Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom Part 14

400. (2) Love or the will strives unceasingly towards the human form and all things of that form. This is evident from the correspondence of heart and will. For it is known that all things of the body are formed in the womb, and that they are formed by means of fibers from the brains and blood vessels from the heart, and that out of these two the tissues of all organs and viscera are made; from which it is evident that all things of man have their existence from the life of the will, which is love, from their first principles, out of the brains, through the fibers; and all things of his body out of the heart through the arteries and veins. From this it is clearly evident that life (which is love and the will therefrom), strives unceasingly towards the human form. And as the human form is made up of all the things there are in man, it follows that love or the will is in a continual conatus and effort to form all these. There is such a conatus and effort towards the human form, because G.o.d is a Man, and Divine Love and Divine Wisdom is His life, and from His life is everything of life. Any one can see that unless Life which is very Man acted into that which in itself is not life, the formation of anything such as exists in man would be impossible, in whom are thousands of thousands of things that make a one, and that unanimously aspire to an image of the Life from which they spring, that man may become a receptacle and abode of that Life. From all this it can be seen that love, and out of the love the will, and out of the will the heart, strive unceasingly towards the human form.

401. (3) Love or the will is unable to effect anything by its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding. This also is evident from the correspondence of the heart with the will. The embryo man lives by the heart, not by the lungs. For in the fetus the blood does not flow from the heart into the lungs, giving it the ability to respire; but it flows through the foramen ovale into the left ventricle of the heart; consequently the fetus is unable to move any part of its body, but lies enswathed, neither has it sensation, for its organs of sense are closed.

So is it with love or the will, from which the fetus lives indeed, though obscurely, that is, without sensation or action. But as soon as the lungs are opened, which is the case after birth, he begins to feel and act, and likewise to will and think. From all this it can be seen, that love or the will is unable to effect anything by means of its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding.

402. (4) Love or the will prepares a house or bridal chamber for its future wife, which is wisdom or the understanding. In the created universe and in each of its particulars there is a marriage of good and truth; and this is so because good is of love and truth is of wisdom, and these two are in the Lord, and out of Him all things are created. How this marriage has existence in man can be seen mirrored in the conjunction of the heart with the lungs; since the heart corresponds to love or good, and the lungs to wisdom or truth (see above, n. 378-381, 382-385). From that conjunction it can be seen how love or the will betroths to itself wisdom or the understanding, and afterwards weds it, that is, enters into a kind of marriage with it. Love betroths to itself wisdom by preparing for it a house or bridal chamber, and marries it by conjoining it to itself by affections, and afterwards lives wisely with it in that house. How this is cannot be fully described except in spiritual language, because love and wisdom, consequently will and understanding, are spiritual; and spiritual things can, indeed, be expressed in natural language, but can be perceived only obscurely, from a lack of knowledge of what love is, what wisdom is, what affections for good are, and what affections for wisdom, that is, affections for truth, are. Yet the nature of the betrothal and of the marriage of love with wisdom, or of will with understanding, can be seen by the parallel that is furnished by their correspondence with the heart and lungs. What is true of these is true of love and wisdom, so entirely that there is no difference whatever except that one is natural and the other spiritual. Thus it is evident from the heart and lungs, that the heart first forms the lungs, and afterwards joins itself to them; it forms the lungs in the fetus, and joins itself to them after birth. This the heart does in its abode which is called the breast, where the two are encamped together, separated from the other parts of the body by a part.i.tion called the diaphragm and by a covering called the pleura. So it is with love and wisdom or with will and understanding.

403. (5) Love or the will prepares all things in its own human form, that it may act conjointly with wisdom or the understanding. We say, will and understanding, but it is to be carefully borne in mind that the will is the entire man; for it is the will that, with the understanding, is in first principles in the brains, and in derivatives in the body, consequently in the whole and in every part (see above, n. 365-367). From this it can be seen that the will is the entire man as regards his very form, both the general form and the particular form of all parts; and that the understanding is its partner, as the lungs are the partner of the heart. Beware of cherishing an idea of the will as something separate from the human form, for it is that same form. From this it can be seen not only how the will prepares a bridal chamber for the understanding, but also how it prepares all things in its house (which is the whole body) that it may act conjointly with the understanding. This it prepares in such a way that as each and every thing of the body is conjoined to the will, so is it conjoined to the understanding; in other words, that as each and everything of the body is submissive to the will, so is it submissive to the understanding. How each and every thing of the body is prepared for conjunction with the understanding as well as with the will, can be seen in the body only as in a mirror or image, by the aid of anatomical knowledge, which shows how all things in the body are so connected, that when the lungs respire each and every thing in the entire body is moved by the respiration of the lungs, and at the same time from the beating of the heart. Anatomy shows that the heart is joined to the lungs through the auricles, which are continued into the interiors of the lungs; also that all the viscera of the entire body are joined through ligaments to the chamber of the breast; and so joined that when the lungs respire, each and all things, in general and in particular, partake of the respiratory motion. Thus when the lungs are inflated, the ribs expand the thorax, the pleura is dilated, and the diaphragm is stretched wide, and with these all the lower parts of the body, which are connected with them by ligaments therefrom, receive some action through the pulmonic action; not to mention further facts, lest those who have no knowledge of anatomy, on account of their ignorance of its terms should be confused in regard to the subject. Consult any skillful and discerning anatomist whether all things in the entire body, from the breast down be not so bound together, that when the lungs expand by respiration, each and all of them are moved to action synchronous with the pulmonic action. From all this the nature of the conjunction prepared by the will between the understanding and each and every thing of the human form is now evident.

Only explore the connections well and scan them with an anatomical eye; then, following the connections, consider their cooperation with the breathing lungs and with the heart; and finally, in thought, subst.i.tute for the lungs the understanding, and for the heart the will, and you will see.

404. (6) After the nuptials, the first conjunction is through affection for knowing, from which springs affection for truth. By the nuptials is meant man's state after birth, from a state of ignorance to a state of intelligence, and from this to a state of wisdom. The first state which is one of pure ignorance, is not meant here by nuptials, because there is then no thought from the understanding, and only an obscure affection from the love or will. This state is initiatory to the nuptials. In the second state, which belongs to man in childhood, there is, as we know, an affection for knowing, by means of which the infant child learns to speak and to read, and afterwards gradually learns such things as belong to the understanding. That it is love, belonging to the will, that effects this, cannot be doubted; for unless it were effected by love or the will it would not be done. That every man has, after birth, an affection for knowing, and through that acquires the knowledge by which his understanding is gradually formed, enlarged, and perfected, is acknowledged by every one who thoughtfully takes counsel of experience.

It is also evident that from this comes affection for truth; for when man, from affection for knowing, has become intelligent, he is led not so much by affection for knowing as by affection for reasoning and forming conclusions on subjects which he loves, whether economical or civil or moral. When this affection is raised to spiritual things, it becomes affection for spiritual truth. That its first initiatory state was affection for knowing, may be seen from the fact that affection for truth is an exalted affection for knowing; for to be affected by truths is the same as to wish from affection to know them, and when found, to drink them in from the joy of affection.

(7) The second conjunction is through affection for understanding, from which springs perception of truth. This is evident to any one who is willing by rational insight to examine the matter. From rational insight it is clear that affection for truth and perception of truth are two powers of the understanding, which in some persons harmonize as one, and in others do not. They harmonize as one in those who wish to perceive truths with the understanding, but do not in those who only wish to know truths. It is also clear that every one is in perception of truth so far as he is in an affection for understanding; for if you take away affection for understanding truth, there will be no perception of truth; but give the affection for understanding truth, and there will be perception of truth according to the degree of affection for it. No man of sound reason ever lacks perception of truth, so long as he has affection for understanding truth. That every man has a capacity to understand truth, which is called rationality, has been shown above.

(8) The third conjunction is through affection for seeing truth, from which springs thought. That affection for knowing is one thing, affection for understanding another, and affection for seeing truth another, or that affection for truth is one thing, perception of truth another, and thought another, is seen but obscurely by those who cannot perceive the operations of the mind as distinct, but is seen clearly by those who can. This is obscurely seen by those who do not perceive the operations of the mind as distinct, because with those who are in affection for truth and in perception of truth, these operations are simultaneous in the thought, and when simultaneous they cannot be distinguished. Man is in manifest thought when his spirit thinks in the body, which is especially the case when he is in company with others; but when he is in affection for understanding, and through that comes into perception of truth, he is then in the thought of his spirit, which is meditation. This pa.s.ses, indeed, into the thought of the body, but into silent thought; for it is above bodily thought, and looks upon what belongs to thought from the memory as below itself, drawing therefrom either conclusions or confirmations. But real affection for truth is perceived only as a pressure of will from something pleasurable which is interiorly in meditation as its life, and is little noticed. From all this it can now be seen that these three, affection for truth, perception of truth, and thought, follow in order from love, and that they have existence only in the understanding. For when love enters into the understanding, which it does when their conjunction is accomplished, it first brings forth affection for truth, then affection for understanding that which it knows, and lastly, affection for seeing in the bodily thought that which it understands; for thought is nothing but internal sight. It is true that thought is the first to be manifest, because it is of the natural mind; but thought from perception of truth which is from affection for truth is the last to be manifest; this thought is the thought of wisdom, but the other is thought from the memory through the sight of the natural mind. All operations of love or the will not within the understanding have relation not to affections for truth, but to affections for good.

405. That these three from the will's love follow in order in the understanding can, indeed, be comprehended by the rational man but yet cannot be clearly seen and thus so proved as to command belief. But as love that is of the will acts as one with the heart by correspondence, and wisdom that is of the understanding acts as one with the lungs (as has been shown above) therefore what has been said (in n. 404) about affection for truth, perception of truth, and thought, can nowhere be more clearly seen and proved than in the lungs and the mechanism thereof.

These, therefore, shall be briefly described. After birth, the heart discharges the blood from its right ventricle into the lungs; and after pa.s.sing through these it is emptied into the left ventricle: thus the heart opens the lungs. This it does through the pulmonary arteries and veins. The lungs have bronchial tubes which ramify, and at length end in air-cells, into which the lungs admit the air, and thus respire. Around the bronchial tubes and their ramifications there are also arteries and veins called the bronchial, arising from the vena azygos or vena cava, and from the aorta. These arteries and veins are distinct from the pulmonary arteries and veins. From this it is evident that the blood flows into the lungs by two ways, and flows out from them by two ways.

This enables the lungs to respire non-synchronously with the heart. That the alternate movements of the heart and the alternate movements of the lungs do not act as one is well known. Now, inasmuch as there is a correspondence of the heart and lungs with the will and understanding (as shown above), and inasmuch as conjunction by correspondence is of such a nature that as one acts so does the other, it can be seen by the flow of the blood out of the heart into the lungs how the will flows into the understanding, and produces the results mentioned just above (n. 404) respecting affection for and perception of truth, and respecting thought.

By correspondence this and many other things relating to the subject, which cannot be explained in a few words, have been disclosed to me.

Whereas love or the will corresponds to the heart, and wisdom or the understanding to the lungs, it follows that the blood vessels of the heart in the lungs correspond to affections for truth, and the ramifications of the bronchia of the lungs to perceptions and thoughts from those affections. Whoever will trace out all the tissues of the lungs from these origins, and disclose the a.n.a.logy with the love of the will and the wisdom of the understanding, will be able to see in a kind of image the things mentioned above (n. 404), and thereby attain to a confirmed belief. But since a few only are familiar with the anatomical details respecting the heart and lungs, and since confirming a thing by what is unfamiliar induces obscurity, I omit further demonstration of the a.n.a.logy.

406. (9) Through these three conjunctions love or the will is in its sensitive life and in its active life. Love without the understanding, or affection which is of love without thought, which is of the understanding, can neither feel nor act in the body; since love without the understanding is as it were blind, and affection without thought is as it were in thick darkness, for the understanding is the light by which love sees. The wisdom of the understanding, moreover, is from the light that proceeds from the Lord as a sun. Since, then, the will's love, without the light of the understanding, sees nothing and is blind, it follows that without the light of the understanding even the bodily senses would be blind and blunted, not only sight and hearing, but the other senses also, - the other senses, because all perception of truth is a property of love in the understanding (as was shown above), and all the bodily senses derive their perception from their mind's perception.

The same is true of every bodily act; for action from love without understanding is like man's action in the dark, when he does not know what he is doing; consequently in such action there would be nothing of intelligence and wisdom. Such action cannot be called living action, for action derives its esse from love and its quality from intelligence.

Moreover, the whole power of good is by means of truth; consequently good acts in truth, and thus by means of truth; and good is of love, and truth is of the understanding. From all this it can be seen that love or the will through these three conjunctions (see above, n. 404) is in its sensitive life and in its active life.

407. That this is so can be proved to the life by the conjunction of the heart with the lungs, because the correspondence between the will and the heart, and between the understanding and the lungs, is such that just as the love acts with the understanding spiritually, so does the heart act with the lungs naturally: from this, what has been said above can be seen as in an image presented to the eye. That man has neither any sensitive life nor any active life, so long as the heart and the lungs do not act together, is evident from the state of the fetus or the infant in the womb, and from its state after birth. So long as man is a fetus, that is, in the womb, the lungs are closed, wherefore he has no feeling nor any action; the organs of sense are closed up, the hands are bound, likewise the feet; but after birth the lungs are opened, and as they are opened man feels and acts; the lungs are opened by means of the blood sent into them from the heart. That man has neither sensitive life nor active life without the co-operation of the heart and the lungs, is evident also in swoons, when the heart alone acts, and not the lungs, for respiration then ceases; in this case there is no sensation and no action, as is well known. It is the same with persons suffocated, either by water or by anything obstructing the larynx and closing the respiratory pa.s.sage; it is well-known that the man then appears to be dead, he feels nothing and does nothing; and yet he is alive in the heart; for he returns to both his sensitive and his active life as soon as the obstructions to the lungs are removed. The blood, it is true, circulates in the meantime through the lungs, but through the pulmonary arteries and veins, not through the bronchial arteries and veins, and these last are what give man the power of breathing. It is the same with the influx of love into the understanding.

408. (10) Love or the will introduces wisdom or the understanding into all things of its house. By the house of love or the will is meant the whole man as to all things of his mind; and as these correspond to all things of the body (as shown above), by the house is meant also the whole man as to all things of his body, called members, organs, and viscera.

That the lungs are introduced into all these things just as the understanding is introduced into all things of the mind, can be seen from what has been shown above, namely, that love or the will prepares a house or bridal chamber for its future wife, which is wisdom or the understanding (n. 402); and that love or the will prepares all things in its own human form, that is, in its house, that it may act conjointly with wisdom or the understanding (n. 403). From what is there said, it is evident that each and all things in the whole body are so connected by ligaments issuing from the ribs, vertebrae, sternum, and diaphragm, and from the peritonaeum which depends on these, that when the lungs respire all are likewise drawn and borne along in alternate movements. Anatomy shows that the alternate waves of respiration even enter into the very viscera to their inmost recesses; for the ligaments above mentioned cleave to the sheaths of the viscera, and these sheaths, by their extensions, penetrate to their innermost parts, as do the arteries and veins also by their ramifications.

From this it is evident that the respiration of the lungs is in entire conjunction with the heart in each and every thing of the body; and in order that the conjunction may be complete in every respect, even the heart itself is in pulmonic motion, for it lies in the bosom of the lungs and is connected with them by the auricles, and reclines upon the diaphragm, whereby its arteries also partic.i.p.ate in the pulmonic motion.

The stomach, too, is in similar conjunction with the lungs, by the coherence of its oesophagus with the trachea. These anatomical facts are adduced to show what kind of a conjunction there is of love or the will with wisdom or the understanding, and how the two in consort are conjoined with all things of the mind; for the spiritual and the bodily conjunction are similar.

409. (11) Love or the will does nothing except in conjunction with wisdom or the understanding. For as love has no sensitive nor any active life apart from the understanding; and as love introduces the understanding into all things of the mind (as was shown above, n. 407, 408), it follows that love or the will does nothing except in conjunction with the understanding. For what is it to act from love without the understanding?

Such action can only be called irrational; for the understanding teaches what ought to be done and how it ought to be done. Apart from the understanding love does not know this; consequently such is the marriage between love and the understanding, that although they are two, they act as one. There is a like marriage between good and truth, for good is of love and truth is of the understanding. In every particular thing of the universe as created by the Lord there is such a marriage, their use having relation to good, and the form of their use to truth. From this marriage it is that in each and every thing of the body there is a right and a left, the right having relation to the good from which truth proceeds, and the left to truth from good, thus to their conjunction.

From this it is that there are pairs in man; there are two brains, two hemispheres of the brain, two ventricles of the heart, two lobes of the lungs, two eyes, ears, nostrils, arms, hands, loins, feet, kidneys, t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, etc.; and where there are not pairs, there is a right and a left side, all this for the reason that good looks to truth that it may take form, and truth looks to good that it may have being. It is the same in the angelic heavens and in their several societies. On this subject more may be seen above (n. 401), where it is shown that love or the will is unable to effect anything by its human form without a marriage with wisdom or the understanding. Conjunction of evil and falsity, which is opposite to the conjunction of good and truth, will be spoken of elsewhere.

410. (12) Love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it.

That love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding is plain from their correspondence with the heart and lungs. Anatomical observation shows that the heart is in its life's motion when the lungs are not yet in motion; this it shows by cases of swooning and of suffocation, also by the fetus in the womb and the chick in the egg.

Anatomical observation shows also that the heart, while acting alone, forms the lungs and so adjusts them that it may carry on respiration in them; also that it so forms the other viscera and organs that it may carry on various uses in them, the organs of the face that it may have sensation, the organs of motion that it may act, and the remaining parts of the body that it may exhibit uses corresponding to the affections of love. From all this it can now for the first time be shown that as the heart produces such things for the sake of the various functions which it is afterwards to discharge in the body, so love, in its receptacle called the will, produces like things for the sake of the various affections that const.i.tute its form, which is the human form (as was shown above). Now as the first and nearest of love's affections are affection for knowing, affection for understanding, and affection for seeing what it knows and understands, it follows, that for these affections love forms the understanding and actually enters into them when it begins to feel and to act and to think. To this the understanding contributes nothing, as is evident from the a.n.a.logy of the heart and lungs (of which above). From all this it can be seen, that love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and not wisdom or the understanding to love or the will; also from this it is evident that knowledge, which love acquires to itself by the affection for knowing, and perception of truth, which it acquires by the affection for understanding, and thought which it acquires by the affection for seeing what it knows and understands, are not of the understanding but of love. Thoughts, perceptions, and knowledges therefrom, flow in, it is true, out of the spiritual world, yet they are received not by the understanding but by love, according to its affections in the understanding. It appears as if the understanding received them, and not love or the will, but this is an illusion. It appears also as if the understanding conjoined itself to love or the will, but this too, is an illusion; love or the will conjoins itself to the understanding, and causes the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it. This reciprocal conjunction is from love's marriage with wisdom, wherefrom a conjunction seemingly reciprocal, from the life and consequent power of love, is effected. It is the same with the marriage of good and truth; for good is of love and truth is of the understanding. Good does everything and it receives truth into its house and conjoins itself with it so far as the truth is accordant. Good can also admit truths which are not accordant; but this it does from an affection for knowing, for understanding, and for thinking its own things, whilst it has not as yet determined itself to uses, which are its ends and are called its goods. Of reciprocal conjunction, that is, the conjunction of truth with good, there is none whatever. That truth is reciprocally conjoined is from the life belonging to good. From this it is that every man and every spirit and angel is regarded by the Lord according to his love or good, and no one according to his intellect, or his truth separate from love or good. For man's life is his love (as was shown above), and his life is qualified according as he has exalted his affections by means of truth, that is, according as he has perfected his affections by wisdom. For the affections of love are exalted and perfected by means of truths, thus by means of wisdom. Then love acts conjointly with its wisdom, as though from it; but it acts from itself through wisdom, as through its own form, and this derives nothing whatever from the understanding, but everything from a kind of determination of love called affection.

411. All things that favor it love calls its goods, and all things that as means lead to goods it calls its truths; and because these are means they are loved and come to be of its affection and thus become affections in form; therefore truth is nothing else than a form of the affection that is of love. The human form is nothing else than the form of all the affections of love; beauty is its intelligence, which it procures for itself through truths received either by sight or by hearing, external and internal. These are what love disposes into the form of its affections; and these forms exist in great variety; but all derive a likeness from their general form, which is the human. To the love all such forms are beautiful and lovely, but others are unbeautiful and unlovely. From this, again, it is evident that love conjoins itself to the understanding, and not the reverse, and that the reciprocal conjunction is also from love.

This is what is meant by love or the will causing wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to it.

412. What has been said may be seen in a kind of image and thus corroborated by the correspondence of the heart with love and of the lungs with the understanding (of which above). For if the heart corresponds to love, its determinations, which are arteries and veins, correspond to affections, and in the lungs to affections for truth; and as there are also other vessels in the lungs called air vessels, whereby respiration is carried on, these vessels correspond to perceptions. It must be distinctly understood that the arteries and veins in the lungs are not affections, and that respirations are not perceptions and thoughts, but that they are correspondences, that is, they act correspondently or synchronously; likewise that the heart and the lungs are not the love and understanding, but correspondences: and inasmuch as they are correspondences the one can be seen in the other. Whoever from anatomy has come to understand the whole structure of the lungs can see clearly, when he compares it with the understanding, that the understanding does not act at all by itself, does not perceive nor think by itself, but acts wholly by affections which are of love. These, in the understanding, are called affection for knowing, for understanding, and for seeing truth (which have been treated of above). For all states of the lungs depend on the blood from the heart and from the vena cava and aorta; and respirations, which take place in the bronchial branches, proceed in accordance with the state of those vessels; for when the flow of the blood stops, respiration stops. Much more may be disclosed by comparing the structure of the lungs with the understanding, to which the lungs correspond; but as few are familiar with anatomical science, and to try to demonstrate or prove anything by what is unknown renders it obscure, it is not well to say more on this subject. By what I know of the structure of the lungs I am fully convinced that love through its affections conjoins itself to the understanding, and that the understanding does not conjoin itself to any affection of love, but that it is reciprocally conjoined by love, to the end that love may have sensitive life and active life. But it must not be forgotten that man has a twofold respiration, one of the spirit and another of the body; and that the respiration of the spirit depends on the fibers from the brains, and the respiration of the body on the blood-vessels from the heart, and from the vena cava and aorta. It is evident, moreover, that thought produces respiration; it is evident, also, that affection, which is of love, produces thought, for thought without affection is precisely like respiration without a heart, a thing impossible. From this it is clear that affection, which is of love, conjoins itself to thought, which is of the understanding (as was said above), in like manner as the heart does in the lungs.

413. (13) Wisdom or the understanding, from the potency given to it by love, can be elevated and can receive such things as are of light out of heaven, and perceive them. That man has the ability to perceive arcana of wisdom when he hears them, has been shown above in many places. This capacity of man is called rationality. It belongs to every man by creation.

It is the capacity to understand things interiorly, and to decide what is just and right, and what is good and true; and by it man is distinguished from beasts. This, then, is what is meant when it is said, that the understanding can be elevated and receive things that are of light out of heaven, and perceive them. That this is so can also be seen in a kind of image in the lungs, for the reason that the lungs correspond to the understanding. In the lungs it can be seen from their cellular substance, which consists of bronchial tubes continued down to the minutest air-cells, which are receptacles of air in respirations; these are what the thoughts make one with by correspondence. This cell-like substance is such that it can be expanded and contracted in a twofold mode, in one mode with the heart, in the other almost separate from the heart. In the former, it is expanded and contracted through the pulmonary arteries and veins, which are from the heart alone; in the latter, through the bronchial arteries and veins, which are from the vena cava and aorta, and these vessels are outside of the heart. This takes place in the lungs for the reason that the understanding is capable of being raised above its proper love, which corresponds to the heart, and to receive light from heaven. Still, when the understanding is raised above its proper love, it does not withdraw from it, but derives from it what is called the affection for knowing and understanding, with a view to somewhat of honor, glory, or gain in the world; this clings to every love as a surface, and by it the love shines on the surface; but with the wise, the love shines through. These things respecting the lungs are brought forward to prove that the understanding can be elevated and can receive and perceive things that are of the light of heaven; for the correspondence is plenary. To see from correspondence is to see the lungs from the understanding, and the understanding from the lungs, and thus from both together to perceive proof.

414. (14) Love or the will can in like manner be elevated and can receive such things as are of heat out of heaven provided it loves wisdom, its consort, in that degree. That the understanding can be elevated into the light of heaven, and from that light draw forth wisdom, has been shown in the preceding chapter and in many places above; also that love or the will can be elevated as well, provided it loves those things that are of the light of heaven or that are of wisdom, has also been shown in many places.

Yet love or the will cannot be thus elevated through anything of honor, glory, or gain as an end, but only through a love of use, thus not for the sake of self, but for the sake of the neighbor; and because this love is given only by the Lord out of heaven, and is given by the Lord when man flees from evils as sins, therefore it is that love or the will can be elevated by these means, and cannot without these means. But love or the will is elevated into heaven's heat, while the understanding is elevated into its light. When both are elevated, a marriage of the two takes place there, which is called celestial marriage, because it is a marriage of celestial love and wisdom; consequently it is said that love also is elevated if it loves wisdom, its consort, in that degree. The love of wisdom, that is, the genuine love of the human understanding is love towards the neighbor from the Lord. It is the same with light and heat in the world. Light exists without heat and with heat; light is without heat in winter time, and with heat in summer time; and when heat is with light all things flourish. The light with man that corresponds to the light of winter is wisdom without its love; and the light with man that corresponds to the light of summer is wisdom with its love.

415. This conjunction and disjunction of wisdom and love can be seen effigied, as it were, in the conjunction of the lungs with the heart.

For the heart can be conjoined to the cl.u.s.tering vesicles of the bronchia by blood sent out from itself, and also by blood sent out not from itself but from the vena cava and the aorta. Thereby the respiration of the body can be separated from the respiration of the spirit; but when blood from the heart alone acts the respirations cannot be separated. Now since thoughts act as one with respirations by correspondence it is plain, from the twofold state of the lungs in respirations, that man is able to think and from thoughts to speak and act in one way when in company with others, and to think and from thought to speak and act in another way when not in company, that is, when he has no fear of loss of reputation; for he can then think and speak against G.o.d, the neighbor, the spiritual things of the church, and against moral and civil laws; and he can also act contrary to them, by stealing, by being revengeful, by blaspheming, by committing adultery. But in company with others, where he is afraid of losing reputation, he can talk, preach and act precisely like a spiritual, moral and civil man. From all this it can be seen that love or the will as well as the understanding can be elevated and can receive such things as are of the heat or love of heaven, provided it loves wisdom in that degree, and if it does not love wisdom, that it can as it were be separated.

416. (15) Otherwise love or the will draws down wisdom, or the understanding, from its elevation, that it may act as one with itself.

There is natural love and there is spiritual love. A man who is in natural and in spiritual love both at once, is a rational man; but one who is in natural love alone, although able to think rationally, precisely like a spiritual man, is not a rational man; for although he elevates his understanding even to heavenly light, thus to wisdom, yet the things of wisdom, that is, of heavenly light, do not belong to his love. His love, it is true, effects the elevation, but from desire for honor, glory and gain. But when he perceives that he gains nothing of the kind from that elevation (as is the case when he thinks with himself from his own natural love), then he does not love the things of heavenly light or wisdom; consequently he then draws down the understanding from its height, that it may act as one with himself. For example: when the understanding by its elevation is in wisdom, then the love sees what justice is, what sincerity is, what chast.i.ty is, even what genuine love is. This the natural love can see by its capacity to understand and contemplate things in heavenly light; it can even talk and preach about these and explain them as at once moral and spiritual virtues. But when the understanding is not elevated, the love, if it is merely natural, does not see these virtues, but instead of justice it sees injustice, instead of sincerity deceit, instead of chast.i.ty lewdness, and so on. If it then thinks of the things it spoke of when its understanding was in elevation, it can laugh at them and speak of them merely as serviceable to it in captivating the souls of men. From all this it can be seen how it is to be understood that love, unless it loves wisdom, its consort, in that degree, draws wisdom down from its elevation, that it may act as one with itself. That love is capable of elevation if it loves wisdom in that degree, can be seen above (n. 414).

417. Now as love corresponds to the heart, and the understanding to the lungs, the foregoing statements may be corroborated by their correspondence; as, for instance, how the understanding can be elevated above its own love even into wisdom; and how, if that love is merely natural, the understanding is drawn down by it from that elevation. Man has a twofold respiration; one of the body, the other of the spirit. These two respirations may be separated and they may be conjoined; with men merely natural, especially with hypocrites, they are separated, but rarely with men who are spiritual and sincere. Consequently a merely natural man and hypocrite, whose understanding has been elevated, and in whose memory therefore various things of wisdom remain, can talk wisely in company by thought from the memory; but when not in company, he does not think from the memory, but from his spirit, thus from his love. He also respires in like manner, inasmuch as thought and respiration act correspondently. That the structure of the lungs is such that they can respire both by blood from the heart and by blood from outside of the heart has been shown above.

418. It is the common opinion that wisdom makes the man; therefore when any one is heard to talk and teach wisely he is believed to be wise; yea, he himself believes it at the time, because when he talks or teaches in company he thinks from the memory, and if he is a merely natural man, from the surface of his love, which is a desire for honor, glory, and gain; but when the same man is alone he thinks from the more inward love of his spirit, and then not wisely, but sometimes insanely. From all this it can be seen that no one is to be judged of by wise speaking, but by his life; that is, not by wise speaking separate from life, but by wise speaking conjoined to life. By life is meant love. That love is the life has been shown above.

419. (16) Love or the will is purified in the understanding, if they are elevated together. From birth man loves nothing but self and the world, for nothing else appears before his eyes, consequently nothing else occupies his mind. This love is corporeal-natural, and may be called material love. Moreover, this love has become impure by reason of the separation of heavenly love from it in parents. This love could not be separated from its impurity unless man had a power to raise his understanding into the light of heaven, and to see how he ought to live in order that his love, as well as his understanding, may be elevated into wisdom. By means of the understanding, love, that is, the man, sees what the evils are that defile and corrupt the love; he also sees that if he flees from those evils as sins and turns away from them, he loves the things that are opposite to those evils; all of which are heavenly. Then also he perceives the means by which he is enabled to flee from and turn away from those evils as sins. This the love, that is, the man, sees, by the exercise of his power to elevate his understanding into the light of heaven, which is the source of wisdom. Then so far as love gives heaven the first place and the world the second, and at the same time gives the Lord the first place and self the second, so far love is purged of its uncleanness and is purified; in other words, is raised into the heat of heaven, and conjoined with the light of heaven in which the understanding is; and the marriage takes place that is called the marriage of good and truth, that is, of love and wisdom. Any one can comprehend intellectually and see rationally, that so far as he flees from and turns away from theft and cheating, so far he loves sincerity, rect.i.tude and justice; so far as he flees and turns away from revenge and hatred, so far he loves the neighbor; and so far as he flees and turns away from adulteries, so far he loves chast.i.ty; and so on. And yet scarcely any one knows what there is of heaven and the Lord in sincerity, rect.i.tude, justice, love towards the neighbor, chast.i.ty, and other affections of heavenly love, until he has removed their opposites. When he has removed the opposites, then he is in those affections, and therefrom recognizes and sees them. Previously there is a kind of veil interposed, that does, indeed, transmit to love the light of heaven; yet inasmuch as the love does not in that degree love its consort, wisdom, it does not receive it, yea, may even contradict and rebuke it when it returns from its elevation. Still man flatters himself that the wisdom of his understanding may be made serviceable as a means to honor, glory, or gain. Then man gives self and the world the first place, and the Lord and heaven the second, and what has the second place is loved only so far as it is serviceable, and if it is not serviceable it is disowned and rejected; if not before death, then after it. From all this the truth is now evident, that love or the will is purified in the understanding if they are elevated together.

420. The same thing is imaged in the lungs, whose arteries and veins correspond to the affections of love, and whose respirations correspond to the perceptions and thoughts of the understanding, as has been said above. That the heart's blood is purified of undigested matters in the lungs, and nourishes itself with suitable food from the inhaled air, is evident from much observation. (1) That the blood is purified of undigested matter in the lungs, is evident not only from the influent blood, which is venous, and therefore filled with the chyle collected from food and drink, but also from the moisture of the outgoing breath and from its odor as perceived by others, as well as from the diminished quant.i.ty of the blood flowing back into the left ventricle of the heart. (2) That the blood nourishes itself with suitable food from the inhaled air is evident from the immense volumes of odors and exhalations continually flowing forth from fields, gardens, and woods; from the immense supply of salts of various kinds in the water that rises from the ground and from rivers and ponds, and from the immense quant.i.ty of exhalations and effluvia from human beings and animals with which the air is impregnated. That these things flow into the lungs with the inhaled air is undeniable: it is therefore undeniable also that from them the blood draws such things as are useful to it; and such things are useful as correspond to the affections of its love. For this reason there are, in the vesicles or innermost recesses of the lungs, little veins in great abundance with tiny mouths that absorb these suitable matters; consequently, the blood that flows back into the left ventricle of the heart is changed into arterial blood of brilliant hue. These facts prove that the blood purifies itself of heterogeneous things and nourishes itself with h.o.m.ogeneous things. That the blood in the lungs purifies and nourishes itself correspondently to the affections of the mind is as yet unknown; but in the spiritual world it is very well known, for angels in the heavens find delight only in the odors that correspond to the love of their wisdom, while the spirits in h.e.l.l find delight only in the odors that correspond to a love opposed to wisdom; these are foul odors, but the former are fragrant. It follows that men in the world impregnate their blood with similar things according to correspondence with the affections of their love; for what the spirit of a man loves, his blood according to correspondence craves and by respiration attracts. From this correspondence it results that man as regards his love is purified if he loves wisdom, and is defiled if he does not love it. Moreover, all purification of man is effected by means of the truths of wisdom, and all pollution of man is effected by means of falsities that are opposite to the truths of wisdom.

421. (17) Love or the will is defiled in the understanding and by it, if they are not elevated together. This is because love, if not elevated, remains impure (as stated above, n. 419, 420); and while it remains impure it loves what is impure, such as revenges, hatreds, deceits, blasphemes, adulteries, for these are then its affections that are called l.u.s.ts, and it rejects what belongs to charity, justice, sincerity, truth, and chast.i.ty. Love is said to be defiled in the understanding, and by it; in the understanding, when love is affected by these impure things; by the understanding, when love makes the things of wisdom to become its servants, and still more when it perverts, falsifies, and adulterates them. Of the corresponding state of the heart, or of its blood in the lungs, there is no need to say more than has been said above (n. 420), except that instead of the purification of the blood its defilement takes place; and instead of the nutrition of the blood by fragrant odors its nutrition is effected by stenches, precisely as it is respectively in heaven and in h.e.l.l.

422. (18) Love, when purified by wisdom in the understanding, becomes spiritual and celestial. Man is born natural, but in the measure in which his understanding is raised into the light of heaven, and his love conjointly is raised into the heat of heaven, he becomes spiritual and celestial; he then becomes like a garden of Eden, which is at once in vernal light and vernal heat. It is not the understanding that becomes spiritual and celestial, but the love; and when the love has so become, it makes its consort, the understanding, spiritual and celestial. Love becomes spiritual and celestial by a life according to the truths of wisdom which the understanding teaches and requires. Love imbibes these truths by means of its understanding, and not from itself; for love cannot elevate itself unless it knows truths, and these it can learn only by means of an elevated and enlightened understanding; and then so far as it loves truths in the practice of them so far it is elevated; for to understand is one thing and to will is another; or to say is one thing and to do is another. There are those who understand and talk about the truths of wisdom, yet neither will nor practise them. When, therefore, love puts in practice the truths of light which it understands and speaks, it is elevated. This one can see from reason alone; for what kind of a man is he who understands the truths of wisdom and talks about them while he lives contrary to them, that is, while his will and conduct are opposed to them? Love purified by wisdom becomes spiritual and celestial, for the reason that man has three degrees of life, called natural, spiritual, and celestial (of which in the Third Part of this work), and he is capable of elevation from one degree into another. Yet he is not elevated by wisdom alone, but by a life according to wisdom, for a man's life is his love.

Consequently, so far as his life is according to wisdom, so far he loves wisdom; and his life is so far according to wisdom as he purifies himself from uncleannesses, which are sins; and so far as he does this does he love wisdom.

423. That love purified by the wisdom in the understanding becomes spiritual and celestial cannot be seen so clearly by their correspondence with the heart and lungs, because no one can see the quality of the blood by which the lungs are kept in their state of respiration. The blood may abound in impurities, and yet not be distinguishable from pure blood.

Moreover, the respiration of a merely natural man appears the same as the respiration of a spiritual man. But the difference is clearly discerned in heaven, for there every one respires according to the marriage of love and wisdom; therefore as angels are recognized according to that marriage, so are they recognized according to their respiration. For this reason it is that when one who is not in that marriage enters heaven, he is seized with anguish in the breast, and struggles for breath like a man in the agonies of death; such persons, therefore throw themselves headlong from the place, nor do they find rest until they are among those who are in a respiration similar to their own; for then by correspondence they are in similar affection, and therefore in similar thought. From all this it can be seen that with the spiritual man it is the purer blood, called by some the animal spirit, which is purified; and that it is purified so far as the man is in the marriage of love and wisdom. It is this purer blood which corresponds most nearly to that marriage; and because this blood inflows into the blood of the body, it follows that the latter blood is also purified by means of it. The reverse is true of those in whom love is defiled in the understanding. But, as was said, no one can test this by any experiment on the blood; but he can by observing the affections of love, since these correspond to the blood.

424. (19) Love, when defiled in the understanding and by it, becomes natural, sensual, and corporeal. Natural love separated from spiritual love is the opposite of spiritual love; because natural love is love of self and of the world, and spiritual love is love to the Lord and love to the neighbor; and love of self and the world looks downward and outward, and love to the Lord looks upward and inward. Consequently when natural love is separated from spiritual love it cannot be elevated above what is man's own, but remains immersed in it, and so far as it loves it, is glued to it. Then if the understanding ascends, and sees by the light of heaven such things as are of wisdom, this natural love draws down such wisdom, and joins her to itself in what is its own; and there either rejects the things of wisdom or falsifies them or encircles itself with them, that it may talk about them for reputation's sake. As natural love can ascend by degrees and become spiritual and celestial, in the same way it can descend by degrees and become sensual and corporeal, and it does descend so far as it loves dominion from no love of use, but solely from love of self. It is this love which is called the devil. Those who are in this love are able to speak and act in the same manner as those who are in spiritual love; but they do this either from memory or from the understanding elevated by itself into the light of heaven. Nevertheless, what they say and do is comparatively like fruit that appears beautiful on the surface but is wholly rotten within; or like almonds which from the sh.e.l.l appear sound but are wholly worm-eaten within. These things in the spiritual world are called fantasies, and by means of them harlots, there called sirens, make themselves appear handsome, and adorn themselves with beautiful garments; but when the fantasy is dissipated the sirens appear like ghosts, and are like devils who make themselves angels of light. For when that corporeal love draws its understanding down from its elevation, as it does when man is alone and thinks from his own love, then he thinks against G.o.d in favor of nature, against heaven in favor of the world, and against the truths and goods of the church in favor of the falsities and evils of h.e.l.l; thus against wisdom. From this the character of those who are called corporeal men can be seen: for they are not corporeal in understanding, but corporeal in love; that is, they are not corporeal in understanding when they converse in company, but are so when they hold converse with themselves in spirit; and being such in spirit, therefore after death they become, both in love and in understanding, spirits that are called corporeal. Those who in the world had been in a supreme love of ruling from the love of self, and had also surpa.s.sed others in elevation of understanding, then appear in body like Egyptian mummies, and in mind gross and silly. Who in the world at the present day is aware that this love in itself is of such a nature? Yet a love of ruling from love of use is possible, but only from love of use for the sake of the common good, not for the sake of self. It is difficult, however, for man to distinguish the one love from the other, although the difference between them is like that between heaven and h.e.l.l. The differences between these two loves of ruling may be seen in the work on Heaven and h.e.l.l (n. 551-565).

425. (20) The capacity to understand called rationality and the capacity to act called freedom, still remain. These two capacities belonging to man have been treated of above (n. 264-267). Man has these two capacities that he may from being natural become spiritual, that is, may be regenerated. For, as was said above, it is man's love that becomes spiritual, and is regenerated; and it cannot become spiritual or be regenerated unless it knows, by means of its understanding, what evil is and what good is, and therefore what truth is and what falsity is. When it knows this it can choose either one or the other; and if it chooses good it can, by means of its understanding, be instructed about the means by which to attain to good. All the means by which man is enabled to attain good are provided. It is by rationality that man is able to know and understand these means, and by freedom that he is able to will and to do them. There is also a freedom to will to know, to understand, and to think these means. Those who hold from church doctrine that things spiritual or theological transcend the understanding, and are therefore to be believed apart from the understanding know nothing of these capacities called rationality and freedom. These cannot do otherwise than deny that there is a capacity called rationality. Those, too, who hold from church doctrine that no one is able to do good from himself, and consequently that good is not to be done from any will to be saved, cannot do otherwise than deny, from a principle of religion, the existence of both these capacities which belong to man. Therefore, those who have confirmed themselves in these things, after death, in agreement with their faith, are deprived of both these capacities; and in place of heavenly freedom, in which they might have been, are in infernal freedom, and in place of angelic wisdom from rationality, in which they might have been, are in infernal insanity; and what is wonderful, they claim that both these capacities have place in doing what is evil and thinking what is false, not knowing that the exercise of freedom in doing what is evil is slavery, and that the exercise of the reason to think what is false is irrational. But it is to be carefully noted that these capacities, freedom and rationality, are neither of them man's, but are of the Lord in man, and that they cannot be appropriated to man as his; nor indeed, can they be given to man as his, but are continually of the Lord in man, and yet are never taken away from man; and this because without them man cannot be saved, for without them he cannot be regenerated (as has been said above). For this reason man is instructed by the church that from himself he can neither think what is true nor do what is good. But inasmuch as man perceives no otherwise than that he thinks from himself what is true and does from himself what is good, it is very evident that he ought to believe that he thinks as if from himself what is true, and does as if from himself what is good. For if he does not believe this, either he does not think what is true nor do what is good, and therefore has no religion, or he thinks what is true and does what is good from himself, and thus ascribes to himself that which is Divine. That man ought to think what is true and do good as if from himself, may be seen in the Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem, from beginning to end.

426. (21) Spiritual and celestial love is love toward the neighbor and love to the Lord; and natural and sensual love is love of the world and love of self. By love toward the neighbor is meant the love of uses, and by love to the Lord is meant the love of doing uses (as has been shown before). These loves are spiritual and celestial, because loving uses and doing them from a love of them, is distinct from the love of what is man's own; for whoever loves uses spiritually looks not to self, but to others outside of self for whose good he is moved. Opposed to these loves are the loves of self and of the world, for these look to uses not for the sake of others but for the sake of self; and those who do this invert Divine order, and put self in the Lord's place, and the world in the place of heaven; as a consequence they look backward, away from the Lord and away from heaven, and looking backward away from these is looking to h.e.l.l.

(More about these loves may be seen above, n. 424.) Yet man does not feel and perceive the love of performing uses for the sake of uses as he feels and perceives the love of performing uses for the sake of self; consequently when he is performing uses he does not know whether he is doing them for the sake of uses or for the sake of self. But let him know that he is performing uses for the sake of uses in the measure in which he flees from evils; for so far as he flees from evils, he performs uses not for himself, but from the Lord. For evil and good are opposites; so far as one is not in evil he is in good. No one can be in evil and in good at the same time, because no one can serve two masters at the same time.

All this has been said to show that although man does not sensibly perceive whether the uses which he performs are for the sake of use or for the sake of self, that is, whether the uses are spiritual or merely natural, still he can know it by this, whether or not he considers evils to be sins. If he regards them as sins, and for that reason abstains from doing them, the uses which he does are spiritual. And when one who does this flees from sins from a feeling of aversion, he then begins to have a sensible perception of the love of uses for the sake of uses, and this from spiritual enjoyment in them.

427. (22) It is the same with charity and faith and their conjunction as with the will and understanding and their conjunction. There are two loves, according to which the heavens are distinct, celestial love and spiritual love. Celestial love is love to the Lord, and spiritual love is love towards the neighbor. These loves are distinguished by this, that celestial love is the love of good, and spiritual love the love of truth; for those who are in celestial love perform uses from love of good, and those in spiritual love from love of truth. The marriage of celestial love is with wisdom, and the marriage of spiritual love with intelligence; for it is of wisdom to do good from good, and it is of intelligence to do good from truth, consequently celestial love does what is good, and spiritual love does what is true. The difference between these two loves can be defined only in this way, that those who are in celestial love have wisdom inscribed on their life, and not on the memory, for which reason they do not talk about Divine truths, but do them; while those who are in spiritual love have wisdom inscribed on their memory, therefore they talk about Divine truths, and do them from principles in the memory. Because those who are in celestial love have wisdom inscribed on their life, they perceive instantly whether whatever they hear is true or not; and when asked whether it is true, they answer only, It is, or It is not. These are they who are meant by the words of the Lord:

Let your speech be Yea, yea, Nay, nay (Matt. 5:37).

And because they are such, they are unwilling to hear anything about faith, saying, What is faith? is it not wisdom? and what is charity? is it not doing ? And when told that faith is believing what is not understood, they turn away, saying, The man is crazy. These are they who are in the third heaven, and who are the wisest of all. Such have they become who in the world have applied the Divine truths which they have heard immediately to the life by turning away from evils as infernal, and worshiping the Lord alone. These, since they are in innocence, appear to others as infants; and since they never talk about the truths of wisdom and there is nothing of pride in their discourse, they also appear simple.

Nevertheless, when they hear any one speaking, they perceive from the tone all things of his love, and from the speech all things of his intelligence.

These are they who are in the marriage of love and wisdom from the Lord; and who represent the heart region of heaven, mentioned above.

428. Those, however, who are in spiritual love, which is love towards the neighbor, do not have wisdom inscribed on their life, but intelligence; for it is of wisdom to do good from affection for good, while it is of intelligence to do good from affection for truth (as has been said above).

Neither do these know what faith is. When faith is mentioned they understand truth, and when charity is mentioned they understand doing the truth; and when told that they must believe, they call it empty talk, and ask, Who does not believe what is true? This they say because they see truth in the light of their own heaven; therefore, to believe what they do not see they call either simplicity or foolishness. These are they who const.i.tute the lung region of heaven, also mentioned above.

429. But those who are in spiritual-natural love have neither wisdom nor intelligence inscribed on their life, but only something of faith out of the Word, so f