46. A PLURALITY OF WIVES AMONG MOHAMMEDANS. I have spoken with Mohammedans about the spiritual marriage, that it is the marriage of good and truth, and that good loves truth, like two consorts, and that they desire to be conjoined, and to produce goods and truths, like daughters and sons, and to procreate families as it were. This they understood well, and also that conjugial love descends from that spiritual origin, and that all the spiritual with man undergoes a change, so that it may scarcely be recognized when it descends into the natural, but is known only by correspondences. From which it appears that those who have several wives conceded to them from their religion, cannot have love truly conjugial; and it is said that a plurality of wives was conceded to them, or polygamy was permitted, because those who are in warm countries, more than those who are in cold countries, burn with libidinous heat; therefore if polygamy had not been permitted them, many of them would rush into adulteries more than Europeans, and would thus act contrary to their religious persuasion, and to act contrary to that is to profane what is holy. It was shown further that all their love of marriage is lascivious, thus not spiritual, and cannot become spiritual unless they acknowledge the Lord.