| Summary:
In this, the first of the Screwtape letters, Wormwood has obviously inquired of his Uncle about his patients' current reading material. Screwtape goes on to explain that people, or "patients," should be discouraged from solitary thinking. "Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it real life, and don't let him ask what he means by real." Screwtape then relates a story about one of his own patients, an atheist, who, while reading in the British Museum, began to think about the "Enemy." Screwtape subverts the man by suggesting that he have lunch first, then dwell on it. After leaving the museum and the seclusion of it he is confronted by real life, and instantly loses all interest in his previous thoughts. "He is now safe in Our Father's House," says Screwtape.
Letter #2 | 
