Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 203

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203. It is said that offspring derive from their parents the conjugial of good and truth because this is imparted to the soul of every one from its creation, it being this that inflows from the Lord into man and makes his human life. But from the soul this conjugial passes into the parts that follow, even to the ultimates of the body; and in the latter and the former, it is changed by the man himself in many ways, and sometimes into the opposite which is called the conjugal* or connubial of evil and falsity. When this takes place, the mind is closed from below, and sometimes is contorted like a spiral in the opposite direction. With some, however, it is not closed but remains half open above, and with some wholly open. It is from the latter and the former conjugial that offspring derive inclinations from their parents, a son in one way, a daughter in another. That it is from the conjugial, is because, as shown above (no. 65), conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves. * The word also suggests that this is a misprint for conjugial. The present passage and n. 98 and also one passage in THE WORD EXPLAINED (n. 4486) are the only passages in the theological Writings where the word conjugal appears. The word does indeed appear in four passages in TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, but these passages are reprinted from CONJUGIAL LOVE where the word is conjugial. Swedenborg also uses conjugial throughout his scientific works.


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