hat they can express in a single word what man cannot
express in a thousand words also the ideas of their thought include
things that are beyond man's comprehension, and still more his power
of expression. This is why the things that have been heard and seen
in heaven are said to be ineffable, and such as ear hath never heard
nor eye seen. [2] That this is true I have also been permitted to
learn by experience. At times I have entered into the state in which
angels are, and in that state have talked with them, and I then
understood everything. But when I was brought back into my former
state, and thus into the natural thought proper to man, and wished to
recall what I had heard I could not; for there were thousands of
things unadapted to the ideas of natural thought, and therefore
inexpressible except by variegations of heavenly light, and thus not
at all by human words. [3] Also the ideas of thought of the angels
from which their words spring are modifications of the light of
heaven, and the affections from which the tones of the words spring
are variations of the heat of heaven, the light of heaven being
Divine truth or wisdom, and the heat of heaven the Divine good or
love (see above, n. 126-140); and the angels have their affection
from the Divine love, and their thought from the Divine wisdom.{1}

{Footnote 1} The ideas of angels, from which they speak, are
expressed by wonderful variegations of the light of heaven (n.
1646, 3343, 3993).

240. Because the speech of angels proceeds directly from their
affection, and the ideas of their thought are the various forms into
which their general affection is distributed (see above, n. 236),
angels can express in a moment what a man cannot express in half an
hour; also they can set forth in a few words what has been expressed
in writing on many pages; and this, too, has been proved to me by
much experience.{1} Thus the angels' ideas of thought and the words
of their speech make one, like effecting cause and effect; for what
is in the ideas of thought as cause is presented in the words as
effect, and this is why every word comprehends in itself so many
things. Also all the particulars of angelic thought, and thus of
angelic speech, appear when presented to view like a thin wave or
circumfluent atmosphere, in which are innumerable things in their
order derived from angelic wisdom, and these enter another's thought
and affect him. The ideas of thought of everyone, bo