457. 12. For the conjugial union of one man with one wife is the precious jewel of human life and the repository of Christian religion. These two points are ones we have already demonstrated universally and singly in the entire preceding part on conjugial love and the delights of its wisdom.

Conjugial love is the precious jewel of human life because the character of a person's life is such as the character of that love in him, that love forming the inmost element of his life. For it is the life of wisdom dwelling together with its love, and of love dwelling together with its wisdom, and thus it is the life of the delights of both. In a word, a person is a living soul as a result of that love. That is why we call the conjugial union of one man with one wife the precious jewel of human life.

[2] This conclusion is supported by observations made above: that truly conjugial friendship, trust and potency are possible with only one wife, because only then is there a union of minds (nos. 333, 334); that in and from that union spring the celestial blessings, spiritual felicities and natural delights which from the beginning have been provided for people who are in a state of truly conjugial love (no. 335); that this love is the fundamental love of all celestial, spiritual, and consequently natural loves (nos. 65-67); and that into this love have been gathered all joys and all delights, from the first to the last of them (nos. 68, 69). Moreover, in Delights of Wisdom Relating to Conjugial Love, which forms Part One of this work, it was fully shown that regarded in its origin, this love is the interplay of wisdom and love.

335. 2. Thus with more than one wife the celestial blessings, spiritual felicities and natural delights are not possible which from the beginning have been provided for people who are in a state of truly conjugial love. We say celestial blessings, spiritual felicities and natural delights, because the human mind is divided into three regions, the highest of which we call celestial, the second spiritual, and the third natural. In people who are in a state of truly conjugial love, these three regions stand open, and whatever flows in descends from one level to another in the order that they are open. Now because the pleasant states of that love are most exalted in the highest region, they are perceived there as blessings or states of bliss; and because in the middle region they are less exalted, they are perceived there as felicities; and finally in the lowest region as delights. It is clear from the narrative accounts in which they are described that these states exist and are perceived and felt.

[2] All these states of happiness have been provided from the beginning for people who are in a state of truly conjugial love, because there is an infinitude of all blessings in the Lord, who is Divine love; and the essence of love is to wish to communicate all the benefits of its goodness to the object of its love. Therefore when the Lord created man, He at the same time created this love and implanted in it a capacity for receiving and perceiving those benefits. Who is so dull and lacking in acumen that he cannot see that there is some love into which the Lord has conveyed all the blessings, felicities and delights that could ever be conveyed?