er men,
when they see a beautiful woman, of keeping the ideas of their thought
in a state of elevation, and as it were of suspending them, so that they
cannot descend and proceed to what constitutes that love?" The argument
was next taken up by those who were in cold and in heat; in cold towards
their wives, and in heat towards the sex; and they said, "What is the
chaste love of the sex? Is it not a contradiction in terms to talk of
such a love? If chastity be predicated of the love of the sex, is not
this destroying the very thing of which it is predicated? How can the
chaste love of the sex be the sweetest of all loves, when chastity
deprives it of its sweetness? You all know where the sweetness of that
love resides; when therefore the idea connected therewith is banished
from the mind, where and whence is the sweetness?" At that instant
certain spirits interrupted them, and said, "We have been in company
with the most beautiful females and have had no lust; therefore we know
what the chaste love of the sex is." But their companions, who were
acquainted with their lasciviousness, replied, "You were at those times
in a state of loathing towards the sex, arising from impotence; and this
is not the chaste love of the sex, but the ultimate of unchaste love."
On hearing what had been said, the angels were indignant and requested
those who stood on the right, or to the south, to deliver their
sentiments. They said, "There is a love of one man to another, and also
of one woman to another; and there is a love of a man to a woman, and of
a woman to a man; and these three pairs of loves totally differ from
each other. The love of one man to another is as the love of
understanding and understanding; for the man was created and
consequently born to become understanding; the love of one woman to
another is as the love of affection and affection of the understanding
of men; for the woman was created and born to become a love of the
understanding of a man. These loves, viz., of one man to another, and of
one woman to another, do not enter deeply into the bosom, but remain
without, and only touch each other; thus they do not interiorly conjoin
the two parties: wherefore also two men, by their mutual reasonings,
sometimes engage in combat together like two wrestlers; and two women,
by their mutual concupiscences, are at war with each other like two
prize-fighters. But the love of a man and a woman is the love of the
understanding and o