Page:The Swedenborg Library Vol 9.djvu/26

 these words in Genesis; "Jehovah God took out one of the man's ribs, and closed up the flesh in the place thereof; and He made the rib which He had taken out of the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man; and the man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; hence she shall be called Eve, because she was taken out of man" (ii. 21-23). What is meant by a rib and what by flesh, will be shown elsewhere.

From this primitive formation it follows that the male is born intellectual and the female is born voluntary [affectional], or what is the same, that the male is born into the affection of knowing, understanding and being wise, and the female is born into the love of uniting herself with that affection in the male. And because the interiors form the exteriors to their likeness, and the masculine form is a form of intellect and the feminine form is a form of love thereof, therefore the male differs from the female in face, voice and body—the male having harder features, a rougher voice, a stronger body, and moreover a bearded chin; and in general a form less beautiful than the female. They differ also in gestures and manners.

In a word, nothing is similar, but yet there is in every particular something conjunctive; yea, the masculine in the male is masculine in every part of his body, even the most minute; also in every idea of his thought and in every spark of his affection. The same is true of the feminine in the female; and since,