Page:A Compendium of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.djvu/568

 472 MARRIAGE. mutual aids and offices are necessities ; and other such reasons. (iJ. n. 321.)

The I^aturb op the Intelligence of Women and of Men. The intelligence of -women, in itself, is modest, refined, pacific, yielding, gentle, tender ; and the intelligence of men, in itself, is grave, harsh, unyielding, bold, and fond of license. That such is the nature of women and of men is very plain from the body, the countenance, the tone of voice, the speech, the bearing, and manners of each : — From the body, in that men are hard and women soft in skin and flesh. From the countenance, in that the faces of men are harder, more resolute, rougher, tawnier, and also bearded, and therefore less beautiful ; and the features of women are softer, more flexible, more delicate, whiter, and therefore more beautiful. From the tone of voice, in that the tone of men is deep, and of women soft. From the speech, in that with men it is fond of licence, and bold ; and with women modest, and pacific. From the bearing, in that with men it is stronger, and firmer ; and with women weaker, and feebler. From the manners, in that with men they are more unrestrained, and with women more elegant. How much from very birth the genius of men differs from the genius of women, has been made very clear to me from boys and girls seen in their assemblages. I have at different times, through a window, observed them on the street in a great city, where more than twenty gathered in a day. The boys, according to their innate disposition, played by making an uproar, shouting, fighting, beating, and throwing stones at each other; but the girls sat peacefully at the doors of their houses, some playing with little children, some dressing their dolls, some sewing, on bits of linen, some kissing each other. And what I wondered at, they yet looked with delighted eyes at the boys, who were so different. I could plainly see from these manifestations that man is born an understanding, and woman a love ; and also what the nature of the understanding, and what the nature of the love is, in their beginnings ; and so what the understand- ing of the man in its progress would be, without conjunction with feminine and after that with conjugial love. (C. L. n. 218.) The wife cannot enter into the proper duties of the man ; nor the man, on the other hand, into the proper duties of the wife ; because they differ, as wisdom and its love, or thought and its affection, or understanding and its will. In the proper duties of men the understanding, thought, and wisdom act the chief part ; but in the proper duties of wives the will, affection, and