“The prime device of this most evil of all enemies, his most cunning stratagem, is to employ notions as a means of wearing down souls inexperienced in coping with them and to assail minds newly embarked on their chosen vocation with that feeling of depression which sometimes results from their conduct itself, so that a mind may be easily deterred from making progress with a project as it begins to realize how harsh are the first steps involved. So it is his normal practice to implant in such a mind thoughts so base and so impious that the one who is tempted by them, believing the thought which has assailed him to be his own, comes to regard himself as having been made less effective in his vocation by his own unclean spirit and to reckon that his soul was much purer when he still loved the things of the world. For our enemy in his supreme cunning wishes to arouse in those whom he envies the dread of failure in their vocation that arises from despair of ever attaining holiness, in order that, even if he does not actually succeed in dissuading them from their purpose under pressure of despondency, he may surely be able to hold up their progress.”