Passage from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
That the states of mind of each, proceeding in successive order, flow into the state of marriage; and yet in one manner with the spiritual and in. another with the natural. That the ultimate state is such as is the successive order from which it is formed and exists, is a canon which in the learned world should be acknowledged, because of its truth; for thus it is discovered what influx is, and what its effects. By influx is meant all that precedes and composes what follows, and through the things following in order, the ultimate; as all that precedes with man and constitutes his wisdom; or all that precedes with a politician and constitutes his prudence; or all that precedes with a theologian and constitutes his learning; in like manner all that proceeds from infancy and makes the man; so also what proceeds from the seed and the shrub and makes the tree, and afterwards from the blossom and makes the fruit. Just so all that precedes and proceeds with a bridegroom and bride and makes their marriage. This is meant by influx. That all things which precede in minds form series, and that the series bind themselves together, one beside the other and one after another, and that these together compose the ultimate, this has hitherto been unknown in the world; but it is here adduced because it is a truth from heaven. For by this it is discovered what the influx effects, and what is the quality of the ultimate, wherein the series just spoken of successively formed coexist.From this it may be seen that the states of mind of each, proceeding in successive order, flow into the state of marriage. But married partners after marriage are entirely ignorant about the successive things which are in their minds, insinuated from things antecedent; and yet these are what give form to conjugial love, and make the state of their minds from which they act the one with the other. A different state, from a different order, is formed with the spiritual from that with the natural, because the spiritual proceed in right order, and the natural in a wrong order; for the spiritual look to the Lord, and the Lord provides and leads the order; but the natural look to themselves and thence proceed in inverted order. The state of their marriage is for that reason inwardly full of unchastities; and as many as are the unchastities, so many are the colds; and as many as are these, so many are the obstructions to inmost life by which its vein is clogged and its fountain dried up.
(Conjugial Love 313. (17))