The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love. Emanuel Swedenborg

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СКАЧАТЬ is, because these two are in the Lord God the Creator; yea, they are himself; for he is essential divine good and essential divine truth. But this enters more clearly into the perception of the understanding, and thereby into the ideas of thought, if instead of good we say love, and instead of truth we say wisdom: consequently that in the Lord God the Creator there are divine love and divine wisdom, and that they are himself; that is, that he is essential love and essential wisdom; for those two are the same as good and truth. The reason of this is, because good has relation to love, and truth to wisdom; for love consists of goods, and wisdom truths. As the two latter and the two former are one and the same, in the following pages we shall sometimes speak of the latter and sometimes of the former, while by both the same is understood. This preliminary observation is here made, lest different meanings should be attached to the expressions when they occur in the following pages.

      85. Since therefore the Lord God the Creator is essential love and essential wisdom, and from him was created the universe, which thence is as a work proceeding from him, it must needs be, that in all created things there is somewhat of good and of truth from him; for whatever is done and proceeds from any one, derives from him a certain similarity to him. That this is the case, reason also may see from the order in which all things in the universe were created; which order is, that one exists for the sake of another, and that thence one depends upon another, like the links of a chain: for all things are for the sake of the human race, that from it the angelic heaven may exist, through which creation returns to the Creator himself, in whom it originated: hence there is a conjunction of the created universe with its Creator, and by conjunction everlasting conservation. Hence it is that good and truth are called the universals of creation. That this is the case, is manifested to every one who takes a rational view of the subject: he sees in every created thing something which relates to good, and something which relates to truth.

      86. The reason why good and truth in created subjects are according to the form of each, is, because every subject receives influx according to its form. The conservation of the whole consists in the perpetual influx of divine good and divine truth into forms created from those principles; for thereby subsistence or conservation is perpetual existence or creation. That every subject receives influx according to its form, may be illustrated variously; as by the influx of heat and light from the sun into vegetables of every kind; each of which receives influx according to its form; thus every tree and shrub according to its form, every herb and every blade of grass according to its form: the influx is alike into all; but the reception, which is according to the form, causes every species to continue a peculiar species. The same thing may also be illustrated by the influx into animals of every kind according to the form of each. That the influx is according to the form of every particular thing, may also be seen by the most unlettered person, if he attends to the various instruments of sound, as pipes, flutes, trumpets, horns, and organs which give forth a sound from being blown alike, or from a like influx of air, according to their respective forms.

      

      87. II. THERE IS NEITHER SOLITARY GOOD NOR SOLITARY TRUTH. BUT IN ALL CASES THEY ARE CONJOINED. Whoever is desirous from any of the senses to acquire an idea respecting good, cannot possibly find it without the addition of something which exhibits and manifests it: good without this is a nameless entity; and this something, by which it is exhibited and manifested, has relation to truth. Pronounce the term good only, and say nothing at the same time of this or that thing with which it is conjoined; or define it abstractedly, or without the addition of anything connected with it; and you will see that it is a mere nothing, and that it becomes something with its addition; and if you examine the subject with discernment, you will perceive that good, without some addition, is a term of no predication, and thence of no relation, of no affection, and of no state; in a word, of no quality. The case is similar in regard to truth, if it be pronounced and heard without what it is joined with: that what it is joined with relates to good, may be seen by refined reason. But since goods are innumerable, and each ascends to its greatest, and descends to its least, as by the steps of a ladder, and also, according to its progression and quality, varies its name, it is difficult for any but the wise to see the relation of good and truth to their objects, and their conjunction in them. That nevertheless there is not any good without truth, nor any truth without good, is manifest from common perception, provided it be first acknowledged that every thing in the universe has relation to good and truth; as was shewn in the foregoing article, n. 84, 85. That there is neither solitary good nor solitary truth, may be illustrated and at the same time confirmed by various considerations; as by the following: that there is no essence without a form, nor any form without an essence; for good is an essence or esse; and truth is that by which the essence is formed and the esse exists. Again in a man (homo) there are the will and the understanding. Good is of the will, and truth is of the understanding; and the will alone does nothing but by the understanding; nor does the understanding alone do anything but from the will. Again, in a man there are two fountains of bodily life, the heart and the lungs. The heart cannot produce any sensitive and moving life without the respiring lungs; neither can the lungs without the heart. The heart has relation to good, and the respiration of the lungs to truth: there is also a correspondence between them. The case is similar in all the things of the mind and of the body belonging to him; but we have not leisure to produce further confirmations in this place; therefore the reader is referred to the ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, n. 3–16, where this subject is more fully confirmed and explained in the following order: I. That the universe with all its created subjects, is from the divine love by the divine wisdom; or, what is the same thing, from the divine good by the divine truth. II. That the divine good and the divine truth proceed as a one from the Lord. III. That this one, in a certain image, is in every created thing. V. That good is not good, only so far as it is united with truth; and that truth is not truth, only so far as it is united with good. VII. That the Lord doesn't suffer that any thing should be divided; wherefore a man must either be in good and at the same time in truth, or in evil and at the same time in falsehood: not to mention several other considerations.

      88. III. THERE IS THE TRUTH OF GOOD, AND FROM THIS THE GOOD OF TRUTH; OR TRUTH GROUNDED IN GOOD, AND GOOD GROUNDED IN THAT TRUTH; AND IN THOSE TWO PRINCIPLES IS IMPLANTED FROM CREATION AN INCLINATION TO JOIN THEMSELVES TOGETHER INTO A ONE. It is necessary that some distinct idea be acquired concerning these principles; because on such idea depends all knowledge respecting the essential origin of conjugial love: for, as will be seen presently, the truth of good, or truth grounded on good, is male (or masculine), and the good of truth, or good grounded in that truth, is female (or feminine): but this may be comprehended more distinctly, if instead of good we speak of love, and instead of truth we speak of wisdom; which are one and the same, as may be seen above, n. 84. Wisdom cannot exist with a man but by means of the love of growing wise; if this love be taken away, it is altogether impossible for him to become wise. Wisdom derived from this love is meant by the truth of good, or by truth grounded in good: but when a man has procured to himself wisdom from that love, and loves it in himself, or himself for its sake, he then forms a love which is the love of wisdom, and is meant by the good of truth, or by good grounded in that truth. There are therefore two loves belonging to a man, whereof one, which is prior, is the love of growing wise; and the other, which is posterior, is the love of wisdom: but this latter love if it remains with man, is an evil love, and is called self-conceit, or the love of his own intelligence. That it was provided from creation, that this love should be taken out of the man, lest it should destroy him, and should be transferred to the woman, for the effecting of conjugial love, which restores man to integrity, will be confirmed in the following pages. Something respecting those two loves, and the transfer of the latter to the woman, may be seen above, n. 32, 33, and in the preliminary MEMORABLE RELATION, СКАЧАТЬ