emory from parents and masters, serves
as a plane. At that time a change takes place in the mind; it before
thought only from things introduced into the memory, by meditating upon
and obeying them; it afterwards thinks from reason exercised upon them,
and then, under the guidance of the love, it arranges into a new order
the things seated in the memory, and in agreement with that order it
disposes its own life, and successively thinks more and more according
to its own reason, and wills from its own freedom. It is well known that
the love of the sex follows the commencement of a man's own
understanding, and advances according to its vigor; and this is a proof
that that love ascends and descends as the understanding ascends and
descends: by ascending we mean into wisdom, and by descending, into
insanity; and wisdom consists in restraining the love of the sex, and
insanity in allowing it a wide range: if it be allowed to run into
fornication, which is the beginning of its activity, it ought to be
moderated from principles of honor and morality implanted in the memory
and thence in the reason, and afterwards to be implanted in the reason
and in the memory. The reason why the voice also begins to be masculine,
together with the commencement of a man's own understanding, is, because
the understanding thinks, and by thought speaks; which is a proof that
the understanding constitutes the man (_vir_), and also his male
principle; consequently, that as his understanding is elevated, so he
becomes a man-man (_homo vir_), and also a male man (_masculus vir_);
see above, n. 432, 433.

447. III. FORNICATION IS OF THE NATURAL MAN, in like manner as the love
of the sex, which, if it becomes active before marriage, is called
fornication. Every man (_homo_) is born corporeal, becomes sensual,
afterwards natural, and successively rational; and, if in this case he
does not stop in his progress, he becomes spiritual. The reason why he
thus advances step by step, is, in order that planes may be formed, on
which superior principles may rest and find support, as a palace on its
foundations: the ultimate plane, with those that are formed upon it, may
also be compared to ground, in which, when prepared, noble seeds are
sown. As to what specifically regards the love of the sex, it also is
first corporeal, for it commences from the flesh: next it becomes
sensual, for the five senses receive delight from its common principle;
afterwards it becomes