Divine Love and Wisdom (Rogers) n. 401

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401. (3) Love or the will cannot do anything through its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the intellect. This, too, is apparent from the correspondence of the heart with the will. The human fetus lives because of its heart, but not because of its lungs; for blood does not flow then from the heart into the lungs and grant them the power of respiration, but flows instead through an opening [from the right atrium into the left atrium and so] into the left ventricle of the heart.* Consequently during that time the fetus cannot move any part of its body, but lies bound, nor is it capable of any sensation, its sensory organs being closed. The case is the same with love or the will, which causes the fetus nevertheless to live, but dimly so, that is, without sensation or activity. As soon as the lungs open, however, which happens after birth, it then begins to experience sensation and to act, and likewise to will and think. It can be seen from this that love or the will cannot do anything through its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the intellect. * In the mature heart, blood from the veins enters from the right atrium into the right ventricle, is pumped to the lungs, and returning from there to the left atrium, enters the left ventricle and is pumped through the aorta into the body. In the fetal heart, the venous blood passes from the right atrium through an opening called the foramen ovale into the left atrium and so into the left ventricle, bypassing the right ventricle.


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