The union of souls and the linking of minds were discussed before (see 158). The reason why the striving to be linked is felt in the chest is that this is the council chamber and, so to speak, the royal court, and the body is the town with all its people around it. The chest is the council chamber because all the influences exerted by the soul and mind on the body flow first into the chest. It is like a royal court, because it has control over every part of the body, being the seat of the heart and lungs; the heart exerts its control everywhere through the blood, the lungs everywhere through breathing. It is obvious that the body is like the town with all the people around it.

So when the souls and minds of a married couple are united, and it is truly conjugial love which unites them, it follows that this gratifying union first affects their chests, and through it their bodies, producing a striving to be linked. It does so the more, because conjugial love directs its effort to its lowest level, so as to achieve the fullness of its welcome pleasure. Since the chest stands at the junction of the ways, it is obvious why conjugial love has acquired there the location of its delicate feeling.