5787. * THE SPEECH OF SPIRITS. The speech of spirits is according to the nature of a matter, likewise the words and the sound; for the nature of every reality is inscribed on man; as, for example, the nature of the ether on the eye, and the nature of the air on the ear, and so forth. Wherefore, [men], likewise, speak according to it; for man was created to the image of all things of the world. Hence, the nature of a thing, and of the sound agreeing with it, is also in certain words of language in the world: all conjunctions and notions, and analyses, which inhere in languages, are therefrom. Hence it is, that, in the other life, everyone who pleases is able to speak with any. Vowels, also, are according to the nature of a matter, as, a, e, i, o, u, as is manifest from the celestial angels: u involves all things; and so forth. That men in the world do not speak according to the nature of the thing, but by various and different languages, is because man is not born into the nature of reality, but into ignorance of all things, and learns to speak; which cannot take place according to the nature of a thing. He thinks, also, exteriorly, in the sensual, which is perverted. In a word, men see otherwise than as the things themselves are, and believe them [i.e., their impressions of things] to be realities; but the things themselves they either do not see, or, if they see them, they believe them to be phantasies, or not to be as they are. * The asterisks clearly indicate that no. 5787 is to be read consecutively with the conclusion of 5792c. It is, therefore, placed accordingly. -TR.