313. (17) States of mind progress in a sequential development, and in each partner these progressive states flow into the state of their marriage - though with one progression in the case of spiritual people and another in the case of people who are natural. The concluding state in any progression has the character of the sequential development by which it is formed and brought into existence. This is a principle which ought to be acknowledged in the educated world on account of its truth; for it enables us to discover what influx is and how it operates. By influx we mean everything that goes before in a series and which forms the next element and then the next and through a succession of these the concluding one. We may cite as an example everything that goes before in a person and forms his wisdom. Or everything that goes before in a statesman and forms his prudence. Or everything that goes before in a theologian and forms his learning. Likewise everything that progressively develops from infancy and forms the adult. Also everything that progressively develops in succession from the seed and sapling and makes the tree, and which afterwards progressively develops from the flower and makes its fruit. In similar manner, everything which goes before and progressively develops in the case of a bride and groom and makes their marriage. This is what we mean by influx. [2] The idea that all the elements that go before in people's minds form progressive series, that the series are tied together, one alongside another and one after another, and that these together form the concluding result, is something as yet unknown in the world. But because it is a truth communicated from heaven, we present it here. For it shows how influx operates and the nature of its concluding result, in which the elements of the progressively formed series as just described come together and coexist. It can be seen from this that states of mind progress in a sequential development, and that in married partners these progressive states flow into the state of their marriage. After they are married, however, the partners are totally unaware of the successive elements that have been implanted and are present in their spirits from preceding states. But yet it is those elements which shape their conjugial love and form the state of their minds from which they comport themselves with each other. [3] It follows that one state is formed from one progression in the case of spiritual people, and another in the case of people who are natural, because spiritual people proceed in a proper and orderly progression, and natural people in an improper and disorderly one. For spiritual people look to the Lord, and the Lord oversees and guides an orderly progression. But natural people look to themselves, and so proceed in an inverted progression. Consequently their married state is inwardly full of elements that are unchaste; and the more numerous the unchaste elements, the more numerous their states of coldness, and the more numerous their states of coldness, the more numerous the obstructions to their intimacy of life, which block up its passage and dry up its source.