What Wisdom is in Its Origin, Progress and Its Full State

Selection from Conjugial Love ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
WHAT WISDOM IS — IT MAKES ONE WITH THE CHURCH

With man there is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom.

• Knowledge pertains to cognitions

• Intelligence to reason

• Wisdom to life.

Considered in its fullness, wisdom pertains simultaneously to cognitions, reason, and life. Cognitions precede, reason is formed by means of them, and wisdom by means of both—and this when a man lives rationally according to the truths which are his cognitions. Wisdom, therefore, pertains to reason and at the same time to life. It is becoming wisdom when it is the wisdom of reason and thence of life; and it is wisdom when it has become the wisdom of life and thence of reason.

The most ancient people in this world recognized no other wisdom than wisdom of life. This was the wisdom of those who of old were called SOPHI. The ancients who succeeded the most ancient recognized the wisdom of reason as wisdom, and they were called PHILOSOPHERS. But at this day many call even knowledge wisdom; for learned doctors are called wise, and also the erudite and mere knowers. Thus has wisdom fallen from its mountain peak to its valley.

Something shall also be said as to what wisdom is in its origin and progress, and thence in its full state.

• With man, things which pertain to the Church and are called spiritual, reside in his inmosts.

• Those which pertain to the commonwealth and are called civil, occupy a place below them.

• Those which pertain to knowledge, experience, and skill, and are called natural, make the seat on which they rest.

That those which pertain to the Church and are called spiritual, have their abode in man's inmosts is because they conjoin themselves with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord; for with man, it is these alone that enter in from the Lord through heaven. That those which pertain to the commonwealth and are called civil, occupy a place below the spiritual, is because they conjoin themselves with the world; for they are things of the world, being the statutes, laws, and regulations which bind men, to the end that from them may be formed a stable and well-knit society and state. That those which pertain to knowledge, experience, and skill, and are called natural, make their seat, is because they closely conjoin themselves with the five senses of the body, and these are the ultimates on which interior things belonging to the mind, and inmost things belonging to the soul, are seated, as it were.

Now because those which pertain to the Church and are called spiritual reside in inmosts, and those which reside in inmosts make the head, while those which follow under them and are called civil make the body, and ultimate things which are called natural make the feet, it is evident, that when these three follow in their order, man is a perfect man; for then they flow in, in the same way that the things of the head flow into the body and through the body into the feet. So spiritual things flow into civil things and through these into natural. Now because spiritual things are in the light of heaven, it is evident that by their light they enlighten the things which follow in order, and by their heat which is love they animate them; and that when this is the case, the man has wisdom.

Since wisdom pertains to life and thence to reason, as said above, the question arises, What is wisdom of life? In a comprehensive summary it is this:

To shun evils because they are hurtful to the soul, hurtful to the commonwealth, and hurtful to the body; and to do goods because they are beneficial to the soul, the commonwealth and the body. This is the wisdom that is meant by the wisdom with which conjugial love binds itself; for it binds itself by shunning the evil of adultery as the pest of the soul, the commonwealth, and the body. And since this wisdom springs from the spiritual things which pertain to the Church, it follows that conjugial love is according to the state of the Church with man because according to the state of wisdom. By this, the same thing is meant as that which has been frequently said in the preceding pages, namely, that so far as a man becomes spiritual, so far he is in love truly conjugial, it being by means of the spiritual things of the Church that man becomes spiritual.

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THE WISDOM WITH WHICH CONJUGIAL LOVE CONJOINS ITSELF

Wisdom with men is twofold, rational and moral, their rational wisdom belonging to the understanding alone, and their moral wisdom to the understanding and at the same time to the life. This can be concluded and seen from mere intuition and exploration. But that it may be known what is meant by the rational wisdom of men, and what by their moral wisdom, some specimens thereof shall be enumerated.

The things pertaining to their rational wisdom are designated by various names, being called in general, knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and in particular, rationality, judgment, genius, learning, sagacity. Knowledge, however, is manifold, there being knowledges peculiar to each individual in his particular office; knowledges peculiar to the clergy, peculiar to government officials and their subordinates, peculiar to judges, peculiar to physicians and chemists, peculiar to soldiers and sailors, peculiar to mechanics and workmen, peculiar to farmers, and so on. To rational wisdom pertain also all the knowledges into which young men are initiated in schools, whereby they are later initiated into intelligence. These also are called by various names, such as philosophy, physics, geometry, mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, jurisprudence, politics, ethics, history, etc., and by them, as by gateways, there is entrance into the rational things from which rational wisdom is formed.

The things with man which pertain to moral wisdom are all the moral virtues which have regard to life and enter into it; also all the spiritual virtues which flow from love to God and love towards the neighbor, and which together flow into the moral virtues. The virtues which pertain to the moral wisdom of men are likewise of various names and are called temperance, sobriety, probity, benevolence, friendship, modesty, sincerity, readiness to serve, courtesy; also assiduity, industry, alertness, alacrity, munificence, liberality, generosity, earnestness, intrepidity, prudence, besides many other virtues. The spiritual virtues with men are love of religion, charity, truth, faith, conscience, innocence, and many others. These and the former virtues may in general be referred to love and zeal for religion, for the public good, for country, for fellow- citizens, for parents, for the married partner, and for the children. In all these virtues, justice and judgment are dominant, justice pertaining to moral wisdom and judgment to rational wisdom.

That the conjunction of the wife with the rational wisdom of the man is from within, is because this wisdom is proper to the understanding of men and climbs into a light in which women are not. This is the reason why women do not speak from it, and when in the company of men where such matters are discussed, they are silent and simply listen. That nevertheless these rational things are with wives from within, is manifest from their listening, in that they inwardly recognize and favor what they hear and have heard from their husbands.

That the conjunction of the wife with the moral wisdom of the men is from without, is because the virtues of that wisdom are for the most part akin to the like virtues with women and partake of the intellectual will of the man, with which the will of the wife unites itself and makes a marriage. And because the wife knows these virtues in a man better than the man knows them in himself, it is said that the wife's conjunction with them is from without.

(from Conjugial Love 130: 163-165)