[28] And so though the divine spirit may stay awhile in the soul it cannot abide there, as we have said. And why wonder at this? For there is nothing else of which we have secure and firm possession, since human things swing to and fro, sway now up, now down, as in a scale, and are subject to vicissitudes from hour to hour. But the chief cause of ignorance is the flesh, and the tie which binds us so closely to the flesh.
[29]And Moses himself affirms this when he says that “because they are flesh” the divine spirit cannot abide. It is true that marriage, and the rearing of children, and provision of necessities, and disrepute following in the wake of poverty, and the business of private and public life, and a multitude of other things wither the flower of wisdom before it blooms.
[30] But nothing thwarts its growth so much as our fleshly nature. For on it ignorance and scorn of learning rest. It is ready laid for them as a first and main foundation; each one of the qualities named rises on it like a building.
[31] For souls that are free from flesh and body spend their days in the theatre of the universe and with a joy that none can hinder see and hear things divine, which they have desired with love insatiable. But those which bear the burden of the flesh, oppressed by the grievous load, cannot look up to the heavens as they revolve, but with necks bowed downwards are constrained to stand rooted to the ground like four-footed beasts.