Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 178
and are also variously pronounced. From this a man’s quality
in respect to his affection and love is known to the angels. Also
in the speech of celestial angels there are no hard consonants,
and it rarely passes from one consonant to another without the
interposition of a word beginning with a vowel. This is why in
the Word the particle “and” is so often interposed, as can be
seen by those who read the Word in the Hebrew, in which this
particle is soft, beginning and ending with a vowel sound.
Again, in the Word, in Hebrew, it can in some measure be
seen from the words used whether they belong to the celestial
class or the spiritual class, that is, whether they involve good or
truth. Those involving good partake largely of the sounds of u
and o, and also somewhat of a, while those involving truth
partake of the sounds of e and i. Because it is especially in tones
that affections express themselves, so in human speech, when
great subjects are discussed, such as heaven [caelum] and God
[Deus], those words are preferred that contain the vowels u and
o; and musical tones, whenever such themes are to be
expressed, rise to the same fullness; but not when less exalted
themes are rendered. By such means musical art is able to
express affections of various kinds.
242. In angelic speech there is a kind of symphony that
cannot be described; 176
which comes from the pouring forth
and diffusion of the thoughts and affections from which speech
flows, in accordance with the form of heaven, and all affiliation
and all communication in heaven is in accordance with that
form. That angels are affiliated in accordance with the form of
heaven, and that their thoughts and affections flow in
accordance with it may be seen above (n. 200–212).
243. Speech like that in the spiritual world is inherent in
every man in his interior intellectual part; but man does not
know this, because this speech does not with man, as with
176. In angelic speech there is a symphony with harmonious cadence
(n. 1648, 1649, 7191).