173. XV. THUS THE WIFE RECEIVES IN HERSELF THE IMAGE OF HER HUSBAND, AND THENCE PERCEIVES, SEES, AND IS SENSIBLE OF, HIS AFFECTIONS. From the reasons above adduced it follows as an established fact, that wives receive in themselves those things which appertain to the wisdom of their husbands, thus which are proper to the souls and minds of their husbands, and thereby from virgins make themselves wives. The reasons from which this follows, are, 1. That the woman was created out of the man. 2. That hence she has an inclination to unite, and as it were to reunite herself with the man. 3. That by virtue of this union with her partner, and for the sake of it, the woman is born the love of the man, and becomes more and more the love of him by marriage; because in this case the love is continually employing its thoughts to conjoin the man to itself. 4. That the woman is conjoined to her only one (unico suo) by application to the desires of his life. 5. That they are conjoined by the spheres which encompass them, and which unite themselves universally and particularly according to the quality of the conjugial love with the wives, and at the same time according to the quality of the wisdom recipient thereof with the husbands. 6. That they are also conjoined by appropriations of the powers of the husbands by the wives. 7. From which reasons it is evident, that there is continually somewhat of the husband being transferred to the wife, and inscribed on her as her own. From all these considerations it follows, that the image of the husband is formed in the wife; by virtue of which image the wife perceives, sees, and is sensible of, the things which are in her husband, in herself, and thence as it were herself in him. She perceives from communication, she sees from aspect, and she is made sensible from the touch. That she is made sensible of the reception of her love by the husband from the touch in the palms of the hands, on the cheeks, the shoulders, the hands, and the breasts, I learnt from the three wives in the hall, and the seven wives in the rose garden, spoken of in the [MEMORABLE RELATIONS] which follow.
174. XVI. THERE ARE DUTIES PROPER TO THE HUSBAND AND OTHERS PROPER TO THE WIFE; AND THE WIFE CANNOT ENTER INTO THE DUTIES PROPER TO THE HUSBAND, NOR THE HUSBAND INTO THE DUTIES PROPER TO THE WIFE, SO AS TO PERFORM THEM ARIGHT. That there are duties proper to the husband, and others proper to the wife, needs not to be illustrated by an enumeration of them; for they are many and various: and every one that chooses to do so can arrange them numerically according to their genera and species. The duties by which wives principally conjoin themselves with their husbands, are those which relate to the education of the children of each sex, and of the girls till they are marriageable.
175. The wife cannot enter into the duties proper to the husband, nor on the other hand the husband into the duties proper to the wife, because they differ like wisdom and the love thereof, or like thought and the affection thereof, or like understanding and the will thereof. In the duties proper to husbands, the primary agent is understanding, thought, and wisdom; whereas in the duties proper to wives, the primary agent is will, affection, and love; and the wife from the latter performs her duties, and the husband from the former performs his; wherefore their duties are naturally different, but still conjunctive in a successive series. Many believe that women can perform the duties of men, if they are initiated therein at an early age, as boys are. They may indeed be initiated into the practice of such duties, but not into the judgement on which the propriety of duties interiorly depends; wherefore such women as have been initiated into the duties of men, are bound in matters of judgement to consult men, and then, if they are left to their own disposal, they select from the counsels of men that which suits their own inclination. Some also suppose that women are equally capable with men of elevating their intellectual vision, and into the same sphere of light, and of viewing things with the same depth; and they have been led into this opinion by the writings of certain learned authoresses: but these writings, when examined in the spiritual world in the presence of the authoresses, were found to be the productions, not of judgement and wisdom, but of ingenuity and wit; and what proceeds from these on account of the elegance and neatness of the style in which it is written, has the appearance of sublimity and erudition; yet only in the eyes of those who dignify all ingenuity by the name of wisdom. In like manner men cannot enter into the duties proper to women, and perform them aright, because they are not in the affections of women, which are altogether distinct from the affections of men. As the affections and perceptions of the male (and of the female) sex are thus distinct by creation and consequently by nature, therefore among the statutes given to the sons of Israel this also was ordained, "A woman shall not put on the garment of a man, neither shall a man put on the garment of a woman; because this is an abomination." Deut. xxii. 5. This was, because, all in the spiritual world are clothed according to their affections; and the two affections, of the woman and of the man, cannot be united except (as subsisting) between two, and in no case (as subsisting) in one.
176. XVII. THESE DUTIES ALSO, ACCORDING TO MUTUAL AID, CONJOIN THE TWO INTO A ONE, AND AT THE SAME TIME CONSTITUTE ONE HOUSE. It is well known in the world that the duties of the husband in some way conjoin themselves with the duties of the wife, and that the duties of the wife adjoin themselves to the duties of the husband, and that these conjunctions and adjunctions are a mutual aid, and according thereto: but the primary duties, which confederate, consociate, and gather into one the souls and lives of two married partners, relate to the common care of educating their children; in relation to which care, the duties of the husband and of the wife are distinct, and yet join themselves together. They are distinct; for the care of suckling and nursing the infants of each sex, and also the care of instructing the girls till they become marriageable, is properly the duty of the wife; whereas the care of instructing the boys, from childhood to youth, and from youth till they become capable of governing themselves, is properly the duty of the husband: nevertheless the duties, of both the husband and the wife, are blended by means of counsel and support, and several other mutual aids. That these duties, both conjoined and distinct, or both common and peculiar, combine the minds of conjugial partners into one; and that this is effected by the love called storge, is well known. It is also well known, that these duties, regarded in their distinction and conjunction, constitute one house.
177. XVIII. MARRIED PARTNERS, ACCORDING TO THESE CONJUNCTIONS, BECOME ONE MAN (homo) MORE AND MORE. This coincides with what is contained in [article VI].; where it was observed, that conjunction is effected successively from the first days of marriage and that with those who are principled in love truly conjugial, it is effected more and more thoroughly to eternity; see above. They become one man in proportion as conjugial love increases; and as this love in the heavens is genuine by virtue of the celestial and spiritual life of the angels, therefore two married partners are there called two, when they are regarded as husband and wife, but one, when they are regarded as angels.