324. (vii) The variations and diversities of these marriages as regards love and its attributes are beyond all counting.
All things display infinite variety and also infinite diversity. By variety we mean differences between the members of a single genus or a single species, as well as between different genera and species. By diversity we mean here differences between opposites. The following example will illustrate our concept of the distinction between variety and diversity.
The heaven of angels, which holds together as a unit, displays infinite variety. There is not a single angel there who is entirely like another, not in soul and mind, nor in affections, perceptions and the thoughts they induce, nor in inclinations and the intentions they produce, nor in tone of voice, face, body, gestures, manner of walking and many other things. Yet, although there are hundreds of millions of them, they have been and are being arranged by the Lord so as to make a single form, displaying total unanimity and concord. This would be impossible, were not all the angels with all their variety guided universally and individually by the One. This is what we mean by variety.
[2] By diversity, however, we mean the opposites of these varieties, which exist in hell. For there all without exception are diametrically opposed to the inhabitants of heaven; and hell composed of them is held together as a unit by varieties which are relatively the utter contraries of the varieties in heaven, that is, by perpetual diversity. These remarks will establish what is to be perceived by the words 'infinite variety' and 'infinite diversity.'
It is much the same with marriages: those who enjoy conjugial love display infinite variety, and so do those who display scortatory love. Consequently there is infinite diversity between these two groups. From this the conclusion follows, that the variety and diversity in marriages of every genus and species, whether of a young man with a young woman, a young man with a widow, a widower with a maiden, or a widower with a widow, exceed all counting. Can anyone reduce infinity to numbers?
