241. The angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom speak in a way resembling the speech of the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, but it is from more interior thought. Celestial angels are in the good of love to the Lord, and therefore speak from wisdom; while spiritual angels are in the good of charity towards the neighbour, which in its essence is truth (n. 225), 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 a; while the speech of spiritual angels has much of the tones of e and i; 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 (n. 236) while the vocal articulations, which are words, correspond to the ideas of thought which are derived from affection. As 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 as to his affection and love is known to the angels. The speech of celestial angels is quite lacking in 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 confirmed by those who read the Word in the Hebrew language, in which that word is soft, beginning and ending with a vowel sound. Again, in the Word, in Hebrew, it can in some measure be known 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 show themselves, so in human speech, when great subjects are discussed, such as heaven (coelum) and God (Deus), those words are preferred that contain the vowels u and a. Musical tones also, whenever such themes are to be expressed, rise to the same fullness; but not when less exalted themes are considered. By such means musical art is able to express affections of various kinds.