![]() And as for permanence-consider how quickly all machines are broken and obliterated. Their labour-saving devices multiply drudgery their aphrodisiacs make them impotent: their amusements bore them: their rapid production of food leaves half of them starving, and their devices for saving time have banished leisure from their country. They are afraid of this themselves-though most of them are old enough to know by experience that a gun is no more likely than a toothpaste or a cosmetic to do the things its makers say it will do. Their next war, for example, would change the state of their country from disease to death. To be sure, if the machines did what they promised, the change would be very deep indeed. That idea depends on a curious disease which they have all caught-an inability to disbelieve advertisements. ![]() "You are falling into their own error," he said, "the change is not radical, nor will it be permanent. I cannot believe that the Landlord would otherwise allow the whole face of nature and the whole structure of life to be so permanently and radically changed." "It is too solid-it looks too lasting-to be a mere evil. "There must be a good side somewhere to this revolution," said Vertue. I would make it a rule to eradicate from my patient any strong personal taste which is not actually a sin, even if it is something quite trivial such as a fondness for county cricket or collecting stamps or drinking cocoa. To get him away from those is therefore always a point gained even in things indifferent it is always desirable to substitute the standards of the World, or convention, or fashion, for a human’s own real likings and dislikings. The deepest likings and impulses of any man are the raw material, the starting-point, with which the Enemy has furnished him. And we should always encourage them to do so. Hence, while He is delighted to see them sacrificing even their innocent wills to His, He hates to see them drifting away from their own nature for any other reason. When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamour of self-will once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever. Remember always, that He really likes the little vermin, and sets an absurd value on the distinctness of every one of them. Of course I know that the Enemy also wants to detach men from themselves, but in a different way. "Lo saprai più presto di quel che credi". "Sono due mie sorelle, più giovani di me, e i loro nomi sono Filosofia e Teologia". "Non ne hanno nessuna, perché hanno smesso di dare ascolto alle sole persone che possono dire alcunché sull'argomento". "Ma hanno delle buone ragioni per ritenerlo". ![]() Hanno la presunzione che le loro ricerche cunducano a quella dottrina ma in effetti, danno per scontata prima di tutto quella dottrina ed interpretano le loro ricerche a partire da essa". Ma l'unica loro ragione nel fare questa affermazione è che hanno già deciso che la cosa più bella di tutte-cioè a dire il Signore e, se vuoi, le montagne e l'Isola-non sono altro che una copia di questo paese. Ti diranno sicuramente che le loro ricerche hanno provato che se due cose sono similari, quella bella è sempre la copia di quella brutta. ![]() "Non hanno potuto farlo perché le loro scienze non sono per nulla interessate nelle relazioni generali di questo paese per alcuna cosa che possa trovarsi a oriente o a occidente di esso. "Ma certamente l'avranno considerato e respinto. C'è chi ha ritenuto che tutti questi amori fossero copie del nostro amore per il Signore".
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