Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 402

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402. XIII. THAT THE LOVE OF INFANTS DESCENDS AND DOES NOT ASCEND, that is, that it descends from generation to generation, or from sons and daughters to grandsons and granddaughters. That it does not ascend from these to fathers and mothers of families is known. The cause of its increase in the descent is the love of fructifying, that is, of producing uses, and, as regards the human race, the love of multiplying the race. This cause, however, derives its origin solely from the Lord; for in the multiplication of the human race, He sees the preservation of creation and, as the ultimate end thereof, an angelic heaven, this being solely from the human race. And because, with the Lord, an angelic heaven is the end of ends and hence the love of loves, therefore, implanted in the souls of men is not only the love of procreating but also the love of the things procreated in their successions. Therefore also, the latter love exists only with man and not with any beast or bird. Moreover, that with man this love increases as it descends, comes from the glory of honor. This likewise increases with him according to the amplification [in the number of his descendants]. That the love of honor and glory receives into itself the love of infants flowing in from the Lord, and makes this its own, as it were, will be seen in article XVI, following.


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