Divine Love and Wisdom (Harleys) n. 378

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

378. (iii) The will corresponds to the heart. This cannot be seen so clearly taken by itself as when the will is considered in effects (as was said above, n. 375). By itself, this fact can make it evident, that all affections, which are of love, lead to changes in the rate of the heart's action, as is plain from the pulse of the arteries, which act synchronously with the heart. Its changes and pulsations in accordance with the love's affections are innumerable. Those felt by the finger are only that it beats slowly or quickly, high or low, calmly or roughly, regularly or irregularly, and so on; thus varying with joy and sorrow, peace of mind and wrath, courage and fear, fevers and chills, and so forth. Since the motions of the heart, termed systole and diastole are changed and varied to accord with the affections of each one's love, many ancient writers, and some modern, have ascribed affections to the heart and also believed the heart their dwelling place. From this it has come into ordinary speech to talk of the heart as generous or timid, joyous or sad, soft or hard, stout or weak, whole or broken, of flesh or of stone; likewise as gross, soft, gentle; giving the heart to doing something, a single heart, a new heart, laying up in the heart, receiving in the heart, not rising above the heart, hardening one's heart, a friend at heart; hence the terms concord, discord, folly of heart, and many similar terms expressive of love and its affections. Like expressions are found in the Word, because the Word has been written by means of correspondences. Whether you say love or will it is the same, since the will is the receptacle of love, as was said above.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church