148. There is implanted in every man (_homo_) from creation, and consequently from his birth, an internal and an external conjugial principle; the internal is spiritual, and the external natural: a man comes first into the latter, and as he becomes spiritual, he comes into the former. If therefore he remains in the external or natural conjugial principle, the internal or spiritual conjugial principle is veiled or covered, until he knows nothing respecting it; yea, until he calls it an ideal shadow without a substance: but if a man becomes spiritual, he then begins to know something respecting it, and afterwards to perceive something of its quality, and successively to be made sensible of its pleasantness, agreeableness, and delights; and in proportion as this is the case, the veil or covering between the external and internal, spoken of above, begins to be attenuated, and afterwards as it were to melt, and lastly to be dissolved and dissipated. When this effect takes place, the external conjugial principle remains indeed; but it is continually purged and purified from its dregs by the internal; and this, until the external becomes as it were the face of the internal, and derives its delight from the blessedness which is in the internal, and at the same time its life, and the delights of its potency. Such is the renunciation of whoredoms, by which the chastity of marriage exists. It may be imagined, that the external conjugial principle, which remains after the internal has separated itself from it, or it from itself, resembles the external principle not separated: but I have heard from the angels that they are altogether unlike; for that the external principle in conjunction with the internal, which they called the external of the internal, was void of all lasciviousness, because the internal cannot be lascivious, but only be delighted chastely; and that it imparts the same disposition to its external, wherein it is made sensible of its own delights: the case is altogether otherwise with the external separated from the internal; this they said, was lascivious in the whole and in every part. They compared the external conjugial principle derived from the internal to excellent fruit, whose pleasant taste and flavor insinuate themselves into its outward rind, and form this into correspondence with themselves; they compared it also to a granary, whose store is never diminished, but is continually recruited according to its consumption; whereas they compared the external principle, separate from the internal, to wheat in a winnowing machine, when it is put in motion about its axis; in which case the chaff only remains, which is dispersed by the wind; so it is with the conjugial principle, unless the adulterous principle be renounced.