2231. CONCERNING THE EFFECT OF SINGING [cantus] ON SPIRITS. It was again granted to know what effect singing has upon spirits, and indeed it was still more interior than before, for their bodies were not soothed [mulciebantur for mulcebantur, I think], but their ideas; this was given me to see in spiritual idea, for the sweetness of the singing was wonderfully joined into their ideas, and also into the ideas of such as desired to resist, being at first indignant, but yet they submitted [succumbebant], so that it diffused itself through their ideas consequently into their thoughts, hence they were softened [molliebantur] to such a degree that they glided, as it were, into a trance [ecstasis], for silence and quiet ensued. They said, at first, that they had never perceived such sweetness, and that they had not believed such was granted. They seemed to me to have glided into a sweet sleep [sopor], from which they have not yet awakened. Some who had wakened said that they had been in celestial joy, like those who [have awakened] from a very sweet dream. Such is the effect of singing when the Lord allows it to be infused into spirits.