Conjugial Love · §§ 401–440

401. A similar progression from end, through cause into effect, is also the sphere of procreating, and of protecting what is procreated. Here the end is the will or love of procreating; the mediate cause, by which and into which the end carries itself forward, is conjugial love; the progressive series of efficient causes is the loving, the conception, and the gestation of the embryo or offspring to be procreated; and the effect is the procreated offspring itself. But although end, cause, and effect progress in succession as three, yet in the love of procreating, and inwardly within each of the causes and within the effect itself they make one. They are only the efficient causes which progress through times because in nature, the end, or will, and the love remaining continually the same; for in nature ends progress through times without time, but cannot come forth and manifest themselves until the effect or use exists and becomes a subject. Before this the love could love nothing but the progression, and could not fix and establish itself. That there are periods to such progressions is known, and that by means of them is the preservation of creation in the state foreseen and provided. But the series of the love of infants from its greatest to its least, and so to its termination, that is to the point at which it stays or ceases, is retrograde, since it is according to the decrease of innocence in the subject, and also on account of the periods.

402. (13) That the love of infants descends and does not ascend. That is, it descends from generation to generation, or from sons and daughters to grandsons and granddaughters; and it is known that it does not ascend from these to fathers and mothers of families. The cause of its increase in the descent is the love of fructifying or of producing uses; and as respects the human race it is the love of multiplying it. But this cause derives its origin solely from the Lord, in that He, in the multiplication of the human race, looks to the preservation of creation, and as the final end of this to an angelic heaven which is solely from the human race. And because an angelic heaven is the end of ends and hence is the love of loves with the Lord, therefore there is implanted in the souls of men, not only the love of procreating, but also a love of what is procreated in their successions. It is for that reason also that this love exists only among men and not with any beast or bird. That with man this love descends with increase is also from the glory of honor, which likewise increases with him according to its extension. That the love of honor and of glory receives into itself the love of infants inflowing from the Lord and makes this as its own, will be seen in Section 16 following.

403. (14) That wives have one state of love before conception, and another state after it even to the bringing forth. This is adduced to the end that it may be known, that the love of procreating and the consequent love of what is procreated are with women inherent in conjugial love; and that these two loves in her are divided when the end which is the love of procreating begins its progression. That then the love storge is transferred from the wife into the husband; and also that then the love of procreating, which with woman makes one with her conjugial love, as has been said, is not similar is manifest from many indications.

404. (15) That conjugial love is conjoined with the love of infants with parents, by causes spiritual and hence natural. The spiritual causes are: that the human race may be multiplied and from this the angelic heaven enlarged, and thus that there may be born those who will become angels, serving the Lord for performing uses in heaven and also by consociation with men on earth; for angels are associated with every man by the Lord, with whom there is such conjunction that if they were removed man would fall down in a moment. The natural causes of the conjunction of these two loves are, that those may be born who will perform uses in human societies and be incorporated in them as members. That there are these natural and those spiritual causes of the love of infants and of conjugial love, even the married partners themselves think and sometimes declare, saying, that they have enriched heaven with as many angels as they have had descendants, and have furnished society with as many helpers as they have borne children.

405. (16) That the love of infants is of one kind with spiritual married partners, and of another with natural. To appearance the love of infants with spiritual married partners is similar to the love of infants with natural married partners, but it is more internal and thence more tender, because that love exists from innocence, and from a nearer reception and thus more present perception of it in themselves; for the spiritual are spiritual in the degree that they partake of innocence. Moreover fathers and mothers, after they have tasted the sweetness of innocence with their infants, love their children altogether otherwise than natural fathers and mothers. The spiritual love their children according to their spiritual intelligence and moral life; thus they love them according to their fear of God and actual piety, or piety of life, and at the same time according to their affection for and application to uses serviceable to society, that is, according to the virtues and good morals with them. For their love of these things, principally, they provide for and minister to their necessities. Wherefore, if they do not see such virtues in them, they alienate the mind. from them, and do nothing for them except from duty.

With natural fathers and mothers the love of infants is indeed also from innocence, but this, received by them, is wrapped about with their own love, and hence they love infants from this and at the same time from that, kissing, embracing, carrying, taking them to their bosom, and fondling them beyond all measure, and look upon them as of one heart and one soul with themselves. And then, after their state of infancy, up to adolescence and beyond, when innocence no longer operates, they love them, not on account of any fear of God and actual piety, or piety of life, nor for any rational and moral intelligence in them, and little, indeed scarcely at all, do they consider their internal affections and thence virtues and good morals, but only the things external for which they have regard. To these they adjoin, affix, and attach their love, and consequently close the eyes to their faults, excusing and favoring them. The reason is that the love of their progeny with them is also the love of themselves, and this love clings to the subject outwardly, but does not enter into it as it does not into themselves.

406. Of what kind the love of infants and the love of children is with the spiritual, and of what kind with the natural, is manifestly perceived from them after death. For most fathers, when they come into the world of spirits, call to mind. their children who have gone before them, and they also become present and mutually recognize each other. Spiritual fathers only look at them, ask in what state they are, rejoice if it is well with them and grieve if it is ill; and after some conversation, instruction, and admonition respecting heavenly moral life, they separate from them, but before separation, teach that they are no longer to be remembered as fathers, because the Lord is the one only Father to all in heaven, according to His words (Matt. xxiii. 9); and that they never remember them as children.

But natural fathers, as soon as they realize that they are living after death and recall to their memory the children who had deceased before them, and as they are made present also by strong desire, are instantly conjoined. with them, and they cling together like a bundle of sticks tied together; and then the father is delighted continually with the sight of them and by conversation with them. If the father is told that some of these, his children, are satans, and that they have done injury to the good, yet he keeps them together in a sphere about him or in a company before him. If he himself sees that they inflict injury and do evil, he still pays no heed to it, and does not dissociate any one of them from him. Wherefore, that such a pernicious company may not continue, they are of necessity sent together into hell; and there the father in the presence of his children is shut up under guard, and his children are separated and sent away, each to his place of life.

407. To this I will add the following notable experience: That I have seen fathers in the spiritual world who looked. with hatred. and as if in fury upon infants brought before their eyes, even in such ferocious temper that they would. have killed them if they could, but as soon as it was told them by pretence that they were their own children, then instantly their fury and ferocity departed, and they loved them excessively. This love and that hatred exist together in those who in the world had been inwardly deceitful and set their mind in enmity against the Lord.

408. (17) That this love with the spiritual is from the interior or prior; but with the natural is from the exterior or posterior. To think and conclude from the interior and prior is to think from ends and causes to effects; but to think and conclude from the exterior or posterior, is from effects to causes and ends. This progression is against order, but the other is according to order. For to think and conclude from ends and causes is from goods and truths seen in the higher region of the mind; but to think and conclude from effects is to conjecture causes and ends from the lower region of the mind, where the sensual things of the body are with their appearances and fallacies, which in itself is nothing but to confirm falsities and lusts, and after confirmation to see and believe them to be the verities of wisdom and goodnesses of its love. So is it with the love of infants and children with the spiritual and the natural; the spiritual love them from the prior, thus according to order; but the natural love them from the posterior, thus against order. These things are adduced simply to confirm the preceding section.

409. (18) That it is owing to this that the love exists with married partners who mutually love each other, and also with married partners who do not love each other at all. It is therefore with the natural as well as with the spiritual; yet these have conjugial love and those have not, except apparent and simulated. That the love of infants and conjugial love nevertheless act as one, is because conjugial love is implanted in every woman from creation, and together with it the love of procreating, which is determined and flows into the offspring procreated, and is carried from women to men, as was said above. Hence it is, that in houses wherein there is not conjugial love between man and wife, there yet is with the wife, and through this some external conjunction with the man. It is from the same cause that even harlots love their progeny: for what is implanted by creation in the soul, and looks to propagation, is indelible and ineradicable.

410. (19) That the love of infants continues after death, especially with women. As soon as infants are resuscitated, which takes place immediately after death, they are taken up into heaven, and are handed over to the care of angels of the female sex who in the life of their body in the world loved infants, and at the same time feared God. These angels, because they loved all infants with maternal tenderness, receive them as their own; and the infants there, as if from inherent affection, love them as their own mothers. As many infants are with them as from spiritual, maternal love they desire. The heaven in which the infants are appears in front, in the region of the forehead, directly in the line or radius in which the angels look to the Lord. The situation of this heaven there, is for the reason that all infants are educated under the immediate auspices of the Lord. The heaven of innocence also flows in with them, which is the third heaven. After this first age is passed, they are transferred into another heaven where they are instructed.

411. (20) That infants are educated by them under the auspices of the Lord, and increase in stature and in intelligence as in the world. Infants in heaven are educated in this manner: From their instructress they learn to speak. Their first speech is but the sound of affection, in which however there is some beginning of thought, whereby the human in sound is distinguished from the sound of an animal. This speech by degrees becomes more distinct as ideas from affection enter the thought. All their affections, which also have growth, proceed from innocence. Into these are insinuated first such things as appear before their eyes and are delightful, which being of spiritual origin, the things which are of heaven flow into them at the same time, whereby the interiors of their mind are opened. After this, just as the infants are perfected in intelligence, they increase also in stature, and in this respect also appear more adult. The reason is that intelligence and wisdom are spiritual nourishment itself, and therefore what nourishes their minds nourishes their bodies also. But in heaven infants do not grow up beyond the first age; and there they stay and at that age remain to eternity. And when they arrive at that age they are given in marriage, which is provided by the Lord and is celebrated in the heaven where the young man dwells, who soon afterwards follows his wife to her heaven, or into her house if they are in the same society. That I might certainly know that as infants advance in intelligence they also increase and grow up in stature, it has been given me to speak with some while they were infants, and afterwards with them when they were grown up, and the young men were seen to be of similar stature with young men in the world.

412. Infants are instructed especially by representatives, suitable and adapted to their genius. And how full of beauty, and at the same time of interior wisdom they are can scarcely be believed in the world. Two representatives may here be adduced, from which a conclusion may be drawn as to the rest. At one time they represented the Lord rising from the sepulchre, and at the same time the unition of His Human with the Divine. They first presented the idea of a sepulchre, but not an idea of the Lord at the same time, unless so remotely that it would scarcely be perceived that it was the Lord except as a long way off; for the reason that in the idea of a sepulchre there is a something funereal which in this way they removed. Afterwards they cautiously admitted into the sepulchre something atmospheric, yet appearing as limpid water, by which they signified, also with suitable remoteness, the spiritual life in baptism.

After that I saw represented by them the descent of the Lord to them that are bound, and His ascent with the bound into heaven; and what was infantile, they let down slender cords almost invisible, very soft and tender, with which they might aid the Lord in His ascent-always in holy fear lest something in the representation should touch something that did not contain anything heavenly. Besides other representations, by which infants are brought at the same time into cognitions of truth and affections of good, as by plays suited to the minds of infants. To these and like things infants are led of the Lord by the innocence passing through the third heaven; and thus spiritual things are insinuated into their affections; and thence into their tender thoughts, in such wise that the infants do not know but that they themselves do and think such things of themselves, by which means their understanding is initiated.

413. (21) That it is there provided by the Lord that the innocence of infancy with them becomes the innocence of wisdom. Many may think that infants remain infants and become angels immediately after death. But intelligence and wisdom make an angel; and therefore so long as infants have not these, although they are with the angels yet they are not angels; and they first become angels when they have become intelligent and wise. Infants are accordingly led on from the innocence of infancy to the innocence of wisdom, that is from external innocence to internal innocence. This innocence is the end in all their instruction and progression; therefore when they come to the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of infancy which in the meantime has served them as a plane, is adjoined to them I saw the quality of the innocence of infancy represented by something woody, almost devoid of life, which becomes living according as it is imbued with knowledges of truth and affections of good; and afterwards the quality of the innocence of wisdom was represented by a living and naked infant. The angels of the third heaven, who beyond others are in a state of innocence from the Lord, appear as naked infants before the eyes of the spirits who are below the heavens; and because they are wise beyond the rest, they also are more living. The reason is that innocence corresponds to infancy, and also to nakedness, for which reason Adam and his wife, when they were in a state of innocence, are said to have been naked and were not ashamed; but that after they had lost the state of innocence they were ashamed of their nakedness, and hid themselves (Gen. ii. 25; iii. 7, 10, 11). In a word, the wiser the angels are the more innocent they are. The quality of the innocence of wisdom may in some measure be seen from the innocence of infancy, described above (n. 395), if only, instead of parents there, the Lord be taken as the Father by whom they are led and to whom they ascribe all that they receive.

414. I have had various conversations with the angels about innocence, and they said that innocence is the esse of every good, and that good is good so far as innocence is within it; and as wisdom is of the life and thence of good, that wisdom is wisdom so far as it partakes of innocence. And so with love, charity, and faith. And that thence it is that no one can enter heaven unless he is in innocence; and that this is meant by these words of the Lord:-

Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of the heavens as a little child he shall not enter therein (Mark x. 14, 15; Luke xviii. 16, 17).

By little children here, as also in other places in the Word, they are meant who are in innocence. The reason why good is good in so far as innocence is within it, is that all good is from the Lord, and innocence is to be led by the Lord.

415. To this I will add this Relation:-

One morning when I awoke out of sleep, meditating in the early and serene light before I was fully awake, I saw through the window as it were a flash of lightning, and presently heard as it were rolling thunder. And as I was wondering whence it was I heard these words from heaven: “There are some not far from you who are reasoning sharply about God and about nature. The vibration of light like lightning and the rumbling of the air like thunder are the correspondences and thence the appearances of the contest and collision of arguments on one side in favor of God and on the other in favor of nature.”

The cause of this spiritual contest was this. There were certain satans in hell who said among themselves, “Would that we might be permitted to speak with the angels of heaven, and we would show conclusively and fully that nature is that which they call God, from whom all things are, and thus that God is only a word unless nature is meant.”

And as the satans with their whole heart and soul believed this, and also longed to speak with the angels of heaven, it was given them to ascend out of the mire and darkness of hell, and to speak with two angels then come down from heaven. They were in the world of spirits, which is intermediate between heaven and hell.

The satans seeing the angels there, quickly ran up to them, and in a furious voice exclaimed, “Are you the angels of heaven with whom it is permitted us to engage in reasoning about God and about nature? You are called wise because you acknowledge God; but O how simple you are! Who sees God? Who understands what God is? Who comprehends that God governs, and can govern, the universe and all and each thing of it? Who, but the common people and the rabble, acknowledges what he does not see and understand? What is more obvious than that nature is all-in-all? Who sees anything but nature with the eye? Who hears anything but nature with the ear? Who perceives anything but nature by the smell? Who tastes anything but nature with the tongue? Who feels anything but nature by the touch of the hand and of the body? Are not the senses of our body the only witnesses of truth? Who cannot from then swear that a thing is so? Are not your heads in nature? Whence the influx into the thoughts of the head but from her? Take her away can you think anything?” Besides much other like matter.

Hearing this the angels responded, “You speak in this way because you are merely sensual. All in the hells have the ideas of their thought immersed in the senses of the body, and cannot elevate the minds above them. We therefore excuse you. A life of evil, and thence the belief in what is false, have so closed the interiors of your minds that elevation above things sensual is with you impossible, except in a state removed from the evils of life and the falsities of faith. For a satan equally with an angel can understand truth when he hears it, but he does not retain it, because evil obliterates the truth and brings in falsity. But we perceive that you are now in a state thus removed, and that thus it is possible for you to understand the truth which we speak. Give attention then to what we say.”

And they said, “You were in the natural world, died there, and now you are in the spiritual world. Did you before now know any thing about a life after death? Did you not before deny it, and make yourselves equal with beasts? Did you before now know any thing about heaven and hell? Or any thing about the light and heat of this world? Or about the fact that you are no longer within nature, but above it? For this world and all things pertaining to it are spiritual; and spiritual things are above natural, so that not even the least of nature can flow into this world. But you, because you have believed nature to be a god or a goddess believe also the light and heat of this world to be the light and heat of the natural world; when in fact it is not so at all, for here natural light is thick darkness and natural heat here is cold. Did you know any thing about the sun of this world from which our light and heat proceed? Did you know that this sun is pure love, and the sun of the natural world is pure fire? And that the sun of the world, which is pure fire, is that from which nature exists and subsists? And that the sun of heaven, which is pure love, is that whence life itself, which is love with wisdom, exists and subsists? And thus that nature, which you make a god or goddess, is manifestly dead? You can, if a guard is granted you, ascend with us into heaven; and we, if a guard is granted us can descend with you into hell. And in heaven you will see things magnificent and splendid; but in hell things squalid and unclean. The differences arise from the fact that all in heaven worship God, and all in hell worship nature; and those magnificent and splendid things in the heavens are the correspondences of the affections of good and of truth; and the squalid and unclean things in the hells are correspondences of the lusts of the evil and false. Judge now from these things and those whether God or nature is all-in-all.”

To this the satans replied, “In the state in which we now are we are able to conclude from what we have heard that it is God; but when the delight of evil takes possession of our minds we see nothing but nature.”

The two angels and the two satans were standing not far from me on the right, so that I saw and heard them.

And lo! I saw many spirits around them, who in the natural world had been celebrated for learning, and I was surprised that these learned men stood now beside the angels, now beside the satans, and that they favored those beside whom they stood. And I was told that their changes of place were changes of their state of mind, favoring now one side now the other; “For they are Vertumni.* And we will tell you a mystery. We have looked down upon earth, to those celebrated for learning who have thought according to their own judgment about God and about nature, and we find six hundred out of a thousand in favor of nature, and the rest in favor of God; but they were in favor of God because they had frequently said that nature is from God, not from any understanding, but only from what they had heard; and frequent speech from memory and recollection, though not at the same time from thought and intelligence, induces a sort of faith.”

After this a guard was given the satans and with the two angels they ascended into heaven, and saw magnificent and splendid things. And being then in illustration from the light of heaven there, they acknowledged that there is a God, and that nature is created to subserve the life which is in God and from God; and that nature in itself is dead, and so does nothing of itself, but is actuated by life. Having seen and perceived these things they descended; and as they descended the love of evil returned, and closed their understanding above and opened it beneath. And then there appeared as it were a veil above it, flashing from infernal fire; and the instant their feet touched the earth the ground opened beneath them, and they sank down to their own.

* Vertumnus was a god among the Romans who could assume various shapes; Vertumni is the plural of Vertumnus.

416. After this the two angels, seeing me near, said of me to those standing by, “We know that this man has written about God and about nature; let us hear him.”

And they came and asked that what had been written respecting God and nature might be read to them; and I read therefrom the following:*

“They who believe in Divine operation in the single things of nature can confirm themselves in favor of the Divine by very many things that they see in nature, equally with, yea, better than those who confirm themselves in favor of nature. For those who confirm themselves in favor of the Divine consider the wonders that are visible in the production both of vegetables and animals. In the Productions of Vegetables, how that from a small seed cast into the earth there comes forth a root, by means of the root a stem, and successively branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit, even to new seeds, just as if the seed knew the order of succession or procession by which it is to renew itself. Can any rational man think that the sun which is pure fire knows this? Or that it can put it into its heat and light to effect such things? And that it can form the wonderful things within them and purpose use? A man whose rational is elevated when he sees and contemplates these things cannot but think that they are from Him who has infinite wisdom, that is from God. They also who acknowledge the Divine see and think this. But those that do not acknowledge do not see and think this, because they will not, and thus let their rational so far down into the sensual that it derives all its ideas from the light in which the senses of the body are and confirms their fallacies, saying, “Do you not see the sun operating these things by its heat and light? What is that which you do not see? Is it anything?

“They that confirm themselves in favor of the Divine consider also the wonders that are observable in The Production of Animals. To mention here only with respect to eggs, that within them lies hidden a chicken in its seed or inception, with every requisite until it is hatched from the shell, and also for its progression after it leaves the shell until it becomes a bird or flying thing in the form of its parent. And if one takes notice of the form, it is such that it cannot but excite amazement if he thinks profoundly; for that in the least as well as in the greatest of them, yea, in the invisible as in the visible, that is, in the minutest insects as in the large birds and beasts, there are organs of the senses, of sight, smell, taste, and touch; and organs of motion which are muscles, for they fly and walk; and viscera also around the heart and lungs which are actuated by brains. That even poor insects rejoice in such organs is known from their anatomy described by some, especially by Swammerdam in his Biblia Naturoe. They who ascribe all things to nature indeed see such things but think only that they exist, and say that nature produces them, and they say this because they have turned their mind away from thinking of the Divine, and those who have turned away from thought of the Divine, when they behold the wonderful things in nature cannot think rationally, much less spiritually, but think sensually and materially, and then think in nature from nature and not above it, in like manner as do those who are in hell, with only this difference from beasts, that they have the power of rationality, that is, that they can understand and so can think otherwise if they will.

“They who have turned themselves away from the thought of the Divine when they behold the wonderful things in nature, and thereby become sensual, do not reflect that the sight of the eye is so gross that it sees many minute insects as one obscure object, and yet that each one of these is organized to feel and to move itself, and so is provided with fibers, and vessels, and a little heart, and pulmonary tubes, and minute viscera, and brains, and that these are woven together out of the purest things in nature, and that these contextures correspond to some life by which the minutest of them are distinctly actuated. Since the sight of the eye is so gross that many such creatures, with the innumerable things in each, appear to it as one little obscure thing, and yet they who are sensual think and judge from that sight, it is manifest how their mind has become gross, and hence in what thick darkness they are as to spiritual things.

* From Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, 351-357.

417. “Every one can confirm himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature if he will, and he in fact does confirm himself who thinks of God from life; as when he beholds the fowls of heaven, how every species of them knows its own food and where it is; knows its kind by sound and sight; and which among others are their friends and which their enemies; that they mate together, know how to copulate, skilfully build nests, lay eggs therein, sit upon them, know the period of incubation, which accomplished they hatch out the young, tenderly love them, cherish them under their wings, offer them their food and feed them, and this until they become mature and able to do the like and to procreate families to perpetuate their kind. Every one who will think of the Divine influx through the spiritual world into the natural can see it in these things, and can also, if he will, say from his heart: Such knowledge cannot flow into these creatures from the sun through the rays of its light, for the sun from which nature takes its origin and its essence is pure fire, and the rays of its light are therefore altogether dead; and thus he can conclude that such things come from the influx of Divine wisdom into the ultimates of nature.

418. “Any one can confirm himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature, when he considers the caterpillars (vermes), which, from the delight of a certain longing, affect and aspire to a change of their terrestrial state for one having some analogy to the heavenly state; and to that end creep into hiding-places and commit themselves as it were to a womb that they may be born again; and there become chrysalids, aurelias, nymphs, and at length butterflies. And when this metamorphosis is passed, and according to their species they are invested with beautiful wings, they fly away into the air as into their heaven, and there disport genially, pair together, lay eggs, and provide for themselves a posterity, and nourish themselves the while with pleasant and sweet food from the flowers. Who that confirms himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature does not see some image of the earthly state of man in these creatures as caterpillars? And an image of his heavenly state in them as butterflies? But those who confirm themselves in favor of nature see them indeed; but as they have rejected out of their mind the heavenly state of man, they call them mere instincts of nature.

419. “Every one can confirm himself in favor of the Divine from the visible things of nature, if he considers what is known about bees; that they know how to gather wax and suck honey out of herbs and flowers; and to build cells like little houses, and dispose them in the form of a city, with streets through which they go in and by which they pass out; that from a long way off they scent the flowers and the herbs from which they gather wax for their house and honey for their food, and laden with these fly back, according to the quarter of the heavens, directly to their hive, and thus provide for themselves food and habitation for the coming winter just as if they knew and foresaw it. They also appoint over them a mistress like a queen, from whom a posterity is propagated, and build for her as it were a palace above them, with guards round about; and when the time of bringing forth is at hand she goes with her attendants from cell to cell and lays eggs, which the following crowd anoint that they may not be injured by the air. Thence comes to them a new progeny. Afterwards, when these are advanced to the age at which they can do the like they are expelled from the hive; and the excluded host gather themselves together in a swarm, in order that the band may not be scattered; they then fly thence to seek for them a home. Also about autumn they bring out the useless drones and deprive them of their wings, so that they may not return and consume the food whereon they bestowed no labor. Besides many other things, from which it is evident, that for the sake of the use that they perform for the human race, they have, by virtue of the influx from the spiritual world, a form of government such as there is with men on earth, yea, with the angels in heaven. What man with reason unimpaired does not see that such things with them are not from the natural world? What has the sun from which nature is in common with a government emulating and analogous to heavenly government? From these and things like these among brute animals, the confessor and worshiper of nature confirms himself in favor of nature; while from the same evidence the confessor and worshiper of God confirms himself in favor of the Divine, for the spiritual man sees spiritual things in them, and the natural man sees in them natural things. Thus every one sees as he is. For myself, such things have been to me testimonies of the influx of the spiritual into the natural, or of the spiritual world into the natural world, thus from the Divine wisdom of the Lord. Consider, also, whether you can think analytically of any form of government, or of any civil law, or of any moral virtue, or of any spiritual truth, unless the Divine out of His wisdom flows in through the spiritual world. As for me, I could not and cannot. Indeed I have perceptibly and sensibly observed the influx now continually for five and twenty years.* I therefore affirm this from having witnessed it.

* In the work from which this was being read (D. L. W.), which was published in 1763, and written probably in 1762, the number of years is given as nineteen, and the statement here has in some editions been changed to make it conform to that. This not only appears unwarrantable, but a substantial error. The author, in making new use of this material, simply brings the time of this remarkable experience down to the then present, which was about 1768, the date of this work. A year later, in using yet again some of the same material, and referring to the same experience (in The True Christian Religion, n. 12) he extends the period another year and makes it twenty-six years. [TR.]

420. “Can nature have use as an end? And dispose uses into orders and forms? This none but one who is wise can do. And none but God, who has infinite wisdom, can thus ordinate and form a universe. Who else could foresee and provide all things that men require for food and for raiment, food from the fruits of the earth and from animals, and raiment from the same? It is among the marvels that the vile caterpillars called silk-worms, clothe with silk and magnificently adorn both women and men, from queens and kings down to maidservants and menservants; and that creatures so lowly as bees furnish wax for the lights from which temples and palaces have their brightness. These facts, and many more, are conspicuous proofs that the Lord, for Himself through the spiritual world operates all things that are in nature.

421. “To this should be added, that there have been seen in the spiritual world those who have so confirmed themselves in favor of nature, from the visible things of the world, that they have become atheists; and that in spiritual light their understanding appeared open beneath but closed above, because in thought they look downwards to the earth, and not upwards towards heaven; above their sensual, which is the lowest of the understanding, appeared a veil as it were, with some flashing from infernal fire, with some black as from soot, and with some livid as a corpse. Let every one then be on his guard against confirmations in favor of nature; let him confirm himself in favor of the Divine. There is no lack of material.”

422. Some indeed are to be pardoned for having ascribed certain visible things to nature, for the reason that they have not known anything about the sun of the spiritual world where the Lord is and of influx therefrom; nor anything about that world and the state of it, no, nor of its presence with men; and that therefore they could not but think of the spiritual as a purer natural, and so that angels either were in the ether or in the stars; and of the devil, that either he is the evil of man, or, if he actually exists, that he is in the air or in the deep; and that the souls of men after death are either in the inmost of the earth, or in a somewhere or other (in aliquo ubi seu pu), until the day of judgment; and other like notions that fancy has induced from want of knowledge of the spiritual world and of its sun. This is the reason why they are to be pardoned who have believed that nature produces the things that they see from something inherent from creation. But still they cannot be pardoned who by confirmations in favor of nature have made themselves atheists; because they could have confirmed themselves in favor of the Divine. Ignorance indeed excuses but does not take away the confirmed falsity; for this falsity coheres with evil and evil with hell.

423. THE PLEASURES OF INSANITY PERTAINING TO SCORTATORY LOVE.

ON THE OPPOSITION OF SCORTATORY LOVE AND CONJUGIAL LOVE.

“At this threshold it is to be explained first what is meant by scortatory love in this chapter. The fornicatory love that precedes marriage is not meant; nor that which follows it after the death of a married partner; nor the concubinage which is entered upon for legitimate, just, and weighty reasons; nor are the mild kinds of adultery meant; nor the graver kinds of which a man actually repents. For these do not become opposite, and those are not opposite to conjugial love. That they are not opposite will be seen hereafter when each comes to be treated of. But by the scortatory love opposite to conjugial love here is meant the love of adultery when it is such that it is not regarded as a sin, nor as evil, dishonorable, and against reason, but as permissible with reason. This scortatory love not only makes conjugial love the same as itself, but also ruins, destroys, and at length nauseates it.

The opposition of this love to conjugial love is treated of in this chapter. That it treats of no other may be manifest from the chapters that follow, Concerning Fornication, Concubinage, and the different kinds of Adultery.” But that the opposition may be evident to the rational sight, it shall be shown in the following sequence:-

(1) That the quality of scortatory love is not known unless the quality of conjugial love is known.

(2) That scortatory love is opposite to conjugial love.

(3) That scortatory love is opposite to conjugial love, just as the natural man regarded in himself is opposite to the spiritual man.

(4) That scortatory love is opposite to conjugial love just as the intermarriage of the evil and the false is opposite to the marriage of good and truth.

(5) That scortatory love is therefore opposite to conjugial love just as hell is opposite to heaven.

(6) That the uncleanness of hell is from scortatory love; and that the cleanness of heaven is from conjugial love.

(7) Likewise the uncleanness in the church; and the cleanness there.

(8) That scortatory love makes man more and more not man (homo), and not a man (vir); and that conjugial love makes man more and more man (homo), and more and more a man (vir).

(9) That there is a sphere of scortatory love and a sphere of conjugial love.

(10) That the sphere of scortatory love comes up out of hell; and that the sphere of conjugial love comes down from heaven.

(11) That in each world these two spheres meet each other but do not conjoin themselves.

(12) That between these two spheres there is an equilibrium, and that man is in this.

(13) That man is able to turn himself to whichever he pleases, but that in so far as he turns himself to the one he turns himself away from the other.

(14) That each sphere carries delights with it.

(15) That the delights of scortatory love begin from the flesh, and that they are of the flesh even in the spirit; but that the delights of conjugial love begin in the spirit, and that they are of the spirit even in the flesh.

(16) That the delights (jucunditates) of scortatory love are pleasures of insanity; and that the delights (juounditates) of conjugial love are the delights (delitice) of wisdom.

The explanation of these now follows.

424. (1) That the quality of scortatory love is not known unless the quality of conjugial love is known. By scortatory love is meant the love of adultery which destroys conjugial love, as above in n. 423. That the quality of this scortatory love is not known unless the quality of conjugial love is known, there is no need to demonstrate, but only to illustrate by similar examples. For instance, who can know what is evil and false, unless he knows what is good and true? Or who knows what is unchaste, dishonest, indecorous, and unbeautiful, unless he knows what is chaste, honest, decorous, and beautiful? Or who can discern insanity but one who is wise or knows what wisdom is Or who can rightly perceive discordant, grating sounds but one who through learning and study has drunk in harmonious numbers? In like manner, who can perceive what the quality of adultery is unless he has perceived clearly what the quality of marriage is? Or who can present to the judgment the filthiness of the pleasures of scortatory love, unless he has previously presented to his own judgment the cleanness of conjugial love? Now, because I have completed the work on The Delights of Wisdom pertaining to Conjugial Love, from the intelligence thence acquired I am able to describe the pleasures of scortatory love.

425. (2) That scortatory love is opposite to conjugial love. There is nothing in the universe which has not its opposite; and opposites are not things having relation to each other, but are contraries. Relatives are between what is the greatest and least of the same thing; but contraries are in opposition over against them, and these are relative among themselves just as those are among themselves, and therefore the relations themselves also are opposites. That to all things and to everything there is an opposite is manifest from light, heat, the times in the world, from affections, from perceptions, sensations, and from many other things. The opposite of light is thick darkness; the opposite of heat is cold; the opposites of times in the world are day and night, summer and winter; the opposites of affections are joys and sorrows, and gladness and sadness; the opposites of perceptions are goods and truths and evils and falses; and the opposites of sensations are delightful and undelightful. From all this evidence then it must be concluded that conjugial love has its opposite. That this opposite is adultery every one can see if he will, from all the dictates of sound reason. Say if you can what else is its opposite. To this is added, that inasmuch as sound reason has been able to see this clearly of its own light, it has therefore established laws, which are called civil laws of justice, for the protection of marriages and against adulteries. To make it still more obvious that they are opposites, I may refer to what I have frequently seen in the spiritual world. When those who in the natural world were adulterers from confirmation perceive the sphere of conjugial love flowing down out of heaven, they either instantly flee into caverns and hide themselves, or if they stand out against it they are excited to rage and become like furies. That it is so is because there all delightful and all undelightful things of the affections are perceived, sometimes as clearly as odor is perceived by the smell, for they have not a material body which absorbs such things. But that the opposition of scortatory love and conjugial love is unknown to many in the natural world is from the delights of the flesh, which in the extremes apparently emulate the delights of conjugial love; and they that are in delights alone know nothing of that opposition. And I can affirm that if you should tell them that everything has its opposite, and conclude that conjugial love has also, adulterers would reply that there is no such opposite to that love, for that scortatory love in no sense distinguishes itself from it. From which it is evident also, that one who does not know what the quality of conjugial love is does not know the quality of scortatory love. And besides that, the quality of conjugial love is not known from scortatory love, but the latter from the former. No one from evil knows good, but from good one knows evil; for evil is in thick darkness but good is in light.

426. (3) That scortatory love is opposite to conjugial love, just as the natural man, regarded in himself, is opposite to the spiritual man. That the natural man and the spiritual man are opposed to each other, even so that the one does not will what the other wills, yea, that they fight against each other, is known in the church, but has not as yet been explained. It shall therefore be told what distinguishes the spiritual and the natural, and excites the one against the other. It is the natural man into which every one is first introduced while he is growing up, which introduction is by knowledges and cognitions, and by the rational things of the understanding; but the spiritual man is that into which he is introduced by the love of performing uses, which love is also called charity. So far therefore as any one is in this love he is spiritual, but so far as he is not in this love he is natural, even though he be of penetrating genius and of wise judgment. That this man which is called natural, apart from the spiritual, howsoever much it may elevate itself into rational light, yet dissolves itself in lusts, and is devoted to them, is made plain by its ruling spirit alone, in that it is destitute of charity; and he who is destitute of this, is loosed to all the wantonnesses of scortatory love. For which reason when he is told that this libidinous love is the opposite of chaste conjugial love, and he is asked to consult the light of his reason, he yet does not consult that light except in conjunction with the delight of the evil that is inherent in the natural man from nativity; whence he concludes that his reason does not see any thing contrary to the pleasant sensuous allurements of his body; after he has confirmed himself in these his reason is benumbed to all the sweets that are predicated of conjugial love. Nay, more, as was said above, he fights against and overcomes them, and as a victor after the defeat he destroys the camp of conjugial love within himself from outmosts to inmosts. This the natural man does out of his scortatory love. This is adduced in order that it may be known whence comes the opposition of these two loves. For, as has been shown many times before, conjugial love regarded in itself is spiritual love, and scortatory love viewed in itself is natural love.

427. (4) That scortatory love is opposite to conjugial love just as the intermarriage of the evil and the false is opposite to the marriage of good and truth. It has been shown above in its own chapter (n. 83-102) that the origin of conjugial love is from the marriage of good and truth. It follows from this that the origin of scortatory love is the intermarriage of evil and the false, and that thence they are opposite as evil is opposite to good and the falsity of evil to the truth of good. The delights of each love are what are thus opposite, for love is nothing without its delights. It does not at all appear that they are thus opposite. The reason why it does not appear is because in externals the delight of the evil love counterfeits the delight of the good love. But in internals the delight of the evil love consists of mere lusts of evil. The evil itself is a conglomerate mass or ball of them. But the delight of the good love consists of innumerable affections of good. Good itself is as a bundle of these united together. This bundle and that ball are not felt by man except as one delight; and as in externals the delight of evil counterfeits the delight of good, as was said, therefore the delight of adultery is like the delight of marriage. But after death, when every one puts off externals, and the internals are laid bare, then it is manifest to the sense that the evil of adultery is a conglomeration of lusts of evil; and that the good of marriage is a bundle of affections of good; and thus that they are altogether opposite to each other.

428. As regards the intermarriage itself of the evil and the false, it is known that evil loves the false and wills that it shall be one with itself, and they also conjoin themselves; in like manner as good loves truth and wills that it may be one with it, and they also conjoin themselves. From which it appears that as the spiritual origin of marriage is the marriage of good and truth, so the spiritual origin of adultery is the intermarriage of the evil and the false. Hence it is that this intermarriage is meant by adulteries, scortations, and whoredoms in the spiritual sense of the Word, (see Apocalypse Revealed, n. 134). It is from this principle that he who is in evil and weds the false, and he who is in the false and takes evil into the companionship of his bed-chamber, from the joint covenant confirms adultery, and commits it so far as he dare and is able. He confirms it from evil by falsity and commits it from falsity by evil. And on the other hand, he too, who is in good and weds truth, or who is in truth and takes good with him into the companionship of his bed-chamber, confirms himself against adultery and in favor of marriage, and embraces a blessed conjugial life.

429. (5) That scortatory love is therefore opposite to conjugial love just as hell is opposite to heaven. All who are in hell are in the intermarriage of evil and the false; and all who are in heaven are in the marriage of good and truth. And as the intermarriage of evil and the false is likewise adultery, as has been shown above (n. 427, 428), hell also is adultery. Hence it is that all there are in the lust, the lasciviousness, and the shamelessness of scortatory love, and fly from and shudder at the chastities and modesties of conjugial love (see above n. 428). From these considerations it may be seen that these two loves, scortatory and conjugial love, are opposite to each other as hell is to heaven and heaven to hell.

430. (6) That the uncleanness of hell is from scortatory love; and that the cleanness of heaven is from conjugial love. All hell reeks with uncleannesses, and the universal origin of them is shameless and obscene scortatory love. Into such things its delights are turned. Who could believe that in the spiritual world every delight of love is presented to the sight under a variety of appearances? to sensual perception under various odors? and to view under various forms of beasts and birds? The forms under which the lascivious delights of scortatory love are presented to view in hell are excrements and mire; the odors under which they are presented to the sensible perception there are stenches and noisome vapors; and the forms of beasts and birds under which they are there presented to view are swine, serpents, and birds called Ochim and Tziim. But the very opposite are the chaste delights of conjugial love in heaven. The appearances under which these are there presented to the sight are gardens and flowery fields; the odors under which they are presented to sensible perception are the aromas from fruits and the fragrant perfumes from flowers; and the forms of animals under which they are there presented to view are lambs and kids, turtle-doves and birds of paradise. The reason why the delights of love are turned into such and similar forms is that all things that come into existence in the spiritual world are correspondences. The internals of their mind are turned into them as they go forth and become external before the senses. It should be known, however, that there are innumerable varieties of unclean things into which the lewdnesses of scortations are turned as they go forth into their correspondences; and the varieties are according to the kinds and species of them, which may be seen in what follows, where adulteries and the degrees of them are treated of. But such unclean things do not go forth from the delights of the love of those who have repented, because they have been washed from them in the world.

431. (7) Likewise the uncleanness in the church; and the cleanness there. The reason is that the church is the Lord’s kingdom on earth corresponding to His kingdom in the heavens; and the Lord also conjoins them that they may make one. And He likewise distinguishes those who are there, just as He distinguishes heaven and hell, and distinguishes them according to their loves. Those that are in the immodest and obscene delights of scortatory love join to themselves their like from hell; but those who are in the pure and chaste delights of conjugial love are associated by the Lord with similar angels from heaven. These their angels, when in attendance on men they stand near confirmed and determined adulterers, perceive the stench spoken of above (n. 430) and withdraw a little.

On account of the correspondence of filthy loves with excrement and mire, it was commanded the sons of Israel:

That they should carry with them a paddle with which they should cover their excrement, lest Jehovah walking in the midst of their camp should see the nakedness of the thing and turn back (Deut. 13, 14).

This was commanded because the camp of the sons of Israel represented the church, and those unclean things represented the lasciviousness of scortations; and by Jehovah God walking in the midst of their camp was signified His presence with the angels; that they should cover it, was because all those places in hell where crowds of such abide are covered and closed; and for that reason it is also said, “lest He see the nakedness of the thing.” That all the places in hell are closed it has been given me to see; and also that when they were opened, which was when a new demon entered, a stench exhaled therefrom so foul that it infested my belly with a heavy oppression; and what is surprising, those foul odors are as delightful to them as excrements are to swine. From which it is plain how it is to be understood that what is unclean in the church is from scortatory love, and what is clean there is from conjugial love.

432. (8) That scortatory love more and more makes man not man (homo), and a man not a man (vir); and that conjugial love makes man more and more man (homo) and more and more a man (vir). Each and all things that have been shown to reason in light, in the First Part, On Love and the Delights of its Wisdom, illustrate and confirm that conjugial love makes man. For example: (1) That one who is in love truly conjugial becomes more and more spiritual, and the more spiritual one is the more a man (homo) is he. (2) That he becomes more and more wise, and the more wise one becomes the more he is a man. (3) That with him the interiors of the mind are opened more and more, even until he sees or intuitively acknowledges the Lord, and the more one is in that sight, or that acknowledgment, the more is he a man. (4) That he becomes more and more moral and civil, because a spiritual soul is in his morality and citizenship, and the more one is morally civil the more he is a man. (5) That after death he also becomes an angel of heaven, and an angel is a man in essence and in form, and true humanity shines forth also in his face, from his speech, and from his deportment. From these considerations it is evident that conjugial love makes man more and more a man. That with adulterers the contrary is the case, follows conclusively from the very opposition of adultery and marriage, which has been and is being treated of in this chapter. For example: (1) That they are not spiritual but in the lowest degree natural, and the natural man apart from the spiritual is man only as to his understanding and not as to the will. This he immerses in the body, and in the lusts of the flesh, and at those times the understanding too accompanies it. That he is but half a man he himself can see, from the reason of his own understanding if he elevates it. (2) That adulterers are not wise except in speech and gestures, and when in company with those eminent in dignity, renowned by their erudition, and men of good morals. But it will be shown in the chapter on adulteries that alone, with themselves, they are insane, making light of the divine and holy things of the church, and defiling the moralities of life with things immodest and unchaste. Does any one not see that such gesticulators are only men as to outward form, and as to the inward form not men? (3) That adulterers become more and more not men my own experience has served to confirm manifestly, from seeing them in hell-for they are demons there, whose faces when seen in the light of heaven, are as it were pustules, their bodies humped, their voices rough, and their manner simulated. “It should be understood however, that purposed and confirmed adulterers are such out not unpremeditated adulterers. For there are four kinds of adultery, of which in the chapter on adulteries and their degrees. Adulterers of purpose are such from the lust of the will; adulterers by confirmation are such by persuasion of the understanding; adulterers from premeditation are such from the allurements of the senses; and unpremeditated adulterers are such as have not the faculty or the freedom of consulting the understanding. The two former kinds of adulterers are those that become more and more not men; but the two latter kinds become men just in the degree that they recede from those errors and afterwards become wise.”

433. The things adduced in the preceding Part, On Conjugial Love and its Delights, also confirm the truth that conjugial love makes a man (homo) more a man (vir). They are: (1) That the faculty and virtue called virile accompany wisdom, just in proportion as this is animated by the spiritual things of the church, and that thence they inhere in conjugial love; and that wisdom opens the current of this love from its fountain in the soul, and thus invigorates the intellectual life, which is the masculine life itself, and blesses it also with perennity. (2) That thence it is, according to the words of their own mouth in the Relation, n. 355, 356, that the angels of heaven are in this virile virtue to eternity; and I have heard from their own lips (see Relations, n. 75, 76), that the most ancient people in their ages, the Golden and the Silver Ages, were in enduring efficacy, because they loved the blandishments of their wives and shuddered at the blandishments of harlots. It has been told me from heaven that this spiritual sufficiency is even in the natural, and will not be wanting at this day to those who come to the Lord and abominate adulteries as infernal.

But the contrary befalls purposed and confirmed adulterers, of whom just above, n. 432. It is known, though not much proclaimed, that with them the faculty and virtue which is called manly become enfeebled even to none; and after that also begins coldness towards the sex; and then follows disdain which leads to loathing. That those adulterers are such in hell I have heard from sirens-who are obsolete lusts of venery-and also from brothels there at a distance.

From these considerations it is clear that scortatory love makes a man more and more not man (homo), and not a man (vir), and that conjugial love makes man more and more man (homo), and more and more a man (vir).

434. (9) That there is a sphere of scortatory love and a sphere of conjugial love. What is meant by spheres, and that they are manifold, and that those which are of love and wisdom proceed from the Lord and descend through the angelic heavens into the world and pervade it, even to its very ultimates, has been shown above in n. 222-225; and in n. 386-397. That there is not a thing in the universe which has not its opposite, may be seen above at n. 425; from which it follows that because there is a sphere of conjugial love there is also a sphere opposite to it which is called the sphere of scortatory love.

For those spheres are opposite to each other just as the love of adultery is opposite to the love of marriage, which opposition has been treated of in the preceding parts of this chapter.

435. (10) That the sphere of scortatory love comes up out of hell; and that the sphere of conjugial love comes down from heaven. That the sphere of conjugial love comes down from heaven is shown in the places cited just above in n. 434; but that the sphere of scortatory love comes up out of hell is because this love is from there, n. 429. That sphere comes up thence from the unclean things into which the delights of adultery are turned of those there who are of each sex; concerning which see above, n. 430, 431.

436. (11) That in each world these two spheres meet each other but do not conjoin themselves. By each world is meant the spiritual world and the natural world. In the spiritual world these spheres meet each other in the world of spirits, because this is intermediate between heaven and hell; but in the natural world they meet each other on the rational plane with man, which also is intermediate between heaven and hell; for into this plane the marriage of good and truth inflows from above and the marriage of evil and the false inflows into it from beneath. This flows in through the world, but the former through heaven. Hence it is that the human rational can turn itself to either side it pleases, and receive the influx; if it turns to good it receives the influx from above, and then the rational of the man is formed more and more to the reception of heaven; but if it turns to evil it receives the influx from beneath, and his rational is then formed more and more to the reception of hell. That those two spheres do not conjoin themselves is because they are opposites; and an opposite acts upon an opposite no otherwise than as enemies, one of which, inflamed with internecine hatred furiously attacks the other, although that other is in no hatred but only in zeal for self-protection. From this it is clear why the two spheres only meet each other, but do not conjoin themselves. The middle interval that they form between them is on the one side from evil not of falsity and from falsity not of evil; and on the other side from good not of truth and from truth not of good, which two may indeed come in contact with each other but cannot conjoin themselves.

437. (12) That between these two spheres there is an equilibrium, and that man is in this. The equilibrium between them is a spiritual equilibrium for it is between good and evil; from this equilibrium man has free-will. In this, and by means of this, man thinks and wills, and thence speaks and acts, as if from himself. His rational consists in the option and choice whether he will receive good, or will receive evil, and so whether he will rationally, from freedom dispose himself towards conjugial love, or will rationally, from freedom dispose himself towards scortatory love. If to this, he turns the hinder part of his head and his back to the Lord; if to the other, he turns the forehead and breast to the Lord. If he turns to the Lord, his rationality and liberty are led by Him; but if backwards from the Lord, his rationality and liberty are led by hell.

438. (13) That man is able to turn himself to whichever sphere he pleases, but that in so far as he turns himself to the one, he turns himself away from the other. Man was created to do what he does from freedom according to reason, and just as if from himself. Without these two he would not be man but a beast; for he would not receive anything in-flowing to him out of heaven and appropriate it to himself as his own, and therefore nothing of eternal life could be inscribed upon him. For in order to be his own it must be inscribed upon him as his. And because there is no freedom in one direction unless there is the like in the other also, just as there is no weighing, unless the scales by virtue of equilibrium can incline either way, so with man, unless he has freedom to turn also to evil, thus from right to left and from left to right, alike to the infernal sphere which is the sphere of adultery, as to the heavenly sphere which is that of marriage.

439. (14) That each sphere carries delights with it. That is to say that both the sphere of scortatory love which ascends from hell and the sphere of conjugial love which comes down from heaven, affect the man receiving it with delights. The reason is that the ultimate plane, in which the delights of each love terminate, and where they fill and complete themselves, and which presents them in their sense, is the same. Hence it is that scortatory caresses and conjugial caresses are perceived alike in the extremes although utterly unlike in the internals. That they are thence unlike also in the extremes is not judged from a sense of the difference; for the unlikenesses from these differences are not felt in the extremes by others than those who are in love truly conjugial, because evil is recognized from good and not good from evil, just as a sweet odor is not perceived by the nostrils while a foul stench clings to them. I have heard from the angels that they distinguish the lascivious from the non-lascivious in the extremes just as one distinguishes the flame of dung, or of burning horn, by their offensive smell, from a fire of spice or of burning cinnamon wood by their fragrant odor; and that this is from the difference of the internal delights which enter into the externals and compose them.

440. (15) That the delights of scortatory love begin from the flesh, and that they are of the flesh even in the spirit; but that the delights of conjugial love begin in the spirit, and that they are of the spirit even in the flesh. That the delights of scortatory love begin from the flesh, is because the burning heats of the flesh are their beginning; that they infect the spirit, and even in the spirit are of the flesh, is because the flesh does not feel, but the spirit feels in the flesh, the things that take place in it. It is the same with this sense as with the others; as that the eye does not see and distinguish the various things in objects but the spirit; nor does the ear hear and distinguish the harmonies of the modulations in song, and the concords of the articulations of sounds in speech, but the spirit. And the spirit feels everything according to its elevation into wisdom. A spirit that is not elevated above the sensuals of the body, and so clings to them, does not feel any other delights than those that flow in from the flesh and from the world through the bodily senses. These it seizes, with these it is delighted and makes them its own. Now, as the beginnings of scortatory love are only the burning heat and prurient itchings of the flesh, it is plain that in the spirit they are filthy enticements, which as they ascend and descend, and go back and forth, thus excite and inflame. In general the cupidities of the flesh regarded in themselves are nothing else than conglomerated lusts of the evil and the false. Hence this truth in the church, that the flesh lusteth against the spirit, that is, against the spiritual man. It therefore follows that the delights of the flesh, as to the delights of scortatory love, are nothing but effervescences of lust which in the spirit become the bubblings up of immodesties.