Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 496

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496. Natural people are of three degrees. In the first are those who love only the world, placing their heart in riches. It is they who are properly meant by those who are natural. In the second degree are those who love only gratifications of the senses, placing their heart in luxuries and pleasures of every kind. It is they who are properly meant by those who are sensual. In the third degree are those who love only themselves, placing their heart in a quest for acclaim. It is they who are properly meant by the carnal. The reason for the last is that they immerse all things of their will and so of their intellect in their person, regarding themselves as though in a mirror from the standpoint of others and loving only their own particular selves. Those who are sensual, on the other hand, immerse all things of their will and so of their intellect in the enchantments and delusions of the senses, indulging in these only. And those who are natural pour all things of their will and intellect into the world, greedily and unscrupulously acquiring riches and regarding no useful end in them or stemming from them other than that of having them. Adulteries of the sort named above lead people into these degenerate degrees - one into this degree, another into that degree - each in accordance with the chosen pleasure that forms his character.


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