ertificates of consent on each side;
wherefore, when two parties consent to anything, it is customary to say,
"Give me a token;" and of two, who have entered into a marriage
engagement, and have secured it by presents, that they are
pledged, thus confirmed. They are _testifications_, because those
pledges are continual visible witnesses of mutual love; hence also they
are memorials thereof; especially if they be rings, perfume-bottles or
boxes, and ribbons, which are worn in sight. In such things there is a
sort of representative image of the minds (_animorum_) of the bridegroom
and the bride. Those pledges are _first favors_, because conjugial love
engages for itself everlasting favor; whereof those gifts are the first
fruits. That they are the _gladnesses_ of love, is well known, for the
mind is exhilarated at the sight of them; and because love is in them,
those favors are dearer and more precious than any other gifts, it being
as if their hearts were in them. As those pledges are securities of
conjugial love, therefore presents after consent were in use with the
ancients; and after accepting such presents the parties were declared to
be bridegroom and bride. But it is to be observed that it is at the
pleasure of the parties to bestow those presents either before or after
the act of betrothing; if before, they are confirmations and
testifications of consent to betrothing; if after it, they are also
confirmations and testifications of consent to the nuptial tie.

301. V. CONSENT IS TO BE SECURED AND ESTABLISHED BY SOLEMN BETROTHING.
The reasons for betrothings are these: 1. That after betrothing the
souls of the two parties may mutually incline towards each other. 2.
That the universal love for the sex may be determined to one of the sex.
3. That the interior affections may be mutually known, and by
applications in the internal cheerfulness of love, may be conjoined. 4.
That the spirits of both parties may enter into marriage, and be more
and more consociated. 5. That thereby conjugial love may advance
regularly from its first warmth even to the nuptial flame. Consequently:
6. That conjugial love may advance and grow up in just order from its
spiritual origin. The state of betrothing may be compared to the state
of spring before summer; and the internal pleasantness of that state to
the flowering of trees before fructification. As the beginning and
progressions of conjugial love proceed in order for the sake of their