o a new one, of which they previously had not
the least knowledge: and they declared, that this was a state of the
expansion of all things of the life of their body from first principles
to last, to receive the gifts of their husband, and to unite these gifts
to their own life, that thus they might become his love and his wife;
and that this state commenced from the moment of defloration, and that
after this the flame of love burned to the husband alone, and that they
were sensible of the heavenly delights of that expansion; and further,
that as each wife was introduced into this state by her own husband, and
as it is from him, and thereby his in herself, it is altogether
impossible for her to love any other than him alone. From this account
it was made manifest what is the quality of the state of maidens before
and after marriage in heaven. That the state of maidens and wives on
earth, whose first attachments prove successful, is similar to this of
the maidens in heaven, is no secret. What maiden can know that new state
before she is in it? Inquire, and you will hear. The case is different
with those who before marriage catch allurement from being taught.

503. II. VIRGINITY IS THE CROWN OF CHASTITY AND THE CERTIFICATE OF
CONJUGIAL LOVE. Virginity is called the crown of chastity, because it
crowns the chastity of marriage: it is also the badge of chastity;
wherefore the bride at the nuptials wears a crown on her head: it is
also a badge of the sanctity of marriage; for the bride, after the
maiden flower, gives and devotes herself wholly to the bridegroom, at
that time the husband, and the husband in his turn gives and devotes
himself wholly to the bride, at that time the wife. Virginity is also
called the certificate of conjugial love, because a certificate has
relation to a covenant; and the covenant is, that love may unite them
into one man, or into one flesh. The men themselves also before marriage
regard the virginity of the bride as a crown of her chastity, and as a
certificate of conjugial love, and as the very dainty from which the
delights of that love are about to commence and to be perpetuated. From
these and the foregoing considerations, it is manifest, that after the
zone is taken away, and the virginity is sipped, a maiden becomes a
wife, and if not a wife, she becomes a harlot; for the new state into
which she is then introduced, is a state of love for her husband, and if
not for her husband, it is a state