393. (Verse 10) And they cried with a great voice. That this signifies their grief of mind, is plain from the signification of crying, as denoting vehement grief of mind, because this manifests itself by the sound of a cry in speech; wherefore cry also in the Word signifies grief. Every affection also, whether it be of grief or joy, expresses itself by sounds, and the ideas of the thought by the expressions in the sound; hence it is that sound in speech manifests both the quality and quantity of the affection, and, this more clearly in the spiritual world than in the natural world, for this reason, that it is not permitted there to produce other affections than those which properly belong to the mind; therefore any one that is wise, can there hear and perceive the affection of another, solely from his speech. (That with spirits and angels sounds pertain to the affection, and words to the ideas of the thought, may be seen in the work concerning Heaven and Hell; n. 241, and above, n. 323.) That to cry out, and a cry in the Word signifies grief, is plain from many passages there, of which I will adduce this only from Isaiah:

"Heshbon cried, and Elealeh: the voice was heard even to Jahaz: therefore the armed of Moab shall cry out; his soul shall be grievous unto him. My heart crieth over Moab; for the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab, even unto Eglaim the howling thereof" (15:4, 5, 8).

Because a cry signifies grief, it is hence an accepted saying, to cry unto God, when the mind is in a state of grief (as in Isaiah 19:20; 30:19; 65:19; Jeremiah 14:2, and elsewhere). That a cry in the Word is predicated of various affections, such as of interior lamentation, of beseeching, and supplication from anguish, of protesting, and indignation of confession; of supplication, and also of exultation, and others, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia, (n. 2240, 2821, 4779, 5016, 5018, 5027, 5323, 5365, 5870, 6801, 6802, 6862, 7119, 7142, 8179, 8353, 9202).

241. The speech of angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom resembles the speech of the angels of His spiritual kingdom, but it is from more interior thought. Celestial angels are in good of love to the Lord, and therefore speak from wisdom; while spiritual angels are in the good of charity towards the neighbor, which in its essence is truth (215), and therefore speak from intelligence, for wisdom is from good, and intelligence is from truth. For this reason the speech of celestial angels is like a gentle stream, soft, and as it were continuous; but the speech of spiritual angels is slightly vibratory and divided. The speech of celestial angels has much of the tones of the vowels u and o; while the speech of spiritual angels has much of the tones of e and i ¹ ; for the vowels stand for tone, and in the tone there is affection, the tone of the speech of angels corresponding to their affection, as has been said above (236); while the vocal articulations, which are words, correspond to the ideas of thought which spring from affection. As the vowels are not essential to a language, but serve by means of tones to elevate the words to the various affections according to each one's state, so in the Hebrew tongue the vowels are not expressed, 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.

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