needle-work, continued from her neck to her feet, and beneath her bosom she wore a golden girdle, and on her head a crown of gold beset with rubies. When they were thus seated, the bridegroom turned himself towards the bride, and put a golden ring on her finger, and took bracelets and a necklace of pearl, and tied the bracelets about her wrists, and the necklace about her neck, and said, Accept these pledges: and as she accepted them he kissed her, and said, Now thou art mine; and he called her his wife. Hereupon all the company cried out, May the divine blessing be upon you! These words were first pronounced by each separately, and afterwards by all together; they were pronounced also in turn by a certain person sent from the prince as his representative, and at that instant the anti-chamber was filled with an aromatic smoke, which was a token of blessing from heaven: and then the servants in waiting took the loaves from the two tables beside the candlestick, and cups (now filled with wine) from the tables at the corners of the room, and gave to each of the guests his own loaf and his own cup, and they did eat and drink. After this the husband and his wife rose up, and the six virgins attended them with the silver lamps (now lighted) in their hands to the door, and the mar

ried pair entered the bed-chamber; and the door was shut." Conjugial Love.

OF CONJUGIAL COLD." MEMORABLE RELATION, NO. 270."

"One morning after sleep my thought immersed itself deeply into some arcana of conjugial love, and at length into this, In what region of the human mind doth love truly conjugial reside, and thence in what region doth conjugial cold reside? I knew that there are three regions of the human mind, one above the other, and that in the lowest region dwells natural love, in the superior region spiritual love, and in the supreme region celestial love, and that in each region there is a marriage of good and truth; and whereas good is of love, and truth is of wisdom, that in each region there is a marriage of love and wisdom; and that this marriage is the same with the marriage of the will and understanding, inasmuch as the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom. Whilst I was in the depth of this thought, lo! I saw two swans flying towards the north, and presently two birds of paradise flying towards the south, and also two turtles flying in the east; and as I was attentive to their

flying, I saw that the two swans bended their way from the north to the east, in like manner the two birds of paradise from the south, and that they gathered together with the two turtles in the east, and flew together to a certain eminent palace there, around which were olives, palms, and beech trees; in the palace were three rows of windows, one above the other; and whilst I was making my observations, I saw the swans fly into the palace through windows open in the lowest row, the birds of paradise through windows open in the middle row, and the turtles through windows open in the highest row. When I had seen this, an angel presented himself, and said, Dost thou understand what thou hast seen? and I replied, In a small degree. He said that palace represents the habitations of conjugial love, such as are in human minds; its supreme part, into which the turtles betook themselves, represents the highest region of the mind, where conjugial love dwells in the love of good with its wisdom; the middle part, into which the birds of paradise betook themselves, represents the region, where conjugial love dwells in the love of truth with its intelligence; and the lowest part, into which the swans betook themselves, represents the lowest region of the mind, where conjugial love dwells in the

love of what is just and right with its science: the three pairs of birds also signify these things; the pair of turtles signifies conjugial love of the supreme region, the pair of birds of paradise conjugial love of the middle region, and the pair of swans conjugial love of the lowest region: the like is signified by the three kinds of trees round about the palace, the olives, the palms, and the beech: we in heaven call the supreme region of the mind celestial, the middle spiritual, and the lowest natural; and we perceive them as stories in a house one above another, and an ascent from one to the other by steps as by stairs: and in each part as it were two conclaves, one for love, the other for wisdom, and in front as it were a bedchamber, where love with its wisdom, or what is the same thing, the will with its understanding, consociate together in bed; in that palace are represented as in effigy all the arcana of conjugial love. On hearing this, being inflamed with a desire of seeing it, I asked whether it was granted any one to enter and see it, as it was a representative palace? He replied, that it was granted to none but those who are in the third heaven, because to them every representative of love and wisdom becomes real; from them I have heard what I have related to thee, and also this particu

And

lar, that love truly conjugial dwells in the supreme region in the midst of mutual love, in the marriagechamber or conclave of the will, and also in the midst of the perceptions of wisdom in the marriage-chamber or conclave of the understanding, and that they have consociation in bed in the bedchamber which is in front, and in the east. I asked, Why are there two marriage-chambers? He said, that the husband is in the marriagechamber of the understanding, and that the wife is in the marriage chamber of the will. And I asked, When conjugial love dwells there, where in such case doth conjugial cold dwell? He replied, that it dwells also in the supreme region, but only in the marriage-chamber of the understanding, the marriage-chamber of the will being closed in that region; for the understanding with its truths, as often as it pleases, can ascend by a winding staircase into the supreme region into its marriage-chamber; but if the will with the good of its love doth not ascend at the same time into the consociate marriage-chamber, this latter is closed, and cold ensues in the other, and this is conjugial cold. The understanding, whilst such cold prevails towards the wife, looks downwards from the highest region to the lowest, and also, if not prevented by fear, descends to warm itself there