1176. But in their midst I perceived and heard a soft sound, namely, something angelic and sweet, in which there was nothing but what was orderly. They [from whom it proceeded] were within, but the crowd of spirits was outside. This angelic stream continued for some time, being often repeated, and I was told that in this way the Lord governs disconnected and disorderly things which flow round about. For He acts from what is pacific, thus pacifically; wherefore those things that are outside, or in the peripheries, are of necessary reduced to order, each one from the error of his own acquired nature. So also He governs the human race and its externals which are the phantasies of men by which at the present day their actions and speech are governed. Thinking to myself, I compared the disconnected states of that spiritual crowd to a tempest in the air, and to the clouds and dust then flying through the atmosphere so that it is out of its equilibrium, but in the meanwhile the purer atmosphere, or ether, remaining in its tranquil state, and acting continually upon that tempestuous atmosphere from the hidden and thus silent force of equilibrium, reduces it into equilibrium and rest.