4105. Love is life
I spoke with spirits about love, saying that love is life, and without love there is no life; and because the spirits were of that character, opposite loves, such as love of oneself and of the world, together with their pleasures, were displayed, and I perceived from them that unless there is a love of some definite thing, or some passion (which is the continuum of love), or unless there is some delight pertaining to some love, there is no life.
This can be better grasped in the world of spirits than by people on earth, and they declared, because of this realization, that there can never be anything of life unless there is love, and the resulting delight, and that they did not know whether anything of life could exist without it. Just as nothing can vegetate without the warmth of spring and summer, so can nothing in the spiritual world without love. This showed that true love is the only life, and that there is no life if there is not love. 1748, 1 Dec.
4105. THAT THE LOVE IS THE LIFE.
In conversing with spirits respecting love, it was said that the love is the life and that without love there is no life, and because spirits are of contrary natures, so there are contrary loves, as the love of self and the world, whence arise corresponding delights; and it was perceived by them that unless there be a love of a particular object, or a cupidity, which is the continuation of love, or unless there is some delight peculiar to a certain love, there is no life; which is better perceived in the world of spirits then among men. They then said from apperception, that there was nothing of life, unless there were love and consequent delight, and that they knew not that any degree of life could be given on any other condition; and that as nothing could vegetate without the vernal and summer heat, so nothing could live in the spiritual world without love. Hence it was made manifest that true love is the alone life, and that there is no other life than that of love. - 1748, December 1.
4105. Quod amor sit vita
Loquutus cum spiritibus, de amore, quod amor sit vita, et absque amore nulla vita, et quia spiritus tales erant, contrarii amores, ut amor sui et mundi, et inde jucunditates sistebantur, et perceptum ab iis, quod nisi amor cujusdam rei, seu cupiditas quae est amoris continuum, seu nisi quid jucundum, quod est amoris cujusdam sit, nulla sit vita, quod melius in mundo spirituum percipitur quam apud homines, et dicebant ex apperceptione, quod nusquam aliquid vitae sit, nisi sit amor, et jucundum inde; et quod nescirent an quicquam vitae dari posset, absque tali: sicut quod nusquam aliquid absque calore verno et aestivo potest vegetare, sic nihil absque amore in mundo spirituali; inde constabat quod amor verus sit unica vita, et quod nulla vita sit, si non amoris. 1748, 1 Dec.