Selection from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
Innumerable things might be said about man's Own in describing its nature with the corporeal and worldly man, with the spiritual man, and with the celestial man.- With the corporeal and worldly man, his Own is his all, he knows of nothing else than his Own, and imagines, as before said, that if he were to lose this Own he would perish.
- With the spiritual man also his Own has a similar appearance, for although he knows that the Lord is the life of all, and gives wisdom and understanding, and consequently the power to think and to act, yet this knowledge is rather the profession of his lips than the belief of his heart.
- But the celestial man discerns that the Lord is the life of all and gives the power to think and to act, for he perceives that it is really so. He never desires his Own, nevertheless an Own is given him by the Lord, which is conjoined with all perception of what is good and true, and with all happiness.
(Arcana Cœlestia 141)
The Latin word proprium is the term used in the original text that in this and other places has been rendered by the expression "Own." The dictionary meaning of propius, as an adjective, is "one's own" "proper" "belonging to one's self alone" "special" "particular" "peculiar." The neuter of this which is the word proprium, when used as a noun means "possession" "property;" also "a peculiarity" "characteristic mark" "distinguishing sign" "characteristic." The English adjective "own" is defined by Webster to mean "belonging to" "belonging exclusively or especially to" "peculiar;" so that our word "own" is a very exact equivalent of proprius, and if we make it a noun by writing it "Own" in order to answer to the Latin proprium, we effect a very close translation. [Reviser.]