What Is Lost by Leaving One’s Cell

And so we ought always to stay shut up in our cell. For whenever someone has strayed from it and comes back to it fresh and begins to live there again, he will be upset and disturbed. If he has let go of that settled purpose of mind which he had gained while he stayed in his cell, he cannot recover it without difficulty and pain. And since he has gone back by this, he will not even think about the progress he has missed, which he would have made if he had not allowed himself to leave his cell. He will rather congratulate himself if he finds he has regained the condition from which he fell away. For just as time once lost and gone can never be recovered, so the gains that have been missed cannot be restored. Whatever earnestness of mind there may be afterward, it will be the profit of the day then present and the gain that belongs to that time. It will not make up for the gain that has once and for all been lost.