34. (19) Conjugial love depends upon the wife's love, and such too is the husband's love reciprocally; the wife's love does not depend on her husband's love. The reason is that just as the will acts on the understanding, good acts on truth; that is why it is said that a man ought to cleave to his wife. The reverse is true of those who are not in conjugial love.

'Grass' is natural truth, and 'flower of the field' is spiritual truth, as in Isaiah 40:5, 6. Green grass, in the Word, signifies the good and truth of the church, and of faith, which first springs up in the natural man. This is also signified by 'herb in the field.' Grass and the pulse of the herb, as in Psalm 32:2, signify what is most vile. Grass signifies science from a spiritual origin, or that by which spiritual truth is confirmed. 'Reeds and rushes' signify science from a sensory origin, or the things which confirm the fallacies of the senses, as in Isaiah 25:7. This science, considered in itself, is only a part of the lowest natural degree, which may be justly called material and bodily, in which there is little or no life. Green grass also signifies that which is alive with man. 'Grass burnt up' signifies the things which are dead in him. Grass signifies the scientific principle. Just as green grass serves animals for support, spiritual truth serves men for spiritual nourishment.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 507; Isaiah 7, 25; Psalms 2, 32)