)
439. XIV. EACH SPHERE BRINGS WITH IT DELIGHTS; that is, both the sphere
of adulterous love which ascends from hell, and the sphere of conjugial
love which descends from heaven, affects the recipient man (_homo_) with
delights; because the ultimate plane in which the delights of each love
terminate, and where they fill and complete themselves, and which
exhibits them in their own proper sensory, is the same. Hence, in the
extremes, adulterous caresses and conjugial caresses are perceived as
similar, although in internals they are altogether dissimilar; that
hence they are also dissimilar in the extremes, is a point not decided
from any sense of discrimination; for dissimilitudes are not made
sensible from their discriminations in the extremes, to any others than
those who are principled in love truly conjugial; for evil is known from
good, but not good from evil; so neither is a sweet scent perceived by
the nose when a disagreeable one is present in it. I have heard from the
angels, that they distinguish in the extremes what is lascivious from
what is not, as any one distinguishes the fire of a dunghill or of burnt
horn by its bad smell, from the fire of spices or of burnt cinnamon by
its sweet smell; and that this arises from their distinction of the
internal delights which enter into the external and compose them.
Pages:
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790