ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING MARRIAGE. ¹

ORDER OF THE CHAPTERS.

PART FIRST.

I. - MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN [See the same subject treated of in the published work concerning Conjugial Love 27-41].

II. - THE STATE OF CONSORTS AFTER DEATH [Conjugial Love 45-54].

III. - LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL [Conjugial Love 57-73].

IV. - THE ORIGIN OF LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL, FROM THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH [Conjugial Love 83-102].

V. - THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD AND THE CHURCH, AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH IT [Conjugial Love 116-131].

VI. - THE CHASTE AND THE UNCHASTE [Conjugial Love 138-150].

VII. - UNIVERSALS CONCERNING CONJUGIAL LOVE [Conjugial Love 209-230]. ²

The delight of conjugial love is holy and chaste [Conjugial Love 144, 346].

Conjugial love regards the eternal [Conjugial Love 38, 44, 200, 216].

VIII. - THE CAUSES of COLDNESSES, OF SEPARATIONS, AND OF DIVORCES, WITH CONSORTS [Conjugial Love 234-260].

IX. - THE CAUSES OF APPARENT LOVE, FRIENDSHIP AND FAVOR WITH CONSORTS [Conjugial Love 271-292].

X. - THE CHANGE OF THE STATE OF LIFE WITH MAN AND WITH WOMAN BY MARRIAGE, FROM WHICH THE YOUNG MAN BECOMES A HUSBAND, AND THE VIRGIN BECOMES A WIFE [Conjugial Love 184-206].

XI. - CONJUNCTION OF SOULS AND MINDS BY MARRIAGE; WHICH CONJUNCTION IS MEANT BY THE WORDS OF THE LORD, THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER TWO, BUT ONE FLESH [Conjugial Love 156-181 ³ ].

XII. - BETROTHALS AND NUPTIALS [Conjugial Love 295-314].

XIII. - REPEATED MARRIAGES [Conjugial Love 317-325].

XIV. - POLYGAMY [Conjugial Love 332-352].

XV. - JEALOUSY [Conjugial Love 357-379].

XVI. - THE LOVE OF INFANTS, OR PARENTAL LOVE, AND ITS CONJUNCTION WITH CONJUGIAL LOVE [Conjugial Love 385-414].

PART SECOND.

I. - THE OPPOSITION OF CONJUGIAL LOVE AND SCORTATORY LOVE [Conjugial Love 423-443].

II. - FORNICATION; ALSO CONCERNING KEEPING A MISTRESS [Conjugial Love 444-460[*]].

III. - CONCUBINAGE [Conjugial Love 462-476].

IV. - ADULTERIES AND THEIR DEGREES [Conjugial Love 478-499].

V. - THE LUST OF VARIETIES [Conjugial Love 506-510].

VI. - THE LUST OF DEFLORATION [Conjugial Love 501-505].

VII. - THE LUST OF VIOLATION [Conjugial Love 511, 512].

VIII. - LUST OF SEDUCING INNOCENCIES [Conjugial Love 513, 514].

IX. - THE CORRESPONDENCE OF SCORTATIONS AND ADULTERIES WITH THE VIOLATION OF SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE, WHICH IS THE MARRIAGE OF GOOD AND TRUTH [Conjugial Love 515-520].

X. - THE IMPUTATION OF EACH LOVE, SCORTATORY AND CONJUGIAL [Conjugial Love 523-531].

GENERAL CONTENTS.

1. Marriages in heaven (2-30) [Conjugial Love 27-41].

2. The origin of conjugial love (31-76) [Conjugial Love 83-102].

3. The delights of love truly conjugial (77-146) [Conjugial Love 183; see also 69, 144, 155, 293, 294].

4. The connection of conjugial love with all the loves of heaven (147-222) [Conjugial Love 388-390].

5. Masculine and feminine conjugial love, specifically; and the intelligence of each (223-303) [Conjugial Love 218; see also 32, 61, 88, 90, 168].

6. The marriage of good and truth (304-407) [Conjugial Love 83-102, 122, 123].

7. The differences and the variety of conjugial love, according to the states of the church with men (408-568) [Conjugial Love 130].

8. The increments of love truly conjugial, and the decrease of love not truly conjugial (769-763) [Conjugial Love 162, 184-200, 213, 214, 432, 433]. ⁵

9. Conjugial similitude and dissimilitude (564-852) [Conjugial Love 227-229, 246].

10. The causes of coldnesses, separations, and divorces, with consorts (853-1018) [Conjugial Love 234-260].

11. Polygamy, or plurality of wives (1019-1110) [Conjugial Love 332-352].

12. Betrothals and nuptials (1111-1193) [Conjugial Love 295-314].

13. The difference between the love of the sex with beasts and the love of the sex with men (1194-1251) [Conjugial Love 94, 137, 230, 416; see also the posthumous treatise, Concerning Divine Love, 21].

14. The change of state of woman and of man by marriage; from which change the virgin becomes a wife, and the young man a husband (1252-1286) [Conjugial Love 184-200].

15. The state of widowers and of widows; also concerning repeated marriages (1287-1300) [Conjugial Love 317-325].

16. The marriage of the Lord with the church (1301-1344) [Conjugial Love 116-131].

17. Correspondence of the marriage of the Lord and the church with things relating to marriage with angels and men (1345-1457) [Conjugial Love 125-127].

18. Natural conjugial potency and spiritual conjugial potency (1459-1585) [Conjugial Love 220, 221].

19. The causes of love, friendship, and favor, between consorts (1586-1641) [Conjugial Love 180, 214, 290].

20. The love of infants, or parental love (1642-1700) [Conjugial Love 176, 211].

21. The conjunction of conjugial love with love of infants or parental love (1701-1718) [Conjugial Love 385-414].

22. The state of two consorts after death (1719-1737) [Conjugial Love 45-54].

SCORTATORY LOVE (1738. seq.).

1. Jealousy (1739-1791) [Conjugial Love 357-379].

2. Fornication (1792-1848) [Conjugial Love 444-460][*].

It there treats:

(1) Concerning keeping a mistress (1806, seq. [Conjugial Love 459, 460]):

(2) Concerning the lust of varieties (1811) [Conjugial Love 506-510]):

(3) Concerning the lust of defloration (1814) [Conjugial Love 501-505]):

(4) Concerning the lust of violation (1419) [Conjugial Love 511, 512]):

(5) Concerning the lust of seducing innocencies (1823) [Conjugial Love 513, 514].

3. Concubinage (1849-1873) [Conjugial Love 462-467].

4. Adulteries (1874-1909) [Conjugial Love 478-499].

5. The opposition of conjugial love and scortatory love (1910-1949) [Conjugial Love 423-443].

6. The correspondence of whoredoms and adulteries with the violation of spiritual marriage, which is the marriage of good and truth (n.) 1950-2001) [Conjugial Love 515-520].

CONTENTS OF THE REMAINING ARTICLES.

1. The perception and the wisdom proper to man and proper to woman, also the conjunction of man and woman by them (2007) [Conjugial Love 163-173].

2. Duties proper to man and proper to woman; also the conjunction of man and woman by them (2023) [Conjugial Love 174-176].

3. The transcription of the love of his own (proprii) with the man, into conjugial love with the wife (2036) [Conjugial Love 32, 88, 156[*], 192, 293, 353].

4. The faculties, inclinations, affections and qualities of men and of women, and their conjunction by marriage (2047) [Conjugial Love 163-180].

5. Proprium in man, and proprium in woman; and their transcription into conjugial love (2048) [Conjugial Love 32, 156, 163-173].

6. Coldnesses in marriages (2049) [Conjugial Love 234-260].

7. Difficulties in understanding the conjunctions of consorts, and the varieties therefrom (2050).

MEMORABILIA.

Consorts from the third heaven were seen, borne in a chariot, and descending; described as to face and as to garments; having spoken with me, they let down a parchment on which were inscribed arcana of conjugial love (1, p. 16) [Conjugial Love 42, 43].

The correspondence of conjugial love with fire, with the colors of the rainbow, with fragrant things, with rose-gardens and arbors, with winged things and animals, represented by angels (29, p. 42 1/2, 43) [Conjugial Love 76, 293, 294, 316].

The nuptial garden which appears round about the houses while nuptials are celebrated; and the Divine Providence which encompasses marriages: from the discourse of a certain wise person in the garden (76, p. 49) [Conjugial Love 316].

There were seen consorts from the third heaven; at first appearing as infants decked with garlands, afterwards of their proper stature. They had lived a thousand years in conjugial blessedness. Conjugial love, as it is in that heaven, is described; it is from wisdom and from the love of wisdom, and it is with those who do uses, etc. (146, p. 50) [Conjugial Love 137].

Something about the magnificent and splendid things in heaven: next it is told whence angels have perpetual potency: confirmed by reasons, given by an angel (222, p. 46 1/2, 47) [Conjugial Love 12-20, 355, 356].

A paper on which was inscribed, "The marriage of Good and Truth;" - how it appeared on the way, when let down to the earth by an angel, and how it was changed: also many things about that marriage, in the whole heaven and in the church (301, p. 46) [Conjugial Love 115].

Adulterers seen like satyrs, in the company of harlots, in a wood and in a cavern there; afterwards in a house: where they were speaking heinous things about marriages, nature, and religion (407) [Conjugial Love 521].

A discussion concerning God and nature, - (1) Whether nature is of life, or life of nature: (2) Whether the center is of the expanse, or the expanse of the center: (3) Concerning the center and the expanse of nature and of life (568, p. 79) [Conjugial Love 380].

Concerning a certain garden, in which there were several married pairs; also conversations there respecting love, wisdom and use; that the three proceed from the Lord, and that hence are conjugial love and its ineffable delights: much concerning these and their origin (763, p. 41) [Conjugial Love 183].)

Concerning a young man who boasted of his whoredom; he was conducted into heaven, and there he was held by turns in his externals and his internals: while in externals he saw heavenly things, but while in internals he saw the opposite (concerning which see 852, p. 77) [Conjugial Love 477].

While following the light, I came to the Temple of Wisdom, around which there dwelt those who were wise; there I conversed with them concerning the cause of the beauty of the female sex (1018, p. 45) [Conjugial Love 56].

Of the new things revealed by the Lord: as concerning the spiritual sense of the Word, and concerning correspondences, concerning heaven and hell, concerning the spiritual world and the sun there; also concerning conjugial love, as being according to religion: but that these things are not received in the world was testified by experience (1108, p. 48, also 50) [Conjugial Love 532-534].

Discussions, by the wise, of the following subjects:

(1) What the image of God is, and what the likeness of God:

(2) That man is not born into love and into knowledge, as the beasts are, but only into capacity to know and inclination to love:

(3) Concerning the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (1193, p. 60) [Conjugial Love 132-136].

Concerning Athenaeum, Parnassium, and Heliconeum: conversation with ancient wise men, and with two newly come from the earth, about men who had been found in the forest; also concerning things that were said in favor of nature and the life of beasts, compared with the life of men (1251, p. 64) [Conjugial Love 151-154[ ¹ ].

Again three new-comers were conducted to Athenaeum, - a priest, a politician, and a philosopher; who reported, as news from the earth, that a certain person had written various things about the life of men after death and about the spiritual world; and they told how these subjects were discussed on earth (1286, p. 66) [Conjugial Love 182].

A tumult against three priests, who preached that with adulterers there is no acknowledgment of God, and consequently that they have not heaven; also what happened to them, out of heaven (1300, p. 75) [Conjugial Love 500].

Concerning a novitiate who meditated about heaven and hell, and who was told to make inquiry, and to learn what delight is: he was led to three assemblies; in which he learned what the delight of heaven is, and what the delight of hell (1344, p. 54) [Conjugial Love 461].

A disputation by spirits concerning God and concerning nature, in favor of nature from devils, and in favor of God from angels: also that man may confirm himself in favor of God, more than for nature, from the things that he can see: those things are adduced which were written on this subject in Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Divine Wisdom (1458, p. 62) [Conjugial Love 415-422].

A melody was heard concerning chaste love of the sex; and that they have that love who are in love truly conjugial, and thence in fullest potency (1585, p. 64) [Conjugial Love 55].

Various reasonings about the soul; and finally that the soul is the man living after death, because it is the form of all the affections of love, and of all the perceptions of wisdom, and is their receptacle (1641, p. 70) [Conjugial Love 315].

After this there was a conversation about the spiritual and the natural; and it was shown what differences there are between them, as to languages, writings, and thoughts: the conversation was renewed when looking at a moth, and observing that when divided it was more and more multiform, and not more and more simple (1699, p. 72) [Conjugial Love 326-329].

Wise men were called together from nine kingdoms of Europe, to give their opinion concerning the origin of conjugial love, and concerning its virtue and potency; and at last the prize, which was a turban, was given to an African (1718, p. 30) [Conjugial Love 103-114].

Three orators from France discoursed concerning the origin of the beauty of the female sex; one said that it was from love, another from wisdom, and the third from the conjunction of love and wisdom (1737, p. 57 1/2, 58) [Conjugial Love 381-384].

Concerning two angels, who had died in infancy, and who could not perceive what whoredom is, because it is not from creation. Conversation about it, and concerning evil; how evil exists, when from creation there is only good (1738, p. 86) [Conjugial Love 444].

Exclamations were heard, "O how just," "O how learned," "O how wise;" and it is here said of those called just, that they were those who gave judgment from friendship, and were able skillfully to pervert all things; they had no understanding of things that were just: their assemblage is described (1791, p. 37) [Conjugial Love 231].

Preliminary statements concerning the joys of heaven, and concerning nuptials there (1826-1848, p. 1) [Conjugial Love 1-25].

Concerning the love of dominion from the love of self; with politicians, that they wish to be kings and emperors; with canons, that they wish to be gods. Concerning devils that were seen, who had been in such love; also concerning two popes (1873, p. 56) [Conjugial Love 261-266].

Again in Athenaeum; where three new-comers were heard to say that they had believed that in heaven there were no administrations and works, because there was eternal rest; and it was shown that doing uses is that rest; there was also mention of books and writings; and it was said that there are these also in heaven, for all substantial things which are called spiritual are there (1909, p. 68) [Conjugial Love 207].

Of those concerning whom was the exclamation, "O how learned:" they were those who go no farther in their reasoning than to question whether a thing is so, and who are called reasoners (1948, p. 38) [Conjugial Love 232].

Of those concerning whom was the exclamation, "O how wise:" they were those who were able to make whatever they pleased to be true, and were called confirmers (1949, p. 30) [Conjugial Love 233].

A conversation of angels with three novitiates concerning nuptials in heaven (various things, 2001, p. 17) [Conjugial Love 44].

Golden rain was seen: I was conducted to a hall where husbands and wives instructed me concerning conjugial love; also concerning its delights, from the wives there (2002, p. 34) [Conjugial Love 155 [*].

Conversation with those who lived in the golden age, concerning conjugial love, and in regard to their marriages (2003, p. 20, seq. [Conjugial Love 75].

Conversation with those who lived in the silver age; this, too, concerning conjugial love (2004) [Conjugial Love 76].

Conversation with those who lived in the copper age (2005) [Conjugial Love 77].

Conversation with those who lived in the iron age; they were polygamists (2006) [Conjugial Love 78].

Conversation with those who lived after those four ages; they were whoremongers and adulterers (2034) [Conjugial Love 79, 80].

Of the conversion of this age into a golden age by the Lord; concerning which the angels glorified the Lord (2035) [Conjugial Love 81].

Concerning one's own intelligence or prudence, that it, is not [anything] (2051, p. 59) [Conjugial Love 353].

Whether conjugial love and love of [their own] beauty coexist in women; and whether conjugial love and the love of their own intelligence coexist in men (2052, p. 52) [Conjugial Love 330, 331].

Again the golden rain was seen, and some arcana respecting conjugial love in women were disclosed (2053, p. 35) [Conjugial Love 208].

Spiritual coldness has its seat in the highest region (2054, p. 51) [Conjugial Love 270].

Concerning those who are in the love of the world (p. 90) [Conjugial Love 267-269].

The delights of conjugial love are delights of wisdom (p. 91) [Conjugial Love 293]. ⁵

And the pleasures of scortatory love are pleasures of insanity (p. 92) [Conjugial Love 294].

Footnotes:

137. The second account:

While I was once thinking about conjugial love, I suddenly caught sight of two naked little children in the distance, with baskets in their hands and turtledoves flying around them. Then, as they came closer, they looked like naked little children modestly decked out in garlands of flowers. Their heads were decorated with little chaplets of flowers, and their breasts were adorned with sash-like wreathes of blue-colored lilies and roses that hung diagonally from their shoulders to their hips. And round about the two of them appeared what looked like a shared chain of little leaves woven together and interspersed with olives.

When they drew nearer still, however, they did not appear as little children or naked, but as two adults in the bloom of their early youth, dressed in robes and tunics of shining silk, with beautiful-looking flowers woven into them. Moreover, when they stood next to me, a springlike warmth wafted down from heaven through them with a sweet-scented fragrance, like the fragrance of first growth in gardens and fields.

The two were a married couple from heaven, and they then spoke to me. And because I was still thinking about the things I had just seen, they asked, "What did you see?"

[2] So I told them how they had first appeared to me as naked little children, then as little children decked out in garlands, and finally as people more grown up, dressed in garments decorated with flowers. I also told them how an atmosphere of spring had then instantly wafted over me with its delights.

They laughed pleasantly at this and said that on the way they had not appeared to themselves as little children or naked or wearing garlands, but the whole time had looked the same as they did now. Their appearing as they had at a distance, they said, represented their conjugial love, its state of innocence being represented by their appearing as naked little children, its delights by the garlands, and these same delights now by the flowers woven into their robes and tunics.

"And," they continued, "because you said that as we approached, a springlike warmth wafted over you with its pleasant aromas, like those from a garden, we will tell you why this was.

[3] "We have been married for centuries now," they said, "and we have remained continually in this bloom of youth in which you see us.

"At first our state was similar to the initial state of a maiden and youth when they first come together in marriage. Moreover, we believed at the time that that state was the most blissful state we could experience in life. But we were told by others in our heaven, and we afterwards perceived for ourselves, that it was a state of heat not yet tempered with light. We found that it is gradually tempered as the husband is perfected in wisdom and as the wife grows to love that wisdom in her husband, which is achieved through and according to the useful services which each of them performs in society with the other's help. We also found that new delights then follow as heat and light or wisdom and its accompanying love are tempered each with the other.

[4] "A seemingly springlike warmth wafted over you when we approached because in our heaven conjugial love and that warmth go hand in hand. For with us, warmth is love, and light with warmth joined to it is wisdom, and useful service is like an atmosphere which holds both in its embrace. What are heat and light without their containing medium? So likewise, what are love and wisdom without their expression in useful service? Without expression in useful service, there is no bond of marriage between the two, because the objective reality in which they exist is lacking.

"In heaven, one finds truly conjugial love wherever there is a springlike warmth. One finds truly conjugial love there because a springlike climate occurs only where warmth is joined to light in an even balance, or where there is as much warmth as there is light and vice versa. And we like to think that as warmth works its pleasure when accompanied by light and conversely light when accompanied by warmth, so love works its pleasure when accompanied by wisdom and conversely wisdom when accompanied by love."

[5] With us in heaven, the man said further, the light is constant, and we never experience the dusk of evening, still less darkness, because our sun does not rise and set like your sun but stands continually midway between a point overhead and the horizon, or as you would say, at an elevation of 45 degrees.

"That is why," he said, "the heat and light emanating from our sun result in perpetual spring, and this inspires a perpetual springlike state in those in whom love is united in even measure with wisdom.

"Through the eternal union of heat and light, moreover, our Lord inspires nothing that is not productive and useful. That, too, is why the sproutings of plants on your earth and the matings of your birds and animals take place in springtime. For the warmth of spring opens up their inner capabilities even to the inmost forces which are called their souls, stirring them, and imparting to them its own inclination to unite, and causing their reproductive instinct to come into its delight from a continual effort to produce fruits of use, which is the propagation of their kind.

[6] "In the case of human beings, however, there is a never-ending influx of springlike warmth from the Lord. Consequently they can experience the delights of marriage in any season, even in the middle of winter. For men were created to be receivers of light from the Lord, meaning the light of wisdom, and women were created to be receivers of warmth from the Lord, meaning the warmth of love for the wisdom in a man.

"That now is why as we approached a springlike warmth wafted over you with a sweet-scented fragrance, like the fragrance of first growth in gardens and fields."

[7] Having said this, the man gave me his right hand and took me to houses where married couples lived in the same flower of youth in which they were. And he told me that the wives, who now looked like young girls, had once been wrinkled old ladies in the world, and that the husbands, who now looked like adolescent youths, had once been decrepit old men there. They have all been returned by the Lord to the bloom of this youthful age, he said, because they loved each other and out of religion abstained from adulterous affairs as enormous sins.

He added as well that only those people know the blissful delights of conjugial love who reject the horrible delights of adultery. And no one can reject these except one who is wise from the Lord, and no one is wise from the Lord unless he performs useful services from a love of doing them.

I also caught sight then of the implements in their houses. These were all in heavenly forms, and they shone of gold that was practically ablaze with intermingled rubies.

477. To this I will append the following narrative account:

I heard a certain spirit, a young man newly come from the world, boasting of his licentious activities and acting as though he wished to have the acclaim of being a man more manly than others. Then amid the effronteries of his boasting, he blurted out also the following:

"What is more dismal than to imprison one's love and to live alone with only one woman? And what is more delightful than to set one's love free? Who is not wearied by the companionship of one, and enlivened by the attentions of many? Is anything sweeter than unrestricted freedom, variety, the deflowering of virgins, the deceiving of husbands, and licentious charades? Do not those things delight the inmost elements of the mind which are obtained by wiles, subterfuges and theft?"

[2] On hearing this, the people standing by said, "Do not speak so! You do not know where you are and in whose company you are. You have only recently arrived here. Under your feet is hell, and above your head is heaven. You are now in the world which is midway between those two and is called the world of spirits. All people come here and are gathered here who pass away out of the world, and they are explored with respect to their character and prepared, evil people for hell and good people for heaven. Perhaps you recall still from priests in the world that licentious and wanton men and women are cast into hell, and that the chastely married are taken up into heaven."

The newcomer laughed at that, saying, "What is heaven, and what is hell? Is it not heaven wherever a person is free, and is he not free who is at liberty to make love to as many of the opposite sex as he pleases? And is it not hell wherever a person is enslaved, and is he not enslaved who must restrict himself to one?"

[3] But a certain angel looking down from heaven heard what he was saying and stopped him from speaking, to keep him from going any further and speaking profanely of marriage. And the angel said to him, "Come up here, and I will show you by actual experience what heaven is and what hell is, and what the latter is like for the deliberately licentious."

The angel then pointed out a path, by which the newcomer ascended. And after receiving the newcomer, he took him first to a garden paradise, containing fruit trees and flowers whose beauty, charm and fragrance filled their spirits with invigorating delights.

On seeing these sights, the newcomer marveled with great admiration; but he was then seeing with his external sight, of the kind he had had in the world when viewing like things there, and in that state of sight he was rational. However, when seeing with his internal sight, in which licentiousness predominated and occupied every particle of his thought, he was not rational. His external sight was closed up, therefore, and his internal sight opened. And when it was opened he said, "What is this I am seeing now? Are they not wisps of straw and dry sticks of wood? And what am I smelling now? Is it not a foul stench? Where now have the things of paradise gone?"

Whereupon the angel said, "They are close by and around you, but they are not visible to your internal sight, which is licentious; for licentiousness turns heavenly things into hellish ones and sees only their opposites. Every person has an inner mind and an outer mind, thus an internal sight and an external sight. In evil people the inner mind is insane and the outer one wise, while in good people the inner mind is wise and in consequence of it the outer one too; and the character of the mind determines how a person in the spiritual world sees objects."

[4] After that, by a power given him, the angel closed up the newcomer's internal sight and opened his external one; and he took him through some gates towards the central area of their residences, where the young man saw magnificent palaces of alabaster, marble, and various precious stones, with arcades adjoining them, and columns round about, covered and beset with stunning emblems and ornamentations.

When the young man saw these, he was overwhelmed with astonishment, and he said, "What am I seeing? I am seeing magnificent sights in the essence of their magnificence, and architecture in the essence of its art!"

But then the angel closed up his external sight again, and opened his internal one, which was evil because of its foully licentious character; and at that the young man cried out, saying, "What am I seeing now? Where am I? Where now have the palaces and magnificent sights gone? I am seeing ruins, rubble, and cavernous hollows!"

[5] He was, however, shortly restored to his external state and taken into one of the palaces; and he beheld the ornamentations of the doors, windows, walls and ceilings - especially of the implements, which were covered and beset with heavenly forms of gold and precious stones such as words cannot describe or any art portray; for they transcended the imagery of words and the conceptions of art.

Seeing these things, the young man cried out again, saying, "These are truly marvels, never seen by any eye before!"

But then as previously his external sight was closed up and his internal one opened; and on being asked what he saw now, he replied, "Nothing but walls of rushes here, of straw there, and of firebrands over there."

[6] Again, however, he was brought into his external state of mind, and maidens were presented to him who were pictures of beauty, because they were images of heavenly affection; and these spoke to him in the sweet voice of their affection. At that, then, on seeing and hearing them, the young man's expression changed, and he spontaneously slipped back into his internal qualities, which were licentious. And because these qualities cannot endure any element of heavenly love, and conversely cannot be endured by any heavenly love, they vanished on both sides - the maidens from the sight of the man, and the man from the sight of the maidens.

[7] After that the angel informed him of the reason for these changes in the state of his sight. "I perceive," he said, "that in the world from which you come, you had a dual character, being one person in your inner qualities and another in your outer ones; and that in your outer qualities you were a law-abiding, moral and rational person, but in your inner qualities not law-abiding, not moral, and not rational, because you were licentious and an adulterer. When people of this character are permitted to ascend into heaven and are kept there in their outer qualities, they can see the heavenly objects around them; but when their inner qualities are laid open, instead of heavenly objects they see hellish ones.

[8] "However, you should know that the outer qualities in everyone here are gradually closed up and the inner ones laid open, and thus they are prepared for heaven or for hell. Furthermore, because the evil of licentiousness defiles the inner qualities of the mind more than any other evil, it is inevitable that you be carried down to the foul depravities of your love, depravities which exists in the hells, in caverns which stink of excrement.

"Who cannot know from reason that unchasteness and lasciviousness in the spiritual world is impure and unclean, and thus that nothing pollutes and defiles a person more and induces on him a hellish character?

"Take care, therefore, not to boast any further of your licentiousness, thinking that in this you are a man more manly than others. I predict to you that you will become impotent, even so that you scarcely know where your masculinity lies. Such is the fate that awaits those who boast of the prowess of their licentiousness."

After hearing this the young man descended and went back to the world of spirits, and returning to his former companions, he spoke with them modestly and chastely - but yet not for long.