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 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 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 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."
