Quoting Ecclesiasticus 32:15-16, “Be first to run home to thy house, and there withdraw thyself, and there take thy play, and do what thou hast a mind,” St. Thomas says this:
“THE desire for wisdom has this privileged character: in the course of its fulfillment it becomes more sufficient unto itself. In fact, a man needs the help of many others, in his external activities, but in the contemplation of wisdom, the more a person remains in solitude with himself the efficacious is his work. Thus the Author of Wisdom, in the text just quoted, recalls man to himself, saying: “Be first to run to thy house,” that is, solicitously turn back to your own mind from external matters, before becoming occupied with something else whose concern is but an occasion for distraction. Thus, Wisdom, 8:16, says: “When I go into my house, I shall repose myself with her,” that is, with wisdom.
"Just as the contemplation of wisdom requires that a person preoccupy himself with his own mind, in order that he may fill his whole house with the contemplation of wisdom, so too, must he be wholly internalized in his thinking, lest his attention be distracted to various other matters. So it is added: “and there withdraw thyself,” that is, gather in your whole mental attention there. And so, when that interior house has been completely cleared out, and a man is completely present in it in his thinking, what must be done is explained, in the next clause, “and there take thy play.” In this text, we should observe that the contemplation of wisdom is fittingly compared to a game by reason of two features that are found in the game. First, a game is enjoyable for itself and the contemplation of wisdom provides the greatest enjoyment. Thus Ecclesiasticus 24:27, says from the mouth of wisdom: “For my spirit is sweet above honey.” Second, the activities of a game are not directed toward some other objective but are cherished for their own sake. This same feature is present in the delights of wisdom.”
~St. Thomas Aquinas: In Libro Boetii De Hebdomadibus Expositio, Prologo.
