Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 246

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

246. (10) External reasons for coldness are also many; and of these, the first is a dissimilarity of dispositions and manners. Some similarities and dissimilarities are internal, and some are external. Internal ones trace their origin solely from religion; for religion is implanted in souls, and it is transmitted through souls from parents to offspring as a supreme predisposition. The reason is that every person's soul draws its life from a marriage of good and truth, and from this marriage comes the church. Now because the church varies and differs throughout the regions of the entire globe, therefore the souls of all human beings also vary and differ. This is consequently the origin of people's internal similarities and dissimilarities, and in accordance with them the conjugial conjunctions of which we have spoken. [2] In contrast, external similarities and dissimilarities are qualities not of souls but of dispositions. By dispositions we mean people's outward affections and consequent inclinations which are implanted after birth chiefly through their upbringings, associations, and resulting habits. Indeed, people say, "I have a disposition to do this," or "a disposition to do that," and we comprehend by this an affection or inclination for it. Acquired persuasions respecting one kind of life or another usually shape these dispositions as well. They are what induce inclinations in some even to enter marriages with partners not their equals and also to refuse marriages with ones who are. Nevertheless, after the partners have lived together for a time, these marriages vary according to the similarities and dissimilarities which the partners have acquired both by heredity and their accompanying upbringing. Any dissimilarities then induce coldness. [3] It is the same with dissimilarities in manners. As for example, in the marriage of an uncouth man or woman with one who is refined; of a cleanly man or woman with one who is slovenly; of a quarrelsome man or woman with one who is peaceable - in short, in the marriage of an unmannerly man or woman with one who is well-mannered. Marriages exhibiting such dissimilarities are not unlike couplings of different animal species with each other - as, for example, of sheep and goats, deers and mules, chickens and geese, sparrows and more noble birds - indeed, of dogs and cats - which because of their dissimilarities do not naturally associate. In human beings, however, dissimilarities do not show in surface features but in habits of behavior. States of coldness therefore arise because of this.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church