This is because a person is spiritual to the extent that he enjoys conjugial love, and he is a human being to the extent that he is spiritual. For a person is by birth intended for life after death, and he achieves this by having a spiritual soul in him, and he can be raised to this life by the capability of his intellect. If his will is also then raised together with the intellect by the capability given to it, after death he enjoys the life of heaven. The reverse happens if his love is the opposite of conjugial love. For he is natural to the extent that his love is the opposite, and a purely natural person resembles an animal in desires, appetites and the pleasures they give.

The only difference is that he has the capability of raising his intellect into the light of wisdom, and also the capability of raising his will into the heat of heavenly love. No one is ever deprived of these possibilities. As a result a purely natural person, although resembling an animal in his desires, appetites and the pleasures they give, still lives on after death, but in a state corresponding to the life he previously led. These considerations can establish that a person approximates to the nature of an animal in proportion to the failure* of his conjugial love. This may seem to be contradicted by the fact that the failure and loss of conjugial love can occur in the case of people who remain human beings. But what is meant is those who are led by scortatory love to disparage conjugial love, and so suffer its failure and loss. * The original has dejectum 'casting down', but it is clear that defectum was intended, as in the heading to this section.

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