(6)

 

The Marriage of the Lord and the Church, and Its Correspondence

 

 

116. The marriage of the Lord and the church, and the correspondence of it, are also treated of here, because without knowledge and understanding as to this, one can scarcely apprehend that conjugial love in its origin is holy, spiritual, and heavenly, and that it is from the Lord. It is indeed said by some in the church that marriages have a relation to the marriage of the Lord with the church, but what that relation is 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 that that holy marriage, which is with and in those that are the Lord’s church, should be treated of with particularity. With them also, and not with others, there is love truly conjugial. But for the elucidation of this secret, this treatment is to be divided under the following heads:

 

(1) That in the Word the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and the church, the 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 are meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and by other names which are those of generation.

 

(4) That the spiritual offspring, which are born from the marriage of the Lord with the church, are truths, from which come understanding, perception, and all thought; and goods, from which are love, charity, and all 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 with man by the Lord.

 

(6) That the husband does not represent the Lord and the wife the church; because both together, the husband and 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, with semination, prolification, the love of children, and like 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 come to him and live according to his commandments.

 

(11) That conjugial love is according to the state of the church, because it is according to the state of wisdom with man.

 

(12) And because the church is from the Lord conjugial love also is from him.

 

The explanation of these now follows.

 

117. (1) That in the Word the Lord is called the bridegroom and husband, and the church, the 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 the bridegroom and husband, and the church, the bride and wife, may be seen from the following passages:

 

He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice (John 3:29).

 

This was said concerning the Lord by John the Baptist.

 

Jesus said, So long as the bridegroom is with them the sons of the wedding cannot fast; the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, then will they fast (Matt. 9:15; Mark 2:19, 20; Luke 5:34, 35).

 

I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev. 21:2).

 

That by the new Jerusalem a new church of the Lord is meant may be seen in Apocalypse Revealed, n. 880-881. The angel said to John:

 

Come and I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he showed him the holy city, Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9, 10);

 

The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Blessed are they which are called to the supper of the marriage of the lamb (Rev. 19:7, 9).

 

The Lord is meant by the bridegroom whom the five virgins that were ready went forth to meet, and with whom they entered into the marriage, as is plain from verse 13, where it is said: “Watch, therefore, for ye know not the day, nor the hour wherein the son of man cometh.” There are besides many passages in the prophets.

 

118. (2) Also that the Lord is called Father and the church mother. That the Lord is called Father appears from these passages:

 

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, the Father of eternity, the Prince of peace (Isa. 9:6).

 

Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father, our redeemer, from everlasting is thy name (Isa. 63:16).

 

Jesus said, He that seeth me seeth the Father that hath sent me (John 12:44-45).

 

If ye had known me ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye have known him, and have seen him (John 14:7).

 

Philip saith, Show us the Father. Jesus saith unto him, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How, then, sayest thou, Show us the Father (John 14:8-9).

 

Jesus said, The Father and I are one (John 10:30).

 

All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine (John 16:15; 17:10)

 

The Father is in me, and I am in the Father (John 10:38; 14:10-11, 20).

 

That the Lord and his Father are one as soul and body are one; and that God the Father descended from heaven and assumed the human for the redemption and salvation of men; and that his human is what is called the son sent into the world is fully shown in Apocalypse Revealed.

 

119. That the church is called mother appears from the following passages:

 

Jehovah said, Plead with your mother; she is not my wife, and I am not her husband (Hos. 2:2, 5).

 

Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that loatheth her husband (Ezek. 16:45).

 

Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I8 have put away? (Isa. 50:1).

 

Thy mother is like a vine, planted by the waters, bearing fruit (Ezek. 19:10).

 

These things were said of the Jewish church.

 

Jesus stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, My mother and my brethren are they that hear the Word of God and do it (Luke 8:21; Matt. 12:48-49; Mark 3:33-35).

 

By the disciples of the Lord is meant the church.

 

There stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and Jesus seeing the mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, said unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son; and he said to the disciple, Behold thy mother. Wherefore from that hour the disciple took her unto his own (John 19:25-27).

 

By this is meant that the Lord did not acknowledge Mary as mother, but the church; for which reason he called her “woman,” and mother of the disciple. He called her the mother of this disciple, or of John, because he represented the church as to the goods of charity. These are the church in very effect. It is therefore said that he took her unto his own. It may be seen in Apocalypse Revealed, n. 5, 6, 790, 798, 879, that Peter represented truth and faith; James, charity; and John, the works of charity. And that the twelve disciples together represented the church as to all things of it, n. 233, 790, 903, 915.

 

120. (3) That the offspring from the Lord as husband and Father, and the church as wife and mother, are all spiritual; and are meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, and by other names which are those of generation. That no other offspring are born by the church from the Lord needs no demonstration, because reason sees it without. For it is the Lord from whom every good and every truth proceeds, and the church, which receives them and brings them into effect; and all the spiritual things of heaven and of the church relate to good and truth. Hence it is that by “sons and daughters” in the Word, in its spiritual sense, truths and goods are meant; by “sons,” truths conceived in the spiritual man and born in the natural; and by “daughters,” goods in like manner. For that reason they who are regenerated by the Lord are called in the Word “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, in Rev. 12:5. See Apocalypse Revealed, n. 543. It is because “daughters” signify the goods of the church that the “daughter of Zion,” “of Jerusalem,” “of Israel,” and “of Judah,” are so often mentioned in the Word, by which no daughter is meant, but affection of good, which is of the church. See Apocalypse Revealed, n. 612. The Lord also calls those who are of his church brethren and sisters in Matt. 12:49; 25:40; 28:10; Mark 3:35; Luke 8:21.

 

121. (4) That the spiritual offspring which are born from the marriage of the Lord with the church are truths, from which come understanding, perception, and all thought; and goods, from which are love, charity, and all affection. That goods and truths are the spiritual offspring born of the Lord by the church is because the Lord is good itself and truth itself, and these in him are not two but one; and because nothing can proceed from him 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 mind and life of those that are of the church, has been shown in the preceding section on the marriage of good and truth. The reason why man by truths has understanding, perception, and all thought, and by goods has love, charity, and all affection, is that all things in man have relation to truth and good, and the two things in him which constitute him are will and understanding, and the will is the receptacle of good, and the understanding is the receptacle of truth. That the things proper to the will are love, charity, and affection, and the things proper to the understanding are perception and thought, needs no light from demonstration, for there is light in the proposition from the understanding itself.

 

122. (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 with man by the Lord. The reason why from the good and truth that proceed as one from the Lord, man receives truth, is that 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, and this because truth is in the light of the understanding and thence he sees it; and what a man sees within himself, or in his mind, he knows not whence it is, for he does not see the inflowing, as he does things that fall into the sight of the eye; and therefore he supposes it to be in himself. It is given man of the Lord that it should so appear, in order that he may be man, and that there may be in him a reciprocal of conjunction. Add to this, that man is born a faculty of knowing, understanding, and becoming wise, and this faculty receives the truths whereby it has knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. And as the female was created by means of the truth of the male, and is formed into the love of it more and more after marriage, it follows that she also receives her husband’s truth in herself, and conjoins it with her good.

 

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

 

124. The reason why the church is thus formed with man by the Lord is that then he is in conjunction with the Lord, in good from him, and in truth as if from himself; so that the man is in the Lord and the Lord in him, according to his words in John 15:4-5. It is similar if for good we say charity, and for truth, faith; for good is of charity and truth is of faith.

 

125. (6) That the husband does not represent the Lord and the wife the church; because both together, the husband and wife make the church. It is a common saying in the church that, as the Lord is the head of the church, so is the husband 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 [homo]—man and woman—are the church; and still more husband and wife together. The church with them is first implanted in the man, and through the man in the wife; because the man receives its truth in his understanding, and the wife from the man. If the contrary it is not according to order. This, however, does sometimes occur; but with men who either are not lovers of wisdom, and therefore are not of the church; as also with those who depend as slaves on the beck of their wives. But of this matter something may be seen in the preliminaries, n. 21.

 

126. (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. This follows from what has just been said; to which, however, it is to be added that it appears as if 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 is of truth, rather than to charity, which is of good. In like manner the learned have placed thought, which is of the understanding, before affection, which is of the will. Wherefore it is then as if the knowledge of what the good of charity is, and of what the affection of the will is, were lying hidden away in the grave; and earth also is cast upon them by some, as upon the dead, lest they should rise again. But that the good of charity is the primary thing of the church may be seen with open eyes by those who have not closed the way from heaven into their understandings by confirmations in favor of faith, that it alone makes the church, and in favor of thought, that it alone makes the man. Now, as the good of charity is from the Lord, and truth of faith is with man as if from him, and these two effect such a conjunction of the Lord with man as is meant by the Lord’s saying that:

 

He is in them, and they in him (John 15:4-5);

 

It is plain that this conjunction is the church.

 

127. (8) But that there is a correspondence with conjugial love, with semination, prolification, the love of children, and like things which are in marriages and from them. These things, however, are deeper secrets than can enter with any light into the understanding, unless a knowledge of correspondence has preceded. If this has not been unveiled to the understanding, however the subjects of this section might be explained, it would be in vain to grasp at them. But what correspondence is, and that it is the relation of natural things with spiritual, has been shown by many things in Apocalypse Revealed; also in Arcana Coelestia; and specifically in Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture; also in particular in a relation respecting it, to follow hereafter. Until this knowledge has been acquired, only these few things shall be presented before the understanding in the shade. That conjugial love corresponds to the affection of genuine truth, to its chastity, purity, and holiness; 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, as truth in man appears as his, and good is adjoined to it by the Lord, it is plain that those correspondences are of the natural man with the spiritual or internal man. But some light will be given on these subjects in the relations which follow.

 

128. (9) That the Word is the medium of conjunction, because it is from the Lord and thus is the Lord. The Word is the medium of the Lord’s conjunction with man, and of man’s with the Lord, for the reason that in its essence it is Divine truth united with Divine good, and Divine good united with Divine truth. It may be seen in Apocalypse Revealed (n. 373, 483, 689, 881) that this unition is in each and all things of the Word, in its celestial and its spiritual sense. From which 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 also is himself, it results that when a man reads the Word, and takes truths therefrom, the Lord adjoins good. For man does not see the goods that affect, because he reads it from the understanding, and the understanding takes from it nothing but its own things, which are truths. That good is adjoined to these by the Lord the understanding feels, from the delight that flows in when it is enlightened. But this does not take place interiorly with others than those who read it to the end that they may become wise; and the end of becoming wise is with those who wish to learn more of genuine truths there; and by means of them to form the church within themselves. But they who read it only for the glory of erudition, and they 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; because the end of these is to save themselves by the mere words, wherein is nothing of truth; and the end of those is to become eminent for learning, with which end there is no spiritual good conjoined, but only the natural delight that comes of worldly glory. Because the Word is the medium of conjunction it is called the covenant, old and new; a covenant signifies conjunction.

 

129. (10) That the church is from the Lord and is with those who come to him and live according to his commandments. It is not denied at this day that the church is the Lord’s, and because it is the Lord’s that it is from the Lord. It is with those who come to him, because his church in the Christian world is from the Word, and the Word is from him, yea, from him in such wise that it is himself. Therein is the Divine truth united with the Divine good, and this also is the Lord. Nothing else is meant in John 1:1-14, by the Word “which was with God, and which was God, from which is the life and the light of men, and which was made flesh.” And further, it is with those who come to him because it is with them that believe in him; and no one can believe that he is God, the savior and redeemer; Jehovah the 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 cometh to the Father but by him; that he and the Father are one; and many more things which he himself teaches; these things, I say, no man can believe except from him. That it cannot be unless he is approached is because he is the God of heaven and earth, as he also teaches. Who else should be approached? Who else can be approached? It is with those who live according to his commandments, because with others there is no conjunction; for he says:

 

He that hath my commandments and doeth them, he it is that loveth me, and I will love him, and will make my abode with him. But he that loveth me not doth not keep my commandments (John 14:21-24).

 

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

 

130. (11) That conjugial love is according to the state of the church, because it is according to the state of wisdom with man. That conjugial love is according to the state of wisdom with man has often been stated before and will often be said hereafter; it shall therefore be illustrated here what wisdom is, and that it makes one with the church: With man there is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom. Knowledge is of things cognized; intelligence is of reason; and wisdom is of life. Wisdom considered in its fullness is at the same time of things cognized, of reason, and of life; cognitions precede; through them reason is formed; and wisdom by both, and this when one lives rationally according to the verities that are cognitions. Wisdom therefore is at once of reason and of the life; and it is becoming wisdom while it is of reason and thence of life, and is wisdom when it has become of life and thence of reason. The most ancient people in this world acknowledged no other wisdom but wisdom of life. This was the wisdom of the men of old who were called “sophi” [wise men].

 

But the ancient people who succeeded the most ancient acknowledged as wisdom the wisdom of reason; and they were called “philosophi” [lovers of wisdom]. But at this day many even call knowledge wisdom; for the learned, the erudite, and the mere sciolists are called wise—wisdom has thus glided down from its summit to its valley.

 

[2] But something shall also be said as to what wisdom is in its origin, in its progress, and thence in its full state. The things which pertain to the church and are called spiritual reside in the inmosts with man; those that concern the state, and are called civil affairs, occupy a place below them; and those that pertain to knowledge, experience, and skill, and are called natural, form their footstool. The reason why the things that pertain to the church and are called spiritual have their abode in man’s inmosts is that they conjoin themselves with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; for no other things enter with man from the Lord through heaven. That things pertaining to the state, called civil affairs, occupy a place below the spiritual is because they conjoin themselves with the world; in fact they are of the world, for they are statutes, laws, and regulations, which bind men, so that there may be formed of them a stable and well-ordered society and state. That matters of knowledge, experience, and skill, which are called natural, form the seat is because they closely conjoin themselves with the five bodily senses, and these are the ultimates, on which interior things, which are of the mind, and inmost things, which are of the soul, are as it were seated.

 

[3] Now, as the things of the church, called spiritual, reside in the inmost, and what resides in the inmost constitutes the head, and as the things that follow under these, called civil, form the body, and the ultimates, 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 like manner as things of the head flow into the body, and through the body into the feet; so that spiritual things are within civil, and through the civil within the natural. Now, as spiritual things are in the light of heaven, it is plain that by their light they enlighten those that follow in order, and animate them by their heat, which is love; and that when this is so the man has wisdom.

 

[4] Since wisdom is of life and thence of reason, as was said above, the question arises, What is wisdom of life? In a brief summary it is this: To shun evils because they are hurtful to the soul, hurtful to the state, and hurtful to the body; and to do good deeds because they are of advantage to the soul, to the state, and to the body. This is the wisdom which is meant by wisdom wherewith conjugial love allies itself. For it allies itself therewith by this, that it shuns the evil of adultery as a bane to the soul, to the state, and to the body. And as this wisdom springs from spiritual things which are of the church, it follows that conjugial love is according to the state of the church, because it is according to the state of wisdom with man. It is also meant by this, that—as has been stated many times before—insofar as a man becomes spiritual he is in love truly conjugial; for man is made spiritual by means of the spiritual things of the church. More respecting the wisdom wherewith conjugial love conjoins itself may be seen below, at n. 163-165.

 

131. (12) And because the church is from the Lord, conjugial love also is from him. As this follows from what has been said above, I refrain from further confirmations. Besides, that love truly conjugial is from the Lord all the angels of heaven testify; and also that this love is according to the state of wisdom, and the state of wisdom is according to the state of the church with them. That such is the testimony of the angels of heaven is plain from the relations after the chapters, which are things seen and heard in the spiritual world.

 

132. To these I will add two relations. First, this:

 

I once conversed with two angels, one from the eastern heaven, the other from the southern heaven, who, when they perceived that I was meditating on the secrets of wisdom pertaining to conjugial love, said, “Do you know anything about the schools of wisdom in our world?”

 

I said that I did not yet.

 

And they answered, “There are many. And they who love truths from spiritual affection, or because they are truths, and because wisdom is attained by means of them, come together at a given signal, and consider and form conclusions respecting such matters as require a deeper understanding.” Then they 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 palms continued even to the summit. We entered it and ascended; and on the top or summit of the hill a grove appeared, the trees of which upon an elevation of ground formed a kind of theater, within which was a level space paved with small stones of various colors. Around this in a square form seats were placed, on which the lovers of wisdom were seated; and in the midst of the theater was a table whereon lay a paper sealed with a seal.

 

[2] Those who were sitting on the seats invited us to seats still vacant. But I responded, “I am led hither by two angels to see and hear and not to sit.” Then the two angels went to the table in the middle of the level area, and broke the seal of the paper, and read before those that were sitting the secrets of wisdom inscribed thereon, which they were now to consider and unfold. They were written and let down upon the table by angels of the third heaven.

 

The secrets were three: First, What is “the image of God,” and what “the likeness of God,” into which man was created? Second, Why is not man born into the knowledge of any love, when yet beasts and birds, the noble as well as the ignoble, are born into the knowledges of all their loves? Third, What is meant by “the tree of life”? And what by “the tree of knowledge of good and evil?” And what by “eating” of them?

 

Under these was written, “Combine these three into one statement, and write it on a fresh paper, and place it on the table, and we shall see. If the statement appears of just and even weight upon the scale there will be given to each of you a reward of wisdom.” Having read this the two angels withdrew, and were taken up into their own heavens.

 

[3] And then they that were sitting on the seats began to consider and unfold the secrets proposed to them; and they spoke in order, first, those who sat on the north side, then those on the west, after them those on the south, and finally those at the east. And they took up the first subject of consideration, which was, What is “the image of God,” and what “the likeness of God,” into which man was created? Then first these words from the book of creation were read aloud before all:

 

And God said, Let us make man into our image, after our likeness. And God created man into his own image, into the image of God created he him (Gen. 1:26-27).

 

In the day that God created man, into the likeness of God made he him (Gen. 5:1).

 

They who sat at the north first spoke; saying, “The image of God and the likeness of God are the two lives breathed into man by God; which are the life of the will and the life of the understanding. For we read:

 

Jehovah God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of lives; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7).

 

“Into the nostrils is into the perception, that there was in him the will of good and the understanding of truth, and thus the breath of lives; and as life was breathed into him by God, the image and likeness of God signify integrity, from wisdom and love, and from justice and judgment in him.”

 

Those who sat at the west favored these views; adding this, however: “This state of integrity breathed into him by God is breathed into every man after him, continually; but it is in man as in a receptacle, and insofar as man is a receptacle, he is an image and likeness of God.”

 

[4] Then the third in order, those who sat at the south, said, “The image of God and the likeness of God are two distinct things, but in man 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 appears as through a veil, from the fact that Adam retained the likeness of God after he had lost the image of God; for we read after the curse:

 

Behold the man is as one of us, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:22).

 

“And afterwards he is called the likeness of God, but not 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] And then after silence was obtained, those sitting at the east rose from their seats and looked up to the Lord; and after that sat down again, and said, “The image of God is a receptacle of God; and as 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 semblance and full appearance as if the love and wisdom are in man, and therefore just as if his own; for man feels no otherwise than that he loves of himself and has wisdom of himself, or that he wills good and understands truth of himself, when yet it is not of himself at all, but of God. God alone loves of himself and is wise of himself, because God is very love and very wisdom. The semblance or appearance that love and wisdom or good and truth are in man as if his own, makes man to be man, and capable of being conjoined to God, and so of living to eternity. Whence it follows that man is man from the fact that he can will good and understand truth just as if of himself, and yet know and believe that it is of God. For, through his knowing and believing this, God puts his image in man. This could not be if he should believe that it is from himself and not from God.”

 

[6] Having said this, there came upon them a zeal from the love of truth, from which they spoke these words: “How can man receive anything of love and wisdom, and retain it and reproduce it, unless he feels it as his own? And how can there be conjunction with God through love and wisdom unless there is given to man something of the reciprocal of conjunction? For there is no conjunction without a reciprocal; and the reciprocal of conjunction is that man shall love God and be wise in the things which are of God as if of himself, and yet believe that it is of God. Then, how can man live to eternity unless he is conjoined with the eternal God? And consequently, how can man be man without the likeness of God in him?”

 

[7] Having heard these words all approved, and said, “Let the conclusion therefrom be this: ‘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 in proportion as he receives, the receptacle becomes an image of God. And man is a likeness of God from the fact that he feels within himself that the things which are of God are in him as his own; and yet from this likeness he is an image of God only so far as he acknowledges that the love and wisdom, or good and truth in him are not his own, and hence are not of him, but are solely in God, and therefore of God.’”

 

133. After this they took up the second subject of consideration, Why is not man born into the knowledge of any love, when yet beasts and birds, both the noble and the ignoble, are born into the knowledges 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 they inquired and learned from investigators that an infant cannot of connate knowledge even apply itself to the mother’s breast, but must be moved to it by the mother or the nurse; and that it only knows how to suck, and this is acquired by continual suction in the womb. And afterwards, it does not know how to walk; nor how to articulate sound into any human word, nay, nor even how to sound the affection of its love as beasts do. And further, that it does not know any food suitable for itself, as all beasts do, but seizes whatever is presented, clean or unclean, and puts it into its mouth.

 

The investigators said that man without instruction has not even the knowledge to distinguish sex, and knows absolutely nothing of the modes of loving it; and that not even virgins and youths know them without learning from others, though educated into various sciences. In a word, that man is born corporeal, like a worm; and remains corporeal unless he learns from others to know, to understand, and to become wise.

 

[2] Then they confirmed the statement that beasts, the noble as well as the ignoble, such as the land animals, the birds of the air, reptiles, fishes, the worms that are called insects are born into all the knowledges of the loves of their life. For example, into all that relate to their nourishment, all that relate to their habitation, all that relate to the love of the sex and procreation, and into all relating to the rearing of their young. They confirmed this by marvelous examples 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 formerly lived) where the beasts are not representative but real. When the truth of the proposition was thus established, they directed their minds to investigate and discover the ends and causes through which they might unfold and disclose this secret. And all said that these things could not but spring from Divine wisdom, in order that man may be man, and beast be beast and that the imperfection of man at his birth thus becomes his perfection, and the perfection of the beast at its birth becomes its imperfection.

 

134. Then first those on the north began to open their minds, and said, “Man is born without knowledges that he may receive all knowledges. If he were born into knowledges he could receive none but those into which he was born; nor could he then appropriate any to himself,” which they illustrated by this comparison: “A man just born is as ground into which no seeds have been implanted, but which can yet receive all seeds, and bring them forth and make them fruitful. But a beast is as ground already planted, and filled with grasses and herbs, which does not receive other seeds than those implanted; if it received others it would choke them. Hence it is that man is many years in growing up, within which years he can be cultivated, like the ground, and bring forth, as it were, every kind of grain and flowers and trees, while a beast is but a few years in growing up, during which it cannot be perfected into any other than the things which are connate.”

 

[2] Next those at the west spoke, and said, “Man is not born with knowledge like a beast, but is born a faculty and an inclination, a faculty for knowing and an inclination for loving; and is born a faculty not merely for knowing, but also for understanding and for becoming wise; and is born to an inclination, the most perfect, not only for loving the things which are of self and of the world, but those also that are of God and of heaven. Consequently, man is born of his parents an organism which lives only in the external senses, and at first in none that are internal, in order that he may become man successively, first natural, then rational, and finally spiritual; which he would not become if he were born into knowledges and loves as beasts are. For connate knowledges and affections limit progression; but a connate faculty and inclination limit nothing. Man can therefore be perfected in knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom to eternity.”

 

[3] Afterwards those on the south took up the subject, and expressed their opinion, saying, “It is impossible for man to acquire any knowledge from himself, because no knowledge is connate with him, but he can acquire it from others; and as he can get no knowledge, neither can he get love from himself, since there is no love where there is no knowledge, for knowledge and love are inseparable companions. They can no more be separated than will and understanding, or affection and thought, yea, no more than essence and form. Therefore in just so far as man takes knowledge from others, love adjoins itself to it as its companion. The universal love which adjoins itself is the love of knowing, of understanding, and of becoming wise. This love is in man only, and in no beast; and it flows in from God.

 

[4] We agree with our companions from the west, that man is not born into any love, and therefore not into any knowledge, but that he is only born into an inclination to love and hence into a faculty for receiving knowledges, not from himself but from others, that is, through others. It is said through others, because neither have they received anything of knowledge from themselves, but from God. We agree also with our companions from the north, that man when first born is as ground in which no seeds have been planted, but in which all seeds may be implanted, good as well as bad. To these considerations we add that beasts are born into natural loves, and hence into knowledges corresponding to them; and yet they do not know, think of, understand, and become wise from knowledges; but by means of them are led by their loves, almost as the blind along the streets by dogs, for as to understanding they are blind; or rather, as night walkers, who do what they do by blind knowledge, the understanding being asleep.”

 

[5] Finally those from the east spoke, and said, “We assent to what our brothers have said, that man has no knowledge from himself, but has it from others and through others, to the end that he may come to know and acknowledge that all his knowledge, understanding, and wisdom are of God; and that he cannot otherwise be conceived, born, and generated of the Lord, and become his image and likeness. For he becomes an image of the Lord by his acknowledging and believing that every good of love and of charity and every truth of wisdom and of faith he has received and does receive comes from the Lord, and nothing at all from himself. And he becomes a likeness of the Lord by his feeling this within himself as if it were of himself. He feels this because he is not born into knowledges but receives them, and what he receives appears to him as if from himself. So to feel is also given to man by the Lord that he may be man and not a beast; for by his willing, thinking, loving, knowing, understanding, and becoming wise as if of himself, he receives knowledges, and exalts them into intelligence, and, by the uses of them, into wisdom. Thus does the Lord conjoin man to himself, and man conjoins himself to the Lord. This could not have been if the Lord had not provided that man should be born in total ignorance.”

 

[6] After this pronouncement all desired that a conclusion should be come to from their deliberations; and the conclusion formed was this: “Man is born into no knowledge in order that he may come into all knowledge, and may progress into intelligence, and by intelligence into wisdom; and that he is born into no love, that he may come into all love, through applications of knowledges from intelligence; and into love to the Lord through love towards the neighbor; and so may be conjoined to the Lord, and through this conjunction may become a man and live to eternity.”

 

135. Then they took the paper and read the third subject of consideration, which was, What is meant by “the tree of life,” what by “the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” and what by “eating” of them? And all requested that those who were from the east would unfold this secret, because it requires a profounder understanding, and they who are from the east are in flaming light, that is, in the wisdom of love, and that wisdom is meant by the garden of Eden, wherein those two trees were placed.

 

They answered, “We shall speak; but as man cannot obtain anything whatever from himself, but receives all from the Lord, we shall speak from him; and yet it will be by us as if from us.” And then they 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 as love and wisdom, and charity and faith, or good and truth, make the life of God in man, these are meant by the tree of life, and from these man has life eternal. The like is signified by the tree of life of which it is given to eat, in 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 of himself, and not from God; thus, that love and wisdom, charity and faith, that is, good and truth, are in man, his own, and not of God, believing this, because he thinks and wills, and speaks and acts in all similitude and appearance as if from himself. And because from this belief man persuades himself that God has imparted himself or infused his Divine into him, therefore the serpent said:

 

God doth know that in the day that ye eat of the fruit of that tree your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:5).

 

[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 condemnation, and therefore also both Adam and his wife, together with the serpent, were accursed. By the serpent is meant the devil as to the love of self and the pride of one’s own 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 a monstrous error who believe that Adam was wise and did good from himself, and that this was his state of integrity; when in fact Adam was himself accursed on account of that belief, for this 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 was by virtue of believing that he was wise and did good from God, and not at all from himself; for this is 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 by nativity. And therefore also by his own power he became redeemer and savior.”

 

[4] From all that had been said they formed this conclusion: “By the tree of life, and by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and by eating of them is signified that life with man is God in him; and that then it is heaven to him and eternal life. And that death to man is the persuasion and belief that the life he has is not God, but himself; from which belief comes hell to him and eternal death, which is damnation.”

 

136. After this they looked at the paper left by the angels on the table, and saw written underneath, “Join these three into one statement.” And then they brought them together and saw that the three cohered in a series, and that series or statement was this: “Man was created to receive love and wisdom from God, and yet all likeness as if it were from himself, and this for the sake of reception and conjunction; and for this reason man is not born into any love, nor into any knowledge, nor even into any power of loving or becoming wise of himself; and therefore if he ascribes every good of love and every truth of wisdom to God he becomes a living man; but if he ascribes them to himself he becomes a dead man.”

 

They wrote this upon a fresh paper and placed it on the table, and lo, angels were suddenly present, in bright white light, and carried the paper away into heaven. And after it was read there, they that were sitting on the seats heard thence the words, “Well done, well done, well done.” And immediately one appeared, as if flying from thence, who had two wings about the feet, and two about the temples, bearing in his hand the rewards, which were robes, caps, and wreaths of laurel. And he came down, and to those sitting at the north he gave robes of the color of opal; to those who sat at the west he gave scarlet robes; to those at the south, caps, the borders of which were adorned with fillets of gold and pearls, and the turned up left side adorned with diamonds cut in the form of flowers; and to those on the east he gave wreaths of laurel in which were rubies and sapphires. Decorated with these rewards they all went home from the school of wisdom; and when they showed themselves to their wives, they came out to meet them, decorated also with gifts of honor from heaven, whereat they wondered.

 

137. The second relation:

 

While I was meditating on conjugial love, lo, a long way off there appeared two young children, naked, with baskets in their hands and turtledoves flying around them. And when I saw them nearer they still were as if naked, becomingly adorned with wreaths of flowers; chaplets of flowers bedecked their heads, and garlands of lilies and roses of the color of hyacinth obliquely pendent from the shoulders to the loins, adorned their breasts; and round about the two there was as it were a chain in common, woven of leaflets with olives interspersed. But as they came yet nearer they did not appear as infants, nor naked, but as two persons in the first bloom of life, clad in robes and tunics of shining silk, into which were woven flowers most beautiful to the sight. And as they came close to me there breathed upon me from heaven through them a vernal warmth, with fragrant odor as of the earliest blossomings in gardens and fields. They were two married partners from heaven.

 

And then they spoke to me; and as what I had just seen was in my thought, they asked me, “What did you see?”

 

[2] And when I told them that they first appeared to me as naked infants; then as infants adorned with wreaths; and at last as adults clothed in garments embroidered with flowers, and that then forthwith spring breathed upon me with its delights; they smiled pleasantly, and said they did not see themselves, on the way, as infants, nor naked, nor with garlands, but continually in similar appearance as now. And that their conjugial love was thus represented at a distance, its state of innocence by their appearing as naked infants, its delights by garlands of flowers, and the same now by the flowers interwoven in their robes and tunics.

 

And they continued, “As you said that just as we came near a vernal warmth breathed upon you with its pleasant aromas, as of a garden, we will tell you why it was so.”

 

[3] They said, “We have been now for ages married partners and continually in the flower of age in which you see us now. Our first state was as the first state of a virgin and youth when they unite in marriage; and we then believed that state was the very blessedness of our life. But we heard from others in our heaven, and afterwards we ourselves perceived, that that was a state of heat not tempered with light, and that it would successively be tempered, as the husband is perfected in wisdom and the wife loves that wisdom in the husband; and that this is effected by uses and according to them, which uses both of them by mutual aid perform in the society; and that delights follow according as heat and light or wisdom and its love are tempered.

 

[4] “A warmth as of spring breathed upon you as we drew near, because conjugial love and vernal heat in our heaven 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 a containant? So what are love and wisdom without their use? The conjugial is not in them, because the subject in which they might be is not. In heaven, where the heat is vernal, there is love truly conjugial. That it is there is because it is not vernal elsewhere than where heat is equally united with light, or where there is as much heat as light, and vice versa. And we aver that as heat delights itself with light, and in turn light with heat, so love delights itself with wisdom, and wisdom in turn with love.”

 

[5] He further said, “With us in heaven there is perpetual light and never the shade of evening; still less is there darkness; because our sun does not set and rise like your sun, but remains continually midway between the zenith and the horizon, which according to your manner of speech is an elevation of 45 degrees. Hence it is that the heat and light proceeding from our sun make perpetual spring; and that a perpetual springtime breathes upon those in whom love is equally united with wisdom. And our Lord, through the eternal union of heat and light, breathes forth nothing else than uses; thence also are the germinations on your earth, and the mating of your birds and animals, in the springtime. For the vernal heat opens their interiors even to their very inmosts, which are called their souls, and affects them and imparts its conjugial, and causes their prolific inclination to come into its delights, by a continual endeavor to produce the fruits of use, which use is the propagation of their kind.

 

[6] “But with men there is perpetual influx of vernal heat from the Lord, wherefore they can at any time, even in midwinter, enjoy the delights of marriage; for men were created receptions of light, that is, of wisdom, from the Lord; and women were created receptions of heat, that is, of the love of the wisdom of the man, from the Lord. Hence now it is that, as we drew near, a vernal warmth breathed on you, with a fragrant odor as of the early blossomings in gardens and fields.”

 

[7] Having said this the man gave me his right hand and led me to homes where there were married partners in similar bloom of life as themselves. And he said, “These wives, now seen like virgins, were old women in the world; and their husbands, now appearing as young men, were there infirm old men; and they were all brought back by the Lord to this flower of age because they mutually loved each other, and from religion shunned adulteries as heinous sins.”

 

And they added, “No one knows the blessed delights of conjugial love but he who rejects the horrid delights of adultery; and no one can reject them unless he is wise from the Lord; and no one has wisdom from the Lord unless he performs uses from the love of use.”

 

At the same time I also saw the furniture of their houses, every article of which was in a heavenly form, and glistened with gold flaming, as it were, with rubies set therein.

 

 

 

 

(7)

 

The Chaste and the Unchaste

 

 

138. I am still at the beginning of the treatment of conjugial love in particular, and conjugial love in particular can be but indistinctly and thus obscurely known unless its opposite also, which is the unchaste, in some measure appears; this does appear in a measure, or in the shade, when the chaste is described together with what is not chaste, for chastity is but the removal of the unchaste from the chaste. But the unchaste, which is entirely opposite to the chaste, is treated of in the latter part of this work, where it is described in its full extent, and with its varieties, under the title “The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining to Promiscuous Love.” But what the chaste is, and the unchaste, and with whom they are, will be explained in the following order:

 

(1) That chaste and unchaste are only predicated of marriages, and of such things as pertain to marriage.

 

(2) That chaste is predicated only of monogamic marriages, or those of one man with one wife.

 

(3) That only the Christian conjugial 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 become spiritual from the Lord, conjugial love is purified more and more and becomes chaste.

 

(7) That the chastity of marriage comes through the total renunciation of promiscuity from religion.

 

(8) That chastity cannot be predicated of infants; nor of boys and girls; nor of young men and virgins before they feel with themselves the love of the sex.

 

(9) That chastity cannot be predicated of those born eunuchs; nor of those made eunuchs.

 

(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 for various external reasons only.

 

(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 is, and remains in them, a love of the life truly conjugial.

 

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

 

The explanation of these propositions now follows.

 

139. (1) That chaste and unchaste are predicated of marriages, and of such things as pertain to marriages is that love truly conjugial is chastity itself, as is to be explained; and the love opposite to it, which is called promiscuous, is unchastity itself. Insofar therefore as the former is purified from the latter it is chaste, for insofar its destructive opposite is taken away. From which it is plain that the purity of conjugial love is what is called chastity. But there is a conjugial love that is not chaste and yet is not unchastity, as between married partners, who for various external reasons abstain from the effects of lasciviousness so far as not to think of them. Yet if this love in their spirits has not been purified it still is not chaste. Its form is chaste, but the chaste essence is not in it.

 

140. Chaste and unchaste are predicated of such things as pertain to marriages, because the conjugial is inscribed upon both sexes, from inmost things to outermost, and according to this inscription is the man, as to thoughts and affections, and thence inwardly as to the acts and gestures of the body. That this is so appears more evidently from the unchaste. The unchastity residing within their minds is heard in the sound of their speech, and from their application of everything in conversation even though it be chaste to things that are lewd. (The sound of speech is from the affection of the will; the speech is from the thought of the understanding.) That is a sign that the will, with all things thereof, and the understanding with all things thereof, thus the whole mind, and all things therefrom in the body, from the inmosts to the ultimates, overflow with unchastities. I have heard from the angels that with the most consummate hypocrites, however chastely they may speak, unchastity is perceived by the ear, and is also felt from the sphere that flows forth from them.

 

This too is a sign that unchastity resides in the inmosts of their minds, and consequently in the inmosts of their bodies; and that these are outwardly veiled from the sight, as with a crust, painted with figures of divers colors. That a sphere of lasciviousness pours forth from the unchaste is plain from the statutes among the sons of Israel, that all things and everything was unclean that one who was defiled with such impurities only touched with the hand. From these considerations it may be concluded that it is similar with the chaste; that is to say, that with them each and all things are chaste, from inmost to outermost, 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 things are impure.

 

141. (2) That chaste is predicated only of monogamic marriages, or those of one man with one wife. The reason why chaste is predicated only of these marriages is that with them conjugial love resides not in the natural man, but penetrates to the spiritual, and opens a way for itself successively to the very spiritual marriage—that of good and truth—which is its origin, and with which it conjoins itself. For that love enters in according to the increments of wisdom, and this is according to the implantation of the church by the Lord, as has been shown many times before. This cannot be done with polygamists, because they divide conjugial love, and this love divided is not unlike the love of the sex, which in itself is natural. But some things appropriate to this subject will be seen in the chapter on polygamy.

 

142. (3) That only the Christian conjugial is chaste is because love truly conjugial in man proceeds at an equal pace with the state of the church with man; and because that state is from the Lord, as has been shown in the preceding chapter (n. 130-131) and elsewhere; also because the church in its genuine truths is in the Word, and in them the Lord is present there. From this it follows that there is no chaste conjugial except in the Christian world; and if it be not there, it is yet possible there. By the Christian conjugial is meant the marriage of one man with one wife. That this conjugial can become inherent among Christians, and by inheritance descend to the offspring from parents who are in love truly conjugial, and that from this a faculty and an inclination to become wise in the things of the church and of heaven may become connate, will be seen in its proper place.

 

That if Christians marry more wives than one they commit not only natural but also spiritual adultery will be shown in the chapter on polygamy.

 

143. (4) That love truly conjugial is chastity itself. The reasons are these: (a) because it is from the Lord, and corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the church; (b) because it descends from the marriage of good and truth; (c) because it is spiritual, just in the degree that the church is with man; (d) because it is the fundamental love and the head of all loves, celestial and spiritual; (e) because it is the true seminary of the human race, and thence of the angelic heaven; (f) because it therefore exists also among the angels of heaven, and with them spiritual offspring are born of it, which are love and wisdom; (g) and because its use is thus preeminent above all the other uses of creation. From this it follows that love truly conjugial, viewed from its origin and in its essence, is pure and holy, so that it may be called purity and holiness, and therefore chastity itself. And yet that it is not absolutely pure either with men or angels may be seen presently in a following section (n. 146).

 

144. (5) That all the delights of love truly conjugial, even the ultimate, are chaste. This follows from what has been shown above, that love truly conjugial is chastity itself, and the delights constitute the life of it. That the delights of that love ascend to heaven and enter it, and on the way pass through the joys of the heavenly loves in which the angels of heaven are; so also that they conjoin themselves with the delights of their conjugial love has been mentioned above. Moreover, I have heard from the angels that they perceive those delights within themselves to be exalted and filled when they ascend from chaste married partners on earth. And, on account of some that were standing by who were unchaste, to the question, whether they meant also the ultimate delights, they nodded assent, and said tacitly, “Why not? Are not these delights those in their fullness?” From whence these delights are, and of what quality they are, may be seen above in n. 69, and in the relations, especially in those that follow.

 

145. (6) That with those who become spiritual from the Lord conjugial love is purified more and more and becomes chaste. (a) Because the first love, by which is meant the love before the nuptials and just after the nuptials, partakes somewhat of the love of the sex, thus of the ardor peculiar to the body, not yet moderated by the love of the spirit.

 

[2] (b) Because a man from natural becomes spiritual successively; for he becomes spiritual in the degree that the rational, which is in the middle between heaven and the world, begins to draw its breath from the influx out of heaven; which it does in proportion as it is affected and gladdened with wisdom (of which above, at n. 130); and insofar as this takes place, his mind is elevated into a superior aura, which is the containant of heavenly light and heat, or what is the same, of the wisdom and love in which angels are. For heavenly light acts as one with wisdom, and heavenly heat with love. And as wisdom and its love increase with married partners, conjugial love with them is purified. As this takes place successively, it follows that the love becomes more and more chaste. This spiritual purification may be compared with the purification of natural spirits which is done by chemists, and is called defecation, rectification, castigation, cohobation, acuition, decantation, sublimation; and the purified wisdom may be compared with alcohol, which is spirit most highly rectified.

 

[3] (c) Now, spiritual wisdom being in itself such that it grows more and more warm from the love of becoming wise, and from this increases to eternity, which goes on in proportion as it is purified, as if by defecations, castigations, rectifications, acuitions, decantations, and sublimations; and these are effected by removing and drawing off the understanding from the fallacies of the senses, and the will from the allurements of the body, it is plain that conjugial love likewise, whose parent is wisdom, successively becomes more and more pure, thus chaste.

 

That the first state of love between married partners is a state of heat not yet tempered with light, but that it is successively tempered, as the husband is perfected in wisdom and the wife loves that wisdom in the husband, may be seen in the relation, n. 137.

 

146. But it should be known that there is no conjugial love altogether chaste or pure among men, nor among angels. There is yet a something not chaste or not pure which adjoins or subjoins itself to it. But this is of another nature than what is unchaste. For with them the chaste is above and the not chaste beneath; and there is interposed by the Lord as it were a door on a pivot which is opened by determination; and care is taken that it may not stand open, lest one should pass into the other and they should commingle. For the natural man is by birth contaminated and crammed with evils; but his spiritual is not so, because its birth is from the Lord, for it is regeneration, and this is a successive separation from the evils to which he is inclined by birth.

 

That no love with men or angels is entirely pure, nor can it become so; but that the end, purpose, or intention of the will is primarily regarded by the Lord; and that therefore so far as a man is in these, and perseveres in them, he is initiated into purity, and makes progress towards it, may be seen above at n. 71.

 

147. (7) That the chastity of marriage comes through the total renunciation of promiscuity from religion. The reason is that chastity is the putting away of unchastity. It is a universal rule that insofar as anyone puts away evil there is given an opportunity for good to succeed it; and further, insofar as evil is hated, good is loved, and vice versa; consequently, insofar as promiscuity is renounced the chastity of marriage enters. That conjugial love is purified and rectified in proportion to the renunciation of promiscuity anyone may see, by common perception, as soon as it is said and heard, thus before it is confirmed. But as not everyone has common perception it is important that it be also illustrated by confirmations. The confirmations are that conjugial love grows cold as soon as it is divided, and increasing coldness causes it to perish; for the heat of an unchaste love extinguishes it. There cannot be two opposite heats together, but that the one rejects the other, and deprives it of its potency. When, therefore, the heat of conjugial love removes and rejects the heat of promiscuous love, conjugial love begins to grow pleasantly warm, and from a sense of its delights begins to bud and blossom, as an orchard and a rosary in the time of spring, the latter from the vernal temperature of the light and heat of the sun of the natural world, the former from the vernal temperature of the light and heat from the sun of the spiritual world.

 

148. There is inherent in every man from creation, and therefore by birth, an internal conjugial and an external conjugial. The internal is spiritual, and the external is natural. Man comes first into the latter; and then comes into the former as he becomes spiritual. If therefore he remains in the external or natural conjugial, the internal or spiritual conjugial is veiled, even until he knows nothing of it, yea, until he calls it an empty conceit. And yet if man becomes spiritual he begins to know something of it; after that to have some perception of its quality; and successively to feel its pleasantness, its delights, and its exquisite enjoyments. And as these are experienced, the veil above mentioned 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 has come to pass, the external conjugial still remains, but is continually purged and purified of its dross by the internal; and this until the external becomes as 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 that is in the internal. Such is the renunciation of promiscuity, through which comes the chastity of marriage.

 

[2] It may be believed that the external conjugial, remaining after the internal has separated itself from it, or separated it from itself, is similar to the external not separated. But I have heard from the angels that they are entirely unlike; for the external from the internal, which they call the external of the internal, is devoid of any lasciviousness, because the internal cannot be lascivious, but only be chastely delighted; and it carries the like into its external wherein it sensates its delights. With the external separated from the internal it is altogether otherwise. This they declared to be lascivious in general and in every part. They compared the external conjugial from the internal to a noble fruit, whose pleasant savor and fragrance instill themselves into its surface, and form that into correspondence with them. They also compared the external conjugial from the internal to a granary, whose store never grows less, but what is taken from it is constantly renewed. But the external separated from the internal they compared to wheat in a winnow, saying that if it is scattered about, only chaff remains, which is dissipated by a breeze of air. Thus it is with conjugial love if what is promiscuous be not renounced.

 

149. The reason why the chastity of marriage does not exist through the renunciation of promiscuity, unless this be done from religion, is that without religion a man does not become spiritual, but remains natural; and if the natural man renounces promiscuity, still his spirit does not renounce them. And thus, though it appear to him that he is chaste through the renunciation, 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 may be seen on this subject in the exposition of section 11 below.

 

150. (8) That chastity cannot be predicated of infants; nor of boys and girls; nor of young men and virgins before they feel with themselves the love of the sex. The reason is that chaste and unchaste are solely predicated of marriages, and of such things as pertain to marriages (see above, n. 139). In the case of those who know nothing of things conjugial, chastity is not predicable; for it is as nothing to them, and there is no affection of nothing, and no thought about it. But after that nothing a something springs up when the first of marriage, which is the love of the sex, is felt. That virgins and youths are commonly called chaste before they feel the love of the sex within them is from ignorance of what chastity is.

 

151. (9) That chastity cannot be predicated of those born eunuchs; nor of those made eunuchs. By those born eunuchs are meant especially those with whom from birth the ultimate of love is wanting. And as in such case the first and mediate are without a foundation on which to subsist, they cannot come to exist; or if they do exist, such have no care to distinguish between the chaste and the unchaste, for both are indifferent to them. But among these there are many differences. The case is nearly similar with those made eunuchs as with those born eunuchs. But those made eunuchs, because they are both men and women, cannot but regard conjugial love as a fantasy and its delights as fables. If there is anything of inclination in them it becomes mute, that is neither chaste nor unchaste; and being neither, it takes no name either from the one or from the other.

 

152. (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. The reason why chastity cannot be predicated of these is that they do not know what chastity is, nor that there is chastity; for chastity is of marriage, as was shown in the first section of this chapter. And they that do not believe adulteries to be evils of religion make marriages also unchaste, and yet religion in married partners makes their chastity. Thus nothing is chaste to them, and chastity is therefore named to them in vain. They are adulterers by confirmation. But those that do not believe adulteries to be hurtful to society know still less than the former what chastity is, or that there is chastity, for they are adulterers of purpose. If they say that marriages are less unchaste than adulteries, they say this with the mouth and not from the heart, for marriages with them are cold; and they who from this cold speak of chaste heat can have no idea of the chaste heat of conjugial love. Of what character they are, what are the ideas of their thought, and what therefore are the interiors of their speech, will be seen in part 2, respecting the insanities of adulterers.

 

153. (11) That chastity cannot be predicated of those who abstain from adulteries for various external reasons only. Many believe that mere abstinence from adulteries with the body is chastity, when in truth it is not chastity unless it be at the same time with the spirit also. The spirit of man, by which here is meant his mind as to affections and thoughts, makes him chaste or unchaste; for from thence he is so in the body. This, in fact, is altogether such as is the mind or spirit. Whence it follows that they are not chaste who abstain from adulteries with the body and not from the spirit; neither are they who abstain from them in the spirit from the body. There are many reasons which cause a man to abstain from them in the body; and also in the spirit from the body; but whoever does not desist from them in the body from the spirit is unchaste. For the Lord says:

 

If anyone looketh on the woman of another so that he lust after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matt. 5:28).

 

[2] The reasons for abstinence from adulteries with the body only cannot all be enumerated; for they vary according to the states of marriage and also according to the states of the body. For example, there are those who abstain from them for fear of the civil law and its penalties; for fear of the loss of reputation, and thence of honor; for fear of diseases therefrom; for fear of quarrels with the wife at home and hence of disquietude of life; for fear of the vengeance of the husband, or of relatives; and for fear of flogging by the servants. Then there are those who abstain on account of poverty; or of avarice; or of imbecility, arising from disease, or from abuse, or from age, or from impotence. Among them are those also, who because they cannot or dare not commit adulteries with the body, therefore condemn them in spirit, and so talk morally against them and in favor of marriages. But if they do not in spirit, and the spirit does not from religion execrate adulteries, they are yet adulterers; for, though not with the body, yet with the spirit they commit them. And therefore after death, when they become spirits, they openly speak in favor of them. From this it is plain that even the impious can shun adulteries as hurtful; but that none but a Christian can shun them as sins. Now, from these things, the truth of the proposition is established, that chastity cannot be predicated of those who abstain from adulteries merely for various external reasons.

 

154. (12) That chastity cannot be predicated of those who believe marriages to be unchaste. Like those of whom we have spoken above (n. 152), neither do these know what chastity is, nor that there is chastity; and like those who make chastity to consist only in celibacy, of whom below.

 

155. (13) That chastity cannot be predicated of those who have renounced marriages by vowing perpetual celibacy, unless there is, and remains in them, a love of the life truly conjugial. Chastity cannot be predicated of these for the reason that after the vow of perpetual celibacy conjugial love is driven out, of which alone, nevertheless, chastity is predicable. And because an inclination to the sex is yet inherent from creation and hence by birth; and when this is restrained and repressed it cannot be but that this inclination will break forth into heat, and with some into a ferment, which as it rises up from the body into the spirit infests, and with some befouls, it; and it may be that the spirit thence befouled will befoul also the things of religion, and cast them down from their internal seat, where they are in holiness, into externals, where they become but a thing of the mouth and of gesticulation; for which reason it is provided of the Lord that this celibacy is only with those who are in external worship, in which they are because they do not approach the Lord and do not read the Word. With them eternal life is not so much imperiled by injunctions of celibacy, with at the same time a solemn promise of chastity, as it would be 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, but some before they come into freedom from reason, and some on account of alluring causes from the world.

 

[2] Among those who adopt that state of life for the sake of the withdrawal of the mind from the world, that they may have leisure for Divine worship, they only are chaste with whom either there was a love of life truly conjugial before that state, or with whom it comes and remains after it; because it is of the love of this life that chastity is predicated. And on this account after death all who have lived in monasteries are at length absolved from their vows and set at liberty, that they may be brought to choose either a married life, or a life outside of the conjugial, according to their interior vows and the desires of their love. If then they enter into conjugial life, those who also have loved the spiritual things of worship are given in marriage in heaven. But those that choose a life outside of the conjugial are sent to their like who dwell on the sides of heaven.

 

[3] I have asked the angels whether they who have devoted themselves to piety, and have given themselves up to Divine worship, and so have withdrawn themselves from the illusions of the world, and from the lusts of the flesh, and have with this purpose vowed perpetual virginity are received in heaven, and there become first among the blessed, according to their faith. But the angels replied that they are indeed received, but when they feel the sphere of conjugial love there they become sad and troubled; and then some of their own free will, some by asking leave, and some by command go, or are sent away; and that when they are outside of that heaven a way is opened for them to their companions who were in a similar state of life in the world; and then from being troubled they become cheerful and rejoice together.

 

156. (14) That the state of marriage is to be preferred to a state of celibacy. This is evident from what has thus far been said concerning marriage and concerning celibacy. That the state of marriage is to be preferred is because it is 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 preeminent above the uses of all things of creation, for thence according to order is the propagation of the human race, and also of the angelic heaven, for this is from the human race. Add to this that marriage is the fullness of man; for through this man becomes a full man, as will be shown in the following chapter. In celibacy all these things are wanting.

 

[2] But if the proposition be made, that the state of celibacy is preferable to the state of marriage, and if this be submitted to examination so that it may be assented to, and may be established by confirmations, then these conclusions follow therefrom: That marriages are not holy and that they are not chaste; nay, that chastity in the female sex is with none others but those who abstain from marriage and vow perpetual virginity; and besides, that they who vow perpetual celibacy are meant by:

 

Eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God (Matt. 19:12).

 

And many other conclusions, which coming from an untrue proposition are also not true. By “eunuchs who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of God” are meant spiritual eunuchs, who are those that in marriages abstain from the evils of promiscuity. That Italian eunuchs are not meant is plain.

 

151a.⁹ To this I add two relations. First:

 

While I was returning home from the school of wisdom, spoken of above (n. 132), on the way I saw an angel in raiment of the color of hyacinth. He came to my side and said: “I see that you have come from the school of wisdom, and that you have been gladdened by what you have heard there. And as I perceive that you are not fully in this world, being at the same time in the natural world, and therefore do not know about our olympic gymnasia where the ancient sages meet and learn from those that come from your world what changes and successions of state wisdom has undergone and is still passing through; if you please I will conduct you to a place where many of the ancient sages dwell and many of their sons, that is of their disciples.”

 

And he led me towards the boundary between the north and the east. And looking thitherward from an elevated place, lo! I beheld a city, and on one side of it two hills, the one nearer the city being lower than the other. And he told me, “This city is called Athenaeum; the lower hill, Parnassium; and the higher, Heliconeum. They are so called because in and about that city dwell the ancient sages of Greece, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, Aristippus, Xenophon, with their disciples and novices.”

 

And I asked about Plato and Aristotle. He said, “They and their followers dwell in another region, because they taught matters of reason which are of the understanding; but the others taught morals which are of the life.”

 

[2] He said that from this city Athenaeum students are frequently sent to the learned from the Christians, that they may report what at this day they think about God, the creation of the universe, the immortality of the soul, the state of man in comparison with that of beasts, and about other things which are matters of interior wisdom. And he told me that a herald had this day announced an assembly—an indication that their emissaries have met with newcomers from the earth, from whom they have heard strange things. And we saw many going out from the city and from its vicinity, some with laurels on their heads, some bearing 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 was an octagonal palace, which was called the Palladium, and we entered. And behold, eight hexagonal recesses there in each of which was a library, and also a table at which those crowned with laurel were sitting. And in the Palladium itself appeared seats cut out of the rock, on which the others seated themselves.

 

[3] Then a door was opened at the left through which two newcomers from the earth were introduced. And after salutation one of the laureates asked them, “What news from the earth?”

 

They said, “It is new that men like beasts have been found in the woods, or beasts like men. But they were known by their face and body to have been born men, and to have been lost or left in the woods in the second or third year of their age.” They said, “They could not express anything of thought by sound, nor learn to articulate sound into any word. Nor did they know the food suitable to them as beasts do, but what they found in the woods they put into their mouths, both clean and unclean,” and many other like things; “From which,” they said, “some of the learned among us have conjectured, and some inferred, many things respecting the state of men relative to that of beasts.”

 

[4] On hearing this some of the ancient sages asked what the conjectures and inferences from these facts were. The two newcomers answered, “They were many, which, however, might be reduced to these. (a) That man of his own nature and also by birth is more stupid and thence viler than any beast; and so becomes if not instructed. (b) That he can be instructed, for he has learned to articulate sound and thence to speak; and by this means he began to express thoughts, and this gradually more and more, until he could express the laws of society, many of which, however, have been stamped upon beasts by birth. (c) That beasts have rationality in like manner with men. (d) Therefore if beasts could speak they would reason about everything as skillfully as men, an indication of which is the fact that they, equally with men think from reason and prudence. (e) That understanding is but a modification of light from the sun, heat cooperating by means of the ether; so that it is only an activity of interior nature; and that it can be exalted until it appears as wisdom. (f) That it is therefore vain to believe that a man lives after death any more than a beast; except perhaps that for some days after death, from the exhalation of the life of the body, he may appear as a vapor under the form of a specter, before he is dissipated into nature, somewhat as a twig raised up from the ashes appears in the likeness of its own form. (g) Consequently that religion which teaches that there is a life after death is an invention to keep the simple inwardly in restraint by its laws, as they are outwardly restrained by civil laws.” To this they added, “The merely ingenious reason in this way, but not the intelligent.” When asked, “What do the intelligent think?” they answered that they had not heard, but they supposed it was not how they reasoned.

 

152a. Hearing these things all who were sitting at the tables exclaimed, “Oh, what times are there now on earth! Alas, what changes has wisdom undergone! How transformed into foolish ingenuity! The sun is set, and is beneath the earth diametrically opposite to its meridian! Who might not know from the evidence of those lost and found in the woods that man is such without instruction? Is he not as he is taught? 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 speak could he give utterance to any thought? Is not every man just as he is taught, insane from falsities, or wise from truths? And when insane from falsities is he not in all fantasy that he is wiser than he who is wise from truths? Are there not men, fatuous and insane, who are no more men than those found in the woods? Are not those who have lost their memory like them?

 

[2] “We conclude from all this that without instruction man is not man; and is not a beast; but that he is a form which can receive within him what 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 by union with himself can render him blessed to eternity. We perceive from what you have said that wisdom is at this day so far extinct, or rendered so foolish, that men know nothing at all about the state of life of men relative to that of beasts. Hence it is that they do not know man’s state of life after death; and those who might know this but are not willing to know it, and therefore deny it, as many of your Christians do, we may liken to those found in the woods. Not that they have become so stupid for want of instruction, but that they have made themselves so stupid by fallacies of the senses, which are the darkness of truths.”

 

153a. But then one standing in the middle of the Palladium, holding a palm in his hand, said, “I beg you to unfold this secret: how man created in the form of God could be changed into a 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 the two forms are opposite, these of insanity, those of wisdom. Say, then, 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 tutors replied in order; first the Pythagoreans, then the Socratists, and afterwards the others. But there was a certain Platonist among them who spoke last, and his view prevailed; which was this: “In the Saturnian period or golden age, men knew and acknowledged that they were forms receptive of life from God; and therefore wisdom was inscribed on their souls and hearts. Hence they saw truth from the light of truth; and by truths perceived good from the delight of its love. But as in subsequent ages the human race fell away from the acknowledgment that every truth of wisdom and thence every good of love with them, continually flowed in from God, they ceased to be habitations of God; and then also discourse with God and consociations with angels ceased. For the interior of their minds—which had been elevated by God upwards to God—were bent out of their course, in a more and more oblique direction outwards to the world, and so by God through the world to God; and at length were inverted into the opposite direction, which is downwards to their own selves. And as God cannot be kept in view by man inwardly inverted, and thus turned away, 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 with heart and soul that every good of love, and thence every truth of wisdom in them was from God; and also that these were God’s in them, and thus that they were mere receptacles of life from God; and for that reason they were called images of God, sons of God, and born of God. But that in the succeeding ages this was not acknowledged in heart and soul, but with a kind of persuasive faith; and afterwards as a historical faith; and finally with the mouth only, and to acknowledge such a truth only with the mouth is not to acknowledge, yea, is to deny it in heart. From these facts it may be seen what wisdom is at this day on earth, among Christians, when, though they may be inspired of God by written revelation, they do not know the difference between man and beast, and many therefore believe that if man lives after death a beast must live also, or because a beast does not live after death neither does man live. Has not our spiritual light which enlightens the sight of the mind become thick darkness with them? And their natural light which only enlightens the sight of the body, has it not become splendor to them?

 

154a. After this they all turned to the two newcomers and thanked them for their visit and information; and begged them to report what they had heard to their brethren. The newcomers replied that they would confirm them in this truth that, insofar as they attribute every good of charity and every truth of faith to the Lord, and not to themselves, they are men; and insofar do they become angels of heaven.

 

155a. The second relation:

 

One morning most sweet singing heard at some height above me woke me from sleep; and in that first vigil, which is more internal, peaceful, and sweet than the following hours of the day, I was enabled to be kept for some time in the spirit, as if 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 emitted out of the mouth as melody; for it is sound, distinct from the discourse of one speaking from an affection of love which gives life to speech. In that state I perceived that it was an affection of the delights of conjugial love, which was made tuneful by wives in heaven. I discerned that it was so from the sound of the singing, wherein those delights were varied in marvelous ways.

 

After this I arose and looked abroad into the spiritual world. And lo, in the east beneath the sun there appeared as it were a golden rain. It was the morning dew falling in such abundance which, touched by the rays of the sun, presented before my sight the appearance of golden rain. Waked still more fully by this, I walked forth in the spirit and asked an angel, who just then by chance met me, whether he saw the golden rain descending from the sun.

 

[2] He answered that he saw it as often as he was in meditation on conjugial love. And then turning his eyes in that direction he said, “That rain is falling over a hall in which there are three husbands with their wives, who dwell in the midst of an eastern paradise. Such rain appears to be falling upon that hall from the sun, because wisdom concerning conjugial love and its delights dwells with them, with the husbands wisdom respecting conjugial love, and with the wives, respecting its delights. But I perceive that you are meditating on the delights of conjugial love. I will therefore conduct you to that hall and introduce you.”

 

And he led me through paradisal scenes to houses built of the wood of the olive tree, with two columns of cedar before the entrance; and introduced me to the husbands, and begged that I might be permitted, in their presence, to converse with their wives. And they bowed assent and called them.

 

The wives looked searchingly into my eyes. And I asked, “Why is this?”

 

They said, “We can see exactly what your inclination is, and the affection from it, and what is your thought from this about the love of the sex; and we see that you are thinking intensely about it, and yet chastely.” And they asked, “What would you that we tell you about it?”

 

I answered, “Tell me, I pray you, something about the delights of conjugial love.”

 

The husbands nodded assent, saying, “If agreeable to you tell something about them. Their ears are chaste.”

 

[3] And they inquired, “Who taught you to ask us about the delights of that love? Why not ask our husbands?”

 

I responded, “This angel who is with me whispered in my ear that wives are receptacles and sensories of them, because they are born loves, and all delights are of love.”

 

To this, with smiling lips, they answered, “Be prudent, and do not tell such a thing, unless in an ambiguous sense; for it is a wisdom profoundly reserved in the hearts of our sex; and not disclosed to any husband unless he is in love truly conjugial. The reasons are many which are deeply concealed by us.”

 

And then the husbands said, “The wives know all the states of our mind, and nothing at all is hidden from them. They see, perceive, and feel whatever goes forth from our will; while we, on the other hand, know nothing with the wives. 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 life of both, which they look out for, for their husbands and for themselves, from the wisdom inherent in their love; which is so full of prudence that they will not, and hence cannot say that they love, but that they are loved.”

 

I asked, “Why will they not and hence cannot?”

 

They replied, that if the least such thing escaped from their mouth cold would come over their husbands, and separate them from bed and chamber and from sight. But this is with those who do not regard marriages as holy, and therefore do not love their wives from spiritual love.

 

It is otherwise with those that do so love. In their minds that love is spiritual, and from this in the body is natural. “We, in this hall, are in this love from that; and therefore we entrust the secrets of the delights of conjugial love to our husbands.”

 

[4] I courteously asked that they would disclose some of these secrets to me also. And instantly they looked towards a window to the south, and lo, a white dove, whose wings glistened as with silver, and whose head was decked with a crest as of gold. It was standing on a bough from which an olive put forth.

 

When this was in the effort to expand its wings the wives said, “We will disclose something. While this dove appears it is a sign to us that we may.” And they said, “Every man has five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But we have also a sixth sense, which is the sense of all the delights of the conjugial love of the husband. We have this sense in the palms of our hands, while we touch the breasts, arms, hands, or cheeks, especially the breasts of our husbands, and also while we are touched by them. All the gladnesses and pleasantnesses of the thoughts of their inner mind [mens], and all the joys and delights of their outer mind [animus], and the cheer and mirth of their bosoms, pass from them into us and take form and become perceptible, sensible, tactile; and we as exquisitely and distinctly discern them as the ear discerns the modulations of song, or as the tongue distinguishes the flavors of dainties. In a word, the spiritual delights of our husbands put on with us, as it were, a natural embodiment. For that reason we are called by our husbands the sensory organs of chaste conjugial love and thence of its delights. 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 as we in turn love them from the same in them. This sense of our sex is called in the heavens the sport of wisdom with its love and of love with its wisdom.”

 

[5] With this I was excited with the desire to inquire more, as to the variety of the delights; and they said, “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.”

 

And I waited for its return but in vain.

 

Meanwhile I asked the husbands, “Have you a similar sense of conjugial love?”

 

They answered, “We have it in general but not in particular. We have a general blessedness, a general delight, and general pleasantness from the particular sensations of our wives; and this general sense which we have from them is as the serenity of peace.”

 

As this was said, behold beyond the window a swan appeared, standing on a branch of a fig tree; and he spread his wings and flew away. Seeing this the husbands said, “This is a sign to us for silence about conjugial love. Return at another time and perhaps more may be disclosed.”

 

And they withdrew and we went away.

 

 

 

 

(8)

 

On the Conjunction of Souls and Minds by Marriage;

Which Is Meant by the Lord’s Words,

They Shall Be No More Twain but One Flesh

 

 

156a. That by creation there was given to man and to woman an inclination and also the faculty of conjunction as into one, and that they are in both 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 that:

 

Jehovah God built the rib which he had taken from man into a woman; and brought her to the man; and the man said, This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; her name shall be called woman [ishah] because she was taken out of man [ish]. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Gen. 2:22-24).

 

Likewise the Lord said in Matthew:

 

Have ye not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh (Gen. 19:4-5).

 

[2] From these passages it is plain that woman was created out of man, and that there is in both an inclination and a faculty of reuniting themselves into one. That the reunion is into one person [homo] is also plain from the book of creation, where both together are called man; for we read that, “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 Adam in the Hebrew language and man are one word. They are also together called man in chapter 1:27, and 3:22-24 of the same book. And one man is also meant by one flesh, as is plain from passages in the Word where it speaks of all flesh, meaning every man; thus in Gen. 6:12-13, 17, 19; Isa. 40:5-6; 49:26; 66:16, 23-24; Jer. 25:31; 32:27; 45:5; Ezek. 20:48; 21:4, 5; and elsewhere.

 

[3] But 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 is meant by “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” and by “father and mother” whom after marriage man is to leave; and by “cleave unto his wife”—all this is shown in Arcana Coelestia where the two books Genesis and Exodus are explained as to the spiritual sense. It is there shown that a rib is not meant by “rib,” nor flesh by “flesh,” nor bone by “bone,” nor cleave by “cleave,” but that the spiritual things which correspond to these are meant and hence are signified by them. That spiritual things are meant, which of two make one man, is plain from the fact that conjugial love conjoins them, and that love is spiritual. It has been stated several times above that the love of man’s wisdom is transcribed into the wife; and in the sections that follow this it will be more fully confirmed; but at present we may not turn aside and so far 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 there is inherent in each sex, by creation, the faculty and the inclination whereby they are able and desire to be conjoined as into one.

 

(2) That conjugial love conjoins two souls and hence two minds in one.

 

(3) That the will of the wife conjoins itself with the understanding of the man; and hence the understanding of the man with the will of the wife.

 

(4) That the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual with the wife; but with the man it is inconstant and alternating.

 

(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 this conjunction is effected successively from the first days of marriage; and with those who are in love truly conjugial it is effected more and more inwardly 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 for the sake of this conjunction as an end the wife is gifted with a perception of the husband’s affections; and also with consummate prudence in moderating them.

 

(9) That wives hide this perception with themselves, and conceal it from their husbands, for reasons which are necessities; in order that conjugial love, friendship, and confidence, and thus the blessedness of living together, and happiness of life, may be confirmed.

 

(10) That this perception is the wisdom of the wife; that it cannot be with the man; and that the rational wisdom of the man cannot be with the wife.

 

(11) That the wife, from love, is constantly thinking about the inclination of the man to herself with the purpose of conjoining him to herself; with the man it is otherwise.

 

(12) That the wife conjoins herself to the man by applying herself to the desires of his will.

 

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

 

(14) That the wife is conjoined to the husband by the appropriation of the powers 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 from this perceives, sees, and feels his affections.

 

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

 

(17) That these duties also, according to mutual aid, conjoin the two into one; and at the same time make one house.

 

(18) That married partners, according to the above mentioned conjunctions, become one person more and more.

 

(19) That they who are in love truly conjugial feel themselves a united man, and as one flesh.

 

(20) That love truly conjugial regarded in itself is a union of souls, a conjunction of minds, and an effort to conjunction in bosoms and hence in the body.

 

(21) That the states of this love are innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and mutual desire of mind and heart to do each other every good; and from all these come blessedness, happiness, joy, pleasure, and from their eternal fruition, heavenly felicity.

 

(22) That these things can by no means be except in the marriage of one man with one wife.

 

The explanation of these now follows.

 

157. (1) That there is inherent in each sex, by creation, the faculty and inclination whereby they are able and desire to be conjoined as into one. It has been shown just above, from the book of creation, that the woman was taken out of the man. It results from this that in both sexes there is the faculty and inclination to conjoin themselves into one. For that which is taken out of anything derives and retains from its peculiar nature what makes its own; which being of like nature aspires to reunion, and when reunited is as if in itself when in that, and this reciprocally. That there is this faculty of conjunction of one sex with the other, or that they can be united admits of no doubt; nor that there is the inclination to be conjoined, for ocular experience teaches both.

 

158. (2) That conjugial love conjoins two souls and hence two minds in one. Every man consists of soul, mind, and body. The soul is his inmost, the mind is his mediate, and the body is the ultimate. As the soul is the inmost of man it is from its origin celestial; his mind being intermediate is from its origin spiritual; and the body being the ultimate is from its origin natural. Things that are celestial from their origin, and those which from their origin are spiritual, are not in space, but are in the appearances of space. And this is also known in the world; hence it is said that extent and place cannot be predicated of things spiritual. Since spaces are appearances, therefore distance and presence also are appearances. That the appearances of distance and of presence in the spiritual world are according to the nearness, relationships, and affinities of love has been often stated and confirmed in the small treatises on that world.

 

[2] These things are said here in order that it may be understood that the souls and minds of men are not in space as their bodies are; because, as was said above, they are celestial and spiritual from their origin. And not being in space they can be conjoined as into one even if the bodies at the same time are not. This is realized especially between married partners who inmostly mutually love each other. But as the woman was taken out of the man, and this conjunction is a kind of reunition, it may be seen from reason that it is not conjunction into 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, which there is with married partners who tenderly love each other, however distant they are in body. There are many evidences of experience which confirm this, even in the natural world. From this it is plain that conjugial love conjoins two souls and minds in one.

 

159. (3) That the will of the wife conjoins itself with the understanding of the man; and hence the understanding of the man, with the will of the wife. The reason is that the male is born to become understanding and the female to become will, loving the understanding of the male. Whence it follows that conjugial conjunction is a conjunction of the will of the wife with the understanding of the man, and reciprocally, of the understanding of the man with the will of the wife. Everyone sees that there is the closest conjunction of the understanding and the will; and that it is such that the one faculty can enter into the other and take delight from conjunction and in it.

 

160. (4) That the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual with the wife; but with the man it is inconstant and alternating. The reason is that love cannot do otherwise than love and unite itself, in order that it may be loved in return. Its essence and life are nothing else; and women are born loves, and men, with whom they unite themselves that they may be loved in return, are receptions. And besides, love is continually efficient. It is like heat, flame, and fire, which if restrained so that they go not forth into effect, perish. Hence it is that with the wife the inclination to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual. But that with the man there is not a similar inclination to the wife is because the man is not love but only a recipient of love, and because the state of reception comes and goes, according to interrupting cares, according to the changes of heat and want of heat in the mind from various causes, and according to increase and decrease of the powers in the body from the failure of which to return constantly and at stated periods it follows that with men the inclination to conjunction is inconstant and alternating.

 

161. (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. 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 them. The reason is that wives persuade that only the men love and they themselves receive; or that the men are loves and they obediences. They also rejoice in heart when men believe so. There are many reasons why they persuade them of this, all of which are of the prudence and circumspection of wives—whereof something will be told in the following pages, and especially in the chapter on the causes of cold, of separation, and of divorce among married partners. The reason why the inspiration or instilling of love is from the wives into men is that with men there is nothing of conjugial love, nor even of the love of the sex, but only with wives and women. That this is so has been shown me to the life in the spiritual world.

 

[2] There was once a conversation there on this subject, and the men, persuaded by their wives, insisted that they love and not the wives, and that the wives receive love from them. To settle the controversy about this secret all the women including the wives were withdrawn from the men, and with them at the same time the very sphere of the love of the sex was removed, which taken away the men came into an altogether strange state, never perceived before, of which they greatly complained. Then, while they were in this state the women were brought to them and the wives to their husbands and tenderly addressed them. But they became cold at their blandishments, and turned away, and said among themselves, “What is this? What is a woman?” And when some said they were their wives, they answered, “What is a wife? We do not know you.” But when the wives began to be grieved at this utterly frigid indifference of the men, and some of them to weep, the sphere of the love of the female sex and the conjugial sphere, which till now had been taken away from the men, was restored; and then immediately the men returned into their former state, the lovers of marriage to theirs, and the lovers of the sex into theirs. The men were thus convinced that nothing of conjugial love nor even of the love of the sex resides with them, but solely with wives and women. And yet afterwards the wives, of their prudence, led the men to believing that love resides with the men, and that some little spark of it may pass from them into themselves.

 

[3] This experience is here adduced that it may be known that wives are loves, and men are receptions. That men are receptions according to the wisdom with them, especially according to this, from religion, that the wife only is to be loved, is plain from the consideration that when the wife only is loved the love is concentrated; and as it is also ennobled thereby it abides in its strength, is constant, and enduring; and that otherwise it would be as when wheat out of a granary is cast to the dogs, whereby there is want at home.

 

162. (6) That this conjunction is effected successively from the first days of marriage; and that with those who are in love truly conjugial it is effected more and more inwardly to eternity. The first heat of marriage does not conjoin, for it draws from the love of the sex, which is of the body and thence of the spirit; and what is from the body in the spirit does not long endure. But love which is from the spirit in the body is enduring. Love that is of the spirit, and of the body from the spirit, is instilled into the souls and minds of married partners, together with friendship and confidence. When these two conjoin themselves with the first love of marriage it becomes conjugial love, which opens the hearts, and breathes into them the sweets of love; and this more and more inwardly as the two adjoin themselves to the primitive love and that enters into them; and the reverse.

 

163. (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. That wisdom with men is twofold, rational and moral; and that their rational wisdom is only of the understanding, and their moral wisdom is of the understanding and at the same time of the life, may be concluded and seen by 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 things will be enumerated specifically. The things pertaining to rational wisdom are designated by various names. In general they are called knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom; and in particular, rationality, judgment, genius, learning, sagacity. But as there are knowledges peculiar to everyone in his occupation, these are therefore of great diversity; for example there are knowledges peculiar to the clergy, peculiar to magistrates, peculiar to their various officials, peculiar to judges, peculiar to physicians and chemists, peculiar to soldiers and to mariners, peculiar to mechanics and workmen, peculiar to husbandmen, and so on. To rational wisdom pertain also all the knowledges into which youths are initiated in schools and by these afterwards into intelligence; and they too are called by various names, as philosophy, physics, geometry, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, jurisprudence, politics, ethics, history, and many others, through which as by doors they enter into things rational whereby rational wisdom is formed.

 

164. But to moral wisdom with men pertain all moral virtues, which look to the life and enter into it; and also all spiritual virtues, which flow forth from love to God and love towards the neighbor and flow together into them. The virtues which pertain to the moral wisdom of men are likewise of various name, and are called temperance, sobriety, probity, benevolence, friendship, modesty, sincerity, obligingness, civility; and also assiduity, industry, alertness, alacrity, munificence, liberality, generosity, earnestness, intrepidity, prudence, and other names. Spiritual virtues with men are the love of religion, charity, truth, faith, conscience, innocence, and many others. These virtues and the former may in general be referred to love and zeal for religion, for the public good, for country, for fellow citizens, for parents, for wife, and for children. In all these justice and judgment dominate; justice is of moral wisdom, and judgment is of rational wisdom.

 

165. The conjunction of the wife with the rational wisdom of the man is from within, because this wisdom is peculiar to the understanding of men, and ascends into a light in which women are not, which is the reason why women do not speak from this wisdom, but in the company of men when such matters are discussed are silent and only listen. That nevertheless these things are with wives, from within, is manifest from their listening, and from the fact that inwardly they recognize them and favor what they hear and have heard from their husbands.

 

And that the conjunction of a wife with the moral wisdom of men is from without is because the virtues of this wisdom for the most part are akin to similar virtues with women, and partake of the intellectual will of the man, wherewith the will of the wife unites itself and forms a marriage. And because the wife knows these virtues with a man better than the man knows them with himself, it is said that the conjunction of the wife with them is from without.

 

166. (8) That for the sake of this conjunction as an end to the wife is given a perception of the husband’s affections, and also consummate prudence in moderating them. That wives cognize the affections of their husbands, and that they prudently moderate them, is also among the secrets of conjugial love stored up with wives. They cognize them by three senses, by sight, by hearing, and by touch; and they moderate them all unknown to their husbands. Now as these things are among the secrets of wives it is not proper for me to disclose them as to particulars. But since it is proper for wives themselves, therefore four relations follow after the chapters, in which they are disclosed by them—two from the three wives dwelling in a hall upon which as it were golden rain was seen falling; and two from the seven wives sitting in a garden of roses; from which, if read, the secret will appear unveiled.

 

167. (9) That wives hide this perception with themselves and conceal it from the husbands, for reasons which are necessities, in order that conjugial love, friendship, and confidence, and so the blessedness of living together, and the happiness of life, may be confirmed. The hiding and concealment by wives of their perception of the husband’s affections are called necessities because if made known they would alienate husbands from bed, from chamber, and from the house. The reason is that there is profoundly inherent in most men conjugial coldness, from many causes, which will be set forth in the chapter “On the Causes of Coldnesses, of Separations, and of Divorces among Married Partners.” If wives were to disclose the affections and inclinations of their husbands this coldness would break forth from its hiding places and chill first the interiors of the mind, then the bosom, and from thence the ultimates of love which are devoted to generation, which being chilled conjugial love would be exiled so far that there would remain no hope of friendship, of confidence, and of the blessedness of living together, nor therefore of the happiness of life; yet on this hope wives are continually feeding. To disclose that they know the affections and inclinations of love with their husbands carries with it a declaration and publication of their own love; and it is known that insofar as wives open their mouths about it men grow cold and desire separation. From this the truth of this proposition is clear, that the reasons why wives conceal their perception within them and hide it from their husbands are necessities.

 

168. (10) That this perception is the wisdom of the wife; that it cannot be with the man; and that the rational wisdom of the man cannot be with the wife. This follows from the difference that there is 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 also that are above the body and beyond the world, for rational and spiritual sight goes thither; but love does not go beyond what it feels; when farther, it derives it from conjunction with the understanding of the man [vir] established by creation. For understanding is of light, and love is of heat; and things that are of light are plainly seen, and things of love are felt. From these considerations it is manifest that, on account of the universal difference that exists between the masculine and the feminine, the wisdom of the wife cannot be with the man, nor the wisdom of the man with the wife. Nor can the moral wisdom of the man be with women insofar as it partakes of his rational wisdom.

 

169. (11) That the wife is constantly thinking about the inclination of the man to herself, with the purpose of conjoining him to herself.

 

This comports with the explanation given above, which see, that the inclination with the wife to unite the man to herself is constant and perpetual, but with the man is inconstant and alternating. From this it follows that the thought of the wife is continual about the inclination of the husband to herself, with a mind to conjoin him to her. The thought of the wife about the husband, it is true, is interrupted by the domestic affairs that are under her care; but still it abides in the affection of her love, and with women this does not disconnect itself from thought, as with men. But these things I relate as they were told. See the two relations from the seven wives sitting in a garden of roses, which follow one of the chapters.¹⁰

 

170. (12) That the wife conjoins herself to the man by applying herself to the desires of his will. This is among the things well known; explanation of it is therefore omitted.

 

171. (13) That the wife is conjoined to her man through the sphere of her life going forth from her love. From every man there goes, nay rather pours forth and encompasses him, a spiritual sphere from the affections of his love; and this imparts itself to the natural sphere which is from the body, and they conjoin themselves. That a natural sphere flows forth continually from the body, not only from man but also from beasts, yea from trees, fruits, flowers, and even from metals, is commonly known. It is similar in the spiritual world; but the spheres flowing out from subjects there are spiritual; and those that emanate from spirits and angels are inwardly spiritual, because with them are affections of love and interior perceptions and thoughts thence. All sympathy and antipathy derive thence their origin; also all conjunction and disjunction.

 

And according to them is presence and absence there; for what is homogeneous or concordant effects conjunction and presence, and what is heterogeneous and discordant effects disjunction and absence. These spheres therefore make the distances there. What these spheres effect in the natural world is known also to some. The inclinations of the married toward each other are from no other origin. Unanimous and concordant spheres unite them; opposing and discordant spheres disunite them. For concordant spheres are delightful and grateful, and discordant spheres are unpleasant and disagreeable.

 

[2] I have heard from the angels, who are in clear perception of these spheres, that in men there is no part within, nor any part without, that does not renew itself, which is effected by dissolutions and restitutions, and that from them is the sphere which goes forth continually. And they said that this sphere encompasses man from the back, and from the breast, but is attenuated at the back and denser at the breast; that what is from the breast conjoins itself with the respiration, and that thence it is that two married partners who are of different mind and discordant affections lie in bed turned back to back; and on the other hand that those who agree in minds and affections mutually turn towards each other.

 

[3] They said further that the spheres—because they go forth from every part of man and are continued widely about him—not only outwardly conjoin and disjoin two married partners, but also inwardly, and that thence come all the differences and varieties of conjugial love. Finally, they said the sphere of love going forth from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as deliciously fragrant, far more delightful than it is perceived in the world by a newly married husband in the first days after marriage. From this the truth affirmed is plain, that the wife is conjoined to the man by the sphere of her life going forth from her love.

 

172. (14) That the wife is conjoined to the husband by the appropriation of the powers of his manhood; but that this takes place according to their mutual spiritual love. That this is so I have also taken from the mouth of the angels. They said that the prolific gifts imparted by husbands are received by wives in a universal manner and add themselves to their life; and that thus wives lead a life unanimous, and gradually more unanimous with their husbands; and that thereby is effectively wrought a union of souls and a conjunction of minds. They said the reason is this, that in the prolific [gift] of the husband is his soul, and his mind also 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 constitutes his soul may be appropriated to the wife, and that thus they may become, according to the Lord’s word, one flesh. And also that this was provided lest after conception the male man should from some fancy leave his wife. But they added, that applications and appropriations of the life of husbands with wives are effected according to their conjugial love, for love which is spiritual union conjoins; and that this too was provided, for many reasons.

 

173. (15) That the wife thus receives into herself the image of her husband, and thence perceives, sees, and feels his affections. From the reasons adduced above it follows as proven, that wives receive into themselves the things pertaining to the wisdom of their husbands, that is, the things which are proper to their souls and minds; and thus from virgins they make themselves wives. The reasons from whence this follows are: (a) That the woman was created from the man. (b) That thence there is an inclination in her to unite herself and as it were reunite herself with the man. (c) That from this union with her companion, and for the sake of it, the woman is born the love of the man; and becomes more and more his love by marriage, because then the love continually employs its thoughts about conjoining the man to herself. (d) That she is conjoined to her only one by applications to his life’s desires. (e) That they are conjoined by the spheres which encompass them and which unite themselves, universally and singly, according to the quality of conjugial love with the wives, and at the same time according to the quality of the wisdom that receives it on the part of the husbands. (f) That they are conjoined also through appropriations by wives of the powers of the husbands. (g) Whence it is clear that something of the husband is continually transcribed into the wife, and is inscribed upon her as her own. From all this it follows, that an image of the husband is formed in the wife; from which image the wife perceives, sees, and feels within herself the things that are in her husband, and thence as it were, herself in him. She perceives by communication, sees by look, and feels by the touch. That she feels the reception of her love by the husband by the touch in the palms, upon her cheeks, arms, hands, and breasts, the three wives in a hall and the seven wives in a garden of roses disclosed to me; of which in the relations.

 

174. (16) That there are duties proper to the man, and duties proper to the wife; and that the wife cannot enter into the duties proper to the man, nor the man into the duties proper to the wife, and rightly perform them. That there are duties proper to the man and duties proper to the wife there is no need to illustrate by recounting them; for they are many and various; and everyone knows how to classify them numerically after their kinds and species, if only he directs his mind to the discernment of them. The duties above all others by which wives conjoin themselves to their husbands are the education of the children of both sexes, and of girls up to the age when they are given in marriage.

 

175. That a wife cannot enter into the duties proper to the man, nor on the other hand a man into the duties proper to the wife, is because they differ as do wisdom and its love, or as thought and its affection, or as understanding and its will. In the duties proper to men, understanding, thought, and wisdom act the leading part; but in the duties proper to wives, will, affection, and love act the leading part; and from these the wife does her duties, and from those the man does his. Their duties are therefore of their own nature different, and yet are conjunctive, in a successive series.

 

[2] It is believed by many that women can perform the duties of men, if only they are initiated into them from their earliest age after the manner of boys; into the exercise of them they can indeed be initiated, but not into the judgment on which the right performance of the duties inwardly depends. Women, therefore, who are initiated into the duties of men are constrained in matters of judgment to consult with men; and then, if free to act, they choose out of their counsels what favors their own love.

 

[3] It is supposed also by some that women are equally able to lift up the sight of their understanding into the sphere of light in which men are, and to view things in the same altitude, which opinion has been induced upon them by the writings of some learned authoresses. But these writings, explored in their presence in the spiritual world, are found not to come of judgment and wisdom, but of genius and eloquence; and the products of these two, from elegance and beautiful fitness in the composition of words, appears as if sublime and erudite, but only to those who term all ingenuity wisdom.

 

[4] That on the other hand men cannot enter into the duties proper to women and rightly perform them is because they cannot enter into their affections, which are entirely distinct from the affections of men. Because the affections and perceptions of the male sex are from creation and thence by nature thus distinct, therefore among the statutes with the sons of Israel was this also:

 

The garment of a man shall not be upon a woman, neither shall the garment of a woman be upon a man, for it is an abomination (Deut. 22:5).

 

The reason was that in the spiritual world all are clothed according to their affections, and the two affections, of the woman and of the man, cannot be united except between two, and never in one.

 

176. (17) That these duties also, according to mutual aid, conjoin the two into one; and at the same time make one house. That the duties of the husband in some way conjoin themselves with the duties of the wife, and that the duties of the wife adjoin themselves to the duties of the husband, and that these conjunctions and adjunctions are a mutual help, and are according to mutual help, are among the things known in the world. But the primary things which confederate, consociate, and gather the souls and lives of two married partners into one are the common care of the education of children, in relation to which the duties of the husband and the duties of the wife are distinct, and at the same time conjoin themselves. They are distinct, in that the care of suckling and the education of infants of both sexes, and also of the instruction of girls up to the age when they may become marriageable and associate with men, is a duty peculiar to the wife. But the care of the instruction of boys, after childhood up to puberty, and from that until they become their own master, is a duty proper to the husband. But these duties conjoin themselves, by counsels and support, and many other mutual helps. That these duties—both those that are conjoined and those that are distinct, or the common as well as the peculiar—draw the minds of married partners together into one, and that the love called storge¹¹ effects this is known. It is also known that regarded as to their distinctness and their conjunction these duties make one house.

 

177. (18) That married partners, according to the above mentioned conjunctions, become one man more and more. This coincides with the contents of article 6, which see, where it is explained that conjunction is effected successively from the first days of marriage; and that with those who are in love truly conjugial the conjunction is effected more and more inwardly, to eternity. They become one man according to the increase of conjugial love; and as in the heavens this love is genuine, from the celestial and spiritual life of the angels, two married partners there are called two when mentioned as husband and wife, and one when spoken of as angels.

 

178. (19) That they who are in love truly conjugial feel themselves to be a united person, and as one flesh. That this is so is to be confirmed, not from the mouth of any inhabitant of the earth, but from the mouths of the inhabitants of heaven; for with men on earth at this day there is no love truly conjugial. And besides, they are enveloped with a gross body, which dulls and absorbs the sense that two married partners are a united person and as one flesh. Moreover, they who in the world love their married partners only outwardly and not inwardly are not willing to hear of this; they also think of the subject from the flesh, lasciviously. It is otherwise with the angels of heaven, because they are in spiritual and celestial conjugial love, and are not enveloped in a gross body as men are on earth. I have heard it attested by those who have lived for ages with their married partners in heaven, that they feel themselves to be thus united, the husband with his wife and the wife with her husband, and feel each to be mutually and reciprocally in the other, also as if one flesh, although distinct.

 

[2] The reason of this phenomenon, rare on earth, that the unition of their souls and minds is felt in their flesh, they said, is this, that “the soul constitutes the inmosts, not only of the head but also the inmosts of the body; likewise the mind, which is intermediate between the soul and the body, though it appears in the head, yet actually is in the whole body also. And hence it is,” they said, “that the actions which the soul and mind intend flow out from the body in an instant. Hence also it is that they themselves, after rejection of the body in the former world, are yet perfect men. Now, as the soul and mind adjoin themselves closely to the flesh of the body, in order that they may operate and produce their effects, it follows that the unition of soul and mind with a married partner is felt in the body also as one flesh.”

 

When these things were said by the angels, I heard from spirits who were standing by that these are matters of angelic wisdom, which are transcendent. But these spirits were natural-rational and not spiritual-rational.

 

179. (20) That love truly conjugial viewed in itself is a union of souls, a conjunction of minds, and an effort to conjunction in bosoms and hence in the body. That it is a union of souls and conjunction of minds may be seen above at n. 158. That it is an endeavor towards conjunction in bosoms is because the bosom is the place of assembly and as a royal court, and the body as a populous city round about. The bosom is as a place of assembly, in that all things that are determined from the soul and mind into the body flow first into the bosom. It is as a royal court, because there is the dominion over all things of the body; for the heart and lungs are there, and the heart reigns by the blood, and the lungs by the respiration, everywhere. That the body is as a populous city round about is apparent. When therefore the souls and minds of married partners are united, and love truly conjugial unites them, it follows that this lovely union flows into their bosoms, and through these into their bodies, and causes an endeavor toward conjunction. And this the more because conjugial love determines the urging to its ultimates, to the fulfillment of its happy pleasantnesses. And as the bosom is where the two ways meet, it is clear whence it is that conjugial love has there found the seat of its delightful sense.

 

180. (21) That the states of this love are innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and a mutual desire of mind and heart to do each other every good; and from all these come blessedness, happiness, joy, pleasure, and from their eternal fruition, heavenly felicity. The reason why these things and those are in conjugial love, and hence are from it, is that its origin is from the marriage of good and truth, and this marriage is from the Lord. And as love is such that it desires to communicate its joy to another whom from the heart it loves, yea, to confer joys upon him and from thence itself to take its own, infinitely more then does Divine love—which is in the Lord—towards man, whom he created to be a receptacle both of the love and the wisdom proceeding from himself. And as he created him for the reception of these—the man for the reception of wisdom, the woman for the reception of the love of the man’s wisdom —therefore he, from the inmosts, infused into men conjugial love, into which he might bring together all the blessedness, happiness, joys, and pleasures, that together with life proceed and flow in only from Divine love through his Divine wisdom, that is into those who are in love truly conjugial, for they only are the recipients. Innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and the mutual desire of mind and heart to do each other every good are mentioned, because innocence and peace are of the soul, tranquillity is of the mind, inmost friendship is of the bosom, full confidence is of the heart, and the mutual desire of mind and heart to do each other every good is of the body from these.

 

181. (22) That these things can by no means be except in the marriage of one man with one wife. This is the conclusion from all that has hitherto been said; and it also forms the conclusion from all that is to be said hereafter. There is therefore no need to confirm it by particular comment.

 

182. To this will be added two relations. First:

 

After some weeks I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Lo, there is an assemblage again in Parnassium, come, we will show you the way.” I went, and as I came near I saw one upon Heliconeum with a trumpet, with which he announced and proclaimed the assembly.

 

And I saw them going up from the city of Athenaeum and its neighborhood, as before, and in the midst of them three that were newly arrived from the world. The three were from among Christians, one a priest, another a politician, and the third a philosopher. They entertained them with various conversation on the way, especially about ancient sages whom they named. They asked whether they should see them, and were told that they would, and would be presented to them if they wished, as they were affable. They asked about Demosthenes, Diogenes, and Epicurus. They were told, “Demosthenes is not here, but with Plato; Diogenes dwells with his pupils at the foot of Heliconeum, for the reason that he esteems worldly things as naught, and employs his mind only with heavenly things; 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 and evil affections are contrary to wisdom.”

 

[2] When they had ascended the hill Parnassium some attendants brought water from a fountain in crystal goblets 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 which afterwards was consecrated to the nine virgins, but the winged horse Pegasus meant the understanding of truth, whence comes wisdom; the hoofs of his feet meant the experiences through which comes natural intelligence; and the nine virgins meant cognitions and knowledges of every kind. At this day these are called fables, but they were correspondences, from which the primitive peoples spoke.”

 

The companions of the three newcomers said to them, “Do not be surprised. The attendants have been instructed to speak thus. We understand that to drink water from a fountain means to be instructed concerning truths, and by truths concerning goods, and thus to become wise.”

 

[3] After this they entered the Palladium, and with them the three newcomers from the world, the priest, the politician, and the philosopher. Then the laureates who sat at the table asked them, “What news from the earth?”

 

They answered, “This is new, that a certain man asserts that he speaks with angels, and has his sight opened into the spiritual world, just as it is open into the natural world; and he brings many new things from there, among which are these: That man lives as a man after death, just as he lived before in the world; that he sees, hears, and speaks as before in the world; that he is clothed and adorned as before in the world; that he hungers and thirsts, eats and drinks, as before in the world; 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; and that there are palaces and houses there, and cities and villages, just as in the natural world; and also that there are writings and books; and that there are employments and business; so also precious stones, and gold and silver; in a word that each and every thing is there that exists on earth, but that in the heavens they are infinitely more perfect, with the only difference that all things in the spiritual world are of spiritual origin and are therefore spiritual, because they are from the sun there which is pure love; and all things in the natural world are of natural origin and hence are natural and material, because from the sun there which is pure fire. In a word, that man after death is perfectly a man, yea, more perfectly a man than he was before in the world; for before, in the world, he was in a material body, but in this he is in a spiritual body.”

 

[4] Being told this the ancient sages asked, “What do they think about these things on earth?”

 

The three replied, “We know that they are true, because we are here, and have gone about and examined them all. We will therefore tell what they have said and how they reasoned about them on earth.”

 

The priest then said, “Those who are of our order when first they heard of these things called them visions, then fictions; afterwards they declared that the man saw ghosts; and finally they hesitated, and said, ‘Believe them if you will; hitherto we have taught that man is not to be in a body after death until the day of the last judgment.’”

 

But the sages asked, “Are there not some intelligent men among them who are able to show and convince them of the truth that man lives as a man after death?”

 

[5] The priest replied, “There are men who can show this, but they do not convince. Those who show it say, ‘It is against sound reason to believe that man does not live as a man until after the last judgment day, and that meanwhile he is a soul without a body. What is a soul? And where is it meanwhile? Is it a breath? Or a something vaporous floating in the air? Or an entity hidden away in the center of the earth? Where is its pu?¹² Are the souls of Adam and Eve, and of all after them, for now six thousand years, or sixty centuries, still flitting about in the universe? Or are they kept confined in the center of the earth, and awaiting the last judgment? What could be more distressing and miserable than such a state of waiting? May not their lot be likened to the lot of those that are bound with chains and fetters in prisons? If such is to be the lot of man after death would it not be better to be born an ass than a man? And is it not also contrary to reason to believe that a soul can be clothed again with its body? Is not the body eaten up by worms, rats, and fishes? And can the bony skeleton, burnt with the sun or fallen into dust, be introduced into that new body? How are these cadaverous and putrid elements to be brought together and united to the soul?’ But they answer such considerations when they hear them with nothing whatever of reason, but cleave to their faith, saying, ‘We hold reason under obedience to faith.’ As to the gathering of all out of the sepulchers at the judgment day, they say, ‘This is a 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 is a specter, yea, they can say to sound reason, ‘You are insane.’”

 

[6] Hearing these things the Grecian sages said, “Are not these so contradictory paradoxes dissipated by themselves? And yet in the world at this day they cannot be dissipated by sound reason! What could be believed that is more paradoxical than this that they tell about the last judgment? That then the universe will perish, and the stars fall from heaven upon the earth, which is less than the stars? And that the bodies of men, then corpses or mummies, consumed by men, or fragments, will be united again with their souls? When we were in the world we believed in the immortality of the souls of men from inductions which reason furnished us; and we also assigned places of abode for the blessed, which we called Elysian Fields; and we believed them to be human forms or appearances, yet subtle because spiritual.”

 

[7] After saying this they turned to the other newcomer, who in the world had been a politician. He confessed that he had not believed in a life after death; and that he had thought, respecting the new things which he had heard about it, that they were imaginations and inventions. “Meditating upon these things,” said he, “I said, ‘How can souls be bodies? Does not the whole of a man lie dead in the sepulcher? 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 man lives after death would it be other than as a specter? How can a specter eat and drink? And how can it enjoy conjugial delight? Whence has it raiment, house, food, and so on? And specters, which are aerial phantoms, appear to be and yet are not.’ These and similar thoughts I had in the world, respecting the life of man after death. But now, when I have seen all things, and touched everything with my hands, I am convinced by my very senses that I am a man just as in the world, so that I know no otherwise than that I am living just as I have lived, with the difference that now I have sounder reason. I have sometimes been ashamed of my former thoughts.”

 

[8] The philosopher told a similar story about himself, with this difference, however, that he had set down the new things he heard about the life after death among the opinions and hypotheses that he had gathered from the ancients, and from men of the present time.

 

The sophi were astonished at hearing these things; and those that were of the Socratic school said that they perceived by this news from the earth that the interiors of the minds of men had been gradually closed and that now in the world belief in what is false shines as the truth, and fatuous ingenuity as wisdom; and that since their times the light of wisdom has let itself down from the interiors of the brain into the mouth under the nose, where that light appears to the eyes as splendor of the lips, and the speech of the mouth therefrom as wisdom.

 

One of the tyros there, on hearing these things, said, “And how stupid are the minds of men on earth at this day. Would that disciples of Heraclitus who bemoan and of Democritus who laugh at everything were here. We should hear great laughter and much wailing.”

 

When this meeting was ended they gave to the three newcomers from the earth the insignia of their domain, which were little thin plates of copper whereon certain hieroglyphics were engraved, with which they went away.

 

183. The second relation:

 

There appeared to me in the eastern quarter a grove of palms and laurels arranged in spiral convolutions. I approached and entered, and walked in the winding ways through some of the spiral turns; and at the end of the ways saw a garden, which formed the center of the grove. There was a small bridge that separated them, and a gate on the side towards the grove, a gate also on the side next the garden.

 

I drew near, and the keeper opened the gates.

 

I asked him, “What is the name of this garden?”

 

He said, “Adramandoni,” that is, the delight of conjugial love.

 

I went in, and lo, olive trees, and from olive tree to olive tree there were vines trailing and hanging down, and under and among them shrubs in blossom. In the midst of the garden was a grassy circle on which husbands and wives were sitting, and young men and maidens in pairs; and on elevated ground in the midst of the circle there was a small fountain leaping high by the force of its stream. As I came near the circle I saw two angels in purple and scarlet, conversing with those who were sitting on the grass. They were speaking on the origin of conjugial love and on its delights. And because the conversation was about this love there was eager attention and full reception, and thence an exaltation in the speech of the angels as from the fire of love.

 

[2] From their conversation I gathered briefly this: They spoke first of the difficulty of tracing and the difficulty of perceiving the origin of conjugial love, because its origin is Divine-celestial; for it is Divine love, Divine wisdom and Divine use, which three proceed from the Lord as one, and flow thence as one into the souls of men, and through the souls into the minds, and there into the interior affections and thoughts, through these into the desires near to the body, and from these through the bosom into the genital region, where all things derived from the first origin are together, and together with the successives constitute conjugial love.

 

After this the angels said, “Let the interaction of speech be by question and answer; for the perception of a subject acquired from hearing alone, though it flows in, does not remain unless the hearer of himself also thinks from himself and questions about it.”

 

[3] Then some of that conjugial assembly said to the angels, “We have heard that the origin of conjugial love is Divine-celestial, because it is from the influx from the Lord into the souls of men; and that because from the Lord, it is love, wisdom, and use, which are the three essentials that together make the one Divine essence; and that nothing but what is of the Divine essence can proceed from him and flow into the inmost of man, which is called his soul; and that in their descent into the body these three are changed into what is analogous and correspondent.

 

Now therefore we ask, “First, What is meant by the third essential proceeding Divine, which is called use?”

 

The angels replied, “Love and wisdom without use are but ideas of abstract thought, which also after some tarrying pass away as the winds. But in use the two are brought together and there make a one which is called real. Love cannot rest unless it is doing, for love is the active itself of life; nor can wisdom exist and subsist except from love and with it, while it is doing; and doing is use. We therefore define use to be doing good from love by wisdom. Use is the good itself.

 

[4] “Since these three, love, wisdom, and use, flow in into the souls of men, it is evident why it is said that all good is from God; for everything done from love by wisdom is called good; and a use also is a thing done. What is love without wisdom but something illusory? And what is love with wisdom without use but a breath of the mind? But love and wisdom with use not only make the man, but also are the man. Yea, which will perhaps surprise you, they propagate man; for in the seed of man is his soul, in perfect human form, covered over with substances from the purest things of nature, out of which a body is formed in the womb of the mother. This use is the supreme and the ultimate use of Divine love by Divine wisdom.”

 

[5] Finally, the angels said, “Let this be the conclusion: That all fruitfulness, all propagation, and all prolification come originally of the influx of love, wisdom, and use from the Lord; of immediate influx from the Lord into the souls of men; of mediate influx into the souls of animals; and of influx yet more mediate into the inmosts of vegetables. And all these are effected in the ultimates from the firsts. It is plain that fruitfulness, propagations, and prolifications are continuations of creation; for creation cannot be from any other source than from Divine love, by Divine wisdom, in Divine use. All things in the universe therefore are procreated and formed from use, in use, and for use.”

 

[6] Afterwards those that were sitting on the grassy banks 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. And this may be seen from the fact that insofar as one loves to be wise for the sake of genuine use he is in the vein and potency of conjugial love, and insofar as he is in these two he is in delights. Use effects this, for when love acts by means of wisdom the two are in mutual delight, and they play as it were like little children, and as they grow up, they enter into genial conjunction. This is as if by betrothals, weddings, marriages, and propagations; and these continue with variety to eternity. These things take place between love and wisdom inwardly in use; but these delights in their beginnings are imperceptible, but become perceptible more and more as they descend thence by degrees and enter the body. They enter through degrees, from the soul into the interiors of man’s mind, from these into its exteriors, thence into the inmost bosom, and from this into the genital region.

 

[7] “Yet these heavenly wedding sports in the soul are not in the least perceived by man; but they instill themselves thence into the interiors of the mind, under the form of peace and innocence; and into the exteriors of the mind in the form of blessedness, pleasantness, and joy; but into the inmost bosom under the form of the delights of inmost friendship; and into the genital region, by influx continuous even from the soul, with the very sense of conjugial love, as the delight of delights. These wedding sports of love and wisdom in use in the soul, in proceeding towards the inmost bosom become enduring, and in that bosom present themselves sensibly under an infinite variety of delights; and by virtue of the wonderful communication of the inmost bosom with the genital region, these delights become there delights of conjugial love, which are exalted above all delights that are in heaven and in the world, for the reason that the use of conjugial love is the most excellent of all uses, because therefrom comes the procreation of the human race, and from the human race the angelic heaven.”

 

[8] To this the angels added, “They who are not in the love of becoming wise from the Lord for the sake of use, know nothing of the variety of delights innumerable, which come of love truly conjugial. For with those that do not love to become wise from genuine truths, but love to be in insanity from falsities, and through this insanity do evil uses from some love, with such the way to the soul is closed; whence it results that the heavenly wedding sports of love and wisdom in the soul, intercepted more and more, cease, and together with them conjugial love, with its vein, its potency, and its delights.”

 

To this the hearers responded that they perceived that conjugial love is according to the love of becoming wise for the sake of use from the Lord.

 

The angels replied, “So it is.” And then upon the heads of some of them appeared garlands of flowers.

 

They asked, “Why is this?”

 

The angels said, “Because they have more profoundly understood.” All then left the garden, and these in their midst.

 

 

 

 

(9)

 

Change of State of Life by Marriage with Men and Women

 

 

184. What is meant by the states of life and their changes is very well known to the learned and wise, but is not known to the unlearned and simple. Something concerning them should therefore be premised. The state of life of a man is his quality; and as in every man there are two faculties which constitute the life, called the understanding and the will, the state of a man’s life is his quality as to understanding and will. It is clear from this that by changes of state of the life are meant changes of quality as to the things which are of the understanding, and as to the things which are of the will. It is intended in this chapter to show that in respect to these two every man is continually changing, but with a difference in the varieties of the changes before marriage and after marriage. This shall be done in the following order:

 

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

 

(2) That in like manner the internal form changes, which is that of the spirit.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

(6) That with married partners the states of life after marriage are changed and succeed one after another according to the conjunctions of their minds by conjugial love.

 

(7) That marriages also induce other forms upon the souls and minds of the married partners.

 

(8) That the woman is actually formed into the wife of the man, 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 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, and thus that the two be made one man.

 

(12) That this formation by the wife is effected through the appropriation of the husband’s affections.

 

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

 

(14) That the virgin is thus formed into a wife, and the 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 also their forms are successively perfected and ennobled from the interior.

 

(17) That the 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 that are of wisdom, if a daughter, for loving what wisdom teaches.

 

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

 

Now follows the exposition of these propositions.

 

185. (1) That the state of man’s life is continually changing, from infancy even to the end of life, and afterwards to eternity. 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 in the world is prolonged, passes successively from one to another of these states, and so from the first to the last of them. The transitions into these ages are not apparent except by intervals of time. Reason sees however that they are progressive from moment to moment, thus continually. For it is with man as with a tree, which from the casting of the seed into the earth grows and increases in every little moment of time, even the least. These momentary progressions are also changes of state; for the subsequent adds something to the antecedent which perfects the state.

 

[2] The changes that take place in the internals of man are more perfectly continuous than those which occur in his externals, for the reason that man’s internals, by which are meant the things of his mind or spirit, are in a higher degree, elevated above his externals; and in the things that are in the higher degree thousands of changes take place in the same moment that one occurs in externals. The changes that take place in internals are changes of state of the will as to the affections, and changes of state of the understanding as to the thoughts. The successive changes of state of the former and the latter especially are 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 that there is no end to knowledge, less to intelligence, and still less to wisdom; for in their extent there is infinity and eternity, from the infinite and eternal from whom they are. Hence comes the philosophical doctrine of the ancients, that everything is divisible to infinity, to which should be added, that everything is in like manner multiplicable. The angels affirm that they are perfected in wisdom by the Lord to eternity, which is also to infinity, for eternity is infinity of time.

 

186. (2) That in like manner the internal form changes, which is that of his spirit. The reason why this is continually changing as the state of a man’s life is changed is that nothing whatever exists but in a form, and the state induces the form. It is the same therefore 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 are from forms, for the forms are their subjects. If affections and thoughts were not in subjects which are formed, they might also be in skulls emptied of brains, which would be like sight without an eye, or hearing without an ear, or taste without a tongue. It is known that the organs are the subjects of these senses, and that they are forms.

 

[2] That the state of life and consequently the form with man is continually changing is because it is a truth, which the wise have taught and still teach, that no two things are the same, or absolutely identical. Much less are many. For example, no two faces of men are the same; much less many faces. And so it is in things successive, as that no subsequent state of life is the same as a past state. From this it follows that there is a perpetual change of the state of life with man, and consequently a perpetual change of form also, especially of his internals. But as these reflections do not teach anything respecting marriages, but only prepare the way to knowledges concerning them, and as they are only philosophical considerations from the understanding, which to some are difficult of perception, they may be passed over with these few words.

 

187. (3) That these changes are of one kind with men, and of another kind with women; because men are by creation forms of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom; and women are forms of the love of these with men. That men were created forms of the understanding, and that women were created forms of the love of the understanding of men, has been explained above, n. 90, which see. It follows that with each the changes of state that succeed, from infantile to mature age, are for perfecting the forms; the intellectual with men, and the volitional with women. From this it is evident that the changes with men are of one kind and with women of another kind. With both, however, the external form, which is 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, which is the reason why in heaven infants become men of stature and comeliness, according to their growth in intelligence. It is not so with infants on earth, because they, like animals, are invested with material bodies. They agree, however, in this, that they first come into an inclination to such things as are alluring to their bodily senses; afterwards step by step to such as affect the internal sense of thought; and by degrees to such things as imbue the will with affection, and when the age is midway between mature and immature the conjugial inclination accedes, which is that of a virgin to a youth, and of a youth to a virgin. And as in the heavens, just as on earth, virgins from innate prudence conceal their inclinations to marriage, the youths there do not know but that they affect virgins with love. And this appears to them also from the masculine incitation; but even this they have by influx of love from the fair sex, which influx will be expressly spoken of in another place. From this the truth of the proposition is manifest, that the changes of state are of one kind with men, and of another kind with women, because men are by creation forms of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and women are forms of the love of these with men.

 

188. (4) That with men there is elevation of the mind into superior light; and with women there is elevation of the mind into superior heat; and that the woman feels the delights of her heat in the man’s light. By the light into which men are elevated, intelligence and wisdom are meant; because the spiritual light that proceeds from the sun of the spiritual world—which sun in its essence is love—acts with these two as equal, or as one. And by the heat into which women are elevated is meant conjugial love; because the spiritual heat which proceeds from the sun of that world in its essence is love, and with women it is love conjoining itself with the intelligence and wisdom with men, which in its complex is called conjugial love, and by determination becomes that love.

 

[2] It is said to be elevation into superior light and heat, because the elevation is into the light and heat in which the angels of the higher heavens are; and it is also an actual elevation, as from a mist into the air, and from a lower to a higher region of the air, and thence into the ether. Wherefore, with men the elevation into superior light is elevation into superior intelligence, and from this into wisdom, in which also there is elevation, higher and higher. But with women the elevation into superior heat is into more chaste and pure conjugial love, and perpetually towards the conjugial which by creation is latent in their inmosts.

 

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

 

189. It is said that the woman feels the delights of her heat in the man’s light; but this is to be thus understood: That the woman feels the delights of her love in the man’s wisdom; because this is its receptacle, and where the love finds this correspondent to itself it is in its joys and delights. But it is not meant that the heat is delighted with its light outside of forms, but within them; and spiritual heat is the more delighted with spiritual light in them because these forms from wisdom and love are living, and thus susceptible. This may in some measure be illustrated by the sports, so-called, of heat with light in vegetable forms: Outside of them there is but the simple conjunction of heat and light; but within them they as it were play with each other, because there they are in forms or receptacles; for by wonderful meanderings they pass through them, and in the inmosts there they breathe towards the uses of fruit; and breathe forth their amenities also widely into the air, which they fill with fragrance. And yet more living does the delight of spiritual heat with spiritual light become in human forms, wherein the heat is conjugial love and the light is wisdom.

 

190. (5) That the states of life with men and with women are of one kind before marriage, and of another kind after marriage. There are with each two states before marriage; one before the inclination to marriage, another after it. The changes of each state, and the consequent formations of the mind, proceed in successive order, in accordance with their continual increase. But there is no leisure here to describe the changes. For they are various, and different in the subjects. The inclinations to marriage previous to it are themselves merely imaginative in the mind, and become sensible in the body more and more. But after marriage their states are states of conjunction, and also of prolification. That these differ from the former, as realizations differ from intentions, is plain.

 

191. (6) That with married partners the states of life after marriage are changed and succeed one after another according to the conjunctions of their minds by conjugial love. The reason why the changes and successions of state after marriage, both with the man and the wife, are according to the conjugial love with them, and thus are either conjunctive or disjunctive of their minds, is that conjugial love is not only various with married partners, but also diverse; various with those who love each other interiorly—for by turns it is intermitted with them, although within it steadily endures in its heat; but that love is diverse with those married partners who only outwardly love each other. With them it is intermitted by turns not from like causes, but from alternate cold and heat.

 

[2] The reason of this difference is that with these the body acts the chief part, and its ardor pours itself around and forces the lower things of the mind into communion with itself; but with those who love each other inwardly the mind acts the chief part, and draws the body into communion with itself. It appears as if love ascended from the body into the soul, because as soon as the body tastes allurements, the allurement passes through the eyes as doors into the mind, and thus by sight, as an entry, into the thoughts, and instantly into the love. But still it descends out of the mind, and acts in things lower according to the disposition of them. Therefore lascivious mind acts lasciviously, and a chaste mind chastely; and this latter disposes the body, while the other is disposed by the body.

 

192. (7) That marriages also induce other forms upon the souls and minds. It cannot be observed in the natural world that marriages induce other forms upon the souls and minds, because the souls and minds are there invested with a material body, and the mind rarely shines through this. The men of this age also, more than the ancients, learn from infancy to put on expressions of the face by which they profoundly conceal the affections of the mind; which is the reason why the forms of the mind, as they are before marriage and as they are after marriage, are not discerned. But in the spiritual world it manifestly appears from the same that the forms of souls and minds are different before marriage from what they are after it. For then they are spirits and angels, who are no other than minds and souls in human form, denuded of the coverings which were composed of aqueous and earthy elements, and of exhalations therefrom diffused in the air; which being cast off, the forms of their minds are visible, just as they were 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 kind with those who are not. In general the married have an interior beauty of face; for the man takes from the wife the charming glow of her love, and the wife from the man the shining brightness of his wisdom. For there two married partners are united as to their souls; and there is moreover a human fullness apparent in each. This is in heaven; for elsewhere there are no marriages. Below heaven there are only connubial connections that are formed and severed.

 

193. (8) That the woman is actually formed into a wife, according to the description in the book of creation. It is said in this book that the woman was created out of a 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).

 

By a rib of the breast, in the Word, nothing else is signified in the spiritual sense than natural truth. This is signified by the ribs which the bear carried between his teeth, in Daniel 7:5. For by bears are signified those who, reading the Word in its natural sense, see truths therein without understanding; by the breast of a man is signified that essential and peculiar thing wherein it is distinguished from the breast of a woman. That this is wisdom may be seen above at n. 187; for truth supports wisdom as a rib supports the breast. These things are signified because it is the breast wherein all things pertaining to man are as in their center.

 

[2] From these significations it appears that the woman was created out of the man by transcription of his own wisdom, that is wisdom from natural truth; and that the love of this by the man was transferred to the woman that it might become conjugial love; also, that this was done to the end that in the man there may be, not love of himself, but love of his wife, who, from the disposition innate within her, cannot but convert love of himself with the man into his love to her. And I have heard that this is effected by the love itself of the wife, unconsciously to the man, and unconsciously to the wife. It results from this that no man can ever love his married partner with love truly conjugial, who from love of himself is in the pride of his own intelligence.

 

[3] When this secret of the creation of the woman out of the man is understood, it may be seen that in like manner in marriage the woman is as it were created or formed from the man; and that this is effected by the wife, or rather by the Lord through the wife, who infuses into women inclinations for bringing it to pass. For the wife receives into herself the image of the man, by her appropriating to herself his affections (see above, n. 183); and by her conjoining the internal will of the man with her own, of which hereafter; and also by her appropriating to herself the offshoots of his soul, of which likewise hereafter. From this it is plain, that the woman is formed into a wife—according to the description in the book of creation, interiorly understood—by such things as she takes out of her husband, even out of his bosom, and inscribes upon herself.

 

194. (9) That this formation is effected by the wife in secret ways, and that this is meant by the woman’s 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 should fall asleep; and then he took one of his ribs and built it into a woman (Gen. 2:21-22).

 

That by the man’s deep sleep and by his falling asleep is signified his entire ignorance that the wife is formed and as it were created from him, appears from what was shown in the preceding chapter, and also in this, respecting the innate prudence and circumspection of wives, lest they divulge anything whatever about their love or about their assumption of the affections of the man’s life, and so of the transcription of his wisdom into themselves. That this is effected by the wife in secret ways, the husband being unaware and as it were asleep, is clear from the explanations above, at n. 166-168 and after, where it is also explained that the prudence to accomplish this is inherent in women from creation, and thence from birth, for reasons which are necessities, that conjugial love, friendship, and confidence, and so the blessedness of living together and happiness of life may be secured.

 

Therefore, in order that this shall be rightly done it is enjoined upon the man that he shall leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4-5).

 

[2] By “father and mother” whom the man is to leave are meant in the spiritual sense his proprium of the will, and of the understanding. It is the proprium of man’s will to love himself; and the proprium of his understanding is to love his own wisdom. By “cleave” is signified to devote himself to the love of his wife. That these two propria are evils deadly to man if they remain with him; and that the love of these two is changed into conjugial love insofar as the man cleaves to his wife, that is, receives her love, may be seen just above n. 193 and elsewhere. That to “sleep” signifies to be in ignorance or unwariness; that by “father and mother” are signified the two propria of man, the one of the will, the other of the understanding; and that to “cleave” signifies to devote oneself to the love of someone, may be satisfactorily confirmed by passages from other parts of the Word; but this is not the place.

 

195. (10) That this formation by the wife is effected by the conjunction of her will with the internal will of the man. That man has rational wisdom, and moral wisdom; and that the wife conjoins herself with the things in the man that are of moral wisdom, has been shown above at n. 163-165. Matters that are of rational wisdom make man’s understanding, and those that are of moral wisdom make his will. The wife conjoins herself with those that form man’s will. It is the same whether it be said that the wife conjoins herself or that she conjoins her will, to man’s will; for a wife is born volitional and hence does what she does from the will. It is said “with the internal will” of man because man’s will has its seat in his understanding, and the intellectual of the man is the inmost of the woman, according to what has been said above at n. 32, and several times thereafter, respecting the formation of the woman from the man. Men have also an external will, but this often partakes of simulation and disguise. A wife sees through this, but does not conjoin herself with it unless in pretense or playfully.

 

196. (11) To the end that the will of both may become one, and thus the two may become one person. For he who conjoins to himself the will of anyone conjoins to himself his understanding also. In fact the understanding is but the minister and servant of the will. This clearly appears from the affection of love, in that it moves the understanding to think at its nod. 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 the will of a man to himself conjoins to him the whole man. Hence it is inherent in the wife’s love to unite her husband’s will to her own will; for thus does she become the wife of her husband, and he the husband of his wife, so that the two are one person.

 

197. (12) That this formation is effected by the appropriation of the husband’s affections. This is one with the two articles which precede; because affections are of the will. For affections, which are no other than derivations of love, form the will, and even make and compose it. But these with men are in the understanding, and with women in the will.

 

198. (13) That this formation is effected through the reception of the propagations of the soul of the husband, with the delight arising from the fact that she wills to be the love of her husband’s wisdom. This coincides with the explanations above at n. 172-173. Further explanation is therefore omitted.

 

Conjugial delights with wives spring from no other source than that they will to be one with their husbands—just as good is one with truth in the spiritual marriage. It has been shown in its own chapter, specifically, that conjugial love descends from that marriage. It may thence be seen, as in effigy, that the wife conjoins the man to herself just as good conjoins truth to itself; and that, reciprocally, the man conjoins himself to the wife according to the reception of her love into himself, just as truth reciprocally conjoins itself to good according to the reception of good into itself; and that the wife’s love thus forms itself by the wisdom of the man, as good forms itself by truth, for truth is the form of good. From this it also is plain that conjugial delights with a wife come chiefly 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 then she feels the delights of her own heat in the man’s light, as explained in article 4, n. 188.

 

199. (14) That the virgin is thus formed into a wife, and the young man into a husband. This follows as a consequence from what has gone before, in this chapter and in the preceding chapter, respecting the conjunction of married partners into one flesh. The virgin becomes or is made a wife by the fact that in a wife are things taken from the husband, and thus supplementary things that were not in her before, as a virgin. The young man becomes or is made a husband by the fact that in a husband are things taken from the wife, which exalt with him his receptibility of love and wisdom, things which were not in him before, as a young man. But this comes to pass with those who are in love truly conjugial; it is between those who feel themselves to be a united man, and as one flesh, as may be seen in the preceding chapter, n. 178. It is clear from this that with women what was virginal is changed to what is wifely, and with men what was youthful is changed to marital.

 

[2] That this is so I have been assured by this experience in the spiritual world: Certain men said that conjunction with a female before marriage was similar to conjunction with a wife after marriage.

 

The wives were very indignant at hearing this, and said, “There is actually no likeness. The difference is as between the unreal and the real.”

 

To which the men retorted, “Are you not females just as before?”

 

The wives responded, with louder voice, “We are not females, but wives. You are in fatuous and not in real love, and therefore talk foolishly.”

 

The men then said, “If not females, you are yet women.”

 

They replied, “In the first states of marriage we were women, but now we are wives.”

 

200. (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. It may be seen above at n. 178, 179, that love truly conjugial conjoins the two into one man more and more. And as the wife becomes a wife from conjunction with her husband and according to it, in like manner the husband from conjunction with the wife; and as 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 very cause is, that in a marriage which is of love truly conjugial each becomes a more and more interior man [homo]; for that love opens the interiors of their minds, and as these are opened man becomes more and more a man, and to become more a man on the part of the wife is to become the more a wife, and on the part of the husband it is to become the more a husband. I have heard from the angels that a wife becomes more and more a wife as her husband becomes more and more a husband, but not the reverse. Because it rarely if ever fails that a chaste wife loves her husband, but the husband fails to love in return, and fails for the reason that there is no elevation of wisdom, which alone receives the wife’s love; respecting which wisdom see n. 130, 163-165. But these things are said of marriages on earth.

 

201. (16) That thus also their forms are successively perfected and ennobled from the interior. The most perfect and the noblest human form is when two forms become one form by marriage, thus when the flesh of two becomes one flesh according to creation. For then the mind of the man is elevated into superior light, and the mind of the wife into superior heat; and then they put forth, and blossom, and bear fruit, as trees in the time of spring. 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 that now follows.

 

202. (17) That the 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 that are of wisdom, and if a daughter, for loving what wisdom teaches. That offspring derive from their parents inclinations to such things as were of the parents’ love and life is very well known, in general from history, and specifically from experience. They do not, however, derive or inherit from them their very affections, and hence their lives, but only inclinations and also faculties for them as was shown by the wise men in the spiritual world, treated of in the two relations adduced above.

 

[2] Posterities also, from inborn inclinations, if not broken, are incited to affections, thoughts, speech, and lives like those of their parents; as is very manifest from the Jewish race, in that at this day they are very similar to their fathers in Egypt, in the desert, in the land of Canaan, and at the time of the Lord; and not only are they very similar to them mentally, but in their faces also. Who does not know a Jew from his looks? It is similar with other races. From which facts it may be concluded, and not fallaciously, that inclinations for things similar to these with the parents are born with them. But it is of Divine providence that the very thoughts and actions do not follow, in order that perverse inclinations may be rectified; and that a faculty for this also is implanted, whence comes the effectiveness of the correction of morals by parents and masters, and afterwards by themselves when they come to act from their own judgment.

 

203. It is said that offspring derive from parents the conjugial of good and truth, because this is implanted in the soul of everyone by creation; for it is this that flows from the Lord into man and makes his life human. But this conjugial passes on into the things following from the soul, even down into the ultimates of the body; but in these and those it is changed on the way by the man himself, in many ways and sometimes into the opposite, which is called the conjugial or connubial of the evil and the false. When this takes place the mind is closed from beneath, and sometimes is contorted, as a spiral turned in the opposite direction. With some, however, it is not closed, but remains half open above; and with some open. It is the one and the other conjugial from which offspring derive inclinations from their parents, a son in one way, a daughter in another. That this is from the conjugial is because conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves, as has been shown above, at n. 65.

 

204. The reason why offspring born of those who are in love truly conjugial derive inclinations and faculties, if a son for perceiving the things that are of wisdom, and if a daughter for loving the things which wisdom teaches, is, that the conjugial of good and truth is implanted by creation in the soul of everyone, and also in the things following from the soul; for, as has been shown before, that conjugial fills the universe from first things to last, and from man down even to worms. And it has also been shown before that the faculty for opening the lower things of the mind, even to conjunction with its higher things which are in the light and heat of heaven, is inherent in every man by creation. Whence it is plain that a readiness and facility for conjoining good with truth and truth with good, and thus for becoming wise, is inherited from birth, by those above others who are born of such a marriage and consequently possess a facility for being imbued with the things that are of heaven and the church. That with these things conjugial love is conjoined has been shown many times above. From these considerations the end for which marriages of love truly conjugial have been provided and are still provided by the Lord the creator is very evident to reason.

 

205. I have heard from the angels that those who lived in the most ancient times are to this day living in heaven, houses and houses, families and families, nations and nations, in like manner as they lived on earth, and that scarcely anyone from a house is wanting; and that the reason is, because there was love truly conjugial with them, and their offspring thence inherited from them inclinations to the conjugial of good and truth, and were easily initiated into it by their parents, through education, more and more interiorly, and afterwards as of themselves by the Lord, when they came to act of their own judgment.

 

206. (18) 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 by no wise man called in question. It is also plainly manifest in posterities which have come down in regular succession from the fathers of families, in their dispositions, and in their faces, which are types of the disposition. The father in fact returns as in effigy, if not in his sons yet in his grandsons and great grandsons; and this because the soul constitutes a man’s inmost; and though this may be covered over in the nearest offspring, yet it comes out and reveals itself in later progeny. That the soul is from the father and its vesture from the mother may be illustrated by things analogous in the vegetable kingdom. In this the earth or ground is the common mother. This receives into itself as into a womb and clothes the seed; yea, it as it were conceives, bears, brings forth, and rears them, as a mother her offspring from the father.

 

207. To this I will add two relations. First:

 

After some time I was looking towards the city of Athenaeum, of which something was said in a former relation, and heard thence an unusual clamor. There was something of laughter in it, within this something of indignation, and in this somewhat of sadness; and yet the cry was not therefore discordant, but harmonious, because one quality was not accompanying but within another. In the spiritual world the variety and commingling of affections in sound are distinctly perceived.

 

I asked from a distance, “What is the matter?”

 

And they said, “A messenger has come from the place where newcomers from the Christian world first appear, saying that he had heard, from three in that place, that in the world whence they came they believed with others there that the blessed and happy after death would have entire rest from labors; and, as administrations, offices, and employments are labors, that they would have rest from these.

 

“And as the three have now been conducted hither by our messenger, and are standing and waiting before the gate, a cry has been raised, and on consultation it has been resolved that they shall not be introduced into the palladium on Parnassus, as the former were, but into the great auditorium there, that they may disclose their news from the Christian world; and certain ones were delegated suitably to introduce them.”

 

[2] As I was in the spirit, and with spirits distances are according to the states of their affections, and as I then had an affection for seeing and hearing them, I seemed to myself present there, and saw them introduced, and heard them speak. The elders, or wiser ones, were seated at the sides in the auditorium, the rest in the middle; and in front of them was a raised platform. To this the three strangers, with the messenger, were conducted by the younger men, in formal procession, through the middle of the auditorium. And when silence had been obtained, they were saluted by a certain elder there and asked, “What news from the earth?”

 

They answered, “There are many things new. But tell us pray, on what subject?”

 

The elder replied, “What news from the earth respecting our world, and respecting heaven?”

 

They answered, “When we first came into this world we heard that here and in heaven there are administrations, ministries, employment, business, studies in all kinds of learning, and wonderful works; and yet we have believed that after removal or transition from the natural to this spiritual world we should come into eternal rest from labors; and what are employments but labors?”

 

[3] To this the elder replied, “By eternal rest from labors did you understand eternal idleness, in which you would continually sit and lie down, inhaling delights into your bosoms, and drinking in joys with the mouth?” The three strangers, blandly smiling, said that they had supposed something of the kind, and then it was answered them:

 

“What have joys and delights and the happiness therefrom in common with idleness? By idleness the mind collapses, and is not expanded, and a man is rendered dead, not quickened. Suppose one sitting in complete idleness, hands down, eyes cast down or withdrawn, and suppose that at the same time he is surrounded by an atmosphere of gladness; would he not be overcome, head and body, with drowsiness? Would not the lively expansion of his countenance cease? And at length with fibers relaxed would he not nod and nod until he fell to the earth? What keeps the whole bodily system in expansion and tension but intentness of mind? And whence comes intentness of mind but from administrations and work, while done with delight? Let me therefore tell you news from heaven. That there are administrations and ministries there, and courts of justice, higher and lower, and also mechanical arts and employments.”

 

[4] When the three newcomers heard that there are higher and lower courts of justice in heaven, they said, “For what reason are they? Are not all in heaven inspired and led of God? And do they not therefore know what is just and right? What need of judges then?”

 

The elder man replied, “In this world we are instructed and learn what is good and true, and what is just and equitable, in like manner as in the natural world; and we learn it not immediately from God, but mediately through others; and every angel, just as every man, thinks truth and does good as if of himself, and this, according to the state of the angel, is mixed and not pure. There are also among the angels the simple and the wise; and the wise must judge, when the simple from simplicity and ignorance are in doubt about what is just or swerve from it. But as you have newly come into this world, if it is your pleasure, follow me into our city and we will show you everything.”

 

[5] And they left the auditorium, and some of the elders also accompanied them. They went first into a great library, which was divided into smaller libraries, according to the sciences. The three newcomers were amazed at seeing so many books and said:

 

“There are books also in this world! Whence are the parchments and the paper? Whence the pens and ink?”

 

To which the elder replied, “We perceive that in the former world you believed that because this world is spiritual it is empty. And that you believed this because you have entertained an idea of the spiritual as abstract from the material, and what is abstract from the material appeared to you as nothing and thus as empty, when in truth here is the fullness of all things. All things here are substantial, not material; and material things derive their origin from the substantial. We that are here are spiritual men because substantial and not material. Hence it is that all things that are in the natural world are here in their perfection, even books and writings and many things more.”

 

When the three newcomers heard the things called substantial they believed that they were so, both because they saw the written books, and because they heard the statement that material things originate from things substantial. That they might be still further assured, they were taken to the dwellings of the scribes who were making copies of the original 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 where their literary sports were held. Some of these were called sports of the Heliconians; some, sports of the Parnassians; some, of the Atheneans; and some, sports of the virgins of the fountain. They were told that these were so called because virgins signify the affections of knowledges, and according to the affection of knowledge everyone has intelligence. The so-called sports were spiritual exercises and trials of skill. Afterwards they were conducted about the city, to the rulers, the administrators, and their subordinate officers; and by them to the wonderful productions wrought by artisans in a spiritual manner.

 

[7] After seeing all these things, the elder spoke with them again of the eternal rest from labor into which the blessed and happy come after death, and said, “Eternal rest is not inactivity; for from inactivity come languor, torpidity, stupor, and drowsiness of the mind and thence of the whole body, and these are death, not life, still less the eternal life in which the angels of heaven are. Eternal rest, then, is rest which dispels these and makes man to live; and this is no other rest than such as elevates the mind. It is therefore some study and work by which the mind is aroused, vivified, and delighted; and this is effected according to the use from which, in which, and for which it is working. Hence it is that the whole heaven is seen by the Lord as containing uses, and every angel is an angel according to his use. The enjoyment of use carries him along as a favoring current does a ship, and causes him to be in eternal peace, and in the rest of peace. This is meant by eternal rest from labors. That an angel is alive according to the eagerness of his mind from use, is very plain from the fact that every angel has conjugial love, with its virtue, its potency, and its delights, according to his eager application to the genuine use in which he is.”

 

[8] When the three strangers were well assured that eternal rest is not idleness, but the enjoyment of some work that is of use, a number of virgins came with pieces of embroidery and netting, the work of their own hands, and gave these to them. And as the novitiate spirits departed the virgins sang an ode, by which, in angelic strain, they expressed the affection of the works of use with its pleasures.

 

208. The second relation:

 

While I was in meditation upon the secrets of conjugial love stored up with wives, a golden rain appeared again as described above; and I remembered that it fell upon a hall in the east where three conjugial loves dwelt, that is, three married pairs who tenderly loved each other; seeing which, as if invited by the sweetness of meditation on that love, I hastened thither. And as I approached, the rain from being golden became purple, then scarlet, and when I came near it was opaline like dew. I knocked, and the door was opened; and I said to the attendant, “Announce to the husbands that he is here again who came before with an angel, asking that he be permitted to enter for a conversation.” The attendant returned and signified the assent of the husbands, and I went in. The three husbands with their wives were together in an open court, and on being saluted, kindly returned the salutation. And I asked the wives whether the white dove appeared afterwards at the window.

 

They said, “It did this very day, and it spread its wings too. From which we augured your presence and your request for the disclosure of yet one more secret respecting conjugial love.”

 

[2] I asked, “Why do you say one, and yet I have come hither to learn many?”

 

They replied, “They are secrets; and some so far surpass your wisdom that the understanding of your thought cannot apprehend them. You exult over us on account of your wisdom, but we do not exult over you on account of ours; and yet ours excels yours, in that it enters into your inclinations and affections, and sees, perceives, and feels them. You know nothing at all about the inclinations and affections of your love, although it is from these and according to them that your understanding thinks, and from these and according to them, therefore, that you are wise. And yet wives know them in their husbands so well that they see them in their faces, hear them in the tones of the speech out of their mouths, yea, they feel them upon 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; and yet we regulate them so prudently, that whatever is to the liking, pleasure, and will of our husbands we follow, by permitting and bearing and bending them only when possible, but never constraining.”

 

[3] I asked, “Whence have you this wisdom?”

 

They answered, “It is inherent in us from creation, and thence from birth. Our husbands liken it to instinct; but we say it is of Divine providence, to the end that men may be made happy by their wives. We have heard from our husbands that the Lord wills that the male person shall act from freedom according to reason; and that to this end the Lord himself from within regulates his freedom, which regards the inclinations and affections, and from without by means of his wife; and that thus he forms the man with his wife into an angel of heaven. And besides, love, if constrained, changes its essence and becomes not that love. But of these things we shall speak more openly. We are moved to this, that is, to prudence in regulating the inclinations and affections of our husbands so that they appear to themselves to act from freedom according to their reason, because we have delight from their love, and love nothing more than that they shall have delight from our delights; which if they become cheap to them, also grow dull with us.”

 

[4] Having said this one of the wives went into an inner chamber, and on returning said, “My dove still flutters its wings, which is a sign that we may disclose more.” And they added, “We have observed various changes of the inclinations and affections of men; as that husbands when they think vain thoughts against the Lord and the church are cold to their wives; that they are cold when in the pride of their own intelligence; that they are cold when they look upon other women from lust; that they are cold when their attention is directed by their wives to love; and many other changes. Also that they are cold with varied cold. We observe this from a shrinking back of the sense from their eyes, ears, and body at the presence of our senses. From these few examples you can see that we know better than men whether it is well or ill with them. If they are cold to their wives it is ill with them, and if they are warm towards their wives it is well with them. Wives are therefore continually devising means whereby men shall be warm and not cold towards them, and they devise them with a penetration inscrutable to men.”

 

[5] After these words a sound was heard as if the dove moaned; and then the wives said, “This is an intimation to us that we would divulge profounder secrets which however it is not permitted to divulge. Perhaps you will disclose to men those that you have heard?”

 

I answered, “I intend to do this. What harm from it?”

 

After conversing together about it the wives said, “Publish them if you wish. The power of persuasion that wives possess is not hidden from us. For they will say to their husbands, ‘The man is fooling. They are fables. He is jesting from appearances, and according to the accustomed pleasantries of men. Do not believe him, believe us. We know that you are loves and we are obediences.’ Publish them then if you wish. But husbands will not depend on your mouth, but on the mouths of their wives which they kiss.”

 

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