Chapter V.
That anxiety of heart is made worse rather than better
by restlessness of body.
Nor
is it wonderful if one who
lives in a cell, having his thoughts collected together as it were in a
narrow cloister, is oppressed by a multitude of anxieties, which break
out with the man himself from the confinement of the dwelling, and at
once dash here and there like wild horses. But while they are now
roaming at large from their stalls, for the moment some short and sad
solace is enjoyed: but when, after the body has returned to its own
cell, the whole troop of thoughts retires again to its proper home, the
habit of chronic licence gives rise to worse pangs. Those then who are
unable and ignorant how to struggle against the promptings of their own
fancies, when they are harassed in their cell, by accidie attacking
their bosom more violently
than
usual, if they relax their strict rule and allow themselves the liberty
of going out oftener, will arouse a worse plague against themselves by
means of this which they fancy is a remedy: just as men fancy that they
can check the violence of an inward fever by a draught of the coldest
water, though it is a fact that by it its fire is inflamed rather than
quenched, as a far worse attack follows after the momentary
alleviation.