ls it merely
an influent effect arising from the sight, the hearing, and the
conversation, and thus accounts for the motions to which it gives birth;
not being at all aware, that love is his very life, not only the common
life of his whole body and of all his thoughts, but also the life of all
their particulars. A wise man may perceive this from the consideration,
that if the affection of love be removed, he is incapable both of
thinking and acting; for in proportion as that affection grows cold, do
not thought, speech, and action grow cold also? and in proportion as
that affection grows warm, do not they also grow warm in the same
degree? Love therefore is the heat of the life of man (_hominis_), or
his vital heat. The heat of the blood, and also its redness, are from
this source alone. The fire of the angelic sun, which is pure love,
produces this effect.
35. That every one has his own peculiar love, or a love distinct from
that of another; that is, that no two men have exactly the same love,
may appear from the infinite variety of human countenances, the
countenance being a type of the love; for it is well known that the
countenance is changed and varied according to the affection of love; a
man's desires also, which are of love, and likewise his joys and
sorrows, are manifested in the countenance. From this consideration it
is evident, that every man is his own peculiar love; yea, that he is the
form of his love. It is however to be observed, that the interior man,
which is the same with his spirit which lives after death, is the form
of his love, and not so the exterior man which lives in this world,
because the latter has learnt from infancy to conceal the desires of his
love; yea, to make a pretence and show of desires which are different
from his own.
36. The reason why every one's peculiar love remains with him after
death, is, because, as was said just above, n. 34, love is a man's
(_hominis_) life; and hence it is the man himself. A man also is his own
peculiar thought, thus his own peculiar intelligence and wisdom; but
these make a one with his love; for a man thinks from this love and
according to it; yea, if he be in freedom, he speaks and acts in like
manner; from which it may appear, that love is the _esse_ or essence of
a man's life, and that thought is the _existere_ or existence of his
life thence derived; therefore speech and action, which are said to flow
from the thought, do not flow from the t
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