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XXIV

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I have been in correspondence with Slu woin to see the chink in her armour It is an unobtrusive little vice which she shares with nearly all woent circle united by a clearly defined belief; and it consists in a quite untroubled assumption that the outsiders who do not share this belief are really too stupid and ridiculous The males, who habitually meet these outsiders, do not feel that way; their confidence, if they are confident, is of a different kind Hers, which she supposes to be due to Faith, is in reality largely due to the s It is not, in fact, very different froe of ten that the kind of fish-knives used in her father’s house were the proper or nor families were "not real fish-knives" at all Now the elee, and the eleives us little hope of the girl herself But have you thought of how it can be made to influence your own patient?

It is always the novice who exaggerates Thescholar is pedantic In this new circle your patient is a novice He is there daily ined and seeing it all through an enchanted glass because he is in love He is anxious (indeed the Eneet hierate it until as venial in her becoest and most beautiful of the vices - Spiritual Pride?

The conditions seem ideally favourable The new circle in which he finds himself is one of which he is tempted to be proud for many reasons other than its Christianity It is a better educated, reeable society than any he has yet encountered He is also under soree of illusion as to his own place in it Under the influence of "love" he irl, but he is rapidly ceasing to think himself unworthy of the others He has no notion how iven because they are charitable and made the best of because he is now one of the family He does not dream how nised by them all as mere echoes of their own Still less does he suspect how ht he takes in these people is due to the erotic enchants He thinks that he likes their talk and way of life because of soruity between their spiritual state and his, when in fact they are so far beyond him that if he were not in love he would be merely puzzled and repelled by ine it understood fire-ar instinct and love for its ! Here is your chance While the Enereeable people far advanced in His service, is drawing the young barbarian up to levels he could never otherwise have reached, youhis own level - that these people are "his sort" and that, co them, he has come home When he turns from them to other society he will find it dull; partly because almost any society within his reach is, in fact, , but stillwoman You must teach hihts and the circle that bores him for the contrast between Christians and unbelievers He must be made to feel (he’d better not put it into words) "how different we Christians are"; and by "we Christians" he ly, mean "my set"; and by "my set" he must mean not "The people who, in their charity and humility, have accepted ht"

Success here depends on confusing him If you try toa Christian, you will probably fail; the Enes are too well known If, on the other hand, you let the idea of "we Christians" drop out altogether and merely make him complacent about "his set", you will produce not true spiritual pride but mere social vanity which, by comparison, is a trumpery, puny little sin What you want is to keep a sly self-congratulation hts and never allow hi , of being in a secret, is very sweet to hi the influence of this girl when she is silliest, to adopt an air of as the unbelievers say Some theories which he may meet in modern Christian circles may here prove helpful; theories, Iof "clerks", some trained minority of theocrats It is no affair of yours whether those theories are true or false; the great thing is to ion in which he feels himself one of the initiates

Pray do not fill your letters with rubbish about this European War Its final issue is, no doubt, ih Co how land have been killed by bombs In what state of mind they died, I can learn fro to die sometime, I knew already Please keep your mind on your work,

Your affectionate uncle

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