Earths In Our Solar System Which Are Called Planets, and Earths In The Starry Heaven Their Inhabitants, And The Spirits And Angels There by Emanuel Swedenborg
page 41 of 167 (24%)
page 41 of 167 (24%)
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about the lips was, that their speech is effected mostly by means of
the face, especially by the part about the lips, and also because they never counterfeit, that is, never speak otherwise than they think, so that they do not constrain their face, but give it free play. It is otherwise with those who from childhood have learned to counterfeit: with these the face is, in consequence, constrained from within, lest anything of the thought should shine forth from it; nor has it free play from without, but is kept in readiness to relax or constrain itself, as cunning may dictate. The truth (_veritas_) of this may appear from an examination of the fibres of the lips and surrounding parts, for the series of the fibres there are manifold, complicated, and interwoven, having been created, not only for mastication and verbal speech, but also for expressing the ideas of the mind (_animus_). 54. It was also shown me how the thoughts are expressed by means of the face. The affections which belong to the love are manifested by means of the countenance and its changes, and the thoughts therein by variations as to the forms of the interiors there: it is impossible to describe them further. The inhabitants of the earth Jupiter have also verbal speech, but not so loud as with us. The one speech aids the other, and life is insinuated into the verbal speech by the speech of the face. I have been informed by the angels that the very first speech in every earth was speech by the face, and from two origins there, the lips and the eyes. The reason this kind of speech was the first is, that the face was formed to effigy forth whatever a man thinks and wills; in consequence of which the face is also called the effigy and index of the mind (_animus_). Another reason is, that in the Most Ancient or primeval times sincerity prevailed, and no one cherished or wanted to cherish a thought which he was not willing |
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