357. THAT THE SPIRITS WHO HAVE NOT YET BEEN INITIATED, ARE URGED ON BY A KIND OF FORCE AS OF A RIVER, OR ARE CARRIED AWAY AS BY A RIVER, THAT THEY MAY BE AMONG [OTHERS]. mHence a river signifies what is spiritual.n I have also observed that spirits who are still novitiates, and not yet accustomed [to act with the others], are also carried away into a spiritual stream, (concerning which see page v). Today I observed the reluctance of those spirits, but nevertheless they were compelled to be among them and were drawn down by little towards the interiors, and thus spontaneously as they acquired the habit. At length being more and more initiated, they could flow among them almost in like manner. But I doubt whether they could speak and praise together, for they are as yet in a state of compulsion, and although they were obliged to speak the same thing, still it could not be with a delight like that of those who do not even know that they are flowing according to that form, and speaking and praising in this manner; this praise comes spontaneously, nothing interrupting the stream according to its form. 1747, Dec. 16.