By a spiritual mental image I could also see that what is their own in people, or spirits, is not only black in appearance, but also hard, for which reason it is called bony. This is so not only because what is a person's own is merely an instrument, in which, seeing it has no vital sap, spirit and blood, everything hardens and becomes bone-like-but also because people can do nothing on their own power, so that regarded in themselves, they are like bone, having no vital sap. Only life, which is the Lord's, causes a person to soften, and the more spiritual and heavenly life there is encompassing each and every part of the person, without and within their structure, and around the component structures (that life is outside the person, though appearing to be within)-so the less hard one is, or the less one has from oneself and the softer and more flowing one is, the more perfect one is. This is evident from the tissues that are so very soft in little children, but become hard in the elderly; and also from the innermost tissues containing nothing but what is fluid, because it is the spiritual, which in composition appears hard. 1748, 8 June.