272. (i) In the natural world almost all people can be linked in their outward affections, but not in their inward affections, if these disagree and are seen to disagree.
The reason is that in the world a person has a material body, and this is stuffed full of desires; these behave there like the dregs which collect at the bottom when new wine is clarified. The materials from which human bodies are composed in the world are of such a kind. So it is that inward affections, those of the mind, are not seen; in many cases hardly as much as a grain of them shows through. For the body either absorbs them and envelops them in its dregs, or hides them deep to prevent others seeing them, as the result of being taught from childhood to pretend. This allows one partner to adopt the state of any affection perceived in the other, and to lure the other's affection to himself, so that they become linked. The reason for this linking is that every affection has its own pleasure, and pleasures bind minds together.
However, it would be different if inward affections were as visible as outward ones, on people's faces, in their gestures, and to be heard in the tone of their voices, or if the pleasures they give were perceived by the nose or smelled, as happens in the spiritual world. Then if their disagreement reached the point of discord, their minds would be parted from each other, and they would take themselves off to a distance, depending on the perception of antipathy. These considerations will make it obvious that in the natural world almost all can be linked in outward affections, but not in inward ones, and if these disagree and are seen to disagree.
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