4725. 'And they said, a man to his brother' means the thoughts held mutually by them. This is clear from the meaning of 'saying' as perceiving and thinking, dealt with in 3395; and from the meaning of 'a man to his brother' as mutually. Among the ancients 'a man to his brother' was a customary saying used by them to mean something mutual, the reason being that 'a man' meant truth, 3134, 3459, and 'a brother' good, 4121, and a perfect mutual bond exists between truth and good. For when truth is joined to good, and good to truth, the action is mutual and reciprocal, 2731.

2731. I have heard from those most ancient people that conjugial love is such that one partner desires to be wholly the other's, and that this desire is reciprocal; and that when partners are expressing and receiving it from each other they experience the happiness of heaven. I have also heard that their minds are so joined one to the other that the expression and receipt of that reciprocal desire exists in every single detail of life, that is, in every single part of affection and in every single part of thought. For this reason it has been ordained by the Lord that wives should be affections for good which belong to the will and that husbands should be thoughts about truth which belong to the understanding; also that marriage should exist from such affection and thought, like that between will and understanding, and between every single part of these with the person in whom good married to truth exists, and truth married to good.