What is meant by states of life and their changes is well known to people who are educated and wise, but unknown to those who are uneducated and simple. Therefore we need to make some preliminary statement about the subject. The state of a person's life is its character. Further, because every person has in him two faculties which form his life, faculties which are called intellect and will, the state of a person's life is its character in relation to his intellect and will. It is apparent from this that changes in one's state of life mean changes in its character in respect to elements having to do with the intellect and elements having to do with the will. In this chapter we undertake to show that every person is continually changing in these two respects, but with a difference in the kinds of changes before marriage and those after marriage. We will do this in the following order:

(1) From infancy to the end of life, and afterwards to eternity, a person's state of life is continually changing. (2) So, too, the internal form, which is the form of his spirit. (3) These changes are of one kind in men and of another kind in women, since from creation men are forms of knowledge, intelligence and wisdom, and women forms of love for these things in men. (4) In men the mind is elevated into a higher light, and in women the mind is elevated into a higher warmth; moreover, a woman feels the delights of her warmth in the light of a man. (5) The states of life in men and women before marriage and their states of life after marriage are different. (6) After marriage, the states of life in married partners change and progress according to the bonds formed between their minds by conjugial love. (7) Marriage even induces different forms on the souls and minds of the partners. (8) A woman is actually transformed into a man's wife according to the description in the book of creation. (9) This transformation is accomplished by the wife in secret ways, which is what is meant by woman's having been created while the man slept. (10) This transformation is accomplished by the wife by a union of her will with the inner will of her husband. (11) This to the end that the will of the one and the will of the other may become one will, and the two partners thus one person. (12) This transformation is accomplished by the wife by an adoption of her husband's affections. (13) This transformation is accomplished by the wife by her reception of the propagations of her husband's soul with delight - a delight arising from her willing to be an embodiment of love for her husband's wisdom. (14) A maiden is thus transformed into a wife, and a youth into a husband. (15) In a marriage of one man with one wife, in which there is a truly conjugial love between them, the wife becomes more and more a wife, and the husband more and more a husband. (16) Their forms are also thus progressively perfected and ennobled from within. (17) The offspring born of couples who are in a state of truly conjugial love derive from their parents a conjugial connection between good and truth, from which they have an inclination and faculty, if a son, to perceive matters having do to with wisdom, if a daughter, to love the things that wisdom teaches. (18) This occurs because the soul of the offspring comes from its father, and its clothing from its mother.

Explanation of these statements now follows.