Conjugial Love (Chadwick) n. 96

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96. Conjugial love is peculiar to human beings, because none but human beings can become spiritual. They are able to raise their intellect above their natural loves, and from that height to look down on them and see them for what they are; they can also improve, correct and banish them. This is something no animal can do, for its loves are wholly one with its innate knowledge, so that this cannot be raised to the level of intelligence, much less wisdom. An animal is guided by the love implanted in its knowledge, like a blind man guided through the streets by a dog. This is the reason conjugial love is peculiar to human beings. It can also be called the inborn feature that makes all human beings akin, because they have in them the potentiality to be wise, which is so closely linked with this love as to make one with it.


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