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 truth, another when in love and
charity, another when in zeal or in anger, another when in simulation
and deceit, another when in quest of honor and glory, and so on. But
the ruling affection or love is in all of these; and for this reason
the wiser angels, because they perceive that love, know from the
speech the whole state of another. [4] This it has been granted me to
know from much experience. I have heard angels disclosing the
character of another's life merely from hearing him speak. They also
said that from any ideas of another's thought they could know all
things of his life, because from those ideas they know his ruling
love, in which are all things in their order.
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