Collected Letters Volume Three: Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963. Walter Hooper

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СКАЧАТЬ href="#ulink_e323b223-116c-5d90-ae2a-309285bb1a05">¹¹⁸ My feeling about people in whose conversion I have been allowed to play a part is always mixed with awe and even fear: such as a boy might feel on first being allowed to fire a rifle. The disproportion between his puny finger on the trigger and the thunder & lightning wh. follow is alarming. And the seriousness with which the other party takes my words always raises the doubt whether I have taken them seriously enough myself. By writing the things I write, you see, one especially qualifies for being hereafter ‘condemned out of one’s mouth’.¹¹⁹ Think of me as a fellow-patient in the same hospital who, having been admitted a little earlier, cd. give some advice.

      The semi-Christians (in dog-collars) that you speak of are a great trial. Our College chaplain is rather of that kind. I’m glad you have something better in your own church.

      I feel an amused recognition when you describe those moments at wh. one feels ‘How cd. I–I, of all people–ever have come to believe this cock & bull story’ I think they will do us no harm. Aren’t they just the reverse side of one’s just recognition that the truth is amazing? Our fathers were more familiar with the opposite danger of taking it all for granted: which is probably just as bad.

      God bless you both: you are always in my prayers. I hope we may meet again one day.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO NATHAN COMFORT STARR (W): TS

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford. 25th April 1953.

      Dear Starr,

By all means give Masato Hori an introduction,¹²⁰ but don’t give him the illusion that I’m a mystic or an authority on mysticism. Dozens of things in your letter are exciting, but this is the first day of term. In haste. We both send greetings.

      Yours,

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO I. O. EVANS (W):

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 27/4/53

      Dear Evans

I am really very sorry. The Devil you Say¹²¹ got put on a pile of ‘books received’-most of them (I don’t include yours) a major plague of my life–and I forgot all about it. I have now read a few pages: there was nothing to tempt one to go on. It certainly seems to be a gross plagiarism: I am writing to New York Macmillan to draw their attention to it. Thanks v. much for sending it. With all good wishes, and thanks also to your American friend.

      Yours

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO MARY WILLIS SHELBURNE (W): TS

      54/53.

      Magdalen College, Oxford. 9th May 1953.

      Dear Mrs. Shelburne,

      There’s very little time today, so I must be short. I am afraid it is certainly true in England that Christians are in the minority. But remember, the change from, say, thirty years ago, consists largely in the fact that nominal Christianity has died out, so that only those who really believe now profess. The old conventional church-going of semi-believers or almost total unbelievers is a thing of the past. Whether the real thing is rarer than it was would be hard to say. Fewer children are brought up to it: but adult conversions are very frequent.

      I’m so glad to hear you have had a more satisfactory talk with your daughter.

      I enclose a copy of the only photo which I have at the moment; it’s only a passport one I’m afraid.

      Yours most sincerely

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO GEOFFREY BLES (BOD): TS

      28/53.

      Magdalen College, Oxford. 9th May 1953.

      My dear Bles,

      Cunning man, you don’t say how long the MS is! If it can be read in a week-end and put up in a large envelope (I’m no good at parcels), I’ll read it. But I have honestly neither health nor leisure at present for more than very slight extra jobs.

      All sympathy to Madame. I return Stewart’s letter.

      Yours,

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO RUTH PITTER(BOD):

      Magdalen College,

      Oxford. May 12th 1953

      Dear Miss Pitter

      Or (to speak more accurately)

      Bright Angel!

I’m in a sea of glory! Of course I haven’t had time to read it properly, and there’ll be another, more sober, letter presently. This is just a line to be going on with, and to assure you at once that the new volume is an absolute Corker.¹²² I had feared that you might be one of those who, like poor Wordsworth, leave their talent behind at conversion:¹²³ and now–oh glory–you came up shining out of the font far better than you were before. ‘Man’s despair is like the Arabian sun’¹²⁴-I seriously doubt if there’s any religious lyric between that one and Herbert on the same level. And then my eye strays to the opposite page and gets the ‘dying-dolphin green’.¹²⁵ And ‘What we merit–A silence like a sword’.¹²⁶

      I wonder have you yourself any notion how good some of these are?

      But, as you see, I’m drunk on them at this present. Glory be! Blessings on you! As sweet as sin and as innocent as milk. Thanks forever.

      Yours in great excitement

      C. S. Lewis

      

       TO GEOFFREY BLES (BOD): TS

      Magdalen College

      Oxford 12th May 1953.

      My dear Bles,

      MS duly received: and end leaf returned with thanks. I had seen it, but СКАЧАТЬ