as
said, are in inmost principles, we will first distribute the causes
generally into internal and external, and afterwards will particularly
examine them.

238. IV. INTERNAL CAUSES OF COLD ARE FROM RELIGION. That the very origin
of conjugial love resides in the inmost principles of man, that is, in
his soul, is demonstrable to every one from the following considerations
alone; that the soul of the offspring is from the father, which is known
from the similitude of inclinations and affections, and also from the
general character of the countenance derived from the father and
remaining with very remote posterity; also from the propagative faculty
implanted in souls from creation; and moreover by what is analogous
thereto in the subjects of the vegetable kingdom, in that there lies hid
in the inmost principles of germination the propagation of the seed
itself, and thence of the whole, whether it be a tree, a shrub, or a
plant. This propagative or plastic force in seeds in the latter kingdom,
and in souls in the other, is from no other source than the conjugial
sphere, which is that of good and truth, and which perpetually emanates
and flows in from the Lord the Creator and Supporter of the universe;
concerning which sphere, see above, n. 222-225; and from the endeavour
of those two principles, good and truth, therein, to unite into a one.
This conjugial endeavour remains implanted in souls, and conjugial love
exists by derivation from it as its origin. That this same marriage,
from which the above universal sphere is derived, constitutes the church
with man, has been abundantly shewn above in the chapter ON THE MARRIAGE
OF GOOD AND TRUTH, and frequently elsewhere. Hence there is all the
evidence of rational demonstration, that the origin of the church and of
conjugial love are in one place of abode, and in a continual embrace;
but on this subject see further particulars above, n. 130, where it was
proved, that conjugial love is according to the state of the church with
man; thus that it is grounded in religion, because religion constitutes
this state. Man also was created with a capacity of becoming more and
more interior, and thereby of being introduced or elevated nearer and
nearer to that marriage, and thus into love truly conjugial, and this
even so far as to perceive a state of its blessedness. That religion is
the only means of introduction and elevation, appears clearly from what
was said above, namely, that the or