"The Letters of the Balamut" by Clive Lewis is a unique work. This is a story in the best traditions of the epistolary genre, and a philosophical parable, and an allegorical religious instruction.

"Letters" were created in 1941-1942, when a successful Oxford professor was taking his first steps in the world fiction. On his account there were several early collections of poetry, the first part of the "Space Trilogy" and "Suffering" on religious topics. After the publication of the Balamut Letters, Lewis began to be spoken of as a talented prose writer. He has yet to write a dozen wonderful philosophical and religious works and create the iconic Chronicles of Narnia, which the whole world will read. But the story of Clive Lewis as a writer began precisely with the Letters of the Balamut.

War Preacher from Oxford

There was a second World War. Clive Lewis, who has already experienced the hardships of a soldier's life during the First World War and lost a comrade in arms, is enrolled in the militia. A respected professor of English literature is invited to broadcast, but not in philology. During the war, people do not need entertaining science, but faith. So Clive Lewis, relatively recently converted from atheism to Christianity, becomes a preacher.

He dresses his religious speeches in an entertaining form. First things first, Lewis chooses a completely unconventional preacher - Satan becomes him. These unusual teachings have been circulated in the press. So, in 1941, The Manchester Guardian published the letters "From demon to demon." Later, Lewis gave his representative of the underworld the playful name of Balamut, and the scattered works were collected into a coherent novel in letters and called "The Balamut Letters".

Literary success

In 1959 successful project was continued in the book "Troublemaker Proposes a Toast". Despite the fact that the author was going to create a sermon on behalf of the antagonist of the devil - the archangel, the public liked to listen to the bold instructions coming from the lips of the mythological representative of the dark forces.

In the second part, Balamut goes to the graduation banquet of demon tempters and makes a long speech. And since the time calculation among the representatives of the other world is somewhat different from the human one, the graduation speech was enough for a whole work.

"Troublemaker" was repeatedly going to be filmed. The rights to create a film version were bought back in the 50s, but the release date was delayed from year to year. In 2008, 20th Century Fox begins work on the script, creates a shortlist of prospective directors, and lists a 2010 release date. However, the shooting did not take place - the creators were afraid to invest in a film made on the basis of a plotless novel in the epistolary genre. So far, the "Letters of Balamut" are waiting for their time and their director.

The illusion of "real life", or how to lead a ward

The Balamut Letters consist of thirty-one epistles. Their addressee is the nephew of the demon Balamut Gnusik. In the introduction, the author warns the gullible reader not to take everything written by Balamut at face value, because the Devil is the father of lies, so even what is called the truth may not correspond to the truth.

In the first letter, the highly experienced Uncle Balamut, who holds an administrative position in the hellish bureaucracy, teaches his young nephew Gnusik how to lead the “ward”, that is, the person, and prevent him from going over to the side of the Enemy. The most important thing in this difficult matter is to maintain constant contact with what people call " real life”, because the inhabitants of the earth are endlessly enslaved by the ordinary.

For example, once Balamut had a ward - a strong atheist. This same atheist once sat in the library and began to think. The enemy with his vile speeches was right there. Balamut understood that the most correct thing in this situation was to direct the ward to “real life”. He immediately inspired a person with a feeling of hunger. The enemy, apparently, struck back (the demons, alas, cannot read his thoughts), suggesting that studying with books is much more important than dinner. Then Balamut persistently suggested that the ward fill his stomach first, and only then turn to thinking about such serious things.

The man visibly cheered up and went out into the street. The troublemaker immediately slipped him a weekly newspaper, a bus going along the usual route, and a motley crowd of townspeople. All these attributes of "real life" immediately led the ward out of the dangerous path on which he almost stumbled in the library of the British Museum. When people have the familiar and familiar before their eyes, they simply cannot believe in the unfamiliar and unusual. By the way, that same atheist still resides in the house of Father Balamut, Gnusik and others like them.

Knocking a person off the enemy's path is, in fact, very difficult. You have to carefully delve into the psychology of the ward, because the demon has never been a man, what is his huge minus before the Enemy. Therefore, while teaching the young imp tempter, Balamut talks a lot about human emotions. So, the eleventh letter he devotes entirely to laughter.

Laughter, it turns out, is different. For the most part, this is a fairly harmless tool, but sometimes it carries a danger. Here is an example of joy. Lovers, good friends who see each other after separation, people who listen to good music experience it. Joy is an inexplicable increase in the rhythm of blissful emotions, it is completely incomprehensible to devils, but, they say, something similar is observed in Paradise.

But there is also useful laughter. The demons call him cheeky. It is not worth much effort, ridicules virtue and dulls the mind. Many human inhabitants of the house of Father Balamut, Gnusik and others like them naively believe that joy and cheeky laughter are practically the same thing. In fact, there is a huge gap between these two types of laughter.

The most important task of the demon is to reduce a person's life to some vice. Not a petty sin (this is worthy only of dirty devils), but an irreparable spiritual deformity, with which in the ranks of the Enemy they will not pat on the head and invariably write off the poor fellow in the house of Father Balamut, Gnusik and others like them.

So, in the twenty-fourth letter, Balamut gives his nephew a master class on how to instill pride in a person. In this, it is important not to stumble and not lead the ward to pride, social arrogance, which, in comparison with true spiritual pride, are just nonsense vices. It is important to always keep the ward in good shape, not allowing him to ask the dangerous question “What exactly am I praising myself for”?

There are many ways in which a person can be led to spiritual pride, but the most insidious lies through faith. You must first allow the ward to believe, and then gradually lead him to the idea that Christians are better, more perfect unbelievers. Let him think that Christianity is a mystical caste, and that he is an initiate, an elect, a superman. Let him despise everyone who is not with him, and, if the authorities allow, let him spread rot and destroy them. This is true spiritual pride!

Soul Loss, or What Does He Really Want?

But the newcomer to the tempting business Gnusik loses his soul. Yes, yes, his ward suddenly regained his sight, and with him, for a few moments, the demon Gnusik also had his sight. And he saw how this creature of dirt and dust, conceived in a bed and called a man, stands in front of those before whom he, Gnusik, can only crawl. This tiny creature now sees Them, sees Him, while for the demon They are a source of blinding light that eats away the eyes and burns the skin.

The story of Clive Lewis "Letters of Balamut": a summary

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I am not going to explain how the correspondence that I now offer to the attention of society fell into my hands.

There are two equivalent and opposite misconceptions about demons. Some do not believe in them, others believe and have an unnecessary and unhealthy interest in them. The demons themselves are happy with both mistakes and greet both the materialist and the lover of black magic with equal enthusiasm.

I advise my readers to remember that the devil is the father of lies and not everything that Balamut says should be considered true, even with his own point vision.

I have not identified those mentioned in the letters. However, I do not think that, for example, the father of Eagle or the mother of the ward are described reliably. In hell, as well as on earth, they know how to tint thoughts to please their intentions.

In conclusion, I must add that I did not try to clarify the chronology of the letters. It seems to me that most often the diabolical principle of dating has nothing to do with earthly time, and therefore I did not reproduce it. The history of the Second World War could interest Balamut only to the extent that it affected the spiritual state of the person he was interested in.

C. S. Lewis

Maudlin College, 1941

Letter one

My dear Gnusik!

I see that you make sure that your ward reads and that he rotates in the circle of his materialistic friends. But I think you're a little naive, believing that arguments will be able to wrest him from the clutches of the Enemy. This would have been possible if he had lived several centuries earlier. Then people were still perfectly able to distinguish proven from unproven, and if something was proven, they believed in it. Then they still did not lose the connection between thought and deed, and somehow they could change their lives in accordance with the conclusion. This we corrected through the weekly press and other means. Since infancy, your ward has been accustomed to the fact that a good dozen incompatible views are spinning in his head at the same time. First of all, he perceives concepts not as true or false, but as theoretical or practical, outdated or modern, banal or bold. Self-confident gibberish, not arguments, will help you keep the patient away from the church. Don't waste time trying to convince him of the truth of materialism: rather, impress on him that materialism is strong or bold, that this is the philosophy of the future.

He knew that he had escaped danger, and later liked to talk about "that inexplicable sense of reality, which will reliably protect against the extremes of pure logic." At the present time he is safely in the house of our father.

Do you get what's wrong here? Thanks to the processes that we set in motion several centuries ago, it is almost impossible for people to believe in the unfamiliar and unusual - they always have the familiar and familiar before their eyes. Stuff your ward with the usual things. But do not try to use science (I mean real science) as a means against Christianity. Science will force him to think about realities that he can neither touch nor see. Among modern physicists there are sad examples of this. And if he really needs to dabble in science, let him take up economics or sociology. Don't let him run away from this priceless "real life". Better not to see scientific literature at all. Inspire him that he already knows all this, and that what he manages to pick up from casual conversations and casual reading are "achievements of modern science." Remember, you are there to deceive him. Judging by the statements of some of you young demons, you might think that you are appointed to teach them!

Your loving uncle Balamut.

Letter two

My dear Gnusik!

It was very annoying to know that your ward converted. Do not console yourself with the hope that you will escape the prescribed punishment (although I am sure that in moments of success you do not console yourself with hopes). We have to save the situation. No need to despair - hundreds of people who turned adults, stayed in the camp of the Enemy, corrected themselves, and now they are with us. All the habits of the ward, both spiritual and bodily, pour water on our mill.

One of our great allies at this time is the church itself. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about the same Church that we see embracing space and time, rooted in eternity, formidable, like regiments with banners. This spectacle, I confess, is capable of frightening the most daring tempters. But, fortunately, that Church is invisible to people. Your ward sees only an unfinished pseudo-Gothic building on an untidy construction site. Going inside, he will see a local grocer with an unctuous expression, and he will offer him a shiny little book, which contains the content of the service, which no one really understands, and another little book, in a shabby cover, containing distorted texts of various religious chants, most of them bad and printed in small print. When he sits down in his place and looks around, he will see exactly those neighbors whom he avoided.

You should make full use of them. Let his thoughts jump from the words "My Body" to faces and back. In this case, of course, it does not matter what kind of people are sitting on the benches. You may know that one of them is a great warrior in the camp of the Enemy. No matter. Your ward, thank our father, is naturally stupid. If only one of them sings badly, wears squeaky boots, is ridiculously dressed or has grown a double chin, your ward will easily believe that there must be something funny and ridiculous in the religion of these ridiculous and ridiculous people. As you know, now the idea of ​​"Christianity" lives in the head of the ward, which he calls "spiritual", but this is a strong word. His head is stuffed with chitons, sandals, armor, bare feet. The simple fact that the people around him in church are dressed in a modern way became for him (unconsciously, of course) a real stumbling block. Don't let this stone come to the surface and don't let the ward ask himself what kind of person he would like to see the parishioners be like. Make sure that all his ideas are more obscure: then you will have a whole eternity at your disposal, and you will be able to amuse yourself by bringing to him that special clarity that distinguishes hell.

Clive Staples Lewis. Balamut's letters

INTRODUCTION

I HAVE no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.

I am not going to explain how the correspondence that I now offer to the attention of society fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.

There are two equivalent and opposite misconceptions about demons.

One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

Some do not believe in them, others believe and have an unnecessary and unhealthy interest in them.

They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.

The demons themselves are happy with both mistakes and greet both the materialist and the lover of black magic with equal enthusiasm.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle.

I advise my readers to remember that the devil is the father of lies and not everything that Balamut says should be considered true, even from his own point of view.

I have made no attempt to identify any of the human beings mentioned in the letters; but I think it is very unlikely that the portraits, say, of Fr. Spike or the patient's mother, are wholly just.

I have not identified those mentioned in the letters. However, I do not think that, for example, the father of Eagle or the mother of the ward are described reliably.

There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

In hell, as well as on earth, they know how to tint thoughts to please their intentions.

In conclusion, I ought to add that no effort has been made to clear up the chronology of the letters.

In conclusion, I must add that I did not try to clarify the chronology of the letters.

Number XVII appears to have been composed before rationing became serious; but in general the diabolical method of dating seems to bear no relation to terrestrial time and I have not attempted to reproduce it.

It seems to me that most often the diabolical principle of dating has nothing to do with earthly time, and therefore I did not reproduce it.

The history of the European War, except in so far as it happens now and then to impinge upon the spiritual condition of one human being, was obviously of no interest to Screwtape. --C. S. LEWIS MAGDALENE COLLEGE July 5, 1941

The history of the Second World War could interest Balamut only to the extent that it affected the spiritual state of the person he was interested in.

LETTER FIRST

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

My dear Gnusik!

I note what you say about guiding our patient "s reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend.

I see that you make sure that your ward reads and that he rotates in the circle of his materialistic friends.

But are you not being a trifle na?f? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches.

But I think you're a little naive, believing that arguments will be able to wrest him from the clutches of the Enemy.

That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier.

This would have been possible if he had lived several centuries earlier.

At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proven and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it.

Then people were still perfectly able to distinguish proven from unproven, and if something was proven, they believed in it.

They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning.

Then they still did not lose the connection between thought and deed, and somehow they could change their lives in accordance with the conclusion.

But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that.

This we corrected through the weekly press and other means.

Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head.

Since infancy, your ward has been accustomed to the fact that a good dozen incompatible views are spinning in his head at the same time.

He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" of "false", but as "academic" or "practical", "outworn" or "contemporary", "conventional" or "ruthless".

First of all, he perceives concepts not as true or false, but as theoretical or practical, outdated or modern, banal or bold.

Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church.

Self-confident gibberish, not arguments, will help you keep the patient away from the church.

Don "t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous--that it is the philosophy of the future. That"s the sort of thing he cares about.

Don't waste time trying to convince him of the truth of materialism: rather, impress on him that materialism is strong or bold, that this is the philosophy of the future.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's own ground.

The arguments are unpleasant in that the battle has to be fought on the territory of the Enemy.

He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below.

After all, he also knows how to convince: however, in the propaganda that I offer you, He, as our centuries-old experience shows, cannot be compared with our father.

By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result?

By proving, you awaken the mind of the ward, and if the mind wakes up, who will predict the result?

Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favor, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences.

Even if, at some turn of thought, it happens that we are in favor, you will then find that you have diverted attention from the stream of immediate experiences floating on the surface, and directed it in the most pernicious way to the depth.

Your business is to fix his attention on the stream.

Your task is precisely to rive the attention of the ward to the constantly changing sensory impressions.

Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by "real".

Teach him to call this flow "real life" and don't let him wonder what he means.

Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit.

Remember: unlike you, your ward is not an incorporeal spirit.

Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy "s!) you don" t realize how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary.

You have never been a man (this is the disgusting advantage of our Enemy) and therefore you cannot imagine how they are enslaved by the ordinary.

I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum.

I had a ward, a strong atheist, who sometimes studied in the British Museum.

One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way.

One day, while he was reading, I noticed that his thoughts were developing in a dangerous direction.

The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment.

Our enemy, of course, was immediately nearby.

Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years" work beginning to totter.

Before I knew it, my twenty years of work began to crumble.

If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defense by argument I should have been undone.

If I lost my head and resorted to arguments, everything would go down the drain.

But I was not such a fool.

But I'm not that stupid.

I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch.

I immediately played on the string of my ward, which was most under my control, and hinted that now was the time to have lunch.

The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch.

The enemy apparently made a counterattack (it is never possible to accurately overhear what He says), that is, he made it clear that these reflections are more important than dinner.

At least I think that must have been His line for when I said

It must have been so, because when I said:

"Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning", the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added

"Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind", he was already half way t ...

I am not going to explain how the correspondence that I now offer to the attention of society fell into my hands.

There are two equivalent and opposite misconceptions about demons. Some do not believe in them, others believe and have an unnecessary and unhealthy interest in them. The demons themselves are happy with both mistakes and greet both the materialist and the lover of black magic with equal enthusiasm.

I advise my readers to remember that the devil is the father of lies and not everything that Balamut says should be considered true, even from his own point of view.

I have not identified those mentioned in the letters. However, I do not think that, for example, the father of Eagle or the mother of the ward are described reliably. In hell, as well as on earth, they know how to tint thoughts to please their intentions.

In conclusion, I must add that I did not try to clarify the chronology of the letters. It seems to me that most often the diabolical principle of dating has nothing to do with earthly time, and therefore I did not reproduce it. The history of the Second World War could interest Balamut only to the extent that it affected the spiritual state of the person he was interested in.

C. S. Lewis

Maudlin College, 1941

Letter one

My dear Gnusik!

I see that you make sure that your ward reads and that he rotates in the circle of his materialistic friends. But I think you're a little naive, believing that arguments will be able to wrest him from the clutches of the Enemy. This would have been possible if he had lived several centuries earlier. Then people were still perfectly able to distinguish proven from unproven, and if something was proven, they believed in it. Then they still did not lose the connection between thought and deed, and somehow they could change their lives in accordance with the conclusion. This we corrected through the weekly press and other means. Since infancy, your ward has been accustomed to the fact that a good dozen incompatible views are spinning in his head at the same time. First of all, he perceives concepts not as true or false, but as theoretical or practical, outdated or modern, banal or bold. Self-confident gibberish, not arguments, will help you keep the patient away from the church. Don't waste time trying to convince him of the truth of materialism: rather, impress on him that materialism is strong or bold, that this is the philosophy of the future.

He knew that he had escaped danger, and later liked to talk about "that inexplicable sense of reality, which will reliably protect against the extremes of pure logic." At the present time he is safely in the house of our father.

Do you get what's wrong here? Thanks to the processes that we set in motion several centuries ago, it is almost impossible for people to believe in the unfamiliar and unusual - they always have the familiar and familiar before their eyes. Stuff your ward with the usual things. But do not try to use science (I mean real science) as a means against Christianity. Science will force him to think about realities that he can neither touch nor see. Among modern physicists there are sad examples of this. And if he really needs to dabble in science, let him take up economics or sociology. Don't let him run away from this priceless "real life". Better not to see scientific literature at all. Inspire him that he already knows all this, and that what he manages to pick up from casual conversations and casual reading are "achievements of modern science." Remember, you are there to deceive him. Judging by the statements of some of you young demons, you might think that you are appointed to teach them!

Balamut's letters

Introduction

I am not going to explain how the correspondence that I now offer to the attention of society fell into my hands.

There are two equivalent and opposite misconceptions about demons. Some do not believe in them, others believe and have an unnecessary and unhealthy interest in them. The demons themselves are happy with both mistakes and greet both the materialist and the lover of black magic with equal enthusiasm.

I advise my readers to remember that the devil is the father of lies and not everything that Balamut says should be considered true, even from his own point of view.

I have not identified those mentioned in the letters. However, I do not think that, for example, the father of Eagle or the mother of the ward are described reliably. In hell, as well as on earth, they know how to tint thoughts to please their intentions.

In conclusion, I must add that I did not try to clarify the chronology of the letters. It seems to me that most often the diabolical principle of dating has nothing to do with earthly time, and therefore I did not reproduce it. The history of the Second World War could interest Balamut only to the extent that it affected the spiritual state of the person he was interested in.

C. S. Lewis

Maudlin College, 1941

Letter one

My dear Gnusik!

I see that you are watching the reading of your ward and that he rotates in the circle of his materialistic friends. But I think you're a little naive, believing that arguments will be able to wrest him from the clutches of the Enemy. This would have been possible if he had lived several centuries earlier. Then people were still perfectly able to distinguish proven from unproven, and even if something was proven, they believed in it. Then they did not yet lose the connection between thought and deed, and somehow they could change their lives in accordance with the conclusion. This we corrected through the weekly press and other means. Since infancy, your ward has been accustomed to the fact that a good dozen incompatible views are spinning in his head at the same time. First of all, he perceives concepts not as true or false, but as theoretical or practical, outdated or modern, banal or bold. Self-confident gibberish, not arguments, will help you keep the patient away from the church. Don't waste time trying to convince him of the truth of materialism: rather, impress on him that materialism is strong or bold, that this is the philosophy of the future.

He knew that he had escaped danger, and later liked to talk about "that inexplicable sense of reality, which will reliably protect against the extremes of pure logic." At the present time he is safely in the house of our father.

Do you get what's wrong here? Thanks to the processes that we set in motion several centuries ago, it is almost impossible for people to believe in the unfamiliar and unusual - they always have the familiar and familiar before their eyes. Stuff your ward with the usual things. But do not try to use science (I mean real science) as a means against Christianity. Science will force him to think about realities that he can neither touch nor see. Among modern physicists there are sad examples of this. And if he really needs to dabble in science, let him take up economics or sociology. Don't let him run away from this priceless "real life". Better not to see scientific literature at all. Inspire him that he already knows all this, and that what he manages to pick up from casual conversations and casual reading are "achievements of modern science." Remember, you are there to deceive him. Judging by the statements of some of you young demons, you might think that you are appointed to teach them!

Your loving uncle Balamut.

Letter two

My dear Gnusik!

It was very annoying to know that your ward converted. Do not console yourself with the hope that you will escape the prescribed punishment (although I am sure that in moments of success you do not console yourself with hopes). We have to save the situation. No need to despair - hundreds of people who turned adults, stayed in the camp of the Enemy, corrected themselves, and now they are with us. All the habits of the ward, both spiritual and bodily, pour water on our mill.

One of our great allies at this time is the church itself. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about the same Church that we see embracing space and time, rooted in eternity, formidable, like regiments with banners. This spectacle, I confess, is capable of frightening the most daring tempters. But, fortunately, that Church is invisible to people. Your ward sees only an unfinished pseudo-Gothic building on an untidy construction site. Going inside, he will see a local grocer with an unctuous expression, and he will offer him a shiny little book, which contains the content of the service, which no one really understands, and another little book, in a shabby cover, containing distorted texts of various religious chants, most of them bad and printed in small print. When he sits down in his place and looks around, he will see exactly those neighbors whom he avoided.

You should make full use of them. Let his thoughts jump from the words "My Body" to faces and back. In this case, of course, it does not matter what kind of people are sitting on the benches. You may know that one of them is a great warrior in the camp of the Enemy. No matter. Your ward, thank our father, is naturally stupid. If only one of them sings badly, wears squeaky boots, is ridiculously dressed or has grown a double chin, your ward will easily believe that there must be something funny and ridiculous in the religion of these ridiculous and ridiculous people. As you know, now the idea of ​​"Christianity" lives in the head of the ward, which he calls "spiritual", but this is a strong word. His head is stuffed with chitons, sandals, armor, bare feet. The simple fact that the people around him in the church are dressed in a modern way became for him (unconsciously, of course) a real stumbling block. Don't let this stone come to the surface and don't let the ward ask himself what kind of person he would like to see the parishioners be like. Make sure that all his ideas are more obscure: then you will have a whole eternity at your disposal, and you will be able to amuse yourself by bringing to him that special clarity that distinguishes hell.

Make the most of the disappointment and decline that will inevitably overtake him in the very first weeks of conversion. The enemy allows this disappointment at the threshold of every human act. It appears when a boy, fascinated by the story of Odysseus, begins to learn Greek. It also appears when lovers get married and learn to live together. In every human activity there is a transition from dreams to reality. The enemy takes the risk of this disappointment, because he cherishes the hope that these disgusting little creatures will become his free followers and servants. He always calls them "sons", with stubborn predilection, humiliating the entire spiritual world with unnatural love for the two-legged. Not wanting to deprive them of their freedom. He refuses to lead them by force to the goals he has set for them. He wants them to "walk on their own". This is where our possibilities lie. But remember that there is also a danger for us hidden here. If they get through the dry period safely, they will be less dependent on their emotions and it will become more difficult to tempt them.