1. Many are the ships that have gone down after they came near to anchoring at the shore; plenty of houses have fallen after the parapet had been reached!

2. So too is it with this, my brothers: there is a Soul that will fight at first, and then the storm rises against him and the waves seize on him.

3. Sin arouses from time to time its disorders in the body; there is a time when Sin lifts itself up in its foolishness, annoys the understanding, embarrasses the wisdom and good sense of the man, causes the truth to be confused in him causing doubt, and then he utters stupid words.

4. The Powers of Light give the Enmity a chance to offend, and they work their will for a while, and then they are seized.

5. At the time when the body is disturbed, you are disturbed by means of the aspects of the lower ones, the limbs which enter you in the food and the eating.

6. Again at the time when the higher ones are favourable to you and also the food that entered you is refined and clean, both overflowing with Light and Life, while also the dregs in it are few and the badness in it meagre, your heart is then found steady in its place, while your thought is pacified from the confusion.

7. Then you say: “My wisdom and the lecturing are sweet to me while my heart is drawn towards the fasting in which I fast;

8. I do not wish to give up praying, nor do I desist from repeating psalms;

9. I welcome my brothers to me, kindly because I live in steady discipline, my soul itself rejoicing in the Wisdom and the True Knowledge, while my thoughts, too, are cheerful,my body being light upon me, and I am restful in happiness of mind!”