THERE IS A RECIPROCAL CONJUNCTION OF LOVE AND WISDOM

That there is a reciprocal conjunction of love and wisdom, or, what is the same thing, of Will and Understanding, also of affection and thought, and similarly of good and truth, is an arcanum not hitherto revealed. Reason can detect that there is conjunction, but not that it is a reciprocal conjunction. That reason can detect that there is conjunction, is evident from the conjunction of affection and thought; for no one can think without affection; and anyone willing to investigate, will perceive that affection is the life of thought, and furthermore that such as the affection is, such is the thought; consequently if the one grows warm, the other does the same, and if the one grows cold, the other grows cold too. It is because of this that when a man is happy, he thinks happily, and when he is saddened, he thinks sadly; so also, when he is angry, he thinks angrily, and so forth. Look down from your higher thought into your lower thought, and take careful notice, and you will see.

The conjunction of love and wisdom is similar, because every affection is of the love, and every thought is of the wisdom. Similar also is the conjunction of Will and Understanding, the love being of the Will, and the wisdom being of the Understanding. Again, the conjunction of good and truth is similar, good being of love, and truth being of wisdom, as confirmed in a preceding section. Concerning this conjunction, see what is stated in DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, NOS. 11-27.

[[2]] [116.] That the conjunction is a reciprocal one, may also be deduced from the case of affection and thought, in that an affection produces thought, and the thought reproduces the affection. It may be deduced especially, however, from the reciprocal conjunction of the heart and the lungs, for as shown before in Sections VI and VII, there is, with human beings, correspondence in all points between the heart and the Will, and between the lungs and the Understanding; consequently, from the conjunction of heart and lungs we can derive instruction regarding the conjunction of Will and Understanding, consequently regarding the conjunction of love and wisdom. From the parallelism established between these two pairs, it can be shown that:-

(1) The life of the Will conjoins itself to the life of the Understanding.

(2) It is a reciprocal conjunction; what its nature is.

(3) The life of the Understanding purifies the life of the Will. it also perfects and exalts it.

(4) The life of the Will co-operates with the life of the Understanding in every movement; and conversely, the life of the Understanding cooperates with the life of the Will in every sensation.

(5) Similarly with vocal sound and its speech.

(6) Similarly with both the good and the wicked, except that in the case of the wicked the life of the Will is not purified, perfected and exalted by the life of the Understanding, but is befouled, corrupted and debased by it.

(7) The love that is the life of the Will, makes all man's life.

[[3]] [117.] It should be known first, however, that by "the life of the Will" is meant love and affection, and by the "life of the Understanding" is meant wisdom, intelligence and knowledge. It should also be understood that the heart itself, together with all the blood-vessels throughout the body, corresponds to the Will, while the blood therein corresponds to the love and to its affections that are comprised, which is the life of the Will: also that the lungs, together with the trachea, the larynx, the glottis and finally the tongue, correspond to the Understanding, while the respiration, effected by the influx of air through the larynx and trachea into the bronchial tubes, corresponds to the life of the Understanding.

These things should be known in order that the truth unfolded by means of the correspondences may be rightly grasped. Now, therefore, for the parallelism.

[118.] (1) The life of the Will conjoins itself to the life of the Understanding. On the basis of the parallelism, it is clear that the life of the Will, which life is the love, flows into the Understanding and makes its inmost life: that the Understanding receives it of its own accord: and that the Will, by means of the influx of its love, first produces in the Understanding affections proper to the Will, or love, then perceptions, and finally thoughts together with ideas, in co-operation with it. That this is so, may be established from the heart's conjunction with the lungs. The heart sends the whole of its blood through its right auricle into the lungs, causing the blood-vessels in the latter to be blood-red, which makes the lungs from being white appear red. The heart sends its blood through its covering or outermost tunic, termed the pericardium, this tunic continuing to encompass the blood-vessels till they reach the innermost parts of the lungs. In this way the heart makes the life of the lungs, and gives them power, so that they can respire; respiration takes place by the influx of air into the bronchial tubes, and by their reciprocal motion, or exhaling.

[2] [119.] (2) It is a reciprocal conjunction; what its nature is. On the basis of the parallelism, it may be established that the Understanding sends back the life of the love received from the Will; not, however, along the same path as that by which it was received, but along another running by the side of it; and that hence the Will actuates life in the whole body. But this reciprocal conjunction may be more fully understood from the reciprocal conjunction of the heart and the lungs, on account of the similarity between them. As said above, the heart sends the blood through its right auricle into the lungs, and the lungs send back the blood they receive, into the left auricle of the heart, thus by a different path. The heart then pours it forth out of its left ventricle with great force to every part, through the aorta into the body, and through the carotid arteries into the brain; by means of these arteries and their ramifications, the heart operates active life throughout the body, for in the arteries the heart has active force. The arterial blood afterwards flows everywhere into the veins through which it flows back to the right ventricle of the heart, and out of this again, as before, to the lungs and back again into the left auricle. This circulation of the blood in everyone is continuous, because the blood corresponds to the life of the love, and the respiration to the life of the Understanding. It is clear from the above that there is a reciprocal conjunction of love and wisdom, and that the love is man's sole and essential life.

[3] [[2]] [120.] (3) The life of the Understanding purifies the life of the Will. This is not only clear from their correspondence with the lungs and the heart, but also from the fact that man is born into evils from his parents and in consequence prefers corporeal and worldly things to celestial and spiritual things, the result being that his life, which is his love, is by nature perverted and unclean. Reason will enable anyone to see that this life cannot be purified except by means of a man's Understanding, and that it is purified by the truths, spiritual, moral and civil, that make the Understanding; it is on that account that man has been given the ability to perceive such things as are contrary to the love of his Will and to think them affirmatively; and not only to see that [the things he is born into] are [evils], but also, if he looks to God, to be able to resist them, and in this way remove the perverted and foul things of his Will: this is "being purified".

An illustration of this also may be seen in the removal of impurities from the blood in the lungs. It is known to anatomists that the blood sent from the heart has impurities removed there, from the fact that the quantity of blood flowing in from the heart is larger than that flowing back from the lungs into the heart: also because it flows into the lungs unprepared and full of impurities, but flows back disciplined and pure: also because in the lungs there is a cellular tissue into which the blood from the heart separates out the useless elements it contains and discharges them into the bronchial vessels and tubes, and because mucus in the throat and nostrils is partly from this source, as well as vapour from the breath. From these things it is obvious that the vitiated blood from the heart is purified in the lungs. What was stated above can be illustrated thereby, inasmuch as the heart's blood corresponds to the Will's love, which is man's life, and the respiration of the lungs corresponds to his Understanding's perception and thought, by means of which purification is effected.

[121.] That the life of the Understanding also perfects and exalts the life of the Will is because the Will's love, which makes a man's life, is purged of its evils by the agency of the Understanding, the man from being corporeal and worldly becomes spiritual and celestial, and then the truths and goods of heaven and of the Church become of his affection and nourish his soul. Thus, the life of his Will is made new, and, from that, the life of his Understanding as well: thus both are perfected and exalted. It is in the Understanding and by means of it, that this takes place, but still it is actuated from the Will, for the Will is the essential man.

Confirmation of this, too, is found in the correspondence of the lungs and the heart. The lungs, corresponding to the Understanding, not only purge the blood of its impurities, as said above, but also provide nutriment for it out of the air; for the air is full of volatile elements and odours of the same nature as the substances of the blood, and there are also, in the lobules of the bronchial tubes, innumerable networks of blood-vessels which, as their nature is, absorb what flows near. This is how the blood is made active and bright, and becomes arterial blood, which is its condition when flowing out from the lungs into the left cavity of the heart. That the atmosphere does feed the blood in the lungs with fresh aliments is clear from many facts of experience. For there are airs inhaled that are harmful to the lungs, and others that are invigorating, thus some that are destructive, and some that are health-giving. There are instances of people fasting, who have lived for a long time without terrestrial food, thus on atmospheric sustenance only. There are animal species, such as bears, vipers, chameleons, etc., who keep alive without other food. It is obvious from this that in the lungs the blood derives nutriment also from the atmosphere. So also, in accordance with the correspondence, the life of the Understanding perfects, and exalts the life of the Will.

[4] [122.] (4) The life of the Will co-operates with the life of the Understanding in every movement: and conversely, the life of the Understanding co-operates with the life of the Will in every sensation. It was shown above that the Will and Understanding cooperate in each and all parts of the body, just as the heart and lungs do, but it has not yet been shown that the primary part in producing movements is taken by the Will, while the primary part in setting up sensations is taken by the Understanding. That the Will plays the primary part in movements follows as a consequence from its function, that of action: for willing is that from which doing and acting are. That the Understanding plays the primary part in sensations follows also as a consequence of its function, that of perceiving, and therefore that of sensating. Yet there can be neither movement nor sensation without both Will and Understanding co-operating. This is seen, too, from the co-operation between the heart and the lungs. It is evident from the muscles that the heart plays the primary part, and the lungs a secondary one, for in them the arteries act and the membranes derived from the ligaments react: the arteries are constricted by nerves actuated from the brain, and relaxed by the little membranes arising from the ligaments leading into them; the arteries originate from the heart, whereas the ligaments, being continued from the diaphragm, peritonaeum or other source, are subject to the alternate motion of the lungs. It is obvious from this that in the case of movements, the blood from the heart plays the primary part, and the respiration of the lungs a secondary one: the respiration of the lungs plays a secondary part in the muscles through the aforesaid ligaments, which are subject to their motion; those ligaments, moreover, make the common sheathing of the muscles, and also the membranes of the motor fibres, and in this way enter into the smallest parts; by this arrangement, there are reactions, both general and particular, and particular reactions can be variously proportioned under a general one, in accordance with a principle of Nature operative in all things. It is the same with the Will and Understanding.

That in sensations, on the other hand, it is the lungs that play the primary part, and the heart a secondary one, is evident from an examination of the sensory organs, which demonstrate the truth of it. As, however, the structures of these organs are complicated, and differ from each other, this cannot be described here to the reader's apprehension; it will be sufficient to know that all the sensory organs correspond to things of the Understanding, the organ of sight to intelligence, the organ of hearing to obedience as a result of giving heed, the organ of smell to perception, the tongue to wisdom, and the touch to perception in general.

[5] [123.] (5) Similarly with vocal sound and its speech. It was stated above* that the formations in the Understanding effected by the love flowing from the Will are, first, affections, then perceptions, and finally thoughts: and it is well known that all the vocal sounds are from the lungs, and that there are varieties of these sounds, some deriving very little from the Understanding, some deriving more, and some deriving much. Sounds deriving little from the Understanding are the sounds in singing and music: those deriving more are the inner sounds of speech: those deriving still more are the outer sounds of speech; the speech itself, by means of articulations of sound, which are the words, gives utterance to them.

That there is a correspondence of vocal sounds and speech, with the life of the Will, which life is the love, and the life of the Understanding, which life is the wisdom, can be perceived by the hearing, the nature of the love's affection by the sound, and the nature of the Understanding's wisdom from the speech; this is perceived very clearly by angels, but obscurely by men. The correspondence of the vocal sound itself is with the love's general affection in the Understanding: the correspondence of the variations of vocal sound, such as those of song and music, is with variations of the affections in the Understanding, that are from the Will's love: the correspondence of the variations of vocal sound that derive very little from the Understanding is with perception: of those that derive more, it is with the variation of the perceptions: of those that derive much, it is with the thought and its variations: and the ideas of thought, with the words; these things in brief.

There are two lungs, each called a lobe; where the beginnings of respiration take their rise is called the bronchial tubes: the channel into which they pass is called the trachea, or windpipe: its head is called the larynx, and the opening in this for vocal sound is called the glottis: from this there is a continuation into the nostrils and tongue, and an exit through the orifice of the lips; all these as one single series are comprised under "the lungs, their respiring and their vocalising," and taken together they correspond to the Understanding acting from the Will, their vocal sounds corresponding to the Understanding, and their movements to the Will. * Paragraph No. 118 see also No. 126

[6] [124.] (6) These things are so with both the good and the wicked, except that, in the case of the wicked, the life of the Will is not purified, perfected and exalted by the life of the Understanding, but is befouled, corrupted arid debased by it. With every human being there is a Will and an Understanding, and there is conjunction between them, a reciprocal one actually; it is so therefore, with the wicked as well as with the good. But the Will's love differs in each individual, consequently his Understanding's wisdom differs too; this difference is so great, as between the good and the wicked, that they are the contrary of each other. With the good there is a love of good, and, from it, there is understanding of truth, whereas with the wicked, there is a love of evil and, from it, understanding of falsity. So that inasmuch as with the good, the Will's love is not only purified by the Understanding, but also perfected and exalted by it, as explained above, it follows that with the wicked, the Will's love is befouled, corrupted and debased by the Understanding. In externals, it is true, there is apparently similarity, because externals assume appearances and are deceptive; in internals, however, there is dissimilarity.

[[2]] But how the matter actually is in itself can be very well illustrated from its correspondence with the heart and lungs. Everyone has a heart and lungs; in everyone too, there is conjunction between them, a reciprocal one actually; with everyone, also, the blood from the heart is freed in the lungs from impurities and fed with volatile elements and odours out of the air; in this, however, there is as between the good and the wicked the greatest dissimilarity. The nature of this purifying and feeding of the blood in the lungs with the good and the nature of it with the wicked can be judged from the following facts of experience: In the spiritual world, a good spirit draws in sweet and fragrant odours through his nostrils with delight, and finds putrid and unpleasant odours horrible; an evil spirit, on the other hand, draws in the putrid and unpleasant odours through his nostrils with delight, fleeing away from those that are sweet and fragrant. It is owing to this that in the hells there are odours that are loathsome, rank, stinking, rotten and the like, and this because every odour corresponds to the perception arising from the affection of some love; conversely, it is the same in the heavens in respect of fragrant odours.

[[3]] This makes it clear that with men in the world the blood is fed through the atmosphere by things similar to itself, such as things of a like nature, and is freed from things dissimilar to itself, such as things of an unlike nature. Human blood is, in its inmost, spiritual, and in its outermost, corporeal: consequently those human beings who are spiritual, feed their blood from such things in Nature as correspond to spiritual things; whereas those who are not spiritual feed theirs from such things in Nature as correspond thereto. Hence there is just as great a difference in kind and degree between the blood in human beings as there is between their loves; for the blood corresponds to the love, as the things above said make clear.

[7] [125.] (7) The love that is the life of the Will, makes all man's life. It is generally supposed that thought makes all man's life, whereas it is love that does so. The reason thought is supposed to do so is that a man's thought is apparent to him, but his love is not. If you were to take away the love, or any stream derived from it, called an affection, thinking would cease; you would grow cold and die. This does not occur, however, if you only take away thought, as is the case when there is loss of memory, also during sleep, fainting or suffocation, and while in the womb; at such times, although the man does not think, he still lives as long as the heart is beating, for the heart corresponds to the love. It is the same with the Will and Understanding, love being of the Will, and thought being of the Understanding.

[[2]] [126.] An illustration that the love makes all man's life was, moreover, provided in preceding sections by the correspondence between the heart and lungs; and by that, it was shown that, just as the heart forms the lungs in the womb in order that it may effect through them respiration and thus speech, so likewise does the love form the Understanding in order that it may think by means of it, and, from the thought, speak; in the same way, it was also shown that the love produces from itself affections, to which belong intentions, through these affections it produces perception to which belong "intuitions" (luces), through this perception it produces thought, to which belong ideas, and out of these latter it produces memory; all these taken together are of the love, in the Understanding, and to them correspond all the parts of the lungs in a similar series.

[[3]] [127.] Just as the love has formed the Understanding for the use of thinking and speaking, so also it has formed all the other of life's functions, for their uses, some for the use of nutrition, some for the uses of blood-making and chyle-making, some for the uses of procreation, some for the uses of sensation, some for the uses of action and locomotion, and in all these nothing else can operate their life but that which itself formed them, which is the love. Their formation is effected by means of the heart and its blood, because the blood corresponds to the love and the heart to the receptacle of love; and the viscera, organs and members throughout the body are the productions in which the functioning of those uses have been given form by the love, by means of the heart. Any one able to investigate them will see that in these viscera, organs and members there are progressive series of uses from a first to a last, similar to the series in the lungs.

From the above, and from preceding sections, it is clear that the love which is of the Will makes all man's life, and that from it the life of his Understanding is derived, and that consequently a man is his love, and also his Understanding in respect of what is from the love and in accordance with it.