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TO ARTHUR GREEVES, who had just ended an unhealthy friendship with a boy: On doing the right thing; and on the blessing of friendship.
29 December 1935
As
regards your news—sympathy and congratulations.
Sympathy on the wrench
of parting and the gap () it will leave: congratulations on having done the
right thing and made a sacrifice.
The chief consolation at such times, I
think, is that the result, however unpleasant, must be a kind of relief
/after the period of saying ‘Shall I really have to—no I won’t—and yet
perhaps I’d better.’
There is always some peace /in having submitted to
the right.
Don’t spoil it /by worrying about the results, if you
can help it.
* 관용구 if you can help it; when you are able to prevent it; 할 수만 있다면
It is not your business to succeed (no one can be sure of
that) but to do right:
when you have done so, the rest lies with
God. . . .
I don’t think () you exaggerate at all /in your account of
how it feels.
After all—though our novels now ignore it—friendship is
the greatest of worldly goods.
Certainly to me it is the chief happiness
of life.
If I had to give a piece of advice /to a young man about a
place to live,
I think I should say, ‘sacrifice almost everything to
live where you can be near your friends.’
I know () I am very fortunate /in
that respect, and you much less so.
But even for me, it would make a
great difference if you (and one or two others) lived in Oxford.
* you (are) much less so (=forfunate) /in
that respect
* 대명사로 쓰인 so;
pron. Such as has already been suggested or specified; the same or roughly the same:
She became a loyal friend and remained so. (so = a loyal friend)
From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume II
Compiled in Yours, Jack
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume II: Family Letters 1905-1931. Copyright © 2004 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.