dence, and thereby of all the happiness of life, which they
carefully attend to, both in regard to their husbands and themselves, by
virtue of a wisdom implanted in their love, which is so full of
prudence, that they are unwilling to say, and consequently cannot say,
that they love, but that they are loved." I asked the wives, "Why are
you unwilling, and consequently cannot say so?" They replied, "If the
least hint of the kind were to escape from the mouth of a wife, the
husband would be seized with coolness, which would entirely separate him
from all communication with his wife, so that he could not even bear to
look upon her; but this is the case only with those husbands who do not
hold marriages to be holy, and therefore do not love their wives from
spiritual love: it is otherwise with those who do. In the minds of the
latter this love is spiritual, and by derivation thence in the body is
natural. We in this hall are principled in the latter love by derivation
from the former; therefore we trust our husbands with our secrets
respecting our delights of conjugial love." Then I courteously asked
them to disclose to me some of those secrets: they then looked towards a
window on the southern quarter, and lo! there appeared a white dove,
whose wings shone as if they were of silver, and its head was crested
with a crown as of gold: it stood upon a bough, from which there went
forth an olive; and while it was in the attempt to spread out its wings,
the wives said, "We will communicate something: the appearing of that
dove is a token that we may. Every man (_vir_)" they continued, "has
five senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch; but we have
likewise a sixth, which is the sense of all the delights of the
conjugial love of the husband; and this sense we have in the palms of
our hands, while we touch the breasts, arms, hands, or cheeks, of our
husbands, especially their breasts; and also while we are touched by
them. All the gladness and pleasantness of the thoughts of their minds
(_mentium_), all the joys and delights of their minds (_animarum_) and
all the festive and cheerful principles of their bosoms, pass from them
to us, and become perceptible, sensible, and tangible: we discern them
as exquisitely and distinctly as the ear does the tune of a song, and
the tongue the taste of dainties; in a word, the spiritual delights of
our husbands put on with us a kind of natural embodiment; therefore they
call us the sens