[All //that is not eternal] is eternally out of date.

[soso]

Theologians have sometimes asked [whether we shall ‘know one another’ in Heaven],

and whether [the particular love-relations /worked out on earth] would then continue to have any significance. 

It seems reasonable to reply: ‘It may depend on [what kind of love it had become, or was becoming, on earth].’ 

For, surely, [to meet in the eternal world someone //for whom your love in this, however strong, had been merely natural],

would not be (on that ground) even interesting. 

Would it not be like meeting in adult life someone //who had seemed to be a great friend at your preparatory school

/solely because of common interests and occupations? 

If there was nothing more, if he was not a kindred soul, he will now be a total stranger. 

Neither of you now plays conkers. 

You no longer want to swop your help with his French exercise for his help with your arithmetic. 

In Heaven, I suspect, [a love //that had never embodied Love Himself] would be equally irrelevant.

 For Nature has passed away. 

[All //that is not eternal] is eternally out of date.

From The Four Loves