[transcription of a newly discovered, unpublished letter from C.S. Lewis to Mrs. Ellis, dated 19 August 1945, discovered by somebody in an old copy of the C.S. Lewis book “The Problem of Pain”]
…satisfaction in seeing that the picture even suits the room very well and that we don’t regret having bought it. In fact I meant by ‘things going well’ just that security — or illusion of security — which you also regard as unhealthy. Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony. It jumps under one’s ribs and tickles down one’s back and makes one forget meals and keeps one (delightedly) sleepless o’ nights. It shocks one awake where the other puts one to sleep. My private table is one second of Joy is worth twelve hours of Pleasure.
I think you really quite agree with me. (N.B. The physical sensations of joy and misery are in my case identical. Just the same thing happens inside me on getting very good or very bad news)
Yours sincerely
C.S. Lewis
P.S. Don’t you know the disappointment when you expected joy from a piece of music and get only pleasure? Like finding Leah when you thought you’d married Rachel!
[Source: I transcribed this by analyzing Lewis’s handwriting in a photo of the letter featured in an article on ChristianityToday.com: http://ift.tt/1vo3Pw0]
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