There are many inequalities of rank and condition, which, when the couple live together, tear apart the conjugial love they entered upon before their wedding. But the inequalities may be in respect of age, rank or wealth. It does not need to be proved that inequality of age can cause coldness in marriage, as between a boy and an old woman, or between a teenage girl and a broken down old man. Nor is any proof needed to show that inequality of rank can do the same, as in marriages between a prince and a serving girl or a matron of noble family and a manservant. It is obvious the same is true of differences in wealth, unless the couple are brought together by likeness of character and behaviour, and the attention one pays to the other's inclinations and inborn desires. But in both these cases the deference due to the other's superior rank and condition prevents any link but a servile one. But this is a cold kind of linking. For in these cases there is no true principle of marriage of spirit and heart, but only of the lips and name, so that the inferior boasts of it and the superior blushes for shame.

In the heavens there can be no inequality in age, rank or wealth. As for age, all there are in the flower of youth, and remain in it for ever. As for rank, everyone there looks upon others from the point of view of the services they perform; the more distinguished look on those of lower rank as brothers, and do not treat rank as more important than service, but service as more important than rank. Moreover, when young women are married, they do not know from what family they came. For no one in heaven knows who was his father on earth, but the Lord is the Father of all. Much the same is true of wealth, which in heaven means a talent for wisdom. They are given resources enough to match their talents. On how marriages are arranged, see 229 above.