essed, they heard it very variously, every one according to
the state of his love. Those who looked upon women chastely, heard it as
a song of symphony and sweetness; those who looked upon them unchastely,
heard it as a discordant and mournful song; and those who looked upon
them disdainfully, heard it as a song that was harsh and grating. At
that instant the place on which they stood was suddenly changed into a
theatre, and a voice was heard, saying, "INVESTIGATE THIS LOVE:" and
immediately spirits from various societies presented themselves, and in
the midst of them some angels in white. The latter then said, "We in
this spiritual world have inquired into every species of love, not only
into the love which a man has for a man, and a woman for a woman; and
into the reciprocal love of a husband and a wife; but also into the love
which a man has for woman, and which a woman has for men; and we have
been permitted to pass through societies and examine them, and we have
never yet found the common love of the sex chaste, except with those who
from true conjugial love are in continual potency, and these are in the
highest heavens. We have also been permitted to perceive the influx of
this love into the affections of our hearts, and have been made sensible
that it surpasses in sweetness every other love, except the love of two
conjugial partners whose hearts are as one: but we have besought you to
investigate this love, because it is new and unknown to you; and since
it is essential pleasantness, we in heaven call it heavenly sweetness."
They then began the investigation; and those spoke first who were unable
to think chastely of marriages. They said, "What man when he beholds a
beautiful and lovely virgin or wife, can so correct or purify the ideas
of his thought from concupiscence, as to love the beauty and yet have no
inclination to taste it, if it be allowable? Who can convert
concupiscence, which is innate in every man, into such chastity, thus
into somewhat not itself, and yet love? Can the love of the sex, when it
enters by the eyes into the thoughts, stop at the face of a woman? Does
it not descend instantly into the breast, and beyond it? The angels talk
idly in saying that this love is chaste, and yet is the sweetest of all
loves, and that it can only exist with husbands who are in true
conjugial love, and thence in an extreme degree of potency with their
wives. Do such husbands possess any peculiar power more than oth