2250. THAT ALL THE PROPRIUM OF MAN IS HARD, CONSEQUENTLY OSSEOUS. It can also be seen by a spiritual idea that the proprium of man, hence [that] of spirits, is not only black [for] so it appears, but also hard; wherefore also is it called osseous. The reason is, not only that man's Proprium is but an organism [organicum], wherein since there is no vital juice, spirit, and blood, it hardens and becomes, as it were, osseous, but also because man can of himself [do] nothing. Wherefore in himself he is viewed as it were osseous, wherein is not of vital juice. Life, which belongs to the Lord, alone causes man to soften; and the more spiritual and celestial life diffused through each and all the things of man, without and within his structure and around the component structures [the more is this] without, although it appears within. Wherefore the less hard a man is, that is, the less he has from himself, and the softer, as said, or more fluid, so much the more perfect [is he], as may be apparent from the fibers, which in infants are very soft, but in old men are becoming hard, as well as in the inmost fibers, there is nothing but a fluid [principle], because it is the spiritual principle which in compounds appears hard. - 1748, June 8.