491. XI. THE ADULTERIES COMMITTED BY SUCH PERSONS ARE GRIEVOUS, AND ARE
IMPUTED TO THEM ACCORDING TO CONFIRMATIONS. It is the understanding
alone that confirms, and when it confirms, it engages the will to its
party, and sets it about itself, and thus compels it to compliance.
Confirmations are affected by reasonings, which the mind seizes for its
use, deriving them either from its superior region or from its inferior;
if from the superior region, which communicates with heaven, it confirms
marriages and condemns adulteries; but if from the inferior region,
which communicates with the world, it confirms adulteries and makes
light of marriages. Every one can confirm evil just as well as good; in
like manner what is false and what is true; and the confirmation of evil
is perceived with more delight than the confirmation of good, and the
confirmation of what is false appears with greater lucidity than the
confirmation of what is true. The reason of this is, because the
confirmation of what is evil and false derives its reasonings from the
delights, the pleasures, the appearances, and the fallacies of the
bodily senses; whereas the confirmation of what is good and true derives
its reasons from the region above the sensual principles of the body.
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