irmed that all good
and truth are from man and in man, because a man's own prudence is his
intellectual proprium, flowing in from self-love, which is his volitional
proprium; proprium inevitably makes everything its own; it cannot be
raised above doing so. All who are led by the Lord's divine providence
are raised above the proprium and then see that all good and truth are
from the Lord, indeed see that what in the human being is from the Lord
is always the Lord's and never man's. He who believes otherwise is like
one who has his master's goods in his care and claims them himself or
appropriates them--he is no steward, but a thief. As man's proprium is
nothing but evil, he also immerses the goods in his evil, by which they
are destroyed like pearls thrown into dung or into acid.

* So numbered in the Latin original.

317. ( iii) _All that a man is persuaded of and confirms remains with him
as his own._ Many believe that no truth can be seen by man without
confirmations of it, but this is false. In civic and economic matters in
a kingdom or republic what is useful and good can be seen only with some
knowledge of its numerous statutes and ordinances; in judicial matters
only with knowledge of the law; and in natural subjects, like physics,
chemistry, anatomy, mechanics and others, only on acquaintance with those
sciences. But in purely rational, moral and spiritual matters, truths
appear in light of their own, if man has become somewhat rational, moral
and spiritual through a suitable education. This is because everyone as
to his spirit, which is what thinks, is in the spiritual world and is one
among those there, consequently is in spiritual light, which enlightens
the interiors of his understanding and, as it were, dictates. For
spiritual light in essence is the divine truth of the Lord's divine
wisdom. Thence it is that man can think analytically, form conclusions
about what is just and right in matters of judgment, see what is
honorable in moral life and good in spiritual life, and see many truths,
which are darkened only by the confirmation of falsities. Man sees them
almost as readily as he sees another's disposition from his face or
perceives his affections from the sound of his voice, with no further
knowledge than is implanted in one. Why should not man in some measure
see from influx the interiors of his life, which are spiritual and moral,
when there is no animal that does not know by influx all things necessar