“His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future—haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth—ready to break the Enemy’s commands in the present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other—dependent for his faith on the success or failure of schemes whose end he will not live to see. We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow’s end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present.”

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About C.S. Lewis

British author, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian

C. S. Lewis was a British author, literary scholar, and Anglican lay theologian. He held posts in English literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, and later at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He is best known for The Chronicles of Narnia. Lewis also wrote The Screwtape Letters and the Space Trilogy, along with Christian apologetic works such as Mere Christianity, Miracles, and The Problem of Pain. His writing ranges from imaginative fiction to religious argument, and much of it reflects his interest in Christian belief and moral questions.

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