His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it

[soso]

On faith

[The demon Screwtape writes:]

Merely to override a human will

(as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless.

He cannot ravish. He can only woo.

For His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it;

the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves;

merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.

* them = the creatures

* ASSIMILATE : 1 : to learn (something) so that it is fully understood and can be used;

2 : to cause (a person or group) to become part of a different society, country, etc.

* have your cake and eat it (too)

to have or do two good things at the same time that are impossible to have or do at the same time:

He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning.

He will set them off /with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them,

with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation.

But He never allows this state of affairs to last long.

Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, [all those supports and incentives].

He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs

—to carry out from the will alone [duties //which have lost all relish].

It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods,

that it is growing into the sort of creature () He wants it to be.

Hence [the prayers /offered in the state of dryness] are those //which please Him best….

He cannot “tempt” to virtue /as we do to vice.

He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand;

and if only [the will to walk] is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.

Do not be deceived, Wormwood.

Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will,

looks round upon a universe //from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished,

and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys. (1)

* You can't have your cake and eat it (too) is a popular English idiomatic proverb or figure of speech.

The proverb literally means "you cannot simultaneously retain your cake and eat it".

Once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It can be used to say that one cannot have two incompatible things,

or that one should not try to have more than is reasonable.

The proverb's meaning is similar to the phrases "you can't have it both ways"

and "you can't have the best of both worlds."

This used to be the most common form of the expression‎ until the 1930s–1940s.

그 시대에 유행한 말인 "케익을 소유하기와 먹기 둘 다 할 수 없다"는 유행어는 둘 중 하나만 할 수 있다는 의미인데

먹으면 사라질 케익이라 더 이상 케익으로 소유/보유하지 못 하기에 둘 다 하기는 불가능이라는 말이지만

루이스가 이런 유행어 의미에 반대인 "His ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it"를 쓴 이유는

먹음과 동시에 소유하기는 사람으로는 불가능하나

하나님께서는 가능하시다는 성경 구절에 근거를 두었다 봄 (눅 18:27)

the creatures are to be one with Him, but yet themselves;

하나님과 하나가 되면서도 자신의 고유한 특성/개성을 잃지 않고 여전히 보유하는 건

케익을 먹어 치우고도 여전히 케익을 소유한다는 것처럼 모순적인 말 같지만

그건 어디까지나 인간의 한계 내에서 불가지 it is impossible for man

전능하신 하나님의 한계? 내에서는 모도 순도 둘 다 합일로 가능하다 but possible with God.

“What is impossible for people is possible with God.” (눅 18:27)

루이스가 쓴 말/생각의 배경에는 성경의 어떤 구절을 근거로 하고 있는데

자신의 문학적인 재능을 사용하여 성경 말씀을 세상에서 통하는 말로 쉽게 표현하기에

그의 글은 많은 기독인들의 필수필독 고전으로 애독되고 있고 본인도 애독자의 한 사람이 되었다

* Screwtape 마귀 선생

Screwtape appears as a fictional devil in the book The Screwtape Letters (1942)

and in its sequel short story Screwtape Proposes a Toast (1959), both written by the Christian author C. S. Lewis.

Screwtape is also the title of the stage adaptation of the Letters by James Forsyth (originally Dear Wormwood, 1961).

Screwtape holds the rank of Senior Tempter and serves as the Undersecretary of his department

in what Lewis envisages as a sort of infernal Civil Service.

The Letters represent his side of the correspondence with his nephew Wormwood, as mentor to the young devil who is charged with the guidance of one man.

The Toast is Screwtape's after-dinner speech at the Tempters' Training College and satirises American and British

or English public education. Screwtape has a secretary called Toadpipe.

Screwtape appears to understand very well the nature of human minds and human weaknesses,

although nothing about human love. He also has a way with words and a fondness for sarcasm.