Divine Love and Wisdom (Harleys) n. 385

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

385. (v) By means of this correspondence many arcana concerning the will and understanding, and therefore also concerning love and wisdom may be disclosed. In the world it is scarcely known what the will is or what love is, since man is not able, of himself, to love and from love to will, in the same way that he can understand and think, as from himself; just as he cannot of himself make the heart to beat, although he can of himself make the lungs breathe. Now because it is scarcely known in the world what the will is and what love is, and yet it is known what the heart and lungs are-for these can be seen and examined by the eye, and also have been examined and described by anatomists, whereas the will and understanding cannot be seen and examined-therefore, when it is known that they correspond, and by correspondence act as one, many arcana concerning the will and understanding can be disclosed which otherwise would be impossible; as, for instance, the union of the will with the understanding, and the reciprocal union of the understanding with the will; or, as the conjunction of love with wisdom, and the reciprocal conjunction of wisdom with love; as also the descent of love into the affections, the associations of the affections, and of their influx into the perceptions and thoughts, and at length their influx according to correspondence into the actions and senses of the body. These and many other arcana can be both disclosed and illustrated by the union of the heart and lungs, and by the blood flowing in from the heart to the lungs, and reciprocally from the lungs to the heart, and from there through the arteries into all the members, organs, and viscera of the body.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church