laughter, sounds and syllables, but also of disconnected words, and new words, and perhaps short sentences, the whole delivered with rapt expression, and lofty gesture, and given significance by dramatic action and tone. It was evidently regarded as like prophecy, in that the speaker was the mouthpiece of God or of lesser spiritual personalities, but unlike prophecy in its not being immediately intelligible. A rare psychic phenomenon at the present day, glossolaly would seem to be a natural accompaniment of periods of intense religious excitement.
The Interpretation of Tongues, the last of the Talents, shows that glossolaly was not without some coherence and meaning, and like music could be interpreted by the initiate. Some had the power of interpretation: and S. Paul is against the exercise of glossolaly at all, except when it can be put to good use for edification by the presence of an interpreter; since otherwise it has no social value, and therefore does not come into the category of these charismata at all. 'But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself and to God'.[1] The need of an interpreter had been mentioned long before by Plato, when in the Timaeus he says that the mantis 'cannot judge of the visions which he sees or the words which he utters', and 'for this reason it is customary to
- ↑ I Cor. 14 28.
