sex does not exist; but we have the
angelic love of the sex, which is chaste, and devoid all libidinous
allurement." Hereupon the novitiates observed, "If there be a love of
the sex devoid of all allurement, what in such cases is the love of the
sex?" And while they were thinking about this love they sighed, and
said, "Oh, how dry and insipid is the joy of heaven! What young man, if
this be the case, can possibly wish for heaven? Is not such love barren
and devoid of life?" To this the angelic spirits replied, with a smile,
"The angelic love of the sex, such as exists in heaven, is nevertheless
full of the inmost delights: it is the most agreeable expansion of all
the principles of the mind, and thence of all the parts of the breast,
existing inwardly in the breast, and sporting therein as the heart
sports with the lungs, giving birth thereby to respiration, tone of
voice, and speech; so that the intercourse between the sexes, or between
youths and virgins, is an intercourse of essential celestial sweets,
which are pure. All novitiates, on ascending into heaven, are examined
as to the quality of their chastity, being let into the company of
virgins, the beauties of heaven, who from their tone of voice, their
speech, their face, their eyes, their gesture, and their exhaling
sphere, perceive what is their quality in regard to the love of the sex;
and if their love be unchaste, they instantly quit them, and tell their
fellow angels that they have seen satyrs or priapuses. The new comers
also undergo a change, and in the eyes of the angels appear rough and
hairy, and with feet like calves' or leopards', and presently they are
cast down again, lest by their lust they should defile the heavenly
atmosphere." On receiving this information, the two novitiates again
said, "According to this, there is no love of the sex in heaven; for
what is a chaste love of the sex, but a love deprived of the essence of
its life? And must not all the intercourse of youths and virgins, in
such case, consist of dry insipid joys? We are not stocks and stones,
but perceptions and affections of life." To this the angelic spirits
indignantly replied, "You are altogether ignorant what a chaste love of
the sex is; because as yet you are not chaste. This love is the very
essential delight of the mind, and thence of the heart; and not at the
same time of the flesh beneath the heart. Angelic chastity, which is
common to each sex, prevents the passage of tha