It is well known that
the love of the sex follows the commencement of a man's own
understanding, and advances according to its vigor; and this is a proof
that that love ascends and descends as the understanding ascends and
descends: by ascending we mean into wisdom, and by descending, into
insanity; and wisdom consists in restraining the love of the sex, and
insanity in allowing it a wide range: if it be allowed to run into
fornication, which is the beginning of its activity, it ought to be
moderated from principles of honor and morality implanted in the memory
and thence in the reason, and afterwards to be implanted in the reason
and in the memory. The reason why the voice also begins to be masculine,
together with the commencement of a man's own understanding, is, because
the understanding thinks, and by thought speaks; which is a proof that
the understanding constitutes the man (_vir_), and also his male
principle; consequently, that as his understanding is elevated, so he
becomes a man-man (_homo vir_), and also a male man (_masculus vir_);
see above, n. 432, 433.
447. III.
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