Conjugial Love

...group on banks of roses. Some of them were weaving garlands to decorate the heads of the elders, the arms of the youth, and the chests of the children. Others were pressing the juice out of grapes, cherries, and mulberries, which they collected in cups and drank with great festivity. Some were delighting themselves with the fragrant scents drifting far and wide from the flowers, fruits, and aromatic leaves of a variety of plants. Others were singing lovely songs to the great enjoyment of their listeners. Some were sitting by the sides of fountains, channeling the bubbling streams into various shapes and paths. Others were walking and entertaining one another with cheerful and pleasant conversation, while still others were retreating into shaded arbors to rest on couches, among a variety of other heavenly original: "paradisiacal"; referring to the environment of a paradise or garden of Eden amusements.

After observing these things, the angel led his companions through various winding paths until he finally brought them to a stunning grove of roses, surrounded by olive, orange, and citron trees. Here they found many people sitting in a dejected posture with their heads resting on their hands, showing every sign of sorrow and discontent. The angel’s companions spoke to them and asked about the cause of their grief.

They replied, “This is the seventh day since we arrived in this paradise. When we were first admitted, we felt as though we had been lifted into heaven and introduced into its deepest joys. But after three days, our pleasures began to grow dull, and we lost our appetite for them until we eventually became numb to their taste and found they had lost the power to please. Because these imagined joys have vanished, we were afraid of losing all the satisfaction of life along with them, and we began to doubt whether such a thing as eternal happiness even exists. We then wandered through many paths and passages searching for the gate where we entered, but our wandering was in vain. When we asked the way from people we met, they informed us that it is impossible to find the gate, as this heavenly garden is a vast labyrinth of such a nature that whoever tries to leave only enters deeper and deeper into it. ‘Therefore,’ they said, ‘you must necessarily stay here forever; you are now in the middle of the garden where all delights are centered.’”

They further said to the angel’s companions, “We have now been in this spot for a day and a half, and since we have lost hope of ever finding our way out, we have sat down to rest on this bank of roses. We see olive trees, vines, orange, and citron trees all around us in great abundance; but the longer we look at them, the more our eyes are tired of seeing, our noses of smelling, and our palates of tasting. This is the cause of the sadness, sorrow, and weeping in which you now see us.”

Upon hearing this account, the accompanying angel said to them, “This heavenly labyrinth original: "paradisiacal laby-"; the text breaks at the end of the page...