76. Everyone whose rationality is not obscured may see or comprehend that man, without the appearance that it is his own, cannot be in any affection of knowing, or in any affection of understanding. For every delight and pleasure, and therefore everything that belongs to the will, is from affection which is of love. Who can wish to know anything and to understand anything unless he has some pleasure from the affection? And who can have this pleasure of affection unless that by which he is affected appears to be his own? If there were nothing of his own but everything another's, that is to say, if anyone from his own affections should suggest something to the mind of another who had no affection for knowing and understanding as if from himself would that other receive it, or indeed could he receive it? Would he not be like what is called a dullard or a stock?
[2] From this it may be clearly evident that, although everything that a man perceives and thence thinks and knows, and wills and does in accordance with the perception, flows into him, still it is of the Divine Providence of the Lord that it should appear to be his own; for, as has been said, man would otherwise receive nothing, and therefore could not be gifted with any understanding and wisdom. It is well known that everything that is good and true is not man's but the Lord's, and yet that it appears to man to be his own; and because everything that is good and true so appears, even all things of the Church and of heaven, consequently all things of love and wisdom, and also of charity and faith, so appear, and yet nothing of these is man's. No one can receive them from the Lord unless it appears to him that he perceives these things as if from himself. From these considerations the truth (veritas) on this matter may be evident, namely, that whatever a man does from freedom, whether it be of reason or not, provided it be according to his reason, appears to him to be his own.