3423. CONCERNING THE METRICAL THOUGHT OF SPIRITS. ((((Spirits and angels speak metrically [in measures], so that their speech [sermo] flows spontaneously without hindrance. They use familiar words, and no word is introduced which multiplies the sense [meaning], or diverts it in other directions; they also [take care] that nothing of self-love [springing] from artful elegance and arrangement of the words may flow, for these things distract [the mind]. When alone, without the close [comitante] attention of man, they act in a more flowing manner; also when they do not inhere in any word, but in the sense. In my case [their measures] terminated in concords [unitates] of the simplest possible kind. When [they exercise] in other [measures] they are brought into concord by means of accent. These things [are so] on account of the simultaneous speaking of many spirits; otherwise, many would not be able to speak together: wherefore there must be roundness [to their speech]. The last concord becomes rounded by means of its successor, into which the preceding [one] is thus rolled. Metrical speech proceeds from interiors to exteriors, through mediate ends so called, all of which are concords. But how the harmony of speaking, pertaining to spirits, differs from the harmony of the speech of angels, it is not permitted to observe. These things in the way.))))