Then contemplate, O soul, the man when he is alone with his son: how he meets him with reprimand and reproach, speaking to him with the bitterest and harshest of words. Yet, his outward appearance in this is not as his inward reality, for he only intends by this the son's nobility and benefit in all his states.

Look, O soul, at the action of the father—how he gives his son bitter, loathsome medicine, yet mixed within it are health, life, and a righteous consequence. Understand these meanings, O soul; whatever is Truth, take it, and whatever is Falsehood, leave it and cast it away.

O soul: It is to you that I speak, to you that I point, and you whom I intend. Nature is but your wife, and the Intellect is your father. Truly, a blow from your father is better for you than a kiss from your wife.

O soul: You cannot do without your father, for there is nothing that can ever sever the affinity between you and him—neither separation nor union, neither anger nor contentment. Rather, the affinity is established in every state and its removal is impossible. For a man may leave his wife and his ties to her are severed, but it is impossible for him to disown his father or take for himself a father other than him.

O soul: By your obedience to the Intellect, you shall live and be ennobled; and by your disobedience to him and your obedience to Nature, you shall die and be degraded. Envision the reality of these meanings, O soul, and embody them; thus you shall be granted success in happiness and attain the fullness of right guidance.