Conjugial Love (Acton) n. 215

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215. V. THAT THOSE WHO ARE IN LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL CONTINUALLY WILL TO BE ONE MAN, BUT THOSE WHO ARE NOT IN CONJUGIAL LOVE WILL TO BE TWO. In its essence, conjugial love is nothing else than the willing of two to be a one, that is, their will that the two lives shall become one life. This will is the love's perpetual conatus from which flow all its effects. That conatus is the very essence of motion; and that with man, will is living conatus, is confirmed by the researches of philosophers, and, moreover, is evident to those who contemplate matters from a cultivated reason. It follows from this that those who are in love truly conjugial are in the continual conatus, that is, the continual will to be one man. That the contrary is the case with those who are not in conjugial love, they themselves well know. Therefore, from the disunion of their souls and minds, such persons do not comprehend what is meant by the Lord's words, They are no longer two but one flesh. Matt. 19:6.


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