108. From these comparisons indeed may be evident the conjunction of all things of the will and of the understanding, or of the mind of man, with his life's love, and yet not rationally evident. The conjunction may become rationally evident in this way. There are everywhere three things which together make one; these are called end, cause and effect. In man the life's love is the end, the affections with their perceptions are the cause, and the delights of the affections with their thoughts are the effect. For just as the end through the cause enters into the effect, so love through its affections enters into its delights, and through its perceptions into its thoughts. The effects themselves are in the mind's enjoyments and their thoughts when the delights are of the will and the thoughts are of the understanding therefrom, thus when there is complete agreement in the mind. The effects then belong to the spirit, and even if they do not enter into bodily act still they are as if in the act when there is agreement. Moreover, they are then at the same time in the body and dwell there with the life's love of the man, kindling the desire for action which takes place when nothing hinders it. Such is the nature of the lusts of evil and such are the evils themselves in those who in spirit regard evils as allowable.
[2] Now as the end unites itself with the cause, and through the cause with the effect, so does the life's love unite itself with the internal of thought, and through this with its external. Hence it is clear that the external of man's thought is in itself of the same character as its internal; for the end imparts itself wholly to the cause, and through the cause to the effect. For there is nothing essential in the effect but what is in the cause, and through the cause in the end; and as the end is thus the essential principle itself which enters into the cause and the effect, therefore the cause and the effect are called respectively the mediate end and the ultimate end.