No restorer of the soul; enemy fed by our sins

She said the cause of the lamentations to be that there is none turning her soul back—or, according to Symmachus, reclaiming it. And she says the sons also have vanished, the enemy having been empowered through the things in which they were sinning; for when we are pious he does not prevail—for he is weak when we advance, and is put to death when we are perfected, and is crushed under the feet, being made fine as dust before the face of wind, and as mud of streets being made fine. For analogously to the things in which we sin he is fed and gains power; but when we have ceased from stumbling he is as it were destroyed by famine. And from the opposites: when we do well we strengthen the divine powers for ourselves, and when we sin we chase them away. For which reason Symmachus instead of “vanished” rendered “deserted.” And a contemplative soul would say these things—being of the Word of the truth and through slackness having lost this gladdening Word and all the fruits that are named her sons—because wickedness hostile against her has been empowered.