The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love: To Which is Added The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining To Scortatory LoveSwedenborg, Emanuel
Religion
The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love: To Which is Added The Pleasures of Insanity Pertaining To Scortatory Love
Swedenborg, Emanuel
Marriage -- Religious aspects -- New Jerusalem Church; New Jerusalem Church -- Doctrines; Sexual ethics
105. After this he put his hand into the urn a SECOND TIME, and took out
a paper from which he read as follows: "We, natives of the same country,
in our lodge have agreed that the origin of conjugial love is the same
with the origin of marriages, which were sanctioned by laws in order to
restrain man's innate concupiscences prompting him to adultery, which
ruins the soul, defiles the reason, pollutes the morals, and infects the
body with disease: for adultery is not human but bestial, not rational
but brutish, and thus not in any respect Christian but barbarous: with a
view to the condemnation of such adultery, marriages originated, and at
the same time conjugial love. The case is the same with the virtue or
potency of this love; for it depends on chastity, which consists in
abstaining from the rovings of whoredom: the reason is, because virtue
or potency, with him who loves his married partner alone, is confined to
one, and is thus collected and as it were concentrated; and then it
becomes refined like a quintessence from which all defilement is
separated, which would otherwise be dispersed and cast away in every
direction. One of us five, who is a priest, has also added
predestination as a cause of that virtue or potency, saying, 'Are not
marriages predestinated? and this being the case, are not the progeny
thence issuing and the means conducive thereto, predestinated also?' He
insisted on adding this cause because he had sworn to it." To this
decision was subscribed the letter B. On hearing it, a certain spirit
observed with a smile, "How fair an apology is predestination for
weakness or impotence!"
106. Presently he drew from the urn a THIRD PAPER, from which he read as
follows: "We, natives of the same country, in our department have
deliberated concerning the causes of the origin of conjugial love, and
have seen this to be the principal, that it is the same with the origin
of marriage, because conjugial love had no existence before marriage;
and the ground of its existence is, that when any one is desperately in
love with a virgin, he desires in heart and soul to possess her as being
lovely above all things; and as soon as she betroths herself to him he
regards her as another self. That this is the origin of conjugial love,
is clearly manifest from the fury of every man against his rivals, and
from the jealousy which takes place in case of violation. We afterwards
considered the origin of the virtue or potency of this love; and the
sentiments of three prevailed against the other two, viz., that virtue
or potency with a married partner arises from some degree of
licentiousness with the sex. They affirmed that they knew from
experience that the potency of the love of the sex is greater than the
potency of conjugial love." To this decision was subscribed the letter
I. On hearing it, there was a cry from the table, "Remove this paper and
take another out of the urn."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account