9176. 'Its owner not being with it' means if the good of that truth does not exist along with the general good. This is clear from the meaning of 'owner' as good, dealt with in 9167; and from the meaning of 'not being with it' as not existing along with the general good. The implications of this are made clear by what has been shown above in 9154 regarding truths in good, namely that all truths in general are arranged into order under good. But in the present verse borrowed truths are the subject, that is, truths received from another, see 9174. These truths are either accompanied or not accompanied by their own good. Those accompanied by their own good are truths which stir a person's affections when he hears them, whereas those unaccompanied do not stir his affections then. Truths accompanied by their own good are meant by borrowed things that are broken or die, when the owner is with them; but truths unaccompanied by their own good are meant by borrowed things that are broken or die, when the owner is not with them.

[2] It is indeed possible to provide a description of these truths, but it will be unintelligible except to those who are in the light of heaven coming from the Lord. All others who see things solely in the light of the world, that is, in natural illumination, will find those things incomprehensible, because such people are in thick darkness so far as heavenly realities are concerned. And if they did seem to themselves to comprehend them, they would do so with the help of illusions and material ideas which do more to obscure things and put them in the shade than to cast light on them. It is enough to know simply that the truths of faith joined to their own good or not joined to it are the subject. Truths not joined to it are those that are learned from others but sink in no further than the memory, where they remain as factual knowledge. There is no perception of them as there is of the truths arranged in general under good. From all this one can know to a small extent what those things are like in which angelic wisdom consists; for angels not only comprehend the nature of them but also countless details about them. Thus they comprehend things which man does not even know to exist, let alone know anything about. For angels dwell in the light of heaven, and the light of heaven holds within it an infinite number of things, since the light of heaven is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord.

801. This description of these people before the Flood shows the nature of the style used by the most ancient people, and consequently of the prophetical style. From here down to the end of this chapter these people are described, in the present verses as regards their persuasions, and in verse 23 that follows as regards their desires. That is, they are described as regards the state of the things of their understanding, and after that as regards the state of those of their will. Although the proper things of the understanding and of the will did not exist in them, the things in them that were the reverse of these must nevertheless be called things of the understanding and will. Though in no sense things of the understanding, persuasions of falsity must be called such because they are matters of thought and reasoning; and the same applies to desires which are in no sense things of the will. Those people are described, as I say, first of all as regards their persuasions of falsity, and after that as regards their desires. This is the reason why verse 23 which follows repeats, though in a different order, the things referred to in this verse 21.

[2] Such also is the prophetical style, the reason being that there are two kinds of life with man - the first belonging to things of the understanding, the second to those of the will - which are very distinct and separate from each other. Man is composed of both, and although they are separated in man nowadays, they still flow one into the other and for the most part unite. The fact that they unite, and how they do so, could be established and illustrated in many ways. Since man is therefore composed of these two parts - understanding and will - and one flows into the other, the Word when describing man describes each part separately, which is the reason for repetitions; otherwise the description would be defective. As with the will and understanding here, so with everything else. It is their subjects that make things exactly what they are. Being the product of their subjects, they are attributes of those subjects. Things separated from their subject, that is, from their substance, are not anything. This is the reason why when the Word describes something it does so as regards both areas. In this way the description of everything is made complete.