himself, and from sanity of reason within, banishes them and consequently banishes also the beastly insanities of scortatory lust. With such men, therefore, conjugial heat remains in greater fullness and for a longer period than with others.

[2] The contrary is the case with those who give themselves up to sloth and idleness. Their mind is unrestrained and unbounded, and the man then admits into the whole of his mind all manner of vain and frivolous things which flow in from the world and the body and carry him along into the love of them. That conjugial love also is then cast into exile is evident; for from sloth and idleness, the mind is rendered stupid and the body torpid, and the whole man becomes insensible to every vital love, especially to conjugial love, it being from this love as from a fountain that the activities and alacrities of life emanate. The conjugial cold with such men is, however, different from that cold with others. It is indeed the privation of conjugial love, but from defect.

CL 250. XIV. That of the external causes of cold, the Fifth is inequality of station and condition in externals. There are many inequalities of station and condition which, during the time of living together, break up the conjugial love initiated before the nuptials. All, however, can be referred to inequalities in respect to age, to rank, and to wealth. That unequal ages induce cold in marriages, as in the marriage of a boy with an old woman, or of an adolescent maid with a decrepit old man, needs no confirmation. That in marriages it is the same in the case of inequality of rank, as in the marriage of a prince with a maid-servant, or of an illustrious matron with a man-servant, is also acknowledged without confirmation. That it is equally the case with respect to wealth is clear, unless, indeed, a similitude in animus and manners and the application of the one partner to the inclinations and native desires of the other consociates them. In these cases, however, compliance by the one on account of the superior station and condition of the other conjoins them only in a servile way, and such conjunction is a cold conjunction; for with them it is a marriage, not of the spirit and heart, but only of the mouth and the name--a marriage of which the inferior boasts and at which the superior blushes with shame. In the heavens there is no inequality of age or of rank or wealth. As to age, all there are in the bloom of youth and remain therein to eternity. As to rank, all there regard others according to the uses which they perform. The more eminent look upon those in lower stations as brethren; nor do they put rank above the excellence of the use but the latter above the former. Moreover, when virgins are given in marriage, they do not know of what lineage they are, for no one there knows his father on earth, the Lord being the Father of all. So likewise as to wealth. There, wealth is the endowment of being wise; according to this, riches are given them in sufficiency. As to how marriages are entered into there, this may be seen above (n. 229).

CL 251. XV. That there are also several causes of separation. There is separation from the bed and separation from the house. The causes of separation from the bed are many, and so likewise of separation from the house; here, however, it is legitimate causes that are treated of. Because causes of separation coincide with causes of concubinage, which are treated of in their own chapter in the next Part of this work, the reader is referred to that chapter, that he may see the causes in their order. The legitimate causes of separation are those which follow.

CL 252. XVI. That the First cause of legitimate separation is a blemish of the mind, is because conjugial love is a conjunction of minds. Therefore, if the mind of the one departs from that of the other into what is diverse, the conjunction is dissolved and therewith love vanishes. As to what the blemishes are which make separation, this can be seen from a recital of them. For the most part, they are the following: Mania, frenzy, insanity, actual foolishness and idiocy, loss of memory, severe hysteria, extreme simplicity so that there is no perception of good and truth, the height of obstinacy in not conforming to what is just and equitable, the utmost pleasure in gabbling and in talking of nothing but insignificant and trivial matters, unbridled desire to divulge the secrets of the home, also to quarrel, strike blows, take revenge, do evil, steal, lie, deceive, blaspheme; neglect of the children, intemperance, luxury, excessive prodigality, drunkenness, uncleanness, lack of shame, addiction to magic and witchcraft, impiety, and many others. By legitimate causes are here meant, not judicial causes, but causes legitimate to the other partner; moreover, separation from the house is seldom decreed by a judge.

CL 253. XVII. That the Second cause of legitimate separation is a blemish of the body. By blemishes of the body are not meant accidental diseases which befall one or the other married partner during the time of marriage and which pass away. What are meant are incurable diseases which do not pass away. Pathology teaches what these are. They are multifarious, such as diseases by which the whole body is infected to a degree which may lead to fatal results by contagion. Such diseases are:

1. Malignant and pestilential fevers, leprosy, venereal diseases, gangrenes, cancer, and other like maladies.

2. Also diseases by which the whole body becomes so weighed down that no consociation is possible, and from which hurtful effluvia and noxious vapours are exhaled, either from the surface of the body or from its inner parts, especially the stomach and lungs. From the surface of the body; Malignant pox, warts, pustules, consuming scurvy, virulent itch, especially if by these diseases the face is made loathsome.

[2] From the stomach: Eructations, foul, rank, fetid and crude. From the lungs: Fetid and putrid exhalations, exhaled from tumours, ulcers, abscesses, or from vitiated blood or vitiated lymph therein.

3. In addition to these, there are also other diseases of various names, such as lipothymy, which is a total languidness of the body and lack of vital forces; paralysis, which is a loosening and relaxation of the membranes and ligaments that serve for motion; certain chronic diseases arising from loss of tensibility and elasticity of the nerves or from an excessive density, tenacity, and acidity of the humours; epilepsy; permanent infirmity arising from apoplexy; certain wasting diseases by which the body is consumed; the iliac passion; the celiac affection; hernia and other like diseases.

CL 254. XVIII. That the Third cause of legitimate separation is impotence before marriage. The reason why this is a cause of separation is because the end of marriage is the procreation of offspring, and with the impotent this is impossible; and since they know this beforehand, they purposely deprive their wives of the hope of it, a hope which nevertheless suckles and strengthens the conjugial love of women.

CL 255. XIX. That Adultery is the cause of divorce. For this there are many reasons which, though visible in rational light, are yet concealed at this day. It can be seen from rational light that marriages are holy and adulteries profane; and thus, that marriages and adulteries are diametrically opposed to each other, and that when opposite acts upon opposite, the one destroys the other to the last spark of its life. It is the same with conjugial love when a married man commits adultery from some principle which he has confirmed and thus from set purpose. These reasons come into clearer rational light with those who know something of heaven and hell; for they know that marriages are in heaven and from heaven; that adulteries are in hell and from hell; that the two cannot be conjoined, just as heaven cannot be conjoined with hell; and that if they are conjoined in a man, heaven instantly departs and hell enters in.

[2] It is because of this, then, that adultery is the cause of divorce. Therefore the Lord says:--

He says that he commits adultery if he put away his wife, except for whoredom, and take another, because putting away for this reason is a complete separation of minds. This is called divorce; but all other cases of putting away for specific reasons are the separations which have here been treated of. If after such separation another wife is taken, adultery is committed; but not after divorce.

CL 256. XX. That there are also many accidental causes of cold; and of these the First is commonness from being continually allowed. That commonness from being continually allowed is an accidental cause of cold is because this is the case with those who think of marriage and of the wife lasciviously, but not with those who think of marriage in a holy way and of the wife with confidence. That from commonness arising from a thing being continually allowed, joys become indifferent and also wearisome, is manifest from games and theatrical representations, from concerts, dances, banquets, and other like enjoyments, which in themselves are sweet pleasures because enlivening. The same is the case with the cohabitations and consociations between married partners, especially between those who have not removed the unchaste love of the sex from their love for each other, and, in the absence of ability, think vain things concerning its being common because continually allowed. That with such men this commonness is a cause of cold, is self-evident. It is called an accidental cause because it is a cause in addition to the intrinsic cold, and supports it as a reason. Moreover, it is for the removing of the cold arising from this cause that wives, from the prudence implanted in them, make that which is allowed not allowed, and this by oppositions. It is wholly different, however, in the case of those who judge chastely of their wives. Therefore, with angels, commonness from being continually allowed is the very delight of their soul and the containant of their conjugial love; for they are in the delight of that love continually, and are in its ultimates according to the presence of the minds of husbands uninterrupted by cares, thus at the good pleasure of their judgment.

CL 257. XXI. That of the accidental causes of cold, the Second is, that because of the covenant and the law, living with the married partner seems forced and not free. This is a cause only with those with whom conjugial love is cold in their inmosts; and being an addition to the internal cold, it becomes an accessory or accidental cause. With such men, extra-conjugial love is intrinsically in heat by reason of the consent and favour which accompany it, the cold of the one love being the heat of the other. If this heat is not felt, it is still present within the cold, yea, in its midst. Moreover, unless it were then within, there would be no recuperation. This heat is what causes the feeling of compulsion, a feeling which is increased according as the covenant by virtue of a contract, and the law by virtue of justice, are regarded by the one partner as bonds not to be violated. It is different if those bonds are loosened by both partners.

[2] The opposite is the case with those who denounce extra-conjugial love as accursed, and think of conjugial love as heavenly and as heaven; and still more with those who perceive this. With them, the covenant with its contractual clauses, and the law with its decrees are inscribed on their hearts and are being continually more and more inscribed thereon. With them, the bond of that love is not secured by a contracted covenant or by legal enactment. These two are implanted from creation in the love in which they are, and it is from them that the former are in the world, and not the reverse. Hence it is that everything pertaining to that love is felt as free. No other freedom is possible save the freedom of love; and I have heard from angels that the freedom of love truly conjugial is the height of freedom because that love is the love of loves.

CL 258. XXII. That of the accidental causes of cold, the Third is affirmation by the wife and talk by her about love. With angels in heaven, there is no refusal and resistance on the part of wives as there is with some wives on earth. Moreover, with angels in heaven, there is talk about love by wives and not such silence as obtains with some wives on earth. To present the causes of these diversities does not become me and so is not permissible; but in four Memorable Relations following the chapters, they may be seen as told by angelic wives who freely disclose them to their husbands--by the three wives in the hall over which was seen a golden shower (n. 155, 208), and by the seven sitting in a rose garden (n. 293-294). These Relations are adduced to the end that everything pertaining to conjugial love may be disclosed, this love being the subject here treated of both in general and in detail.

CL 259. XXIII. That of the accidental causes of cold, the Fourth is the man‘s thought of the wife day and night, that she is desirous; and on the other hand, the wife’s thought of the man, that he is not willing. That this is a cause of cessation of love with wives, and that it is a cause of cold with men, is passed by without comment; for it is among the things well known to husbands who study the arcana of conjugial love, that if a man at the sight of his wife by day, or by her side at night, thinks of her that she desires or wishes, he is chilled to the extreme; and on the other hand, that if a wife thinks of the man that he is able and not willing, she loses her love. The above is adduced here to the end that this work may be perfected and (its first Part), The Delights of Wisdom from Conjugial Love, be comprehensive.

CL 260. XXIV. That when cold is in the mind, it is also in the body; and that according to the increase of the former cold, the externals of the body are closed. It is thought at this day that man‘s mind is in his head and nothing of it in his body, when yet both soul and mind are in both head and body; for the soul and mind are the man, being what make his spirit which lives after death; and that this is in a perfect human form has been abundantly shown in our treatises. Hence it is that as soon as a man thinks anything, he can instantly utter it by the mouth of his body, and can simultaneously represent it by gesture; and as soon as he wills anything, he can instantly do it and bring it into effect by the members of his body. This would not be the case if the soul and mind were not together in the body and did not make his spiritual man. This being so, it can be seen that, when conjugial love is in the mind, it has the same likeness in the body; and because love is heat, that from the interiors it opens the externals of the body; and conversely, that from the interiors the privation of love, which is cold, closes the externals of the body. From the above, the cause of the fact that ability endures with the angels to eternity is clearly manifest; as also the cause of its defect with men in a state of cold.

CL 261. To the above, I will add three Memorable Relations.

First:

In the spiritual world, in the upper northern quarter near the east, are places of instruction for boys, for youths, and for men and also for old men. Into these places are sent all who die in infancy and are being brought up in heaven; likewise all who have newly come from the world and desire knowledge respecting heaven and hell. This region is near the east in order that all may be instructed by influx from the Lord; for in the spiritual world, the Lord is the East, being in the sun which is pure love from Him. Hence, in its essence, the heat from that sun is love and the light is wisdom. These are inspired into them by the Lord from that sun, the inspiration being according to their reception, and their reception according to their love of becoming wise. After a period of instruction, those who have become intelligent are sent out and are called Disciples of the Lord. They are sent first to the west, those who do not remain there being sent on to the south and some through the south to the east; and are introduced into the societies where will be their dwellings.

[2] Once, after meditating on heaven and hell, I began to desire a universal knowledge of the state of each, knowing that he who has a knowledge of universals can afterwards comprehend singulars, the latter being in the former as the parts in a whole. While in this desire, I looked towards that region in the northern quarter near the east where were the places of instruction, and by a way then opened to me, I walked thither and entered one of the colleges where were young men. Going to the head teachers who gave instruction there, I asked them if they knew the universals respecting heaven and hell.

[3] They replied that they had some little knowledge of them, "but if we look towards the east, to the Lord, we shall be enlightened and shall know." After doing so, they said: "There are (three universals of heaven and) three universals of hell, but the universals of hell are diametrically opposed to the universals of heaven. The universals of hell are the following three loves: The love of ruling from the love of self, the love of possessing the goods of others from the love of the world, and scortatory love. The universals of heaven are the three opposite loves: The love of ruling from the love of use, the love of possessing the goods of the world from the love of performing uses by their means, and love truly conjugial."

When they had said this, I wished them peace, and leaving them returned home. On reaching home, it was said to me from heaven, "Examine those three universals, both those above and those below, and afterwards we shall see them in your hand." It was said in your hand because all that a man examines with his understanding appears to the angels as written on his hands.

CL 262. After this, I examined first the universal love of hell, being the love of ruling from the love of self, and then the universal love of heaven corresponding thereto, being the love of ruling from the love of use; for it was not allowed me to consider the one love without the other, because, being opposite loves, the understanding cannot perceive the one without the other. That both may be perceived they must be placed in contrast, one over against the other; for a beautiful and finely formed face shines forth by contrast with a face which is ugly and deformed. While reflecting on the love of ruling from the love of self, it was given me to perceive that this love is utterly infernal, and hence is with those who are in the deepest hell; and that the love of ruling from the love of uses is supremely heavenly and hence is with those who are in the highest heaven.

[2] That the love of ruling from the love of self is utterly infernal is because to rule from the love of self is to rule from the proprium, and man’s proprium is evil from very birth, and evil is diametrically opposed to the Lord. Therefore, the further men progress into this evil, the more do they deny God and the holy things of the Church, and adore themselves and nature. Let those, I pray, who are in that love search it out within themselves and they will see. Moreover, the love is such that, so far as its reins are loosened, as they are when impossibility does not stand in the way, it rushes on, step by step, to its very height; nor does it stop there; but, if there is no higher step, it grieves and laments.

[3] With politicians, the love mounts so far that they wish to be kings and emperors, and if possible, to have dominion over all things of the world and be called kings of kings and emperors of emperors. With the clergy, the same love mounts so far that they wish to be gods and as far as possible to have dominion over all the things of heaven and be called gods of gods. In what follows, it will be seen that neither the latter nor the former acknowledge any God. Those, on the other hand, who wish to rule from the love of uses, wish to rule not from themselves but from the Lord; for the love of uses is from the Lord and is the Lord Himself. These regard dignities no otherwise than as means for the performance of uses, placing uses far above dignities; but the others place dignities far above uses.

CL 263. While meditating on this, it was said to me by the Lord through an angel, "You shall now see the nature of that infernal love, and seeing, you will be confirmed." Then suddenly, the earth on the left opened and I saw a devil coming up out of hell. On his head he had a square cap pressed down over his forehead as far as his eyes. His face was full of pustules as of a burning fever, his eyes fierce, and his chest swollen into a rhomb. Out of his mouth he belched smoke like a furnace. His loins were all aflame. Instead of feet were bony ankles without flesh; and from his body exhaled a stinking and unclean heat.

[2] Terrified at sight of him, I called out, "Do not come near. Tell me whence you are." He answered hoarsely: "I am from the lower regions and am there with two hundred in a society which is pre-eminent above all societies. There we are all emperors of emperors, kings of kings, dukes of dukes, and princes of princes. No one there is a mere emperor or a mere king, duke or prince. There we sit upon thrones of thrones and send out our mandates into all the world and beyond."

I then said to him, "Do you not see that from the fantasy of pre-eminence you are insane?" and he replied, "How can you speak in that way? To ourselves we seem such as I have said. Moreover, by our companions we are recognized as such."Hearing this, I did not wish to repeat "You are insane," because from his fantasy he really was insane. It was then granted me to learn that, while living in the world, that devil had been merely a house steward, and that he was then so greatly elated in spirit that he despised the whole human race in comparison with himself, and indulged the fantasy that he was more worthy than a king and even than an emperor. From this pride he had denied God and counted all the holy things of the Church as nothing for himself and as something only for the stupid multitude.

[3] At last I asked him, "As to your two hundred there, how long do you thus boast among yourselves?" He said, "For ever; but those of us who torment others for denying their pre-eminence sink down, it being allowed us to boast but not to bring evil on anyone.

I then asked him, "Do you know what is the lot of those who sink down?" He said, "They sink into a prison where they are called viler than the vile or the very vilest, and there they labour." To that devil I then said, "Have a care then lest you also sink down."

CL 264. After this, the earth again opened but on the right; and I saw another devil rising up. On his head was, as it were, a mitre twined about with coils as of a serpent, with its head rising up from the top. His face from forehead to chin was leprous, as were also his two hands. His loins were naked and black as soot, and through the blackness was the dusky glow of fire as of a hearth. The ankles of his feet were like two vipers.

Seeing him, the former devil fell upon his knees and adored him. "Why do you do that?" I asked. He answered, "He is the God of heaven and earth and is omnipotent."

I then asked the other, "What do you say to that?" He replied, "What can I say? I have all power over heaven and hell. The lot of all souls is in my hand."

I asked further, "How can one who is the emperor of emperors thus submit himself, and you receive his adoration?" He answered "He is nevertheless my servant. What is an emperor before God? In my right hand is the thunderbolt of excommunication."

[2] I then said: "How can you be so insane? In the world you were only a canon; and because you laboured under the fantasy that you also had the keys and hence the power of binding and loosing, you raised your spirit to such a degree of insanity that now you believe you are God himself."

Indignant at this, he swore that he was, and added, "The Lord has no power in heaven because He has transferred it all to us. We need only to command, and heaven and hell reverently obey. If we send anyone to hell, the devils immediately receive him; so likewise do the angels him whom we send to heaven."

When asked, "How many are you in your society?" he said, "Three hundred; and there we are all gods, but I am the god of gods."

[3] After this, the earth opened under their feet and each sank down into his hell. It was then granted me to see that under their hells were workhouses into which those sink down who do harm to others; for it is left to everyone in hell to remain in his own fantasy and also to boast therein, but he is not allowed to do evil to another. The reason why they are such is because man is then in his spirit, and when separated from the body, the spirit comes into the full liberty of acting according to its affections and the thoughts therefrom.

[4] After this it was granted me to look into their hells. The hell where they were emperors of emperors and kings of kings was full of all manner of uncleanness and they seemed like different kinds of wild beasts with fierce eyes. So likewise in the other hell where were the gods and the god of gods. Here, flying about them, were seen dreadful birds of night which are called ochim and ijim. Thus did the images of their fantasy appear to me. From these experiences, the nature of the political love of self, and that of the ecclesiastical love of self became evident, namely, that the nature of the latter is to wish to be gods, and that of the former, to wish to be emperors; and men have this wish and aspiration so far as the reins to these loves are loosed.

CL 265. After this, a hell was opened where I saw two men, one sitting on a bench holding his feet in a basket full of serpents which were seen to be creeping up over his breast to his neck, and the other sitting on a fiery ass at whose sides, accompanying the rider, were crawling red serpents with uplifted necks and heads. I was told that these were popes who had deprived emperors of their dominion, and at Rome had dealt wickedly in word and deed with emperors who had gone thither to make supplication and to adore them; also that the basket wherein were seen serpents, and the fiery ass with serpents at its sides, were representations of their love of ruling from the love of self; but that such representations are seen only by those who look thither from a distance. Some canons were present, and I asked them whether these were the same popes. They said that they recognized them and knew them to be the same.

CL 266. After witnessing these sad and frightful scenes, I looked around and saw two angels standing not far from me and talking together. One was clothed in a woollen toga, bright with flamy purple, and under it a tunic of shining linen; and the other in similar raiment of scarlet, with a mitre, the right side of which was studded with a number of rubies. Approaching them, I gave the salutation of peace and respectfully asked, "Why are you here below?" They replied, "We have been sent here from heaven by command of the Lord, to speak with you about the blessed lot of those who desire to rule from the love of uses. We are worshippers of the Lord. I am the prince of a society, and this other is the high priest there."

[2] The prince then said that he was the servant of his society because he served it by performing uses; and the other, that he was the minister of the Church there because it was in the service of his brethren that he administered holy things for the uses of their souls; and that both of them were in perpetual joys from the eternal happiness which was in them from the Lord. "In that society everything is resplendent and magnificent, being resplendent from the gold and precious stones there, and magnificent from the palaces and paradises. The reason is because our love of ruling is not from the love of self but from the love of uses; and since the love of uses is from the Lord, all good uses in the heavens are resplendent and refulgent. In our society we are all in this love and, therefore, from the light there which is derived from the flamy red of the sun, the atmosphere appears golden, for the flamy red of the sun corresponds to that love."

[3] When they had thus spoken, a like sphere was seen by me also. It surrounded them, and from it I sensed something aromatic. I told them of this and asked if they would not add something more to what they had said about the love of use. They then continued, saying: "We did indeed seek after the dignities in which we are, but we did this for no other purpose than that we might be able to perform uses more fully, and extend them more widely. We are also surrounded with honour, and this we receive, not on our own account but for the good of the society. Our brothers and fellow-men who are of the common people know scarcely other than that the honours pertaining to our dignities are in us, and thus that the uses we perform are from ourselves; but we feel otherwise. We feel that the honours of the dignities are outside us, being like garments with which we are clothed; while the uses which we perform are from the love of those uses within us from the Lord. This love receives its blessedness from being communicated with others by means of uses. We know from experience that so far as we perform uses from the love of them, the love increases, and with the love, the wisdom whereby the communication is effected; but so far as we retain the uses within ourselves and do not communicate them, the blessedness perishes and the uses then become as food stored up in the stomach which is not distributed for the nourishment of the body and its parts, but remains an undigested mass from which comes nausea. In a word, the whole of heaven, from the first things thereof to the last, is nothing but a containant of uses; and what are uses but actual love of the neighbour? and what but this love holds the heavens together?"

[4] Hearing this, I asked: "How can one know whether he performs uses from the love of self or from the love of uses? Every man, both good and evil, performs uses, and he performs them from some love. Suppose that in the world there were a society composed only of devils, and a society composed only of angels, I opine that from the fire of the love of self and the splendour of their own glory, the devils in their society would perform as many uses as the angels in theirs. Who then can know from what love and from what origin the uses are?"

[5] To this the two angels responded: "Devils perform uses for the sake of themselves and their reputation, that they may be advanced to honours or may acquire wealth. It is not for these that angels perform uses but for the sake of the uses themselves and from love of them. Man cannot discern between these uses; but they are discerned by the Lord. Every one who believes in the Lord and shuns evils as sins performs uses from the Lord; but everyone who does not believe in the Lord, and does not shun evils as sins, performs uses from himself and for the sake of himself. This is the distinction between uses performed by devils and uses performed by angels."

Saying this, the two angels departed, and at a distance they appeared to be carried like Elijah in a chariot of fire and taken up into their heaven.

CL 267. The second Memorable Relation:

Some time later I entered a grove, and while walking there in meditation upon those who are in the concupiscence and hence in the fantasy of possessing the things of the world, I saw at some distance from me two angels conversing together and every now and then looking at me. Therefore I went nearer to them, and as I was approaching, they spoke to me and said, "We perceive within us that you are meditating on the subject of which we are speaking, or that we are speaking of the subject on which you are meditating; this comes from a reciprocal communication of affections."

[2] I therefore asked them what was the subject of their conversation. They said that it was fantasy, concupiscence, and intelligence, and that just now they were speaking of those who take delight in the vision and imagination of possessing all things in the world. I then asked them to express their minds on those three subjects, concupiscence, fantasy, and intelligence. Commencing their discourse, they said: "From birth everyone is inwardly in concupiscence, and from education outwardly in intelligence, but no one is in intelligence inwardly, thus as to his spirit, still less in wisdom, except from the Lord; for everyone is withheld from the concupiscence of evil and held in intelligence according as he looks to the Lord and at the same time is conjoined with Him. Without this, man is nothing but concupiscence. Yet, from education he is in intelligence in external matters, that is, as to the body; for man lusts after honours and riches, or eminence and wealth, and he cannot attain these two unless he has the appearance of being moral and spiritual, thus intelligent and wise. Therefore he learns to put on this appearance from very infancy. This is the reason why, as soon as he comes among men or into company, he inverts his spirit, removes it from concupiscence, and speaks and acts from becoming and honourable principles which he has learned from infancy and retains in the memory of his body, taking the greatest care that nothing of the insanity of concupiscence in which his spirit is shall come out.

[3] Hence every man who is not inwardly led by the Lord is a dissembler, a sycophant, and a hypocrite, thus an apparent man and yet not a man. Of such a man it can be said that his shell or body is wise and his kernel or spirit insane, and that his external is human and his internal ferine. Such men look upwards with the back of their head and downwards with the front, and thus walk as if beset with heaviness, with head hanging down and face turned to the earth. When they put off the body and become spirits and so are set free, they become the insanities of their concupiscence; for those who are in the love of self, desire to have dominion over the universe, yea, to extend its limits, that they may enlarge their dominion; they never see the end. Those who are in the love of the world desire to possess all things thereof and are grieved and envious if any treasures lie hidden with others. Therefore, in the natural world, lest such men become mere concupiscences and thus not men, it is granted them to think from fear of the loss of reputation and thus of honour and gain, and also from fear of the law and its punishments. It is also granted them to apply their mind to some study or occupation whereby they are kept in externals and thus in a state of intelligence, however delirious and insane they are inwardly."

[4] I then asked whether all who are in concupiscence are also in the fantasy thereof. They replied: "Those are in the fantasy of their concupiscence who think inwardly within themselves and over-indulge their imagination by talking with themselves; for they almost separate their spirit from its connection with the body, and from vision, overwhelm the understanding and fatuously divert themselves as though from universal ownership. Into this delirium is that man let after death who has abstracted his spirit from the body and has not wished to withdraw from the delight of his delirium by some thought from religion concerning evils and falsities, and still less by thought concerning the unbridled love of self as destructive of love to the Lord, and the unbridled love of the world as destructive of love towards the neighbour.

CL 268. After this, the two angels and also I myself were seized with the desire to see those who from love of the world are in the visionary concupiscence or fantasy of possessing the wealth of all men; and we perceived that this desire was inspired in us to the end that they might be made known. Their places of abode were under the earth beneath our feet, but above hell. We therefore looked at each other and said, "Let us go."

There was then seen an opening, and in it a ladder. After descending this ladder, we were told that they must be approached from the east lest we enter into the mist of their fantasy and be obscured as to our understanding and then at the same time as to our sight.

[2] And lo, there was seen a house, constructed of reeds, being thus full of chinks. It stood surrounded by a mist which poured continually through the chinks of three of the walls like smoke. Entering, we saw men, fifty here and fifty there, sitting upon benches. They had their backs to the east and south, and were directing their gaze to the west and north. In front of each man was a table, and on the table bulging purses, and around the purses an abundance of gold coins. To our question, "Are these the riches of all the men in the world?" they said, "Not of all in the world but of all in the kingdom."

Their speech had a hissing sound, and they themselves were seen to have round faces which had a reddish glow like a snail-shell. Moreover, from the light of fantasy, the pupils of their eyes were as though glittering in a background of green.

Standing in their midst, we asked, "Do you believe that you possess all the riches of the kingdom?" to which they replied, "We do possess them."

We then asked them, "Which of you?" and they answered,"Each one of us." "How each one?" we asked, "you are many." They said, "Each one of us knows that all his are mine. No one is allowed to think, still less to say, `Mine are not yours" but it is allowed us to think and say, `Yours are mine‘."

The coins on the tables seemed as though they were coins of pure gold, and this even to us. But when we let in light from the east, they were granules of gold which these men, by their common united fantasy, had magnified into coins. They said that it behoves everyone who comes in, to bring some gold with him. This they cut up into little pieces, and these into granules; then, by the united power of their fantasy they enlarge these into coins of the larger sort.

[3] We then said, "Were you not born men of reason? Whence do you have this visionary foolishness?" to which they answered, "We know that it is an imaginary vanity, but because it delights the interiors of our minds, we come in here and are delighted as from the possession of all things. But we remain here only a few hours. When these have passed we go out, and each time we leave, a sound mind returns to us. Yet, every now and then our visionary delight comes over us and makes us again come in, and (we come in and) go out by turns. Thus we are alternately wise and insane. We know also that a hard lot awaits those who by craft deprive others of their goods."

We asked, "What lot?" and they said: "They are swallowed up and thrust naked into some infernal prison where they are made to work for clothing and food, and afterwards for a few small coins. These they hoard up and in them they set the joy of their heart; but if they do evil to their companions, they must give up a part of their small coins as a fine."

CL 269. After this, we ascended from these lower regions into the south where we had been before. There the angels told us many things worthy of mention concerning the non-visionary or non-fantastical concupiscence, in which every man is from birth. "So long as men are in it, they are fools and yet seem to themselves to be supremely wise. From this foolishness they are restored by turns into the rational which with them is in their externals. In this state they see, acknowledge, and confess their insanity. Yet, from this rational state they long to return to their insane state. Moreover, they let themselves into it as though into something free and delightful from what is forced and undelightful. Thus it is concupiscence that inwardly delights them.

[2] "There are three universal loves, of which, from creation, every man is made up: Love of the neighbour which is also the love of performing uses, love of the world which is also the love of possessing wealth, and love of self which is also the love of ruling over others. Love of the neighbour or the love of performing uses is a spiritual love; love of the world or the love of possessing wealth is a material love; and love of self or the love of ruling over others is a corporeal love.

[3] Man is a man when love of the neighbour or the love of performing uses makes the head, love of the world the body, and love of self the feet. But if love of the world makes the head, the man is not a man save as a humpback is a man; and when love of self makes the head, he is not a man standing on his feet but a man resting on his hands, with his head downwards and his buttocks upwards. When love of the neighbour makes the head, and the other two loves in their order make the body and the feet, then, from heaven, the man is seen to be of an angelic countenance, with a beautiful rainbow around his head; but if love of the world makes the head, he is seen from heaven to be of a pallid countenance, like that of a corpse, with a yellow circle around his head; while, if love of self makes the head, he is seen from heaven to be of a dusky countenance, with a white circle around his head."

At this I asked, "What do the circles around their heads represent?" They answered: "They represent intelligence. A white circle around a head with a dusky countenance represents that the man’s intelligence is in his externals, that is, is around him, while in his internals, that is, within him, is insanity. Moreover, a man who is such is wise when in the body but insane when in the spirit. No man is wise in the spirit except from the Lord; and he becomes wise when he is generated by Him and created again or anew."

[4] After these words, the earth at the left opened and, rising up through the opening, I saw a devil with a bright white circle around his head. I asked him, "Who are you?" He said, "I am Lucifer, Son of the Dawn; and because I made myself like the Most High, I was cast down." Yet he was not that Lucifer, though he thought he was.

I then said, "Since you were cast down, how can you again rise up out of hell?" He replied: "There I am a devil but here I am an angel of light. Do you not see my head encircled with a sphere of light? and if you wish, you will also see that I am super-moral among the moral, super-rational among the rational, nay, and super-spiritual among the spiritual. Moreover, I can preach, and I have preached." When I asked him, "What have you preached?" he said: "Against defrauders, against adulterers, and against all infernal loves. Yea, I, Lucifer, then called myself the devil and hurled curses against myself--him--and for this I was extolled to the sky with praises. It is because of this that I am called the Son of the Dawn. And, what I myself have wondered at, when I was in the pulpit I thought no other than that I was speaking uprightly and piously. But I have discovered to myself that the reason was because I was in externals, and these were then separated from my internals. Yet, despite this discovery, I could not change because, on account of my arrogance, I had not looked to God."

[5] I then asked him, "How can you speak so when you yourself are a defrauder, an adulterer, and a devil?" He replied: "I am one person when in externals or in the body and another when in internals or in the spirit. In the body I am an angel, but in the spirit a devil: for in the body I am in the understanding, but in the spirit I am in the will, and the understanding carries me upwards but the will carries me downwards. When I am in the understanding, a white band encircles my head, but when my understanding wholly surrenders itself to my will and becomes its understanding, which is our final lot, then the band grows black and disappears; and when this happens, we are no longer able to ascend into this light."

He then spoke of his twofold state, the external and the internal, more rationally than anyone; but on seeing the angels with me, he was suddenly inflamed in face and voice and became black, even as to the band around his head. He then sank down into hell through the opening through which he had risen.

From what they had thus seen, the bystanders formed the following conclusion: A man is such as his love is, and not his understanding, because the love easily carries the understanding to its side and enslaves it.

[6] I then asked the angels, "Whence do devils have such rationality?" and they said, "It is from the vainglory of the love of self; for the love of self is girt about with vainglory, and the vainglory elevates the understanding into the light of heaven. The understanding can be elevated with every man according to his knowledge, but not the will except by a life according to the truths of the Church and of reason. Hence it is that men, even atheists, who are in the vainglory of reputation from the love of self and thence are in the pride of self-intelligence, enjoy a more sublime rationality than many others--but only when they are in the thought of their understanding, not when in the affection of their will. The affection of the will possesses man‘s internal, but the thought of the understanding, his external."

Furthermore, the angel told me the reason why man is made up of the three loves mentioned above--the love of use, the love of the world, and the love of self--namely, that he may think from God, though as if from himself. He said: "The supreme things in man are turned upwards to God, the intermediate outwards to the world, and the lowest downwards to self, and because these are turned downwards, man thinks as if from himself, when yet he thinks from God."

CL 270. The third Memorable Relation:

One morning after sleep, my thought was deeply engaged on certain arcana of conjugial love, and finally, on the following: In what region of the human mind does love truly conjugial reside, and hence in what, conjugial cold? I knew that there are three regions of the human mind, one above the other, and that natural love dwells in the lowest region, spiritual love in the higher, and celestial love in the highest; also that in each region there is a marriage of good and truth; and because good pertains to love and truth to wisdom, that in each region there is a marriage of love and wisdom, and that this marriage is the same as the marriage of the will and understanding, the will being the receptacle of love and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom.

[2] While in deep thought concerning this, lo, I saw two swans flying towards the north, and presently two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two turtle-doves flying in the east. As I followed their flight with my sight, I saw that the two swans bent their northerly course to the east, as likewise did the two birds of paradise on their southerly course; and that, joining the two turtle-doves in the east, they flew with them to a lofty palace there, around which were olive trees, palms and beeches. The palace had three tiers of windows, one above the other; and, directing my attention to them, I saw the swans fly into the palace through open windows in the lowest tier, the birds of paradise through open windows in the middle tier, and the turtle-doves through open windows in the highest tier.

[3] As I was looking at this, an angel stood by my side and said, "Do you understand these sights?" I replied, "Partly." He then said: "That palace represents the abodes of conjugial love as they are in human minds. Its highest part into which the doves betook themselves represents the highest region of the mind where conjugial love with its wisdom dwells in the love of good; its middle into which the birds of paradise betook themselves represents the middle region where conjugial love with its intelligence dwells in the love of truth; and its lowest part into which the swans betook themselves represents the lowest region of the mind where conjugial love with its knowledge dwells in the love of what is just and right.

[4] Moreover, the three pairs of birds signify these same things--the pair of turtle-doves, the conjugial love of the highest region, the pair of birds of paradise the conjugial love of the middle region, and the pair of swans the conjugial love of the lowest region. The like are signified by the three kinds of trees around the palace--the olive, the palm, and the beech. In heaven, we call the highest region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural; and we perceive them as abiding places in a house, one above the other, and the ascent from one to the other by degrees, as being made by stairs. In each story are two rooms, as it were, one for love the other for wisdom. In front is a bedchamber, as it were, where love with its wisdom, or good with its truth, or, what is the same thing, the will with its understanding, consociate in bed. In that palace stand forth as in effigy all the arcana of conjugial love."

[5] On hearing this, being kindled with a desire to see the palace, I asked whether, being a representative palace, it was granted anyone to enter in and view it. He answered: "To none save those who are in the third heaven, because to them every representative of love and wisdom becomes real. It is from them that I heard what I have reported to you, and also this, that in the highest region love truly conjugial dwells, in the chamber or room of the will, in the midst of mutual love, and in the chamber or room of the understanding, in the midst of the perceptions of wisdom; and that, in the bedchamber which is at the front and in the east, they are consociated in bed." To my question, "Why are there two chambers?" he said,"The husband is in the chamber of the understanding and the wife in the chamber of the will."

[6] I then asked, "Since conjugial love dwells there, where then does conjugial cold dwell?" He answered: "This also dwells in the highest region, but only in the chamber of the understanding, the chamber of the will there being closed; for the understanding with its truths can ascend by a spiral stairway into its chamber in the highest region whenever it wills; but if the will with the good of its love does not at the same time ascend into the neighbouring chamber, the latter is shut and in the other chamber it becomes cold; and this cold is conjugial cold. When there is such cold towards the wife, then from this highest region the understanding looks down to the lowest, and if fear does not restrain it, it also descends thither that it may there grow warm from an illicit fire."

After saying this, he wished to recount still further particulars concerning conjugial love on the basis of its effigies in that palace, but he said: "Enough for the present. Inquire first whether these things are above the common understanding. If they are, why more? but if not, more will be disclosed."

CL 271. Since the causes of cold and separation have been treated of, it follows in order, that the causes of apparent love, friendship, and favour in marriages should also be treated of; for it is well known that, although at this day cold separates the minds of married partners, they yet dwell together and procreate; and this would not be the case were there not apparent loves which, at alternate times, are similar to the heat of genuine love or emulate it. That these appearances are necessities and utilities, and that without them homes and hence societies could not hold together, will be seen in what follows. Besides this, some conscientious persons labour under the idea that disagreements of minds between them and their partner, and the consequent internal alienations, are their own fault and will be imputed to them; and because of this they grieve at heart. But since it is not in their power to relieve internal dissidences, it is enough for them to still the troubles which arise from conscience by apparent loves and favours. Moreover, in this way there can be a return of a friendship, within which, on the one side if not on the other, lies conjugial love.

But because of the great variety of material, this chapter, like the preceding, shall be divided into articles. The articles are the following:

1. That in the natural world almost all can be conjoined as to external affections, but not as to internal if these are dissident and come to view.

2. That in the spiritual world all are conjoined according to internal affections, but not according to external unless these act as one with the internal.

3. That it is external affections according to which matrimonies are commonly contracted in the world.

4. But that if internal affections which conjoin minds are not within them, matrimonies are dissolved in the home.

5. That nevertheless, in the world, matrimonies are to continue to the end of life.

6. That in matrimonies wherein internal affections do not conjoin, there are external affections which simulate the internal and consociate.

7. That thence is apparent love between married partners, or apparent friendship and favour.

8. That these appearances are conjugial simulations which are praiseworthy because useful and necessary.

9. That with a spiritual man conjoined to a natural, these conjugial simulations savour of justice and judgment.

10. That with natural men these conjugial simulations savour of prudence for the sake of various causes.

11. That they are for the sake of amendments and for the sake of accommodations.

12. That they are for the sake of preserving order in domestic affairs, and for the sake of mutual aid.

13. That they are for the sake of the care of the infants, and of concordance in relation to the children.

14. That they are for the sake of peace in the home.

15. That they are for the sake of reputation outside the home.

16. That they are for the sake of various favours expected from the partner or from the partner’s kindred; thus because of the fear of losing them.

17. That they are for the sake of the excusing of blemishes and the avoiding of ill-repute therefrom.

18. That they are for the sake of reconciliations.

19. That when the partners grow old, if favour does not cease with the wife when ability ceases with the man, there may arise a friendship emulous of conjugial friendship.

20. That there are various kinds of apparent love and friendship between married partners, of whom the one is subjugated and hence is subject to the other.

21. That in the world there are infernal marriages between partners who inwardly are bitter enemies and outwardly like close friends.

Now follows the explanation of the above.

CL 272. I. That in the natural world almost all can be conjoined as to external affections, but not as to internal affections if these are dissident and come to view. The reason is because in the world man is endowed with a material body, and this is filled with cupidities which in that body are like the dregs precipitated to the bottom in new wine in the process of clarification. The matters of which the bodies of men in the world are made up consist of such dregs. Hence it is that the internal affections, which belong to the mind, do not come to view, and with many scarcely a trace of them shows through; for either the body absorbs them and involves them in its dregs, or, by reason of the simulation learned from infancy, it deeply conceals them from the sight of others. By this means, the one partner puts himself into the state of some affection which he observes in the other and attracts that affection to himself; in this way the two are conjoined. They are conjoined because every affection has its own delight, and delights bind minds together. It would be otherwise if, as is the case in the spiritual world, the internal affections, like the external, appeared to the sight in the face and gesture, and to the ear in the tone of the voice, or if their delights were perceived by the nostrils or scented. Then, if they should so far differ as to be discordant, they would separate the external minds of the partners from each other, and those partners would remove themselves to a distance according to their perception of the antipathy. From this it is clear that in the natural world nearly all can be conjoined as to external affections, but not as to internal affections if these disagree and come to view.

CL 273. II. That in the spiritual world all are conjoined according to internal affections, but not according to external unless these act as one with the internal. The reason is because the material body, which as just stated could receive and exhibit the forms of all affections, is then cast off and the man, stripped of that body, is in his internal affections which his body had previously concealed. Hence it is that homogeneities and heterogeneities, or sympathies and antipathies, are then not only felt but also come to view in face, speech, and gesture. Therefore similitudes are then conjoined and dissimilitudes separated. This is the reason why the entire heaven is arranged by the Lord according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of good and truth, and hell, on the contrary, according to all the varieties of the affections of the love of evil and falsity.

[2] Since angels and spirits equally with men in the world have internal and external affections, and since, with them, the internal affections cannot be concealed by the external, therefore they show through and manifest themselves. Hence with them, the two are brought into similitude and correspondence, and then their internal affections through the external are effigied in their faces, perceived in the tones of their speech, and seen in their habitual gestures. Angels and spirits have internal and external affections because they have a mind and a body, and affections and the thoughts therefrom belong to the mind, and the sensations and the pleasures therefrom to the body.

[3] In the spiritual world it often occurs, that after death friends meet and remember their friendship in the former world; and they then think that they are to associate together in a life of friendship as before. But when that association which is merely of the external affections is perceived in heaven, a separation takes place according to the internal affections. Then, from that first meeting, some are sent away to the north and some to the west, being sent to such a distance from each other that they never more see or know each other; for in the place of their abode they are changed in face, the face becoming the effigy of their internal affections. From this it is evident that in the spiritual world, all are conjoined according to internal affections and not according to external, unless these make one with the internal.

CL 274. III. That it is external affections according to which matrimonies are commonly contracted in the world. This is because internal affections are rarely consulted, and if consulted, the similitude between them is not seen in the woman; for by her native gift she withdraws her internal affections into the inner recesses of her mind. The external affections which induce men to contract matrimony are many in number. The first affection of this age is for the enlargement of the family estate by wealth, both that they may be rich in lands and that they may have abundant means in their possession. The second is aspiration after honours, either for the sake of being held in high esteem or for the sake of being in an enlarged state of prosperity. Besides these, there are various allurements and concupiscences. Such affections leave no room for searching into the agreements of internal affections. From these few considerations, it is clear that in the world matrimonies are commonly contracted in accordance with external affections.

CL 275. IV. But that if internal affections which conjoin minds are not within them, matrimonies are dissolved in the home--it is said in the home because it is between the partners privately. This comes to pass when the first fires, kindled at the time of betrothal and flaming at the time of the wedding, gradually cool down on account of a discrepancy in internal affections, and finally pass off into cold. That the external affections which led and allured them into matrimony are then sundered so that they no longer conjoin, is well known. That cold arises from various causes, internal, external, and accidental, all of which derive their stream from a dissimilitude of internal inclinations, has been confirmed in the preceding chapter. From this the truth is evident that unless within the external affections there are internal affections which conjoin minds, matrimonies are dissolved in the home.

CL 276. V. That nevertheless, in the world, matrimonies are to continue to the end of life. This is adduced in order more clearly to present before the reason the necessity, utility, and truth of the statement that where the conjugial love is not genuine, it should yet be affected, that is, should seem as if it were genuine. It would be otherwise if the marriages entered into were not contracts enduring to the end of life but were dissolvable at will, as was the case with the Israelitish nation which arrogated to itself the liberty of putting away their wives for any cause whatsoever. This is seen from the following words in Matthew: The Pharisees came unto Jesus saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And when Jesus answered that it was not lawful to put away a wife and marry another except for whoredom, they retorted, Yet Moses commanded to give her a bill of divorcement and put her away; while the Disciples said, If the case of a man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. (Matthew 19:3-10).

[2] Since, therefore, the covenant of marriage is a covenant for life, it follows that appearances of love and friendship between the partners are necessities. That matrimonies once contracted must continue to the end of life in the world, is from Divine law; and being from this, it is also from rational law, and hence from civil law--from Divine law in that it is not lawful for one to put away his wife and marry another except for whoredom, as above; from rational law because this is founded upon spiritual law, Divine law and rational law being one. From the latter and the former together, or through the latter from the former, can be seen the great number of enormities and social destructions (that would result from) the dissolutions of marriages before death, or the putting away of wives at the good pleasure of their husbands. Since these enormities and social destructions can be seen in some fullness in the Memorable Relations, (n. 103-115), concerning the origin of conjugial love as discussed by men gathered together from nine kingdoms, there is no need to add further reasons. These causes, however, do not stand in the way of separations being permitted for their own causes, as above (n. 252-254), and also concubinage, of which in the Second Part.

CL 277. VI. That in matrimonies wherein internal affections do not conjoin, there are external affections which simulate the internal and consociate. By internal affections are meant the mutual inclinations in the mind of each partner, which are from heaven; but by external affections are meant the inclinations in the mind of each which are from the world. The latter affections or inclinations do indeed belong equally to the mind, but they occupy its lower region while the former occupy its higher region. It may be thought that since both are allotted their seat in the mind, they are alike and in agreement. They are not alike, yet it is possible that they may seem as though alike. With some partners they exist as conveniences, and with some as pleasant simulations. By reason of the first covenant of marriage, there is implanted in both partners a certain communion, and this remains inseated in them even though they be dissident in dispositions; as for instance, communion of possessions and in many cases communion of uses and of various necessities in the home, and thence communion also of thoughts and of certain secrets. There is also communion of the bed and communion in the love of infants, besides many other things which, being inscribed on the conjugial covenant, are also inscribed on their minds. It is these communions mainly, from which come external affections which resemble the internal. Those which merely simulate them are partly from the same origin and partly from another. Both are treated of in what follows.

CL 278. VII. That thence is apparent love between the partners, or apparent friendship and favour. Apparent loves, friendships, and favours between married partners are consequences of the conjugial covenant contracted for life, and therefore of the conjugial communion inscribed on the contracting parties. From this communion, as pointed out just above, are born external affections which resemble the internal. They come also from causes which are utilities and necessities, it being partly from these that those conjunctive or simulated external affections arise, whereby external love appears like internal love, and external friendship like internal friendship.

CL 279. VIII. That these appearances are conjugial simulations which are praiseworthy because useful and necessary. They are called simulations because they exist between those who are dissident in mind, and by reason of this dissidence are inwardly cold. When, despite this, they live a life of mutual association in externals, as is proper and becoming, the friendly associations involved in their living together can be called simulations--but conjugial simulations. Being praise-worthy and for the sake of uses, they are wholly distinct from hypocritical simulations, it being by them that all those advantages are provided for, which are enumerated in order in articles XI-XX below. That they are praiseworthy because of necessities, is because without them those advantages would be lost, and yet living together is enjoined on the partners by covenant and by law and therefore is inseated in both as a duty.

CL 280. IX. That with a spiritual man conjoined to a natural, these conjugial simulations savour of justice and judgment. The reason is because that which a spiritual man does he does from justice and judgment. Therefore he does not view the simulations as alien to his internal affections but as coupled with them; for he acts seriously and looks to amendment as an end; and if this does not follow, he looks to accommodation for the sake of order in the home, of mutual aid, of the care of the little children, of peace and tranquillity. He is led to these conjugial simulations from justice, and he carries them into effect from judgment. It is in this way that a spiritual man lives with a natural; for a spiritual man acts spiritually even with one who is natural.

CL 281. X. That with natural men these conjugial simulations savour of prudence for the sake of various causes. Between two married partners of whom one is spiritual and the other natural--by a spiritual man being meant one who loves spiritual things and thus is wise from the Lord, and by a natural, one who loves only natural things and so is wise from himself--when the two are consociated in marriage, conjugial love with the one who is spiritual is heat, while with the one who is natural it is cold. That heat and cold cannot be together, and that the heat cannot enkindle the partner who is in cold unless the cold be first dispelled, nor the cold inflow into the partner who is in heat unless the heat be first removed, is evident. It is from this that there can be no inward love between partners, one of whom is spiritual and the other natural; but on the part of the spiritual partner, as stated in the preceding article, there can be a love emulative of inward love.

[2] On the other hand, between partners, both of whom are natural, inward love is not possible because both are in cold; if they grow warm, it is from what is unchaste. But although separated in animus, they can yet live together in the home, and also can put on a countenance as though there were love and friendship between them, however mutually discordant their minds. With them, the external affections which, for the most part, concern wealth and possessions or honours and dignities, may be as though ardent; and because this ardour induces fear for the loss of them, to such persons conjugial simulations are necessities, especially those the causes of which are adduced in articles XV-XVII below. The other causes enumerated with them may have something in common with the causes spoken of in (n. 280) above, which obtain with the spiritual man, but only in case the prudence in the natural man savours of intelligence.

CL 282. XI. That they are for the sake of amendments and for the sake of accommodations. That the conjugial simulations which are appearances of love and friendship between partners of dissentient dispositions are for the sake of amendment, is because a spiritual man, bound by the matrimonial covenant to one who is natural, has no other intention than amendment of life, and on his part this is brought about by wise and refined conversations and by courteous favours pleasing to the genius of the other. But if these fall upon the ears and touch the conduct of the other partner without effect, then, for the sake of the preservation of order in domestic affairs, for the sake of mutual aid, for the sake of the infants and children, and for similar reasons, he has in mind to make accommodations; for, as shown in (n. 280) above, the words and deeds of a spiritual man savour of justice and judgment.

[2] The same thing is possible, but for the sake of other ends, with partners of whom neither one is spiritual but both are natural. If the conjugial simulation is for the sake of amendment and accommodation, either it has in view that the one partner may be brought into similarity of manners with the other and be subordinated to the desires of that other; or it is for the sake of certain offices which may be of service to one‘s own; or of peace in the home or reputation outside the home; or of favours hoped for from the partner or from the partner’s relations; besides other ends. With some persons, however, these ends are from the prudence of their reason, with some from native civility, with some from the delights of cupidities familiar to them from birth and the loss of which is feared; besides many other ends from which the assumed favours as though of conjugial love become more or less of a simulated character. There are also favours as though of conjugial love which are assumed outside the home, there being none within the home; but these have in view the reputation of both partners, otherwise they are theatrical.

CL 283. XII. That they are for the sake of preserving order in domestic affairs, and for the sake of mutual aid. Every home where there are children with their tutors and other domestics is a society emulative of a larger society; the latter, moreover, comes into existence from a number of the former, just as what is general exists from its parts. Just as the welfare of the large society depends on order, so also does the welfare of the small society. Therefore, as, in a composite society, it concerns the magistrates to see and provide that order shall exist and be preserved, so with married partners in their particular society. This order, however, is not possible if husband and wife are of dissentient dispositions, for then the counsels and aids of the partners are distraught and divided, as are their dispositions, and the form of the little society is thus rent asunder. Wherefore, for the preservation of order and the providing thereby for themselves and at the same time for their household, or for their household and at the same time for themselves that they do not come to ruin and rush to destruction, necessity demands that the master and mistress be in accord and make a one; and if this cannot be effected because of a difference of minds, then, if it is to be well with them, it is needful and proper that this accord be effected by a representative conjugial friendship. That thereby concordance is imposed in homes because of necessities and hence of utilities is well known.

CL 284. XIII. That they are for the sake of the care of the infants, and of concordance in relation to the children. That conjugial simulations between partners, being appearances of a love and friendship resembling the truly conjugial, are for the sake of the infants and children, is well known. Their common love for these disposes each partner to regard the other with kindness and favour. The love of their infants and children with the mother and that love with the father, join together like the heart and lungs in the breast, the love of them with the mother being like the heart there, and the love toward them with the father like the lungs. The reason for this comparison is because the heart corresponds to love and the lungs to understanding, and with the mother is love from the will, and with the father love from the understanding. With spiritual men, the conjugial conjunction by this love of their infants and children comes from justice and judgment--from justice, because the mother carried them in her womb, brought them forth with pain, and afterwards suckles, feeds, cleanses, clothes, and educates them with unwearying care.

CL 285. XIV. That they are for the sake of peace in the home. Conjugial simulations or external friendships for the sake of peace and tranquillity at home are simulations chiefly with husbands, by reason of their natural characteristic, in that what they do, they do from the understanding, and the understanding, being the thinking faculty, reflects on various matters which disquiet, distract, and disturb the animus. Therefore, with in tranquillity at home, it would come to pass that their vital spirits would languish, and their interior life lie down as though in death, and thus their health, both of mind and body, be ruined. The fear of these and many other dangers would obsess the minds of husbands, were there not at home with their wives an asylum for calming the disturbances of their understanding.

[2] Moreover, peace and tranquillity make their minds serene, and dispose them to receive gratefully the kindnesses offered them by their wives who expend all their labour on dispelling from the minds of their husbands the clouds they are keen to observe. Furthermore, this makes the presence of their wives pleasing. Thus it is evident that the simulation of love as though it were truly conjugial is a necessity and also a utility for the sake of peace and tranquillity in the home. Add to this that simulations are not the same with wives as with men. They may seem like them, but they are the simulations of a real love, because wives are born loves of the understanding of men. Wherefore they gratefully accept the favours of their husbands, if not with the lips, yet with the heart.

CL 286. XV. That they are for the sake of reputation outside the home. The fortunes of men depend for the most part on their reputation as being just, sincere, and upright; and this reputation depends also on the wife, who knows her husband‘s private life. Wherefore, were the discordance of their minds to break out into open enmities, quarrels, and threats of hatred, and were these to be noised abroad by the wife and her friends and servants, they would easily be turned into invectives which would be to the shame and ill-repute of his name. To escape this, no other means are available save, either that he show favour to his wife by way of simulations, or that they be separated as to the house.

CL 287. XVI. That they are for the sake of various favours expected from the partner or from the partner’s kindred; thus because of the fear of losing them. This is the case especially in marriages between those of unlike station and condition, respecting which see (n. 250); as when a man marries a wealthy wife and she puts away her money in bags or her treasure on mortgage, and still more if she insists boldly that the husband is in duty bound to support the household out of his own property and income. That this results in forced similitudes of love as though it were conjugial, is a matter of common knowledge. The like is the case if a wife is taken whose parents, kindred, and friends are in offices of dignity, in lucrative business or in mercantile occupations, and are in a position to influence the state of his prosperity. That because of this there are simulations of love as though it were conjugial, is also a matter of common knowledge. That in both these cases they are on account of fear of the loss of these things is obvious.

CL 288. XVII. That they are for the sake of the excusing of blemishes and the avoiding of ill-repute therefrom. The blemishes on account of which married partners fear ill-repute are numerous, some serious and some not serious. They are blemishes of the mind and blemishes of the body less grievous than those enumerated in a former chapter (n. 252, 253) as causes of separation. Therefore the blemishes here meant are blemishes which are suppressed in silence by the other partner in order to avoid ill-repute. Besides these, with some there are past crimes which, if divulged, would be subject to legal punishment; not to speak of a lack in that abundance of which men are wont to boast. That the excusing of such blemishes for the avoidance of ill-repute is a reason for simulating love and friendship with a married partner, is manifest without further confirmation.

CL 289. XVIII. That they are for the sake of reconciliations. That between partners who are of discordant minds there are alternate dissensions and confidences, alienations and conjunctions, yea, quarrels and adjustments and thus reconciliations--and this from various causes; and that then apparent friendships effect reconciliation, is well known in the world. There are also reconciliations effected after separations, which are not so alternating and transitory.

CL 290. XIX. That when the partners grow old, if favour does not cease with the wife when ability ceases with the man, there may arise a friendship emulous of conjugial friendship. The primary cause of the separation of minds between married partners is the lack of favour with the wife when ability and hence love ceases with the man; for in like manner as heat communicates with heat, so cold communicates with cold. That from defect of love with both partners friendship ceases, and if the destruction of private life in the home is not feared, also favour, is evident from reason and from experience. If then the man tacitly imputes the cause to himself, and the wife still perseveres in chaste favour towards him, there may result thence a friendship which, being between married partners, seems like love emulating conjugial love. That between aged partners, on the ground of their dwelling together, their dealings, and their comradeship, there is a friendship as though of conjugial love, tranquil, secure, lovely, and full of courtesy, is attested by experience.

CL 291. XX. That there are various kinds of apparent love and friendship between married partners, of whom the one is subjugated and hence is subject to the other. It is among things known in the world at this day, that after the first period of marriage, rivalries spring up between the partners in respect to right and authority--in respect to right, because according to the conditions of the contracted covenant there is equality, and dignity belongs to each of the partners in the duties of his function; and in respect to authority, because it is insisted on by men, that superiority in all affairs of the house belongs to them because they are men, and that inferiority belongs to women because they are women. Such rivalries, familiar at this day, flow from no other source than the absence of any knowledge concerning love truly conjugial, and the absence of any perception of sensation in respect to the blessings of that love. Owing to the absence of this knowledge and perception, instead of that love is a lust which counterfeits the love. With genuine love removed, then from this lust, there issues an ambition for power. With some men, this ambition is within them from the delight of domineering; with some it has been implanted before the wedding by artful women; and to some it is unknown.

[2] Men who have this ambition, and after alternations of rivalry obtain the dominion, reduce their wives to being their possession by right, or to abject obedience to their will, or to bondage, each according to the degree of his ambition and to the qualified nature of the state inseated and latent within him. If wives have this ambition, and after alternations of rivalry obtain the dominion, they reduce their husbands either to equality of right with themselves or to obedience to their decisions, or to bondage. But since, after obtaining from them the badge of dominion, the lust which remains with wives counterfeits conjugial love, because restrained by reason of the law and from fear of legal separation should they stretch their power beyond what is lawful to what is unlawful, therefore they lead a life in consociation with their husbands.

[3] As to the nature of the love and friendship between a dominant wife and a servant husband, or a dominant husband and a servant wife, this cannot be described in a few words. Indeed, were the differences between them compared in detail, and the differences themselves enumerated, pages would not suffice; for they are various and diverse. With the men they are various according to the nature of their ambition, being in like manner various with the wives; and those of men are diverse from those which are with women. Such men are in none but a fatuous friendship of love, and such women from lust are in the friendship of a spurious love. By what art wives acquire power over their men shall be told in the article now following.

CL 292. XXI. That in the world there are infernal marriages between partners who inwardly are bitter enemies and outwardly like close friends. Wives of this sort who are in the spiritual world have indeed forbidden me to set forth these marriages in public light, for they fear lest at the same time their art of gaining power over the men should be divulged, which yet they are exceedingly desirous should be concealed. But because men in that world have urged me to disclose the causes of their own intestine hatred and of the fury, as it were, aroused in their hearts against their wives because of their clandestine arts, I wish merely to present the following: the men said that unconsciously they contracted a terrific fear of their wives, on account of which they could do no otherwise than obey their will with the utmost subservience, and follow their bidding more obsequiously than the vilest slaves, so that they became like vapid wine, as it were; and that not only did men not stationed in any position of dignity become such before their wives, but also men in positions of great dignity, yea, valiant and renowned generals. They said further, that after this terror had been contracted, they did not dare to speak to their wives except in a friendly way, or to treat them except as was pleasing to them, though in their hearts they cherished deadly hatred against them; and yet that their wives talk and act courteously with them and give ready ear to some of their requests.

[2] Now because the men themselves greatly wondered whence such antipathy had sprung up in the wives‘ internals, and such sympathy in their externals, they had searched into the causes by consulting women to whom that secret art was known. From their mouth they said they had learned that women deeply conceal within themselves the knowledge whereby they have the skill, if they wish to use it, to subject men to the yoke of their dominion. In the case of the vulgar, with some wives this is done by alternate scoldings and favours; with some by constantly harsh and unpleasant looks; and with others in other ways. In the case of refined wives, it is done by obstinate and incessant pressing of their requests, and by tenacious opposition to their husbands if they suffer hardships from them, insisting upon their right of equality by law, and on the basis of this right boldly persisting in their obstinacy; yea, insisting that if thrown out of the house, they will return at their pleasure and continue the same insistence; for they know that from their very nature men can never withstand the obstinate persistency of their wives, and that after yielding to their will they become submissive; then, to husbands under their dominion, the wives show civility and kindness. The genuine cause of the domination of wives through this cunning is, that while man acts from the understanding woman acts from the will, and the will can be obstinate but not the understanding. It was told me that the worst women of this sort, being inwardly consumed with the ambition to dominate, can stick tenaciously to their resistance even to the last breath of life.

[3] I have also heard the women’s excuses, why they entered into the practice of this art. They said that they would not have entered into it had they not foreseen supreme contempt and future rejection, and hence their ruin, if they were subjugated by their husbands; thus, that they took up these their arms from necessity. To this they added, as a warning to men, that they should leave to wives their rights, and when in their alternations of cold, should not count them as lower than maid-servants. They said further that many of their sex are not in a state to practise this art because of their innate timidity; but I added, "because of their innate modesty."

From the above it is now made known what is meant by infernal marriages in the world between partners who are inwardly bitter enemies and outwardly like the closest of friends.

CL 293. To the above shall be adjoined two Memorable Relations. The first is this:

Once when looking through a window towards the east, I saw seven women sitting on a bed of roses by a fountain, drinking water. I strained my sight to see what they were doing, and the intentness of my gaze affected them; whereupon, one of them by a nod invited me, and I left the house and quickly went to them. When I arrived, I asked them politely whence they came. They said, "We are wives and are talking here about the delights of conjugial love, and from much confirmation we conclude that those delights are also the delights of wisdom."

This answer so delighted my mind that I seemed to myself to be in the spirit and hence in a perception more interior and clearer than ever before, whereupon I said to them, "Permit me to ask a few questions about these delights." They nodded assent, and I asked, "How do you wives know that the delights of conjugial love are the same as the delights of wisdom?"

[2] They replied: "We know it from the correspondence of the wisdom in our husbands with the delights of conjugial love in us; for in us the delights of this love are exalted and diminished, and thus qualified, entirely according to the wisdom of our husbands."

On hearing this, I asked them, saying: "I know that the fair words of your husbands and the cheerfulness of their minds affect you, and that from these you experience delights in your whole bosom, but I wonder at your saying that it is their wisdom that does this. But tell me, what is wisdom? and what wisdom does this?"

[3] Indignant at this, the wives responded: "You think we do not know what wisdom is and what wisdom it is that does this, when yet we are continually reflecting on the wisdom in our husbands and learn it daily from their lips; for we wives think about the state of our husbands from morning to evening. Scarcely a moment in the day passes in which our intuitive thought is entirely withdrawn or absent from them. On the other hand, during the day our husbands think very little about our state. Hence it is that we know what wisdom of theirs it is that is in its delight in us. Our husbands call that wisdom spiritual-rational and spiritual-moral. Spiritual-rational wisdom, they say, pertains to the understanding and to cognitions, and spiritual-moral wisdom to the will and to life; but they join these two together to make a single wisdom. They also declare that from their minds the amenities of this wisdom are transcribed in our bosoms into delights; and from our bosoms they return into theirs and so to wisdom, their origin."

[4] To my question, "Do you know anything more about the wisdom of your husbands becoming delight in you?" they said: "We do. There is spiritual wisdom and from this, rational and moral wisdom. Spiritual wisdom is to acknowledge the Lord the Saviour as the God of heaven and earth; to acquire from Him the truths of the Church whence comes spiritual rationality, this being done by means of the Word and preaching therefrom; and from Him to live according to them, whence comes spiritual morality. It is these two that our husbands call the wisdom which in general effectuates love truly conjugial. We have also heard from them the reason, namely, that by this wisdom the interiors of their minds and thence of their bodies are opened whereby free passage is given, from firsts even to lasts for that vein of love, on the afflux, sufficiency, and strength of which conjugial love depends and from which it lives. The spiritual-rational and spiritual-moral wisdom of our husbands, especially in respect to marriage, has for its end and goal the loving of the wife only and the putting off of every concupiscence for other women. So far as this is done, so far is that love exalted in degree and perfected in quality, and so far also do we the more distinctly and exquisitely sensate within ourselves those delights which correspond to the enjoyments of our husbands‘ affections and the amenities of their thoughts."

[5] I then asked whether they know how the communication is effected. They said: "In all conjunction by love there must be action, reception, and reaction. The delightful state of our love is the agent or action. The state of the wisdom of our husbands is the receiving or reception; it is also the reagent or reaction according to the reception. This reaction with its delights is perceived by us in our bosom according to our state--a state which is continually expanded and prepared for receiving the things which in some way cohere with the virtue in our husbands-- and thus also with the extreme state of love in ourselves--and which proceed therefrom." They said further: "Be careful that you do not interpret the delights we have mentioned, as meaning the ultimate delights of that love. Of these we never speak. What we are now speaking of is our bosom delights, which are in perpetual correspondence with the state of the wisdom of our husbands.

[6] After these words, there was seen at a distance what seemed like a dove flying with the leaf of a tree in its mouth; but as it drew near, in place of a dove was seen a little boy with a paper in his hand. Coming to us, he held it out to me saying, "Read this to these Virgins of the Fountain." I then read these words: "Tell the inhabitants of earth with whom you are, that there is a love truly conjugial, the delights of which are myriad. As yet scarcely any of them are known to the world; but the world will know them when the Church betroths herself to her Lord and becomes His bride."

I then asked, "Why did that boy call you Virgins of the Fountain?" They replied: "We are called virgins when sitting at this fountain because we are affections of the truths of our husbands’ wisdom, and the affection of truth is called a virgin. Moreover, a fountain signifies the truth of wisdom, and the rose-bed whereon we are sitting signifies its delights."

[7] One of the seven then twined a wreath of roses and, sprinkling it with the water of the fountain, placed it on the boy‘s cap around his little head and said: "Receive the delights of intelligence. You know that a cap signifies intelligence, and a wreath from this rose-bed, delights." Adorned with these, the boy then went away; and at a distance he again appeared like a dove flying, but with a wreath upon its head.

CL 294. The second Memorable Relation:

Some days later I again saw the seven wives in a rose garden, but not in the same one as before. It was a magnificent garden, the like of which I had never seen before. It was round, and the roses there formed a curve like that of a rainbow, the outer circle being formed by roses or flowers of a crimson colour, the next inner circle by roses of a golden yellow colour, the circle within this by roses of a cerulean colour, and the inmost circle by roses of a prasinous or bright green colour. Within this rainbow-garden was a small lake of limpid water. Sitting there, were the seven wives previously called Virgins of the Fountain. Seeing me at the window, they again called me to them; and when I came, they said, "Did you ever see anything more beautiful on earth?" I said, "Never!"

They then said:"A garden such as this, is created by the Lord in a moment and it represents some new thing on earth; for everything created by the Lord represents something. Divine, if you can, as to what this garden represents? We divine that it represents the delights of conjugial love."

[2] On hearing this, I said: "What! the delights of conjugial love--those delights of which, on a previous occasion, you spoke so fully both from wisdom and with eloquence? After I left you, I related your discourse to some wives dwelling in our part of the country, and said, `Having been instructed, I now know that you have bosom delights arising from your conjugial love--delights which you can impart to your husbands according to their wisdom; and that therefore, from morning to evening, you are continually looking upon your husbands with the eyes of your spirit, and studying to bend and lead their minds to becoming wise, to the end that you may secure those delights.’ I also told them what you mean by wisdom, namely, spiritual-rational and moral wisdom, and, as regards marriage, the wisdom to love the wife alone and to put off all concupiscence for other women. But to this, the wives of our part of the country responded with laughter, saying, `What is all this? your words are empty nothings. We do not know what conjugial love is; and if our husbands have any, still, we do not. How then can its delights be with us? As for the delights which you call ultimate, we sometimes violently refuse them, for to us they are unpleasant, being scarcely other than violations. Indeed, if you observe us, you will see no sign of such love in our faces. You are therefore trifling or jesting if you join with those seven wives in saying that we are thinking of our husbands from morning to evening, and are continually attentive to their good pleasure and their wishes, to the end that from them we may obtain such delights.‘ From all that they said, I have retained these words that I might report them to you, since they militate against the discourse which I heard from you at the fountain and took in with such avidity, and also believed; indeed, they completely contradict it."

[3] To this, the wives sitting in the garden replied: "Friend, you do not know the wisdom and prudence of wives because they entirely conceal it from men, concealing it for no other purpose than that they may be loved; for in every man who is not spiritually rational and moral but only naturally, there is coldness towards his wife, such coldness being latent with him in his inmosts. This a wise and prudent wife exquisitely and keenly observes, and in equal measure she conceals her conjugial love, withdrawing it into her bosom and there hiding it so deeply that not the least trace of it is discerned, whether in her face, the tone of her voice, or her gestures. The reason is, because in the degree that this love appears, the conjugial cold of the man pours forth from the inmosts of his mind where it resides, into his ultimates, and induces on his body total coldness and a consequent urge for separation from bed and bed-chamber."

To my question, "Whence comes this cold which you call conjugial cold?" they answered: "It is from their insanity in spiritual things. Every man who is insane in spiritual things is inmostly cold to his wife and inmostly warm to harlots. And because conjugial love and scortatory love are opposites, it follows that conjugial love becomes cold when scortatory love is warm; and when cold rules in a man, he cannot bear any sensation of love from his wife, and so cannot bear any breath thereof. It is for this reason that the wife so wisely and prudently conceals it, and so far as she conceals it by denying and refusing, so far the man is revived and restored by an inflowing meretricious sphere. Hence it is that the wife of such a man has no bosom delights such as we have but only pleasures, and on the man’s side, these, being the pleasures of scortatory love, are to be called pleasures of insanity.

[4]

[5] Every chaste wife loves her husband, even if he is unchaste; but because wisdom alone is recipient of her love, therefore the wife uses every effort to turn his insanity into wisdom, that is, that he may feel desire for no other woman than herself. This she does in a thousand ways, taking the greatest care that none of them shall be discovered by the man; for she well knows that love cannot be forced but is insinuated in freedom. Wherefore, it is given to women to know from sight, hearing, and touch every state of their husbands‘ minds; but to husbands, on the other hand, it is not given to know any state of their wives’ minds.

[6] A chaste wife can look at her husband with an austere countenance, can speak to him in a sharp tone, and can also be angry with him and quarrel, and yet cherish in her heart a soothing and tender love for him. That her anger and these dissimulations have as their end wisdom and hence the reception of her love by her husband, is clearly evident from the fact that she can be reconciled in a moment. Moreover, wives have these means of concealing the love implanted in their heart and their very marrow, to the end that the conjugial cold in the man may not break forth and extinguish even the fire of his scortatory heat, and thus from green wood make him, as it were, a dry stick.

[7] After the seven wives had said these words and much else of the same kind, their husbands came with clusters of grapes in their hands, some of which were of a delicious flavour and some of an offensive. The wives then said, "Why have you brought bad or wild grapes?" The husbands replied: "Because we perceived in our souls, with which yours are united, that you were speaking with this man about love truly conjugial, that its delights are delights of wisdom; and also about scortatory love, that its delights are pleasures of insanity. The latter are the grapes of offensive flavour, being wild grapes, but the former are the grapes of delicious flavour." They then confirmed the discourse of their wives and added: "Externally, but not internally, the pleasures of insanity seem the same as the delights of wisdom, just like the good and bad grapes which we brought; for externally, chaste men and unchaste have a like wisdom, but internally it is wholly unlike."

[8] After this, the little boy again came with a paper in his hand and, holding it out to me, he said, "Read." I then read these words: "Know that the delights of conjugial love ascend to the highest heaven, and on the way and when there, they conjoin themselves with the delights of all heavenly loves, and thus enter into their happiness which endures to eternity. The reason is because the delights of that love are also the delights of wisdom. And know also that the pleasures of scortatory love descend even to the lowest hell, and on the way and when there, conjoin themselves with the pleasures of all infernal loves. They thus enter into their unhappiness which consists in the deprivation of all joys of the heart. The reason is because the pleasures of that love are also the pleasures of insanity."

After this the husbands with their wives departed and accompanied the little boy as far as the path of his ascent into heaven. They knew the society from which he was sent, that it was a society of the new heaven with which the New Church on earth will be conjoined.

CL 295. In this chapter, betrothals and weddings and the solemn ceremonies connected therewith are treated of chiefly from reason which pertains to the understanding; for what is written in this book has for its end that the reader may see truths from his rational understanding and so may give them his assent. In this way his spirit is convinced, and that of which the spirit is convinced is allotted a higher place in the mind than that which enters from authority and the faith thereof, without any consultation of the reason. What enters from authority alone, enters the head no farther than the memory, and there, is commingled with fallacies and falsities. Thus it has its place below things rational which pertain to the understanding. Any man can talk from the things of his memory as though rationally, but in inverted order; for he then thinks as a crab walks, the sight following the tail. Not so if he thinks from his understanding. When he does this, his rational sight makes suitable selections from the memory, and by these he confirms a truth which is seen in itself.

[2] It is for this reason that in the present chapter many things are adduced which are accepted customs; as, for instance, that choice belongs to the man; that parents are to be consulted; that pledges are to be given; that a conjugial covenant is to be entered into before the wedding; that this covenant is to be consecrated by a priest; also that the wedding should be celebrated (with festivity); and many other things. These are adduced to the end that, from his rational understanding, man may see that they are inscribed on conjugial love as the requisites thereof, promoting and completing it.

[3] The articles into which this lucubration is divided are, in their order, the following:

1. That choice belongs to the man and not to the woman.

2. That it behoves the man to court the woman and ask her respecting marriage with him, and not the reverse.

3. That before she consents, it behoves the woman to consult her parents or those in the place of parents, and then to deliberate with herself.

4. That after the declaration of consent, pledges are to be given.

5. That consent is to be strengthened and confirmed by a solemn betrothal.

6. That by betrothal each is prepared for conjugial love.

7. That by betrothal the mind of the one is conjoined to the mind of the other in order that a marriage of the spirit may take place before that of the body.

8. That this is the case with those who think of marriages chastely; not so with those who think of them unchastely.

9. That during the time of betrothal it is not lawful to be conjoined corporeally.

10. That when the time of betrothal is completed, the wedding ought to take place.

11. That before the celebration of the wedding, a conjugial covenant is to be entered into in the presence of witnesses.

12. That the marriage is to be consecrated by a priest.

13. That the wedding is to be celebrated with festivity.

14. That after the wedding, the marriage of the spirit becomes also a marriage of the body and thus complete.

15. That such is the order of conjugial love, with its modes, from its first heat to its first torch.

16. That conjugial love, precipitated without order and its modes, burns out the marrows and is consumed.

17. That the states of the mind of each, proceeding in successive order, inflow into the state of marriage, yet in one way with the spiritual and in another with the natural.

18. Because there is successive order and simultaneous order, and the latter is from the former and according to it.

Now follows the explanation of the above.

CL 296. I. That choice belongs to the man and not to the woman. This is because

1. Man is born to be understanding and woman to be love.

2. With men is love of the sex in general but with women love of one of the sex.

3. With men it is not unbecoming to speak of love and to speak of it openly, while with women it is unbecoming.

Still, women have the right to choose one among their suitors.

As regards the first reason, that choice belongs to men because they are born for understanding, this is because the understanding can see compatibilities and incompatibilities, and can discriminate between them and from judgment can choose the suitable. This is not the case with women. Being born for love, they do not have the clear-sightedness of that light and hence would have no determination towards marriage save from the inclinations of their love. If they have the knowledge of how to distinguish between men, their love is still carried along according to appearances.

[2] As to the second reason why choice lies with men and not with women, that with men is love of the sex in general and with women love of one of the sex, this is because those who have love of the sex have freedom to look around and also to decide. Not so with women, for in them is implanted love of one of the sex. If you wish to confirm this, take any man whom you may meet and ask him about monogamous and polygamous marriage; rarely will you find one who will not answer in favour of polygamous marriage--and this also is love of the sex. But ask women about these marriages, and nearly all except prostitutes will reject polygamous marriages. From this it is clear that with women is the love of one of the sex, thus conjugial love.

[3] As regards the third reason, that with men it is not unbecoming to speak of love and to speak of it openly, and that with women it is unbecoming, this is self-evident. It further follows that to man belongs also the declaration, and if the declaration, also the choice. That women have the right of choice from among their suitors is known, but this kind of choice is restricted and limited, while that of men is extended and unlimited.

CL 297. II. That it behoves the man to court the woman and ask her respecting marriage with him, and not the reverse. This is a consequence following choice. For men, the courting of women and the asking them in marriage is in itself honourable and decorous, but not for women. If women were to ask men, they would not only be censured, but after the asking they would be counted cheap or, after the marriage, as wantons with whom there is no fellowship except what is cold and disdainful. Marriages would thus be turned into tragic scenes. Wives, moreover, account it to their praise that they yielded themselves to the earnest entreaty of the men, as though conquered. Who does not foresee that if women were to court men they would rarely be accepted? rather would they be indignantly spurned or enticed to wantonness; they would also prostitute their modesty. Moreover, as shown above (n. 161:2), with men there is no innate love of the sex, and without that love there is no interior pleasantness of life. Therefore, if they are to exalt their life by that love, it is incumbent on men to be pleasant with women, soliciting and entreating them for this sweet addition to their life with courtesy, deference, and humility. Moreover, the beauty of that sex above the male in face, body, and manners, adds itself as a claim on their devotion.

CL 298. III. That before she consents, it behoves the woman to consult her parents or those in the place of parents, and then to deliberate with herself. That the parents should be consulted is because they deliberate and counsel from judgment, knowledge, and love. From judgment, because they are more advanced in age, and age improves the judgment and gives clear sight in regard to suitableness and incompatibility. From knowledge both of the suitor and of their daughter. Knowledge concerning the suitor they gather, and knowledge concerning their daughter they already have. It is therefore with a joint sight that they form their conclusion as to each of them. From love, because to consult the welfare of their daughter and to provide a home for her is also to consult their own welfare and to provide for themselves.

CL 299. It would be wholly different if the daughter were to give consent to her suitor independently without consultation with her parents or those in the place of parents; for she cannot weigh this matter, which concerns her future welfare, from judgment, knowledge, and love. Not from judgment because her judgment is as yet in ignorance in respect to conjugial life and is not in a state to compare reasons or, from the lives of men, to discern their morals. Not from knowledge or cognition, because she knows little beyond the domestic concerns of her parents and of some companions, and is unfitted to search into things private and personal to her wooer. Not from love, because with daughters in this first marriageable age, and also in the next, love follows the longings arising from the senses, and not as yet the desires arising from a cultivated mind.

[2] The reason why it yet behoves a daughter to deliberate on the matter with herself before consenting is lest she be carried unwillingly into a tie with a man unloved, for then, on her part, consent is lacking; yet it is this which makes marriage and initiates her spirit into that love. Unwilling or extorted consent does not initiate the spirit, though it may the body; thus it converts chastity which resides in the spirit into lust, whereby conjugial love is corrupted in its first heat.

CL 300. IV. That after the declaration of consent, pledges are to be given. By pledges are meant gifts. After the consent, these are confirmations, testifications, first favours, and gratifications. That the gifts are confirmations is because they are the tokens of mutual consent. Therefore, when two persons consent to anything, it is said, "Give me a token," and of two who are solemnly betrothed and have confirmed their betrothal by gifts, it is said that they are pledged and so confirmed.

[2] That they are testifications is because these pledges are like continual eye-witnesses of their mutual love and hence are also memorials thereof, especially if they are rings, scent-bottles and pendants which are suspended in sight, there being in these an image representative of the minds of the bridegroom and bride. That these pledges are first favours is because conjugial love promises itself everlasting favour, and of this, these gifts are the first fruits. That they are the gratifications of love is known, for the mind is exhilarated at the sight of them; and because love is in them, these favours are dearer and more precious than all other gifts.

[3] It is as though their hearts were in them. Moreover, because these pledges are stabilizers of conjugial love, the giving of gifts after consent was an established custom among the ancients, and after acceptance of them, the two were declared to be bride-groom and bride. But it should be known that the giving of gifts, whether before the act of betrothal or after, is a matter of choice. They are confirmations and testifications of consent to the betrothal if given before it, and to the nuptials if given after it.

CL 301. V. That consent is to be strengthened and confirmed by a solemn betrothal. The reasons for betrothals are as follows:

1. That after them the two souls may mutually incline to each other.

2. That the universal love to the sex may be determined in each to one of the sex.

3. That the interior affections may be mutually known, and by applications may be conjoined in the inward cheerfulness of love.

4. That the spirits of the two may enter into marriage and be more and more consociated.

5. That conjugial love may thus rightly progress from its first heat to its nuptial flame.

6. Consequently, that conjugial love may proceed from its spiritual origin in just order and may take increase.

The state of betrothal may be likened to the state of spring before summer, and the internal amenities of that state to the blossoming of trees before fructification. Since the initiations and progressions of conjugial love proceed in order, to the end that they may flow into the effective love which commences from the wedding, therefore in the heavens also there are betrothals.

CL 302. VI. That by betrothal each is prepared for conjugial love. That by betrothal, the mind or spirit of the one is prepared for union with the mind or spirit of the other, or, what is the same thing, the love of the one with the love of the other, is evident from the arguments presented in the preceding article. It should be mentioned in addition, that on conjugial love is inscribed the following order: It ascends and descends. From its first heat it ascends progressively upwards towards their souls with an effort to conjunction there, and this by continually more interior openings of their minds--and there is no love which labours for these openings more intensely, or which opens the interiors of their minds more powerfully and easily, than conjugial love, inasmuch as the soul of each intends it; but by the same movements that this love ascends towards the soul, it also descends towards the body and thereby clothes itself.

[2] It should be known, however, that conjugial love is of the same nature in its descent as it is in the height to which it has ascended; if it is in its height, it descends chaste, and if not in its height it descends unchaste. The reason is because the lower parts of the mind are unchaste, but its higher parts chaste; for the lower parts of the mind cleave to the body, while its higher parts separate themselves from the lower. But on this subject more may be seen below (n. 305). From these few considerations, it can be seen that by betrothal the minds of the two are prepared for conjugial love, though in different ways according to their affections.

CL 303. VII. That by betrothal the mind of the one is conjoined to the mind of the other in order that a marriage of the spirit may take place before that of the body. Since this is a conclusion from what has been said above (n. 301, 302), it is passed by without adducing further confirmations from reason.

CL 304. VIII. That this is the case with those who think of marriages chastely; not so with those who think of them unchastely. With the chaste, being those who think about marriages from religion, the marriage of the spirit precedes, and that of the body follows. These are the ones spoken of above (n. 302), with whom the love ascends towards the soul and then descends from its height. Their souls separate themselves from the unlimited love of the sex and, attaching themselves to one, look to an everlasting and eternal union with that one, and to the increasing blessings thereof as nourishers of the hope which continually recreates their minds.

[2] Wholly different is it with the unchaste, being those who do not think of marriages and the holiness thereof from religion. With them, there is a marriage of the body and none of the spirit. If anything of a marriage of the spirit appears during the state of betrothal, yet, if this ascends by an elevation of the thoughts respecting it, it nevertheless falls back to the concupiscences which are in the will from the flesh; and so, by reason of the unchaste things there, casts itself headlong into the body and pollutes the ultimates of its love with alluring ardour. The result is, that as in the beginning it burned, so, suddenly it burns out and passes off into the cold of winter whereby its disappearance is accelerated. With such men, the state of betrothal does hardly aught else than help to fill their concupiscences with things lascivious, and from these to contaminate the conjugial of love.

CL 305. IX. That during the time of betrothal it is not lawful to be conjoined corporeally, for thus the order which is inscribed on conjugial love perishes. In human minds there are three regions, the highest of which is called celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural. It is into this lowest region that man is born. He ascends into his higher region, which is called spiritual, by a life according to the truths of religion; and into the highest, by the marriage of love and wisdom. In the lowest region, which is called natural, reside all the concupiscences of evil and lasciviousness, but in the higher region which is called spiritual, are no concupiscences of evil and lasciviousness, for man is led into this region by the Lord when he is born again; and in the highest region called celestial, is conjugial chastity residing in its own love. Man is elevated into this region by the love of uses, and since the most excellent uses are from marriages, by love truly conjugial.

[2] From this it can be seen in brief, that from the first periods of its heat, conjugial love, if it is to become chaste, must be elevated from the lowest region into the highest, that from what is chaste it may then be let down through the middle and lowest region into the body. When this is done, this lowest region is purified of its unchastities by the descent of what is chaste, and then the ultimate of that love also becomes chaste. If then the successive order of this love be precipitated by corporeal conjunctions before their due time, it follows that the man acts from the lowest region which is unchaste from birth. That from this region, cold in respect to marriage and neglect of the married partner together with loathing, has its beginning and origin, is well known. Yet there are various differences in the results of premature conjunction, as also of an over-prolonging and likewise of an over-hastening of the time of betrothal; but on account of their number and varieties, these can hardly be adduced.

CL 306. X. That when the time of betrothal is completed, the wedding ought to take place. There are ceremonies which are merely formal, and ceremonies which are also essential. Among the latter are weddings. That these are classed among essentials to be publicly solemnized and formally celebrated, is confirmed by the following reasons:

1. That the wedding marks the end of the previous state inaugurated by betrothal, which was principally a state of the spirit, and the beginning of the later state to be inaugurated by marriage, which is a state of the spirit and at the same time of the body; for then the spirit enters the body and there acts. On that day, therefore, they put off the state and also the name of bridegroom and bride and put on the state and name of married partners and consorts of the bed.

2. That the wedding is an introduction and entrance into a new state, and this that the virgin may become a wife and the young man a husband, and the two one flesh. This they do become when love unites them by ultimates. That marriage does actually change the virgin into a wife and the young man into a husband, has been shown in preceding pages, as also that marriage unites the two into one human form so that they are no more two but one flesh.

3. That the wedding is the entering into a complete separation of love of the sex from conjugial love. This is effected when, through full opportunity for conjunction, there comes an exclusive devotion of the love of the one consort to the love of the other.

4. It appears as if the wedding merely marks the interval between these two states, and thus that it is a mere formality which may be omitted; yet, in the wedding there is also the essential element, that the new state mentioned above is then to be entered into by a covenant, and that consent is to be declared in the presence of witnesses and also to be consecrated by a priest, besides other things whereby it is established.

Since the wedding involves essentials, and not until after it, does the marriage become legitimate, therefore weddings are celebrated in the heavens also. See above, (n. 21), and what follows in (n. 27-41).

CL 307. XI. That before the celebration of the wedding, a conjugial covenant is to be entered into in the presence of witnesses. A conjugial covenant should rightly be entered into before the wedding is celebrated, in order that the statutes and laws of love truly conjugial may be known and may be remembered after the wedding; also that it may be a bond, holding their minds within the bounds of rightful marriage; for after the initial stages of marriage, the state preceding betrothal returns at times, and in this state remembrance vanishes and forgetfulness of the contracted covenant comes in. Yea, by reason of enticements to things unchaste coming from unchaste persons, it becomes wholly obliterated, and if it is then recalled to mind, there comes a disparagement of it. For the averting of these transgressions, society has taken upon itself the protection of this covenant, and has enacted penalties against those who break it. In a word, the ante-nuptial covenant makes known the ordinances of love truly conjugial, establishes them, and binds libertines to obedience to them. Add to this, that by this covenant the right to propagate children, and for the children the right to inherit the goods of their parents, is made legitimate.

CL 308. XII. That the marriage is to be consecrated by a priest. The reason is because, viewed in themselves, marriages are spiritual and hence holy; for they descend from the heavenly marriage of good and truth, and things conjugial correspond to the Divine marriage of the Lord and the Church. Hence they are from the Lord Himself, and are according to the state of the Church with the contracting parties. Now because on earth the ecclesiastical order administers those things with the Lord which pertain to the priesthood, that is, which pertain to His Love, and thus also those which pertain to blessing, it is necessary that marriages be consecrated by His ministers. And because at the same time these ministers are also the chief witnesses, it is likewise necessary that the consent to the covenant be heard, accepted, confirmed, and thus established by them.

CL 309. XIII. That the wedding is to be celebrated with festivity. The reasons are, because the ante-nuptial love which was that of the bridegroom and bride, then descends into their hearts, and by its diffusion therefrom into every part of their body, the delights of marriage are sensated. From these delights, their minds have festive thoughts and also express themselves in festivities so far as this is proper and becoming. For the promotion of these, it is important that the festivities of their minds be enjoyed in the company of others, and they themselves be thus introduced into the joys of conjugial love.

CL 310. XIV. That after the wedding, the marriage of the spirit becomes also a marriage of the body and thus complete. All that is done by man in the body flows in from his spirit. As is well known, the mouth does not speak of itself but the thought of the mind by the mouth, and the hands do not act, nor the feet walk, of themselves, but the will of the mind by them; consequently, it is the mind that speaks by its organ the mouth, and the mind that acts by its organs in the body. It is evident, therefore, that as the mind is, such are the words of the mouth and such the deeds of the body. From this the conclusion follows, that by continual influx, the mind instigates the body to activities conformable and synchronous with itself. Therefore, inwardly regarded, the bodies of men are nothing else than forms of their minds organized outwardly to effect the behests of the soul. The above is premised that it may be perceived whence it is that minds or spirits must first be united with each other as in a marriage before there is unition as to the body also; and this, in order that marriages may be marriages of the spirit when they become marriages of the body; consequently, that married partners may love each other from the spirit and thence in the body.

[2] With these premises, let us now look at marriage. When conjugial love conjoins the minds of two and forms them into a marriage, it also conjoins and forms their bodies for that marriage; for, as was said, the form of the mind is also interiorly the form of the body, with the sole difference that the latter is outwardly organized for bringing into effect that to which the interior form of the body is determined by the mind. But the mind which has been formed by reason of conjugial love is not only inwardly present in the whole body and its every part, but in addition is inwardly present in the organs devoted to generation, which are situated in their own region below the other regions of the body. With those who are united in conjugial love, the forms of their minds terminate in these organs; consequently, the affections and thoughts of their minds are determined thither. In this respect, it is different with the activities of minds arising from other loves, for these do not reach thus far. From this comes the conclusion, that according to the nature of the conjugial love in the minds or spirits of two, such is it interiorly in these its organs. That after the wedding the marriage of the spirit becomes also a marriage of the body and thus complete, is self-evident. Consequently, that if the marriage in the spirit is chaste and partakes of the holiness of marriage, it is likewise chaste when in its fullness in the body; and the reverse, if the marriage in the spirit is unchaste.

CL 311. XV. That this is the order of conjugial love, with its modes, from its first heat to its first torch. It is said, from its first heat to its first torch because vital heat is love, and conjugial heat or love increases more and more, and finally as though to a flame or torch. It is said to the first torch, because what is meant is the first state after the wedding when the love is ardent. What it becomes after this torch, in the marriage itself, has been described in preceding chapters. This part of the lucubration has explained its order from the first starting point to this its first goal.

[2] From what is known and visible in the world, it can be adequately confirmed and made clear before the reason that all order proceeds from first things to last, and that the last of one order becomes the first of the next following order; also that all things of an intermediate order are the last of a prior and the first of a posterior order; and that it is in this way that ends go forth continually through causes into effects. But these matters are passed by, since all that is here treated of is the order in which (conjugial) love goes forth from its first starting point to its goal. Respecting this, we say only the following: As is the order of this love from its first heat to its first torch, such for the most part it is, in and within its subsequent progress; for in that progress, this first heat reveals itself such as it was in itself; if chaste, then, in its progressions, its chasteness is strengthened; but if unchaste, then in its progress its unchasteness increases until it is deprived of all the chasteness in which it had been outwardly but not inwardly from the time of betrothal.

CL 312. XVI. That conjugial love, precipitated without order and its modes, burns out the marrows and is consumed. This is so stated by some in heaven; and by the marrows they mean the interiors of the mind and body. The reason why these are burned out, that is, are consumed, when conjugial love is precipitated, is because the love then commences from a flame which consumes and destroys the sanctuaries wherein, as in its beginnings, conjugial love is to dwell, and from which it is to commence. This is the case when a man and woman precipitate marriage without order, not looking to the Lord, not consulting reason, rejecting betrothal, and yielding only to the flesh; and if that love commences from the burning heat of the flesh, it becomes external and not internal, thus not conjugial. It can then be called a shell-love, not a kernel-love; or a flesh-love, lean and dry, because emptied of its genuine essence. More on this subject may be seen above (n. 305).

CL 313. XVII. That the states of the mind of each, proceeding in successive order, inflow into the state of marriage, yet in one way with the spiritual and in another with the natural. That the last or ultimate state is of the same nature as the successive order from which it is formed and has existence, is a canon which must be acknowledged in the learned world because of its truth; for thereby is disclosed what influx is, and what its operation. By influx is meant all that which precedes and composes a sequence and, by means of what follows in order, composes the last or ultimate thing; thus, with man, all that precedes and composes his wisdom; with a statesman, all that precedes and composes his prudence; with a theologian, all that precedes and composes his learning; likewise everything from a man‘s infancy which precedes and composes the man; also what proceeds in order from the seed and shrub and makes the tree, and then proceeds from the blossom and makes the fruit; in like manner, all that precedes and proceeds with a bride-groom and bride and makes their marriage. This is what is meant by influx.

[2] That in human minds all the things which precede, form series, and that the series band together, one beside the other and one after the other, and together compose the ultimate, is as yet unknown in the world. It is adduced here because it is a truth from heaven whereby the operation of influx is disclosed, and also the nature of the ultimate in which the successively formed series just spoken of coexist. From this it can be seen that the states of the mind of each married partner, proceeding in successive order, flow into the state of marriage. But after marriage they are in complete ignorance concerning the successive things in their animi, which are insinuated from things antecedent; yet it is these that give form to their conjugial love and make that state of mind from which they act with each other.

[3] That with spiritual men as compared with natural, a different state is formed from a different origin, is because spiritual men proceed in just order and natural men in unjust. The spiritual look to the Lord, and the Lord provides the order and directs it; but the natural look to themselves and hence proceed in inverted order. Therefore, the state of their marriage is inwardly full of things unchaste, and these are so many colds, and the colds so many obstructions to inmost life, closing its stream and drying up its fountain.

CL 314. XVIII. Because there is successive order and simultaneous order, and the latter is from the former and according to it. This is adduced as a cause confirming what has preceded. That there is succession and simultaneity, is known, but that simultaneous order is from successive order and according to it, is not known. It is extremely difficult, however, to present to the perception the mode in which things successive carry themselves into things simultaneous, and the nature of the order they form there; for among the learned there is as yet no idea that can serve for the elucidation of the matter. And since a preliminary idea of this arcanum cannot be presented in a few words, and to present it here at length would draw the mind away from a clearer view of conjugial love, it will suffice as serving to throw light on the subject, to adduce what is said in summary form concerning these two orders, the successive and the simultaneous, and concerning the influx of the former into the latter, in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE (SACRED n. 38), where are these words:

[2] "Both in heaven and in the world there is successive order and simultaneous order. In successive order, one thing follows after another from the highest to the lowest, but in simultaneous order one thing is next to another from the inmost to the outmost. Successive order is like a column with steps from the top to the bottom; simultaneous order is like a work coherent from the centre to the circumference. In the ultimate, successive order becomes simultaneous in the following way: The highest things of successive order become the inmost of simultaneous order; and the lowest things of successive order become the outmost of simultaneous order. It is comparatively like as when a column of steps by subsiding becomes a body cohering in a plane. In this way, what is simultaneous is formed from things successive, and this in each and every thing of the spiritual world, and in each and every thing of the natural world." See also (SACRED n. 65) in that work, and further on this subject in ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, (DLW n. 205-229).

[3] It is the same with the successive order leading to marriage and the simultaneous order in marriage, that is to say, the latter is from the former and according to it. He who knows the influx of things successive into things simultaneous can comprehend the reason why angels are able to see in a man’s hand all the thoughts and intentions of his mind; and also why it is, that wives, from their husbands‘ hands upon their breasts, can feel their affections, of which matter mention has been made at times in the Memorable Relations. The reason is because the hands are the ultimates of man into which the deliberations and conclusions of his mind are determined and become simultaneous. Therefore it is said in the Word that it is "written upon the hands" (Isa. 49:16).

CL 315. To the above I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

I once saw not far from me a meteor. I saw a cloud divided into little clouds, some of which were blue and some opaque. These I saw colliding, as it were, with one another. Rays flashed across them in the form of streaks appearing now sharp like the points of swords, now blunt like broken blades. These streaks now darted forwards, now retreated, exactly like pugilists. It seemed as though the vari-coloured cloudlets were fighting with one another, but they were sporting. Since the meteor appeared to be not far away, I lifted up my eyes, and looking intently, saw boys, men, and old men entering a house which was built of marble with a substructure of porphyry. Above this house was the phenomenon which I had seen. Then, addressing one of those who were entering, I asked, "What is going on there?" He answered, "A gymnasium where young men are initiated into various matters pertaining to wisdom."

[2] Hearing this, I went in with them, being in the spirit, that is, in a state like that in which are men in the spiritual world who are called spirits and angels. And lo, in the gymnasium, in front was seen a stately chair with steps; in the middle, benches; round about at the sides, seats, and over the entrance a balcony. The chair was for the young men who gave answer to the problem then to be proposed; the benches were for the auditors; the seats at the sides for those who had answered wisely on previous occasions; and the balcony for the elders who were to be the arbiters and judges. In the middle of the balcony was a tribune where sat a wise man whom they called Chief Teacher. It was he who proposed the problems which the young men were to answer from the chair.

After they were assembled, this man arose from the tribune and said, "Give answer now, I pray, to this problem, and solve it if you can: What is the soul, and what is its nature?"

[3] On hearing this problem all were amazed, and there was a general murmur. Some of the assembly sitting on the benches then exclaimed, "Who among men, from the Saturnian age to the present time, has been able to see and apprehend with any rational thought what the soul is, and still less what its nature? Is not this above the sphere of the understanding of all men?" But to this those in the balcony replied, "It is not above the understanding but within it and before it; only answer."

The young men chosen for that day to mount the chair and give answer to the problem then rose up. They were five young men who had been examined by the elders and found to excel in sagacity. They were then sitting on couches at the sides of the chair. Later they mounted the chair in the order in which they were sitting. When going up, each put on a silk tunic of an opaline colour, over this a robe of soft wool in which flowers were embroidered, and on his head a cap, upon the crown of which was a chaplet of roses encircled with small sapphires.

[4] I saw the first young man go up thus clothed. He said: "What the soul is and what its nature, has not been revealed to anyone since the day of creation. It is an arcanum among the treasures of God alone. It has, however, been disclosed that the soul resides in man as a queen, and learned seers have conjectured as to the place of her court. Some conjecture that it is in a small tubercle between the cerebrum and cerebellum, called the pineal gland. They fixed the seat of the soul there because the whole man is ruled from those two brains, and this tubercle regulates them. Therefore, regulating the brains at its will, it also regulates the whole man from head to heel." He then added, "To many in the world this appeared to be true or probable, but a later age has rejected it as a figment."

[5] When he had said this, he put off the robe, tunic, and cap, and the second of the chosen young men put them on and entered the chair. His statement respecting the soul was as follows: "What the soul is and what its nature is unknown in the whole of heaven and in all the world. That there is a soul is known, and also that it is within man, but where, is a matter of conjecture. That it is in the head is certain, since there the understanding thinks and the will intends; moreover, frontwards in the face of the head are man’s five sensories. Nothing gives life to the latter as well as to the former save the soul which resides in the head. But where in the head its court is, this I do not venture to say, though in the past I have agreed sometimes with those who place its seat in the three ventricles of the cerebrum, sometimes with those who place its seat in the corpora striata there, sometimes with those who place its seat in the medullary substance of each brain, sometimes with those who place it in the cortical substance, sometimes with those who place it in the dura mater.

[6] Votes based on confirmations in favour of each of these seats have not been lacking. The arguments favouring the three ventricles were, that these ventricles are the receptacles of animal spirits and lymphs from all parts of the cerebrum. The arguments favouring the striated bodies were, that these bodies furnish the medulla through which the nerves have their exit and through which both brains are continued into the spine, and from the latter and the former issue the fibres of which the whole body is contextured. The arguments favouring the medullary substance of the two brains were, that this substance is a collection and congeries of all the fibres which are the initiaments of the whole man. The arguments favouring the cortical substance were, that in this substance are the first ends and the last, and thus the beginnings of all the fibres, and so of all sensations and motions. The arguments favouring the dura mater were that this mater is the common covering of both brains, and from these, by a kind of continuity, extends over the heart and over the viscera of the body. As for myself, I make no decision concerning anyone argument more than another. Do you yourselves decide, I pray, and elect which of them is the preferable."

[7] Having thus spoken, he descended from the chair and passed the tunic, robe, and cap to the third young man. Ascending the chair, the latter then said: "What have I, a young man, to do with so sublime a theorem? I appeal to the learned men sitting here at the sides; I appeal to you wise men in the balcony; yea, I appeal to the angels of the highest heaven, whether anyone from his own rational light can get any idea of the soul. As to its seat in man, however, I, like others, can make conjecture; and I conjecture that it is in the heart and thence in the blood. This is my conjecture because the heart by its blood rules both the body and the head; for it sends out the great vessel called the aorta into the whole body, and the vessels called the carotids into the whole head. Hence there is general agreement that it is from the heart by means of the blood that the soul sustains, nourishes, vivifies the whole organic system of the body and head. What adds to the credibility of this assertion is the fact that soul and heart are so often mentioned in Sacred Scripture, as that thou shalt love God from the whole heart and the whole soul, and that God creates in man a new soul and a new heart (Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 26:16; Jer. 32:41; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; Luke 10:27). In (Leviticus 17:11, 14), it is openly said that the blood is the soul of the flesh." On hearing this, some raised their voices and exclaimed, "Learnedly spoken, learnedly spoken." They were of the clergy.

[8] Then the fourth young man put on the vestments of the former speaker, and entering the chair, said: "I also suspect that no one is of a genius so subtle and refined that he can discern what the soul is and what its nature. I opine therefore, that in the man who wishes to investigate it, subtlety is wasted in vain efforts. Yet, from boyhood I have retained a belief in the opinion held by the ancients, that man‘s soul is in the whole of him and in every part of that whole; thus, that it is both in the head and the several parts thereof, and in the body and in its several parts; and that the assigning it a seat in some special place and not everywhere was a vain notion invented by the moderns. The soul, moreover, is a spiritual substance, and of this, extension cannot be predicated, nor can place, but only habitation and impletion. Besides, when anyone mentions soul, does he not mean life? and is not life in the whole and in every part?" Many in the audience showed their approval of these remarks.

[9] The fifth young man then arose and, adorned with the same insignia, spoke from the chair as follows: "I do not dwell on telling where the soul is, whether in some one part or everywhere in the whole; but from my stock and store, I will open my mind on the question, What is the soul and what its nature? No one thinks of the soul as being aught else than a pure something which can be likened to ether or air or wind, wherein, by reason of the rationality which man has above beasts, is something vital. I base this opinion upon the fact that when a man expires, he is said to breathe out or give up his soul or spirit. Moreover, it is from this that the soul, when living after death, is thought to be such a breath wherein is the cogitative life called soul. What else can the soul be? But as I heard you say from the balcony that the problem concerning the soul, what it is and what its nature, is not above the understanding but in it and before it, I beg and pray that you yourselves will open up this eternal arcanum."

[10] The elders in the balcony then looked to the Chief Teacher who had proposed the problem. Understanding from their nods that they wished him to go down and teach, he at once descended from the tribune, passed through the auditorium, and entered the chair. Then, extending his hand, he said: "Listen, I pray. Who does not believe the soul to be the inmost and subtlest essence of man! and what is an essence without a form but an imaginary entity? The soul, therefore, is a form. As to the nature of its form, this shall now be told. It is the form of all things pertaining to love, and of all things pertaining to wisdom. All things pertaining to love are called affections, and all pertaining to wisdom are called perceptions. The latter are from the former, and the two together thus make one form wherein innumerable things are in such order, series, and coherence, that they can be called a one. They can be called a one because, if that one is to remain what it is, nothing can be taken away from it, nor anything be added. What is the human soul but such a form? Are not all things pertaining to love, and all things pertaining to wisdom, the essentials of that form? And with man these are in his soul and, from his soul, in his head and body.

[11] You are called spirits and angels; and in the world you thought that spirits and angels and thus minds and animi are as winds or ethers. But now you see clearly that you are truly, really, and actually men--men who in the world had lived and thought in a material body. You knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks but the spiritual substance in that body. You called this the soul, but did not know its form. Yet, you have now seen it and still see it. All here present are souls, about the immortality of which you have heard, thought, spoken, and written so much; and being forms of love and wisdom from God, you cannot die to all eternity. The soul then is a human form from which not the least thing can be taken away, and to which not the least can be added. It is also the inmost form of all the forms of the entire body. And since the forms which are outside it take their essence and form from this inmost form, therefore you, just as you appear to yourselves and to us, are souls. In a word, the soul, being the inmost man, is the man himself, and therefore its form is the human form in all fullness and perfection. Yet it is not life but the nearest receptacle of life from God, and thus the dwelling-place of God."

[12] Many applauded these words, but some said, "We must weigh them."

I then went home and lo, in place of the former meteor there was seen above the gymnasium a bright white cloud, devoid of contending streaks or rays. This cloud, penetrating the roof, entered the gymnasium and illumined its walls, and I heard that they saw inscriptions there, and among others the following: Jehovah God breathed into man’s nostrils the SOUL OF LIVES and man became a LIVING SOUL. (Gen. 2:7).

CL 316. The second Memorable Relation:

Walking once in tranquillity of animus and delightful peace of mind, I saw in the distance a grove, midway in which was an avenue leading to a small palace; and I saw maidens and young men and husbands and wives entering therein. In the spirit, I also went thither, and asked a guard standing at the entrance whether I too might enter. He looked at me, and I said, "Why do you look at me?" He answered: "I look at you to see whether the delight of peace which is in your face is in any way derived from the delight of conjugial love. Behind this avenue is a small garden, and in its centre a house where are two newly married partners, and today their friends of both sexes are coming to them to wish them happiness. Those whom I admit, I myself do not know, but I was told that I would know them by their faces; if in their faces I saw the delight of conjugial love I was to admit, but not others."

All angels can perceive the heart‘s delights of others from their faces, and because I was meditating on conjugial love, it was the delight of that love that he saw in my face; the meditation shone forth from my eyes and thence entered the interiors of my face. Therefore he told me I might enter.

[2] The avenue by which I entered was an avenue of fruit trees joined together by their branches, thus forming a continuous wall of trees on either side. Through this avenue I passed into a small garden which breathed a pleasant fragrance from its shrubs and flowers. The shrubs and the flowers were in pairs, and I heard that gardens of this kind appear around houses where there are or have been weddings, and that they are therefore called nuptial gardens.

I then went into the house and there saw the two partners holding each other by the hand and conversing together from love truly conjugial; and it was given me to see from their faces the effigy of conjugial love, and from their conversation its vitality.

With many others, I offered my congratulations and wished them happiness, after which I went into the nuptial garden. There, on the right, I saw a group of young men to which all who came from the house were hastening. The reason they were all hastening was because the discourse there was about conjugial love, and by some hidden power such discourse attracts the minds of all. I then heard a wise man speaking of that love, and what I heard was in brief as follows:

[3] "The Lord’s Divine Providence is most singular and at the same time most universal in regard to marriages in the heavens, and in the marriages themselves, because all the happiness of heaven springs from the delights of conjugial love, as sweet waters from the sweet vein of a fountain. Therefore it is provided by the Lord that conjugial pairs be born, and that, all unknown to the boy and girl, they be continually educated for marriage; that in due time, the girl, then a marriageable maiden, and the boy then a young man fit for entrance into marriage, meet somewhere as if by chance and see each other; that, as if by instinct, they instantly know that they are mates, and, as though from a kind of inner dictate, think within themselves, the young man, `She is mine‘, and the maiden, `He is mine’; and that after this thought has dwelt for some time in the minds of both, they deliberately address each other and are betrothed. It is said, as if by fate and as if by instinct, but what is meant is by Divine Providence because, when not known, Divine Providence has this appearance."

That conjugial pairs are born, and, unknown to both, are educated for marriage, this he confirmed by the conjugial similitude visible in the faces of both; also by their inmost and eternal union, in animus and mind. Unions of this kind, such as they are in heaven, are not possible unless foreseen and provided by the Lord.

[4] After the wise man had thus spoken and the company had applauded, he said further: "There is something conjugial in the very minutest particulars with man, both male and female; but this conjugial is one thing with the male and another with the female. In the masculine conjugial there is something conjunctive with the feminine conjugial, and vice versa, and this in their most single parts." This he confirmed by the marriage of the will and understanding in each individual. "These two act together upon the most single parts of the mind, and upon the most single parts of the body, and from this it can be seen that the conjugial is present in each individual substance, even the least. This becomes evident from their compound substances, these being made up of simple substances. Thus there are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two cheeks, two lips, two arms and hands, two loins, two feet; and within man, two hemispheres of the brain, two ventricles of the heart, two lobes of the lungs, two kidneys, two testicles; and where the organs are not dual they are yet divided into two parts. They are two because the one pertains to the will and the other to the understanding, and these act upon each other so marvellously that they present a one. Thus the two eyes make one sight, the two ears one hearing, the two nostrils one smell, the two lips one speech, the two hands one labour, the two feet one walking, the two hemispheres of the brain one dwelling-place of the mind, the two chambers of the heart one life of the body by means of the blood, the two lobes of the lungs one respiration, and so on; but the masculine and feminine when united by love truly conjugial make one life completely human."

[5] While these words were being spoken, there appeared on the right, lightning which became red; and on the left, lightning which became a bright white. Both were mild, and through the eyes they entered into the mind and enlightened this also. After these lightnings came thunder, being a gentle murmur flowing down from the angelic heaven and growing louder. Hearing and seeing this, the wise man said: "This is a sign and admonition to me that I should add these words to my discourse: The right of those pairs signifies their good, and the left their truth. This is from the marriage of good and truth which is inscribed on the whole man and on his every single part; and good harks back to the will, and truth to the understanding, and both together to a one. It is because of this that in heaven the right eye is the good of sight, and the left its truth; the right ear the good of hearing, and the left its truth; the right hand the good of man‘s power, and the left its truth; and so likewise with the other pairs. It was because the right and left have these significations that the Lord said:

by which He meant that if good becomes evil, it is to be cast out; and also that He told His Disciples that they should cast the net on the right side of the ship, and when they did so, they took a great multitude of fishes (John 21:6, 7), by which He meant that they should teach the good of charity and thus would gather men."

[6] After these words, the two lightnings were again seen but milder than before; and it was then seen that the lightning on the left derived its bright whiteness from the ruddy fire of the lightning on the right. Seeing this, the wise man said, "This is a sign from heaven confirmatory of what I have said; for in heaven the fiery is good, and bright white is truth. The sight of the lightning on the left taking its brightness from the ruddy fire of the lightning on the right is a sign showing that the bright whiteness of light, or light itself, is nothing else than the brilliance of fire."

On hearing this, all went home, kindled by those lightnings and by the discourse concerning them, with the good and truth of gladness.

CL 317. The question may come under discussion as to whether, after the death of the partner, conjugial love, which is the love of one man with one wife, can be separated or transferred or superinduced; and also, as to whether repeated marriages have anything in common with polygamy and so may be called successive polygamy; besides many other questions which with reasoners are wont to pile up doubt on doubt. Therefore, in order that masters of casuistry, who reason in the shade about these marriages, may see some light, I have thought it worth while to present to their judgment the following articles concerning them, to wit:

1. That after the death of the partner, again to contract matrimony depends on the preceding conjugial love.

2. That it depends also on the state of marriage in which they had lived.

3. That in the case of those with whom there had been no love truly conjugial, there is nothing to prevent and hinder them from again contracting matrimony.

4. That those who have lived together in love truly conjugial do not wish to marry again, unless for reasons apart from conjugial love.

5. That the state of marriage of a young man with a virgin is different from that of a young man with a widow.

6. Also that the state of marriage of a widower with a virgin is different from that of a widower with a widow.

7. That the varieties and diversities of these marriages, with respect to love and its attributes, exceed all number.

8. That the state of a widow is more grievous than that of a widower.

Now follows the explanation of the above.

CL 318. I. That after the death of the partner, again to contract matrimony depends on the preceding conjugial love. Love truly conjugial is as a balance in which inclinations to repeated marriages are weighed. In the degree that the preceding conjugial love approaches that love, the inclination to marry again recedes; but in the degree that the preceding love recedes from it, the inclination to marry again is wont to make advance. The reason is obvious; for in the same degree, conjugial love is a conjunction of minds, and after the death of the one, this conjunction remains during the bodily life of the other, and, like the tongue in a balance, holds the inclination, making preponderance according to the appropriation of true love. But since an approach to this love is rarely made at the present day, unless by a few steps, therefore, for the most part, the scale containing the preponderance of inclination rises to the point of equilibrium and then wavers and tends to the other side, that is, to marriage.

[2] So likewise with those whose preceding love in the former marriage receded from love truly conjugial. The reason is because recession from that love is in the same degree a disjunction of minds, and after the decease of the one, this disjunction remains during the bodily life of the other, and, entering a will disjoined from the will of the other, it produces an inclination to a new conjunction. In favour of this, the thought, brought in by the inclination of the will, carries with it the hope of a more united and thus more delightful cohabitation.

[3] That inclinations to repeated marriages take their rise from the state of the preceding love is well known. Moreover, reason sees it; for within love truly conjugial is fear of its loss and grief after the loss, and this grief and fear are in the inmost regions of the mind. Hence it is, that so far as that love is within, so far the soul inclines, both in will and thought, that is, in intention, to be in the subject with which and in which it had been. It follows from this that, as regards another marriage, the mind is held in poise according to the degree of love in which it had been in the former marriage. It is from this love that the same partners are reunited after death and mutually love each other in like manner as in the world. But, as said above, at this day this love is rare, there being few who touch it even with the finger. As to those who do not touch it, and still more those who recede far from it, these, according as they had longed for separation during their preceding married life which was cold, so after death they desire conjunction with another. But more concerning these two classes of men in what follows.

CL 319. II. That after the death of the partner, again to contract matrimony depends also on the state of marriage in which they had lived. Here, by the state of marriage is not meant the state of the love spoken of in the preceding article, for this produces an internal inclination for or against marriage. What is meant here is the state of marriage which produces an external inclination towards it or away from it. This state with its inclinations is manifold. For example:

1. If there are small children in the house and a new mother must be provided for them.

2. If more children are desired.

3. If the house is large and provided with servants of both sexes.

4. If continual forensic occupations withdraw the mind from domestic affairs at home, so that without a new mistress there is fear of trouble and misfortune.

5. If mutual aid and mutual services are required, as in various kinds of business and occupations.

6. Moreover, it depends on the native genius of the partner who is left, whether after the first marriage he or she can or cannot live alone, that is, without a consort.

7. Furthermore, the preceding marriage causes either a fear of married life or a favouring of it.

8. I have heard that the animi of some are led to a desire for repeated marriages by polygamous love and love of the sex, also by the lust of defloration and the lust of variety; and the animi of others, by fear of the law and their reputation if they commit adultery.

Besides many other causes which move the external inclinations to matrimony.

CL 320. III. That in the case of those with whom there had been no love truly conjugial, there is nothing to prevent and hinder them from again contracting matrimony. In the case of those with whom there had been no conjugial love, there is no spiritual or internal bond but only a natural or external; and if an internal bond does not hold the external bond in its order and tenor, the latter does not endure, any more than a bundle with the fastening removed, which falls apart according to its weight or the wind. The reason is because the natural takes its origin from the spiritual, and in its existence is nothing else than a mass gathered together from things spiritual. If then the natural is separated from the spiritual which produced and, as it were, begot it, it is no longer held together inwardly but only outwardly, and this by the spiritual which surrounds and binds it in general but does not colligate it in every single part and hold it colligated. Hence it is that the natural separated from the spiritual does not effect any conjunction of minds with two married partners, nor consequently of wills, but only a conjunction of certain external affections which cohere with the senses of the body.

[2] That in the case of such partners, there is nothing to prevent and hinder them from again contracting matrimony, is because they did not have the essentials of marriage and hence there are none within them after separation by death. Therefore they are then in entire freedom to tie their sensual affections, if a widower with any woman who is pleasing and lawful to him, and if a widow with any man in like manner. They themselves think of marriage only naturally and from its conveniences in respect to various external necessities and utilities (which, having been lost) by death, can be restored by another person in place of the former; and perhaps, if their interior thoughts were perceived, as they are in the spiritual world, there might not be found in them any distinction between conjugial conjunctions and extra-conjugial copulations.

[3] For such persons, it is lawful to marry again and again, and this for the reason mentioned above; for after death, merely natural conjunctions are dissolved and fall apart of themselves, because at death external affections follow the body and are buried with it, those alone remaining which are coherent with the internal affections. But it should be known that marriages which are inwardly conjunctive can hardly be entered into on earth, for there the choice of internal similitudes cannot be provided by the Lord as it is in the heavens, the choice being limited in many ways, as, for instance, to those who are equals in station and condition, in the country, city, and village of one’s residence; and there, for the most part, it is external things that bind them together, and not internal, for the latter do not come out until some time after marriage, and they become known only when they present themselves in externals.

CL 321. IV. That those who have lived together in love truly conjugial do not wish to marry again, unless for reasons apart from conjugial love. That those who have lived in love truly conjugial do not wish to marry again after the death of their partner is due to the following causes: 1. Because they were united as to souls and thence as to minds, and this unition, being spiritual, is an actual adjunction of the soul and mind of the one to the soul and mind of the other, which can never be dissolved; that such is the nature of spiritual conjunction, has been shown here and there above.

[2] 2. Because they were also united as to their bodies by the wife‘s reception of the propagations of her husband’s soul, and thus by the insertion of his life into hers, whereby the virgin becomes a wife; and, on the other hand, by the husband‘s reception of the conjugial love of his wife, which disposes the interiors of his mind and at the same time the interiors and exteriors of his body into a state receptive of love and perceptive of wisdom--a state which changes him from a young man into a husband; respecting this, see above (n. 198).

[3] 3. Because a sphere of love flows forth continually from the wife, and a sphere of understanding from the man, and this perfects the conjunctions; that this sphere with its pleasant outpouring surrounds them and unites them, may also be seen above (n. 223).

[4] 4. Because partners thus united in marriage think and breathe what is eternal, and upon this idea is founded their eternal happiness; see above (n. 216).

[5] 5. It is by reason of the above recited causes that they are no more two but one man, that is, one flesh.

[6] 6. That such a one cannot be rended by the death of either partner is clearly manifest before the ocular sight of the spirit.

[7] 7. To the above causes may be added this new fact, that these two are not separated by the death of the one, since the spirit of the deceased partner dwells continually with the spirit of the one not yet deceased, and this until the death of the latter, when they meet again and reunite and love each other more tenderly than before because in the spiritual world. From all this follows the irrefragable consequence, that those who have lived in love truly conjugial do not wish to marry again. If, after the death of the partner, they contract something like marriage, it is done for reasons apart from conjugial love, and these reasons are all external, such as: If there are small children in the house and provision must be made for the care of them; if the house is large and provided with servants of both sexes; if forensic occupations withdraw the mind from family affairs in the home; if mutual aid and services are necessities; and other like reasons.

CL 322. V. That the state of marriage of a young man with a virgin is different from that of a young man with a widow. By states of marriage are meant states of the life of both husband and wife after the wedding; thus, in the marriage, the nature of their cohabitation then, whether it is an internal cohabitation of souls and minds, this being cohabitation in the principal idea, or only an external cohabitation of the animus, the senses, and the body. The state of marriage of a young man with a virgin is the true state initial to a genuine marriage; for the conjugial love between them can proceed in its just order, namely, from the first heat to the first torch, and then with the youthful husband from the first seed, and with the virgin wife from the flower; and so can germinate, take increase, and bear fruit; and they can introduce each other into all this. Otherwise, the young man was not a young man, nor the virgin a virgin, save in external form. Between a young man and a widow, there is not the same initiation from the primitive states into marriage, nor the same progression in the marriage; for a widow has more of her own judgment and her own right than a virgin, and therefore a young man bestows his attentions upon a widow wife with a different view than upon a virgin wife. In such marriages, however, there is much variety and diversity, for which reason the subject is mentioned only in a general way.

CL 323. VI. Also that the state of marriage of a widower with a virgin is different from that of a widower with a widow; for the widower has already been initiated into the conjugial life, and the virgin is still to be initiated, and yet conjugial love perceives and feels its pleasantness and delight in mutual initiation. In all that comes to them, the youthful husband and the virgin wife perceive and sensate things ever new, and thereby they are in a continual initiation and thence in a lovely progression. Not so in the state of marriage of a widower with a virgin. The virgin wife has an internal inclination, but with the man this has passed away. But in these marriages, and likewise in the marriage between a widower and a widow, there is much variety and diversity; therefore, beyond this general notion, it is of no use to add anything in detail.

CL 324. VII. That the varieties and diversities of these marriages, with respect to love and its attributes, exceed all number. There is an infinite variety of all things, and also an infinite diversity. By varieties is here meant the variety that exists among things of the same genus or species, and also among the genera and species themselves; and by diversities is here meant the diversity between things which are opposite. Our idea of the distinction between varieties and diversities can be illustrated by the following: The angelic heaven, which coheres together as a one, consists In infinite variety, no one there being absolutely like another, either as to soul and mind or as to affections, perceptions and thoughts therefrom, or as to inclinations and intentions therefrom, or as to the tone of the voice, as to face, body, gesture, walk, and many other things. And yet, though they are myriads of myraids, they have been and are being arranged by the Lord into a single form in which there is complete unanimity and concord. This would not be possible unless all the angels, being so various, were led universally and individually by One. This then is what we mean here by varieties.

[2] By diversities we mean the opposites of these varieties, these being in hell; for the spirits there, are one and all diametrically opposite to those who are in heaven. Hell, which consists of them, is held together as a one by varieties which among themselves are wholly contrary to the varieties in heaven; thus by perpetual diversities.

From these illustrations, it is evident what is meant by infinite variety, and what by infinite diversity. It is the same with marriages, in that there are infinite varieties with those who are in conjugial love, and infinite varieties with those who are in scortatory love, and hence infinite diversities between the latter and the former. From this, the conclusion follows, that the varieties and diversities in marriages, of whatsoever genus and species, whether of a young man with a virgin or of a young man with a widow, or of a widower with a virgin or of a widower with a widow, exceed all number. Who can distribute infinity into numbers?

CL 325. VIII. That the state of a widow is more grievous than that of a widower. The causes of this are external and internal. The external are clear to everyone, namely:

1. That a widow cannot provide the necessities of life for herself and her household, nor make disposition of them when acquired, as a man can and as she previously did by and with her husband.

2. That she cannot protect herself and her home in the way needed; for when she was a wife, the husband was her defense and, as it were, her arm, and when she was her own defense, she yet relied on her husband.

3. That of herself she is lacking in judgment as regards such things as are matters of interior wisdom and hence of prudence.

4. That a widow has no one to receive the love in which she is as a woman, and so is in a state alien to that which is innate, and to that induced by marriage.

[2] These external causes which are natural, take their origin from internal causes which are spiritual, as do all other things in the world and in the body, concerning which, see above (n. 220). The above-mentioned external natural causes are perceived from the internal spiritual causes which proceed from the marriage of good and truth, and chiefly from the following characteristics of that marriage:

1. That good cannot provide for or regulate anything save by truth.

2. That good cannot protect itself save by truth, and that truth, therefore, is the defense and, as it were, the arm of good.

3. That good without truth is lacking in deliberation, for it has deliberation, wisdom, and prudence by means of truth.

[3] Now because from creation a man is truth, and by creation a wife is the good thereof; or, what is the same thing, because from creation a man is understanding, and by creation a wife is the love thereof, it is clear that the external or natural causes which aggravate the widowhood of a woman take their rise from internal or spiritual causes. These spiritual causes conjoined with the natural are what are meant by what is said concerning widows in many places in the Word, as may be seen in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 764).

CL 326. To the above I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

After the problem concerning the soul had been discussed and solved in the gymnasium (n. 315), I saw the audience going out in procession, the Chief Teacher in front, after him the elders in whose midst were the five young men who had given the answers and then the rest. Coming out, they withdrew to the sides of the house where were walks bordered by shrubs. Gathering there, they separated into small groups which were so many companies of young men conversing together on matters of wisdom. In each group was one of the wise men from the balcony. Seeing them from my lodging, I became in the spirit, and going to them in the spirit, approached the Chief Teacher who lately had proposed the question concerning the soul. When he saw me, he said: "Who are you? When I saw you coming on the road, it surprised me that you now came into my sight and now passed out of it; that is, at one moment you were visible to me and suddenly became invisible. You certainly are not in our state of life." To this I answered, smiling, "I am not a player of tricks, or a Vertumnus, but am by turns, now in your light, now in your shade, and thus a sojourner and also a native."

[2] At this, the Chief Teacher looked at me and said, "You speak things strange and wonderful. Tell me who you are." I then said: "I am in the world called the natural world, in which you were and from which you have departed; and I am also in the world into which you came and in which you now are, which is called the spiritual world. Thus it is, that I am in a natural state and at the same time in a spiritual, being in a natural state with men on earth, and in a spiritual state with you. When in a natural state, I am not visible to you, but when in a spiritual state I am visible. My being of this nature has been granted me by the Lord. To you, enlightened man, it is known that a man of the natural world does not see a man of the spiritual world, or the reverse. Therefore, when I let my spirit down into the body I was not visible to you, but when I sent it out of the body I was visible. In your gymnastic sport you taught that you are souls, and that souls see souls because they are human forms; and you know that when you were in the natural world you did not see yourselves or your souls within your bodies, and this because of the distinction between the spiritual and the natural."

[3] When the Chief Teacher heard of a distinction between the spiritual and the natural, he said, "What is the distinction? is it not as between the purer and the less pure? What then is the spiritual but a purer natural?" I replied: "The distinction is not that, but is like the distinction between the prior and the posterior. Between these there is no finite ratio, for the prior is within the posterior as a cause within its effect, and the posterior is from the prior as an effect from its cause. Hence it is that the one does not appear to the other."

[4] To this the Chief Teacher responded: "I have meditated and pondered upon this distinction, but hitherto in vain. Would that I could perceive it!" I then said, "You shall not only perceive the distinction between the spiritual and the natural but you shall also witness it." I continued as follows: "You are in the spiritual state when with your associates, but in the natural state when with me. With them you speak in the spiritual language which is common to all spirits and angels, but with me, in my native tongue; for every angel and spirit when speaking with a man speaks the man’s language, thus French with a Frenchman, English with an Englishman, Greek with a Greek, Arabic with an Arabian, and so on. That you may know the distinction between the spiritual and the natural as to language, do this: Go to your associates and say something there and retain the words; then, with these in your memory, return and utter them before me."

He did so, and with the words on his lips, he returned to me and spoke them; and he did not understand a single one. (To me) his words were entirely strange and foreign such as are not found in any language of the natural world. By this experience, several times repeated, it was made clearly evident that all in the spiritual world have a spiritual language which has nothing in common with any language of the natural world; and that after death every man comes into that language of himself. At the same time, the Chief Teacher also found that the sound of the spiritual language so greatly differs from the sound of natural language that spiritual sound, even though loud, could not be heard by a natural man, or natural sound by a spiritual man.

[5] I then requested the Chief Teacher and the bystanders to go to their associates and write some sentence on a piece of paper, and then come to me with the paper and read it. They did so and returned with the paper in hand; but when they read it, they could not understand anything, since the writing consisted merely of alphabetical letters with curved strokes above them, each letter signifying some aspect of the subject treated of. From the fact that in the spiritual world each letter in the alphabet has some signification, it is evident whence it is that the Lord is said to be the Alpha and the Omega. After again and again going, writing, and returning, they found that their writing involved and comprehended innumerable things which no natural writing could ever express; and it was said that this is because the thoughts of the spiritual man concern things which to the natural man are incomprehensible and ineffable, and that such thoughts cannot flow into any other writing or any other language and be there presented.

[6] Then, because the bystanders were unwilling to comprehend that spiritual thought so greatly excels natural thought as to be relatively ineffable, I said to them: "Make this experiment. Enter into your spiritual society and think of something; then, retaining the thought, return and express it before me." And they entered, thought of something, and retaining the thought went out; but when they would express the thing thought of, they could not, for they found no idea of natural thought adequate to any idea of spiritual thought, and therefore no word to express it; for ideas of thought become the words of speech.

[7] Then, again entering and again returning, they convinced themselves, that to the natural man, spiritual ideas are supernatural, inexpressible, ineffable, and incomprehensible; and they said that, being thus supereminent, spiritual ideas or thoughts, relatively to natural, are ideas of ideas and thoughts of thoughts; that by them, therefore, are expressed qualities of qualities and affections of affections; and, consequently, that spiritual thoughts are the beginnings and origins of natural thoughts. From this moreover, it became clear that spiritual wisdom is the wisdom of wisdom, and thus is imperceptible in the natural world even to a wise man. It was then told them from the third heaven that there is a wisdom still more interior or higher, called celestial, the relation of which to spiritual wisdom is like the relation of the latter to natural wisdom, and that these wisdoms flow from the Lord‘s Divine wisdom which is infinite, in an order accordant with the heavens.

CL 327. After these experiments, I said to the bystanders:"From these three proofs of experience, you have seen the nature of the distinction between the spiritual and the natural, and also the reason why the natural man is not seen by the spiritual, or the spiritual man by the natural, and this despite the fact that as to affections and thoughts and as to presence therefrom, they are consociates." Then, addressing the Chief Teacher, I said, "This is the reason why, when I was on the way, I was now seen by you and now not seen."

After this, from a higher heaven was heard a voice addressed to the Chief Teacher, saying, "Come up hither." He then went up, and after returning, he said that the angels, like himself, had not previously known the differences between the spiritual and the natural, and this because no opportunity for comparing them in a man who was in both worlds at the same time, had hitherto been afforded, and in the absence of comparison, these differences cannot be known.

CL 328. We then withdrew, and speaking further on this subject, I said: "These distinctions exist solely because you, being in the spiritual world and therefore being yourselves spiritual, are in things substantial and not in things material, and things substantial are the beginnings of things material. You are in principles and thus in simples, while we are in principiates and compounds. You are in particulars, we in generals; and just as generals cannot enter into particulars, so neither can things natural, which are material, enter into things spiritual, which are substantial, exactly as a ship’s cable cannot enter or be drawn through the eye of a needle, or a nerve enter or be drawn into one of the fibres of which it consists, or a fibre into one of the fibrils of which it consists. This, moreover, is known in the world, it being the consensus of the learned, that there is no influx of the natural into the spiritual but only of the spiritual into the natural. This then is the reason why the natural man cannot think the thoughts which the spiritual man thinks, and therefore cannot speak them. Therefore Paul says that the words which he heard out of the third heaven were unutterable.

[2] Add to this, that to think spiritually is to think apart from time and space, and to think naturally is to think with time and space; for something of time and space adheres to every idea of natural thought, but not to any spiritual idea. The reason is, because the spiritual world is not in space and time like the natural world, but in the appearance of space and time. In the same way also do thoughts and affections differ (in the two worlds). Therefore, you can think of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, of God before the creation of the world, because you think of the essence of God from eternity apart from time, and of His omnipresence apart from space. Thus you can comprehend things which transcend the ideas of the natural man."

[3] I then told him that once I had thought of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, of God before the creation of the world. Being unable as yet to remove spaces and times from the ideas of my thought, I became troubled; for instead of God, the idea of nature entered in. But it was told me, "Remove the ideas of space and time and you will see." It was then given me to remove them, and I did see. From that time on, I could think of God from eternity and not at all of nature from eternity; for God is in all time without time, and in all space without space, while nature is in all time in time, and in all space in space; and nature with her time and space must needs have a beginning and origin, but not God who is without time and space. Therefore, nature is from God--not from eternity but in time; that is to say, she is from God together with her time, and with her space.

CL 329. After the Chief Teacher and the rest had left me, some boys who also had been in the gymnastic sport followed me home and there, for a time, stood by me while I was writing. And lo, they saw a cockroach running over my paper and asked in surprise, "What is that little creature which runs so fast?" I said, "It is called a cockroach, and I will tell you marvels about it." I then said: "In that living creature, small as it is, there are as many members and viscera as in a camel. It has brains, hearts, pulmonary tubes, organs of sense, of motion, and of generation, a stomach, intestines, and many other things; and each of them is a contexture of fibres, nerves, blood-vessels, muscles, tendons, membranes; and each of these a contexture of things still purer which lie deeply hidden beyond the reach of any eye."

[2] The boys then said that to them this little living thing seemed nothing more than a simple substance. To this I said: "Nevertheless, there are innumerable things within it. I tell you this, that you may know that it is the same in every object which appears before you as a one, a simple, a mite. It is the same also in your actions, affections, and thoughts. I can assure you that every grain of your thought, and every drop of your affection is divisible to infinity, and that so far as your ideas are divisible you are wise. Know then, that everything divided is more and more multiple, and not more and more simple; for when divided again and again, it approaches nearer and nearer to the infinite in which are all things infinitely. This that I tell you is something new and never before heard of."

[3] After I had said this, the boys went from me to the Chief Teacher and asked him if, in the gymnasium, he would at some time propose as a problem something new and unheard of. He asked, "What?" They said: "That everything divided is more and more multiple and not more and more simple, because it approaches nearer and nearer to the Infinite in which are all things infinitely."

He promised to propose it, and said: "I see this because I have perceived that a single natural idea is the containant of innumerable spiritual ideas; yea, that a single spiritual idea is the containant of innumerable celestial ideas. Hence the distinction between celestial wisdom, in which are the angels of the third heaven, and spiritual wisdom in which are the angels of the second heaven; and also between (the latter and) natural wisdom in which are the angels of the ultimate heaven and also men."

CL 330. The second Memorable Relation:

I once heard a pleasant discussion among men. It was about the female sex, as to whether any woman can love her husband if she constantly loves her own beauty, that is, loves herself on account of her form. They first agreed among themselves, that woman has a twofold beauty, one natural being the beauty of her face and body, and the other spiritual being the beauty of her love and manners. They also agreed that in the natural world these two kinds of beauty are frequently separated, while in the spiritual world they are always united, beauty in the latter world being the form of the love and manners. Therefore, after death it frequently happens that deformed women become beauties and beautiful women deformities.

[2] While the men were discussing this, there came some wives saying: "Admit of our presence, for with you it is knowledge which teaches you in the matter you are discussing, while with us it is experience. Moreover, you know so little about the love of wives that it is hardly anything. Do you know that it is the prudence of the wisdom of wives to conceal their love for their husbands in the inmost region of their bosom or deep in their heart?"

Then commenced a discussion, and the FIRST CONCLUSION made by the men was: "Every woman wishes to appear beautiful in face and beautiful in manners because she is born an affection of love, beauty being the form of this affection. Therefore, a woman who does not wish to be beautiful is not a woman who wishes to love and be loved, and so is not truly a woman." To this the wives said: "The beauty of woman dwells in her soft tenderness, and therefore in her exquisite sensation. Thence is the love of woman for man, and the love of man for woman. Perhaps you do not understand this?"

[3] The SECOND CONCLUSION made by the men was: "Before marriage, a woman wishes to be beautiful for men, but after marriage, if she be chaste, for one man only and not for men." To which the wives said, "After a husband has tasted the natural beauty of his wife, he no longer sees it but sees her spiritual beauty, and from this returns her love. He then recalls her natural beauty, but under another aspect."

[4] The THIRD CONCLUSION from their discussion was: "If after marriage a woman wishes to appear beautiful in the same way as before, she loves men and not one man; for a woman who loves herself from her own beauty, continually wishes that this her beauty be tasted; and since, as you have said, this beauty no longer appears before her husband, she wishes that it be tasted by men before whom it does appear. That such a woman has love of the sex and not love of one of the sex is evident." At this the wives were silent, yet they murmured the words, "What woman is so devoid of vanity as not to wish to appear beautiful to men while also appearing beautiful to her one man?"

Some wives from heaven, who were beautiful because they were heavenly affections, heard this discussion and confirmed the three conclusions made by the men, but added, "Only let wives love their beauty and its adornments for the sake of their husbands and from them."

CL 331. The three wives, indignant that the three conclusions made by the men had been confirmed by wives from heaven said to the men: "You have inquired whether a woman who loves herself from her own beauty loves her husband; and now we in turn will discuss whether a man who loves himself from his own intelligence can love his wife. Pay attention and listen."

They then made the FIRST CONCLUSION: No wife loves her husband from his face but from his intelligence in his office and in his behavior. Know, therefore, that a wife unites herself with the intelligence of her man, and thus with the man. Therefore, if a man loves himself from his own intelligence, he draws his love to himself and away from his wife, whence comes disunion and not union. Moreover, to love one‘s own intelligence is to be wise from self, and since this is insane, it is to love one’s own insanity." To this the men said: "Perhaps the wife unites herself with the man‘s potency"; whereupon the wives laughed, saying., "Potency is not lacking so long as a man loves his wife from intelligence, but if from insanity, it is lacking. Intelligence consists in loving the wife only, and this love has no lack of potency; but insanity consists in loving, not the wife, but the sex, and this love fails in potency. Do you comprehend?"

[2] The SECOND CONCLUSION was: We women are born into the love of the intelligence of men. Wherefore, if men love their own intelligence, that intelligence cannot be united with its genuine love, which dwells in the wife. And if the intelligence of the man is not united with its own genuine love, which dwells in the wife, then, from pride, that intelligence becomes insanity and conjugial love becomes cold; and what woman can unite her love with cold? and what man can unite the insanity of his pride with the love of intelligence? "But," said the men, "from what does a man have honour from his wife if he does not magnify his own intelligence?" and the wives answered, "From love, it being love that honours. Honour cannot be separated from love, but love can be separated from honour."

[3] They then made the THIRD CONCLUSION, as follows: To you men it seems as if you love your wives. You do not see that it is you who are loved by your wives and that you then return their love; also that your intelligence is the receptacle thereof. If therefore you love your intelligence in yourselves, that intelligence becomes the receptacle of your own love; and the love of what is one’s own, being unable to tolerate an equal, never becomes conjugial, but so long as it prevails, it remains scortatory." At this the men were silent, but they muttered, "What is conjugial love?"

Certain husbands in heaven heard this discussion and from there they confirmed the three conclusions made by the wives.

CL 332. If investigation is made into the reason why polygamous marriages are wholly banned from the Christian world (it will be found that), by no one, howsoever endowed with the gift of genius in acutely searching into matters, can that reason be seen as in clear day, unless he has first been instructed THAT THERE IS A LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL; THAT THIS LOVE IS NOT POSSIBLE EXCEPT BETWEEN TWO; THAT NEITHER IS IT POSSIBLE BETWEEN TWO EXCEPT FROM THE LORD ALONE; and THAT ON THIS LOVE IS INSCRIBED HEAVEN WITH ALL ITS FELICITIES. Unless these knowledges precede and lay the first stone, as it were, the mind can never be sufficiently equipped to draw from the understanding any reasons to which it can assent and on which it can stand, as a house on its stone or foundation, why polygamy is banned from the Christian world.

It is known that the institution of monogamous marriage is founded upon the Lord‘s Word, that whoever shall put away his wife except for whoredom, and shall marry another, commits adultery; that it had been ordained from the beginning, that is, at the first institution of marriages, that two should become one flesh; and that man should not put asunder what God has joined together (Matt. 19:3-11).

[2] But although the Lord dictated these words from the Divine law inscribed on marriage, yet, if it cannot support that law from some reason of its own, the understanding, by twistings to which it is accustomed, and by sinister interpretation, can get around it and reduce it to obscure ambiguity and finally to what is affirmative-negative--to what is affirmative because it is also taken from the civil law, and to what is negative, because it is not deduced from the man’s own rational sight. It is into this negative that the human mind will fall unless previously instructed respecting the knowledges mentioned above which shall serve the understanding as an introduction to its reasonings. These knowledges are: That there is a love truly conjugial; that this love is not possible except between two; that neither is it possible between two except from the Lord alone; and that on this love is inscribed heaven with all its felicities. This and more also respecting the banning of polygamy from the Christian world is now to be demonstrated in the order of the following articles:

1. That except with one wife there can be no love truly conjugial, consequently, no truly conjugial friendship, confidence, potency, and no such conjunction of minds that the two may be one flesh.

2. Thus, that except with one wife, there can be no celestial blessings, spiritual happiness, and natural delights such as have been provided from the beginning for those who are in love truly conjugial.

3. That none of these can be given except by the Lord alone; and that they are given to no others save those who approach Him alone and at the same time live according to His precepts.

4. Consequently, that love truly conjugial with its felicities is not possible except with those who are of the Christian Church.

5. That hence it is, that for a Christian it is not lawful to marry more than one wife.

6. That a Christian, if he marries more wives than one, commits not only natural adultery but also spiritual adultery.

7. That for the Israelitish nation it was permitted to marry more wives than one because with that nation there was no Christian Church, and hence no possibility of love truly conjugial.

8. That it is permitted Mohammedans at this day to marry many wives because they do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ to be one with Jehovah the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth, and hence cannot receive love truly conjugial.

9. That the Mohammedan heaven is outside the Christian heaven, and is divided into two heavens, a lower and a higher; and that no others are elevated into their higher heaven save those who renounce concubines, live with one wife, and acknowledge our Lord, to whom is given dominion over heaven and earth, as equal with God the Father.

10. That polygamy is lasciviousness.

11. That with polygamists conjugial chastity, purity, and holiness are not possible.

12. That polygamists, so long as they remain polygamists, cannot become spiritual.

13. That polygamy is not a sin with those with whom it exists from religion.

14. That polygamy is not a sin with those who are in ignorance of the Lord.

15. That of these, those are saved, although polygamists, who acknowledge God and from religion live according to the civil laws of justice.

16. But that none of the latter and the former can be consociated with angels in the Christian heavens.

Now follows the exposition of these articles.

CL 333. I. That except with one wife there can be no love truly conjugial, consequently, no truly conjugial friendship, confidence, potency, and no such conjunction of minds that the two may be one flesh. That at this day, love truly conjugial is so rare as to be generally unknown, has been pointed out several times above. That nevertheless, it does actually exist, has also been shown in its own chapter (n. 57) and after that, here and there in the chapters which followed. But apart from this, who does not know that there is such a love which in excellence and delight so transcends all other loves that they are relatively of small account? That it exceeds the love of self, the love of the world, yea, the love of life, experience testifies. Have there not been, and are there not now, men who, for the woman desired and solicited for a bride, fall on their knees, adore her as a goddess, and submit to her desires as the vilest slaves? a proof that that love exceeds the love of self. Have there not been, and are there not now, men who, for the woman desired and solicited for a bride, count wealth, yea, great treasures if they possess them, as nothing, and who spend them lavishly? a proof that that love exceeds the love of the world. Have there not been and are there not now, men who, for the woman desired and solicited for a bride, esteem life itself of no account and crave death if she does not consent to their entreaty? this, moreover, is testified to by the many combats of rivals even to the death--a proof that that love exceeds the love of life. Have there not been and are there not now, men who, for the woman desired and solicited for a bride, have been made insane by refusal?

[2] Who cannot rationally conclude from this commencement of the love with many, that from its essence that love dominates as supreme over every other love? and that the man‘s soul is then in it and promises to itself eternal blessedness with the woman whom he desires and solicits? Who can see any other cause for this, wheresoever he may search, than that the man has yielded his soul and heart to the one woman? for if a lover while in that state were given the option of choosing the worthiest, richest, and most beautiful of the whole sex, would he not spurn the choice and hold to his chosen one, his heart being hers alone? All this is said that you may acknowledge that there is a conjugial love of such super-eminence, and that it is present when one only of the sex is loved. Viewing the chain of reasons with cultivated acumen, what understanding is there that cannot deduce from this, that if, from his soul or inmost being, the lover constantly persists in his love for that one, he would attain those eternal blessings which he promised himself before the consent, and promises himself when consent has been given? That he does attain them if he approaches the Lord and from Him lives (in accordance with) true religion, has been shown above. Who but He can enter man’s life from above and impart internal heavenly joys and carry them over into all that follows? and the more so when, at the same time, He also gives enduring potency. The conclusion that there is no such love, nor can be, simply because it does not exist with one‘s self or with this man or that, has no force.

CL 334. Since love truly conjugial conjoins the souls and hearts of two, therefore it is united with friendship and thereby with confidence, and makes both conjugial. Such friendship and confidence are so eminent above every other friendship and confidence that, just as that love is the love of loves, so that friendship is the friendship of friendships, and likewise that confidence. That it is also united with potency is due to many causes, some of which are revealed in the second Memorable Relation following the present chapter. From this potency follows the continual endurance of that love. That by love truly conjugial two consorts become one flesh has been shown above in its special chapter (n. 156f-183).

CL 335. II. Thus, that except with one wife, there can be no celestial blessings, spiritual happiness, and natural delights such as have been provided from the beginning for those who are in love truly conjugial. They are called celestial blessings, spiritual happiness, and natural delights, because the human mind is distinguished into three regions, the highest of which is called celestial, the second spiritual, and the third natural. With those who are in love truly conjugial, these three regions stand open, and influx follows in order according to the openings. Because the amenities of that love in the highest region are most eminent, they are perceived as blessings; and because in the middle region they are less eminent, they are perceived as happiness, and finally, in the lowest region as delights. That such amenities are perceived and sensated, is manifest from the Memorable Relations in which they are described.

[2] That all these felicities were provided from the beginning for those who are in love truly conjugial, is because in the Lord is an infinity of all blessings. He Himself is Divine Love, and the essence of love is to will to communicate all its goods to another whom it loves. Therefore, together with man, He created that love and inscribed upon it the faculty of receiving and perceiving those goods. Who is so dull, and of a genius so devoid of reason, that he cannot see that there is some love into which are brought by the Lord all things blessed, happy and delightful that can possibly be given?

CL 336. III. That none of these can be given except by the Lord alone; and that they are given to no others save those who approach Him alone and live according to His precepts. This has been shown above in many places; to which it must be added that all these things, blessed, happy, and delightful, can be granted only by the Lord, and that therefore no other is to be approached. Who else is there? seeing that it is by Him that all things were made which were made (John 1:3); that He is the God of heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18); and that no appearance of God the Father has ever been seen, nor His voice heard, save through Him (John 1:18; 5:37; 14:6-11). From these and many other passages in the Word, it is evident that the marriage of love and wisdom or of good and truth, from which alone human marriages derive their origin, proceeds from Him alone. From this it follows, that that love with its felicities is given to no others save those who approach Him; and it is given to those who live according to His precepts because with them He is conjoined by love (John 14:21-24).

CL 337. IV. Consequently, that love truly conjugial is not possible except with those who are of the Christian Church. That there is no conjugial love such as is described in its special chapter (n. 57-73) and in the chapters that follow it, thus such as it is in its essence, save with those who are of the Christian Church, is because that love is from the Lord alone, and nowhere else is the Lord so known that He can be approached as God; also because, with each individual, that love is according to the state of the Church with him (n. 130), and the genuine state of the Church is from no other source than the Lord, thus is with no others save those who receive it from Him. That these two requisites are the first beginnings, the introductions, and the stabilities of that love, has already been confirmed by such abundance of clear and conclusive reasons that it would be entirely superfluous to add anything more. That love truly conjugial is nevertheless rare in the Christian world (n. 58, 59), is because few there approach the Lord, and among those few are some who indeed believe in the Church but do not live according to it; not to mention the many things which have been disclosed in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, where the state of the Christian Church at this day is fully described. Nevertheless, the truth holds good, that there can be no love truly conjugial save with those who are of the Christian Church. Moreover, it is for this reason that polygamy has been wholly banned therefrom. That this is of the Lord’s Divine Providence is clearly evident to those who think justly respecting Providence.

CL 338. V. That hence it is, that for a Christian it is not lawful to marry more than one wife. This is already confirmed as a consequence of the articles previously confirmed, to which must be added the following: The genuine conjugial is more deeply inscribed on the minds of Christians than on the minds of Gentiles who have embraced polygamy. The minds of Christians are therefore more susceptible to that love than the minds of polygamists; for with Christians the conjugial is inscribed on the interiors of the mind because they acknowledge the Lord and His Divine, and on the exteriors of the mind by civil laws.

CL 339. VI. That a Christian, if he marries more wives than one, commits not only natural adultery but also spiritual adultery. That a Christian who marries more wives than one commits natural adultery is according to the Lord‘s words, namely, that it is not lawful to put away a wife, because from the beginning they were created to be one flesh; and that he who shall put away his wife without just cause and shall marry another, commits adultery (Matt. 19:3-11); thus, still more does he commit adultery who does not put away his wife, but retains her and takes another in addition. The law concerning marriages thus laid down by the Lord derives its internal cause from the spiritual marriage; for whatsoever the Lord spoke was in itself spiritual, this being what is meant by the words:

The spiritual (truth) within that law is this: That by polygamous marriage in the Christian world, the marriage of the Lord and the Church is profaned; likewise the marriage of good and truth and, moreover, the Word, and with the Word the Church; and the profanation of these is spiritual adultery. That the profanation of the good and truth of the Church from the Word corresponds to adultery, and hence is spiritual adultery; and that the same is true, though in a lesser degree, of the falsification of good and truth; may be seen confirmed in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 134). That with Christians, the marriage of the Lord and the Church is profaned by polygamous marriages, is because there is a correspondence between that Divine marriage and the marriages of Christians (n. 83-102); and if wife is added to wife, this correspondence is wholly destroyed, and with this destroyed, the consort is no longer a Christian.

[2] That with Christians, the marriage of good and truth is profaned by polygamous marriages is because marriages on earth are derived from this spiritual marriage, and the marriages of Christians differ from the marriages of other nations in this, that as good loves truth and truth good, and the two are a one, so is it with wife and husband. Wherefore, if a Christian should add wife to wife, he would rend asunder that spiritual marriage in himself, and consequently would profane the origin of his marriage and so would commit spiritual adultery. That marriages on earth are derived from the marriage of good and truth may be seen above (n. 116-131). That a Christian, by polygamous marriage profanes the Word and the Church, is because the Word regarded in itself is the marriage of good and truth, and so likewise the Church so far as this is from the Word; see above (n. 128-131).

[3] Now since a man, a Christian, knows the Lord and has the Word, and since the Church is with him from the Lord by the Word, it is evident that he more than a man not a Christian has the ability to become regenerated and so to become spiritual, and also to attain love truly conjugial, inasmuch as the two cohere together. Since those among Christians who marry more wives than one commit not only natural adultery but also and at the same time spiritual adultery, it follows that after death the damnation of Christian polygamists is more severe than the damnation of those who commit only natural adultery. To a question concerning their state after death, I heard the answer that heaven is wholly closed to them; that in hell they appear as if lying in a bath of hot water; that when seen from a distance, they appear thus even though they are standing on their feet and walking; that this is the case with them by reason of their intestine madness; and that some of them are cast into gulfs which are at the borders of (their) worlds.

CL 340. VII. That for the Israelitish nation it was permitted to marry more wives than one because with that nation there was no Christian Church, and hence no possibility of love truly conjugial. At this day there are men who entertain ambiguous thoughts respecting the institution of monogamous marriages, that is, of the marriage of one man with one wife, debating within themselves concerning the reason, and opining that because polygamous marriages were openly permitted to the Israelitish nation and its kings, and to David and Solomon, they would in themselves be permissible to Christians also. But such men have no distinct knowledge concerning the Israelitish nation and the Christian; concerning the external and internal things of the Church; or concerning the change of the Church from an external Church to an internal which was made by the Lord. Consequently, they know nothing from interior judgment concerning marriages. In general it must be borne in mind, that man is born natural in order that he may become spiritual; that so long as he remains natural he is as though in night and in sleep respecting things spiritual; and that he then does not know even the distinction between the external natural man and the internal spiritual.

[2] That the Christian Church did not exist with the Israelitish nation is known from the Word; for they awaited a Messiah who was to exalt them above all nations and peoples in the world--and they are still awaiting. Therefore, had it been said to them, and were it now said, that the Messiah’s kingdom is over the heavens and therefore over all nations, they would have set it down as among idle tales. It was because of this that when Christ, or the Messiah our Lord, came into the world, not only did they not acknowledge Him, but they cruelly put Him out of the world. From this it is evident that the Christian Church did not exist with that nation, as it does not at this day; and they with whom the Christian Church does not exist are natural men, both internally and externally. With such men polygamy, being inscribed on the natural man, is not hurtful; for, as regards love in marriage, the natural man perceives only such things as pertain to lust. This is what is meant by the words spoken by the Lord, that Moses for the hardness of their heart permitted them to put away their wives, but that from the beginning it was not so (Matt. 19:8). He says that Moses permitted, in order that it may be known that it was not the Lord.

[3] Moreover, that the Lord taught the internal spiritual man, is known from His precepts; from His abrogation of the rituals which served only for the use of the natural man; from His precepts concerning washing, that it is the purification of the internal man (Matt. 15:1, 17-20; 23:25, 26; Mark 7:14-23), concerning adultery, that it is a lust of the will (Matt. 5:28), concerning the putting away of wives, that it is not lawful, and concerning polygamy, that it is not in agreement with Divine law (Matt. 19:3-9). The Lord taught these and many other precepts which pertain to the internal and spiritual man because He alone opens the internal things of human minds and, making them spiritual, implants them in things natural, that these also may receive a spiritual essence. This they do receive if man approaches Him and lives according to His precepts. In brief, these precepts are: To believe in Him and to shun evils because they are of the devil and from the devil; also to do goods because they are of the Lord and from the Lord; and to do both as of one‘s self, believing at the same time that they are done by the Lord through him.

[4] The veriest reason why it is the Lord alone who opens the internal spiritual man and implants it in the external natural man, is because every man thinks naturally and acts naturally; therefore, he could not perceive anything spiritual and receive it into his natural unless God had assumed a Natural Human and made this also Divine. From the above, the truth is now evident that for the Israelitish nation it was permitted to take more wives than one because with them there was no Christian Church.

CL 341. VIII. That it is permitted Mohammedans at this day to marry many wives because they do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ to be one with Jehovah the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth, and hence cannot receive love truly conjugial. Mohammedans, from the religion handed down by Mohammed, acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as the great Prophet; also that He was sent into the world by God the Father to teach men. But they do not acknowledge that God the Father and He are one, or that His Divine and Human are one Person united as soul and body, according to the faith which all Christians receive from the Athanasian confession. Therefore, the followers of Mohammed could not acknowledge our Lord as any God from eternity, but only as a perfect natural man. And since Mohammed was of this opinion, therefore the disciples who followed him were of the same opinion. And because they knew that God is one and that this God is He who created the universe; therefore, in their worship, they could not but pass our Lord by, and this the more because they declare Mohammed also to be the great Prophet. Moreover, they do not know what the Lord taught. It is from this cause that the interiors of their mind, which in themselves are spiritual, could not be opened; that they can be opened only by the Lord, see (n. 340) just above.

[2] The genuine reason why they are opened by the Lord when He is acknowledged and is approached as the God of heaven and earth, being opened with those who live according to His precepts, is because otherwise there is no conjunction, and without conjunction there is no reception. With respect to man, there is the presence of the Lord and there is conjunction with Him. Presence is effected by approaching Him, and conjunction by living according to His precepts. If there is merely presence, there is no reception, but if there is presence and at the same time conjunction, there is reception.

[3] Concerning this, I will relate something new from the spiritual world. There a person becomes present by reason of thought concerning him; but no one is conjoined to another save by reason of an affection of love--an affection which is insinuated by compliance with his words and his pleasure. In the spiritual world, this is a familiar occurrence, and it takes its origin from the Lord, it being in this way that He is present and in this way that He is conjoined with man. The above has been said to the end that it may be known why it is permitted Mohammedans to take several wives, namely, because with them, love truly conjugial, which is only between one man and one wife, is not possible, and this because they have not from religion acknowledged the Lord as equal to God the Father, and thus as the God of heaven and earth. That conjugial love is with every individual according to the state of the Church (with him) may be seen in (n. 130) above and in many places in the preceding pages.

CL 342. IX. That the Mohammedan heaven is outside the Christian heaven, and is divided into two heavens, a lower and a higher; and that no others are elevated into their higher heaven save those who renounce concubines, live with one wife, and acknowledge our Lord, to whom is given dominion over heaven and earth, as equal with God the Father. Before anything is said in particular respecting these heavens, it is important that something be premised concerning the Lord’s Divine Providence in relation to the rise of the Mohammedan religion. The fact that this religion has been received by more kingdoms than have received the Christian religion may be a stumbling block to those who think of Divine Providence and at the same time believe that no one can be saved but he who is born a Christian. The Mohammedan religion, however, is not a stumbling block to those who believe that all things are of Divine Providence. These inquire wherein this Providence lies; moreover, they find it lies in this: That the Mohammedan religion acknowledges our Lord as the Son of God, as the wisest of men, and as the great prophet who came into the world that he might teach men. But because the Mohammedans make the Koran the only book of their religion, and Mohammed, who wrote it, is therefore inseated in their thoughts, they follow him with a kind of worship, and think little about our Lord. That it may be fully known that of the Lord‘s Divine Providence that religion was raised up for the wiping out of the idolatries of many nations, this shall be told in some order.

[2] First, then, respecting the origin of idolatries. Previous to that religion, the worship of idols existed in all countries, and this because previous to the coming of the Lord all churches were representative. Such also was the Israelitish Church. There the tabernacle, Aaron’s garments, the sacrifices, all that was in the temple at Jerusalem, and also the statues, were representative. Moreover, with the ancients, the science of correspondences, which is also the science of representations, was the science of the wise. This was especially cultivated by the Egyptians; hence their hieroglyphics. From this science they knew what was signified by animals of every kind, and by trees of every kind, and also by mountains, hills, rivers, and fountains, and by the sun, moon, and stars. Moreover, by this science they had a knowledge of things spiritual; for the things which were represented, being such as are matters of spiritual wisdom with the angels, were the origins of the representations.

[3] Now because all their worship was representative, consisting of mere correspondences, therefore they held that worship on mountains and hills, and also in groves and gardens. Therefore also they consecrated fountains, and in their adorations turned their faces to the rising sun. Moreover, they made sculptured horses, oxen, calves, lambs, yea, birds, fishes, serpents; and these they placed in their houses and elsewhere, in an order according to the spiritual things of the Church to which they corresponded or which they represented. They also placed them in their temples, that they might call to mind the holy things of worship which they signified. In course of time, when the science of correspondences had been obliterated, their posterity began to worship the sculptured images as holy in themselves, not knowing that the ancients, their fathers of old, saw nothing holy in them, seeing only that they represented and thence signified holy things according to correspondences. Hence arose idolatries, and these filled the whole world, as well Asia with its surrounding islands as Africa and Europe.

[4] That all these idolatries might be uprooted, it was brought to pass of the Lord‘s Divine Providence that there should be inaugurated a new religion accommodated to the genius of the orientals; a religion in which there would be something from both Testaments of the Word, and which would teach that the Lord came into the world and that He was the great Prophet, the wisest of all, and the Son of God. This was done through Mohammed, from whom this religion has its name.

From the above it is evident that this religion, as was said, was raised up of the Lord’s Divine Providence and accommodated to the genius of the orientals, to the end that it might wipe out the idolatries of so many nations, and might give them some knowledge of the Lord prior to their entrance into the spiritual world, which takes place with everyone after death. This religion would not have been received by so many kingdoms, and could not have uprooted their idolatries, had it not been suited to their ideas, and especially had not polygamy been permitted. Moreover, this was permitted because without such permission the orientals, from burning heat, would have rushed into filthy adulteries more than Europeans, and would have perished.

CL 343. That the Mohammedans also have a heaven, is because all, throughout the whole world, are saved who acknowledge God and from religion shun evils as sins against Him. That the Mohammedan heaven is distinguished into two, a lower and a higher, this I have heard from themselves; also that in the lower heaven they live with several wives and concubines, as in the world, but that those who renounce concubines and live with one wife are elevated into their higher heaven. I have also heard that it is impossible for them to think that our Lord is one with God the Father, but that it is possible for them to think Him equal, and also to think that dominion is given Him over heaven and earth because He is His Son. This, therefore, is the belief of those to whom ascent is given by the Lord into their higher heaven.

CL 344. It was once granted me to perceive the nature of the heat of the conjugial love of polygamists. I spoke with one who took the place of Mohammed--Mohammed himself is never present but in place of him some substitute, and this to the end that new-comers from the world may see Mohammed, as it were. After some conversation with him from a distance, this substitute sent me an ebony spoon and other things which were tokens that they were from him. At the same time, communication was opened for the heat of the conjugial love of those who were there, and it was perceived by me as the fetid heat of a bath, perceiving which, I turned away and the channel of communication was closed.

CL 345. X. That polygamy is lasciviousness is because its love is divided among many and, being a love belonging to the external or natural man, is love of the sex and so is not conjugial love, which alone is chaste. That polygamous love is divided among many is well known; and divided love is not conjugial love, for the latter cannot be separated from the one of the sex. Hence a divided love is lascivious, and polygamy is lasciviousness. That polygamous love is love of the sex is because it differs therefrom only in being limited to the number which the polygamist can take, and in being held to certain laws laid down for the public good; also, in that it allows the addition of concubines to wives. Thus, being love of the sex, it is a love of lasciviousness.

[2] That polygamous love is a love belonging to the external or natural man is because it is inscribed on that man; and whatever the natural man does of himself is evil, nor is he led away from this evil except by elevation into the internal spiritual man, which is effected by the Lord alone. As regards the sex, the evil which is within the natural man is whoredom; and because this is destructive of society, therefore, in place of whoredom, its similitude was introduced which is called polygamy. All the evil into which a man is born from his parents is implanted in his natural man, but none in his spiritual man, for into this he is born from the Lord. From the reasons hitherto adduced, and from many others, it can be seen clearly that polygamy is lasciviousness.

CL 346. XI. That with polygamists conjugial chastity, purity, and holiness are not possible. This follows from what was confirmed just above, and manifestly from what was shown in the chapter on The Chaste and the Non-Chaste, especially from the following there: That what is chaste, pure, and holy is predicated only of monogamous marriages or those of one man with one wife (n. 141); that love truly conjugial is chastity itself, and that thence all the delights of that love, even the ultimate, are chaste (n. 143, 144). Moreover, it follows from what was adduced in the chapter on Love Truly Conjugial, such as the following: That from its origin and correspondence, love truly conjugial, which is the love of one man with one wife, is celestial, spiritual, holy, pure (and clean), above every other love (n. 64). Now because chastity, purity, and holiness have place only in love truly conjugial, it follows that they do not and cannot have place in polygamous love.

CL 347. XII. That a polygamist, so long as he remains a polygamist, cannot become spiritual. To become spiritual is to be elevated from the natural (to the spiritual), that is, from the light and heat of the world, to the light and heat of heaven. None knows of this elevation save one who is elevated. Nevertheless, the natural man not elevated perceives no otherwise than that he is elevated. The reason is because, equally with the spiritual man, he can elevate his understanding into the light of heaven, and can think and talk spiritually. Yet, if at the same time the will does not follow the understanding into that height, he is not elevated; for he does not remain in that elevation but after some moments lets himself down to his will and there fixes his station. It is said the will, but the love also is meant, the Will being the receptacle of love; for what a man loves, that he wills. From these few words, it can be evident that a polygamist, so long as he remains a polygamist, or, what is the same thing, a natural man, so long as he remains natural, cannot become spiritual.

CL 348. XIII. That polygamy is not a sin with those with whom it exists from religion. Everything which is contrary to religion is thought to be a sin because against God. On the other hand, everything which is in accordance with religion is thought not to be a sin because in accordance with God. And because with the sons of Israel polygamy existed from religion, as likewise it does with Mohammedans today, it could not and cannot be imputed to them as sin. Moreover, that it may not be a sin, they remain natural and do not become spiritual; and the natural man cannot see that there is any sin in such things as are of the received religion; this the spiritual man alone sees. It is for this reason that, although from the Koran they acknowledge our Lord as the Son of God, yet they do not approach Him but Mohammed, and so long as they do this, they remain natural and hence do not know that there is anything of evil in polygamy, nor even anything of lasciviousness; and the Lord says:

Since polygamy cannot convict them of sin, therefore, after death they have a heaven of their own (n. 342) and there have delight in enjoyments according to their life.

CL 349. XIV. That polygamy is not a sin with those who are in ignorance of the Lord. The reason is because love truly conjugial is from the Lord alone and can be given by the Lord only to those who know Him, acknowledge Him, believe in Him, and live the life which is from Him. Those to whom that love cannot be given know no other than that love of the sex and conjugial love are one and the same thing, and so also polygamy. Add to this, that polygamists who know nothing of the Lord remain natural; for man is made spiritual by the Lord alone, and to the natural man that is not imputed as sin which accords with the laws of his religion and also of the society in which he lives. Moreover, natural men act according to their reason, and the reason of the natural man is in mere darkness respecting love truly conjugial, this love being spiritual in its excellence. Yet, from experience their reason learns that it is for the public and private peace that promiscuous lust in general should be restricted and be left to the individual within his own house. Hence their polygamy.

CL 350. It is known that man is born viler than the beast. All beasts are born into the sciences corresponding to their life‘s love. As soon as they drop from the womb or are hatched from the egg, they see, hear, walk, know their food, their mother, their friends and enemies; and not long afterwards, know the sex and how to love, and also how to rear their offspring. Man alone when born has no such science, for with him nothing of science is connate, but only a faculty and inclination for receiving the things which pertain to science and love; and if he does not receive these from others, he remains viler than the beast. That man is born such, to the end that he may attribute everything not to himself but to others, and finally may attribute everything of wisdom and of the love thereof to God alone and may thereby be able to become an image of God, may be seen in the Memorable Relation, (n. 132-136).

[2] From this it follows, that the man who does not know from others that the Lord came into the world and that He is God, and who has imbibed knowledges only of the religion and laws of his own country, is not at fault if he thinks no more of conjugial love than of love of the sex and believes polygamous love to be the only conjugial love. In their ignorance, the Lord leads those of them who from religion shun evils as sins, and under Divine auspices providentially withholds them from any imputation of guilt, to the end that they may be saved; for every man is born for heaven and none for hell, and everyone comes into heaven from the Lord, and into hell from himself.

CL 351. XV. That of these, those are saved, although polygamists, who acknowledge God and from religion live according to the civil laws of justice. All men throughout the whole globe who acknowledge God and from religion live according to the civil laws of justice are saved. By the civil laws of justice are meant precepts such as are in the Decalogue. These are: That one must not kill, must not commit adultery, must not steal, must not bear false witness. These precepts are civil laws of justice in all kingdoms on earth, for without them no kingdom could stand.

[2] But by some they are obeyed from fear of legal penalties, by some from civil obedience, and by some from religion also; and those by whom they are obeyed from religion also, are saved. The reason is because then God is in them, and the man in whom God is, is saved. Who does not see that with the sons of Israel, before their departure from Egypt, it was among their laws that one must not kill, or commit adultery, or steal, or bear false witness? for without these laws their community or society could not have stood. And yet the same laws were promulgated by Jehovah God upon Mount Sinai with a stupendous miracle; but the cause of this promulgation was that these same laws might be made laws of religion also; thus that men might obey them not only for the sake of the good of society but also for the sake of God; and that when they obeyed them from religion for the sake of God, they might be saved.

[3] From the above it is evident, that pagans who acknowledge God and live according to the civil laws of justice are saved, it not being their fault that they know nothing about the Lord and consequently nothing about the chastity of marriage with one wife. It is contrary to Divine Justice that those should be condemned who acknowledge God and from religion obey the laws of justice, which are, to shun evils because they are against God, and to do goods because they are with God.

CL 352. XVI. But that none of the latter and the former can be consociated with angels in the Christian heavens. The reason is because in the Christian heavens is heavenly light which is Divine Truth, and heavenly heat which is Divine Love, and these two disclose the nature of goods and truths, and also the nature of evils and falsities. Hence it is that all communication between the Christian heavens and the Mohammedan heavens and likewise the heavens of the Gentiles is taken away. Had there been communication, none could have been saved except those who were in heavenly light from the Lord and at the same time in heavenly heat. Nay, neither could these have been saved had there been a conjunction of the heavens. By reason of such conjunction, all the heavens would have been so greatly ruined that the angels could not have endured; for from Mohammedans would flow into the Christian heaven that which is unchaste and lascivious, and this could not have been endured there; and from Christians would flow into the Mohammedan heaven that which is chaste and pure, and this could not have been endured there. And then, by reason of the communication and the resultant conjunction, Christian angels would become natural and thus adulterers; or, if they remained spiritual, would be continually sensating the lascivious sphere surrounding them, and this would intercept all the blessedness of their life. Something comparable would be the case in the Mohammedan heaven; for the spiritual things of the Christian heaven would continually encompass them, and this would inflict torment upon them and take away every delight of their life. Moreover, it would carry with it the insinuation that polygamy is a sin, and so they would be continually rebuked. This is the reason why all the heavens are so wholly distinct that there is no conjunction between them except through the influx of light and heat from the Lord out of the sun in the midst of which He is--an influx which enlightens and vivifies everyone according to his reception of it, his reception being according to his religion. This communication there is, but not a communication of the heavens with each other.

CL 353. To the above I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

I was once in the midst of angels and heard their discourse. It was a discourse on intelligence and wisdom, to the effect that a man perceives no otherwise than that both are in himself, and thus that whatever he thinks from his understanding and intends from his will is from himself, when yet not the least thing thereof is from the man except the faculty of receiving from God the things which pertain to his understanding and will. And because from birth every man has the inclination to love himself, therefore, lest he perish by reason of the love of self and the pride of self-intelligence, it was provided from creation that that love should be transcribed into the wife, and that, implanted in her from birth, should be the inclination to love the intelligence and wisdom of her man and thus the man himself. Therefore, a wife continually draws her man’s pride of self-intelligence to herself, extinguishing it in him and vivifying it in herself, and so turning it into conjugial love, a love which she fills with amenities beyond measure. This is provided by the Lord lest the pride of self-intelligence so greatly infatuate man that he believes himself to be intelligent and wise from himself and not from the Lord, and thus desires to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He would then believe himself to be like God and even, according to the speech and persuasion of the serpent--the love of self-intelligence--to be God. Therefore, after eating, the man was cast out of paradise and the way to the tree of life was guarded by a cherub. Spiritually understood, paradise is intelligence; eating of the tree of life is understanding and being wise from the Lord, and eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is understanding and being wise from one‘s self.

CL 354. When this discourse was concluded, the angels departed. Then came two priests, together with a man who in the world had been a royal ambassador. I told them what I had heard from the angels, and on hearing this, they began a discussion among themselves concerning intelligence and wisdom and prudence therefrom, as to whether these are from God or from man. The discussion was warm. At heart the three believed alike that they are from man because in man, and that the perception and sensation of its being so, confirms this. But the priests, Who were then in theological zeal, said that nothing of intelligence and wisdom, and so nothing of prudence, is from man; and when the ambassador retorted that then neither is there anything of thought, they said, "No, not anything."

But as it was perceived in heaven that the three were of the same belief, it was said to the royal ambassador, "Put on the garments of a priest and believe yourself to be a priest, and then speak." So he put them on and believed. Then, in a loud voice he said, "Nothing of intelligence and wisdom, and hence nothing of prudence, is ever possible except from God" and this he demonstrated with his customary eloquence, full of rational arguments.

It is peculiar to the spiritual world that a spirit thinks himself to be such as is the garment he wears, and this because, in that World, the understanding clothes everyone.

[2] After this, it was said from heaven to the two priests, "Put off your garments and put on the garments of ministers of state, and believe that you are such." They did so. Then at once they thought from their inner self, and on the basis of arguments which they had inwardly cherished, they spoke in favour of self-intelligence.

At that moment there appeared near the path a tree, and it was told them: "This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Take care that you do not eat of it." Nevertheless, the three, infatuated with their own intelligence, burned with a desire to eat of it, and said among themselves. "Why not? is not the fruit good?" And they approached and ate. Then, being of the same belief, the three at once became cordial friends and together they entered on the way of self-intelligence which led to hell; yet I saw them coming back for they were not yet prepared.

CL 355. The second Memorable Relation:

Once, when looking into the world of spirits, I saw in a meadow, men clothed in garments like those of men in the world, and from this I knew that they were lately come from the world. I went to them and stood at their side, that I might listen to what they were saying among themselves. They were speaking about heaven, and one of them who knew something about heaven said, "There are wonderful things there, such as can never be believed by anyone unless he has seen them. Thus there are paradisal gardens, magnificent palaces architecturally constructed because by the very art itself and resplendent as from gold; and in front of them, silver columns upon which are heavenly forms of precious stones; also houses of jasper and sapphire, in front of which are stately porticos through which the angels enter; and inside the houses, decorations which neither art nor word can describe.

[2] As to the angels themselves, they are of both sexes, young men and husbands, and virgins and wives. The virgins are so beautiful that in the world there is nothing resembling such beauty. Yet the wives are still more beautiful, being in appearance as the genuine effigies of heavenly love; and their husbands, all of whom are mature young men, as the effigies of heavenly wisdom. What is more, they do not know what love of the sex can be, if not conjugial love; and, what you will wonder at, the husbands have perpetual ability for the enjoyment of its delights."

When they heard that there is no love of the sex there other than conjugial love, and that they have perpetual ability for the enjoyment of its delights, the novitiate spirits laughed among themselves and said, "What you say is incredible; such ability is not possible. Perhaps you are telling fables."

[3] And then, all unexpectedly, an angel from heaven stood in their midst and said: "Hear me, I pray. I am an angel of heaven and have lived with my wife now for a thousand years. Throughout all those years I have been in the same flower of age in which you see me now, and this from living in conjugial love with my wife; and I can assure you that I have had and do now have that perpetual ability. But as I perceive that you think this is not possible, I will speak to you of the matter from reasons according with the light of your own understanding. You know nothing of the primeval state of mankind which is called by you their state of integrity. In that state all the interiors of their minds were open to the Lord, and hence were in the marriage of love and wisdom or good and truth; and because the good of love and the truth of wisdom love each other perpetually, and perpetually will to be united, therefore, when the interiors of the mind are open, this spiritual conjugial love with its perpetual striving, flows down freely and gives that ability.

[4] Man’s soul, being in the marriage of good and truth, is not only in a perpetual striving for that unition but is also in a perpetual striving for fructification and the production of a likeness of itself. And when, by virtue of that marriage, man‘s interiors are laid open all the way from the soul--and that they may stand forth, interiors are continually looking to the effect in ultimates as their end--then, that perpetual striving for fructification and the production of a likeness of itself which belongs to the soul becomes the body’s. And because with two consorts the ultimate operation of the soul in the body is into the ultimates of love there--ultimates which are dependent on the state of the soul--it is evident whence it is that they have this perpetual ability.

[5] That there is also perpetual fructification, is because the universal sphere of generating and propagating the celestial things pertaining to love, and the spiritual things pertaining to wisdom, and thence the natural things pertaining to offspring, proceeds from the Lord and fills the whole of heaven and the whole of the world. This celestial sphere fills the souls of all men and descends through their minds into their bodies to the very ultimates thereof and gives the power of generating. This power, however, can be given only to those with whom there is open passage from the soul through the higher and lower regions of the mind into the body even to its ultimates; and this is the case with those who suffer themselves to be led back by the Lord to the primeval state of creation. I can assure you, that now for a thousand years, neither ability nor strength nor vigour has ever been lacking with me, and that I know nothing whatever of any diminution of powers, these powers being continually renewed by the continual influx of that universal sphere of which I have spoken. Moreover, they then gladden the animus, and do not sadden it as is the case with those who suffer the loss of them.

[6] Furthermore, love truly Conjugial is like the warmth of spring from the influx of which, all things aspire to germination and fructification. In our heaven there is no other warmth, and therefore, with married partners there, spring is in its perpetual endeavour, it being this perpetual endeavour from which that vigour comes. With us in the heavens, however, fructifications are different than with men on earth. With us they are spiritual, being fructifications of love and wisdom or of good and truth. From the wisdom of her husband, the wife receives into herself the love thereof, and from that love in his wife, the husband receives into himself wisdom. Indeed, the wife is actually formed into the love of her husband‘s wisdom, this being effected by her receptions of the propagations of his soul, with the delight arising from her will to be the love of her husband’s wisdom. Thus from a virgin she becomes a wife and a similitude. Thence also, with the wife, love with its inmost friendship, and with the husband, wisdom with its felicity, perennially increase and this to eternity. Such is the state of the angels of heaven."

[7] When the angel had thus spoken, he looked upon those who were newly come from the world and said to them: "You know that when you were in the vigour of love, you loved your partners, and that after the delight you turned yourselves away; but you do not know that in heaven we do not love our partners from that vigour, but have the vigour from our love, and that with us it is perpetual because we love our partners perpetually. If, therefore, you can reverse your state, you can comprehend this. Who that loves his partner perpetually does not love her with his whole mind and his whole body? Love turns all things of the mind and all things of the body to that which it loves; and because this is done reciprocally, it so conjoins them that they become as one."

[8] He said further: "I shall not speak to you of the conjugial love implanted from creation in the male and female, and of their inclination to legitimate conjunction; or of the faculty of prolification in the male which makes one with the faculty of multiplying wisdom from the love of truth. So far as a man loves wisdom from the love of wisdom, that is, loves truth from good, so far he is in love truly conjugial and in its attendant vigour."

CL 356. After saying this, the angel was silent. From the spirit of his speech the newly arrived novitiates comprehended that a perpetual ability to enjoy the delights is possible. This so gladdened their minds that they exclaimed: "Oh, how happy is the state of angels! We perceive that you in heaven remain to eternity in the state of youth and hence in the vigour of that age; but tell us how we also may acquire that vigour;" and the angel responded, "Shun adulteries as infernal, and approach the Lord, and you will have it."

The novitiates then said, "We will shun them as such and will approach the Lord;" but the angel answered: "You cannot shun adulteries as infernal evils unless you shun all other evils likewise, for adulteries are the complex of them all, and unless you shun them you cannot approach the Lord. Others than these, the Lord does not receive."

The angel then departed, and the new spirits went away sorrowful.

CL 357. Jealousy is here treated of because this also pertains to conjugial love. But there is a just jealousy and an unjust. Just jealousy exists with married partners who mutually love each other. With these, jealousy is a just and prudent zeal lest their conjugial love be violated; hence a just grief if it is violated. Unjust jealousy exists with those who are suspicious by nature and have a sickly mind arising from a viscous and bilious blood. Moreover, by some, all jealousy is accounted a fault; this is especially so with whoremongers who cast vituperations even upon just jealousy.

The word zelotypia (jealousy) is derived from zeli-typus, and there is a type or image of a just zeal and of an unjust; but these distinctions shall be unfolded in what follows, and this in the following series:

1. That zeal, regarded in itself, is as the fire of love blazing.

2. That the burning or flame of the love, being its zeal, is a spiritual burning or flame arising from a molestation of the love, and an attack upon it.

3. That a man‘s zeal is such as his love is, thus of one kind with him whose love is good, and of another with him whose love is evil.

4. That in outer manifestation, the zeal of a good love and the zeal of an evil love are alike, but inwardly they are wholly unlike.

5. That inwardly in the zeal of a good love lie love and friendship, but inwardly in the zeal of an evil love lie hatred and revenge.

6. That the zeal of conjugial love is called jealousy.

7. That jealousy is as a fire blazing out against those who molest the love with the partner, and as a dreadful fear for the loss of that love.

8. That jealousy is spiritual with monogamists, and natural with polygamists.

9. That with married partners who tenderly love each other, jealousy is a just grief from sound reason, lest their conjugial love be divided and thus perish.

10. That with married partners who do not love each other, jealousy is due to many causes, and with some to various kinds of mental sickness.

11. That with some there is no jealousy, and this also from various causes.

12. That there is jealousy also for mistresses, but it is not of the same nature as for wives.

13. That there is jealousy also with beasts and birds.

14. That jealousy with men and husbands is different from jealousy with women and wives.

Now follows the explanation of the above.

CL 358. I. That zeal, regarded in itself, is as the fire of love blazing. What jealousy is cannot be known unless there is a knowledge of what zeal is, jealousy being the zeal of conjugial love. That zeal is as the fire of love blazing, is because zeal pertains to love, and love is spiritual heat, and in its origin this is as fire. As regards the first statement, that zeal pertains to love, this is well known, for by being zealous and by acting from zeal nothing else is meant than acting from the force of love. But when zeal is manifested, it does not appear as love but as an enraged enemy and foe fighting against one who does injury to his love. It may therefore be called the defender and protector of love; for, when cut off from its delights, all love is such that it breaks out into indignation and anger, yea, into fury. Wherefore, if the love is touched, especially the ruling love, the result is an emotion of the animus; and if the touch hurts, it is burning anger. From this it can be seen that zeal is not the highest degree of love but is love burning. The love of one person and the corresponding love of another are as two confederates; but when the love of the one rises up against the love of the other, they become as enemies. The reason is because love is the esse of man’s life. Therefore, he who attacks one‘s love attacks his very life; and then ensues a state of burning anger against the attacker like the state of a man whom another attempts to kill. Such anger pertains to every love, even the most pacific. This is plainly seen from hens, geese, and birds of every kind, in that they rise up against those who injure their young or carry off their food, and fly at them without fear. That with some beasts there is anger, and with wild beasts fury, if their whelps are molested or their prey taken from them, is well known. Love is said to burn like fire because love is nothing else than spiritual heat arising from the fire of the angelic sun which is pure love. That love is a heat as of fire is manifestly evident from the heat of living bodies, this being from no other source than their love; also from the fact that men become hot and inflamed according to the exaltations of their love. From this it is evident that zeal is as the fire of love burning.

CL 359. II. That the burning or flame of the love, being its zeal, is a spiritual burning or flame arising from a molestation of the love, and an attack upon it. That zeal is a spiritual burning or flame is clear from what has been said above. In the spiritual world, love is heat arising from the sun there; therefore, at a distance love is there seen as a flame. Such is the appearance of heavenly love with the angels of heaven, and so also of infernal love with the spirits of hell. It should be known, however, that this flame does not consume as does flame in the natural world.

[2] That zeal arises from an attack upon the love, is because love is the heat of one’s life. Therefore, when the life‘s love is attacked, the heat of life is enkindled, resists, and breaks out against the assailant. Moreover, it acts as an enemy from its own force and power, which is as a flame of fire bursting out against him who rouses it. That zeal is like fire, is seen from the eyes, in that they flash; from the face, in that it is inflamed; and from the tone of voice and the gestures. Being the heat of life, love does this lest itself be extinguished, and with it all alacrity and vivacity and all perceptibility of delight from its love.

CL 360. It shall now be told how love, when attacked, is enkindled and inflamed into zeal, as fire is enkindled into a flame. Love resides in man’s will; but it is enkindled, not in the will, but in the understanding. In the will it is like fire, and in the understanding like a flame. In the will, love knows nothing about itself, for there it has no sensation of itself; nor does it there act of itself. Sensation and action are effected in the understanding and its thought. Therefore, when love is attacked, it rouses itself to anger in the understanding, this being done by means of various reasonings. These reasonings are like sticks of wood which the fire kindles and which then burn. Thus they are like so much fuel or so much combustible material from which comes the above-mentioned spiritual flame, of which there is much variety.

CL 361. The reason why a man is on fire when his love is attacked shall now be disclosed. From its creation, the human form in its inmosts is a form of love and wisdom. In man, all affections of love and thence all perceptions of wisdom are arranged in most perfect order so that together they make a unanimous whole and thus a one. These affections and perceptions are substantiate, substances being their subjects. Since, therefore, the human form is composed of them, it is plain that if the love is attacked, then, in an instant or simultaneously, the whole form is attacked together with each and every thing therein. From creation it is implanted in all living things to will to remain in their own form. Therefore the whole structure wills this from its several parts, and the parts from the whole. Hence, when the love is attacked, it defends itself by its understanding, and the understanding by things rational and imaginative whereby it represents to itself the outcome; and, more especially, by those things which make one with the love which is attacked. Were this not done, the whole form would fall asunder because of the loss of that love.

[2] Hence then it is, that in order to resist attacks, love hardens the substances of its form and erects them into crests, as it were, being so many pricks; that is to say, it bristles up. Such is that exasperation of love which is called zeal. Therefore, if there is no opportunity to resist, anxiety arises, and grief; for the love foresees the extinction of its interior life together with the delights thereof. On the other hand, if the love is favoured and soothed, the form relaxes, softens, dilates; and the substances of the form become smooth, bland, gentle, and alluring.

CL 362. III. That a man‘s zeal is such as his love is, thus of one kind with him whose love is good, and of another with him whose love is evil. Since zeal is the zeal of love, it follows that it is such as the love is; and since in general there are two loves, the love of good and thence of truth, and the love of evil and thence of falsity, therefore, in general, there is a zeal for good and thence for truth, and a zeal for evil and thence for falsity. It should be known, however, that both loves are of infinite variety. This is manifestly evident from the angels of heaven and the spirits of hell. In the spiritual world, both the latter and the former are forms of their love, and yet there is not a single angel of heaven or a single spirit of hell absolutely like any other as to face, speech, walk, gesture, or manner, nor indeed can there be to all eternity, howsoever many the myriads of myriads into which they may be multiplied. Such being the case with the forms of love, it is evident that the loves themselves are of infinite variety. It is the same with zeal, zeal being the zeal of love; that is to say, the zeal of one cannot be absolutely like or the same as the zeal of another. In general, there is the zeal of good love and the zeal of evil love.

CL 363. IV. That in outer manifestation, the zeal of a good love and the zeal of an evil love are alike, but inwardly they are wholly unlike. With every man, zeal in its outer manifestation appears as anger and wrath; for it is love enkindled and inflamed for the protection of itself against a violator and for the removal of that violator. The reason why the zeal of a good love and the zeal of an evil love appear alike in outer manifestation is because in both cases, when there is love in the zeal, it is in flames; but with a good man, it is in flames only in its outer manifestation, while with an evil man, it is in flames both outwardly and inwardly; and when the internals are not seen, the zeals appear alike in their outer manifestation. That inwardly they are wholly unlike will be seen in the article next following. That in its outer manifestation zeal appears like anger and wrath, can be seen and heard in all cases when men speak and act from zeal. When a priest, for instance, preaches from zeal, the sound of his voice is loud, vehement, sharp, and harsh, he grows hot in the face and perspires, towers up, beats the pulpit, and calls forth fire from hell against evil-doers. Many others act in a similar way.

CL 364. In order to acquire a distinct idea of zeal with the good and with the evil, and of their dissimilarity, it is necessary to form some idea respecting internals and externals with men. That this may be formed, take the idea of the vulgar respecting them, for this is for the common people also. The matter can then be illustrated by nuts or almonds and their kernels. With the good, the internals are like inner kernels, in all their perfection and goodness, enclosed in their usual and natural shell. With the evil it is altogether different. Their internals are like kernels, either inedible because of their bitterness, or rotted or worm-eaten; but their externals are like coverings or shells, either like their natural shells, or reddish like shell-fish, or many-hued like iris stones. Such is their external appearance within which lie concealed the internals mentioned above. It is the same with their zeal.

CL 365. V. That inwardly in the zeal of a good love lie love and friendship, but inwardly in the zeal of an evil love lie hatred and revenge. It was said that in outer manifestation zeal appears as anger and wrath, both with those who are in a good love and with those who are in an evil; but because the internals differ, the anger and wrath also differ. The differences are:

1. The zeal of a good love is as a heavenly flame which never bursts out against another but only defends itself; and its defense against an evil man is as a defense while the latter is rushing into the fire and being burned. But the zeal of an evil love is like an infernal flame which bursts out of itself and rushes upon another and wills to consume him.

2. The zeal of a good love instantly dies down and becomes mild when the assailant withdraws from the attack; but the zeal of an evil love persists and is not extinguished.

3. The reason is because the internal of him who is in the love of good is in itself mild, bland, friendly, and benevolent. Therefore, while, for the purpose of defending itself, his external is rough, bristles up, and erects itself and so acts with severity, yet it is tempered by means of the good in which is his internal.

Not so with the evil. With them the internal is inimical, fierce, hard, breathing hatred and revenge, and it feeds itself on the delights of these passions. Even when there is reconciliation, these passions are still latent, like fire in the embers beneath the ashes; and these fires break out, if not in this world yet after death.

CL 366. Because in outer manifestation zeal with a good man and zeal with an evil appear to be alike; and because the ultimate sense of the Word consists of correspondences and appearances; therefore, in the word it is often said of Jehovah, that He is angry, is wrathful, avenges, punishes, casts into hell, besides many other expressions which are the appearances of zeal in its outer manifestation. For the same reason, He is called jealous, when yet in Him is not the least shade of anger, wrath, and vengeance, He being mercy, grace, and clemency itself, thus good itself, in whom nothing of the kind is possible. But of these matters, see more in the work on HEAVEN AND HELL (HH n. 545-550), and in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 494, 498, 525, 714, 806).

CL 367. VI. That the zeal of conjugial love is called jealousy. The zeal for love truly conjugial is the zeal of zeals inasmuch as the love is the love of loves, and its delights, for which also it is zealous, the delights of delights; for, as shown above (n. 64), that love is the chief of all loves. The reason is because that love induces on the wife the form of love, and on the husband the form of wisdom, and from these forms united into a one, nothing else can proceed but what savours of wisdom and at the same time of love. Since the zeal of conjugial love is the zeal of zeals, therefore it is called by a new name, zelotypia, in that it is the very type of zeal.

CL 368. VII. That jealousy is as a fire blazing out against those who molest the love with the partner; and that it is a dreadful fear for the loss of that love. Here the jealousy of those who are in spiritual love with their partner is treated of; in the following article, the jealousy of those who are in natural love; and after that, the jealousy of those who are in love truly conjugial. With those who are in spiritual love there are various jealousies because various loves, for there is not a single love, whether spiritual or natural, which is ever the same with any two persons, still less with many.

[2] That spiritual jealousy, that is, jealousy with the spiritual, is as a fire blazing out against those who molest their conjugial love, is because with them the principle or beginning of that love is in the internals of each partner, and from its principle, their love follows the principiates to their ultimates; and from these, and at the same time from firsts, the intermediates which are of the mind and body are held in lovely connection. In their marriage, such persons, being spiritual, look to union as an end, and therein to spiritual rest and its amenities. Now because they have rejected disunion from their animus, their jealousy is like a fire stirred up and darting out against those who molest.

[3] It is also as a dreadful fear, because the intention of their spiritual love is that they be a one, and if there exists a falling away, or if an appearance of separation occurs, there comes fear--a dreadful fear, as when two parts which are united together are being torn asunder. This description of jealousy was given me from heaven by those who are in spiritual conjugial love; for there is natural conjugial love, spiritual conjugial love, and celestial conjugial love. As to the natural and celestial, and their jealousy, these shall be spoken of in the two articles which now follow.

CL 369. VIII. That jealousy is spiritual with monogamists, and natural with polygamists. That jealousy is spiritual with monogamists is because they alone can receive spiritual conjugial love, as abundantly shown above. It is said there is spiritual jealousy with monogamists, but what is meant is that it is possible; for in the Christian world, where marriages are monogamous, it exists with very few. Yet, that it is possible there, has also been confirmed above. That with polygamists conjugial love is natural may be seen in the chapter on Polygamy (n. 345-347); so likewise their jealousy, for this follows their love.

[2] As to the nature of the jealousy of polygamists, we learn concerning this from the accounts of men who have witnessed it among Orientals. These men relate that wives and concubines are guarded like captives in prisons, and are held back and restrained from all communication with men; that no man is allowed to enter the women’s apartments or the rooms wherein they are confined, unless accompanied by a eunuch; that close observation is made as to whether any of the women look at a passing man with lascivious eyes or countenance, and that if this is observed the woman is punished with stripes, and if she practises lewdness with any man introduced into the outer room by stealth, or outside the harem, she is punished with death.

CL 370. The above illustrates the nature of the jealous fire into which polygamous conjugial love breaks out--a fire breaking out into anger and revenge, into anger in the case of the meek, and into revenge in the case of the fierce. This is because their love is natural and does not partake of what is spiritual. This follows from what was demonstrated in the chapter on Polygamy, namely, that polygamy is lasciviousness (n. 345), and that a polygamist, so long as he remains a polygamist, is natural and cannot become spiritual (n. 347). With natural monogamists, the jealous fire is different. Their love is not inflamed in this way against the women but against the violators. Against the latter it becomes anger, and against the former cold. Not so with polygamists. Moreover, the fire of their jealousy burns with vengeful fury. This also is among the reasons why after death the concubines and wives of polygamists are for the most part set free, and are assigned to unguarded women‘s apartments, there to make various things which pertain to women’s work.

CL 371. IX. That with married partners who tenderly love each other, jealousy is a just grief from sound reason, lest their conjugial love be divided and thus perish. Within all love is fear and grief, fear lest it perish, and grief if it does perish. There is the like fear and grief in conjugial love, but the fear and grief of this love is called zeal or jealousy. That with partners who tenderly love each other this zeal is just and from sound reason, is because it is at the same time fear for the loss of eternal felicity, not only his own but also his partner‘s; and because it is also a protection against adultery. As regards the first point--that it is a just fear for the loss of his own and his partner’s eternal felicity--this follows from all that has hitherto been advanced respecting love truly conjugial, and also from the fact that from that love comes the blessedness of their souls, the happiness of their minds, the delight of their bosoms, and the pleasure of their bodies; and because these remain with them to eternity, there is fear for each other‘s eternal happiness. (As regards the second point)--that the zeal is a just protection against adulteries--this is evident; therefore it is as a fire blazing out against violation and defending itself against it. From this it is evident that one who tenderly loves his partner is also jealous; but the jealousy is just and sane according to the wisdom of the man.

CL 372. It was said that in conjugial love is implanted fear lest it be divided, and grief lest it perish; and that its zeal is like fire directed against violation. Once, when meditating upon this, I asked certain zealous angels respecting the seat of jealousy. They said: "It is in the understanding of the man who receives the love of his partner and loves her in return, and its quality there is according to his wisdom." They also said that jealousy has something in common with honour, which also is within conjugial love, for he who loves his partner also honours her.

[2] As to the reason why with a man zeal resides in his understanding, they said: "Conjugial love protects itself by the understanding, as good protects itself by truth. So a wife protects those things which she has in common with the man by her husband. Therefore, zeal is implanted in men, and through men and on account of men, in women." To the question, in what region of the mind does it reside with men, they answered: "In their souls, because it is also a protection against adulteries, and because these are what principally destroy conjugial love. Therefore, in the presence of attempts at its violation, the man’s understanding hardens and becomes as a horn smiting the adulterer."

CL 373. X. That with married partners who do not love each other, jealousy is due to many causes, and with some to various kinds of mental sickness. The reasons why married partners who do not mutually love each other are also jealous are principally, honour from potency, fear of dishonouring one‘s name and also that of one’s wife, and dread lest one‘s domestic affairs be ruined. That men have honour from potency, that is, that from this they wish to be accounted as great men, is well known; for so long as they have this honour, they are as though raised up in their own mind and not shamefaced among men and women. Moreover, to this honour is attached the attribute of bravery, and therefore military officers have it more than others. As to fear of dishonouring one’s name and that of one‘s wife, this makes one with the preceding reason; added to which is the fact that cohabitation with a harlot, and having a brothel in the home, are infamous. That jealousy exists with some lest their domestic affairs be ruined, is because the husband is so greatly disgraced, and mutual duties and services are done away with. With some, however, this jealousy ceases in time and becomes nonexistent, and with some it turns into a mere simulation of love.

CL 374. That with some, jealousy is from various mental sicknesses is no secret in the world; for there are jealous men who continually think of their wives as unfaithful, believing them to be harlots, and this merely on hearing or seeing that they talk amicably with men or about men. There are mental blemishes which induce this infirmity, the first among which is a suspicious fantasy. If long cherished, this brings the mind into societies of like spirits, from which it can be delivered only with difficulty. Jealousy also gives itself added strength in the body, by the serum and thence the blood becoming viscous, tenacious, thick, sluggish, and acrid. Moreover, it is augmented by lack of the virile powers, this rendering the mind unable to be raised above its suspicion; for their presence elevates, and their absence depresses, this absence causing the mind to droop, collapse and languish. It then immerses itself in that fantasy ever more and more until it becomes insane; and this insanity has its outlet in the delight of upbraiding and, so far as allowed, of reviling.

CL 375. Moreover, in certain regions there are families which labour under the sickness of jealousy more than others. By them wives are imprisoned, tyrannically withheld from converse with men, shut off from the sight of them by windows provided with lattices stretching (from top) to bottom, and are terrified by threats of death if the husband find reason for the suspicion he nurses; besides other hardships which wives there suffer from their jealous husbands. Of this jealousy there are two causes: One is the imprisonment and stifling of the thoughts in respect to the spiritual things of the Church, the other is an intestine lust for revenge.

[2] As regards the first cause--the imprisonment and stifling of the thoughts in respect to the spiritual things of the Church--its effects can be concluded from what has previously been demonstrated, namely, that everyone has conjugial love according to the state of the Church with him; and that this love is from the Lord alone because the Church is from Him (n. 130, 131). Therefore, when men, living and dead, are approached and invoked in place of the Lord, it follows that there is no state of the Church with which conjugial love can act as one, and the less so when men’s minds are terrified into that worship by threats of a frightful prison. Hence it comes to pass that their thoughts, and with them their speech, are violently imprisoned and suffocated, and with these suffocated, things flow in which are contrary to the Church or which, if they favour the Church, are imaginary. From all this, nothing else redounds but burning heat for harlots and icy cold for the consort. It is from these two together in one subject that this ungovernable fire of jealousy comes.

[3] As concerns the second cause, namely, an intestine lust for revenge, this entirely inhibits the influx of conjugial love, absorbs it, swallows it up, and turns its delight which is heavenly into the delight of revenge which is infernal; and the nearest object to which it is determined is the wife. Moreover, it is from appearance that the malignity of the atmosphere there, which is impregnated with the virulent exhalations of the surrounding region, is a subsidiary cause.

CL 376. XI. That with some there is no jealousy, and this also from various causes. There are many causes of an absence of jealousy and of a cessation of jealousy. Those especially have no jealousy who make conjugial love to be of no more account than scortatory love, and who at the same time are inglorious, counting a good reputation as of no value. They are not unlike married pimps. Those also have no jealousy who have put it away from a confirmed belief that it troubles the mind and that it is useless to keep watch on a wife; that if watched she is incited, and that therefore it is preferable to shut one‘s eyes and not even set them looking through the keyhole lest something be detected by the sight. Some have put it away on account of the stigma attached to the name jealousy, thinking that a man who is a man fears nothing. Some have been driven to put it away lest their domestic affairs be ruined, and also, lest they incur public censure were the wife to be convicted of the lewdness of which she is guilty. Furthermore, with men who, being themselves impotent, grant licence to their wives in order to raise up children for the sake of their inheritance; also with men who do this for the sake of gain, and so on, jealousy recedes until it wholly disappears. There are also scortatory marriages in which, by mutual consent, both parties are given licence to practise venery; yet they meet each other with a civil countenance.

CL 377. XII. That there is jealousy also for mistresses, but it is not of the same nature as for wives. With man, jealousy for wives springs from inmosts, but jealousy for mistresses from outmosts. Therefore they differ in kind. That jealousy for wives springs from inmosts is because in inmosts resides conjugial love; and it resides there because, by reason of its eternal pact established by covenant, and also by reason of equality of right, in that what belongs to the one partner belongs to the other, marriage unites souls and binds minds together more deeply. This binding and union, once imposed, remains unbroken, whatsoever be the later love between them, whether warm or cold.

[2] Thence it is, that invitation to love by a wife chills the whole man from inmosts to ultimates, while invitation to love by a mistress does not thus chill the lover. To jealousy for a wife is added ambition for a good name for the sake of honour, while jealousy for a mistress lacks this accessory. Yet both these jealousies vary according to the seat of the love received from the wife, and of that received from the mistress, and at the same time, according to the state of the judgment of the man receiving it.

CL 378. XIII. That there is jealousy also with beasts and birds. That it exists with wild beasts, such as lions, tigers, bears, etc., when with their young, is well known; and also with bulls, even when there are no calves with them, and most conspicuously in cocks which fight with rivals for their hens, even to the death. The reason why these latter have such jealousy is because they are vainglorious lovers, and the glory of that kind of love does not brook an equal. That they are vainglorious lovers above every other genus and species of birds is apparent from their carriage, their nod, their gait, and their crowing. That with men, whether lovers or not, the glory of honour induces jealousy and exalts and sharpens it, has been confirmed above.

CL 379. XIV. That jealousy with men and husbands is different from jealousy with women and wives. The differences, however, cannot be distinctly set forth; for with married partners, jealousy is of one kind with those who love each other spiritually, of another with those who love each other only naturally, of another with those who are of dissident minds, and of another with one who has subjected the other to the yoke of obedience. Considered in themselves, manly and wifely jealousy are different, being from different origins. The origin of manly jealousy is in the understanding, but that of wifely jealousy is in the will applied to the understanding of their men. Therefore, manly jealousy is as a flame of wrath and anger, but wifely jealousy is as a fire restrained by a variety of fears, a variety of attitudes to the husband, a variety of regards to her own love, and a variety in her prudence in not disclosing this love to the husband by jealousy. These two kinds of jealousy are distinguished, because wives are loves and men are recipients; and to wives it is obnoxious to be prodigal of their love before their men, but not so to the recipients of that love before their wives.

[2] It is different with the spiritual. With these, the man’s jealousy is transferred to the wife, just as the wife‘s love is transferred to the man. Therefore, in both, the jealousy against the attempts of a violator appears to be the same; but the wife’s jealousy against the attempts of a harlot violator is inspired in the man as grief weeping and moving the conscience.

CL 380. I will add two Memorable Relations. First:

I was once in amazement at the vast multitude of men who attribute creation and hence all things under and above the sun to nature. Whenever they see anything, they say, from the acknowledgment of their heart, Is not this the work of nature? Asked why they say the work of nature and not of God, when yet at times they themselves, in common with the generality of men say that God created nature, and so can just as well say that the things they see are the works of God as that they are the works of nature, they answer with an inward sound, almost inaudible, "What is God but nature?" From this persuasion respecting the creation of the universe out of nature, and from this insanity as though from wisdom, they all seem so full of their own glory that they look upon those who acknowledge the creation of the universe by God as ants creeping on the ground and treading the beaten path, and upon some as butterflies flying in the air. Calling their dogmas dreams because they see what they do not see, they say, "Who has seen God, and who does not see nature?"

[2] While I was in amazement at the multitude of such men, an angel stood by my side and said to me, "On what are you meditating?" I answered, "On the multitude of men who believe that nature created the universe." The angel then said: "All hell consists of such men, and they are there called satans and devils, the satans being those who have confirmed themselves in favour of nature and so have denied God, and the devils those who have lived wickedly and so have rejected from their hearts all acknowledgment of God. But I will lead you to gymnasiums in the south-western quarter where are those of them who are not yet in hell."

Taking me by the hand, he then led me; and I saw small houses wherein were gymnasiums, and in their centre, one which seemed to be the chief building. It was built of pitch-black stone overlaid with thin plates, as of glass, sparkling as though from gold and silver, like the mineral called glacies mariae (mica), and interspersed here and there with shells which likewise sparkled.

[3] We approached this building and knocked, and presently a man opened the door and said, "Welcome." He then ran to a table and bringing four books, he said, "These books are the wisdom which is applauded by multitudes in the kingdoms of today; this book or wisdom by many in France, this by many in Germany, this by some in Holland, and this by some in Britain." He said further, "If you wish to see it, I will make these four books shine before your eyes." He then poured out the glory of his own fame, and, surrounded by this, the books at once shone as though from light; but before our eyes this light immediately vanished. We then asked him, "What are you writing now?" He replied that from his treasures he was now drawing out and setting forth matters of inmost wisdom. "These are in brief:

1. Is nature of life, or life of nature?

2. Is the centre of the expanse, or the expanse of the centre?

3. Concerning the centre and expanse of nature and of life."

[4] Saying this, he again seated himself at the table, and we walked about in his gymnasium which was spacious. Because there was no daylight there but only the nocturnal light of the moon, he had a candle on the table; and, what surprised me, the candle seemed to be carried around the room and illumine it, though, not having been snuffed, the light it gave out was but little. While he was writing, we saw images in various forms flitting from the table to the walls. In that nocturnal moonlight they seemed like beautiful Indian birds, but when we opened the door, lo, in the sun‘s daylight they seemed like birds of night with weblike wings; for they were semblances of truth made into fallacies by confirmations which he had ingeniously connected together into a series.

[5] After seeing all this, we went to the table and asked him what he was writing now. He said, "On the first question, Is NATURE OF LIFE, OR LIFE OF NATURE? Respecting this, he said that he could confirm either one and make it true; but because deep within him was a latent something which he feared, he dared confirm only that nature is of life, that is, from life, and not that life is of nature, that is, from nature. We courteously asked him what that thing was which was deeply latent within him and which he feared. He answered that it was the possibility of being called by clergymen a naturalist and thus an atheist, and by laymen a man devoid of sound reason, "for both laymen and clergymen believe in the proposition from blind faith, or see it with the eyes of confirmers."

[6] From zeal for truth we then addressed him with some indignation, saying: "Friend, you greatly err. Your wisdom, which consists in the gift of clever writing, has seduced you, and the glory of your fame has led you to confirm what you do not believe. Do you not know that the human mind is capable of being elevated above things sensual, being things which are in the thoughts from the bodily senses? and that when elevated, it sees that the things of life are above, and those of nature below? What else is life but love and wisdom? and what else is nature but their receptacle whereby they work out their effects or uses? Can the two be one in any other way than as principal and instrumental? Can light be one with the eye? or sound with the ear? Whence come the sensations of these organs but from life? and their forms but from nature? What is the human body but an organ of life? Is not each and every thing therein formed organically to produce what the love wills and the understanding thinks? Are not the organs of the body from nature, and love and thought from life? and are not these entirely distinct from each other? Elevate the keenness of your genius yet a little higher and you will see, that to be affected and to think is the property of life; and that to be affected comes from love, and to think from wisdom, and both from life; as we said, love and wisdom are life. If you elevate your faculty of understanding a little higher still, you will see that there is no love and wisdom without an origin somewhere, and that the origin is (love and) wisdom itself, and hence life itself; and these are God from whom is nature."

[7] After this we talked with him about the second question, Is THE CENTRE OF THE EXPANSE, OR THE EXPANSE OF THE CENTRE? and we asked him why he discusses this. He replied that he discussed it to the end that he might come to some conclusion respecting the centre and expanse of nature and of life, thus respecting the origin of the one and the other; and when we asked what his own opinion was, he answered as before, that he could confirm either, but that from fear of the loss of fame he would confirm the proposition that the expanse is of the centre, that is, from the centre. "Although I know" he added, "that there was something prior to the sun--something which was everywhere in the universe; and that these things flowed together into order of themselves, thus into centres."

[8] At this, again addressing him from indignant zeal, We said, "Friend, you are insane." When he heard this, he drew his seat back from the table and looked at us timidly, and then pricked up his ears--but he was laughing. We then continued, saying: "What is more insane than to say the centre is from the expanse?--by your centre we understand the sun, and by your expanse we understand the universe--thus that the universe came into existence without the sun? Does not the sun make nature and all the properties thereof, these being dependent solely on the heat and light proceeding from the sun by its atmospheres? Where were they before?--as to whence they were, this we will tell you in the discussion that follows. Are not the atmospheres and all things on the earth like surfaces, and the sun their centre? What are all these without the sun? could they subsist for a single moment? What then were they all prior to the sun? could they have subsisted? is not subsistence perpetual existence? Since, therefore, the subsistence of all things of nature is from the sun, it follows that their existence is also from the sun. This is seen and acknowledged by everyone from his own observation.

[9] As the posterior exists from the prior, does it not also subsist therefrom? If the surface were the prior, and the centre the posterior, would not the prior subsist from the posterior? Yet this is contrary to the laws of order. How can things posterior produce things prior? or things exterior, things interior? or things grosser, things purer? How then can surfaces, which make the expanse, produce centres? Who does not see that this is against the laws of nature? We have brought forward these arguments from rational analysis to establish the truth that the expanse exists from the centre, and not the reverse, though everyone who thinks rightly sees this without them. You have said that the expanse flowed together into the centre of itself. Is it then by chance that it flowed into so marvellous and stupendous an order that one thing exists for the sake of another, and each and every thing for the sake of man and his eternal life? Can nature provide such things from any love, by any wisdom? from men make angels? and from angels, heaven? Suppose this, and then think, and your idea of the existence of nature from nature will fall."

[10] After this we asked him what he had thought and what he now thinks about the third question, THE CENTRE AND EXPANSE OF NATURE AND OF LIFE, whether he believed the centre an expanse of life to be the same as the centre and expanse of nature. He said that he hesitated, and that previously he had thought that the interior activity of nature is life; that from this are the love and wisdom which essentially make man’s life, and that the fire of the sun produces them by its heat and light by the mediation of the atmospheres; but that, from what he had heard about the eternal life of men, he was now in doubt, and this doubt carried his mind now upwards, now downwards; when upwards, he acknowledged a centre of which he had previously known nothing, and when downwards, he saw the centre which he had believed to be the only centre; and (that he now wished to think) that life is from the centre of which he had previously known nothing, and nature from the centre which he had previously believed to be the only centre; also that each centre has an expanse around it.

[11] To this we said that that was good, provided only he wished also to look at the centre and the expanse of nature from the centre and expanse of life, and not the reverse. We then instructed him that above the angelic heaven is a sun which is pure love, in appearance fiery like the sun of the world; that from the heat proceeding from that sun, angels and men have will and love, and from the light, understanding and wisdom; and that the things belonging to life are called spiritual, while those which proceed from the sun of the world are containants of life and are called natural; and furthermore, that the expanse of the centre of life is called the SPIRITUAL WORLD which subsists from its own sun, and the expanse of nature is called the NATURAL WORLD which subsists from its own sun. "Now because spaces and times cannot be predicated of love and wisdom, but instead thereof states, the expanse around the sun of the angelic heaven is not an extense but yet is in the extense of the natural sun and in living subjects there, according to their reception, their reception being according to their forms."

[12] "But then" he asked, "from whence is the fire of the sun of the world or of nature?" We answered, "It is from the sun of the angelic heaven, which is not fire but is Divine Love proximately proceeding from God who is Love itself."

He wondered at this, so we demonstrated it as follows: "Love in its essence is spiritual fire. Hence it is, that in the Word in its spiritual sense fire signifies love. Therefore, in temples, priests pray that heavenly fire, by which they mean love, may fill their hearts. The fire of the altar in the tabernacle with the Israelites, and also the fire of the candlestick represented nothing else than Divine Love. The heat of the blood, that is, the vital heat of men and of animals in general is from no other source than the love which makes their life. Hence, when a man‘s love is exalted into zeal, anger, and wrath, he is enkindled, grows hot, and is inflamed. Therefore, from the fact that, with men, spiritual heat which is love produces natural heat, even to the enkindling and inflaming of their faces and limbs, it can be manifest that the fire of the natural sun came into existence from no other source than the fire of the spiritual sun, which is Divine Love.

[13] Now since, as we said before, the expanse arises from the centre and not the reverse, and the centre of life, which is the sun of the angelic heaven, is Divine Love proximately proceeding from God, who is in the midst of that sun; and since from this is the expanse of that centre, being that expanse which is called the spiritual world; and since from that sun, the sun of the world came into existence and therefrom the expanse thereof which is called the natural world; it is evident that the universe was created by the one God."

After these words we departed, and he accompanied us beyond the area of his gymnasium and talked with us about heaven and hell and about Divine auspices, from a new sagacity of ingenuity.

CL 381. The second Memorable Relation:

When looking around in the world of spirits, I once saw in the distance a palace, surrounded and, as it were, besieged by a great crowd; I also saw many men running towards it. Astonished at this, I hastily left home and asked one of the runners what was going on there. He replied that three new-comers from the world had been taken up into a heaven and had there seen magnificent things and also maidens and wives of wondrous beauty. When let down from that heaven, they had gone into this palace and told what they had seen, especially that they had seen beauties such as their eyes had never seen nor can see unless enlightened by the light of the aura of heaven. As to themselves, they had said that in the world they had been orators from the kingdom of France, and had devoted themselves to the cultivation of eloquence, and that now a desire to deliver an oration on the origin of beauty had come upon them. This had been made known in the neighbourhood, and in consequence a great crowd had flocked in to hear them.

Hearing this, I also hastened thither, and entering in I saw the three men standing in the centre. They were clothed with robes of a sapphire colour, and at every turn they made, their robes, from the golden threads inwoven in them, shone as though they were all gold. They stood behind a sort of pulpit, ready to speak. Presently one of them stood up on the step behind the pulpit to deliver his oration on the origin of beauty in the female sex. He then put forth the following:

CL 382. "What other origin of beauty can there be than LOVE? When this flows into the eyes of young men and enkindles them, it becomes beauty. Therefore, love and beauty are one and the same thing; for, from the inmost being of a marriageable virgin love suffuses her face with a certain flame, and from the appearance of this, comes the dawn of her life and its crimson glow. Who does not know that this flame sends its rays into her eyes; that from these as centres, it pours forth into the circuit of her face, and from there lets itself down into her bosom and enkindles her heart, and affects her, not unlike as a fire with its heat and light affects one who stands by it. The heat is love and the light is the beauty of love. The whole world affirms with common consent, that every person is lovely and beautiful according to his love. But the love belonging to the masculine sex is one thing, and that belonging to the feminine sex another. Masculine love is the love of becoming wise, and feminine love, the love of loving the love of becoming wise in the male. So far then as a young man is a love of becoming wise, he is lovely and beautiful to a maiden; and so far as a maiden is a love of the wisdom of a young man, she is lovely and beautiful to the young man. Therefore, as the love of the one meets and kisses the love of the other, so also do the beauties. I conclude, therefore, that love forms beauty into the likeness of itself."

CL 383. After him arose the second orator to reveal by elegance of speech the origin of beauty. He said: "I have heard that the origin of beauty is love, but I do not agree with that opinion. Who among men knows what love is? Who has contemplated it with any idea of thought? Who has seen it with his eye? Tell me where it is. I assert, on the other hand, that wisdom is the origin of beauty--in women, wisdom inmostly latent and concealed, in men, wisdom open and standing forth. Whence is man a man but from wisdom? Were he not a man from this, he would be a statue or a picture. What does a maiden give attention to in a young man but the nature of his wisdom? And what does a young man give attention to in a maiden but the nature of her affection for his wisdom? By wisdom I mean genuine morality because this is the wisdom of life. Hence it is, that when latent wisdom approaches and embraces open wisdom, as it does interiorly in the spirit of each of them, they kiss each other and are conjoined, this being what is called love. Then they appear to each other as beauties. In a word, wisdom is as the light or splendour of fire, which touches the eyes, and as it touches, forms beauty."

CL 384. After him arose the third orator, and he spoke out as follows: Not love alone, nor wisdom alone, is the origin of beauty, but the union of love and wisdom--the union of love with wisdom in the young man, and the union of wisdom with its love in the maiden; for a maiden does not love wisdom in herself but in a young man, it being from this that she sees him as beauty; and when a young man sees this in the maiden, he sees her as beauty. Therefore, love by wisdom forms beauty, and wisdom from love receives it. That such is the case is manifestly apparent in heaven. There I saw maidens and wives, and, paying attention to their beauty, I observed that in maidens it was altogether different than in wives, being, in maidens, the gleaming of beauty, but in wives its splendour. I saw the distinction as the distinction between a diamond sparkling from light, and a ruby flashing at the same time from fire. What is beauty but a delight of the sight? Whence is the origin of this delight but from the sport of love and wisdom? From this sport the sight glows red, and this glowing vibrates from eye to eye and displays beauty. What makes the beauty of a face but red and white and their lovely blending with each other? Is not the red from love and the white from wisdom? for love glows red from its fire, and wisdom becomes white from its light. These two I have plainly seen in the faces of two married partners in heaven, the red of the bright white in the wife, and the bright whiteness of the red in the husband; and I observed that when looking at each other, they glowed with splendour."

When the third orator had thus spoken, the assemblage applauded and cried out,"He has won." And suddenly a flamy light, which is also the light of conjugial love, then filled the house with splendour and at the same time their hearts with delight.

CL 385. There are indications which show clearly that conjugial love and the love of infants, which is called storge, are conjoined. There are also indications which can induce the belief that they are not conjoined; for there is love of infants with partners who love each other from their heart, and with partners who are discordant in heart, and even with those who are separated; and sometimes it is more tender and strong with the latter than with the former. That the love of infants is nevertheless perpetually conjoined with conjugial love, may be evident from the origin whence it flows; and although this origin varies with the recipients, the loves yet remain inseparable, just as the first end remains in the ultimate end which is the effect. The first end of conjugial love is the procreation of offspring, and the ultimate end, which is the effect, is the offspring procreated. That the first end enters into the effect and is present therein as in its beginning and that it does not withdraw therefrom, can be seen from a rational contemplation of the progression of ends and causes in their due order to effects. But the reasonings of most men, instead of commencing from causes and from these proceeding analytically to effects, etc., commence from effects and from these go on to certain conclusions. Thus the rational things of light must needs become the obscurities of a cloud, whence spring deviations from truths arising from appearances and fallacies. That it may be seen that conjugial love and the love of infants are inwardly conjoined even though outwardly disjoined, it shall be demonstrated in the following order:

1. That from the Lord proceed two universal spheres for the preservation of the universe in the state created, of which the one is the sphere of procreating, and the other the sphere of protecting the things procreated.

2. That these two universal spheres make one with the sphere of conjugial love and the sphere of the love of infants.

3. That these two spheres flow, universally and singly, into all things of heaven and all things of the world, from the first of them to the last.

4. That the sphere of the love of infants is a sphere of protection and support of those who cannot protect and support themselves.

5. That this sphere affects both the evil and the good, and disposes everyone to love, protect, and support his offspring from his own love.

6. That this sphere affects the female sex, thus mothers, principally, and the male sex, or fathers, from them.

7. That this sphere is also a sphere of innocence and peace from the Lord.

8. That a sphere of innocence flows into infants, and through them into their parents, and affects them.

9. That it flows also into the souls of parents and conjoins itself with the same sphere with infants; and that it is insinuated more especially by touch.

10. That in the degree that innocence recedes with infants, affection and conjunction also abate, and this successively even to separation.

11. That with parents there is a rational state of innocence and peace in respect to their infants, in that the latter know nothing and can do nothing from themselves but from others, especially their father and mother; and that this state also successively recedes as they acquire knowledge and are able to act from themselves and not from their parents.

12. That this sphere progresses in order, from an end through causes into effects, and makes periods whereby creation is preserved in the state foreseen and provided.

13. That the love of infants descends and does not ascend.

14. That wives have one state of love before conception, and another after it up to the birth.

15. That with parents, conjugial love is conjoined with the love of infants by spiritual causes, and by natural causes therefrom.

16. That the love of infants and children is of one kind with spiritual married partners, and of another with natural.

17. That with the spiritual, this love is from within or a priori, but with the natural, from without or a posteriori.

18. That thence it is, that this love is with married partners who love each other, and also with married partners who have no love for each other.

19. That the love of infants remains after death, especially with women.

20. That under the Lord’s auspices, infants are educated by them and grow in stature and intelligence as in the world.

21. That it is there provided by the Lord that the innocence of infancy with infants become the innocence of wisdom, and that thus infants become angels.

Now follows the explanation of these articles:

CL 386. I. That from the Lord proceed two universal spheres for the preservation of the universe in the state created, of which the one is the sphere of procreating, and the other the sphere of protecting the things procreated. The Divine proceeding from the Lord is called a sphere because it goes forth from Him, surrounds Him, fills both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, and brings into operation the effects of the ends which the Lord predestined at creation and for which He provides after it. All that flows out from a subject and encompasses and surrounds it, is called a sphere; as, for example, the sphere of light and heat from and around the sun; the sphere of life from and around a man; the sphere of the fragrance of a plant around it; the sphere of the attraction of a magnet around it, and so on.

[2] But the universal spheres here treated of are from and around the Lord, and they proceed from the sun of the spiritual world in the midst of which He is. From the Lord through that sun proceeds a sphere of heat and light, or, what is the same thing, a sphere of love and wisdom, for the bringing into operation of ends which are uses. This sphere is designated by different names according to its uses. The Divine sphere looking to the preservation of the universe in its created state by means of successive generations, is called the Sphere of Procreating; and the Divine sphere looking to the preservation of the generations in their beginnings and afterwards in their progressions, is called the Sphere of Protecting what is procreated. Besides these two, there are many other Divine spheres and these are named according to their uses, thus differently, as can be seen above (n. 222). The operations of uses by means of those spheres are the Divine Providence.

CL 387. II. That these two universal spheres make one with the sphere of conjugial love and the sphere of the love of infants. That the sphere of conjugial makes one with the sphere of procreating is evident, procreation being the end and conjugial love the mediate cause whereby that end is effected; and in the effecting and the effects, the end and the cause act as one because they act together. That the sphere of the love of infants makes one with the sphere of protecting what is procreated is also evident; for it is an end proceeding from the prior end which was procreation, the love of infants being the mediate cause whereby that end is effected. Ends progress in a series, one after another, and in their progression, an ultimate end becomes a first end, and so onwards up to the terminus where they stop or cease. But of this, more may be seen in the exposition of article XII.

CL 388. III. That these two spheres flow, universally and singly, into all things of heaven and all things of the world, from the first of them to the last. It is said universally and singly because, when universal is mentioned, then at the same time are meant the single things of which it consists, it being from these that it has its existence and consistence; thus, from these it has its name, just as a general is so called from its parts. If, therefore, you take away the single things, the universal is a mere name and is like a surface within which is nothing. Therefore, the attributing of a universal government to God, while taking away the single things of that government, is an empty expression and is like a predication of inanity. No comparison with the universal government of kings on earth is valid. Hence it is here said that these two spheres flow in universally and singly.

CL 389. That the spheres of procreating and of protecting what is procreated, that is, the spheres of conjugial love and of the love of infants, flow into all things of heaven and all things of the world from the first thereof to the last, is because all things proceeding from the Lord, that is, from the sun which is from Him and in which He is, pass through the created universe to the very ultimates of all things thereof. The reason is, because things Divine, which in their progression are called celestial and spiritual, are devoid of space and time. It is well known that when speaking of spiritual things there is no predication of extension because none of space and time. Hence it is, that whatever proceeds from the Lord is in things last from things first in an instant.

[2] That in this way the sphere of conjugial love is universal may be seen above (n. 222-225). That this is likewise the case with the sphere of the love of infants is manifest from that love in heaven where are infants from the earth; also from that love as it is in the world with men and with beasts, birds, serpents, and insects. There are also analogues of that love in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms--in the vegetable kingdom, in that seeds are protected by husks as by swaddling-clothes, are in fruit as in a home, and are nourished with sap as with milk. That there is something like this among minerals is evident from the matrices and coverings wherein noble gems and noble metals are hidden and guarded.

CL 390. That the sphere of procreating and the sphere of protecting what is procreated make one in a continuous series, is because the love of procreating is continued into that which is procreated. The nature of the love of procreating is learned from its delight, in that this is supereminent and transcendent. With men, the state of procreation is within that delight, and with women notably the state of reception. In the latter, this supreme delight with its love follows on into the bringing forth, and there is in its fullness.

CL 391. IV. That the sphere of the love of infants is a sphere of protection and support of those who cannot protect and support themselves. It was said above (n. 386), that the bringing into operation of uses by the Lord through the spheres proceeding from Him is Divine Providence. It is this Providence, therefore, that is meant by the sphere of protection and support of those who cannot protect and support themselves; for it is provided from creation that things created shall be preserved, guarded, protected, and supported, otherwise the universe would go to ruin. With living creatures to whom is left freedom of choice, this cannot be done by the Lord immediately; therefore it is done mediately through His love implanted in fathers, mothers, and nurses. That the love is a love that is in them from the Lord, this they do not know, for they do not perceive the influx and still less the omnipresence of the Lord. But who does not see that this is not a thing of nature but of Divine providence operating in nature by nature? and that a universal of this kind is not possible except from God by a spiritual sun which is in the centre of the universe, and whose operation, being without space and time, is instant and present in things last from things first?

[2] As to how that Divine operation, which is the Lord‘s Divine Providence, is received by animate beings, this shall be told in what follows. Mothers and fathers protect and support their infants because these are not able to protect and support themselves. This, however, is not the cause of the love of infants but is a rational cause due to the coming down of that love into their understanding. From the rational cause alone, in the absence of a love breathed in and inspiring it, or without the compulsion of law and punishment, man would no more provide for his infants than a statue.

CL 392. V. That this sphere affects both the evil and the good, and disposes every one to love, protect, and support his offspring from his own love. It is the testimony of experience that the love of infants or storge is equally with the evil as with the good, and likewise with mild beasts and with savage; yea, that with evil men as with savage beasts it is sometimes stronger and more ardent. The reason is, because every love proceeding and flowing in from the Lord is turned in the subject into the life’s love of that subject. No animate subject feels otherwise than that it loves of itself, since it does not perceive the influx. When in addition it actually loves itself, it makes the love of infants its own love of self; for it sees itself, as it were, in them, and them in itself, and thus itself united with them.

[2] Hence it is that this love is fiercer with savage beasts, such as lions, bears, leopards, wolves and other like beasts, male and female, than with horses, deer, goats, and sheep; for these savage beasts have dominion over the mild, and hence a predominating love of self, and this love loves itself in its progeny. Therefore, as was said, the inflowing love is turned into the recipient‘s own love. This inversion of inflowing love into what is their own, and the resultant protection and support of their offspring and babes by evil parents, is of the Lord’s Divine Providence, for otherwise but few of the human race would be left, and of ferocious beasts, which yet are of use, none at all. From this it is evident that everyone is disposed to love, protect, and support his offspring from his own love.

CL 393. VI. That this sphere affects the female sex, thus mothers, principally, and the male sex, or fathers, from them. This is a consequence due to the same origin that was previously spoken of (n. 223), namely, that the sphere of conjugial love is received by women, and through women is transferred to men, and this because women are born loves of the understanding of men and the understanding is a recipient. It is the same with the love of infants, the origin of this love being from conjugial love. That mothers have a more tender love of infants, and fathers a less tender, is well known. That the love of infants is inscribed on the conjugial love into which women are born, is manifest from the loving and friendly affection which girls have for infants and for their dolls which they carry about, dress, kiss, and press to their bosoms. Boys have no such affection.

[2] It appears as if mothers have the love of infants from having nourished them in the womb with their own blood, and so from their appropriation of their own life; thus from a sympathetic union. Yet this is not the origin of that love, for if, after the birth and unknown to the mother, another infant were substituted for the true one, it would be loved with equal tenderness as if it were her own. Moreover, sometimes infants are loved by their nurses more than by their mothers.

It follows from the above, that this love is from no other source than the conjugial love implanted in every woman. To this is adjoined the love of conceiving, by reason of the delight of which, the wife is prepared for reception. This is the first stage of that love. After the birth, it passes completely over into the babe, and with it its delight.

CL 394. VII. That this sphere is also a sphere of innocence and peace (from the Lord). Innocence and peace are the two inmost things of heaven. They are called inmost because they proceed immediately from the Lord, the Lord being Innocence and Peace itself. From innocence, the Lord is called the Lamb, and from peace He said:

The same is also meant by the peace with which the Disciples were to salute the city or house into which they entered; if it were worthy, peace should come upon it, and, if not worthy, the peace would return to them (Matt. 10:11-15). Hence also the Lord is called the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:5). Moreover, innocence and peace are the inmost things of heaven, innocence being the esse of every good, and peace the blessedness of every delight pertaining to good. See the work on HEAVEN AND HELL (HH n. 276-283), On the State of Innocence of the Angels of Heaven, and (HH n. 284-290), On the State of Peace in Heaven.

CL 395. VIII. That a sphere of innocence flows into infants, and through them into their parents, and affects them. That infants are innocences is known, but that their innocence inflows from the Lord is not known. It inflows from the Lord because, as said just above, He is Innocence itself, and nothing can inflow, because nothing is possible, save from its beginning which is the Thing Itself. The nature of the innocence of infancy which affects parents shall be told in a few words. It shines forth from their face, from some of their gestures and from their earliest speech, and affects their parents. They have innocence because they do not think from their interior, for they do not yet know what is good and evil and true and false, from which to think. Hence they have no prudence from proprium, nor any purpose from deliberation, and so have no evil end in view. They have no proprium acquired from the love of self and the world. They do not attribute anything to themselves. Everything which they receive they ascribe to their parents. They are content with the little things given them as presents. They have no care as to food and clothing, nor any as to the future. They do not look to the world or desire many things therefrom. They love their parents, their nurses, and their infant companions with whom they play in innocence. They suffer themselves to be led. They listen and obey. Such is the innocence of infancy which is the cause of the love called storge.

CL 396. IX. That it flows also into the souls of parents and conjoins itself with the same sphere with infants; and that it is insinuated more especially by touch. The Lord‘s innocence flows into angels of the third heaven where all are in the innocence of wisdom, and passes through the lower heavens, but only through the innocence of the angels there, and so into infants. (Thus it flows into infants) both immediately and mediately. They are little more than sculptured forms, yet they are capable of receiving life from the Lord through the heavens. But unless the parents also received that influx in their souls and in the inmost regions of their minds, they would be affected by the innocence of their infants in vain. If there is to be communication between one person and another, there must be in that other something adequate and homogeneous by which communication may be effected and which shall make for reception, affection, and hence conjunction. Otherwise it would be like tender seed falling on flint, or a lamb thrown to a wolf. Hence then it is, that the innocence flowing into the souls of parents conjoins itself with the innocence of their infants.

[2] That the conjunction is effected by the mediation of the senses of the body, but especially by touch, can be learned by parents from experience. Thus, the sight is inmostly delighted at seeing them, the hearing by their speech, the smell by their odour. That the communication and thence the conjunction of the innocences is effected especially by the touch, is manifestly perceived from the pleasure felt in carrying them in the arms, and from hugging and kissing them. This is especially the case with mothers. They experience delight from the pressure of their mouth and face against their bosom and, at the same time, from the touch of their palms there, and, in general, from the sucking of the breasts and the giving suck; also from stroking their naked body and the unwearied labour of swathing and cleansing them on their knees.

[3] That between married partners, communications of love and its delights are effected by the sense of touch, has been shown several times above. That thereby communication of minds also is effected, is because the hands are the ultimates of man, and in ultimates his prior things are present simultaneously. By this sense, moreover, all things of the body and all things of the mind, being things intermediate, are held together in unbroken connection. Hence it is that Jesus touched infants (Matt. 19:13, 15; Mark 10:13, 16), that by touch He healed the sick, and that they were healed who touched Him. Hence also it is that at this day, inauguration into the priesthood is made by the laying on of hands. From the above, it is clear that the innocence of parents and that of infants meet each other by means of touch, especially by touch of the hands and so are conjoined as though by kisses.

CL 397. That innocence operates in the same way with beasts and birds as with men, and this also by contact, is well known. It operates in the same way because all that proceeds from the Lord pervades the universe in an instant; see above (n. 388-390); and since it goes by degrees and by continual mediations, it passes over not only to animals but also beyond, to vegetables and minerals (n. 389). It passes also into the earth, which is the mother of all vegetables and minerals; for in the time of spring, the earth is in a state prepared for the reception of seeds as though into a womb, and when it receives them it conceives, as it were, cherishes them, carries them, brings them forth, gives them suck, nourishes, clothes, rears, and guards them, and, as it were, loves the offspring from them, and so on. Since the sphere of procreation goes so far, why not then to animals of every kind even to worms. That as the earth is the common mother of all vegetation, there is also a common mother of the bees in every hive, is an established fact.

CL 398. X. That in the degree that innocence recedes with infants, affection and conjunction also abate, and this successively even to separation. It is well known that the love of infants or storge recedes from parents according to the recession of innocence from the infants, receding with men even to the separation of the children from the home, and with beasts and birds even to the casting of them out from their presence, and oblivion as to their being of their kin. From this, as from an established proof, it can be evident that in both cases it is inflowing innocence that produces the love called storge.

CL 399. XI. That with parents there is a rational state of innocence and peace in respect to their infants, in that the latter know nothing and can do nothing from themselves but from others, especially their father and mother; and that this state successively recedes as they acquire knowledge and are able to act from themselves and not from their parents. That the sphere of the love of infants is a sphere of protection and support of those who cannot protect and support themselves, was shown above in its own article, (n. 391). It was there stated, that with man this is only the rational cause of the love with them, but not the cause itself. The originating cause of that love is innocence from the Lord. This flows in unknown to the man and brings forth the rational cause. Therefore, as the first cause effects recession from that love, so at the same time does this second cause; or, what is the same thing, as the communication of innocence recedes, so the persuading reason accompanies it. This, however, is the case only with man, and this in order that he may do what he does from freedom according to reason, and that from this, as from rational and at the same time moral law, he may support his grown-up offspring according to necessity and use. This second cause is lacking in animals devoid of reason. They have only the prior cause which with them is instinct.

CL 400. XII. That the sphere of the love of procreating progresses in order, from an end through causes into effects, and makes periods whereby creation is preserved in the state foreseen and provided. All operations in the universe progress from ends through causes into effects. In themselves, these three are inseparable, though in idea they appear as if separated. Yet, even in idea the end is nothing unless at the same time the effect intended is seen. Nor do these two become anything unless a cause supports, provides for, and conjoins them.

[2] Such a progression, exactly like will, understanding, and action, is inscribed on every man, both in general and in his every single part. In him, every end pertains to his will, every cause to his understanding, and every effect to his action. So likewise every end pertains to his love; every cause, being the means to the end, to his wisdom; and every effect therefrom to his use. The reason is because the receptacle of love is the will, the receptacle of wisdom is the understanding, and the receptacle of use is action. Since, therefore, operations in man, both in general and in his every single part, progress from the will through the understanding into the act, they also progress from love through wisdom into use; but here by wisdom is meant all that pertains to judgment and thought. That in the effect these three are one is evident. That they also make one in man’s ideas prior to the effect, is perceived from the fact that (in the actual effect) it is merely determination that intervenes; for in the mind, the end goes forth from the will and produces for itself a cause in the understanding, and there presents to itself an intention--and intention is as the act prior to determination. Hence it is, that by a wise man and also by the Lord, the intention is accepted for the deed.

[3] What rational man cannot see, or on hearing cannot acknowledge, that these three flow forth from some first cause? and that that cause is the fact that from the Lord the Creator and Preserver of the universe continually proceed love, wisdom, and use, the three proceeding as a one? Tell me, if you can, from where else can they flow?

CL 401. The sphere of procreating and of protecting what is procreated has a like progression from end, through cause, into effect. The end there, is the will or love of procreating. The mediate cause through which and into which the end betakes itself is conjugial love. The progressive series of efficient causes is the loving embrace, the conception and gestation of the embryo or foetus to be procreated, and the effect, this being the procreated infant itself. But although end, cause, and effect progress successively as three, yet, in the love of procreating and inwardly in the several causes and in the effect itself, they make a one. It is only the efficient causes that progress through time, because in nature; the end, that is, the will and love remain ever the same; for in nature, ends progress through times without time, but they cannot come forth and manifest themselves until the effect or use exists and becomes their subject. Prior to this, the love could love only the progression; it could not fix and establish itself.

[2] That there are periods of such progressions is known and also that the preservation of Creation in the state foreseen and provided for, is effected by their means. But the series of the love of infants from its greatest to its least, and so to its terminus where it stops or comes to an end, is a retrograde series because it proceeds according to the decrease of innocence in its subject, and also because of its periods.

CL 402. XIII. That the love of infants descends and does not ascend, that is, that it descends from generation to generation, or from sons and daughters to grandsons and granddaughters. That it does not ascend from these to fathers and mothers of families is known. The cause of its increase in the descent is the love of fructifying, that is, of producing uses, and, as regards the human race, the love of multiplying the race. This cause, however, derives its origin solely from the Lord; for in the multiplication of the human race, He sees the preservation of creation and, as the ultimate end thereof, an angelic heaven, this being solely from the human race. And because, with the Lord, an angelic heaven is the end of ends and hence the love of loves, therefore, implanted in the souls of men is not only the love of procreating but also the love of the things procreated in their successions. Therefore also, the latter love exists only with man and not with any beast or bird. Moreover, that with man this love increases as it descends, comes from the glory of honour. This likewise increases with him according to the amplification (in the number of his descendants). That the love of honour and glory receives into itself the love of infants flowing in from the Lord, and makes this its own, as it were, will be seen in article XVI, following.

CL 403. XIV. That wives have one state of love before conception, and another after it up to the birth. This is adduced, to the end that it may be known that in the conjugial love with women, is implanted the love of procreating and the consequent love of that which is procreated; and that, when the end which is the love of procreating, commences its progression, these two loves in her are divided. That the love storge is then transferred from the wife into the husband, and that the love of procreating which, with a woman, as already stated, makes one with her conjugial love, is not then the same, is manifest from many indications.

CL 404. XV. That with parents, conjugial love is conjoined with the love of infants by spiritual causes, and by natural causes therefrom. The spiritual causes are: That the human race may be multiplied and the angelic heaven therefrom enlarged; thus, that those may be born who will become angels, serving the Lord in the performance of uses in heaven and, by consociation with men, also on earth; for angels are associated by the Lord with every man, and such is the conjunction with them that were they taken away the man would die in a moment. The natural causes of the conjunction of these two loves are: That those may be born who will perform uses in human societies, and will be incorporated therein as members. That the latter are the natural and the former the spiritual causes of the love of infants and of conjugial love, is also the thought of married partners themselves. Moreover, they sometimes declare it, saying that they have enriched heaven with as many angels as they have descendants, and have put their mark upon society with as many servants as they have children.

CL 405. XVI. That the love of infants (and children) is of one kind with spiritual married partners, and of another with natural. With spiritual partners the love of infants is the same in appearance as the love of infants with natural partners; but it is more internal and hence more tender, inasmuch as it exists from the innocence with themselves, and from a closer reception and a more present perception thereof; for the spiritual are spiritual in the degree that they partake of innocence. But after they have tasted the sweetness of the innocence present with their infants, (spiritual) fathers and mothers love their children in a far different way than do natural fathers and mothers. The spiritual love their children for the spiritual intelligence and moral life of those children, thus for their fear of God and their actual piety or piety of life, and at the same time for their devotion and application to uses serviceable to society, thus for their virtues and their upright conduct. It is mainly from their love of these that they provide for their needs and supply them; and therefore, if they do not see such virtues in them, they alienate their mind from them, and what they do for them is done solely from duty.

[2] With natural fathers and mothers, the love of infants is indeed also from innocence, but, as received by them, this innocence is wrapped around their own love. Hence it is from the latter and at the same time from innocence that they love their infants, kissing and hugging them, carrying them about, pressing them to their bosoms, fondling them beyond measure, and regarding them as being one heart and soul with themselves. Then, after their state of infancy and up to adolescence and beyond, when innocence is no longer operative, they continue to love them, but not from the presence with them of any fear of God and actual piety or piety of life, or of any rational and moral intelligence. They pay little and indeed scarcely any attention to their internal affections and hence to their virtues and good conduct, seeing only the external things which they themselves favour. To these they adjoin, attach, and cement their affections; thus shutting their eyes to the faults of their children, excusing and favouring them. The reason is because with them, the love of their progeny is also the love of themselves, and this love clings to its object outwardly, but does not enter into that object, just as the object does not enter into it.

CL 406. The nature of the love of infants and children with the spiritual, and its nature with the natural, is manifestly perceived from parents (in the spiritual world) after death. When they come there, most fathers call to mind their children who have passed away before them, and the children are presented to them and there is mutual recognition. Spiritual fathers merely look at them and ask as to their state, rejoicing if it is well with them and grieving if it is ill; and, after some conversation, instruction, and admonition respecting heavenly moral life, they separate from them. But before separation, they teach them that they are no longer to be remembered as fathers because the Lord is the one only Father to all in heaven, according to His words (Matt. 23:9); and that they themselves never remember them as their children. But natural fathers, as soon as they realize that they are living after death and recall to their memory the children who had passed away before them and who also are presented to them according to their desire, are at once conjoined with them, and they cling together like a bundle of sticks. The father is then in continual delight at the sight of them and from conversation with them. If it is told him that some of these children of his are satans and have brought injury upon the good, he nevertheless keeps them in a circle around him, or in a group in front of him. If he himself sees that they inflict injury and do evil deeds, he still pays no heed and does not dissociate any of them from himself. Therefore, lest so harmful a company continue, they are of necessity sent together into hell. There, in the presence of his children, the father is put under guard and his children are separated, each being sent away to the place proper to his life.

CL 407. To this I will add the following marvel: In the spiritual world, I have seen fathers who, when infants were set before their eyes, looked at them from hatred as though with fury and with so ferocious an animus that they wished to kill them if they could; but as soon as it was told them, though it was not true, that they were their own infants, their fury and ferocity at once left them and they loved them desperately. This love and the previous hatred exist simultaneously in those who in the world had been interiorly deceitful and whose animus was filled with infestations against the Lord.

CL 408. XVII. That with the spiritual, this love is from within or A PRIORI, but with the natural, from without or A POSTERIORI. To think and conclude from within or a priori is to think from ends and causes to effects, but to think and conclude from without or a posteriori is to think from effects to causes and ends. The latter progression is against order, but the former is according to order; for to think and conclude from ends and causes is to think and conclude from goods and truths clearly seen in the higher region of the mind, to effects in the lower region. Such from creation is the nature of human rationality itself. But to think and conclude from effects is to conjecture causes and ends from the lower region of the mind where are the sensual things of the body with there appearances and fallacies. In itself, this is nothing else than to confirm falsities and concupiscences and, after confirmation, to see and believe them to be the verities of wisdom and the goodness of the love thereof. It is the same with the love of infants and children in spiritual men and in natural. The spiritual love them ex priori, thus according to order, while the natural love them ex posteriori, thus contrary to order. This is adduced simply to confirm the preceding article.

CL 409. XVIII. That thence it is, that this love is with married partners who love each other, and also with married partners who have no love for each other; consequently, with the natural equally as with the spiritual. The latter, however, have conjugial love, while the former have only apparent or simulated conjugial love. The love of infants and conjugial love nevertheless act as one, and this because conjugial love is implanted in every woman from creation, and together with it, the love of procreating. The influx of this love is determined into the offspring procreated, and from women, the love is carried to men, as said above (n. 393). Hence it is that in homes wherein there is no conjugial love between man and wife, there is nevertheless conjugial love with the wife, and thereby some external conjunction with the man. It is from this same cause that harlots also love their offspring; for that which has been implanted in souls from creation and looks to propagation is indelible and ineradicable.

CL 410. XIX. That the love of infants remains after death, especially with women. As soon as infants are resuscitated, which takes place immediately after their decease, they are taken up into heaven and are given to angels of the female sex who in their bodily life in the world had loved infants and at the same time feared God. These angels, having loved all infants with maternal tenderness, receive them as their own; and the infants, as though from something implanted within them, love them as their mothers. As many infants are with such angels as from spiritual storge they desire. The heaven where infants are, appears in front, in the region of the forehead, in the line or radius in which angels look directly to the Lord. This is the situation of that heaven because all infants are educated under the Lord‘s immediate auspices. Moreover, with them, the heaven of innocence flows in, which is the third heaven. After this first age is passed, they are transferred to another heaven where they are instructed.

CL 411. XX. That under the Lord’s auspices, infants are educated by them and grow in stature and intelligence as in the world. Infants in heaven are educated in the following manner: From their instructress, they learn to speak. Their first speech is merely the sound of affection, wherein, however, is some initiament of thought, and from which what is human in the sound is distinguished from the sound of an animal. Gradually, as ideas from affection enter the thought, this speech becomes more distinct. All their affections, which also grow, proceed from innocence. First are insinuated into them such things as appear before their eyes and are delightful, and into these, being of a spiritual origin, inflow at the same time things which are of heaven whereby the interiors of their mind are opened. Later, as the infants are perfected in intelligence, they so increase in stature that they are seen to become adult as to this also. The reason is because intelligence and wisdom are spiritual nourishment, and therefore, the things which nourish their minds nourish also their bodies. In heaven, however, infants do not grow up beyond the first age. There they stay, and they remain at that age to eternity. When they come to this age, they are given in marriage. This is provided by the Lord and is celebrated in the heaven where the young man dwells; but immediately after the marriage, the latter follows his wife to her heaven, or, if they are in the same society, to her house. That I might know for certain that infants, as they increase and become adult in intelligence increase also in stature, it has been given me to speak with some when they were infants, and afterwards with the same when grown up, and they were seen to be adults of the same stature as young men and women in the world.

CL 412. Infants are instructed especially by representations adapted and suitable to their genius. In the world it can hardly be believed how beautiful these are, and also how full of interior wisdom. Here it is allowed to introduce two representations, and from them conclusion can be made as to the others.

Once they presented the appearance of the Lord rising from the sepulchre, and at the same time the unition of His Human with the Divine. First they presented the appearance of a sepulchre, but not at the same time any appearance of the Lord, unless so remotely that it would scarcely be perceived that it was the Lord except from afar, as it were. This is because in the idea of a sepulchre there is something funereal which in this way they removed. Afterwards they skilfully admitted into the sepulchre an atmospheric something which yet appeared to be subtly aqueous, whereby, as also by its becoming remoteness, they signified the spiritual life in baptism.

Later I saw represented by them the descent of the Lord to those bound in the pit, and His ascent with them into heaven; and, what was infantile, they let down slender cords, almost invisible, very delicate and of the utmost fineness, with which they would make it easier for the Lord in His ascent, being ever in holy fear lest anything in the representation should border upon that wherein the heavenly was not present; besides other representations by which infants are introduced into the knowledges of truth and at the same time into the affections of good, as by sports harmonious with the infantile mind. To these and like things infants are led by the Lord by means of innocence passing through the third heaven. In this way spiritual things are so insinuated into their affections and thence into their tender thoughts, that the infants know no other than that they do and think such things of themselves. By this means their understanding is initiated.

CL 413. XXI. That it is there provided by the Lord that the innocence of infancy with infants become the innocence of wisdom. Many may think that infants remain infants and become angels immediately after death. But it is intelligence and wisdom that make an angel, and therefore, so long as infants do not have these, they are indeed with the angels but are not angels. They first become angels when they become intelligent and wise. Thus, infants are led from the innocence of infancy to the innocence of wisdom, that is, from external innocence to internal innocence, the latter being the end in all their instruction and progression. Therefore, when they come to the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of infancy, which meanwhile has served them as a plane, is adjoined to them. I have seen the nature of the innocence of infancy represented by something woody, almost devoid of life. This is vivified as the infant is imbued with knowledges of truth and affections of good. Later, the nature of the innocence of wisdom was represented by a living and naked infant.

Before the eyes of spirits who are below the heavens, angels of the third heaven, who more than others are in a state of innocence from the Lord, appear as naked infants; and being wise above all others, they are also living. The reason is because innocence corresponds to infancy, and also to nakedness. Therefore it is said of Adam and his wife when they were in the state of innocence, that they were naked and were not ashamed; but after they had lost the state of innocence, they were ashamed of their nakedness and hid themselves (Gen. 2:25; 3:7, 10, 11). In a word, the wiser the angels, the more innocent they are. The nature of the innocence of wisdom may be seen in some measure from the innocence of infancy described above (n. 395), if only, instead of parents, the Lord is assumed as the Father by whom they are led and to whom they ascribe all that they have.

CL 414. I have had various conversations with angels about innocence. They said that innocence is the esse of every good, and that good is good in the measure that innocence is within it; also, that since wisdom pertains to life and thus to good, it is wisdom so far as it partakes of innocence, the same being true of love, charity, and faith; and furthermore, that it is for this reason that no one can enter heaven unless he has innocence, this being what is meant by the Lord‘s words:

Here, as also in other places in the word, by infants are meant those who are in innocence. The reason why good is good according to the measure of the innocence within it, is because all good is from the Lord, and innocence consists in being led by the Lord.

CL 415. To the above I will add the following Memorable Relation:

One morning when I awoke from sleep, and before being fully awake was meditating in the early and serene light, I saw through the window something like a flash of lightning, and presently I heard something like the rumbling of thunder. As I was wondering where this came from, I heard these words from heaven: "Not far from you are some men who are reasoning sharply about God and nature. The vibration of light as of lightning, and the rumbling of the air as of thunder are correspondences and thence appearances of the contest and collision of their arguments, on the one side in favour of God and on the other in favour of nature."

The cause of this spiritual combat was as follows: There were some satans in hell who said among themselves, "Would that it were allowed us to speak with angels of heaven; we would conclusively and fully demonstrate that what they call the God from whom are all things, is nature, and that unless nature is meant, God is merely a word." Because those satans believed this with their whole heart and soul, and also desired to speak With angels of heaven, it was given them to ascend out of the mire and darkness of hell and to speak with two angels then descending from heaven. They were in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell.

[2] Seeing the angels there, the satans rushed up to them and cried out in a furious voice: "Are you the angels of heaven whom it is allowed us to meet for the purpose of reasoning about God and nature? Because you acknowledge God, you are called wise, but oh! how simple you are! Who can see God? Who can understand what God is? Who can comprehend that God governs or can govern the universe and each and every single thing thereof? Who but the common herd and the vulgar acknowledges what he does not see and understand? What is more obvious than that nature is the all in all? Who with his eyes has seen anything but nature? or with his ears has heard anything but nature? or with his nostrils has smelled anything but nature? or with his tongue has tasted anything but nature? or by the touch of his hand or body has felt anything but nature? Are not the senses of our body the sole witnesses of truth? and on their evidence, who cannot swear that such is the case? Are not your heads in nature? Whence but from her comes influx into the thoughts of your head? Take nature away, can you think anything?" besides much else of the same sort.

[3] Hearing this, the angels responded: "You speak in this way because you are merely sensual. All in the hells have the ideas of their thoughts immersed in the senses of the body and cannot elevate their minds above them. Therefore we excuse you. A life of evil, and thence a belief in what is false, has so closed the interiors of your minds that with you elevation above things sensual is impossible except in a state removed from evils of life and falsities of faith; for a satan, while hating truth, can understand it equally well as an angel, but he does not retain it because evil obliterates truth and brings in falsity. We perceive that you are now in a state thus removed and so can understand the truth which we speak. Give heed then to what we shall say.’ They then continued: `You were in the natural world and died there, and you are now in the spiritual world. Until now, did you know anything about the life after death? Did you not formerly deny it and put yourselves on a level with beasts? Did you previously know anything about heaven and hell? or about the light and heat of this world? or the fact that you are no longer within nature but above her? For this world and all things thereof are spiritual, and spiritual things are so far above natural that not the least of nature can flow into this world. But you, believing nature to be a god or goddess, believe also that the light and heat of this world are the light and heat of the natural world, when yet this is by no means the case; for here natural light is thick darkness, and natural heat cold. Did you know anything about the sun of this world from which proceed our light and heat? Did you know that this sun is pure love, and the sun of the natural world pure fire? that the sun of the world, being pure fire, is that from which nature existed and subsists, and the sun of heaven, being pure love, that from which life itself, which is love together with wisdom, existed and subsists? thus that nature, which you make to be a god or goddess, is absolutely dead?

[4] If a guard is granted you, you can ascend with us into heaven, and if a guard is granted us, we can descend with you into hell. In heaven you will see things magnificent and splendid, but in hell, things squalid and unclean. Such are the differences between them, because all in the heavens worship God, and all in the hells worship nature; and the magnificent and splendid things in the heavens are correspondences of the affections of good and truth, while the squalid and unclean things in the hells are correspondences of the lusts of evil and falsity. And now, from all this, draw your own conclusion as to whether God be the All in all or nature."

To this the satans replied: "In the state in which we now are, we are able to draw the conclusion from what we have heard, that it is God; but when the delight of evil takes possession of our minds we see nothing but nature."

[5] The two angels and the two satans were standing at the right, not far from me, so that I both heard and saw them. And lo, around them I saw many spirits who in the natural world had been celebrated for learning; and I marvelled that these learned men stood now beside the angels, now beside the satans, and that they favoured those beside whom they stood. It was then told me that their changes of place were changes of their mental state, which favoured now one side, now the other; "for" (said my informants),"they are vertumni. And we will tell you a mystery. We ourselves looked down upon the earth at men celebrated for learning who have thought about God and nature from their own judgment, and out of a thousand we found six hundred in favour of nature and the rest in favour of God; but we found the latter to be in favour of God because they had frequently said that nature is from God, saying this, not from any understanding, but only from what they had heard; for speech from memory and recollection and not at the same time from thought and intelligence, often induces a sort of faith."

[6] After this, a guard was given the satans, and with the two angels they ascended into heaven and saw things magnificent and splendid. Moreover, being then in enlightenment from the heavenly light there, they acknowledged that there is a God, and that nature was created to serve the life which is in God and from God; also that nature in herself is dead and so does nothing of herself but is actuated by life. Having seen and perceived all this, they descended; and as the descended, the love of evil returned, closing their understanding above and opening it below. Then, above it, appeared as it were, a veil, flashing from infernal fire; and the moment their feet touched the earth, the ground opened beneath them and they sank down to their own.

CL 416. After this the two angels, seeing me near them, said to the bystanders, "We know that this man has written about God and nature; let us hear him." And they approached me and asked that what had been written respecting God and nature might be read to them. I then read therefrom the following.:

"From the innumerable things which they see in nature, those who believe in a Divine operation in every single thing of nature can equally well, nay, far more easily, confirm themselves in favour of the Divine, than those who (deny God can) confirm themselves in favor of nature. For those who confirm themselves in favour of the Divine take note of the marvels which are observed in the production both of plants and of animals--in the PRODUCTION OF PLANTS, in that from a small seed cast into the ground comes a root; by means of the root a stem, and then in succession branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, even to new seeds, exactly as though the seed knew the order of succession or the process by which it was to renew itself. What rational man can think that the sun, which is pure fire, knows this? or that it can so endow its heat and light as to produce such effects? that in those effects it can produce marvellous forms and can intend a use? Seeing such things and reflecting upon them, a man whose rational is elevated cannot think otherwise than that they are from Him who has infinite wisdom, thus from God. Moreover, those who acknowledge the Divine, do see this and think it. Not so those who do not acknowledge the Divine, for they do not wish thus to see and think. Thus, letting their rational down into the sensual, which draws all its ideas from the lumen in which are the senses of the body, they confirm the fallacies of the senses, saying, Do you not see the sun performing these operations by its heat and light? What is that which you do not see? Is it anything?

[2] "Those who confirm themselves in favour of the Divine take note of the marvels which are observed in the PRODUCTIONS OF ANIMALS. Here I make mention merely of their production in eggs. In these, the chick is latent in its seed or initiament together with every requisite until the time of hatching, and also with every requisite during its progress after the hatching, until it becomes a bird or winged creature in the form of its genitor. And if one gives heed to their form and thinks deeply (he will see) that it is of such a nature that he cannot but come into a state of amazement. As, for example, that in the tiniest creatures as in the largest, yea, in the invisible as in the visible, that is, in little insects as in large birds or beasts, are organs of the senses, namely, sight, smell, taste, touch, and, inasmuch as they fly and walk, organs of motion, namely, muscles; also viscera surrounding their hearts and lungs, which are put in motion by their brains. That these are enjoyed by lowly insects is known from the anatomy of such insects as described by authors, especially by Swammerdam in his Biblia Naturae.

[3] "Those who ascribe all things to nature do indeed see these things, but think simply that they are, and say that nature produces them, saying this because they have turned their mind away from thinking of the Divine. When they see the marvels in nature, those who have turned away from thinking of the Divine cannot think rationally, still less spiritually, but think sensually and materially. They then think, not above nature, but from her and in her, in like manner as do those who are in hell. They differ from beasts only in this, that they enjoy rationality, that is, are able to understand, and so can think differently if they will.

[4] "Those who turn away from thinking of the Divine, when they see the marvels in nature and thereby become sensual, do not consider that the sight of the eye is so gross that it sees a number of little insects as a single dark speck; that yet each one of them is organized for sensation and motion, and is therefore furnished with fibres and vessels and also with little hearts, pulmonary tubes, viscera, and brains; that these are woven of the purest things in nature, and that the weavings correspond to some life by which their minutest parts are distinctly actuated. Since the sight of the eye is so gross that to it many such creatures, with the innumerable things within each, appear as dark specks and yet those who are sensual think and judge from that sight, the grossness of their mind and so the darkness in which they are in respect to things spiritual, becomes evident.

CL 417. "From the things visible in nature, everyone can confirm himself in favour of the Divine if he will. Moreover, he who thinks of God from life does so confirm himself; as, for example, when he sees the birds of the air, that each species knows its foods and where they are, recognizes its kind by sound and sight, and among other kinds, which are its friends and which its enemies; that they choose their mates, know how to love, skilfully build nests, there lay their eggs, sit upon them, know the time of incubation, and when this is passed, hatch out their young, love them with the utmost tenderness, gather them under their wings, bring food in their bills and feed them until they come to their own right and can themselves do the same things and procreate a family to perpetuate the species. Every one who is willing to think of the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural, can see it in these operations. Moreover, if he will, he can say in his heart, Such knowledge cannot flow into these birds from the sun through its rays of light; for the sun from which nature draws her origin and essence is pure fire; and therefore the rays of its light are absolutely dead. Thus he can conclude that such things are from the influx of Divine Wisdom into the ultimates of nature.

CL 418. "From the things visible in nature, everyone can confirm himself in favour of the Divine when he sees those worms which, from the delight of some desire, strive after and aspire to a change of their earthly state to a state analogous to the heavenly, and for this purpose creep into places where they put themselves into a womb, as it were, to be born again, and there become chrysalises, aurelias, nymphs, and at last butterflies; and after undergoing this metamorphosis, then, clothed with beautiful wings according to the species, fly off into the air as into their heaven and there engage in genial sport, mate, lay eggs, provide for themselves a posterity, and then nourish themselves on delectable and sweet food drawn from flowers. What man is there, if from the visible things of nature he confirms himself in favour of the Divine, who does not see in these creatures as worms, some image of man‘s earthly state, and in them as butterflies, some image of his heavenly state? Those who confirm themselves in favour of nature do indeed see these operations, but having rejected man’s heavenly state from their mind, they call them mere instincts of nature.

CL 419. "From the visible things in nature, everyone can confirm himself in favour of the Divine when he takes note of what is known concerning bees; that they know how to collect wax and suck honey from herbs and flowers; to build cells like little houses, and to arrange them into the form of a city with streets through which they come and go; that they scent from afar the flowers and herbs from which they collect wax for their house and honey for their food, and laden with these, fly back in a direct line to their hive. Thus they provide for themselves food and dwelling for the coming winter as though they had knowledge and foresight. They also set over them as queen, a mistress by whom a posterity may be propagated; and for her, they build above them a kind of palace with attendants round about it; and when the time of bringing forth is at hand, then, accompanied by her attendants, she goes from cell to cell and lays her eggs; and lest these be injured by the air, they are besmeared all around by the crowd that follows her; and from these eggs they obtain a new progeny. Later, when this progeny has come to an age able to do the same things, it is driven from the home; and the swarm thus driven out, first gathers itself together and then, in a compact body lest the company be scattered, it flies off to seek for itself a domicile. Moreover, about autumn, the useless drones are led out and deprived of their wings lest they return and consume the food on which they have expended no labour; besides many other marvels. From all this it can be seen that because of the use they perform to the human race, and by virtue of influx out of the spiritual world, bees have a form of government like that which is among men on earth, yea, among angels in heaven. What man is there of unimpaired reason who does not see that such operations among bees are not from the natural world? What has the sun, the source of nature, in common with a government emulous of the government of heaven and analogous thereto?

"From the above and from similar marvels with brute animals, the confessor and worshipper of nature confirms himself in favour of nature, while, from the same things, the confessor and worshipper of God confirms himself in favour of the Divine, the spiritual man seeing in them spiritual things, and the natural man seeing in them natural things, each seeing in accordance with his nature. As regards myself, to me such things have been testimonies of the influx of the spiritual into the natural, that is, of the spiritual world into the natural world, thus of influx from the Lord‘s Divine Wisdom. Reflect also on this: Is it possible for you to think analytically concerning any form of government, or any civil law or moral virtue or spiritual truth, unless the Divine from His wisdom flow in through the spiritual world? As to myself, it has not been possible, nor is it, for both by perception and by sensation, I have observed that influx, and this now for twenty-five years continuously. Therefore I say this as one who has witnessed it.

CL 420. "Can nature have use for an end, and arrange uses into orders and forms? None can do this save One who is wise; and none can thus ordinate and form the universe save God who has infinite wisdom. Who else can foresee and provide all those things which are food and clothing for mankind, food from the fruits of the earth and from animals, and clothing from the same? It is among marvels that those lowly worms called silkworms should clothe in silk and magnificently adorn both women and men, from queens and kings to maidservants and menservants; and that lowly worms which become bees should supply wax for the lights from which churches and palaces are in their splendour. These and many other things are outstanding proofs that the Lord operates all things which are in nature from Himself through the spiritual world.

CL 421. "To this it should be added that men who from things visible in the world, have so confirmed themselves in favour of nature that they became atheists, have been seen by me in the spiritual world. Seen in spiritual light, their understanding was open below but closed above, and this because in their thought they had looked downwards to the earth and not upwards to heaven. Above their sensual, which is the lowest part of the understanding, appeared, as it were, a veil. With some it was flashing from infernal fire, with others it was black as soot, and with still others, livid as a corpse. Let everyone, therefore, beware of confirmations in favour of nature. Let him confirm himself in favour of the Divine; there is no lack of material.

CL 422. "Some indeed are to be pardoned for having ascribed certain visible things to nature, in that they have not known anything about the sun of the spiritual world where the Lord is, and about influx therefrom; nor anything about that world itself and the state thereof, no, nor anything about its presence with men. Thus they could not have thought otherwise than that the spiritual was a purer natural, and that angels were either in the ether or in the stars; and of the devil, that either he was man’s evil or, if he actually existed, that he was in the air or in the deep; and that after death the souls of men are either in the inmost part of the earth or in some Ubi or Pu, until the day of judgment; and other like notions which fantasy has induced from ignorance of the spiritual world and of its sun. This is the reason why they are to be pardoned who have believed that nature Produces her visible things from something implanted from creation. But those are not to be pardoned who by confirmations in favour of nature have made themselves atheists; for they could have confirmed themselves in favour of the Divine. Ignorance does indeed excuse, but it does not take away the falsity that has been confirmed, for this coheres with evil, and evil with hell."

CL 423. At this threshold, it must first be explained what in the present chapter is meant by scortatory love. The fornicatory love which precedes marriage is not meant; nor that which follows it after the death of the married partner; nor concubinage when entered into for legitimate, just, and weighty reasons. Nor are the mild kinds of adultery meant, nor the grievous kinds of which a man actually repents; for the latter do not become the opposite to conjugial love, and the former are not the opposite; that they are not the opposite will be seen in what follows when each comes to be treated of. By scortatory love opposite to conjugial love is here meant the love of adultery when it is such that it is reputed, not as a sin or as wicked and dishonourable, opposed to reason, but as allowed by reason. This scortatory love not only makes conjugial love one with itself but also debases and destroys it and finally regards it with disgust.

[2] It is the opposition of this love to conjugial love that is treated of in the present chapter. That no other love is treated of, can be manifest from the chapters on Fornication, Concubinage, and the various kinds of Adultery, which follow. That the opposition may be evident before the rational sight, it shall be demonstrated in the following series.:

1. That the nature of scortatory love cannot be known unless the nature of conjugial love is known.

2. That scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love.

3. That scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love as the natural man regarded in himself is the opposite to the spiritual man.

4. That scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love as the connubial connection of evil and falsity is the opposite to the marriage of good and truth.

5. That hence scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love as hell is the opposite to heaven.

6. That the uncleanness of hell is from scortatory love, and the cleanness of heaven from conjugial love.

7. That it is the same with uncleanness in the Church, and with cleanness there.

8. That scortatory love makes man to be more and more not a man and not a male; and that conjugial love makes man to be more and more a man and a male.

9. That there is a sphere of scortatory love and a sphere of conjugial love.

10. That the sphere of scortatory love ascends from hell, and that the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven.

11. That these two spheres meet each other in both worlds but do not join.

12. That between these two spheres is an equilibrium, and that man is in this equilibrium.

13. That man is able to turn himself to whichever sphere he pleases, but so far as he turns to the one, he turns away from the other.

14. That each sphere carries with it delights.

15. That the delights of scortatory love commence from the flesh and are delights of the flesh even in the spirit; but that the delights of conjugial love commence in the spirit and are delights of the spirit even in the flesh.

16. That the enjoyments of scortatory love are the pleasures of insanity, but the enjoyments of conjugial love are the delights of wisdom.

Now follows the explanation of the above:

CL 424. I. That the nature of scortatory love cannot be known unless the nature of conjugial love is known. Here, as in (n. 423), by scortatory love is meant the love of adultery which destroys conjugial love. That the nature of this scortatory love cannot be known unless the nature of conjugial love is known, has no need of demonstration; it needs only to be illustrated by comparisons. For instance, who can know what evil and falsity are unless he knows what good and truth are? and who can know what the unchaste is, or the dishonourable, the indecorous, and the ugly, unless he knows what the chaste is, or the honourable, the decorous, and the beautiful? Who can discern insanities save one who is wise, that is, who knows what wisdom is? Who can rightly perceive inharmonious stridors save one who by learning and study has absorbed harmonious numbers? In like manner, who can see clearly the nature of adultery unless he has seen clearly the nature of marriage? or who can set before his judgment the filthiness of the pleasures of scortatory love unless he has previously set before his judgment the cleanness of conjugial love? Because I have now finished The Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love, therefore, from the intelligence thence acquired, I am able to describe the pleasures (of insanity) from scortatory love.

CL 425. II. That scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love. There is nothing in the universe which has not its opposite; and opposites are not relative to each other but contrary. Relatives are things between the greatest and least of the same thing, while contraries lie over against them from the opposite side, being relatives with respect to each other just as are the former relatives; therefore, the relatives are themselves opposites. That each and everything has its opposite is manifest from light, heat, the times of the world, affections, perceptions, sensations, and many other things. The opposite of light is darkness, the opposite of heat is cold. The opposites of the times of the world are day and night, summer and winter. Opposites in affections are joys and sorrows, gladness and sadness. Opposites in perceptions are goods and evils, and truths and falsities. Opposites in sensations are things delightful and undelightful. Thus the conclusion can be made in all clearness that conjugial love has its opposite. That this opposite is adultery can be seen by everyone if he will, from all the dictates of sound reason. Tell me, if you can, what else is its opposite? Moreover, sound reason, seeing this clearly from its own light, has enacted laws called civil laws of justice in favour of marriages and against adulteries.

[2] To make it still more clear that they are opposites, I may be allowed to tell something which I have often seen in the spiritual world. Those who in the natural world were adulterers from confirmation, when they perceive the sphere of conjugial love flowing down out of heaven, at once either flee into caverns and hide themselves, or, if they stand out against it, are aroused to fury and become like the Furies. This is because in the spiritual world all things pertaining to affections, whether delightful or undelightful, are perceived, being sometimes perceived just as clearly as an odour is perceived by the smell; for spirits do not have a material body for the absorption of such things.

[3] That the opposition of scortatory love and conjugial love is unknown to many in the natural world is due to delights of the flesh, which, in their outer appearance, emulate the delights of conjugial love, and those who are in delights alone know nothing of their opposition. Indeed, I can imagine that if you should say that everything has its opposite, and conclude that this applies to conjugial love also, adulterers would reply that this love has no opposite since in no sensation does scortatory love differ from it. From this it is also evident that one who does not know the nature of conjugial love, does not know the nature of scortatory love; and further, that the nature of conjugial love is not known from scortatory love, but the latter is known from the former. No one from evil can know good, but from good he can know what is evil; for evil is in darkness, but good is in light.

CL 426. III. That scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love as the natural man regarded in himself is the opposite to the spiritual man. That the natural man and the spiritual man are so opposed to each other that the one does not will what the other wills, yea, that they fight against each other, is known in the Church but has not as yet been explained. It shall therefore now be told what distinguishes the spiritual man from the natural and arouses the latter against the former. The natural man is that into which everyone is first introduced during his growth to adult age, this introduction being effected by knowledges and cognitions and by the rational things of the understanding; but the spiritual man is that into which he is introduced by the love of performing uses--a love which is also called charity. So far, therefore, as one is in charity, he is spiritual, but so far as he is not, he is natural even though he be perspicacious in genius and wise in judgment. When separated from the spiritual man, the natural man, howsoever he elevates himself into the light of reason, nevertheless abandons himself to lusts and engages in them. This becomes evident from his genius alone, in that he is void of charity, and one who is void of charity is abandoned to every lasciviousness of scortatory love. Therefore, when it is told him that this libidinous love is the opposite to chaste conjugial love, and he is asked to consult his rational lumen, he does indeed consult that lumen, but only in conjunction with the delight of the evil implanted in the natural man by birth. From this he comes to the conclusion that his reason does not see that there is anything against the sweet sensuous allurements of his body; and after confirming himself in these, his reason becomes numb to all the delights predicated of conjugial love. Indeed, as said above, he fights against them and conquers. Then, like a conqueror after the slaughter, he destroys within himself the camp of conjugial love from its outmost borders to its inmost. This the natural man does from his scortatory love. The above is adduced that it may be known whence comes the opposition of these two loves; for, as previously shown in many places, conjugial love, regarded in itself, is a spiritual love, and scortatory love regarded in itself is a natural love.

CL 427. IV. That scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love as the connubial connection of evil and falsity is the opposite to the marriage of good and truth. That the origin of conjugial love is the marriage of good and truth has been demonstrated above in its own chapter (n. 83-102). It follows from this that the origin of scortatory love is the connubial connection of evil and falsity, and thus that they are opposite loves just as evil is opposite to good and the falsity of evil to the truth of good. It is the delights of the two loves that are thus opposite, love being nothing without its delights. That they are thus opposite to each other is by no means apparent, and this because in its outer manifestation the delight of the love of evil counterfeits the delight of the love of good. Inwardly, however, the delight of the love of evil consists of mere concupiscences of evil, evil itself being a conglomerate mass or ball of such concupiscences. On the other hand, the delight of the love of good consists of innumerable affections of good, good itself being, as it were, a unified bundle of such affections. The bundle and the ball are sensated by man only as a single delight; and because, as was said, in outer manifestation the delight of evil counterfeits the delight of good, therefore the delight of adultery is like the delight of marriage. After death, however, when everyone puts off externals, and internals are laid bare, it is manifest to the sensation that the evil of adultery is a ball of the concupiscences of evil, and the good of marriage a bundle of the affections of good; thus, that they are wholly opposed to each other.

CL 428. As regards the connubial connection of evil and falsity, it should be known that evil loves falsity, willing that it be one with itself, and they bring themselves into conjunction; likewise, that good loves truth, willing that it be one with itself, and they also bring themselves into conjunction. It is thus evident, that as the spiritual origin of marriage is the marriage of good and truth, so the spiritual origin of adultery is the connubial connection of evil and falsity. Therefore, in the spiritual sense of the Word, it is this connubial connection that is meant by adulteries, whoredoms, and harlotries; see THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 134). It is from this principle that when a man is in evil and weds falsity, or when he is in falsity and takes evil into the partnership of his bed, then, by virtue of this joint covenant, he confirms adultery and commits it so far as he dare and is able. He confirms it from evil by means of falsity, and commits it from falsity by means of evil. On the other hand, when a man is in good and weds truth, or when he is in truth and takes good with him into partnership of his bed, he confirms himself against adultery and in favour of marriage, and embraces a blessed conjugial life.

CL 429. V. That hence scortatory love is the opposite to conjugial love as hell is the opposite to heaven. All who are in hell are in the connubial connection of evil and falsity, and all who are in heaven are in the marriage of good and truth; and since, as just said (n. 427, 428), the connubial connection of evil and falsity is adultery, hell also is adultery. Thence it is that all there, are in the lust, lasciviousness, and shamelessness of scortatory love, and flee the chaste and modest things of conjugial love in horror (n. 428). From this it can be seen that these two loves, the scortatory and the conjugial, are opposed to each other as hell is opposed to heaven and heaven to hell.

CL 430. VI. That the uncleanness of hell is from scortatory love, and the cleanness of heaven from conjugial love. All hell abounds in uncleanness, the universal origin of which is shameless and obscene scortatory love, the delights whereof are turned into such uncleanness. Who can believe that in the spiritual world every delight of love is presented under the form of various appearances that it may be seen, of various odours, that it may be sensed, and of various forms of beasts and birds that it may be observed? In hell the appearances under which the lascivious delights of scortatory love are presented to be seen are excrements and mire; the odours under which they are there presented to be sensed, are stenches and noisome vapours; and the forms of beasts and birds under which they are presented to be observed are swine, serpents, and the birds called ochim and tziim. The reverse is the case with the chaste delights of conjugial love in heaven. The appearances under which these are there presented to be seen are gardens and flowery fields; the odours under which they are there presented to be sensed are odours from fruits and fragrances from flowers; and the forms of animals under which they are there presented to be observed are lambs, kids, turtle-doves, and birds of paradise. The delights of love are turned into these and like forms because all things which exist in the spiritual world are correspondences. The internals of the minds of the inhabitants of that world are turned into such correspondences when they pass over and become external things before the senses. It should be known, however, that there are innumerable varieties of uncleanness into which the lasciviousness of whoredoms is turned when it goes forth into its correspondences. These varieties are according to the general and specific nature of the lasciviousness as described in the following pages where adulteries and their degrees are treated of. But in the case of those who have repented, such uncleanness does not go forth from the delights of their love, for they have been cleansed in the world.

CL 431. VII. That it is the same with uncleanness in the Church, and with cleanness there. The reason is because the Church is the Lord‘s kingdom on earth corresponding to His kingdom in the heavens, and the Lord so conjoins the two kingdoms that they make one. He also makes distinction among those who are there, just as He makes distinction between heaven and hell, the distinctions being according to loves. Those who are in the shameless and obscene delights of scortatory love join to themselves their like from hell; but those who are in the modest and chaste delights of conjugial love are associated by the Lord with like angels from heaven. When with man, these their angels, if they stand near adulterers who are such from confirmation and purpose, perceive the offensive smells spoken of above (n. 430), and draw somewhat back.

On account of the correspondence of filthy loves with excrement and mire, it was commanded the sons of Israel that they should carry with them a paddle with which they should cover their excrement, lest Jehovah God walking in the midst of their camp should see the nakedness of the thing and turn back (Deut. 23:13, 14). This was commanded because the camp of the sons of Israel represented the Church, and those unclean things corresponded to the lascivious things of whoredom. By Jehovah God walking in the midst of their camp was signified His presence together with angels. That they should cover it, was because all those places in hell where troops of such lascivious spirits dwell, are covered over and shut up. Therefore it is also said, "lest He see the nakedness of the thing." That all places in hell are shut up--this it has been given me to see; and also that when they were opened, which was done when a new demon entered, so offensive a smell exhaled therefrom that it troubled my stomach with a feeling of heaviness; and what is surprising, those stenches are as delightful to them as dung is to swine. From the above, the meaning of the statement that uncleanness in the Church is from scortatory love, and cleanness there from conjugial love, is evident.

CL 432. VIII. That scortatory love makes man to be more and more not a man and not a male; and that conjugial love makes man to be more and more a man and a male. That conjugial love makes man (to be man) is illustrated and confirmed by all that has been demonstrated in light before the reason in the First Part, on (Conjugial) Love and its Delights of Wisdom, as:

1. That one who is in love truly conjugial becomes more and more spiritual; and the more he becomes spiritual, the more he is a man.

2. That he becomes more and more wise; and the more one becomes wise, the more he is a man.

3. That with him, the interiors of the mind are opened more and more, even to his seeing the Lord, that is, acknowledging Him interiorly; and the more one is in that sight or that acknowledgment, the more he is a man.

4. That he becomes more and more moral and civil, there being a spiritual soul in his morality and civility; and the more one is morally civil, the more he is a man.

5. Also, that after death he becomes an angel of heaven; and an angel is a man in essence and form; moreover, what is genuinely human shines out in his face (and is seen) from his speech and manners.

Thus it is evident that conjugial love makes man more and more a man.

[2] That the contrary is the case with adulterers follows inevitably from the opposition of adultery and marriage treated of previously in the present chapter, and also now, as:

1. That they are not spiritual but in the lowest degree natural; and the natural man separate from the spiritual is a man only as to his understanding but not as to his will. This he immerses in the body and in the concupiscences of the flesh, and at such times the understanding accompanies it. That he is but half a man, he himself can see from the reason of his own understanding if he elevates it.

2. That adulterers are not wise except in their conversation and also in their behaviour when in company with men eminent in dignity, renowned for erudition or of good morals; and that when alone they are insane, making light of the Divine and holy things of the Church, and defiling the moralities of life with things shameless and unchaste--this will be proved in the chapter on Adulteries. Who does not see that such gesticulators are men only as to their external figure, and are not men as to their internal form?

3. That adulterers become more and more not men. As to this, my own observation from having seen them in hell has served me as clear confirmation; for there they are demons, whose faces, when seen in the light of heaven, are pustulous, their bodies humpbacked, their speech rough, and their gestures theatrical.

[3] It should be known, however, that it is adulterers from purpose and confirmation that are such, not unpremeditated adulterers; for there are four kinds of adulterers, concerning whom, see the chapter on Adulteries and their Degrees. Adulterers from purpose are those who are adulterers from the lust of the will; adulterers from confirmation are those who are adulterers from the persuasion of the understanding; adulterers from premeditation are those who are adulterers from the allurements of the senses; and unpremeditated adulterers are those who do not have the ability or the freedom of consulting their understanding. It is the first two kinds of adulterers who become more and more not men; but the latter two kinds become men as they recede from those errors and afterwards become wise.

CL 433. That conjugial love makes man more and more a male, is also illustrated by what was adduced in the preceding part, on Conjugial Love and its Delights, as:

1. That the ability and vigour called virile accompanies wisdom according as the latter is animated from the spiritual things of the Church; that it is then present in the conjugial love; and that wisdom opens the vein of that love from its fountain in the soul, and thus invigorates the intellectual life, which is masculine life itself, and blesses it with perpetuity.

2. That it is from this that the angels of heaven are in this vigour to eternity. This is according to the utterances of their own lips as given in the Memorable Relation, (n. 355, 356). I have heard from their own mouth that the most ancient peoples in the Golden and Silver ages were in enduring efficacy because they loved the caresses of their wives and shuddered at the caresses of harlots. See the Memorable Relations, (n. 75, 76). Moreover, it was told me from heaven that with those who approach the Lord and abominate adulteries as infernal, this spiritual sufficiency will not be lacking today in the natural world also. The contrary is the case with adulterers from purpose and adulterers from confirmation, of whom just above (n. 432). That with these, the ability and vigour which is called virile becomes enfeebled until none is left; and that then comes cold even to the sex, and after this a loathing (of the sex) verging on disgust--all this is known though little divulged. That these adulterers are such in hell this I have heard at a distance from sirens there, who are worn-out lusts of venery; and also from brothels.

From the above it is clear that scortatory love makes man more and more not a man and not a male; and that conjugial love makes man more and more a man and more and more a male.

CL 434. IX. That there is a sphere of scortatory love and a sphere of conjugial love. What is meant by spheres was shown above (n. 222-225 and 386-397), where it was also shown that they are manifold, and that those which are spheres of love and wisdom proceed from the Lord and descend through the angelic heavens into the world and pervade it even to its ultimates. That there is nothing in the universe which has not its opposite may be seen above (n. 425). From this it follows that since there is a sphere of conjugial love, there is also a sphere opposite thereto which is called the sphere of scortatory love; for the two spheres are opposed to each other, just as the love of adultery is opposed to the love of marriage--an opposition which was treated of in preceding parts of this chapter.

CL 435. X. That the sphere of scortatory love ascends from hell, and that the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven. That the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven was shown in the passages cited just above (n. 434); and that the sphere of scortatory love ascends from hell is because that love is from hell (n. 429). The latter sphere ascends from the unclean things into which are turned the delights of adultery of those who are there--and they are of both sexes. As to this, see above (n. 430, 431).

CL 436. XI. That these two spheres meet each other in both worlds but do not join. By both worlds are meant the spiritual world and the natural. In the spiritual world these two spheres meet each other in the world of spirits, this being in the middle between heaven and hell; but in the natural world with man, they meet on the rational plane, which also is mediate between heaven and hell, the marriage of good and truth flowing into it from above, and the marriage of evil and falsity from below. The latter flows in through the world, but the former through heaven. Hence it is that the human rational can turn to whichever side it pleases and receive influx therefrom; if to good, it receives it from above and then the man’s rational is formed more and more for the reception of heaven; but if to evil, it receives the influx from below and then his rational is formed more and more for the reception of hell. That these two spheres do not join is because they are opposites, and when opposite acts upon opposite, they can act no otherwise than as enemies, of whom the one burns with deadly hatred and attacks the other with fury, while the other is in no hatred but only in the zeal of self-protection. From this it is evident that these two spheres merely meet but do not join. On the one side, the middle interstice which they make is from evil not of falsity and from falsity not of evil; and on the other side, it is from good not of truth and from truth not of good. These two can indeed touch each other but cannot join.

CL 437. XII. That between these two spheres is an equilibrium, and that man is in this equilibrium. The equilibrium between them is a spiritual equilibrium because between good and evil. By reason of this equilibrium, man has free determination. In it and by it, he thinks and wills and hence speaks and acts as if of himself. His rational is in a position where it can choose an elect as to whether it wishes to receive good or to receive evil; thus whether, from free determination, rationally to dispose itself for conjugial love, or rationally to dispose itself for scortatory love; if for the latter, the man turns his occiput and back to the Lord, if for the former, he turns his face and breast to the Lord. If he turns to the Lord, his rationality and liberty are led by Him, but if backwards from the Lord, his rationality and liberty are led by hell.

CL 438. XIII. That man is able to turn himself to whichever sphere he pleases, but so far as he turns to the one, he turns away from the other. Man was created to do what he does from freedom according to reason and altogether as of himself. Without these two he would be, not a man but a beast, for he would not receive and appropriate to himself as his own anything flowing to him out of heaven. Then nothing of eternal life could be inscribed on him; for if this is to be his, it must be inscribed on him as his own. And since there is no freedom of turning to the one side unless there is a like freedom of turning to the other, just as there can be no weighing unless the scales by virtue of equilibrium can incline to either side, so with man, unless from reason he has freedom to approach evil also, thus to turn from right to left and from left to right--alike to the infernal sphere, which is the sphere of adultery, as to the heavenly sphere, which is that of marriage.

CL 439. XIV. That each sphere carries with it delights, that is to say, each sphere--that of scortatory love which ascends from hell, and that of conjugial love which descends from heaven-- affects with its delights the man who receives it. The reason is because the ultimate plane is the same, the plane namely, wherein the delights of each love terminate, where also they are fulfilled and completed, and which makes their presence manifest by its sensation of them. Hence it is, that in outmost manifestation, scortatory embraces and conjugial embraces are perceived as being alike, although inwardly they are wholly unlike. That they are therefore unlike in their outmost manifestation cannot be judged from any sensation of the difference, for no others can sensate dissimilitudes from differences in outmosts save those who are in love truly conjugial. Evil is recognized from good but not good from evil, as neither is a sweet odour perceived by nostrils to which a foul odour is clinging. I have heard from angels that they distinguish the lascivious from the non-lascivious in outmosts, as one distinguishes a fire from dung, or burning horn with its offensive smell, from a fire of spice or of burning cinnamon-wood with its fragrant odour; and that this is due to the distinction between the internal delights which enter into the external and compose them.

CL 440. XV. That the delights of scortatory love commence from the flesh and are delights of the flesh even in the spirit; but that the delights of conjugial love commence in the spirit and are delights of the spirit even in the flesh. That the delights of scortatory love commence from the flesh is because the burning heats of the flesh are their initiaments. That they infect the spirit, and are delights of the flesh even in the spirit, is because it is not the flesh that sensates the things which happen in the flesh, but the spirit. It is the same with this sense as with the others. Thus it is not the eye that sees and distinguishes the varieties in objects, but the spirit. So neither is it the ear that hears and distinguishes the harmonies of melodies in song, and the fitness of the articulation of sounds in speech, but the spirit. And the spirit sensates everything according to its own elevation into wisdom. The spirit which is not elevated above the sensual things of the body and so sticks in them, sensates no other delights than those which flow in from the flesh, and from the world through the senses of the body. These it seizes upon, with these it is delighted, and these it make its own. Now because the initiaments of scortatory love are only the burning heats and prurient itchings of the flesh, it is evident that in the spirit these are filthy allurements which ascend and descend and go back and forth, and thus excite and inflame. In general, the cupidities of the flesh regarded in themselves are nothing else than conglomerated concupiscences of evil and falsity. Hence the truth of the saying in the Church, The flesh lusteth against the spirit, that is, against the spiritual man. It follows therefore, that in their relation to the delights of scortatory love, the delights of the flesh are nothing but effervescences of lusts which, in the spirit, become the ebullitions of shamelessness.

CL 441. The delights of conjugial love have nothing in common with the feculent delights of scortatory love. These latter are indeed in the flesh of every man, but they are separated and removed in proportion as the spirit of the man is elevated above the sensual things of the body, and from this elevation sees their appearances and fallacies as below him. Then he likewise perceives carnal delights, first as apparent and fallacious, afterwards as lustful and lascivious delights which are to be shunned, and successively as damnable and hurtful to the soul; and finally he sensates them as undelightful, foul, and disgusting. And in the degree that he thus perceives and sensates these delights, in the same degree he also perceives the delights of conjugial love as harmless and chaste, and finally as delightsome and blessed.

That the delights of conjugial love become also delights of the spirit in the flesh is because, when the delights of scortatory love have been removed, as said just above, the spirit, released from them, enters into the body chaste, and fills the breast, and from the breast the ultimates of that love in the body, with the delights of its own beatitude. Hence the spirit then acts in full communion with these ultimates, and they with the spirit.

CL 442. XVI. That the enjoyments of scortatory love are the pleasures of insanity, but the enjoyments of conjugial love are the delights of wisdom. That the enjoyments of scortatory love are the pleasures of insanity is because no others are in that love but natural men, and in spiritual things the natural man, being against them, is insane. Therefore he embraces only natural, sensual, and corporeal enjoyments. It is said that he embraces natural, sensual, and corporeal enjoyments because the natural is distinguished into three degrees. Natural men in the highest degree are those who from rational sight see the insanities and yet are carried away by the enjoyments thereof, as boats by the current of a stream. Natural men in a lower degree are those who see and judge only from the senses of the body, spurn things rational as being contrary to appearances and fallacies, and reject them as worthless trifles. Natural men in the lowest degree are those who, being without judgment, are carried away by the alluring heats of their body. The latter are called corporeal-natural, the former sensual-natural, and the first natural. With them are also the same degrees of scortatory love and of its insanities and pleasures.

CL 443. That the enjoyments of conjugial love are delights of wisdom is because spiritual men alone are in that love, and the spiritual man is in wisdom. Hence he embraces no other enjoyments than those which are concordant with spiritual wisdom. The nature of the enjoyments of scortatory love and of the enjoyments of conjugial love can be elucidated by a comparison with houses, the enjoyments of scortatory love being compared with a house whose walls are outwardly reddish like seashells or, from their spurious golden colour, are like the mirror stones called selenites, while in the rooms within the walls, is filth and refuse of every kind. But the enjoyments of conjugial love can be likened to a house with walls shining as from pure gold, and the rooms within resplendent as though filled with precious treasures of many kinds.

CL 444. To the above shall be added the following Memorable Relation:

After I had finished my meditations on conjugial love and had commenced the meditations on scortatory love, suddenly two angels stood by me and said, "We perceived and understood what you were previously meditating on, but the things on which you are now meditating are beyond us and we do not perceive them. Lay them aside, for they amount to nothing." But I answered, "The love on which I am now meditating does not amount to nothing for it exists."

To this the angels said: "How can there be any love which is not from creation? Is not conjugial love thence? Is not this love a love between two who can become a one? How can there be a love which divides and separates? What young man loves any other maiden than the one who loves him in return? Will not the love of the one know and acknowledge the love of the other? and when they meet, Will they not join together of themselves? Who can love non-love? Is not conjugial love alone mutual and reciprocal? If not reciprocal, does not the love rebound and become nothing?"

[2] On hearing this, I asked the two angels from what society in heaven they were. They said: "We are from the heaven of innocence. We came into this heavenly world as infants and were brought up under the Lord‘s auspices; and when I became a young man and my wife who is here with me became a marriageable girl, we were betrothed and contracted and were joined in marriage. And because we have not known of any other love than love truly nuptial and conjugial, therefore, when the ideas of your thought concerning a strange love entirely opposite to our love were communicated to us, we did not comprehend anything. We have therefore descended to inquire of you why you are meditating on things imperceptible. Tell us, therefore, how can a love be possible which not only is not from creation but is also against creation. We regard things opposite to creation as objects of no reality."

[3] When he had said this, I was glad at heart that it was granted me to speak with angels of such innocence as to be entirely ignorant of what whoredom is. I therefore opened my mouth and taught them, saying: "Do you not know of the existence of good and evil? and that good is from creation, but not evil? Yet evil, regarded in itself, is not nothing although it is the nullity of good. Good is from creation, both good in its greatest degree and good in its least; and when this least becomes nothing, then from the other side arises evil. There is therefore no relation between them, nor any progression of good to evil, but only a relation and progression of good to greater and less good, and of evil to greater and less evil, the two being opposites at each and every point. And since good and evil are opposites, there is an intermediate between them wherein is an equilibrium in which evil acts against good; but because it does not prevail, it stops in the endeavour. Every man is brought up in this equilibrium. Being between good and evil or, what is the same thing, between heaven and hell, it is a spiritual equilibrium, and for those who are in it, it brings freedom. The Lord draws all men away from this equilibrium to Himself; and the man who from freedom follows Him, He leads from evil into good and so to heaven. It is the same with love, especially conjugial love and scortatory love, the latter being evil and the former good. Every man who hears the Lord’s voice, and from freedom follows Him, is introduced by the Lord into conjugial love and into all its delights and bliss; but he who does not hear and follow, introduces himself into scortatory love--first into its delights, then into its undelights, and finally into its unhappiness."

[4] After I had spoken, the two angels asked: "How could evil come into existence when by creation nothing but good existed? If a thing is to exist, it must have an origin. Good could not be the origin of evil, for evil is the privation and destruction of good and therefore its nullity. Yet, since it is and is sensated, it is not nothing but something. Tell us, then, whence this something had its existence after being nothing."

To this I replied: "This arcanum cannot be opened unless it be known that none is good save God alone, and that there is no good which in itself is good save from God. Therefore, he who looks to God and wills to be led by God is in good; but he who turns away from God and wills to be led by himself is not in good; for the good which he does is done either for the sake of himself or for the sake of the world, and so is meritorious or simulated or hypocritical. It is clear, therefore, that man himself is the origin of evil; not that this origin was planted in man from creation but, by turning away from God, he planted it in himself. This origin of evil was not (primitively) in Adam and his wife; but they made the origin of evil in themselves, and this because, when the serpent said, In the day that ye eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ye shall be as God (Gen. 3:5), they turned away from God and turned to themselves as God. To eat of that tree signified to believe that one knows good and evil and is wise from himself and not from God."

[5] The two angels then asked, "How could man turn away from God and turn to himself, when yet he can think, will, and thence do nothing except from God? Why did God permit this?" I replied: "Man was so created that everything which he wills, thinks, and does appears to him as if in himself and thus from himself. Without this appearance, man would not be a man for he could not receive, retain, and, as it were, appropriate to himself anything of good and truth or of love and wisdom. From this it follows that without this appearance--a living appearance, as it were--man would have no conjunction with God, nor any eternal life therefrom. But if from this appearance he induces on himself the belief that he wills, thinks, and hence does good from himself and not from the Lord, though in all appearance as from himself, he then turns good with him into evil, and thus makes in himself the origin of evil.

[6] This was Adam‘s sin. But I will open up this subject somewhat more clearly. The Lord looks at every man in his forehead, and this look passes into his occiput. Under the forehead is the cerebrum, and under the occiput is the cerebellum, the latter being dedicated to love and its goods, and the former to wisdom and its truths. Therefore, he who looks with his face to the Lord receives wisdom from Him, and through wisdom, love; but he who looks backwards away from the Lord receives love and not wisdom, and love without wisdom is love from man and not from the Lord. This love, because it conjoins itself with falsities, does not acknowledge God but acknowledges itself as God, and it tacitly confirms this acknowledgment by the faculty, implanted in man from creation, of being wise as if from himself. This love, therefore, is the origin of evil. That such is the case can be demonstrated to the sight. I will call hither some evil spirit who turns himself away from God, and will speak to him from behind, that is, into his occiput, and you will see that the words spoken will be turned into their opposites."

[7] I then called one such spirit. He was at hand, and I spoke to him from behind, saying, "Do you know anything about hell, damnation, and the torment there?" and then, when he turned round to me, I asked him, "What did you hear?" He answered, "I heard this, Do you know anything about heaven, salvation, and the happiness there." Then, when the latter words were spoken to him behind his back, he said that he had heard the former. After this, the following words were said to him behind his back, "Do you not know that those who are in hell are insane from falsities?" and when asked about them by me, as to what he had heard, he said, "I heard, Do you not know that those who are in heaven are wise from truths?" and when these latter words were said to him behind his back, he said that he had heard, "Do you not know that those who are in hell are insane from falsities?" And so on. "From this, it is clearly evident that when the mind turns away from the Lord, it turns to itself and then perceives things contrary. This is the reason why in this spiritual world, as you know, it s not allowed anyone to stand behind another and speak to him, for then a love is inspired into him which, because of its delight, his self-intelligence favours and obeys, but which, being from man and not from God, is a love of evil or a love of falsity.

[8] Besides this, I will tell you something else of a similar nature, namely, that I have sometimes heard goods and truths let down from heaven into hell, and there they were progressively turned into their opposites, good into evil and truth into falsity. This is due to the same cause, namely, because all who are in hell turn themselves away from the Lord."

After hearing this, the two angels thanked me and said, "Since you are now meditating and writing on a love opposite to our conjugial love, and the opposite to that love saddens our minds, we will depart"; and when they said, "Peace be to you," I begged them not to tell anything about this love to their brothers and sisters in heaven because it would hurt their innocence.

That those who die as infants grow up in heaven, and when they attain to the stature of young men in the world, of eighteen years, and of maidens of fifteen, they remain at that age; that marriages are then provided for them by the Lord; and that both before marriage and after it they are entirely ignorant of what whoredom is, or that it is possible--this I can asseverate with certainty.

CL 444a. By fornication is meant the lust of a youth or young man before marriage, with a woman, a harlot. Lust with a woman not a harlot, that is, with a virgin or with the wife of another, is not fornication; with a virgin, it is stupration, and with the wife of another it is adultery. In what way these two differ from fornication cannot be seen by any rational man unless he looks at love of the sex in its degrees and diversities, seeing, on the one side its chaste things, and on the other its unchaste; and unless on both sides he distributes them into genera and species and thus makes distinctions. Otherwise the distinction between the more chaste and the less, and the more unchaste and the less, cannot stand out in a man’s idea. Without these distinctions, all relation between them is lost, and with this, all clear-sightedness in matters of judgment. The understanding is then involved in such shade that it does not know how to distinguish fornication from adultery, and still less the mild kinds of fornication, and likewise of adultery, from the grievous. Thus it mixes evils together, making from diverse evils one pottage, and from diverse goods one paste. In order, therefore, that love of the sex may be known distinctly, as to that side of it on which it inclines and progresses to scortatory love entirely opposite to conjugial love, it is expedient that its beginning which is fornication be examined. This shall be done in the following series:

1. That fornication belongs to love of the sex.

2. That this love commences when a youth begins to think and act from his own understanding, and his speaking voice begins to become masculine.

3. That fornication belongs to the natural man.

4. That fornication is a lust, but not the lust of adultery.

5. That with some men, love of the sex cannot without harmful results be totally restrained from going forth into fornication.

6. That therefore, in populous cities brothels are tolerated.

7. That the lust of fornicating is light so far as it looks to conjugial love and prefers it.

8. That the lust of fornicating is grievous so far as it looks to adultery.

9. That the lust of fornicating is more grievous as it verges to the cupidity of varieties and the cupidity of defloration.

10. That the sphere of the lust of fornicating, as it is in its beginning, is mediate between the sphere of scortatory love and the sphere of conjugial love, and makes an equilibrium.

11. That care must be taken that conjugial love be not destroyed by inordinate and immoderate fornications.

12. Because the conjugial of one man with one wife is the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion.

13. That with those who for various reasons cannot yet enter into marriage, and because of salacity cannot restrain their lusts, this conjugial can be preserved if the roaming love of the sex become restricted to one mistress.

14. That pellicacy is preferable to roaming lust provided it be not contracted with many, nor with a virgin or undeflowered woman, nor with a married woman; and provided it be kept separate from conjugial love.

The explanation of the above now follows:

CL 445. I. That fornication belongs to love of the sex. It is said that fornication belongs to love of the sex because fornication is not love of the sex but is from it. Love of the sex is as a fountain from which can be derived both conjugial love and scortatory; and they can be derived therefrom through fornication and without it. Love of the sex is within every man, and it either does or does not put itself forth. If it puts itself forth with a woman, a harlot, before marriage, it is called fornication; if first with a wife, it is called marriage; if with another woman after marriage, it is called adultery. Therefore, as was said, love of the sex is as a fountain from which may spring both chaste love and unchaste. As to the precaution and prudence with which it is possible for chaste conjugial love to advance through fornication, and the imprudence from which unchaste or scortatory love advances thereby, this will be laid open in what follows. Who can draw the conclusion, that one who has committed fornication cannot be more chaste in marriage?

CL 446. II. That love of the sex, from which is fornication, commences when a youth begins to think and act from his own understanding, and his speaking voice begins to become masculine. This is adduced to the end that it may be known that love of the sex and thence fornication has its rise when the understanding commences to become rational of itself, that is, from its own reason to discern and look out for things which shall be advantageous and useful. That which is in the memory from parents and masters then serves it as a plane. At this time a turning takes place in the mind. Prior to this, the boy has thought only from things introduced into the memory, meditating on them and obeying them. After it, he thinks of them from reason; and then, under the leadership of his love, he disposes the things seated in his memory into a new order and begins a life of his own in conformity therewith, gradually thinking more and more according to his own reason, and willing from his own freedom.

That love of the sex follows the initiament of a man‘s understanding, and progresses according to its vigour, is known; and it is a sign that the love ascends and descends as the understanding ascends and descends. By ascending is meant ascending into wisdom, and by descending, descending into insanity, it being wisdom to restrain love of the sex, and insanity to let it go forth broadcast. If it go forth into fornication, which is the beginning of its activity, then, from principles of honour and morality implanted in his memory and thence in his reason, and afterwards in his reason and thence in his memory, it behoves the man to restrain it.

That with the beginning of a man’s understanding his voice also begins to become masculine, is because the understanding thinks, and it is by means of thought that it speaks. This is a sign that the understanding makes the man and also his masculinity; consequently, that as his understanding is elevated, he becomes a male man and also a masculine man; see above (n. 433, 444).

CL 447. III. That fornication belongs to the natural man in like manner as does love of the sex which, if it becomes active before marriage, is called fornication. Every man is born corporeal, becomes sensual, then natural, and successively rational, and if he does not stop there, he becomes spiritual. The reason why his progress is such, is that planes may be formed upon which higher planes may rest as a palace on its foundations. The ultimate plane with its superstructure may also be likened to a ground in which, when prepared, noble seeds are planted.

[2] As specifically regards love of the sex, it also is first corporeal, for it commences from the flesh. It then becomes sensual, for from its general (delight) the five senses are delighted. After that it becomes natural, like the same love with animals, being a roaming love of the sex. But because man was born that he may become spiritual, it later becomes natural-rational, and from natural-rational, spiritual, and at last spiritual-natural. Then that love, now become spiritual, inflows into and actuates the rational love and through this the sensual love, and finally through this the love in the body and the flesh; and this being its ultimate plane, it acts into it spiritually and at the same time rationally and sensually. It inflows and acts successively in this way when man is in meditation upon it, but simultaneously when he is in the ultimate.

[3] That fornication belongs to the natural man is because it proceeds proximately from the natural love of the sex, and while this love may be natural-rational, it is not spiritual. love of the sex cannot become spiritual until it becomes conjugial, and from being natural it becomes spiritual when man recedes from roaming lust and devotes himself to one, to whose soul he unites his own soul.

CL 448. IV. That fornication is a lust, but not the lust of adultery. The reasons why fornication is a lust are:

1. Because it comes forth from the natural man, and in everything coming from the natural man is concupiscence and lust. The natural man is nothing but an abode and receptacle of concupiscences and lusts, for, resident there, is all the guilt inherited from his parents.

2. Because the fornicator looks at the sex roamingly and promiscuously, not as yet looking to one of the sex. So long as he is in that state, it is lust that excites him to do what he does; but as he looks to one, and loves to conjoin his life with her life, concupiscence becomes chaste affection, and lust, human love.

CL 449. That the lust of fornication is not the lust of adultery is seen by everyone from common perception. What law and what judge would charge a fornicator with the same crime as an adulterer? The reason why this is seen from common perception is because fornication is not opposed to conjugial love as adultery is. In fornication, conjugial love may lie hidden within, as the spiritual in the natural. Indeed, the spiritual is actually evolved out of the natural, and when evolved, the natural surrounds it as bark surrounds a tree and a scabbard a sword. It also serves the spiritual for protection against violence. It is evident from this, that the natural love which is directed to the sex, precedes the spiritual love which is directed to one of the sex; but if fornication come from the natural love of the sex, it can also be wiped away, provided conjugial love is looked to, desired, and sought as the principal good.

The case is wholly different with the libidinous and obscene love of adultery. That this is the opponent and destroyer of conjugial love was shown in the preceding chapter on The Opposition of Scortatory Love and Conjugial Love. Therefore, if for various reasons an adulterer from purpose or confirmation enters the conjugial bed, an inversion takes place. Within lies hidden the natural with its lascivious and obscene things, and outwardly veiling it about is an appearance of the spiritual. Reason can see from the above that as compared with the lust of adultery, the lust of limited fornication is as the first mildness (of winter) to the cold of a mid-winter in northern regions.

CL 450. V. That with some men, love of the sex cannot without harmful results be totally restrained from going forth into fornication. It were vain to recount the harmful results which excessive repression of love of the sex may cause and effect with those who from superabundance labour with burning heat. With such men, this gives rise to certain diseases of the body and sicknesses of the mind, to say nothing of secret evils which are not to be named. It is otherwise with those whose love of the sex is so scanty that they are able to resist the urgings of its lust; and likewise with those who at the age of early manhood, thus at the first omens, are free to introduce themselves into a legitimate partnership of the bed without any loss of worldly fortune. This is the case with infants in heaven when they have grown to marriageable age; therefore, they do not know what fornication is. The same condition does not obtain on earth where matrimonies cannot be contracted until early manhood has passed. This is the case with many in governments where offices must be earned by long service and means must be acquired to support a house and family, it being only then that a worthy wife can be sought.

CL 451. VI. That therefore, in populous cities brothels are tolerated. This is adduced as a confirmation of the preceding article. That they are tolerated by kings, magistrates, and therefore by judges, watchmen, and the people, in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Vienna, Venice, Naples, and also in Rome, besides in many other places, is well known. Among the reasons why, are also those mentioned above.

CL 452. VII. That fornication is light so far as it looks to conjugial love and prefers it. There are degrees of evil as to its nature, just as there are degrees of good as to its nature. Therefore, every evil is a more or less light or grievous evil, just as every good is a more or less better or best good. It is the same with fornication. Being a lust and belonging to the natural man not yet purified, fornication is an evil. But since every man can be purified, therefore, so far as he approaches a purified state, thus so far as fornication approaches conjugial love which is the purified state of love of the sex, so far that evil becomes a lighter evil, for so far it is wiped away. That the evil of fornication is more grievous so far as it approaches the love of adultery will be seen in the next article.

[2] That fornication is light so far as the man looks to conjugial love, is because from the unchaste state in which he is, he then looks to a chaste state, and so far as he prefers this (in thought), so far he is in it as to his understanding; and so far as he prefers it not only (in thought) but also in love, so far he is in it as to his will also, thus as to his internal man. Then fornication, if nevertheless he continues in it, is to him a necessity, the causes of which he has examined in himself.

[3] There are two reasons which render fornication light with those who, in thought and love, prefer the conjugial state. The first is, because with them a conjugial life is the purpose, intention or end. The second is, because in themselves they separate evil from good. As regards the FIRST POINT--that with them a conjugial life is their purpose, intention or end--this is because a man is such as he is in his purpose, intention or end. Such also is he before the Lord and before angels, yea, he is also regarded as such in the view of wise men in the world; for intention is the soul of all actions and makes for blame or excuse in the world and for imputation after death.

[4] As regards the SECOND POINT that those who prefer conjugial love to the lust of fornication, separate evil from good--they thus separate the unchaste from the chaste, and those who separate these two in their perception and intention, before they are themselves in the good or the chaste, when they come into the conjugial state are separated and purified from the evil of that lust. That this is not the case with those who in fornication look to adultery, will be seen in the article that now follows.

CL 453. VIII. That the lust of fornicating is grievous so far as it looks to adultery. All those in the lust of fornication look to adultery who do not believe adulteries to be sins and think the same of marriages as of adulteries, with the sole distinction of lawful and unlawful. Such men make one evil out of all evils; they mingle them together, like filth with edible foods in one dish and offscourings with wines in one cup, and then eat and drink. They do the same thing with love of the sex, fornication, pellicacy, the milder, grievous, and more grievous kinds of adultery, yea, and with stupration or defloration. Add to this, that not only do they mingle all these together but they also mingle them with marriages and pollute the latter with the same idea. To such men, who do not even distinguish between the latter and the former, after their customary roamings with the sex, comes cold, loathing and disgust, first for their married partner, then for other women, and finally for the whole sex. It is self-evident that with such men there is no purpose, intention or end looking to what is good or chaste, whereby they may be exculpated; nor any separation of evil from good, or of the unchaste from the chaste, whereby they may be purified, as is the case with those spoken of in the preceding article (n. 452) who from fornication look to conjugial love and prefer it.

It is allowed to confirm the above by this new information from heaven: I have met many who in the world had lived outwardly like others, dressing finely, faring sumptuously, doing business for gain like other men, attending dramatic performances, joking about amatory matters as if from lust, besides other like things; yet in some, the angels condemned these things as evils of sin, and in some they did not account them as evils; and the latter they declared guiltless, and the former guilty. To the question why they did so, when yet the men had done the same things, they answered that they view all men from their purpose, intention or end, and make distinctions accordingly; thus, that those whom the end excuses or condemns, they excuse or condemn, for all in heaven have good as an end, and all in hell have evil as an end; and that this and nothing else is meant by the Lord‘s words, Judge not that ye be not condemned (Matt. 7:1).

CL 454. IX. That the lust of fornicating is more grievous as it verges to the cupidity of varieties and the cupidity of defloration. The reason is because these two are accessories of adultery, making it more grievous; for adulteries are mild, grievous, and more grievous; and each kind is estimated according to its opposition to conjugial love, and thus its destruction thereof. That the cupidity of varieties and the cupidity of defloration, confirmed by actual deeds, devastate conjugial love and sink it, as it were, to the bottom of the sea, will be seen in the chapters concerning them which are to follow.

CL 455. X. That the sphere of the lust of fornicating, as it is in its beginning, is mediate between the sphere of scortatory love and the sphere of conjugial love, and makes an equilibrium. These two spheres, that of scortatory love and that of conjugial love, were treated of in the preceding chapter, and it was shown that the sphere of scortatory love ascends from hell, and the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven (n. 435); that the two spheres meet in both worlds but do not join (n. 436); that between them there is equilibrium, and man is in that equilibrium (n. 437); that man can turn himself to whichever sphere he pleases, but that so far as he turns to the one, he turns away from the other (n. 438). As to what is meant by spheres, see (n. 434) and the passages there cited. That the sphere of the lust of fornicating is mediate between these two spheres and makes an equilibrium, is because when in it, a man can turn to the sphere of conjugial love, that is, to that love, and also to the sphere of the love of adultery, that is, to the love thereof. If he turns to conjugial love, he turns to heaven, if to the love of adultery, he turns to hell. Either turning is at the free determination, good pleasure, and will of the man, to the end that he may be able to act freely according to reason, and not from instinct; consequently, that he may be a man, and may appropriate influx to himself. It is said the lust of fornication as it is in its beginning, because it is then in a middle state. Who does not know that all that a man does in the beginning is done from concupiscence because from the natural man? And who does not know that this concupiscence is not imputed when from natural he is becoming spiritual? It is the same with the lust of fornication when the man’s love is becoming conjugial.

CL 456. XI. That care must be taken that conjugial love be not destroyed by immoderate and inordinate fornications. By immoderate and inordinate fornications whereby conjugial love is destroyed are meant fornications whereby not only the powers are enervated but all the delicacies of conjugial love are taken away; for from unbridled licence in fornications arise not only weaknesses and consequent lack, but also uncleanness and shamelessness. By reason of these, conjugial love cannot be perceived and sensated in its cleanness and chastity and so in its sweetness and the delights of its flower; to say nothing of injuries to body and mind and of the forbidden allurements which not only deprive conjugial love of its blessed delights but also take it away and turn it into cold and thus into loathing. Such fornications are wild revels whereby conjugial sports are turned into tragic scenes; for immoderate and inordinate fornications are like fires which rise up from the ultimates and burn the body, parch the fibres, defile the blood, and vitiate the rational things of the mind; for, like a fire, they burst out from the foundation into the house and consume the whole. It behoves parents to provide against this; for an adolescent youth excited by lust cannot as yet impose restraint upon himself from reason.

CL 457. XII. Because the conjugial of one man with one wife is the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion. These are the two things which have been demonstrated universally and in detail in the whole of the preceding Part on Conjugial Love and its Delights of Wisdom. That it is the precious jewel of human life is because the nature of man‘s life is such as is the conjugial love with him. This makes the inmost of his life, being the life of wisdom cohabiting with its love, and of love cohabiting with its wisdom. Hence it is the life of the delights of both. In a word, by this love man is a living soul. It is from this that the conjugial of one man with one wife is called the precious jewel of human life. This is confirmed by what was said above, namely, that with one wife, because there is union of minds there is also truly conjugial friendship, confidence, potency (n. 333, 334); that in and from that union are the celestial blessings, spiritual happiness, and thence natural delights which have been provided from the beginning for those who are in love truly conjugial (n. 335); that it is the fundamental love of all celestial and spiritual loves, and thence of all natural loves, and that into it are gathered all joys and gladness from their first to their last (n. 65-69); and that, regarded in its origin, it is the sport of wisdom and love. All this has been fully demonstrated in the Delights of Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love which forms the first Part of this work.

CL 458. That this love is the repository of the Christian religion is because that religion makes one with the love, and cohabits with it; for it has been shown that no others come into that love and can be in it save those who approach the Lord, love the truths of His Church, and do its goods (n. 70, 71); that that love is from the Lord alone, and hence is with those who are of the Christian religion (n. 131, 335, 336); that that love is according to the state of the Church because according to the state of wisdom with man (n. 130). All this is confirmed in the entire chapter on its correspondence with the marriage of the Lord and the Church (n. 116-131); and in the chapter on the origin of that love from the marriage of good and truth (n. 83-102).

CL 459. XIII. That with those who for various reasons cannot yet enter into marriage, and because of salacity cannot restrain their lusts, this conjugial can be preserved if the (roaming) love of the sex become restricted to one mistress. That immoderate and inordinate lust cannot be curbed by those who are salacious, reason sees and experience teaches. In order then, that, with those who labour under burning heat, and for many reasons cannot hasten or look forward to marriage, what is immoderate and inordinate may be curbed and reduced to something moderate and ordinate, there appears to be no other refuge, and, as it were, asylum than the taking of a mistress, called in French maitresse. It is well known that in kingdoms where there are governments, matrimonies cannot be contracted by many until after the period of early manhood has passed, inasmuch as offices must first be earned and means acquired to support a house and family, it being only then that a worthy wife can be sought. Yet, with few men can the fountain of virtue be kept shut up during the preceding age and reserved for a wife. It is indeed preferable that it be reserved; but if, because of the unbridled power of lust it cannot be, then an intermediate means is sought whereby it can be provided that conjugial love shall not perish in the meantime. In favour of the keeping of a mistress as such a means are:

1. That promiscuous and inordinate fornications are thereby curbed and limited, and a more restrained state is thus induced which is more akin to the conjugial life.

[2] 2. That the ardour of venery which, in its beginning, is boiling and, as it were, burning, is allayed and made milder, and thus the lasciviousness of salacity which is filthy is tempered by something like an analogue of marriage.

[3] 3. By its means, the forces are not thrown away and weakness contracted, as is the case in roaming and unlimited satyriases.

[4] 4. Diseases of the body and insanities of the mind are thereby avoided.

[5] 5. Thereby likewise adulteries are guarded against, which are whoredoms with wives; also stuprations which are violations of virgins, not to speak of criminal practices which are not to be named; for when he first comes to manhood, a boy has no thought that adulteries and stuprations are other than fornications, thinking that the one is the same as the other. Nor does he know from reason how to resist the enticements of those of the sex who have purposely devoted themselves to harlotry; but in pellicacy, which is a more ordered and sane fornication, he can learn and see the distinctions.

[6] 6. By pellicacy there is no approach to the four kinds of lust treated of in what follows, which are in the highest degree destructive of conjugial love, namely, the lust of defloration, the lust of varieties, the lust of violation, and the lust of seducing innocences. What has been said, however, is not for those who can restrain the heat of their lust, nor for those who can enter into marriage as soon as they attain to manhood and can offer and devote the first-fruits of their vigour to their wife.

CL 460. XIV. That pellicacy is preferable to roaming lust provided it be not contracted with many, nor with a virgin or undeflowered woman, nor with a married woman; and provided it be kept separate from conjugial love. When and with whom pellicacy is preferable to roaming lust has been pointed out just above.

1. That pellicacy is not to be contracted with more than one, is because when with many there is in it something polygamous, and this induces on the man a state merely natural, and thrusts him into a sensual state so that he cannot be elevated into the spiritual state wherein conjugial love must be (n. 338, 339).

[2] 2. That it is not to be contracted with a virgin or undeflowered woman, is because with women conjugial love makes one with their virginity, and from this, is the chastity, purity, and sanctity of that love. Wherefore, solemnly to promise and surrender her virginity to any man is to give a pledge that she will love him to eternity. For this reason, a virgin can by no rational consent bargain it away save with the solemn promise of a conjugial covenant. It is also the crown of her honour, and therefore, to snatch it away without the covenant of marriage, and afterwards to discard her, is to make a harlot of some virgin who might have become a bride and a chaste wife, or to defraud some man--and both deeds are damnable. He therefore who takes to himself a virgin as a mistress may indeed cohabit with her, and thus initiate her into the friendship of love, but still with the constant intention, if she does not commit whoredom, that she be or may become his wife.

[3] 3. That pellicacy is not to be contracted with a married woman, because this is adultery, is evident.

[4] 4. That the love of pellicacy is to be kept separate from conjugial love is because they are distinct loves and therefore are not to be commingled; for the love of pellicacy is an unchaste, natural, and external love, but the love of marriage is chaste, spiritual, and internal. The love of pellicacy keeps the souls of the two distinct and conjoins only the sensual things of the body, but the love of marriage unites souls, and also, from the union of souls, so unites the sensual things of the body that from two they become as one, that is, one flesh.

[5] 5. The love of pellicacy enters only into the understanding and into all that depends on the understanding; but the love of marriage enters also into the will and into all that depends on the will, thus, into each and every single thing of the man. Wherefore, if the love of pellicacy becomes the love of marriage, the man cannot with any right withdraw from it without a violation of the conjugial union; and if he does withdraw and take another woman, conjugial love perishes in the breach of it. It should be known that the love of pellicacy is kept separate from conjugial love, by the man not promising marriage to his mistress, nor leading her into any hope of marriage. Nevertheless, it is preferable that the torch of love of the sex be first kindled with the wife.

CL 461. To the above shall be added the following Memorable Relation:

I was once speaking with a novitiate spirit who while in the world had meditated much on heaven and hell. By novitiate spirits are meant men recently deceased who, being then spiritual men, are called spirits. As soon as he entered the spiritual world, this novitiate began in like manner to meditate on heaven and hell; and he seemed to himself to be in joy when meditating on heaven, and in sadness when meditating on hell. When he noticed that he was in the spiritual world, he at once inquired where heaven was, and where hell; also what these two were, and what their nature; and he received the answer, "Heaven is above your head, and hell is beneath your feet, for you are now in the world of spirits which is mediate between heaven and hell; but as to what heaven and hell are, and what their nature, this we cannot describe in a few words."

Burning with the desire of learning, he then threw himself on his knees and devoutly prayed to God that he might be instructed. And lo, an angel appeared at his right hand and, raising him up, said, "You have made supplication that you may be instructed about heaven and hell. INQUIRE AND LEARN WHAT DELIGHT IS AND YOU WILL KNOW" and having said these words, the angel was taken up.

[2] The novitiate spirit then said within himself: "What is this? Inquire and learn what delight is and you will know what heaven and hell are, and what their nature." Leaving that place, he then wandered about, and addressing those whom he met, he said, "Pray tell me, if you please, what delight is?" And some said, "What sort of question is that? Who does not know what delight is? Is it not joy and gladness? Therefore, delight is delight; one delight is like another; we know of no distinction." Others said that delight was laughter of the mind; "for when the mind laughs, the face is merry, the speech jocular, the gestures playful, and the whole man is in delight." Still others said, "Delight is nothing else than feasting and eating delicacies, and drinking and getting drunk on generous wine, and then talking together on various subjects, especially the sports of Venus and Cupid."

[3] Indignant on hearing these answers, the novitiate spirit said to himself, "These are the answers of boors and not of cultured men; such delights are neither heaven nor hell. Would that I might meet some wise men." And, leaving them, he inquired, "Where are there wise men?"

He was then seen by an angelic spirit who said: "I perceive that you are kindled with the desire of knowing what the universal of heaven is, and what the universal of hell; and since this universal is delight, I will lead you to a hill whereon is a daily meeting of men who examine effects, of men who investigate causes, and of men who explore ends. They are three companies: Those who examine effects are called Spirits of the Sciences and, abstractly, Sciences; those who investigate causes are called Spirits of Intelligence and, abstractly, Intelligences; and those who explore ends are called Spirits of Wisdom and, abstractly, Wisdoms. Directly above them in heaven are angels who from ends see causes, and from causes effects. From these angels the three companies have illustration."

[4] Taking the novitiate spirit by the hand, he then led him up the hill and to the company of those who explore ends and are called Wisdoms. To these the novitiate spirit said "Pardon me for coming to you. The reason is because from childhood I have meditated on heaven and hell. I have lately come into this world, and some spirits who were then associated with me said that here heaven is above my head and hell beneath my feet; but they did not tell me what they are and what their nature. Therefore, coming into a state of anxiety from constant thought about them, I prayed to God; and then an angel stood by me and said, Inquire and learn what delight is and you will know. I have inquired, but as yet in vain. I beg you, therefore, to teach me, if you please, what delight is."

[5] To this the Wisdoms responded: "Delight is the all of life with all in heaven, and the all of life with all in hell. With those who are in heaven, it is the delight of good and truth, but with those who are in hell, it is the delight of evil and falsity; for all delight pertains to love, and love is the esse of man’s life. Therefore, since man is a man according to the nature of his love, he is a man according to the nature of his delight. The activity of love is what makes the sensation of delight. In heaven its activity is with wisdom, in hell it is with insanity. In their subjects, both activities present themselves as delight; but the heavens and the hells are in opposite delights because in opposite loves. The heavens are in the love and thence in the delight of doing good, but the hells are in the love and thence in the delight of doing evil. If, therefore, you know what delight is, you know what heaven and hell are, and what their nature. But make further inquiry and learn what delight is from those who investigate causes and are called Intelligences. They are to the right from here."

[6] Leaving the wisdoms, the novitiate then approached the Intelligences, and telling them the cause of his coming, asked if they would instruct him as to what delight is. They were rejoiced at the question and said: "It is true that he who knows what delight is, knows what heaven and hell are and what their nature. The will, from which man is a man, is not moved a single jot except by delight; for regarded in itself, the will is nothing but the affection and effect of some love, thus of some delight, it being something pleasing, agreeable, and pleasurable that makes men will. And since it is the will that moves the understanding to think, therefore, not the least jot of an idea of thought is possible save from delight flowing in from the will. This is because the Lord, by influx from Himself, actuates all things of the soul and all things of the mind with angels, spirits, and men; and He actuates them by the influx of love and wisdom. It is this influx that is the activity from which comes all delight. In its origin this delight is called blessed, blissful, and happy, and in its derivation, delightful, pleasant, and pleasurable; in a universal sense, it is called good. But spirits of hell turn all that is with them around. Thus they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, their delight being permanently the same; for without this permanence of delight, they would have neither will nor sensation, and so no life. What the delight of hell is, and its nature and source, is thus manifest, and also what the delight of heaven is, and its nature and source."

[7] After hearing this, the novitiate was led down to the third company where were those who examine effects and are called Sciences. These said: "Descend into the lower earth and ascend into the higher earth, and in the latter you will perceive and sensate the enjoyments of the angels of heaven, and in the former, the enjoyments of the spirits of hell."

And lo, at a distance from them, the ground then yawned open, and through the opening rose three devils who seemed to be on fire, and this from the delight of their love. Perceiving that the three devils had risen from hell providentially, the novitiate‘s companions said to them, "Come no nearer, but from the place where you are, tell us something about your delights." The devils then said, "Know this then: Every one, whether good or evil, is in his own delight, a good man in the delight of his good, and an evil man in the delight of his evil." Being then asked, "What is your delight?" they said that it was the delight of committing whoredom, stealing, defrauding, blaspheming.

Being further asked, "What is the nature of these delights?" they said, "By others they are smelled as fetid odours from excrement, and as the stench of dead bodies, and the rank smell from stagnant urine."

They were then asked, "Are they delightful to you?" and they answered, "They are most delightful." They then said, "Then you are like those unclean beasts which pass their lives in such stenches." They replied, "If we are, we are; but such stenches are the delights of our nostrils."

[8] They were then asked, "What more?" They answered: "Every one is allowed to be in his own delight, even the most unclean as they call it, if only they do not molest good spirits and angels. But because, from our delight, we cannot do otherwise than molest them, we are cast into workhouses where we suffer direful things. There, the restraining and withdrawal of our delights is what is called the torment of hell. It is also interior pain."

They were further asked"`Why did you molest the good?" They said that they could not help it. When they saw any angel and smelled the Divine sphere around him, it was as if fury invaded them.

The angels then said, "In this also you are like wild beasts."

And then, as soon as the devils saw the novitiate spirit with the angels, they were overcome with a fury which appeared like the fire of hatred. Therefore, that they might do no harm, they were cast back into hell.

After this, the angels appeared who from ends see causes, and through causes effects, and who were in the heaven above the three companies. They were seen in a bright light which rolled downwards in spiral curves and brought with it a garland of flowers. This they placed on the head of the novitiate spirit. Then, from that heaven there came to him a voice saying "This laurel is given you because from childhood you have meditated on heaven and hell."

CL 462. In the preceding chapter on fornication, pellicacy also was treated of, and by pellicacy was meant a stipulated conjunction of an unmarried man with a woman. By concubinage is here meant the conjunction of a married man with a woman, likewise stipulated. Those who make no distinction between kinds, use these two words as if they had the same meaning and therefore designated the same thing; but they are two different kinds of relationship, the word pellicacy being suitable to the one--a mistress (pellex) being a harlot--and the word concubine to the other--a concubine being an additional partner (succuba) of the bed. Therefore, for the sake of separating them, an ante-nuptial stipulation with a woman is designated as -pellicacy, and a post-nuptial stipulation as concubinage. Concubinage is here treated of for the sake of order, it being from order that, on the one hand, the nature of marriage is disclosed, and on the other, the nature of adultery. First it was shown that marriage and adultery are opposites, this being the subject of the chapter on that opposition. How greatly they are opposite, and the nature of their opposition, can be gathered only from the intermediate relationships which lie between them, of which concubinage is one. Because there are two kinds of concubinage, and an absolute distinction must be made between them, this chapter like the preceding shall be distributed into its parts, as follows:

1. That there are two kinds of concubinage, which greatly differ from each other; one conjointly with the wife, the other in separation from the wife.

2. That for Christians, concubinage conjointly with the wife is altogether unlawful and detestable.

3. That it is polygamy, which is banned from the Christian world, and should be banned.

4. That it is whoredom, and by it the conjugial, which is the precious treasure of Christian life, is destroyed.

5. That concubinage in separation from the wife, when engaged in from causes legitimate, just, and truly weighty, is not unlawful.

6. That the legitimate causes of this concubinage are legitimate causes of divorce, the wife being nevertheless retained in the home.

7. That the just causes of this concubinage are just causes of separation from the bed.

8. That the weighty causes of this concubinage are real and unreal.

9. That weighty causes are real when based on what is just.

10. But that weighty causes are unreal when not based on what is just, even though on an appearance thereof.

11. That those who are in this concubinage from causes legitimate, just, and really weighty, may at the same time be in conjugial love.

12. That while this concubinage continues, actual conjunction with the wife is not lawful.

The explanation of the above now follows:

CL 463. I. That there are two kinds of concubinage, which greatly differ from each other; one conjointly with the wife, the other in separation from the wife. There are two kinds of concubinage, which greatly differ from each other. The one kind is the adjoining of an additional partner to the bed and living conjointly and simultaneously with her and the wife. The other kind is the taking of a woman as companion of the bed in place of the wife, after legitimate and just separation from the latter.

[2] That these two kinds of concubinage are as alien to each other as dirty linen to washed, can be seen by those who look at things clearly and distinctly, but not by those who look at things confusedly and indistinctly. Yea, it can be seen by those who are in conjugial love, but not by those who are in the love of adultery. The latter are in night respecting all the derivations of love of the sex, but the former in day. Yet, those who are in adultery can see these derivations and their distinctions, not indeed in themselves from themselves but from others when they hear about them; for with an adulterer, there is the same faculty of elevating the understanding as with a chaste partner. Yet, after acknowledging the distinctions heard from others, the adulterer, when he immerses his understanding in his own filthy pleasures, obliterates them; for the chaste and the unchaste, and the sane and the insane, cannot abide together, though they can be distinguished by the understanding when separated.

[3] Once, in the spiritual world, some spirits who had not reputed adulteries as sins, being asked by me whether they knew a single distinction between fornication, pellicacy, the two kinds of concubinage, and the degrees of adultery, said, "The one is like the other." Asked whether marriage also was like, they looked around to see whether any of the clergy were present, and none being present, they said, "In itself it is." It was different in the case of those who, in the ideas of their thought, had reputed adulteries as sins. These said that in their interior ideas which pertain to perception they saw the differences but had not yet taken pains to discern them and distinguish between them. This I can affirm--that by angels of heaven those distinctions are perceived in their least details. In order therefore that it may be clear that there are two kinds of concubinage opposed to each other, of which the one abolishes conjugial love and the other does not, the damnable kind shall first be described, and afterwards the other which is not hurtful.

CL 464. II. That for Christians, concubinage conjointly with the wife is (altogether) unlawful and detestable. It is unlawful because it is against the conjugial covenant, and detestable because against religion, and what is against the latter and at the same time against the former is against the Lord. Wherefore, as soon as anyone adjoins a concubine to his wife without a real weighty cause, heaven is closed to him and by the angels he is no more numbered among Christians. Moreover, from that time he spurns the things of the Church and religion, and afterwards does not lift up his face above nature, but turns to her as to a deity which favours his lust, by the influx of which his spirit is then animated. The interior cause of this apostasy will be laid open in what follows. That such concubinage is detestable, this the man himself does not see because after heaven has been closed to him he becomes spiritually insane. But a chaste wife sees it clearly because she is conjugial love, and this love nauseates it. Therefore, many of them are then repellent to actual conjunction with their men, as something which would contaminate their chastity from the contact of the lust adhering to the men from the courtesans.

CL 465. III. That it is polygamy, which is banned from the Christian world, and should be banned. That simultaneous concubinage, or concubinage conjointly with the wife, is polygamy, though not acknowledged as such because not so decreed by any law and thus not so denominated, is seen by everyone, even if not clear-sighted; for the woman is used as a wife and a sharer of the conjugial couch. That polygamy is banned from the Christian world and should be banned was proved in the chapter on polygamy, especially from the following: That for a Christian it is not lawful to marry more than one wife (n. 338); and that if a Christian marries more wives than one, he commits not only natural adultery but also spiritual adultery (n. 339); that it was permitted the Israelitish nation because with that nation there was no Christian Church (n. 340). From this it is clear that to adjoin a concubine to the wife, and share the bed with both, is filthy polygamy.

CL 466. IV. That it is whoredom, and by it the conjugial which is the precious treasure of Christian life, is destroyed. That it is a whoredom more opposed to conjugial love than the common whoredom which is called simple adultery, and that it is the deprivation of all ability and inclination for the conjugial life which is within Christians from birth, can be proved by arguments which are valid before the reason of a wise man.

As regards the FIRST point, that simultaneous concubinage or concubinage conjointly with the wife is a whoredom more opposed to conjugial love than the common whoredom which is called simple adultery, this can be seen from the following: Within common whoredom or simple adultery there is no love analogous to conjugial love, it being merely a burning heat of the flesh which cools down directly, and sometimes does not leave behind it any vestige of love for the woman. Therefore, this effervescing lasciviousness, if the act is not committed from purpose or confirmation, and if the adulterer repents of it, detracts only some little from conjugial love. Not so with polygamous whoredom. Within this, unlike the former, is a love analogous to conjugial love; for after the effervescence, it does not cool down, disperse, and pass off into nothing, but remains and renews and establishes itself. To that extent it takes away from love to the wife and induces cold for her in its place; for the man then looks upon the harlot who shares his bed as lovely, doing this because of the freedom of his will in that he can withdraw if he pleases. This freedom is inborn in the natural man, and being pleasing to him, it supports his love. Moreover, unition with a concubine, with all its allurements, is closer than with the wife. On the other hand, he does not look upon his wife as lovely, and this because of the duty of cohabitation with her enjoined by a covenant for life; and his perception of this duty as being forced is the stronger because of his freedom with the other woman. That love for the married partner grows cold, and she herself is held cheap in proportion as love for the one who is a harlot grows warm, and she is prized, is evident.

[2] As regards the SECOND point, that simultaneous concubinage or concubinage conjointly with the wife deprives man of all ability and inclination for that conjugial life which is within Christians from birth, this can be seen from the following: So far as love for the married partner is transcribed into love for the concubine, so far it is torn away, exhausted, and emptied out, as shown just above. That this is effected through the closing of the interior parts of the man’s natural mind and the unclosing of the inferior, can be evident from the fact that, with Christians, the seat of the inclination to love one of the sex is in their inmosts, and that while this seat can be shut off, it cannot be extirpated. That the inclination to love one of the sex and also the ability to receive that love is implanted in Christians from birth, is because that love is from the Lord alone and is made a matter of religion; and in Christendom the Divine of the Lord is acknowledged and worshipped, and religion is from His Word. Hence is the engrafting of that inclination, and also its transplantation from generation to generation. It was said that by polygamous whoredom this Christian conjugial is destroyed; but what is meant is, that in a Christian polygamist it is closed up and intercepted. Yet it can be resuscitated in his posterity, just as is the case with the likeness of a grandfather or remote ancestor returning in his grandson or great-grandson. Hence it is that this conjugial is called the precious treasure of Christian life, and above (n. 457, 458), the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion.

[3] That with a Christian who is in polygamous whoredom this conjugial is thereby destroyed is manifestly evident from the fact that unlike the Mohammedan Polygamist, a Christian cannot love a concubine and a wife equally, but so far as he loves the concubine, that is, grows warm to her, so far he does not love his wife, that is, so far he grows cold to her; and, what is more detestable, in the same degree at heart he acknowledges the Lord as merely a natural man and as the son of Mary, and not at the same time the Son of God. Moreover, in the same degree he makes religion to be of no account. It should be well noted, however, that this is the case with those who add a concubine to the wife and conjoin themselves to both actually. It in no way applies to those who, from causes legitimate, just, and truly weighty, separate and disjoin themselves from the wife as to actual love and take a woman for use. The consideration of this kind of concubinage now follows.

CL 467. V. That concubinage in separation from the wife, when engaged in from causes legitimate, just, and truly weighty, is not unlawful. What causes are meant by legitimate, by just, and by truly weighty, will be stated in their order. Here a bare mention of the causes is premised, that the concubinage to be treated of in what now follows may be distinguished from the former concubinage.

CL 468. VI. That the legitimate causes of this concubinage are legitimate causes of divorce, the wife being nevertheless retained in the home. By divorce is meant the abolition of the conjugial covenant and thus plenary separation and entire liberty thereafter to take another wife. The one only cause of this total separation or divorce is whoredom, according to the Lord‘s precept. (Matthew 19:9). Referable to the same cause are also manifest obscenities which banish modesty and fill and infest the house with shameful panderings, from which arises a scortatory shamelessness into which the whole mind is dissolved. To these causes is added malicious desertion which involves whoredom and causes the wife to commit adultery and thus to be put away (Matt 5:32). These three causes, being legitimate causes of divorce the first and third before a public judge, and the second before the man himself as judge, are also legitimate causes of concubinage, in case the adulterous wife is retained in the home. That whoredom is the one only cause of divorce is because it is diametrically opposite to the life of conjugial love and destroys it even to the point of extermination. See above (n. 255).

CL 469. The reasons why by many men the meretricious wife is nevertheless retained in the home are:

1. That the man fears to contest the suit with his wife, to accuse her of adultery, and thus to publish her crime abroad; for unless the testimony of eyewitnesses or the equivalent thereof resulted in her conviction, he would be covered with reproaches, covert in assemblies of men and open in assemblies of women.

2. He fears also clever pleas in exculpation of his adulterous wife, and likewise the favouring of her by the judge, and thus the dishonouring of his name.

3. Besides the above, there are advantages in regard to domestic uses which dissuade him from separating her from the home, as, for instance, if they have small children towards whom even the love of an adulterous wife is maternal; if between them and conjoining them are mutual services which cannot be broken off; if the wife have parental inheritances or patronage from relatives or acquaintances and there is hope of fortune from them; if in the beginning he had enjoyed loving companionship with her; and if after becoming an adulteress she knows how cleverly to soothe the man with flattering pleasantries and pretended civilities, that she may not be accused; besides other reasons. What in themselves are legitimate causes of divorce, are also legitimate causes of concubinage. The reasons for the wife’s retention in the home when she has committed whoredom do not take away the cause of divorce. Who but a man of vile character can observe the rights of the conjugial bed and share the couch with an adulteress? If this is done here and there it is not conclusive.

CL 470. VII. That the just causes of this concubinage are just causes of separation from the bed. There are legitimate causes of separation and there are just causes. The legitimate causes are made by the pronouncements of judges, and the just by pronouncements adjudged by the man alone. Both the legitimate and the just causes of separation from the bed and also from the house have been briefly recounted above (n. 252, 253). Of these, BLEMISHES OF THE BODY are:

(1) Diseases by which the whole body is infected to a degree which may lead to fatal results by contagion. Such diseases are malignant and pestilential fevers, leprosy, venereal diseases, cancer.

(2) Also diseases by which the whole body becomes so weighed down that no consociation is possible, and from which hurtful effluvia and noxious vapours are exhaled, either from the surface of the body or from its inner parts, especially the stomach and lungs. From the surface of the body: malignant pox, warts, pustules, consuming scurvy, virulent itch, especially if by these diseases the face is made loathsome. From the stomach: eructations constantly foul, rank, and fetid. From the lungs: filthy and putrid exhalations exhaling from tumours, ulcers or abscesses, or from vitiated blood or serum.

(3) In addition to these, there are also other diseases of various names, such as lipothymy, which is a total languidness of the body and a lack of vital forces; paralysis, which is a loosening and relaxation of the membranes and ligaments that serve for motion; epilepsy; permanent infirmity from apoplexy; certain chronic diseases; the iliac passion; hernia; besides other diseases of which pathology teaches.

BLEMISHES OF THE MIND are also just causes of separation from bed and house, such as mania, frenzy, insanity, actual foolishness and idiocy, loss of memory, and other like blemishes. That these, being just causes of separation, are just causes of concubinage, is seen by reason without a judge.

CL 471. VIII. That the weighty causes of this concubinage are real and unreal. In addition to just causes, which are just causes of separation and so become just causes of concubinage, there are also weighty causes which depend on the judgment and justice of the man. These must therefore be mentioned; but since the judgments of justice may be perverted and by confirmations be turned into appearances of justice, these causes are distinguished into real and unreal weighty causes, and are described separately.

CL 472. IX. That weighty causes are real when based on what is just. For the knowing of these causes, it suffices to recite some that are real, such as an absence of parental love and the consequent rejection of infants; intemperance, drunkenness, uncleanness, shamelessness; proneness to divulge the secrets of the home, to quarrel, strike blows, take revenge, do evil, steal, deceive; internal dissimilitude causing antipathy; a shameless demand for the conjugial debt whereby the man becomes a cold stone; addiction to magical arts and sorceries; extreme impiety, and other like faults.

CL 473. There are also milder causes which are real weighty causes and separate from the bed though not from the home, such as the cessation of childbearing with the wife due to the feebleness of advanced age, and hence a non-tolerance and refusal of actual love, while ardour still continues with the man; besides other like causes in which the rational judgment sees what is just, and which do not hurt the conscience.

CL 474. X. That weighty causes are unreal when not based on what is just, even though on an appearance there of. These are learned from the real weighty causes recounted above. If not rightly scrutinized, they may appear as just and yet are not just. Thus: Periods of abstinence requisite after childbirth; transitory illness of the wife; outflows of the prolific fluid whether from this cause or not; the polygamy permitted the Israelites. These and other like causes are of no validity when viewed from justice. They are causes made up by men after cold has been contracted and unchaste lusts have deprived them of conjugial love and infatuated them with an idea of its likeness to scortatory love. When they enter into concubinage, such men, in order to avoid loss of reputation, make spurious and fallacious causes of this sort to be pertinent and genuine causes. For the most part, they also spread lies about the wife, and these are assented to and sung out by friendly fellow-citizens according as they favour the husbands.

CL 475. XI. That those who are in this concubinage from causes legitimate, just, and really weighty, may at the same time be in conjugial love. It is said that they may at the same time be in conjugial love, the meaning being that they may retain this love stored up within themselves; for in the subject in whom that love is, it does not perish but is quiescent. The following are the reasons why conjugial love is preserved with those who prefer marriage to concubinage and yet enter into the latter for the causes mentioned above:

(1) That this concubinage is not repugnant to conjugial love.

(2) That it is not a separation from it.

(3) That it is but a veiling around it.

(4) That the veil is removed from them after death.

1. That this concubinage is not repugnant to conjugial love follows from what was demonstrated above, namely, that when it is from causes legitimate, just, and really weighty, it is not unlawful (n. 467-473).

[2] 2. That this concubinage is not a separation from conjugial love, is because when legitimate or just or really weighty causes arise, persuade, and impel, conjugial love is not separated with the marriage but is only interrupted, and love interrupted and not separated remains in the subject. The cause is the same as with one who is in a function which he loves, and is detained from it by social company, shows, or travel--his love of the function is not destroyed; or as with one who loves generous wine, yet when he drinks ignoble wine he does not lose his appetite and taste for the generous.

[3] 3. That this concubinage is only a veiling around of conjugial love is because the love of concubinage is natural and the love of marriage spiritual, and when the spiritual love is intercepted, natural love veils it over. The lover himself does not know that such is the case because spiritual love is not sensated of itself but only through a natural love, and (then) it is sensated as a delight wherein is blessedness from heaven, while natural love by itself is sensated merely as delight.

[4] 4. That the veil is removed after death is because then, from being natural the man becomes spiritual, and instead of a material body he enjoys a substantial body wherein natural delight from the spiritual is sensated in its eminence. That such is the case, I have heard from communication with some in the spiritual world, even from kings there, who in the natural world had been in concubinage from really weighty causes.

CL 476. XII. That while this concubinage continues, actual conjunction with the wife is not lawful. The reason is because in such case conjugial love, which in itself is spiritual, chaste, pure and holy, becomes natural, is contaminated and worn out, and thus perishes. Wherefore, that this love may be preserved, it is expedient that concubinage from really weighty causes (n. 472, 473) be with one only and not with two at the same time.

CL 477. To the above shall be added the following Memorable Relation:

I heard a certain spirit, a young man recently from the world, boasting of his whoredoms and eager to catch laudation as being masculine above other men. Among the extravagances of his boasting, he poured forth this: "What is more dismal than to imprison one‘s love and to live with one woman alone? and what more delightful than to set love free? Who is not wearied from being with one woman alone? and who is not enlivened from being with many? What is sweeter than promiscuous liberty, variety, deflorations, the deceiving of husbands, and scortatory hypocrisies? Do not things obtained by cunning, deception, and stealthy arts delight the inmost regions of the mind?"

[2] Hearing this, the bystanders said, "Speak not so; you know not where you are and with whom. You are but lately come hither. Under your feet is hell, and above your head is heaven. You are now in a world which is in the middle between these two and is called the world of spirits. Here come all who depart out of the world, and here they are gathered, explored as to their nature, and prepared, the evil for hell and the good for heaven. Perhaps, from hearing priests in the world, you still keep in mind that whoremongers and harlots are cast down into hell and that chaste partners are taken up into heaven."

At this the novitiate laughed and said: "What is heaven? and what is hell? Is it not heaven where one is free? and is not he free who is allowed to love as many women as he pleases? And is it not hell where one is a slave? and is not he a slave who is obliged to stick to one?"

[3] An angel, looking down from heaven, heard these words, and in order that the young man might go no further in profaning marriages, he interrupted him and said, "Come up hither and I will show you in a living way what heaven is, and what hell and the nature of the hell for confirmed whoremongers."

He then showed him the way, and the young man went up. After being received, he was led first into a paradisal garden where were fruit-trees and flowers which from their beauty, pleasantness and fragrance filled the animus of all with the delights of life. Seeing these, he expressed his great admiration; but he was then in the external sight in which he had been when seeing like things in the world. In this sight he was rational, but in his internal sight, wherein whoredom played the chief role and occupied every least thought, he was not rational. Therefore, his external sight was closed and his internal sight opened. With this opened, he said, "What do I see now? is it not straw and sticks of wood? And what do I smell now? are they not bad smells? Where now are the things of paradise?" The angel said: "They are near by and at hand, but they do not appear before your internal sight which is scortatory, for that sight turns heavenly things into infernal, seeing only their opposites. Every man has an internal mind and an external, and so an internal sight and an external. With the evil, the internal mind is insane, and the external wise, while with the good, the internal is wise and from this the external also; and in the spiritual world a man sees objects according to the nature of his mind."

[4] From power given him, the angel then closed the young man’s internal sight and opened his external. He then led him through the gates towards the centre of the dwellings. There he saw magnificent palaces of alabaster, marble, and various precious stones, and beside them porticos, and columns round about, overlaid and encompassed with stupendous insignia and adornments. On seeing these, he was amazed and said, "What do I see? I see magnificent things in their true magnificence, and architecture in its true art."

Thereupon the angel again closed his external sight and opened his internal sight, which was evil, being filthily scortatory. When this was done, he cried out, saying, "What do I see now? Where am I? Where now are the palaces? and the magnificent things? I see heaps, ruins, and places full of holes!"

[5] After this he was brought back into his external state, and, being introduced into one of the palaces, saw the decorations on its gates, windows, walls, and ceilings, especially on the utensils, upon and around which were heavenly forms of gold and precious stones such as no words can describe nor any art portray; for they were above the ideas expressed by words, and above the notions of art. On seeing these, the young man again cried out, saying, "These are truly marvels such as eye has never seen." But then his internal sight was opened and the external closed as before, and being asked what he saw now, he replied, "Nothing but walls, here of rushes, there of straw, and yonder of fire-brands."

[6] He was then brought once more into his external state of mind, and maidens who were beauties, being images of heavenly affection, were brought to him and addressed him with the sweet voice of their affection. On seeing and hearing them, his face changed and he returned of himself to his internals which were scortatory; and because these cannot endure anything of heavenly love and, on the other hand, cannot be endured by heavenly love, they both vanished, the maidens from the sight of the man, and the man from the sight of the maidens.

[7] After this the angel instructed him as to whence these inversions of the state of his sight came. He said: "I perceive that in the world from which you have come you were twofold, being one man inwardly and another outwardly. Outwardly you were a civil, moral, and rational man, while inwardly you were neither civil nor moral nor rational because you were a whoremonger and an adulterer. When such men are allowed to ascend into heaven and are there kept in their externals, they are able to see the heavenly things there; but when their internals are opened, then, instead of heavenly they see infernal things.

[8] Know, however, that with everyone in this world, his externals are successively closed and his internals opened. In this way they are prepared for heaven or for hell. And because the evil of whoredom defiles the internals of the mind more than any other evil, you must needs be brought down to the filthy things of your own love, and these are in hells where the caverns stink of excrement. Who cannot know from reason that in the spiritual world, what is unchaste and lascivious is impure and unclean, and thus that there is nothing which more pollutes and defiles a man and induces on him what is infernal. Take care, therefore, that you glory no more in your whoredom that therein you are a masculine man above others. I predict that you will become so feeble that you will scarcely know where your masculinity is. Such is the lot that awaits those who glory in the potency of whoredom."

After hearing this, the young man descended and returned to the world of spirits and to his former companions. He then spoke With them modestly and chastely, yet not for long.

CL 478. No one can know that there is any evil in adultery if he judges of it merely from external appearances, for in these it is like marriage. When internals are mentioned and they are told that it is from these that external appearances draw their good or their evil, these external judges say within themselves: "What are internals? who can see them? Is this not climbing above the sphere of one‘s intelligence?" Such men are like those who take all simulated good for genuine voluntary good, and judge the wisdom of a man from the elegance of his speech, or appraise the man himself from his fine clothes and his riding in a grand carriage, and not from his internal character, this being a matter of judgment from his affection of good. The same is equally the case with the judgment of the goodness of the fruit of a tree, or of anything edible, merely from sight and touch and not from taste and knowledge. This is what is done by all who are unwilling to perceive anything of a man’s internals. Hence the insanity of many at this day, in that they see nothing of evil in adulteries, nay, and conjoin marriages with them in the same bed, that is, make them wholly alike, doing this merely because of the appearance of their likeness in outer manifestation.

[2] That such is the case is proved by the following testimony of experience: Angels once convoked an assembly of some hundreds from among the clever, learned, and wise men of the European world, and they were asked concerning the distinction between marriage and adultery, and were requested to consult reasons pertaining to their understanding. After the consultation, all but ten answered: "Public law alone makes the distinction, and this for the sake of some useful purpose. This purpose can indeed be recognized, yet it can be adjusted by civil prudence." Asked whether they see anything of good in marriage, and anything of evil in adultery, they replied, "No rational evil or good." Questioned as to whether they see anything of sin, they said, "Where is it? is not the act the same?" Amazed at these answers, the angels exclaimed, "Oh, this age! What grossness and how great!" Hearing this, hundreds of the wise turned round, and laughing loudly, said among themselves, "Is this grossness? Is any wisdom possible which can convince one that to love the wife of another merits eternal damnation?"

[3] That adultery is a spiritual evil and thence a moral and civic evil, and is diametrically opposed to the wisdom of reason; and that the love of adultery is from hell and returns to hell, while the love of marriage is from heaven and returns to heaven, was demonstrated in the first chapter of this Part, on The Opposition of Scortatory Love and Conjugial Love. But because all evils, like all goods, have their breadth and their height, their genera or kinds being according to their breadth, and their degrees according to their height, therefore, that adulteries may be known as to both dimensions, they shall be distributed first into their kinds and then into their degrees. This shall be done in the following series:

1. That there are three kinds of adulteries, simple, double, and triple.

2. That simple adultery is that of an unmarried man with the wife of another, or of an unmarried woman with the husband of another.

3. That double adultery is that of a husband with the wife of another, or the reverse.

4. That triple adultery is with blood relations.

5. That there are four degrees of adulteries, and that predications, pronouncements of guilt, and after death, imputations are made according to these degrees.

6. That adulteries of the first degree are adulteries from ignorance, which are committed by those who cannot or as yet do not consult the understanding and thence inhibit them.

7. That adulteries committed by these are mild.

8. That adulteries of the second degree are adulteries from lust, which are committed by those who are indeed able to consult the understanding, yet, on account of contingent causes, are not able at the time.

9. That adulteries committed by these are imputable according as the understanding afterwards does or does not favour them.

10. That adulteries of the third degree are adulteries from reason, which are committed by those who by their understanding confirm them as not being evils of sin.

11. That adulteries committed by these are grievous and are imputed according to the confirmations.

12. That adulteries of the fourth degree are adulteries from the will, which are committed by those who make them allowable and pleasing and not of sufficient importance to merit consulting the understanding in respect to them.

13. That adulteries committed by these are grievous in the highest degree, and are imputed to them as evils of purpose and inseated within them as guilt.

14. That adulteries of the third and fourth degree, whether committed in act or not, are evils of sin according to the measure and quality of the understanding and will within them.

15. That adulteries from purpose of the will, and adulteries from confirmation of the understanding, render men natural, sensual, and corporeal.

16. That they do this to such an extent that at last the adulterers cast off all things of the church and religion.

17. That nevertheless, like others, they still possess human rationality.

18. But that they use this rationality when in externals, and abuse it when in their internals.

The explanation of the above now follows:

CL 479. I. That there are three kinds of adulteries simple, double, and triple. The Creator of the universe has distinguished each and every thing which He created into genera or kinds, and each kind into species. He has likewise distinguished each species and each distinction of the species, and so on, and this to the end that an image of the infinite may exist in a perpetual variety of qualities. Thus the Creator of the universe has distinguished goods and their truths, and likewise, after they had arisen, evils and their falsities. That He has distinguished each and every thing in the spiritual world into kinds, species, and varieties, and that He has gathered all goods and truths into heaven, and all evils and falsities into hell, and has disposed the latter diametrically over against the former, is made evident by the disclosures in the work on HEAVEN AND HELL, published in London in the year 1758. That in this way He has also distinguished and does distinguish goods and truths and evils and falsities in the natural world with men, and thus men themselves, can be learned from man‘s lot after death, in that for the good there is heaven and for the evil hell. Now since all things that pertain to good, and all that pertain to evil are distinguished into kinds, species, and so on, therefore marriages are so distinguished, and likewise their opposites which are adulteries.

CL 480. II. That simple adultery is that of an unmarried man with the wife of another, or of an unmarried woman with the husband of another. By adultery here and in what follows is meant whoredom as opposed to marriage. It is opposed because it violates the covenant for life contracted between married partners, rends their love asunder, defiles it, and shuts off the union initiated at the time of betrothal and confirmed in the beginning of marriage; for after the pact and covenant, the conjugial love of a man with one wife unites their souls. Adultery does not dissolve this union, for it cannot be dissolved; but it shuts it off as one who shuts off a fountain at its source and thus stops its flow, and the basin is filled with filthy and stinking waters. In like manner conjugial love, whose origin is a union of souls, is besmeared and covered over by adultery; and when this is besmeared, then, from below rises up the love of adultery; and as this increases, the former love becomes carnal and the latter rises up against conjugial love and destroys it. Hence is the opposition between adultery and marriage.

CL 481. That more may be learned as to the nature of the grossness of the present age where wise men see nothing of sin in adultery, as disclosed above (n. 478) by angels, I will add the following Memorable Relation:

There were certain spirits who, from habit acquired in the life of the body, infested me with peculiar skill. They did this by an influx somewhat gentle like a kind of undulation such as is usual with the influx of upright spirits; but it was perceived that in the spirits now present were cunning designs and the like to entrap and deceive. At last I spoke with one of them who, it was told me, when he lived in the world had been the general of an army. Perceiving that there was something lascivious in the ideas of his thought, I spoke with him in spiritual speech with representatives--a speech which fully expresses many meanings and indeed in a single moment. He said that in the life of the body in the former world, he had accounted adulteries as nothing. But it was given me to tell him that adulteries are heinous, even though, before the eyes of such men, because of the delight which they experience and of the persuasion therefrom, they do not seem to be such, nay, and seem to be lawful; and, moreover, that he might have known this from the fact that marriages are the seminaries of the human race and hence also of the heavenly kingdom, and for that reason are not to be violated but are to be held holy; also from the fact--which he ought to know, being now in the spiritual world and in a state of perception--that conjugial love descends from the Lord through heaven, and that from this love as a parent is derived mutual love, which is the support of heaven; and further, from the fact that adulterers, when they merely come near heavenly societies, smell their own stench and therefore rush headlong towards hell. He might at least have known that to violate marriages is against Divine laws, against the civil laws of all kingdoms, and also against the genuine lumen of reason, and so against the law of nations because against order, both Divine and human, besides much else. He answered that in the former life he had not thought of such things, and he wished to reason whether they were so. But it was told him that truth does not admit of reasonings, for reasonings defend the delights of the flesh against the delights of the spirit, of the nature of which last, he had no knowledge; that he ought first to think over what had been said because it was the truth; or to think from the principle well known in the world, that no one should do to another what he does not wish the other to do to him. Thus, if anyone had in this way ensnared his wife whom he had loved, as is the case in the beginning of every marriage, then, when in a state of anger thereat, had he spoken from that state, would he not himself have detested adulteries? and being a man of ability, would he not then have confirmed himself against them more than other men, even so far as to damn them to hell? and, that the matter might not be a reproach to him, being the general of an army and with men of prompt action, would he not either have slain the adulterer or cast the adulteress out of his house?

CL 482. III. That double adultery is that of a husband with the wife of another, or the reverse. It is called double adultery because committed by two, the marriage covenant being violated by both. It is therefore twofold more grievous than the former. It was said above (n. 480), that after the pact and covenant, the conjugial love of one man with one wife unites their souls; that this union is the love itself in its origin; and that by adultery this origin is shut off and stopped up, like the spring and flow of a fountain. That the souls of two unite when love to the sex is restricted to the one woman or the one man of the sex, as is the case when a maiden has pledged herself wholly to a young man, and the young man has pledged himself wholly to the maiden, is clearly evident from the fact that the lives of the two unite, and so also their souls, these being the beginnings of their life. This union of souls is possible only in monogamous marriages, that is, the marriages of one man with one wife. It is not possible in polygamous marriages or marriages of a man with several wives; for in the latter, the love is divided, but in the former it is united. That in this its highest seat, conjugial love is spiritual, holy, and pure, is because, from its origin, every man’s soul is celestial and therefore receives influx immediately from the Lord; for it receives from Him the marriage of love and wisdom or of good and truth, and this influx makes him a man and distinguishes him from beasts. From this union of souls, conjugial love, which, in the soul is in its spiritual holiness and purity, flows down into the life of the whole body and, so long as its vein remains open, fills that life with blessed delights. This it does with those who from the Lord become spiritual. That nothing but adultery shuts off and stops up this seat and origin of conjugial love and this fountain and its flow, is evident from the Lord‘s words that it is not lawful for a man to put away his wife and marry another except for adultery (Matt. 19:4-9); and from these words in the same place:

When, therefore, as said above, this pure and holy fountain is shut off, then, like a gem surrounded with excrement, or bread with vomit, it is surrounded with filthy things which are altogether opposite to the purity and holiness of that fountain, namely, conjugial love. From this opposition comes conjugial cold, and in accordance therewith the lascivious pleasure of scortatory love--a love which spontaneously consumes itself. That this is an evil of sin is because what is holy is covered up, and its flow into the body is thus obstructed. In its place then comes what is profane, and the flow thereof into the body is opened. Hence, from being heavenly, the man becomes infernal.

CL 483. To this I will add something worthy of mention from the spiritual world: I have heard that some married men have the lust of committing whoredom, some with undeflowered women or virgins, some with deflowered women or harlots, some with married women or wives, some with women of noble stock, and some with women not of noble stock. That such is the case has been confirmed for me by many instances from various kingdoms of the world. When meditating on the variety of such lusts, I inquired whether there are men who find all their delight with the wives of others, and none with unmarried women. That I might know that there are such men, there were brought to me a number of men from a certain kingdom who were constrained to speak in accordance with their libidinous nature. They said that their sole pleasure and delight was and also is to commit adultery with the wives of others, and that they look out for beautiful wives and hire them at a great price according to their wealth, usually bargaining about the price with the woman alone. To my question why they did not hire unmarried women, they said that to them this was a vulgar thing which in itself was cheap and had in it nothing of delight. I asked also whether those wives afterwards return to their husbands and live with them. They answered that they either do not, or they do it coldly because they have become harlots. I then asked them, seriously, whether they had ever thought or whether they now think that this is double adultery because committed while they themselves have wives, and that such adultery despoils man of every spiritual good; but at this many of those present laughed and said, "What is spiritual good?" Persisting, I said, "What is more detestable than to commingle your soul with the soul of a husband in his wife? Do you not know that in man’s seed is his soul?" At this they turned away and muttered, "What harm does it do there?" Finally I said, "Even though you do not fear Divine laws, do you not fear civil laws?" They answered, "No, only certain men of the ecclesiastical order; but in their presence we conceal it, and if we cannot, we keep on good terms with them." I later saw them separated into groups and some of these groups cast into hell.

CL 484. IV. That triple adultery is with blood relations. This adultery is called triple because it is threefold more grievous than the two former. The blood relations or remainders of flesh who are not to be approached may be seen listed in (Leviticus 18:6-17). The reasons why these adulteries are threefold more grievous than the two mentioned above are internal and external. The internal reasons are based on their correspondence with the violation of the spiritual marriage which is that of the Lord and the Church and thence of good and truth. The external reasons are (that the prohibited degrees were laid down) that they may be guards against man becoming a beast. But the present is not the place to proceed to the disclosure of these reasons.

CL 485. V. That there are four degrees of adulteries, and that predications, pronouncements of guilt, and after death, imputations are made according to these degrees. These degrees are not kinds, but they enter into each kind and there make distinctions between the more and the less evil or good--here, whether, because of circumstances and of contingencies, an adultery of any kind should be accounted mild or more grievous; that circumstances and contingencies vary everything is well known. Yet they are accounted in one way by a man from his rational lumen, in another by a judge from the law, and in another by the Lord from the man‘s state of mind. It is for this reason that predications, pronouncements of guilt, and after death, imputations, are spoken of. Predications are made by a man according to his rational lumen. Pronouncements of guilt are made by a judge according to the law. Imputations are made by the Lord according to the man’s state of mind. That these three greatly differ from each other can be seen without explanation. According to circumstances and contingencies, a man from rational conviction may absolve one whom a judge, sitting in judgment according to the law, cannot absolve; and a judge may absolve one who, after death, is condemned. The reason is because the judge pronounces sentence according to the deeds; but after death everyone is judged according to the intentions of his will and thence of his understanding, and according to the confirmations of his understanding and thence of his will. Neither of these is seen by the judge. Still, both judgments are just, the one being for the good of civil society and the other for the good of heavenly society.

CL 486. VI. That adulteries of the first degree are adulteries from ignorance, which are committed by those who cannot or as yet do not consult the understanding and thence inhibit them. Regarded in themselves, all evils and consequently all adulteries, are evils of the internal and external man simultaneously; the internal man intends them, and the external man commits them. Such, therefore, as is the internal man in the deeds done by the external, such, regarded in themselves, are the deeds. But since the internal man with its intention does not appear before man, therefore, in a court, everyone must be judged from his deeds and words, according to the law laid down and its safeguards; the judge must also look to the inner meaning of the law. But let examples illustrate: Say that adultery is committed by an adolescent boy who does not yet know that adultery is a greater evil than fornication; or is committed by a man of extreme simplicity; or by one who by disease is deprived of clear judgment; or, as is the case with some, by one who is delirious at times and who is then in the state of the really delirious; or is committed in insane drunkenness, and so on. It is evident that in these cases the internal man or the mind is present in the external scarcely otherwise than as in an irrational person. By a rational man, such adulteries are given predicates according to the above circumstances; yet by the same man sitting as judge, the doer is pronounced guilty and punished according to the law. But after death these adulteries are imputed according to the presence, quality, and ability of understanding which was present in the will of the adulterers.

CL 487. VII. That adulteries committed by these are mild. From what has been said above (n. 486), this is manifest without further confirmation, for it is well known that the quality of every deed and, in general, of every affair depends upon the circumstances, and that these mitigate or aggravate. Adulteries of this degree are mild the first time they are committed; and they remain mild so far as, in the subsequent course of life, he or she abstains from them because they are evils against God, or against the neighbour, or against the good of the state, and being against these, are evils against reason. On the other hand, these adulteries are numbered among the more grievous kinds if the parties do not abstain from them for one of the above reasons. Thus this is according to the Divine law in (Ezekiel 18:21, 22, 24), and elsewhere. By man, however, they cannot be either excused or condemned, or predicated and judged as light or grievous on these grounds, because they are not seen by him; indeed, they are not within the province of his judgement. What is meant, therefore, is that they are so accounted and imputed after death.

CL 488. VIII. That adulteries of the second degree are adulteries from lust, which are committed by those who are indeed able to consult the understanding, yet, on account of contingent causes, are not able at the time. With the man who from natural is becoming spiritual there are two things, commonly called the spirit and the flesh, which in the beginning combat against each other. And since the love of marriage is of the spirit, and the love of adultery of the flesh, there is a combat between these also. If the love of marriage conquers, it subdues and subjugates the love of adultery, this being done by its removal. But if it happens that the lust of the flesh is aroused to a heat beyond what the spirit acting from reason can restrain, it follows that the state is inverted and the heat of lust pours such allurements over the spirit that it is no longer master of its reason and hence of its duty. This is what is meant by adulteries of the second degree which are committed by those who are indeed able to consult the understanding but, on account of contingent causes, cannot do so at the time. But let examples illustrate. If by cunning arts a meretricious wife captivates a man‘s mind, enticing him into her bedroom and so inflaming him that he becomes impotent of judgment, and the more if she then also threatens him with disgrace if he does not. So likewise if some meretricious wife is skilled in sorceries, or so excites a man with potions that the burning heat of the flesh deprives his understanding of its freedom of reason. Likewise if a man by soft allurements leads on the wife of another until her will, being inflamed, has no longer any control; besides other similar cases. That these and parallel contingencies alter the grievousness of the adultery and turn the predication of censure to something milder for the seduced man or woman--this, reason both favours and assents to. As to the imputation of this degree of adultery, this now follows.

CL 489. IX. That adulteries committed by these are imputable according as the understanding afterwards does or does not favour them. So far as his understanding favours evils, man appropriates them to himself and makes them his own. Favour is consent, and consent induces on the mind a state of love of them. It is the same with those adulteries which in the beginning were committed without the consent of the understanding, and are afterwards favoured. The contrary is the case if they are not afterwards favoured. The reason is, because evils or adulteries committed during blindness of the understanding are committed from the concupiscence of the body, and in likeness these approach to instincts such as beasts have. With man, the understanding is indeed present when they are committed, but present in passive or dead force and not in active or living force. From this it follows of itself that such adulteries are (imputed or) not imputed in the degree that they are afterwards favoured or not favoured. By imputation is here meant accusation after death and thence adjudication; this is made according to the state of the man’s spirit. Accusation by a man before a judge is not meant; this is not made according to the state of his spirit but according to that of his body in the deed. If the two states were not different, then after death those would be absolved who are absolved in the world, and those would be condemned who are condemned in the world, and thus, for the latter there would be no hope of salvation.

CL 490. X. That adulteries of the third degree are adulteries from the reason, which are committed by those who by their understanding confirm them as not being evils of sin. Every man knows that there is will and understanding, for when he speaks he says, This I will, and This I understand. Still, he does not distinguish between them but makes the one the same as the other. The reason is because he reflects only upon those things which pertain to thought from the understanding, and not upon those which pertain to love from the will; for the latter, unlike the former, do not appear in light. Yet he who does not distinguish between will and understanding cannot distinguish between evil things and good, and so can know nothing whatever concerning blame for sin. But who does not know that good and truth are two distinct things like love and wisdom? and who, when in rational lumen, cannot conclude from this that there are two vessels in man which distinctly receive these and ascribe them to themselves? and that one is the will and the other the understanding? and this because that which the will receives and reproduces is called good, and that which the understanding receives is called truth, what the will loves and does being called good, and what the understanding perceives and thinks being called truth.

[2] Since the marriage of good and truth was treated of in the first part of this work; and since much was there adduced concerning will and understanding and the various attributes and predicates of each, which, I suppose, is perceived even by those who have had no distinct thought concerning understanding and will--human reason being such that it perceives truths from the light of truths even though it has not previously distinguished between them--therefore, in order that the distinction between will and understanding may be perceived more distinctly, to the end that the nature of adulteries from reason or understanding may be known, and after that the nature of adulteries from the will, I will here present something further.

[3] The following may serve for a knowledge concerning will and understanding:

1. That the will alone does nothing of itself, but whatever it does it does by the understanding.

2. On the other hand, the understanding alone does nothing of itself, but whatever it does it does from the will.

3. That the will flows into the understanding, not the understanding into the will. But the understanding teaches what is good and evil, and consults the will that the latter may choose which of the two is pleasing to it and may do it.

4. That after this a twofold conjunction is effected, one in which the will act from within and the understanding from without, the other in which the understanding acts from within and the will from without.

Thus the adulteries from reason here treated of are distinguished from adulteries from will, of which hereafter. They are distinguished because the one is more grievous than the other, adultery from reason being less grievous than adultery from will. In adultery from reason, the understanding acts from within and the will from without, while in adultery from will, the will acts from within and the understanding from without--the will being the man himself, and the understanding the man from the will--and that which acts within dominates over that which acts without.

CL 491. XI. That adulteries committed by these are grievous (and are imputed) according to the confirmations. The understanding alone confirms, and when it confirms, it makes an ally of the will and stations it round about itself, and so drives it to compliance. Confirmations are effected by reasonings which the mind takes from either its higher region or its lower; if from its higher region which communicates with heaven, it confirms marriages and condemns adulteries; but if from its lower region which communicates with the world, it confirms adulteries and makes light of marriage. Every one can confirm evil just as well as good, and the same is true of falsity and truth. But the confirmation of evil is perceived as more delectable than the confirmation of good, and the confirmation of falsity as clearer than the confirmation of truth. The reason is because the confirmation of evil and falsity draws its reasonings from the delights, pleasures, appearances, and fallacies of the bodily senses, while the confirmation of good and truth draws its reasons from the region above the sensual things of the body.

Now because evils and falsities can be confirmed just as well as goods and truths; and because the confirming understanding draws the will to its side, and the will together with the understanding forms the mind; it follows that the form of the human mind is according to its confirmations, being turned to heaven if its confirmations are in favour of marriages, and to hell if they are in favour of adulteries. And as the form of man‘s mind is, such is his spirit and consequently such the man. From this it is now manifest that after death adulteries of this degree are imputed according to their confirmations.

CL 492. XII. That adulteries of the fourth degree are adulteries from the will, which are committed by those who make them allowable and pleasing and not of sufficient importance to merit consulting the understanding in respect to them. These adulteries are distinguished from the former by their origin. That origin is the depraved will connate with man, that is, hereditary evil. When he comes into possession of his own judgment, the man blindly obeys this heredity, making no judgment concerning adulteries as to whether they are evil or not. Therefore it is said that he does not account them of sufficient importance to merit consulting the understanding in respect to them. But the origin of the adulteries which are called adulteries from the reason is a perverse understanding, and these adulteries are committed by those who confirm them as not being evils of sin. With the latter, the understanding takes the lead; with the former the will. These two distinctions are not apparent to man in the natural world, but they are plainly apparent to angels in the spiritual world. In that world, all (the evil) are distinguished in general according as the evils received and appropriated spring originally from the will or from the understanding; and it is according to this that they are separated in hell. There, those who are evil from the understanding dwell towards the front and are called satans, while those who are evil from the will dwell at the back and are called devils. Because of this universal distinction, mention is made in the Word, of Satan and the Devil. With those evil spirits--and also adulterers--who are called satans, the understanding takes the lead; but with those who are called devils, the will takes the lead. But so to explain the distinctions that the understanding may see them, is not possible until the distinctions between will and understanding are known, and until the formation of the mind by the will through the understanding is described, and also its formation by the understanding through the will. This knowledge must first give light before the above-mentioned distinctions can be seen by the reason. But this is the work of many pages.

CL 493. XIII. That adulteries committed by these are grievous in the highest degree, and are imputed to them as evils of purpose and inseated within them as guilt. That they are grievous in the highest degree, and more grievous than the former, is because in them the will takes the lead, while in the former it is the understanding; and man’s life is essentially the life of his will, and formally that of his understanding. The reason is because the will acts as one with the love. Love is the essence of man‘s life, and it forms itself in the understanding by such things as are accordant with it. Therefore, regarded in itself, the understanding is nothing else than the form of the will. And because love pertains to the will, and wisdom to the understanding, wisdom is nothing else than the form of love. In like manner, truth is nothing else than the form of good. That which flows forth from the essence of man’s life, thus from his will or love, is principally called purpose, while that which flows forth from the form of his life, thus from his understanding and its thought, is called intention. Moreover, guilt is principally predicated of the will. Hence it is said that everyone has the guilt of evil by inheritance, but evil itself is from the man. Therefore adulteries of the fourth degree are imputed as evils of purpose and are inseated within the adulterer as guilt.

CL 494. XIV. That adulteries of the third and fourth degree, whether committed in act or not, are evils of sin according to the measure and quality of the understanding and will within them. That adulteries from reason or understanding, being those of the third degree, and adulteries from the will, being those of the fourth degree, are grievous and so are evils of sin according to the quality of the understanding and the will within them, can be seen from the comments upon them in (n. 490-493). The reason is because man is man from his will and understanding, for from these two exist not only all that is done in the mind but also all that is done in the body. Who does not know that the body does not act of itself, but the will by the body? and that the mouth does not speak of itself but the thought by the mouth? Wherefore, if will were taken away, action would cease in a moment; and if thought were taken away, the speech of the mouth would cease in a moment. Hence it is fully evident that adulteries committed in act are grievous according to the measure and quality of the understanding and the will within them. That they are grievous in like manner if not committed in act is plain from these words of the Lord:

To commit adultery in the heart is to commit it in the will.

[2] There are many reasons which cause an adulterer not to be an adulterer in act and yet an adulterer in will and understanding. Men abstain from adulteries as to the act from fear of the civil law and its penalties; from fear of the loss of reputation and hence of honour; from fear of resultant diseases; from fear of upbraidings by the wife at home and thence intranquillity of life; from fear of vengeance by the husband or by relations, and from fear also of a beating by the servants; from poverty or avarice; from weakness arising from disease, abuse, age, or impotence, and so from shame. If from these and similar causes one restrains himself from adulteries in act, and yet favours them in will and understanding, he is still an adulterer; for he nevertheless believes that they are not sins, and in his spirit he makes them not unlawful in the sight of God. Thus he commits them in spirit, though not in the body before the world. Therefore, after death, when he becomes a spirit he speaks openly in favour of them.

CL 495. XV. That adulteries from purpose of the will, and adulteries from confirmation of the understanding, render men natural, sensual, and corporeal. Man is man and is distinguished from the beast by the fact that his mind is distinguished into three regions, being as many as are the heavens, and that he can be elevated from the lowest region into the higher and from this into the highest, and so can become an angel of the one (or the other) heaven, and also of the third. For this end, man is given the faculty of elevating his understanding even to the third heaven; but if the love of his will is not elevated at the same time, he does not become spiritual but remains natural. Nevertheless, he retains the faculty of elevating his understanding. The reason why he retains this, is that he may be reformed; for he is reformed by means of the understanding, and the reformation is effected by knowledges of good and truth and by rational intuition therefrom. If he views these knowledges rationally and lives according to them, then the love of his will is also elevated, and in the same degree his human character is perfected and he becomes more and more a man.

[2] Different is the result if he does not live according to the knowledges of good and truth. Then the love of his will remains natural and his understanding becomes spiritual by turns; for alternately it raises itself up like an eagle and looks down upon what is of its love beneath, and then, seeing it, flies down and conjoins itself with it. If, therefore, concupiscences of the flesh belong to its love, then, from its height, it lets itself down to them and in conjunction with them takes pleasure in their delights. Then, for the securing of a reputation, it again raises itself on high that it may be deemed wise; and so, as just said, it leaps up and down by turns.

[3] That adulterers of the third and fourth degree, being those who have made themselves adulterers from the purpose of their will and the confirmation of their understanding, are utterly natural and become progressively sensual and corporeal, is because they immerse the love of their will and with it, at the same time, their understanding, in the unclean things of scortatory love, and take pleasure therein, as in delicacies and dainties, like as do unclean birds and beasts in things stinking and stercoraceous; for the effluvient exhalations rising up from the flesh so fill the habitacle of the mind with their gross odours that the will sensates nothing purer and more desirable. After death it is these who become corporeal spirits, and from whom spring the unclean things of hell and of the Church spoken of above (n. 430, 431).

CL 496. There are three degrees of the natural man. In the first degree are those who love only the world, setting their heart upon riches; these properly are meant by the natural. In the second degree are those who love only the delights of the senses, setting their heart upon luxuries and pleasures of every kind; these properly are meant by the sensual. In the third degree are those who love only themselves, setting their heart on the quest of honour. These properly are meant by the corporeal, and this because they immerse all things of their will and hence of their understanding in the body, seeing themselves backward from others, and loving only what is their own. But the sensual immerse all things of their will and hence of their understanding in the allurements and fallacies of the senses, indulging in these alone; while the natural expend the whole of their will and understanding on the world, avariciously and fraudulently acquiring wealth, and looking to no other use in it and from it beyond the mere possession. The adulteries named above turn men into these degenerate degrees, one into this degree, another into that, each according to the desired pleasure from which his genius has its being.

CL 497. XVI. That they do this to such an extent that at last the adulterers cast off all things of the church and religion. That adulterers from purpose and confirmation cast off all things of the church and religion, is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposites (n. 425). The love of marriage acts as one with the church and religion (n. 130) and elsewhere throughout the First Part; hence the love of adultery, being the opposite love, acts as one with all that is against the church. That these adulterers cast off all things of the church and its religion is also because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are opposites, just as the marriage of good and truth is opposite to the connubial connection of evil and falsity (n. 427, 428); and the marriage of good and truth is the church, while the connubial connection of evil and falsity the anti-church. That these adulterers cast off all things of the church and of religion is because the love of marriage and the love of adultery are as opposite as are heaven and hell (n. 429), and in heaven is love of all things of the church, and in hell, hatred against all things of the church. That these adulterers cast off all things of the church and of religion is also because their delights commence from the flesh and are of the flesh even in the spirit (n. 440, 441), and the flesh is against the spirit, that is, against the spiritual things of the church. Hence the delights of scortatory love are called pleasures of insanity. If you desire demonstrations, pray go to those whom you know to be such adulterers and ask them in private what they think about God, the church, and eternal life, and you will hear. The genuine reason is, because, as conjugial love opens the interiors of the mind and thus elevates them above the sensual things of the body even into the light and heat of heaven, so, on the other hand, the love of adultery shuts off the interiors of the mind; and the mind itself, as regards its will, it thrusts into the body even down to all the desires of its flesh; and the deeper it thrusts it, the farther it draws it away from heaven and increases its distance therefrom.

CL 498. XVII. That nevertheless, like others, they still possess human rationality. That as to the understanding, the natural, sensual, and corporeal man is equally rational as the spiritual man, was demonstrated before me in the case of those satans and devils spoken of here and there in the Memorable Relations who, by leave, rose up out of hell and conversed with angelic spirits in the world of spirits. But because the love of the will makes the man, and this love draws the understanding into consent, therefore, such men are not rational save when in a state removed from the love of their will. When they return to this love, they are insane in a worse way than wild beasts. Without the faculty of elevating his understanding above the love of his will, man would be not a man but a beast, for a beast does not enjoy that faculty. Consequently, he could not choose anything that is good and advantageous and from choice do it, and so could not be reformed and led to heaven and live to eternity. Hence it is that adulterers from purpose and confirmation, although merely natural, sensual, and corporeal, yet like others enjoy the gift of understanding, that is, rationality; but when they are in the lust of adultery, and from that lust think and speak concerning it, they do not enjoy that rationality, and this because then the flesh acts upon the spirit, and not the spirit upon the flesh. It should be known, however, that after death they finally become stupid; not that the faculty of becoming wise is taken away from them, but that they do not wish to be wise, wisdom being undelightful to them.

CL 499. XVIII. But that they use this rationality when in externals, and abuse it when in their internals. They are in externals when they speak out-of-doors and in company, but in their internals when at home and by themselves. Put it to the test, if you will. Take some such man--for example, some member of the order called Jesuits--and have him speak in company or teach in a church concerning God, the holy things of the church, and heaven and hell, and you will hear a zealot more rational than any other. He may even chance to move you to groans and tears for your salvation. But take him to your home, extol him above (members of other) orders, call him a father of wisdom, and make yourself his friend until he opens his heart, and you will hear what he will then preach about God, the holy things of the church, and heaven and hell, to wit, that they are fantasies and delusions, and thus are bonds invented for souls, wherewith he may catch and bind men, great and small, rich and poor, and keep them under the yoke of his dominion. This will suffice to illustrate what is meant by the statement that natural men, even down to men who are corporeal, enjoy human rationality like others, but use it when in externals and abuse it when in their internals. It is a consequence of this that judgment of a man must be made, not from the wisdom of his lips, but at the same time from the wisdom of his life.

CL 500. To the above I will add the following Memorable Relation:

Once, in the world of spirits, I heard a great tumult. It was from thousands of men gathered together and crying out, "Punish them! Punish them!" Going nearer, I asked, "What is the matter?" and one who stood apart from that great gathering told me they were in the burning heat of anger against three priests who were going around everywhere and preaching against adulterers, saying, that adulterers have no acknowledgment of God; that heaven is closed to them and hell opened; that in hell they are unclean devils because at a distance they appear like swine wallowing in dung; and that the angels of heaven abominate them.

To my question, "Where are those priests? and why such shouting on that account?" he replied: "Those three priests are in their midst guarded by attendants; and the gathering consists of men who believe adulteries are not sins, and declare that adulterers have an acknowledgment of God equally as do those who cleave to their wives. They are all from the Christian world, and a visitation has been made by angels to see how many there were who believed adulteries to be sins, and out of a thousand, there were not found a hundred."

[2] He further told me: "The nine hundred speak about adulteries in this way.: `Who does not know that the delight of adultery is pre-eminent above the delight of marriage? that adulterers are in perpetual heat and thence in alacrity, industry, and an active life above those who live with one woman only? and on the other hand, that with a married partner, love grows cold, and sometimes so cold that at last there is scarcely a single word of speech with her or (any sort) of companionship that is living? Not so with harlots. By whoredoms the deadness of life with a wife arising from a lack of potency is restored and vivified. Is not that which restores and vivifies of more value than that which deadens? What is marriage but legalized whoredom? who knows of any distinction? Can love be forced? Yet love with a wife is forced by covenant and the laws. Is not love with a married partner love of the sex? and so universal is this love that it exists even with birds and beasts. What is conjugial love but love of the sex? and love of the sex is free when (indulged in) with any woman whatsoever. The civil laws are against adulteries because those who laid down the law thought it was for the public good; yet sometimes they themselves as well as the judges commit adultery and say among themselves, He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone. Only the simple and the religious believe adulteries to be sins. Not so the intelligent.

[3] They, like us, view them from the lumen of nature. Are not offspring born from adulteries equally as from marriages? Are not bastards just as fit and useful for offices and employments as legitimate children? Moreover, in this way provision is made for families otherwise unfruitful. Is not this a benefit and not an injury? What harm is it to a wife if she admits several rivals? and what harm to her man? As to its being a dishonour to the man, that is a frivolous notion from fantasy; and as to adultery being contrary to the laws and statutes of the Church, this comes from the ecclesiastical order, for the sake of power. But what has the theological and spiritual to do with a delight that is merely corporeal and carnal? Are there not elders and monks who are adulterers? Are they therefore unable to acknowledge and worship God? Why then do these three men preach that adulterers have no acknowledgment of God? We cannot tolerate such blasphemies. Let them therefore be judged and punished.‘"

[4] After this I saw that they called judges and asked them to sentence the priests to punishment. But the judges said: "This matter does not belong to our province for it concerns the acknowledgment of God and sin and thus salvation and damnation. Judgment concerning these must come from heaven. We will, however, give you counsel as to how you can learn whether these three priests have been preaching truths. There are three places of which we judges know, where such matters are investigated and laid open in a singular manner. ONE is a place where a way to heaven is open to all men; but when they come into heaven, they themselves perceive what their nature is in respect to the acknowledgment of God. The SECOND is a place where also a way opens to heaven, but none can enter that way save he who has heaven within him. The THIRD is a place where a way is open to hell, and those who love infernal things enter upon that way of their own accord, because from delight. We judges remand to those places all who demand of us judgement respecting heaven and hell."

[5] Hearing this, the assembled men said, "Let us go to those places." And as they were going to the first place, where a way into heaven is open to all, it suddenly became dark. Therefore some of them lighted torches and with these they led the way. The accompanying judges told them: "This happens to all who go to the first place; but as they draw near, the fire of the torches grows dim and, in the place itself, it is extinguished by reason of the inflowing light of heaven. This is a sign that they are there. The reason is because heaven is first closed to them and afterwards opened."

Arrived at the place, and the torches having gone out of themselves, they saw a way tending obliquely upwards into heaven, and those who were in the burning heat of anger against the priests entered upon it. The first among them were those who were adulterers from purpose, after whom came those who were adulterers from confirmation. While they were ascending, those in front cried out, "Follow us," and the followers cried, "Make haste"; and they pressed on.

[6] After a short time, when all were within the heavenly society, then, between them and the angels was seen a gulf. Over the gulf was the light of heaven, and this light, flowing into their eyes, opened the interior regions of their mind from which they were constrained to speak as they were inwardly thinking. They were then questioned by the angels as to whether they acknowledged that there is a God. The first, who were adulterers from purpose of the will, answered, "What is God?" And they looked at each other and said, "Who among you has seen Him?" The second, who were adulterers from confirmation by the understanding, said, "Are not all things from nature? what is there above her but the sun?"

The angels then said to them: "Depart from us. Now you yourselves perceive that you have no acknowledgment of God. When you descend, the interiors of your mind will be closed and the exteriors opened, and then you can speak contrary to your interiors and say that there is a God. Be sure of this, that as soon as a man becomes an adulterer actually, heaven is closed to him, and when this is closed, God is not acknowledged. Listen to the reason: From adulteries comes all the uncleanness of hell, and this stinks in heaven like the stinking mire of the streets."

Hearing this, they turned around and descended by three ways. When they were below, the first and second groups conversing. among themselves said: "In that place the priests conquered; but we know that we can speak of God just as well as they can, and when we say that He is, do we not acknowledge Him? The interiors and exteriors of the mind of which the angels spoke are inventions. But let us go to the second place designated by the judges, where a way to heaven lies open to those who have heaven within them, that is, to those who are to go to heaven."

[7] When they drew near that heaven, a voice went forth therefrom, "Shut the gates; there are adulterers in the neighbourhood." And suddenly the gates were closed and guards with staves in their hands drove them away, and releasing from custody the three priests against whom the tumult had been raised, they introduced them into heaven. Moreover, no sooner were the gates opened for the priests, when out of heaven there breathed upon the rebels the delight of marriage, and being chaste and pure, it almost took away their breath. Therefore, for fear of fainting from suffocation, they hurried away to the third place of which the judges had said that there was a way from there to hell. From that place there then breathed forth the delight of adultery, and those who were adulterers from purpose, and those who were such from confirmation, were so vivified thereby that they went down as though dancing and, like swine, immersed themselves in the unclean things there.

CL 501. The lusts treated of in the following four chapters are not merely lusts of adultery, they are more grievous, for they come only from adulteries, being taken up after adulteries have become loathsome. Thus, until then, the lust of defloration, which is first to be treated of, cannot have its rise with anyone, and this is equally true of the lust of variety, the lust of violation, and the lust of seducing innocences, to be treated of in what follows. They are called lusts because, according to the measure and nature of the lust for them, such is the measure and nature of their appropriation. As specifically regards the lust of defloration, to give clear conviction that it is a shameful thing, this shall be made manifest from the following propositions in their order:

1. The state of a virgin or undeflowered woman before marriage and after marriage.

2. That virginity is the crown of chastity and the token of conjugial love.

3. That defloration without the end of marriage is the shameful deed of a robber.

4. That after death the lot of those who have confirmed themselves in the lust of defloration as not being an evil of sin, is grievous.

The explanation of the above now follows:

CL 502. I. The state of a virgin or undeflowered woman before marriage and after marriage. What the state of a virgin is before she has been instructed concerning the various particulars of the conjugial torch, was made manifest to me by wives in the spiritual world, being women who had departed from the natural world in their infancy and had been educated in heaven. They said that when they came to a marriageable state they began to love the conjugial life from seeing married partners, but only to the end that they might be called wives and might have friendly and trustful companionship with one man; also, that when separated from the house of obedience, they might become of their own right. Respecting marriage, they said that they had thought of it solely from the blessedness of mutual friendship and confidence with a male consort, and not at all from the delight of any flame; but that after the nuptials the virgin state was changed into a new state, of which the virgin had previously known nothing whatever.

[2] They said further that this was a state in which everything of the life of the virgin’s body from the first things thereof to the last is expanded for the receiving of her husband‘s gifts and the uniting of them to her own life, that so she might become his love and his wife; that this state commenced from the moment of defloration, and that after this the flame of love burned for the husband alone; that she felt the delights of that expansion to be heavenly delights; and that, having been introduced into that state by her husband, and the state being from him and so his state in her, she could not possibly love any but him alone.

[3] From this account, the nature of the state of virgins in heaven before marriage and after marriage was made manifest. That the state is the same with virgins and wives on earth when joined (to their husbands) at the first omens, is no secret. What virgin can know that new state before she is in it? Inquire and you will hear. It is different with those who before marriage get allurement from learning about it.

CL 503. II. That virginity is the crown of chastity and the token of conjugial love. Virginity is called the crown of chastity because it crowns the chastity of marriage and is also the sign of chastity. Therefore, in the marriage ceremony the bride has a crown on her head. It is also a sign of the holiness of marriage; for after the virgin flower, the bride gives and devotes her whole self to the bridegroom, then her husband, and the husband in turn gives his whole self to the bride, now his wife. Virginity is also called the token of conjugial love because it is a part of the covenant, the covenant being that love shall unite them into one man or one flesh. Moreover, before the marriage, men regard the virginity of the bride as the crown of her chastity, the token of conjugial love, and the very dainty from which the delights of that love are to commence and to continue. From this, and from what has preceded, it is evident that after the zone has been taken away and the virginity tasted, the virgin becomes a wife, and if not a wife, she becomes a harlot; for the new state into which she is then inducted is a state of love for her man, and if not for her man, it is a state of lust.

CL 504. III. That defloration without the end of marriage is the shameful deed of a robber. Some adulterers have a desire to deflower virgins, and thence also girls in their age of innocence. The virgins are enticed to such deeds by the persuasions of procuresses, by gifts from the men, or by the promise of marriage. After the defloration, these men abandon them and search for other virgins and yet others. Add to this, that they have pleasure not from past victims but only from continually new ones; and that this lust so greatly increases that it becomes the chief of the delights of their flesh. To these they add also the crime, that by various wiles they entice virgins who are about to be married or immediately after the marriage, to offer the first-fruits of marriage to them; thus filthily defiling the marriage. Moreover, I have heard that when their burning heat with its potency has failed, they glory in the number of virginities as in so many golden fleeces of Jason.

[2] This shameless deed, which is stupration, commencing in the age of vigour and being afterwards confirmed by boastings, remains enrooted and thus inseated after death. The nature of this shameful deed is evident from what was said above, namely, that virginity is the crown of chastity, being the token of the conjugial love that is to be; and that the virgin gives up her soul and life to him to whom she gives up her virginity. Upon it also is founded conjugial friendship and the confidence thereof. After this door of conjugial love has been broken through, a woman deflowered by such men loses her modesty and becomes a harlot, and of this also that robber is the cause.

[3] If, after having accomplished their satyriases and profanations of chastities, these robbers apply their mind to marriage, they dwell in their mind on nothing else than the virginity of their future partner, and after they have tasted it, they loathe both bed and bed-chamber, yea, they loathe the whole female sex except young girls. Being violators of marriage and despisers of the female sex, and thus spiritual robbers, it is plain that the Divine nemesis pursues such men.

CL 505. IV. That after death the lot of those who have confirmed themselves in the lust of defloration as not being an evil of sin, is grievous. Their lot is this: After they have passed through the first period in the world of spirits, which is a period of modesty and morality because passed in company with angelic spirits, then, from their externals they are let into their internals and thus into the concupiscences by which they had been consumed in the world. They are let into their concupiscences that it may be seen in what degree these were, and if they were in a minor degree, that after being let into them they may be let out and be covered with shame.

[2] But those who had been in this malignant lust to such an extent that they felt its delight as eminent, and gloried over their thefts as over rich spoils, do not suffer themselves to be led away from it. They are therefore left in their freedom. Immediately thereafter they wander about and inquire after brothels, and when these are pointed out, they enter them; these brothels are at the sides of hell. But when they meet none there but prostitutes, they go away and inquire where there are virgins. They are then taken to harlots who by fantasy are able to assume surpassing beauty and a blushing girlish charm and to pass themselves off as virgins. For these they have the same burning ardour as in the world. They therefore bargain with them; but when about to enjoy their bargain, the fantasy which had been induced from heaven is dispelled, and those virgins then appear in their own deformity, monstrous and dusky. Nevertheless, they are compelled to stick to them for a short time. These harlots are called sirens.

[3] If they do not suffer themselves to be led away from their insane lust by such bewitchments, they are cast down into a hell which is on the border of the south and west, beneath the hell of the more cunning harlots, and are there associated with their fellows. It was also granted me to see them in that hell, and I was told that many there were of noble stock and among the more opulent; but because they had been of such a character in the world, all memory of their lineage and of the dignity they had from their wealth is taken away, and the persuasion is induced that they had been vile slaves and therefore unworthy of any honour.

[4] Among themselves they do indeed appear as men, but as seen by others who are allowed to look in there, they appear like apes, with a fierce face instead of a mild, and a horrible countenance instead of a pleasing. Their loins are contracted, and hence they walk bent downwards, their upper part leaning forwards as if about to fall. They are also ill-smelling. They loathe the sex and turn away from those of them whom they see, for they have no desire. Such do they appear when near by, but at a distance they seem like dogs of indulgence or whelps of delights, and something like barking is heard in the sound of their speech.

CL 506. By the lust of varieties is not meant the lust of fornication, treated of in its own chapter. This latter, although wont to be promiscuous and roaming, does not bring in the lust of varieties except when it passes beyond bounds and the fornicator looks to number and from desire boasts thereof. This idea initiates the lust now treated of. But its nature as it progresses can be perceived distinctly only in a series. This series shall be as follows:

1. That by the lust of varieties is meant the utterly dissolute lust of whoredom.

2. That this lust is a love for the sex and at the same time a loathing.

3. That this lust utterly annihilates conjugial love with them.

4. That their lot after death is a miserable one because they have not the inmost of life.

The explanation of the above follows:

CL 507. I. That by the lust of varieties is meant the utterly dissolute lust of whoredom. This lust insinuates itself with those who in their youth have loosened the bonds of modesty and have not lacked plenty of harlots, especially if there was no question of wealth to spend on them. They have implanted and enrooted the lust within themselves by inordinate and unlimited whoredoms, by shameless thoughts about love of the female sex, and by confirmations that adulteries are not evil and are by no means sins. In its progression with them, this lust takes such increase that they desire the women of all the world and troops of them and a new one every day. Since this love separates itself from the common love of the sex implanted in every man, and absolutely from the love of one of the sex which is conjugial love, and casts itself into the exteriors of the heart as the delight of a love separate from the above loves and yet derived from them, therefore it is so deeply enrooted in the cuticles, that after the virile powers have become enfeebled, it remains in the touch. Such men make nothing of adulteries, and therefore think of the whole female sex as of a common harlot, and of marriage as of common harlotry. Thus they mix unchastity with chastity, and are insane from the mixture. What is meant by the statement that the lust of varieties is the utterly dissolute lust of whoredom is thus manifest.

CL 508. II. That this lust is a love for the sex and at the same time a loathing. They have love for the sex because from the sex is variety; and they have loathing for the sex because after the first taste they cast the woman off and direct their lust to others. This obscene lust burns towards a new woman, and after the heat, grows cold to her, and the cold is a loathing. That the lust is a love for the sex and at the same time a loathing may be illustrated thus: Place on the left hand a company of those women they have tasted, and on the right a company of those they have not tasted; would they not look upon the latter from love, and upon the former from loathing? yet both companies consist of the sex.

CL 509. III. That this lust utterly annihilates conjugial love with them is because the lust is utterly opposed to conjugial love, and so opposed that it not merely rends it but, as it were, grinds it to powder and thus annihilates it. Conjugial love is love directed to one of the sex, but this lust does not stop with one but an hour or a day later is as intense with cold for her as it had previously been hot. And because the cold is a loathing, by forced cohabitation and living together this loathing piles up even to disgust, and conjugial love is so far consumed that no remnant is left. It can be seen from the above that this lust is deadly to conjugial love; and since conjugial love makes the inmost life with man, that it is deadly to his life; also that, by successive interceptions and closings of the interiors of the mind, it finally becomes cutaneous, and thus merely alluring, the faculty of understanding, that is, rationality, nevertheless remaining.

CL 510. IV. That their lot after death is a miserable one because they have not the inmost of life. Every one has pre-eminence of life according to his conjugial love; for this life conjoins itself with the life of the wife, and by the conjunction exalts itself. But because with these men not the least remnant of conjugial love is left, and hence nothing of the inmost of life, therefore their lot after death is a miserable one. After passing a period of time in their externals, during which they speak rationally and act civilly, they are let into their internals, and then into the same lust and its delights in which they had been in the world, and in the same degree thereof. After death everyone is let into that state of life which he has appropriated to himself, to the end that he may be led out of it; for no one can be led away from his evil unless he has first been led into it, otherwise the evil would hide itself and pollute the interiors of his mind, and spreading like a pestilence, would finally burst the barriers and destroy the externals which are of the body. To this end brothels on the side of hell are open to them, where are harlots with whom there is opportunity of varying their lusts; but this is granted them with only one harlot a day, and it is forbidden them under penalty to be with more than one on the same day.

[2] Afterwards, when they have been examined (and it is found) that the lust is so inbred that they cannot be led away from it, they are taken to a certain place which is directly over the hell assigned to them. To themselves they then appear as though falling into a swoon, and to others, as though sinking down with upturned face. The ground under their backs is actually opened and they are swallowed up and sink down into the hell where are their like. They are thus gathered to their own. It was given me to see them there, and also to speak with them. Among themselves they appear like men, this being granted them that they may not be a terror to their companions; but at some distance they appear with a white face consisting, as it were, of skin only, and this because within them is no spiritual life, everyone having this according to the conjugial implanted in him.

[3] Their speech is dry, parched, and sad. When hungry, they lament, and their lamentations are heard as a peculiar snorting. They have tattered garments, and their breeches are drawn up over the belly around the breast because they have no loins, the ankles of their feet starting from the lowest part of their belly, and this because with men the loins correspond to conjugial love, and this they do not have. Because they have no potency, they said that they loathe the sex. Yet among themselves they can reason about various matters as if from rationality; but because they are cutaneous, they reason from the fallacies of the senses. Their hell is in the western quarter towards the north. At a distance they appear, not as men, nor as monsters, but as things of ice. It should be known, however, that those become such who are so imbued with that lust that they have rended the human conjugial with themselves and annihilated it.

CL 511. By the lust of violation is not meant the lust of defloration. The latter lust is the violation of virginities, but not the violation of virgins when done without their consent; but the lust of violation here treated of recedes in consequence of consent, and is sharpened by refusal. It is a burning desire to violate any woman, whether virgin, widow, or wife, who absolutely refuses and resists with violence. These violators are like robbers and pirates who delight in rapine and spoils, and not in gifts and things justly acquired; and like malefactors who are eager for things unlawful and forbidden, and spurn things lawful and conceded. They are utterly averse to consent, and are inflamed by resistance; and if they observe that it is not an inner resistance, the ardour of their lust is instantly extinguished, like fire by water thrown upon it.

As regards the ultimate effects of love, it is known that wives do not submit themselves spontaneously to the will of their husbands, and that from prudence they offer resistance as though to violation, and this to the end that they may remove from their husbands the cold arising from commonness, by reason of its being continually allowed, and arising also from an idea of lasciviousness with respect to such things. Yet these resistances, although they enkindle, are not the causes of this lust but only its initiaments. Its cause is, that when conjugial love and also scortatory love become worn out by exercise, then, in order that they may be restored, they wish to be set on fire by absolute resistance. The lust thus begun afterwards increases, and as it increases it spurns and breaks down all the limits of love of the sex and exterminates itself. Then, from being a lascivious, corporeal, and carnal love, it becomes cartilaginous and bony, and becomes acute from the periostea which enjoy acute sensibility. This lust, however, is rare, existing only with those who have entered into marriage and then indulged in whoredoms until these became worn out. In addition to this natural cause of the lust, there is also a spiritual cause, of which something shall be said in what follows.

CL 512. Their lot after death is as follows: These violators then separate themselves of their own accord from those who are in a limited love of the sex, and absolutely from those who are in conjugial love, thus from heaven. They are then sent off to exceedingly crafty harlots who can simulate and represent themselves as though they were chastities, and this, not only by persuasion but also by an imitation which is perfectly dramatic. These harlots easily perceive who they are who are in this lust. They talk before them about chastity and its preciousness; and when the violator comes near and touches them, they grow angry and fly to their chamber as if in terror, closing the door behind them. In the chamber is a couch and a bed, and there they lie down. Then, by their art, they inspire in the violator an unbridled desire to force the door, burst in, and assault them. When he does this, the harlot, raising herself, begins to fight the violator, lacerating his face with hands and nails, tearing his garments, calling out in a furious voice to her companion harlots for help, as though calling to her maidservants, and opening the window and crying out "Thief, robber, murderer." And when the violator is in the act, she wails and weeps, and after the violation she prostates herself, howls, and cries out, "Infamous." Then, in a serious tone, she threatens that unless he atones for the violation with a large payment, she will set about his ruin. While they are in this theatrical venery, they appear at a distance like cats which, before their conjunction, fight, rush at each other and howl in almost the same way.

[2] After some such brothel-contests, they are taken and removed to a cavern where they are driven to some work. But because they have an offensive odour owing to the fact that they have dispersed the conjugial which is the precious treasure of human life, they are sent away to the utmost limits of the western quarter. There, from some distance, they appear to be very thin, as though consisting of bones covered only with skin, and from afar off they seem like panthers. When it was given me to see them more closely, I was astonished to see that some of them were holding books in their hands and reading, and I was told that this is because in the world they had spoken various things about the spiritual things of the Church and yet had defiled those things with adulteries even to the last extremes thereof mentioned above; also that such is the correspondence of this lust with the violation of the spiritual marriage. It should be known, however, that they are few who are in this lust.

That women, because it does not become them to prostitute their love, do now and then resist is certain, and also that the resistance invigorates, but this is not from any lust of violation.

CL 513. The lust of seducing innocences is neither the lust of defloration nor the lust of violation, but is a lust peculiar to itself and stands alone. It exists especially with the deceitful. The women who appear to them as innocences are those who account the evil of whoredom as an enormous sin and who therefore are zealous for chastity and at the same time for piety. It is towards these that they burn with desire. In countries of the Catholic religion they are nuns. Believing these nuns to be pious innocences above all others, they look upon them as the dainties and delicacies of their lust. In order to seduce such women, being deceitful, they first think out artifices and then, imbuing their talents therewith and undeterred by shame, they practise them as though they were natural. Their artifices are chiefly simulations of innocence, love, chastity, and piety. By these and other cunning means, they enter into interior friendship with the virgins and so into their love. By various persuasions and at the same time insinuations, they then turn this love from spiritual into natural, and later, by incitements, into corporeal-carnal love, and then they take possession of them at their pleasure. With this accomplished, they rejoice in heart and laugh to scorn those whom they have violated.

CL 514. The lot of these seducers after death is sad, for this seduction is not only impiety but also malignity. After passing through the first period of their life, which is spent in externals, and during which they excel many others in elegant manners and smooth speech, they are brought into the second period which is spent in internals and in which their lust is set free and commences its play. They are then first brought to women who have taken the vow of chastity. While with these, they are explored as to the nature of their malignant concupiscence, and this because they must not be judged unless convicted. When they sensate the chastity of these women, their deceit commences to act and to practise its wiles, but being in vain they leave them.

[2] Afterwards they are introduced to women of genuine innocence. When they attempt in the same way to beguile these, then, as a result of a power given these women, they are grievously punished; for they bring on their hands and feet, and likewise on their neck, the heaviness of numbness, and finally cause them to feel a kind of swoon, and while they are thus suffering, the women escape. After this a way opens for them to a band of harlots who have learned skilfully to counterfeit innocence. Among themselves, these harlots first expose them to ridicule, and then, after various pledges, suffer themselves to be violated.

[3] After several scenes of this kind, then comes the third period which is that of judgment. Then, being convicted, they sink down and are gathered to their like in a hell which is in the northern quarter. There they appear from afar off like weasels. But if they had been consumed with deceit they are taken from this hell to the hell of the deceitful which is deep down in the western quarter at the back. In this hell they appear from afar like serpents of various kinds, and the most deceitful of them like vipers; but in the hell itself, into which it was given me to look, they were seen by me as ghastly with a chalky face. Being merely concupiscences, they do not like to speak, and if they do speak, they merely mutter and murmur various things which are understood by none but the companions at their sides. As they are sitting or standing, they suddenly make themselves invisible and fly around in the cavern like spectres; for they are then in fantasy, and fantasy appears to fly. After flying, they rest, and then, what is surprising, they do not know one another. This is due to the fact that they are in deceit, and deceit does not believe another and so withdraws itself. When they sensate anything proceeding from conjugial love, they flee into crypts and hide themselves. They are also without love of the sex, and are absolute impotences. They are called infernal genii.

CL 515. I might here premise something respecting correspondence, as to what it is, but this is not the subject of the present work. What correspondence is, however, may be seen above (n. 76, 342) in a brief summary, and fully in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED from beginning to end, showing that there is a correspondence between the natural sense of the Word and its spiritual sense. That in the Word there is a natural sense and a spiritual, and a correspondence between them, has been demonstrated in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, and specifically in (Sacred n. 5-26) of that work.

CL 516. By spiritual marriage is meant the marriage of the Lord and the Church, of which above (n. 116-131); and thence also the marriage of good and truth, of which likewise above (n. 83-102). And because this marriage of the Lord and the Church, and hence the marriage of good and truth, is in each and every thing of the Word, it is the violation of this marriage that is meant here by the violation of spiritual marriage; for the Church is from the Word, and the Word is the Lord. The Lord is the Word because He is the Divine Good and the Divine Truth therein. That the Word is that marriage may be seen fully confirmed in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURES (Sacred n. 80-90).

CL 517. Since, therefore, the violation of spiritual marriage is the violation of the Word, it is evident that this violation is the adulteration of good and the falsification of truth--spiritual marriage, as was said, being the marriage of good and truth. It follows from this, that when the good of the Word is adulterated and the truth of the Word falsified, this marriage is violated. How the violation is committed, and by whom, will be evident to some extent from what follows.

CL 518. In the preceding pages, when treating of the marriage of the Lord and the Church (n. 116) and the marriage of good and truth (n. 83), it was demonstrated that the former marriage corresponds to marriages on earth. From this it follows that the violation of it corresponds to whoredoms and adulteries. That such is the case is manifestly evident from the Word itself, in that by whoredoms and adulteries there, are signified falsifications of truth and adulterations of good. This can be seen in clear light from the passages from the Word abundantly adduced in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED (AR n. 134).

CL 519. Violation of the Word is committed by those in the Christian Church who adulterate its goods and truths. Those do this who separate truth from good and good from truth; also those who take appearances of truth and fallacies for genuine truths, and confirm them; and also those who know truths of doctrine from the Word and live an evil life; besides other such persons. These violations of the Word and the church correspond to the prohibited degrees enumerated in Leviticus 18.

CL 520. With every man the natural and the spiritual cohere together like soul and body, for without the spiritual, which flows in and vivifies the natural, man would not be man. From this it follows, that he who is in spiritual marriage is also in a happy natural marriage and, on the other hand, that he who is in spiritual adultery is also in natural adultery, and vice versa. Now because all who are in hell are in the connubial connection of evil and falsity, and this is spiritual adultery itself, and because all who are in heaven are in the marriage of good and truth and this is marriage itself, therefore, hell as a whole is called adultery, and heaven as a whole is called marriage.

CL 521. To the above shall be added the following Memorable Relation:

My sight being opened, I saw a dark forest and in it a crowd of satyrs. As to their breasts these satyrs were hairy; as to their feet, some were like calves, some like panthers, and some like wolves, and on their feet, instead of toes, were the claws of wild beasts. They were running about like wild beasts and calling out, "Where are there women?" And then were seen harlots who were awaiting them. These also were monstrous in divers ways. The satyrs ran up to them and, taking hold of them, dragged them into a cavern which was deep down under the earth in the middle of the forest. On the earth around the cavern lay a great serpent in a spiral coil, which breathed its venom into the cavern. Above the serpent, on the branches of the forest trees, funereal birds of night were croaking and screeching. But the satyrs and harlots did not see these things because they were correspondences of their own lasciviousness and thus were the usual appearances thereof at a distance.

[2] Later they came out of the cavern and went into a low cabin which was a brothel. Then, separating from the harlots, the satyrs engaged in talk among themselves. To this I bent my ear, for in the spiritual world speech can be heard at a distance just as in one’s presence, extension of space there being merely an appearance. They were talking about marriage, nature, and religion.

Those spoke of MARRIAGE who as to their feet appeared like calves. They said: "What are marriages but lawful adulteries? and what is sweeter than scortatory hypocrisies and the deceiving of husbands?" At this the others, indulging in loud laughter, clapped their hands.

Those spoke of NATURE who as to their feet appeared like panthers. They said; "What else is there but nature? What distinction is there between man and beast except that man can speak articulately and a beast can only make sounds? Do they not both have their life from heat and their understanding from light, by the operation of nature?" At this the rest exclaimed, "Ha! you speak from judgment."

Those spoke of RELIGION who as to their feet appeared like wolves. They said: "What is God, or the Divine, but the inmost operation of nature? What is religion but an invention to captivate and bind the common people?" To this the others shouted, "Bravo!"

[3] Some moments later they rushed out, and in the rush they saw me looking at them from a distance with intent gaze. Exasperated at this, they ran out of the forest and with menacing looks hastened their course towards me and said, "Why are you standing here and intent on our whisperings?" I answered, "Why not? what is there to prevent me? they were speeches (not whisperings)," and I repeated what I had heard from them. At this their minds were quieted, and this from fear lest their sayings be divulged. They then began to speak modestly and to act chastely, from which I recognized that they were not of the common herd but of honourable stock. I then told them that I had seen them in the wood as satyrs, twenty as calf-satyrs, six as panther-satyrs, and four as wolf-satyrs, they being thirty in number.

[4] They were astonished at this, for there they had seen themselves only as men, just as they saw themselves here with me.

I then instructed them that they had so appeared at a distance because of their scortatory lust, and that the satyr-like form was the form of their dissolute adultery and not of their person. I told them the reason, namely, that every evil concupiscence presents a likeness of itself in a form not seen by the men themselves but seen by others at a distance; and I added: "That you may believe this, send some of yourselves into that forest, while the rest remain here and watch them." They did this, and sent out two of their number. When these two were close by the brothel cabin, they saw them altogether as satyrs, and on their return they saluted them as satyrs and said, "Oh! what laughing-stocks!"

As they were laughing, I passed various pleasantries with them and told them I had also seen adulterers as swine. I then called to mind the fable of Ulysses and Circe, how that she sprinkled the companions and servants of Ulysses with enchanter‘s herbs, and touching them with her magic wand, turned them into swine--perhaps into adulterers, for by no art could she turn anyone into a swine. When they had finished laughing at these and similar stories, I asked them if they knew from what kingdoms in the world they came. They said they were from different kingdoms and mentioned Italy, Poland, Germany, England, and Sweden. I then asked them whether they had seen anyone from Holland among them; and they said, "Not one."

[5] After this I turned the conversation to serious matters and asked whether they had ever thought that adultery is a sin. They answered, "What is sin? we do not know what it is." I then asked them whether they ever remembered that adultery was against the seventh commandment of the Decalogue. They answered, "What is the Decalogue? is it not the Catechism? What have we men to do with that childish code?" I further asked them whether they had ever thought anything about hell, to which they answered, "Who has ever come up from there and told about it?" I then asked them whether in the world they had ever thought about the life after death. They said, "The same as about beasts and sometimes the same as about spectres; if these exhale from dead bodies, they are dissipated." I asked them further whether they had heard about one or other of these things from priests. They answered that they gave attention only to the sound of their voices, not to the subject or what that subject was.

[6] Astonished at these answers, I said to them, "Turn your faces and your gaze towards the middle of the forest where is the cavern in which you were." They then turned around; and they saw that great serpent coiled in a spiral around the cavern and breathing into it its venom; also the funereal birds in the branches above it. I then asked them, "What do you see?" But they were terrified and made no answer; and I said, "Did you not see a horrible sight? Know, then, that it is a representative of adultery in the shameful deed of its lust."

Then suddenly an angel stood by, who was a priest, and he opened the hell in the western region into which such men are finally gathered and said, "Look thither!" And they saw a pool as though of fire, and recognized there some friends of theirs in the world, who invited them to join them.

After seeing and hearing these things, they turned away and hastily betaking themselves from my sight left the forest. But, observing their course, I saw that they were simulating departure for they were going back into the forest by roundabout ways.

CL 522. After this I went home. The next day, remembering these sad scenes, I looked towards the same forest and saw that it had disappeared and in its place was a sandy plain, in the midst whereof was a pool in which were some red serpents. Some weeks later, looking again in that direction, I saw, on its right side, a fallow field wherein were several husbandmen. Again, some weeks later, I saw emerging from that fallow field new ploughed land surrounded by bushes. I then heard a voice from heaven,. "Enter into your chamber and shut the door and give your attention to the work on the Apocalypse now commenced, and pursue it to the end within two years."

CL 523. The Lord says:

This can be understood in no wise as meaning judgment concerning a man’s moral and civil life in the world, but as meaning judgment concerning his spiritual and celestial life. Who does not see that were it not lawful for a man to judge as to the moral life of his fellow inhabitants in the world, society would fall! What would society be if there were no public judgments? or if one did not form his own judgment concerning another? What is not lawful, is judgment as to the quality of the interior mind or soul within man, thus as to what his spiritual state is and hence his lot after death. This is known to the Lord only; nor does the Lord reveal it until after death, and this in order that what a man does he may do from freedom, and that thereby good or evil may be from him and so in him, and he thus live for himself and be himself forever. That the interiors of the mind, hidden in the world, are revealed after death is because this is a matter of importance and use to the societies into which the man then comes; for there all are spiritual. That they are revealed then is plain from these words of the Lord:

There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. (Luke 12:2, 3).

A general judgment such as: If in internals you are what you appear to be in externals you will be saved or condemned, is allowed; but a particular judgment such as, You are such in internals and therefore will be saved or condemned, is not allowed.

It is judgment of man‘s spiritual life or of the internal life of his soul that is meant by the imputation here treated of. What man knows who is a whoremonger at heart? and who a consort at heart? Yet it is the thoughts of the heart, being the purposes of the will, that judge every man. But these matters shall be laid open in the following order:

1. That after death the evil in which one is, is imputed to him; likewise the good.

2. That the transcription of the good of one man into another is impossible.

3. That if by imputation is meant such transcription, imputation is an idle word.

4. That evil is imputed to everyone according to the nature of his will and the nature of his understanding; likewise good.

5. That scortatory love is imputed to each man in the same way.

6. And likewise conjugial love.

The explanation of the above follows:

CL 524. I. That after death the evil in which one is, is imputed to him; likewise the good. That this may be seen in some clearness, it shall be illustrated under distinct heads, thus:

1. That everyone has a life proper to himself.

2. That this his life remains with everyone after death.

3. That to the evil man is then imputed the evil of his life, and to the good, the good of his life.

FIRST: That everyone has a life proper to himself, thus a life distinct from that of another, is well known; for there is perpetual variety, and no one thing is the same as another. Therefore, each individual has what is peculiar to himself. This is very manifest from men’s faces, in that there is not, nor can ever be, a single face absolutely like another. The reason is because there is no animus the same as another, and the face is from the animus; for, as the saying is, the face is the type of the mind (animus), and the animus draws its origin and form from the life.

[2] Unless a man had a life properly his own, as he has an animus and face properly his own, then, after death he would not have any life separate from that of another. Indeed, there would be no heaven, for heaven consists of perpetually distinct individuals. Its form is solely from the varieties of souls and minds disposed into such order that they make a one; and they make a one from the One whose life is in each and everyone there, as the soul is in man. Were this not the case, heaven would be dispersed because its form would be dissolved. The One from whom each and all have life and by reason of whom the form coheres, is the Lord. In general, every form consists of various things, and the quality of the form is according to the harmonious co-ordination and arrangement of those things into a one. Such is the human form. Hence it is that man, consisting of so many members, viscera, and organs, does not sensate anything, whether in himself or from himself, save as a one.

[3] SECOND: That this his life remains with everyone after death is known in the Church from the Word and from the following passages there:

The works according to which it will be rendered to everyone are the life, for it is the man‘s life that does them, and they are in accord with his life.

Because it has been granted me for many years to be with angels and to talk with new-comers from the world, I can testify for a certainty that in the spiritual world everyone is explored as to the kind of life he has led; and that the life which he has contracted in the world remains with him to eternity. I have spoken with those who lived ages ago whose life was known to me from history, and I recognized that it was like the description. I have also heard from angels that no man’s life can be changed after death because it has been organized according to his love and the works therefrom; that if it were changed, the organization would be torn apart, and this can never be; also that a change in organization is possible only in the material body, being entirely impossible in the spiritual body after the former is cast off.

[4] THIRD: That to the evil man is then imputed the evil of his life, and to the good, the good of his life. The imputation of evil is not an accusation, incrimination, charge, and judgement as in the world, but the evil itself does this; for the evil separate themselves from the good of their own free will, inasmuch as the two cannot be together. The delights of the love of evil have an aversion to the delights of the love of good, and (in the spiritual world) his delights exhale from everyone like odours from every plant on earth; for they are no longer absorbed and concealed by a material body but flow freely from their loves into the spiritual aura. And because evil as manifested in its odour is there sensated, it is this that accuses, incriminates, charges, and judges, not before any judge but before everyone who is in good. This is what is meant by imputation. Moreover, an evil man chooses companions with whom he may live in his delight; and being averse to the delight of good, he spontaneously betakes himself to his own in hell.

[5] The imputation of good is made in the same way, being made with those who in the world have acknowledged that all the good in them is from the Lord and none from themselves. These, after being prepared, are let into the interior delights of good, and then a way is opened for them into heaven, to the society whose delights are homogeneous. This is done by the Lord.

CL 525. II. That the transcription of the good of one man into another is impossible. The evidence of this also can be seen from the following heads in this order:

1. That every man is born in evil.

2. That by regeneration he is led into good by the Lord.

3. That this is done by a life according to His commandments.

4. Therefore good when thus implanted cannot be transcribed.

FIRST: That every man is born in evil is known in the Church. It is said that this evil is by inheritance from Adam; but it is from the man‘s parents, it being from them that everyone derives his disposition, that is, his inclination. As to this, both reason and experience bring conviction; for the parents’ likeness in face, genius, and habits comes out in their children, and from them, in their descendants. It is from this that by many men families are recognized and judgment is made concerning their animi. Therefore, the evils in which men are born are evils which the parents themselves have contracted and have conveyed to their offspring by transmission. The reason why it is believed that the guilt of Adam is inscribed on the whole human race is because few reflect upon and thus recognize any evil in themselves. Therefore they opine that it is so deeply hidden as not to appear except before God.

[2] SECOND: That by regeneration man is led into good by the Lord. The fact of regeneration and that unless one is regenerated he cannot enter heaven, is clearly evident from the Lord‘s words. (John 3:3, 5). That regeneration is purification from evils and thus renovation of life, can be no secret in the Christian world, for reason also sees it when acknowledging that every man is born in evil, and that evil can be washed away and removed, not like dirt with soap and water, but only by repentance.

[3] THIRD: That man is led into good by the Lord by a life according to His commandments. The commandments of regeneration are the five which may be seen above, in (n. 82). Among them are these: That evils are to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil, and that goods are to be done because they are of God and from God; and that the Lord is to be approached that He may lead men to the doing of them. Let everyone take counsel with himself and consider whether man has good from any other source; and if he does not have good he does not have salvation.

[4] FOURTH: That good when thus implanted cannot be transcribed. By transcription is meant the transcription of the good of one man into another. From what was said above, it follows that by regeneration a man is made wholly new as to his spirit, and that this is effected by a life according to the Lord’s commandments. Who does not see that this renovation cannot be accomplished except from time to time, in almost the same way as from seed a tree successively takes root, grows, and is perfected? Those who perceive regeneration in any other way do not know anything concerning man‘s state, or concerning evil and good, that the two are altogether opposite, and that good cannot be implanted except so far as evil is removed. Nor do they know that so long as one is in evil he is averse to every good which in itself is good. Therefore, were the good of one to be transferred into another who is in evil, it would be as though a lamb were thrown to a wolf, or a pearl tied to the snout of a swine. From this it is manifest that transcription is impossible.

CL 526. III. That if by imputation is meant such transcription, imputation is an idle word. It was demonstrated above (n. 524), that after death the evil in which a man is, is imputed to him and likewise the good. What is meant by imputation is therefore evident. But if by imputation is meant the transcription of good into one who is in evil, then, this being impossible, imputation is an idle word. This also was demonstrated above (n. 525).

In the world, merits can in a way be transcribed by men, that is, good can be done to children on account of their parents, or to friends of an adherent, from favour; but the good of the merit cannot be inscribed upon their souls, it can only be adjoined from without. The same thing is not possible with men as regards their spiritual life. This, as shown above, must be implanted; and the man remains in the evil in which he was born, if this spiritual life is not implanted by a life according to the Lord’s commandments mentioned above. Until this is done, no good can reach him, or if it touches him, it is either thrown back and recoils like an elastic ball falling on a rock, or is swallowed up like a diamond thrown into a marsh. As to his spirit, an unreformed man is like a panther or an owl and may be compared to a briar and a nettle; but a man regenerated is like a sheep or a dove and may be compared to an olive tree and a vine. Pray think, if you will, how can a man-panther by any imputation, if by that is meant transcription, be converted into a man-lamb? or an owl into a dove? a briar into an olive tree? a nettle into a vine? If there is to be conversion, must not the ferine nature of the panther and the owl, and the noxiousness of the briar and the nettle be first taken away, and thus the truly human and innocuous be implanted? In (John 15:1-7), the Lord teaches how this is done.

CL 527. IV. That evil is imputed to every one according to the nature of his will and the nature of his understanding. It is known that there are two things which make man‘s life: will and understanding, all that is done by a man being done by his will and his understanding; also that without these agents man would have no action or speech other than that of a machine. It is evident from this that a man is such or such a man according to his will and understanding; also that a man’s action, viewed in itself is such as is the affection of his will which produces it; and that his speech viewed in itself is such as is the thought of his understanding which produces it. Therefore, a number of men may act and speak in the same way and yet be acting and speaking differently, some from a depraved will and thought, and others from an upright will and thought.

[2] From this it is evident that what is meant by the deeds or works according to which everyone will be judged, is the will and understanding; and consequently, that by evil works are meant the works of an evil will, howsoever they may have appeared in externals, and by good works, the works of a good will even though in externals they may have seemed to be the same as the works of an evil man. Everything that is done by man‘s interior will is done from purpose; for that will proposes to itself that which it does in intention; and because the understanding confirms that intention, everything that is done by the understanding is done from confirmation. From this it is evident that evil or good is imputed to everyone according to the nature of the will in his deeds, and according to the nature of his understanding concerning them. It is allowed to confirm this by the following:

[3] In the spiritual world I have met with many who in the natural world had lived in the same way as others, dressing finely, faring sumptuously, doing business for gain like other men, attending dramatic performances, jesting about amatory matters as if from lust, besides other like things; yet in some the angels condemned these things as evils of sin, and in some they did not account them as evils; and the latter they declared guiltless, and the former guilty. To the question why they did so when yet the men had done the same things, they answered that they view all men from their purpose, intention or end, and make distinction accordingly; thus that those whom the end excuses or condemns, they excuse or condemn, for all in heaven have good as an end, and all in hell have evil as an end.

CL 528. To the above is added the following: It is said in the church that no one can fulfil the law, and the less so since he who transgresses against one commandment of the Decalogue, transgresses against all. But this formula of speech is not as it sounds. It must be understood in this way: He who from purpose or confirmation acts against one commandment acts against the rest; for to act thus from purpose or confirmation is wholly to deny that the action is a sin, and he who denies sin makes nothing of acting against the other commandments. Who does not know that one who is an adulterer is not therefore a murderer, a thief, and a false witness, and does not wish to be? But one who is an adulterer from purpose and confirmation makes all things of religion to be of no account, and so makes nothing of murder, theft, and false witness, and abstains from them, not because they are sins but because he fears the law and the loss of his reputation. That adulterers from purpose and confirmation account the sacred things of the church and of religion as of no value may be seen above (n. 490-493) and in the two Relations, (n. 500, 521, 522). It is the same if from purpose or confirmation one acts against any other commandment of the Decalogue; because, not reputing anything as a sin, he acts also against the rest.

CL 529. The same is the case with those who are in good from the Lord. If from will and understanding, or purpose and confirmation, they abstain from one evil because it is a sin, and still more if they abstain from several, they abstain from all; for as soon as one from purpose or confirmation abstains from any evil because it is a sin, he is held by the Lord in the purpose of abstaining from the rest. Therefore, if he does evil from ignorance or from some prevailing concupiscence of the body, it is not imputed to him because he did not propose it to himself and does not confirm it with himself. A man comes into this purpose if once or twice a year he examines himself and repents of the evil which he finds in himself. Not so with one who never examines himself. From this it is manifest who it is to whom sin is not imputed, and who it is to whom it is imputed.

CL 530. V. That scortatory love is imputed to each man in the same way, being imputed, not according to the deeds as they appear outwardly before men, nor even as they appear before a judge, but as they appear inwardly before the Lord and from Him before angels; that is to say, according to the nature of the man’s will and understanding in them. In the world there are various circumstances which mitigate and excuse crimes, and also which aggravate them and make them more blameworthy; but after death, imputations are not made according to the external circumstances of the deed but according to the internal circumstances of the mind, and these are regarded according to the state of the Church with each individual. Take, for example, a man impious in will and understanding, one who has no fear of God nor love of the neighbour, and so no reverence for any holy thing of the church. After death he is found guilty of all the crimes which he had committed in the body, and there is no recording of his good deeds; for the heart from which they issued as from a fountain was turned away from heaven and turned towards hell, and deeds flow from the place where one‘s heart has its abode.

[2] That this may be understood, I will relate an arcanum. Heaven is distinguished into innumerable societies, and so likewise hell by reason of its opposition; and according to his will and to his understanding therefrom, every man’s mind is actually dwelling in some one society, and in intention and thought he is one with those who are there. If his mind is in some society of heaven, then in intention and thought he is one with those who are there. If it is in some society of hell, then, in intention and thought he is one with those who are there. So long as man is living in the world, however, he migrates from one society to another according to the changes of the affections of his will and thence of the thoughts of his mind; but after death his journeyings are gathered together, and on the basis of these gatherings into a one, a place is appointed him, if evil, in hell, if good, in heaven.

[3] Now since all in hell have a will of evil, all there are regarded from that will; and since all in heaven have a will of good, all there are regarded from that will. After death, therefore, imputations are made according to the nature of the individual‘s will and understanding. It is the same with scortation, whether it be fornication or keeping a mistress, or concubinage, or adultery, these being imputed to the individual, not according to his deeds but according to the state of his mind in the deeds. The deeds follow the body into the tomb, but the mind rises again.

CL 531. VI. That in the same way conjugial love is imputed to each man. There are marriages in which there is no appearance of conjugial love, and yet it is there, and there are marriages in which there is an appearance of conjugial love, and yet it is not there. The reasons in both cases are many and can be learned in part from what has been treated of in the chapters on Love truly Conjugial (n. 57-73), the Causes of Colds and Separations (n. 234-260), and the Causes of apparent Love and Friendship in Marriages (n. 271-292). External appearances, however, afford no conclusion as to imputation. The sole thing which affords a conclusion is the conjugial which is inseated and guarded in the will of every man in whatsoever state of marriage he be, this conjugial being as a balance wherein that love is weighed; for, as shown above (n. 457-458), the conjugial of one man with one wife is the precious jewel of human life and the repository of the Christian religion. This being the case, that love may have place with one married partner and not at the same time with the other; and it may lie so deeply concealed that the man himself does not notice it; it may also be inscribed during the course of his life (on earth). The reason is, because in its steps, that love accompanies religion, and religion, being the marriage of the Lord and the Church, is the initiament and engrafting of the love. Therefore, after death, conjugial love is imputed to everyone according to his spiritual rational life; and for him to whom it is imputed, after his decease, marriage in heaven is provided, whatsoever may have been the nature of his marriage in the world.

And now, from the above comes the final clause: Conclusion as to whether a man has or has not conjugial love must not be made from the appearance of marriage or of scortation. Therefore,

Judge not, that ye be not condemned (Matt. 7:1).

CL 532. To the above I will add the following Memorable Relation:

As to my spirit I was once taken up into the angelic heaven and into one of its societies. Some of the wise men there then came to me and asked, "What news from earth?" I told them: "This is new: The Lord has revealed arcana which surpass in excellence the arcana hitherto revealed from the beginning of the Church." To their question, "What are these arcana?" I answered, "They are these:

"1. That in the Word, in each and every part thereof, there is a spiritual sense corresponding to the natural sense; that by this sense, the men of the Church have conjunction with the Lord and consociation with angels; and that in it resides the holiness of the Word.

"2. The correspondences of which the spiritual sense of the Word consists have been disclosed."

The angels asked, "Did not the inhabitants of the globe know about correspondences before?" I said: "Nothing whatever. They have lain hidden now for some thousands of years, ever since the time of Job. With those who lived at that time and previous thereto, the science of correspondences was the science of sciences from which they had their wisdom, because from it they had knowledge concerning things spiritual, being the things of heaven and hence of the church. But when this science was turned into an idolatrous science, then, of the Lord’s Divine Providence it was so obliterated and destroyed that no one saw any sign of it. Still, it has now been disclosed by the Lord in order that men of the church may have conjunction with Him and consociation with angels. This is effected by means of the Word in which each and every thing is a correspondence." Greatly rejoicing that it had pleased the Lord to reveal this great arcanum, so deeply hidden for some thousands of years, the angels said, "This has been done to the end that the Christian Church, which is founded upon the Word and is now at its end, may again revive and draw breath through heaven from the Lord." They then asked whether by means of that science it had been now disclosed what is signified by Baptism and the Holy Supper, about which men have hitherto thought so variously. I answered that this is now disclosed.

3. I said further, "A revelation has at this day been made by the Lord respecting the life of men after death." Whereupon the angels said, "Why about life after death? Who does not know that man lives after death?" I replied: "Men know of it and do not know. They say that what lives after death is not the man but his soul; that this lives as a spirit, and of the spirit they cherish an idea as of wind or ether; that men do not live as men until after the day of the last judgment; that their corporeal parts which they had left behind in the world, though eaten up by worms, mice, and fishes, will then be gathered up and again be fitted into a body, and that in this way men will rise again." the angels said: "What is this? Who does not know that after death. man lives as a man, with the sole difference that he then lives as a spiritual man? and a spiritual man sees a spiritual man just as a material man a material, nor do they know a single distinction except that they are in a more perfect state?"

4. The angels then asked, "What do they know about our world? and about heaven and hell?" I said: "They have not known anything; but at this day the nature of the spiritual world in which angels and spirits live has been disclosed by the Lord, and thus the nature of heaven and the nature of hell; also that angels and spirits are in conjunction with men, besides many wonderful things about them." The angels were glad that it had pleased the Lord to disclose such things so that man from ignorance may no longer be in uncertainty respecting his immortality.

5. I said further: "At this day it has been revealed by the Lord that in your world there is a sun other than the sun in ours, and that the sun of your world is pure love, and the sun of our world pure fire; that therefore all that proceeds from your sun, this being pure love, partakes of life, and all that proceeds from ours, this being pure fire, takes nothing from life; and that thence is the difference between the spiritual and the natural. This difference, hitherto unknown, has also been disclosed, and thereby, it has been made known whence is the light which enlightens the human understanding with wisdom, and whence the heat which enkindles the human will with love.

6. "Moreover, it has been disclosed that there are three degrees of life, and hence three heavens; that the human mind is distinguished into these degrees, and that man thus corresponds to the three heavens." The angels said, "Did not men know this before?" I answered that they knew of the degrees between greater and less, but nothing of the degrees between the prior and the posterior.

7. The angels then asked whether any other new things had been revealed, and I said: "Many, being things concerning the Last Judgment; concerning the Lord, that He is the God of heaven and earth; that God is one, both in person and in essence, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the Lord; also concerning the New Church to be established by Him, and concerning the doctrine of that Church; concerning the holiness of the Sacred Scripture. Moreover, the Apocalypse has been revealed, and this could not have been revealed, even as to the smallest verse, save by the Lord. Furthermore, revelation has been made concerning the inhabitants of the Planets and concerning the Earths in the Universe; besides many memorable and wonderful things from the spiritual world, whereby much that pertains to wisdom has been disclosed from heaven."

CL 533. On hearing all this, the angels greatly rejoiced; but then, perceiving a sadness in me, they asked, "Whence is your sadness?" I said, "The arcana now revealed by the Lord, though in excellence and worth they surpass the knowledges hitherto made public, are yet esteemed on earth as of no value." Wondering at this, the angels besought the Lord that it might be allowed them to look down into the world. And they looked down and there, lo, mere darkness! They were then told to write those arcana upon a paper, and the paper would be let down upon the earth and they would see a portent. This was done. The paper on which those arcana had been written was let down from heaven, and lo, in its progress, while still in the spiritual world, it shone like a star; but as it fell into the natural world, the light disappeared and by degrees, as it went down, it was darkened. When it was let down by the angels into companies where were doctors and learned men of the clergy and laity, from many of these a murmur was heard, in which were the words: "What is this? Is it anything? What matters whether we know these things or not? Are they not offspring of the brain?" and it seemed as though some of them took the paper and folded and rolled and unrolled it with their fingers in order to obliterate the writing. It also seemed as though others would tear it to pieces, and as though still others wished to trample it under their feet. But from that criminal deed they were restrained by the Lord, and command was given to the angels to withdraw the paper and guard it. And because the angels were made sad and thought, "How long will this be?" it was said, "Until a time and times and half a time" (Rev. 12:14).

CL 534. After this I spoke with the angels and said, "In the world yet one more thing is revealed by the Lord." "What is that?" they asked, and I answered: "Concerning love truly conjugial and its heavenly delights." The angels then said: "Who does not know that the delights of conjugial love exceed the delights of all other loves? and who cannot see that there is some love into which are gathered all the blessedness, happiness, and delight that can ever be conferred by the Lord? and that the receptacle of these is love truly conjugial?--a love which can receive and perceive them with fullness of sensation."

I answered: "Men do not know this because they have not approached the Lord and lived according to His commandments by shunning evils as sins and doing goods; and love truly conjugial with its delights is solely from the Lord, and is given to those who live according to His commandments. Thus it is given to those who are received into the Lord‘s New Church, which is meant in the Apocalypse by the New Jerusalem." To this I added: "I am in doubt whether at this day men in the world are willing to believe that in itself this love is a spiritual love and therefore has its existence from religion, for they cherish only a corporeal idea concerning it."

The angels then said to me: "Write about it, and follow the revelation. The written book shall then be let down by us out of heaven and we shall see whether what is written therein is received, and at the same time, whether men are willing to acknowledge that this love is with man according to his religion--spiritual with the spiritual, natural with the natural, and merely carnal with adulterers."

CL 535. After this I heard a hostile murmur from those below, and at the same time the words, "Do miracles and we will believe." To my question, "Are not these things miracles?" they answered, "They are not!" I then asked, "What miracles then?" and the answer came, "Show and reveal the future, and we will have faith."

"But" I replied, "such knowledges are not given from heaven, because in so far as man knows the future, his reason and understanding with his prudence and wisdom fall into inactivity, become torpid, and decay." And again I asked, "What other miracles shall I do?"

Then came the cry, "Do miracles like those which Moses did in Egypt"; to which I replied, "Perhaps you would harden your hearts at them, as did Pharaoh and the Egyptians." The answer came that they would not; and again I said: "Assure me that you will not dance around a golden calf and adore it, as Jacob’s posterity did within a month after they had seen the whole of Mount Sinai on fire and heard Jehovah Himself speaking out of the fire; thus, after a miracle which was the greatest of all." (In the spiritual sense, a golden calf is the pleasure of the flesh.) And from below came the answer, "We will not be like Jacob‘s posterity."

Then I heard it said to them from heaven: "If you believe not Moses and the Prophets, that is, the Word of the Lord, you would no more believe from miracles than did the sons of Jacob in the wilderness, nor, indeed, more than they believed when they saw with their own eyes the miracles done by the Lord when He was in the world."

1 In the original edition, this paragraph is enclosed in inverted commas.

1 The "secret committee" was an important arm of the Swedish government. It was elected from the three Houses--Nobles, Clergy, and Burghers--and its members were sworn to keep secret its transactions.

2 Throughout Swedenborg’s theological and philosophical works, the word animus (plural, animi) is used to designate the external mind which man has in common with animals, as distinguished from mens designating the rational mind which is peculiar to man. Animus also means the disposition, and is sometimes so translated in the present work.

1 See (n. 5), note 2.

1 In the original, this paragraph from this point on is enclosed in inverted commas.

1 Pu and Ubi are respectively the Greek and Latin words meaning "Somewhere". They were formerly used as theological terms to designate the abode of souls while waiting for reunion with their bodies. Such souls were also said to be "in limbo" (in the border land).

1 Pu and Ubi are respectively the Greek and Latin words meaning "Somewhere". They were formerly used as theological terms to designate the abode of souls while waiting for reunion with their bodies. Such souls were also said to be "in limbo" (in the border land).

1 According to the Greek text, this should be "sons of the bridechamber," as in the A.V.

1 The text has diadematibus (of diadems), but the context indicates that this is an error for adamantibus, as is in the translation.

1 See Apocalypse Revealed (AR n. 875); the present work was published in 1768.

1 In the original edition, this paragraph is enclosed in inverted commas.

1 In (Coro n. 37), where the present Relation is repeated is Jehovah; the Coronis, however, is a copy, the original MS. has been lost.

1 See (CORO n. 44) where this Relation is repeated.

1 Translated Proverbs in the A.V.

1 As in English, the Latin word for heaven means also the sky.

2 1 Cor. 6:9.

3 The Latin is lucis (of light), but the context indicates that this is a misprint or a slip of the pen for noctis.

4 Literally, they scatter nuts. Because children played with nuts, relinquere noces (to leave the nuts) became a proverbial saying for to give up childish ways.

1 The Latin is illa credere (believe the former), but the context indicates this should be illa fugere as in the translation.

1 Lux and lumen both mean light, but in the Writings luxis used to signify the light of the spiritual sun or of the natural, while lumen is used generally to signify spiritual light in the natural mind. Thus the eye sees in natural lux; angels see in spiritual lux. The natural man, whether good or evil, sees in lumen. See (AC n. 854; DP n. 166; SD n. 4627).

1 The word also suggests that this is a misprint forconjugial. The present passage and (n. 203) and also one passage in the (WORD EXPLAINED n. 4486) are the only passages in the theological Writings where the word conjugal appears. The word does indeed appear in four passages in TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, but these passages are reprinted from CONJUGIAL LOVE where the word is conjugial. Swedenborg also uses conjugial throughout his scientific works.

1 In the original, the paragraph that follows is enclosed in inverted commas.

1 Muscles in the scrotum whose office is to raise the testes.

1 In the original, the remainder of this number, except the last sentence, is enclosed in inverted commas.

1 The Latin is non castitas (non-chastity), but the context shows that this is a misprint for nam castitas, as in the translation; see (n. 147, 452).

1 The Latin is conjugii (of marriage), but the apposition of love of the sex indicates that it should be conjugialis as in the translation.

1 The Latin is mutum (mute), clearly a misprint for neutrum as in the translation.

1 In the original edition, this paragraph is enclosed in quotation marks.

1 The Latin is in illos, that is, into those loves; but both the construction and the sense indicate that illos is a misprint for illas (into the former, that is, into the moral virtues).

1 The Latin is cum conjuge (with a consort), but this is clearly an error for cum conjugibus as in the translation.

1 Pu and Ubi are respectively the Greek and Latin words meaning "Somewhere". They were formerly used as theological terms to designate the abode of souls while waiting for reunion with their bodies. Such souls were also said to be "in limbo" (in the border land).

1 The Latin is floribus (in flowers). The translation is based on the assumption that this is a misprint for floretis.

2 Reading quia quando amor agit per sapientiam inter se deliantur for quia amor per sapientiam, etc.

1 The Latin text is qui (sol)... est amor, but the context shows that this should be quae (lux)... est sapientia in apposition to qui (calor)...est amor.

1 See (n. 98)

1 In the Author‘s ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING MARRIAGE, of which only the Index is extant, each of these subjects formed a separate chapter.

1 The text has et inde pulchritudines, but the et inde shows that this is an error for pulchriore (as in the translation), in apposition to the preceding impulchriore.

1 Swedenborg distinguishes between universal and singular on the one hand, and general and particular on the other. The universal is wholly present in every singular thereof, e.g., the soul is universally present in the blood and in every globule thereof. But a general has no existence apart from particulars, e.g., a general body has no existence apart from its particular members. To illustrate both usages: A heavenly society as a society exists only from its members, but the love of God is universally present in the whole society and in each single member thereof. See (n. 388).

1 The Latin is et consumunt (and consume it), but this plainly refers to the spider and the fly.

1 The Latin is existentia, but the general teaching of the Writings indicates that this a slip for essentia as in the translation. See (n. 380); (TCR n. 33); FIVE MEMORABILIA (n. 16).

1 Throughout Swedenborg’s theological and philosophical works, the word animus (plural, animi) is used to designate the external mind which man has in common with animals, as distinguished from mens designating the rational mind which is peculiar to man. Animus also means the disposition, and is sometimes so translated in the present work.

1 The Latin is conjugiale (the conjugial), but the context indicates that this is a misprint for conjugium as in the translation.

1 Iliac Passion. A dangerous disease characterized by deep-seated pain in the abdomen, stercoraceous vomiting and obstinate constipation. It is often caused by hernia or obstructing the passage of the faeces (Dunglison, Medical Dict.).

2 Celiac Affection or flux, a species of diarrhoea in which food is discharged by the bowels in undigested condition (ibid.)

1 Swedenborg distinguishes between universal and singular on the one hand, and general and particular on the other. The universal is wholly present in every globule thereof. But a general has no existence apart from particulars, e.g., a general body has no existence apart from its particular members. To illustrate both usages: A heavenly society as a society exists only from its members, but the love of God is universally present in the whole society and in each single member thereof. See (n. 388).

1 These are two Hebrew words occurring in the Prophets and signifying evil birds of night of some unknown kind.

1 The Latin is in mundo spirituali (in the spiritual world) but this is manifestly an error.

1 The Latin is illorum (their--meaning the men), but the context indicates that it should be illarum (their--meaning the wives).

1 The Latin is perceptionem (perception), but the context shows that this is an error for receptionem as in the translation.

1 The context suggests that this should be into conjugial love.

1 The Latin is superiorem (higher), but the context indicates that this is an error for supremam, as in the translation.

1 i.e., the corpora striata and the optic thalami.

1 The Latin is percipitur (is perceived).

1 2 Cor. 12:4.

1 See A Philosopher‘s Note Book, p. 488.

1 The text reads: postquam, but see (Life n. 53).

1 Adolescentes juvenes; see (n. 411) note.

1 See footnote of (n. 367).

1 In classical Latin zelotypia is used only in a few passages in Pliny and, as a Greek word, in Cicero. Both these authors use it as meaning simply jealousy. In the present text, it is given a special and limited definition "the zeal of conjugial love"; but the whole of the present chapter indicates that it is used to signify any jealousy, whether good or evil, that is connected with marriage. The ordinary Latin word for jealousy and the word used throughout Swedenborg’s writings is invidia, and the ordinary word for zeal is zelus. Zelotypia is used by Swedenborg only in the Present chapter, and in 3 Adversaria n. 6723, and in his translation of (Num. 5:15) in (L n. 48) and Ind. Bib. s.v."

1 The Latin has disperdere (to destroy), but clearly this is a misprint for dispendere, as in the translation.

1 i.e., from; see subsections 5 and 7.

2 See the same Memorable Relation in True Christian Religion, (TCR n. 35).

1 Swedenborg distinguishes between universal and singular on the one hand, and general and particular on the other. The universal is wholly present in every singular thereof, e.g., the soul is universally present in the blood and in every globule thereof. But a general has no existence apart from particulars, e.g., a general body has no existence apart from its particular members. To illustrate both usages: A heavenly society as a society exists only from its members, but the love of God is universally present in the whole society and in each single member thereof. See (n. 388).

1 The Latin adolescentes juvenes means adult men and women in the flower of their age.

1 That is, from (DLW n. 351-357, 350).

2 See Footnote of (n. 90).

1 See Footnote of (n. 28).

1 In the original, (n. 423) up to this point is inserted between inverted commas.

1 These are two Hebrew words occurring in the Psalms, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, the meaning of which is unknown; but in some passages, the context indicates that they sometimes mean some evil birds of night. See Footnote of (n. 264).

1 The word civil is used by Swedenborg in its root meaning--civis, a citizen. Thus a civil man is one who performs his duties as a citizen or member of society.

2 In the original, the remainder of this paragraph is inserted between inverted commas.

1 The Latin is in naturali (in the natural), but there can be no doubt that it should be in mundo naturali as in the translation.

1 (Gal. 5:17).

1 Clenodium. This is latinized form of the Swedish klenod (from klen-little and od-property) which means any small precious thing such as jewels, and gold ornaments. It is also used of a country, e.g., Gothland is on of Sweden‘s jewels.

1 Reading conjunctim for conjuntus. So also twice in (n. 466).

1 Cimelium, a latinized form of the Greek = anything stored up as a precious treasure.

1 See Footnote n. 253.

1 In the original edition, this Memorable Relation is enclosed in inverted commas, being quoted from HEAVEN AND HELL (HH n. 385). The last sentence, however, is an addition. In SPIRITUAL DIARY (SD n. 4405), it is said that the general here referred to was Prince Eugene, that is, Francois Eugene, Prince of Savoy (1663-1736), one of the most famous generals in the Austrian army. The conversation here recorded was held in the summer of 1750, when Swedenborg was in Aix-la-Chapelle.

1 In the original, what follows in this paragraph is enclosed in inverted commas. See (SD n. 6103).

1 In (Lev. 18:6), the translation "near of kin" is accompanied with the marginal note" the remainder of his flesh" which is the literal meaning of the Hebrew.

1 "If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him ... But when the righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be remembered."

1 Zona, a term used by the old anatomists to signify the hymen.

1 The Latin is dum fit ex consensu at libido violationis, etc. (when done from consent, but the lust of violation, etc.). The context clearly shows that this ought to be dum fit, absque consensu, as in the translation.

1 The original has Medea, but clearly by error.

2 In the Catechism referred to in the text, the commandment regarding the worship of God is divided into two, and the last two commandments regarding coveting are combined into one. Thus the commandment against adultery is the sixth commandment--as stated in the Latin text.

1 THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED was published in April 1766, and CONJUGIAL LOVE in October 1768.

1 See Footnote (n. 5).