Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 187

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187. III. THAT THESE CHANGES ARE OF ONE KIND WITH MEN AND OF ANOTHER KIND WITH WOMEN, BECAUSE, BY CREATION MEN ARE FORMS OF SCIENCE, INTELLIGENCE, AND WISDOM, AND WOMEN, FORMS OF THE LOVE OF THESE WITH MEN. That men were created forms of the understanding, and women, forms of the love of the understanding of men, has been explained above (no. 90); and from this it follows that with them, the changes of state which follow one after the other, from the age of infancy to maturity, are for the perfecting of their forms--the intellectual form with men, and the voluntary with women. From this it is evident that the changes are of one kind with men and of another with women. With both, however, the external form, which is that 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. This is the reason why, in heaven, infants become men of stature and comeliness according to their growth in intelligence. Not so infants on earth, for they, like animals, are invested with material bodies. They agree, however, in this, that they grow in their inclination first to things which are pleasing to their bodily senses, then step by step to things which affect the internal cogitative sense, and by degrees to things which imbue the will with affection. Then, at the age when maturity and immaturity meet, comes the conjugial inclination, which is that of a virgin to a young man, and of a young man to a virgin. And because, in the heavens equally as on earth, virgins from innate prudence conceal their inclinations to marriage, the young men there know no other than that they affect virgins with love. Moreover, it so appears to them by reason of their masculine ardor; but even this is theirs from the influx of love from the fair sex--an influx which will be expressly spoken of in another place; [see no. 223]. From this, the truth of the proposition is manifest, that changes of state are of one kind with men and of another with women, because, by creation, men are forms of science, intelligence, and wisdom, and women, forms of the love of these with men.


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