A Similitude

The soul is like a ship. So long as it is moving with strong impulsion, it holds its course easily. When earnest impulses cease, then, unless something holds the soul steadfast, it drifts; and drifting is far more dangerous to a soul than to a ship. It drifts into doubt, and out of doubts come morbid impulses, and out of morbid impulses come reactions of the most dangerous kind. The soul thus affected, suffers and despairs, and sometimes is driven up by tides and winds, in some vernal or autumnal night, so far on the sand that the waters, once gone, never come so high again. It lies wrecked.—Beechcr