455. X. THAT THE SPHERE OF THE LUST OF FORNICATING, AS IT IS IN ITS BEGINNING, IS MEDIATE BETWEEN THE SPHERE OF SCORTATORY LOVE AND THE SPHERE OF CONJUGIAL LOVE, AND MAKES AN EQUILIBRIUM. These two spheres, that of scortatory love and that of conjugial love, were treated of in the preceding chapter, and it was shown that the sphere of scortatory love ascends from hell, and the sphere of conjugial love descends from heaven (no. 435); that the two spheres meet in both worlds but do not join (no. 436); that between them there is equilibrium, and man is in that equilibrium (no. 437); that man can turn himself to whichever sphere he pleases, but that so far as he turns to the one, he turns away from the other (no. 438). As to what is meant by spheres, see no. 434 and the passages there cited. That the sphere of the lust of fornicating is mediate between these two spheres and makes an equilibrium, is because when in it, a man can turn to the sphere of conjugial love, that is, to that love, and also to the sphere of the love of adultery, that is, to the love thereof. If he turns to conjugial love, he turns to heaven, if to the love of adultery, he turns to hell. Either turning is at the free determination, good pleasure, and will of the man, to the end that he may be able to act freely according to reason, and not from instinct; consequently, that he may be a man, and may appropriate influx to himself. It is said the lust of fornication as it is in its beginning, because it is then in a middle state. Who does not know that all that a man does in the beginning is done from concupiscence because from the natural man? And who does not know that this concupiscence is not imputed when from natural he is becoming spiritual? It is the same with the lust of fornication when the man's love is becoming conjugial.