more beautiful face, a softer voice, and a more tender body.  There is a like difference between understanding and will, or between thought and affection; so, too, between truth and good and between faith and love; for truth and faith belong to the understanding, and good and love to the will.  From this it is that in the Word “youth” or “man” means in the spiritual sense the understanding of truth, and “virgin” or “woman” affection for good; also that the church, on account of its affection for good and truth, is called a “woman” and a “virgin;” also that all those that are in affection for good are called “virgins” (as in Apoc. 14:4).{1}

{Footnote 1} In the Word “young men” signify understanding of truth, or the intelligent (n. 7668).  “Men” have the same signification (n. 158, 265, 749, 915, 1007, 2517, 3134, 3236, 4823, 9007).  “Woman” signifies affection for good and truth (n. 568, 3160, 6014, 7337, 8994); likewise the church (n. 252, 253, 749, 770); “wife” has the same signification (n. 252, 253, 409, 749, 770); with what difference (n. 915, 2517, 3236, 4510, 4823).  In the highest sense “husband and wife” are predicated of the Lord and of His conjunction with heaven and the church (n. 7022).  A “virgin” signifies affection for good (n. 3067, 3110, 3179, 3189, 6729, 6742); likewise the church (n. 2362, 3081, 3963, 4638, 6729, 6775, 6788).

369.  Everyone, whether man or woman, possesses understanding and will; but with the man the understanding predominates, and with the woman the will predominates, and the character is determined by that which predominates.  Yet in heavenly marriages there is no predominance; for the will of the wife is also the husband’s will, and the understanding of the husband is also the wife’s understanding, since each loves to will and to think like the other, that is mutually and reciprocally.  Thus are they conjoined into one.  This conjunction is actual conjunction, for the will of the wife enters into the understanding of the husband, and the understanding of the husband into the will of the wife, and this especially when they look into one another’s faces; for, as has been repeatedly said above, there is in the heavens a sharing of thoughts and affections, more especially with husband and wife, because they reciprocally love each other.  This makes clear what the conjunction of minds is that makes marriage and produces marriage love in the heavens, namely, that one wishes what is his own to be the others, and this reciprocally.

370.  I have been told by angels that so far as a married pair are so conjoined they are in marriage love, and also to the same extent in intelligence, wisdom and happiness, because Divine truth and Divine good which are the source of all intelligence, wisdom, and happiness, flow chiefly into marriage love; consequently marriage love, since it is also the marriage of good and truth, is the very plane of Divine influx.  For that love, as it is a conjunction of the understanding