52. Marriages in the heavens do not lead to the procreation of offspring, but their place is taken by spiritual offspring, love and wisdom. This is because those in the spiritual world lack the third term, the natural. This is what holds spiritual things together, and without it these do not remain stable in the same way as what is procreated in the natural world. All spiritual things taken by themselves have reference to love and wisdom, so it is these which are born of marriages between them. I describe them as being born, because conjugial love makes an angel perfect, since it unites him with his partner, and this makes him more and more human. For, as I said above, a married couple in heaven are not two, but one angel. Conjugial union therefore fills them with what is human, that is, a will to be wise and to love anything to do with wisdom.
