Social life arises among beings possessed of intelligence; and it consists primarily in the intercommunion of mind with mind. In the Trinity there is a Divine Society, with interior communications between the three Persons. The divine mind also enters into communication with human minds by means of revelation. Animals can communicate simple emotions to one another by inarticulate cries. Men deaf and dumb can exchange ideas by gesture. With normal men communication is much more complete; it embraces large groups of ideas, and enters into minute detail. By sounds, facial expression, and a system of little marks on paper, men can reproduce their thoughts and emotions in others most vividly. But this method is gross and imperfect, whereby mind communicates with mind through physical signs addressed to the eye or ear, passing through the nerves to the brain, and thence into the immaterial consciousness. The angels, being pure intelligence, communicate directly and instantaneously, without physical medium, without the waste that accompanies so many transformations of energy, and without the misunderstandings that ensue with us. How sublime must be the speech of the angels; how much more extended in its range than ours! As the conversation of the learned surpasses that of the savage, so does the converse of the blessed and the angels surpass that of earth. This alone will be a great source of delight in heaven. Continue Reading.
