386. 1. Two universal atmospheres emanate from the Lord to preserve the universe in its created state, one of which is an atmosphere of procreating, and the other an atmosphere of protecting what has been procreated. We call the Divinity emanating from the Lord an atmosphere, because it goes out from Him, surrounds Him, fills both worlds - the spiritual and the natural - and brings about the effects of the ends which the Lord ordained at creation and which He subsequently provides.

Everything that flows out from an object, surrounds it and envelops it, is called an atmosphere. As, for example, the atmosphere of light and heat from the sun around it; the atmosphere of life from a person around him; the atmosphere of aroma from a shrub around it; the atmosphere of attraction from a magnet around it; and so on.

[2] But the universal atmospheres which we are discussing here are from the Lord around Him; and they emanate from the sun of the spiritual world, at whose center He is. From the Lord through that sun emanates an atmosphere of warmth and light, or to say the same thing, an atmosphere of love and wisdom, to bring about ends which are of use. However, that atmosphere is designated by various names according to the uses it serves. The Divine atmosphere in regard to the preservation of the universe in its created state by successive generations, is called an atmosphere of procreating; and the Divine atmosphere in regard to the preservation of those generations in their beginnings and afterwards in their advances, is called an atmosphere of protecting what has been procreated.

In addition to these two, there are a number of other Divine atmospheres, which are named according to the uses they serve, having thus various names, as may be seen above in no. 222. Effectuations of useful ends by means of these atmospheres are Divine providence.

433. That conjugial love makes a man more a man is also shown by those points which we presented previously in Part One, concerning love and the delights of its wisdom. Namely:

1. That the ability or virtue called virility accompanies wisdom as this is animated by spiritual matters connected with the church, and that such an ability or virtue is inherent therefore in conjugial love. Moreover, that such wisdom opens up the stream of this love from its wellspring in the soul, and thus invigorates and also blesses with continuance the life of the intellect, which is the essential life of masculinity.

2. That in consequence, angels in heaven possess this ability to eternity, according to their own declarations (reported in the narrative account in nos. 355-356). Likewise, that the most ancient peoples in the golden and silver ages possessed a continuing ability, because they loved the amatory embraces of their wives and shrank in horror from those of harlots, as I have heard from their own testimony (see the narrative accounts in nos. 75, 76).

[2] I have further been told from heaven that neither will such a spiritual capability be lacking to people in the natural world today who go to the Lord and abhor adulteries as infernal.

The opposite experience, however, befalls purposeful adulterers and deliberate adulterers (as defined just above, at the end of no. 432). In their case the ability or virtue called virility decreases in vigor to the point that it is lost, and after that coldness sets in towards even any of the opposite sex, followed by a kind of loathing that approaches revulsion - something that is known, though seldom confessed. Of such a character are those adulterers in hell. This I have heard, at some distance away, from sirens in hell, who are worn-out figures of sexual lust, and also from brothels there.

It follows from these considerations that licentious love makes a person less and less human and less and less a man, while conjugial love makes a person more and more human and more and more a man.

386. 1. Two universal atmospheres emanate from the Lord to preserve the universe in its created state, one of which is an atmosphere of procreating, and the other an atmosphere of protecting what has been procreated. We call the Divinity emanating from the Lord an atmosphere, because it goes out from Him, surrounds Him, fills both worlds - the spiritual and the natural - and brings about the effects of the ends which the Lord ordained at creation and which He subsequently provides.

Everything that flows out from an object, surrounds it and envelops it, is called an atmosphere. As, for example, the atmosphere of light and heat from the sun around it; the atmosphere of life from a person around him; the atmosphere of aroma from a shrub around it; the atmosphere of attraction from a magnet around it; and so on.

[2] But the universal atmospheres which we are discussing here are from the Lord around Him; and they emanate from the sun of the spiritual world, at whose center He is. From the Lord through that sun emanates an atmosphere of warmth and light, or to say the same thing, an atmosphere of love and wisdom, to bring about ends which are of use. However, that atmosphere is designated by various names according to the uses it serves. The Divine atmosphere in regard to the preservation of the universe in its created state by successive generations, is called an atmosphere of procreating; and the Divine atmosphere in regard to the preservation of those generations in their beginnings and afterwards in their advances, is called an atmosphere of protecting what has been procreated.

In addition to these two, there are a number of other Divine atmospheres, which are named according to the uses they serve, having thus various names, as may be seen above in no. 222. Effectuations of useful ends by means of these atmospheres are Divine providence.