281. 10. In natural people, these simulations of conjugial love are a matter of prudence, for various reasons. It is impossible for an interior love to exist between two married partners, one of whom is spiritual, the other natural. By spiritual we mean one who loves spiritual things and who thus has his wisdom from the Lord; and by natural we mean one who loves only natural things and who thus has his wisdom from himself. When two people like this are joined in marriage, conjugial love in the spiritual partner is warm and in the natural partner cold. It is plain that warmth and coldness cannot coexist, thus that warmth cannot ignite the one in a state of coldness unless the coldness is first dispelled, or coldness flow into the one in a state of warmth unless the warmth is first removed. That is why it is impossible for an interior love to exist between married partners when one of them is spiritual and the other natural, but that a love resembling an interior one may exist on the part of the spiritual partner, as we said under an earlier heading. ¹

[2] On the other hand, no interior love is possible between natural partners, because they are both cold. If they experience feelings of warmth, it is owing to an unchaste love. Nevertheless, partners like this can still live together in the same house despite their being divided in spirit, and they can also feign seeming expressions of love and friendship in their relations with each other, no matter how mutually discordant their minds. In their case outward affections may be set on fire, so to speak, which are concerned for the most part with wealth and possessions or with honor and positions of rank; and because this fire induces a fear of losing such things, simulations of conjugial love are to them necessary, being adopted chiefly for the reasons cited under headings 15. to 17. below. They may also be adopted for the other reasons enumerated with these, in which case they may have something in common with the reasons of a spiritual person, mentioned in no. 280 above; but only if the prudence in the natural person includes a measure of intelligence.

Imibhalo yaphansi: