318. I. THAT AFTER THE DEATH OF THE PARTNER, AGAIN TO CONTRACT MATRIMONY DEPENDS ON THE PRECEDING CONJUGIAL LOVE. Love truly conjugial is as a balance in which inclinations to repeated marriages are weighed. In the degree that the preceding conjugial love approaches that love, the inclination to marry again recedes; but in the degree that the preceding love recedes from it, the inclination to marry again is wont to make advance. The reason is obvious; for in the same degree, conjugial love is a conjunction of minds, and after the death of the one, this conjunction remains during the bodily life of the other, and, like the tongue in a balance, holds the inclination, making preponderance according to the appropriation of true love. But since an approach to this love is rarely made at the present day, unless by a few steps, therefore, for the most part, the scale containing the preponderance of inclination rises to the point of equilibrium and then wavers and tends to the other side, that is, to marriage. [2] So likewise with those whose preceding love in the former marriage receded from love truly conjugial. The reason is because recession from that love is in the same degree a disjunction of minds, and after the decease of the one, this disjunction remains during the bodily life of the other, and, entering a will disjoined from the will of the other, it produces an inclination to a new conjunction. In favor of this, the thought, brought in by the inclination of the will, carries with it the hope of a more united and thus more delightful cohabitation. [3] That inclinations to repeated marriages take their rise from the state of the preceding love is well known. Moreover, reason sees it; for within love truly conjugial is fear of its loss and grief after the loss, and this grief and fear are in the inmost regions of the mind. Hence it is, that so far as that love is within, so far the soul inclines, both in will and thought, that is, in intention, to be in the subject with which and in which it had been. It follows from this that, as regards another marriage, the mind is held in poise according to the degree of love in which it had been in the former marriage. It is from this love that the same partners are reunited after death and mutually love each other in like manner as in the world. But, as said above, at this day this love is rare, there being few who touch it even with the finger. As to those who do not touch it, and still more those who recede far from it, these, according as they had longed for separation during their preceding married life which was cold, so after death they desire conjunction with another. But more concerning these two classes of men in what follows.
