Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 392

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392. V. THAT THIS SPHERE AFFECTS BOTH THE EVIL AND THE GOOD, AND DISPOSES EVERY ONE TO LOVE, PROTECT, AND SUPPORT HIS OFFSPRING FROM HIS OWN LOVE. It is the testimony of experience that the love of infants or storge is equally with the evil as with the good, and likewise with mild beasts and with savage; yea, that with evil men as with savage beasts it is sometimes stronger and more ardent. The reason is, because every love proceeding and flowing in from the Lord is turned in the subject into the life's love of that subject. No animate subject feels otherwise than that it loves of itself, since it does not perceive the influx. When in addition it actually loves itself, it makes the love of infants its own love of self; for it sees itself, as it were, in them, and them in itself, and thus itself united with them. [2] Hence it is that this love is fiercer with savage beasts, such as lions, bears, leopards, wolves and other like beasts, male and female, than with horses, deer, goats, and sheep; for these savage beasts have dominion over the mild, and hence a predominating love of self, and this love loves itself in its progeny. Therefore, as was said, the inflowing love is turned into the recipient's own love. This inversion of inflowing love into what is their own, and the resultant protection and support of their offspring and babes by evil parents, is of the Lord's Divine Providence, for otherwise but few of the human race would be left, and of ferocious beasts, which yet are of use, none at all. From this it is evident that every one is disposed to love, protect, and support his offspring from his own love.


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