ed more sharply, "We are not females, but wives; you are in fancied
and not in real love; you therefore talk fancifully." Then the men said,
"If you are not females (_feminae_) still you are women (_mulieres_):"
and they replied, "In the first states of marriage we were women
(_mulieres_); but now we are wives."

200. XV. IN THE MARRIAGE OF ONE MAN WITH ONE WIFE, BETWEEN WHOM THERE
EXISTS LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL, THE WIFE BECOMES MORE AND MORE A WIFE, AND
THE HUSBAND MORE AND MORE A HUSBAND. That love truly conjugial more and
more conjoins two into one man (_homo_), may be seen above n. 178, 179;
and as a wife becomes a wife from and according to conjunction with the
husband, and in like manner the husband with the wife; and as love truly
conjugial endures to eternity, it follows, that the wife becomes more
and more a wife, and the husband more and more a husband. The true
reason of this is, because in the marriage of love truly conjugial, each
married partner becomes continually a more interior man; for that love
opens the interiors of their minds; and as these are opened, a man
becomes more and more a man (_homo_): and to become more a man (_homo_)
in the case of the wife is to become more a wife, and in the case of the
husband to become more a husband. I have heard from the angels, that the
wife becomes more and more a wife as the husband becomes more and more a
husband, but not _vice versa_; because it rarely, if ever, happens, that
a chaste wife is wanting in love to her husband, but that the husband is
wanting in a return of love to his wife; and that this return of love is
wanting because he has no elevation of wisdom, which alone receives the
love of the wife: respecting this wisdom see above n. 130, 163-165.
These things however they said in regard to marriages on earth.

201. XVI. THUS ALSO THEIR FORMS ARE SUCCESSIVELY PERFECTED AND ENNOBLED
FROM WITHIN. The most perfect and noble human form results from the
conjunction of two forms by marriage so as to become one form; thus from
two fleshes becoming one flesh, according to creation. That in such case
the man's mind is elevated into superior light, and the wife's into
superior heat, and that then they germinate, and bear flowers and
fruits, like trees in the spring, may be seen above, n. 188, 189. That
from the nobleness of this form are produced noble fruits, which in the
heavens are spiritual, and on earth natural, will be seen in the
following article.

202.