3444. It was granted me to experience what that kind of life was like when I was excerpting for the index at Love, namely that it is portrayed by heat, that is, that just as no plant life can ever come forth or keep on growing without heat, as nothing does in the winter, so neither can anything in a human being without love. Without love life is like that of the winter, such as the preacher indeed made his own as if it were life, which is none other than a wintry one, out of which nothing of truth and goodness, let alone any fruits of faith can be born. For this reason also his presence was frigid, as I was prompted to tell him, 1748, 2 Oct.
From this I also realized that he would only reluctantly and under compulsion admit the word love. That he did admit it, but grudgingly, I saw to have been on account of the well known sexual love of a partner, and the like.
3444. What the quality of that life is it was given to perceive when I sifted the truth respecting [the things of] love, that they are represented by heat, viz. that as nothing of the vegetable kind can exist and subsist without heat, as nothing [of this kind can flourish] in winter, so neither can anything [exist] in man without love; if destitute of love, his life is the life of winter, which [kind of life] the preacher also appropriated, as if it were no other than a wintry life, from which nothing of truth and good, still less of the fruit of faith, could be produced; wherefore his presence was cold, as it was given to say to him. - 1740, October 2. I thence perceived that it was only with the utmost reluctance that he would admit the word love; that he did admit it, notwithstanding his repugnance, seems to have been on account solely of the well known sexual love towards a wife, and other similar things.
3444. Qualis vita ea esset percipere dabatur, cum excerperem, de amore, quod repraesentetur per calorem, nempe quod sicut nihil vegetabile existere et subsistere possit absque calore, sicut nihil in hyeme, ita nec quicquam in homine absque amore, si absque amore est vita quasi hyemis, quam praedicator quoque appropriabat, quasi ea esset, quae non alia est, quam hyemalis, ex qua nihil veri et boni, minus fructus fidei nasci possunt, quare etiam praesentia ejus erat frigida, sicut ei dicere datum est. 1748, 2 Oct. Percepi etiam inde, quod aegre nec nisi coacte admittere vellet vocem amoris; quod admiserit, sed coacte, videbam fuisse, propter amorem notum venereum conjugis, et similia.