is, nor fraudulent simulation and deceit. The same kind of speech
prevailed amongst the Most Ancient inhabitants of our Earth, as it has
been given me to learn by conversation with some of them in the other
life; and to elucidate this subject I may relate what I have heard
respecting it, as follows: "It was shown me by an influx which I
cannot describe, what was the character of the speech which prevailed
amongst those who were of the Most Ancient Church[gg]. It was not
articulate, like the vocal speech of our time, but tacit, being
effected, not by external, but by internal respiration, consequently
it was a cogitative speech. It was given me also to apperceive the
character of their internal respiration. It proceeded from the navel
towards the heart, and so through the lips without sound when they
spoke. It did not enter the ear of another by an external way, and
strike upon what is called the drum of the ear, but by a certain
internal way, and indeed by what at this day is called the Eustachian
tube. It was shown me, that by such speech they could express the
feelings of the mind (_animus_), and the ideas of thought, much
more fully than can possibly be done by articulate sounds or audible
expressions, which speech is likewise directed by respiration, but
external; for there is not a vocal sound, yea, there is nothing in a
vocal sound, which is not directed by applications of the respiration.
But with them this was done much more perfectly, because by the
internal respiration, which, because more interior, is also more
perfect, and more applicable and conformable to the very ideas of
thought; besides, [it is done] also by slight motions of the lips, and
corresponding changes of the face; for, as they were celestial men,
whatever they thought shone forth from their face and eyes, which were
conformably varied, the face as to form according to the life of the
affection, and the eyes as to light. It was quite impossible for
them to present a countenance which was not in agreement with their