I once looked out of a window towards the east, and saw seven women sitting in a rose-garden by a spring, drinking its water. I gazed very hard to see what they were doing, and the intensity of my gaze made itself felt by them. So one of them nodded to me as an invitation. I left home and hurried to join them, and on my arrival politely asked them where they came from.

'We are wives,' they said, 'engaged in a conversation about the delights of conjugial love. Many proofs have led us to conclude that these delights are those of wisdom.' This reply so pleased my mind that I seemed to myself to be in the spirit, and capable of more inward and clearer perception than ever before. So I said to them, 'Will you allow me to ask you some questions about these pleasures?' They agreed to this, so I asked, 'How do you wives know that the delights of conjugial love are the same as those of wisdom?'

[2] 'We know this,' they answered, 'from the way our husbands' wisdom matches the delights we feel in conjugial love. For we feel the delights of this love enhanced or diminished, taking on the nature which matches the wisdom our husbands have.' On hearing this I asked, 'I know that flattery on the part of husbands and their cheerfulness of mind affect you, so that you feel delight with all your hearts in them. But I am surprised you say that this is the result of their wisdom. Tell me what wisdom this is, and of what sort.'

[3] The wives were indignant at this. 'Do you think,' they replied, 'we do not know what wisdom this is and of what sort, when we constantly reflect on our husbands' wisdom, and hear about it daily from their lips? We wives think about our husbands' condition from morning to evening; there is hardly a minute's respite during the day, in which the concentration of our thoughts really leaves them or is absent. On the other hand, our husbands spend very little time during the day thinking about our condition. This is how we know what wisdom of theirs takes delight in us. Our husbands call this spiritual rational wisdom and spiritual moral wisdom. Spiritual rational wisdom according to what they say belongs to the intellect and knowledge; spiritual moral wisdom to the will and the way we live. But they combine both of these into one, and hold that the pleasures of this wisdom are copied from their minds into the delights felt in our hearts, and then from our hearts into theirs, so that they return to the wisdom that was their source.'

[4] Then I asked whether they knew anything more about the way their husbands' wisdom took delight in them. 'Yes,' they said. 'There is spiritual wisdom, and rational and moral wisdom from this. Spiritual wisdom is to acknowledge the Lord the Saviour as the God of heaven and earth, and from Him to gather for oneself the truths of the church, which is done through the Word and preaching based on it. This leads to spiritual rationality. It is also to be led by the Lord to live in accordance with those truths; this leads to spiritual morality. Our husbands call these two the wisdom which in general brings about truly conjugial love.

'We have also heard from them the reason for this: that this wisdom opens up the inner levels of their minds, and so of their bodies, thus creating a free passage for the current of love from its first beginnings to its last realisations. It is on the quantity, adequacy and strength of this current that conjugial love depends and lives. The spiritual rational and moral wisdom of our husbands has as its particular purpose and aim in marriage the love of one wife alone, setting aside all lust after others. To the extent that this is achieved, that love is enhanced in degree and perfected in nature; and we also feel more clearly and exquisitely in ourselves the delights which match the joys of our husbands' affections and the pleasures of their thoughts.'

[5] Later I asked whether they knew how these were shared. 'Every act of linking by means of love' they said, 'involves acting, receiving and reacting. The delightful state of our love is the acting or that which acts. The state of our husbands' wisdom is the receiving or what receives, and this too is the reacting or that which reacts in proportion to what is felt. This reaction is felt by us with delights in our heart in keeping with the state constantly deployed and made ready to receive the influences, which in some way hang together with and proceed from the strength in our husbands and also with the ultimate state of love. Take care,' they went on to say, 'you do not understand the delights we have spoken of to mean the lowest delights of that love. We never say anything on that subject, but we do speak of the delights of our hearts, which perpetually match the state of our husbands' wisdom.'

[6] After this what looked like a dove was seen in the distance, flying with a tree-leaf in its mouth. But as it approached, instead of a dove, it looked like a small boy with a document in his hand. He came up to us and held it out to me, saying, 'Read this in the presence of the spring-maidens.' What I read was this: 'Tell the inhabitants of earth among whom you are that there is truly conjugial love, and it has tens of thousands of delights, though the world is so far only aware of a few. But it will get to know them, when the church betroths itself to the Lord and marries Him.' Then I asked, 'Why did that boy call you spring-maidens?' 'We are called maidens,' they replied, 'when we sit by this spring, since we are affections for the truths of our husbands' wisdom; and an affection for truth is called a maiden. The spring too stands for the truth of wisdom, and the rose-garden in which we sit stands for its delights.'

[7] Then one of the seven wove a garland of roses, sprinkled it with spring water, and placed it on the boy's hat around the crown, saying, 'Receive the delights of intelligence. You should know that a hat stands for intelligence, and a garland from this garden for its delights.' The boy went off with this adornment, and was seen again at a distance looking like a dove in flight, but this time with a crest on his head.