This is virtue: that in his mind a man should be unbusied with the world. The heart cannot become tranquil and be without imaginings as long as the senses are active. Outside of the desert [[and the wilderness]] the bodily passions do not abate, nor do evil thoughts cease.
Until the soul becomes drunk with faith in God by receiving a perception of faith’s power, she ((that is, the soul, which Saint Isaac always refers to in the feminine gender as being a composite part of the Bride of Christ; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7)) can neither heal the malady of the senses, nor be able forcefully to tread visible matter underfoot, which is the barrier to things that are within and unperceived.