Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 109

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109. A sixth time the angel drew out a piece of paper, and he read from it the following opinion:

"We fellow countrymen in our party looked around for the causes of the origin of conjugial love, and we agreed on two. One of these is the proper upbringing of children, and the other, the clear claim of heirs to their inheritances. "We selected these two, because they are aimed and directed towards the same objective, this being the public good. This is achieved by these means, because children conceived and born of conjugial love become the proper and true offspring of both parents; and as objects of a parental love that is deepened by their being of legitimate descent, they are raised to become the heirs of all their parents' possessions, both spiritual and natural. Reason sees that the public good is founded on a proper upbringing of children and on the clear claim of heirs to their inheritances. "A love for the opposite sex is one thing, and conjugial love another. Conjugial love appears to be the same as a love for the opposite sex, but it is distinctly different. Nor is the one love on the same level as the other, but the one is within the other; and whatever is within is nobler than that which is without. Furthermore, we saw that conjugial love by creation is within and concealed in love for the opposite sex just like an almond inside its shell. Consequently, when conjugial love is broken out of its shell, which is love for the opposite sex, it shines before the angels like a gemstone of beryl or a star sapphire. Such is the case because conjugial love has engraved on it the salvation of the whole human race, which is what we mean by the public good. "That is our judgment regarding the origin of this love. "With respect to the origin of its vigor or potency, moreover, from considering its causes we have come to the conclusion that the origin is the removal or separation of conjugial love from a love for the opposite sex, which is accomplished by wisdom on the part of the man, and by love of the man's wisdom on the part of the wife. For a love for the opposite sex is shared in common with animals, whereas conjugial love is peculiar to human beings. In the measure that conjugial love is removed and separated from a love for the opposite sex, therefore, in the same measure is a person a human being and not an animal; and a human being gets his vigor or potency from his love, as an animal does from its love." This statement was signed below with the letter G.


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