304. VIII. THAT THIS IS THE CASE WITH THOSE WHO THINK OF MARRIAGES CHASTELY; NOT SO WITH THOSE WHO THINK OF THEM UNCHASTELY. With the chaste, being those who think about marriages from religion, the marriage of the spirit precedes, and that of the body follows. These are the ones spoken of above (no. 302), with whom the love ascends towards the soul and then descends from its height. Their souls separate themselves from the unlimited love of the sex and, attaching themselves to one, look to an everlasting and eternal union with that one, and to the increasing blessings thereof as nourishers of the hope which continually recreates their minds. [2] Wholly different is it with the unchaste, being those who do not think of marriages and the holiness thereof from religion. With them, there is a marriage of the body and none of the spirit. If anything of a marriage of the spirit appears during the state of betrothal, yet, if this ascends by an elevation of the thoughts respecting it, it nevertheless falls back to the concupiscences which are in the will from the flesh; and so, by reason of the unchaste things there, casts itself headlong into the body and pollutes the ultimates of its love with alluring ardor. The result is, that as in the beginning it burned, so, suddenly it burns out and passes off into the cold of winter whereby its disappearance is accelerated. With such men, the state of betrothal does hardly aught else than help to fill their concupiscences with things lascivious, and from these to contaminate the conjugial of love.