3440. Above the head a little to the left in the rear stood those who favor promiscuous marriage, from the persuasion that every good ought to be common, thus also marriages, and [who hold] that the reason why matrimonies are contracted is solely with a view to cohabitation, and that thus the offspring may be reared as belonging to one party, while at the same time they really belong to others. Upon being asked what he thought of that kind of life, in which the good was thus common, he replied, as it was given to perceive, that he did not reject it, saying indeed that he did not approve it, yet still did not condemn it because every good is common. That both he and the other, who was his disciple, or former subject, thought so, was owing to the fact, that they had their own wives, with whom, on account of the scandal, they did not wish to have the concession take effect, but that others should think and act thus he had not the least objection. But it was told him that this was abominable, and that conjugial love was unique, from which not only the love of offspring, but (:as now:) all other loves were derived; that when this is relaxed, the most enormous license grows strong against all conjugial love, and nothing of life remains, which is [spiritual] death because there is no life of love. - 1748, October 2.