with worms merely
corporeal, with vegetables it is void of life; and moreover in all its
subjects it is varied according to their forms. Now as this sphere is
received immediately by the female sex, and mediately by the male, and
as it is received according to forms, it follows, that this sphere,
which in its origin is holy, may in the subjects be turned into what is
not holy, yea may be even inverted into what is opposite. The sphere
opposite to it is called meretricious with such women, and adulterous
with such men; and as such men and women are in hell, this sphere is
from thence: but of this sphere there is also much variety, and hence
there are several species of it; and such a species is attracted and
appropriated by a man (_vir_) as is agreeable to him, and as is
conformable and correspondent with his peculiar temper and disposition.
From these considerations it may appear, that the man who does not love
his wife, receives that sphere from some other source than from his
wife; nevertheless it is a fact, that it is also inspired by the wife,
but without the husband's knowing it, and while he grows warm.

226. XVII. LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL MAY EXIST WITH ONE OF THE MARRIED
PARTNERS, AND NOT AT THE SAME TIME WITH THE OTHER. For one may from the
heart devote himself to chaste marriage, while the other knows not what
chaste marriage is; one may love the things which are of the church, but
the other those which are of the world alone: as to their minds, one may
be in heaven, the other in hell; hence there may be conjugial love with
the one, and not with the other. The minds of such, since they are
turned in a contrary direction, are inwardly in collision with each
other; and if not outwardly, still, he that is not in conjugial love,
regards his lawful consort as a tiresome old woman; and so in other
cases.

227. XVIII. THERE ARE VARIOUS SIMILITUDES AND DISSIMILITUDES, BOTH
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL, WITH MARRIED PARTNERS. It is well known, that
between married partners there are similitudes and dissimilitudes, and
that the external appear, but not the internal, except after some time
of living together, to the married partners themselves, and by
indications to others; but it would be useless to mention each so that
they might be known, since several pages might be filled with an account
and description of their varieties. Similitudes may in part be deduced
and concluded from the dissimilitudes on account of which conjugial