an that of men, because
it is from more interior thought. I have been permitted to associate
with them frequently, and to talk with them as friend with friend,
and sometimes as stranger with stranger; and as I was then in a state
like theirs I knew no otherwise than that I was talking with men on
the earth.

235. Angelic speech, like human speech, is distinguished into words;
it is also audibly uttered and heard; for angels, like men, have
mouth, tongue, and ears, and an atmosphere in which the sound of
their speech is articulated, although it is a spiritual atmosphere
adapted to angels, who are spiritual. In their atmosphere angels
breathe and utter words by means of their breath, as men do In their
atmosphere.{1}

{Footnote 1} In the heavens there is respiration, but it is of
an interior kind (n. 3884, 3885) from experience (n. 3884,
3885, 3891, 3893). There are differing respirations there,
varying in accordance with their states (n. 1119, 3886, 3887,
3889, 3892, 3893). The evil are wholly unable to breathe in
heaven, and they are suffocated if they go there (n. 3894).

236. In the entire heaven all have the same language, and they all
understand one another, to whatever society, near or remote, they
belong. Language there is not learned but is instinctive with
everyone, for it flows from their very affection and thought, the
tones of their speech corresponding to their affections, and the
vocal articulations which are words corresponding to the ideas of
thought that spring from the affections; and because of this
correspondence the speech itself is spiritual, for it is affection
sounding and thought speaking. [2] Any one who gives any thought to
it can see that all thought is from affection which pertains to love,
and that the ideas of thought are the various forms into which the
general affection is distributed; for no thought or idea is possible
apart from affection-the soul and life of thought is from affection.
This enables angels to know, merely from another's speech, what he
is-from the tone what his affection is, and from the vocal
articulations or words what his mind is. The wiser angels know what
the ruling affection is from a single series of words, for that
affection is what they chiefly attend to. [3] It is known that each
individual has a variety of affections, one affection when in joy,
another when in grief, another when in sympathy and compassion,
another when in sincerity and tr