We are endowed by nature and grace with extra ordinary activity; our corporal and spiritual passions are constantly excited. Our body must be supported by food and sleep, and if it is indulged, it desires to be cherished, it requires enjoyments and comforts, and the more its desires are satisfied the more they increase. The passions of the soul, is also violently excited by intercourse with others; love and hatred, hope and fear, joy and sorrow, wishes, endeavors, cares, expectations, and disappointments, which careen wildly through our hearts, like the waves of the sea, rising, falling, and rising again, and filling it with a burning desire for some good. The acquisition is to bring rest; and as soon as it is attained, fresh restlessness begins again.
The higher capabilities of the soul, the thirst for knowledge and science, the strong desire for eternal things, cause violent efforts and mental struggles; and we are utterly perplexed and distracted. Thus, if we were to attempt to satisfy all these wants, and to attend equally to those of the body, the heart, and the mind, then we often, surrender the attempt, and neglect the higher part of our nature to devote ourselves to the lower. Thus, no sooner than the body ceases to be subject to the soul then we fall straightway into dissipation, for we pursue fleeting earthly atoms, in the place of eternal unity, which is our true goal.
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