if it were one with
the former, but it is distinctly different; neither is the one love near
to the other, but within it; and what is within is more excellent than
what is without: and we have seen that conjugial love from creation is
within, and lies hid in the love of the sex, just as an almond does in
its shell; therefore when conjugial love comes out of its shell, which
is the love of the sex, it glitters before the angels like a gem, a
beryl, and astroites. The reason of this is, because on conjugial love
is inscribed the safety of the whole human race, which we conceive to be
understood by the public good. This is our judgement respecting the
origin of this love. With respect to the origin of its virtue or
potency, from a consideration of its causes, we have concluded it to be
the development and separation of conjugial love from the love of the
sex, which is effected by wisdom on the man's part, and by the love of
the man's wisdom on the part of the wife: for the love of the sex is
common to man and beast; whereas conjugial love is peculiar to men:
therefore so far as conjugial love is developed and separated from the
love of the sex, so far a man is a man and not a beast; and a man
acquires virtue or potency from his love, as a beast does from his." To
this decision was subscribed the letter G.

110. SEVENTHLY, he drew out a paper from which he read as follows: "We,
natives of the same country, in the chamber under the light of our
window, have found our thoughts and thence our judgements exhilarated by
meditating on conjugial love; for who is not exhilarated by this love,
which, while it prevails in the mind, prevails also through the whole
body? We judge of the origin of this love from its delights; for who in
any case knows or has known the trace of any love except from its
delight and pleasurableness? The delights of conjugial love in their
origins are felt as beatitudes, satisfactions, and happinesses, in their
derivations as pleasantnesses and pleasures, and in their ultimates as
superlative delights. The love of the sex therefore originates when the
interiors of the mind, and thence the interiors of the body, are opened
for the influx of those delights; but conjugial love originated at the
time when, from entering into marriage engagements, the primitive sphere
of that love ideally promoted those delights. The virtue or potency of
this love arises from its passing, with its inmost principles, from the
min