416, 15. Otherwise, love or volition pulls wisdom or discernment back from its height so that they act in unison. There is earthly love and there is spiritual love. When we are engaged in earthly love and spiritual love together, then we are rational people. When we are engaged solely in earthly love, though, we can think just as rationally as spiritual people, but we are not really rational individuals. We do lift our discernment up into heaven's light, into wisdom, but the matters of wisdom or heaven's light are not objects of our love. It is our love that is making this happen, but behind it is a desire for respect, praise, and profit. However, once we realize that we are not getting any benefit from this elevation (as we do realize when we are thinking to ourselves on the basis of our earthly love), then we have no love for matters of heaven's light or wisdom. So our love then pulls our discernment down from its height so that the two will act in unison.
For example, when our discernment is filled with wisdom because it has been lifted up, then our love sees what justice, honesty, and chastity are, even what real love is. Earthly love can see this because of its ability to understand and ponder things in heaven's light. It can even talk about, preach, and describe these as both moral and spiritual virtues. When our discernment is not lifted up, though, then if our love is merely earthly it does not see these virtues. It sees injustice as justice, deception as honesty, lust as chastity, and so on. If we do think about the matters we discussed when our discernment was at its height, then we may make fun of them and think that they serve us only to ensnare people's minds.
We can therefore tell how to understand the statement that unless love loves its spouse, wisdom, to that degree, it pulls it down from its height so that they act in unison. (On love's ability to be lifted up if it does love wisdom to that degree, see 414 above.)
