Page 1 (1/1)

To

J R R TOLKIEN

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn"

- Luther

"The devillthe prowde spiritecannot endure to be mocked"

- Tho how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils One is to disbelieve in their existence The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a ht 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 ht make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me

Readers are advised to re that Screwtape says should be assule I have s mentioned in the letters; but I think it very unlikely that the portraits, say, of Fr Spike or the patient’sin Hell as well as on Earth

In conclusion, I ought to add that no effort has been y of the letters Nu beca seems to bear no relation to terrestrial time and I have not attempted to reproduce it The history of the European War, except in so far as it happens now and then to i, was obviously of no interest to Screwtape

C S LEWIS

MAGDALEN COLLEGE

July 5, 1941