Restlessness of Body Makes Anxiety Worse

Nor is it any wonder if a man living in a cell, with his thoughts gathered together, as it were, in a narrow enclosure, is weighed down by a crowd of anxieties. When the man himself breaks out of the confinement of his dwelling, they break out with him, and at once they dash here and there like wild horses. While they are roaming loose from their stalls, some brief and sorry comfort is enjoyed for the moment. But when the body has returned to its own cell and the whole troop of thoughts goes back again to its proper home, the habit of long-standing license gives rise to worse pangs. Those, then, who neither know how nor are able to struggle against the promptings of their own fancies may be harassed in their cell by acedia attacking their breast more violently than usual. If they then relax their strict rule and allow themselves the freedom of going out more often, they will stir up a worse plague against themselves by this very thing they imagine is a remedy. It is just as men imagine they can check the violence of an inward fever by a drink of the coldest water, though in fact its fire is inflamed by it rather than quenched, since a far worse attack follows the moment’s relief. [a]