69. I know that few people will acknowledge that all joys and delights from first to last are conferred on conjugial love, because truly conjugial love, which is what they are conferred upon, is so rare today that its nature and almost its very existence is unknown, as I explained and proved above (58, 59). They are not present in any but genuine conjugial love; and since this is so rare on earth, it is impossible to describe its abounding happiness except from the description given by angels who enjoy it. Angels have said that its inmost delights, those of the soul, the first point reached by the conjugial influence of love and wisdom, or good and truth, coming from the Lord, are imperceptible and therefore inexpressible, being at once feelings of peace and innocence.
[2] But as they come down they become more and more easily perceived, in the upper levels of the mind as blessedness, in the lower levels as bliss, in the chest as the pleasant sensations these give, and spreading out from the chest into every part of the body, and finally uniting at the lowest level to produce the greatest of delights. The angels went on to relate wonderful things about these, saying too that the variations of these delights in the souls of married couples, and passing from there into their minds, and from there into their chests, are countless and also everlasting. They increase in degree depending on the wisdom the husband possesses. This is because the husbands live for ever in the flower of youth, and the angels find nothing more blessed than to keep on increasing in wisdom. Further descriptions of these delights, as related by angels, will be found in the account of experiences, especially those following at the end of a number of chapters.
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