184. What is meant by states of life, and their changes, is very well known to the learned and the wise, but unknown to the unlearned and the simple; wherefore it may be expedient to premise somewhat on the subject. The state of a man's life is its quality; and as there are in every man two faculties which constitute his life, and which are called the understanding and the will, the state of a man's life is its quality as to the understanding and the will. Hence it is evident, that changes of the state of life mean changes of quality as to the things appertaining to the understanding and the will. That every man is continually changing as to those two principles, but with a distinction of variations before marriage and after it, is the point proposed to be proved in this section; which shall be done in the following propositions:--I. _The state of a man's (homo) life from infancy even to the end of his life, and afterwards to eternity, is continually changing._ II. _In like manner a man's internal form which is that of his spirit, is continually changing._ III. _These changes differ in the case of men and of women; since men from creation are forms of knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and women are forms of the love of those principles as existing with men._ IV. _With men there is an elevation of the mind into superior light, and with women an elevation of the mind into superior heat: and that the woman is made sensible of the delights of her heat in the man's light._ V. _With both men and women, the states of life before marriage are different from what they are afterwards._ VI. _With married partners the states of life after marriage are changed and succeed each other according to the conjunctions of their minds by conjugial love._ VII. _Marriage also induces other forms in the souls and minds of married partners._ VIII. _The woman is actually formed into a wife according to the description in the book of creation._ IX. _This formation is effected on the part of the wife by secret means; and this is meant by the woman's being created while the man slept._ X. _This formation on the part of the wife is affected by the conjunction of her own will with the internal will of the man._ XI. _The end herein is, that the will of both became one, and that thus both may become one man (homo)._ XII. _This formation on the part of the wife is affected by an appropriation of the affections of the husband._ XIII. _This formation on the part of the wife is effected by a reception of the propagations of the soul of the husband, with the delight arising from her desire to be the love of her husband's wisdom._ XIV. _Thus a maiden is formed into a wife, and a youth into a husband._ XV. _In the marriage of one man with one wife, between whom there exists love truly conjugial, the wife becomes more and more a wife and the husband more and more a husband._ XVI. _Thus also their forms are successively perfected and ennobled from within._ XVII. _Children born