311. 15. Such is the order and its steps by which conjugial love develops, from its first warmth to its first fire. We say, from its first warmth to its first fire, because the warmth of life is love, and conjugial warmth or love grows gradually until at last it bursts into flame or fire. We say, to its first fire, because we are referring to the first state following the wedding when this love is set ablaze. But what it is like after that fire, during the marriage itself, has already been described in previous chapters; and in this section of the discussion we have just laid out the course it follows from the initial starting point to this its first terminus.
[2] Every progression develops from initial elements to concluding ones; and the last elements become the first in some succeeding progression. So also, all the elements in an intermediate progression are the concluding elements of a prior progression and the first elements of a subsequent one; and thus do ends continually proceed through causes to effects. This can be demonstrated and illustrated satisfactorily to the sight of reason from phenomena recognized and visible in the world. But because we are dealing here with the proper order in which love progresses from its first point to its realization, we pass these considerations by and say on the subject only that as the development of this love is from its first warmth to its first fire, such is for the most part the development of it and the way it progresses afterwards. For in that progression what the first warmth was like within unveils itself. And if it was chaste, its chastity becomes stronger in its progressions. But if it was unchaste, its lack of chastity increases as it progresses, until it is stripped of any chastity it had adopted outwardly from the time of betrothal and failed to have within.
