The Pilgrim's Regress Read online

  THE

  PILGRIM’S REGRESS

  An Allegorical Apology for Christianity

  Reason and Romanticism

  C. S. LEWIS

  DEDICATION

  to

  Arthur Greeves

  EPIGRAPH

  As cold waters to a thirsty soul,

  so is good news from a far country.

  —Proverbs

  CONTENTS

  DEDICATON

  EPIGRAPH

  BOOK ONE

  THE DATA

  I.

  THE RULES

  II.

  THE ISLAND

  III.

  THE EASTERN MOUNTAINS

  IV.

  LEAH FOR RACHEL

  V.

  ICHABOD

  VI.

  QUEM QUAERITIS IN SEPULCHRO? NON EST HIC

  BOOK TWO

  THRILL

  I.

  DIXIT INSIPIENS

  II.

  THE HILL

  III.

  A LITTLE SOUTHWARD

  IV.

  SOFT GOING

  V.

  LEAH FOR RACHEL

  VI.

  ICHABOD

  VII.

  NON EST HIC

  VIII.

  GREAT PROMISES

  BOOK THREE

  THROUGH DARKEST ZEITGEISTHEIM

  I.

  ESCHROPOLIS

  II.

  A SOUTH WIND

  III.

  FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

  IV.

  THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN

  V.

  UNDER ARREST

  VI.

  POISONING THE WELLS

  VII.

  FACING THE FACTS

  VIII.

  PARROT DISEASE

  IX.

  THE GIANT SLAYER

  BOOK FOUR

  BACK TO THE ROAD

  I.

  LET GRILL BE GRILL

  II.

  ARCHTYPE AND ECTYPE

  III.

  Esse IS Percipi

  IV.

  ESCAPE

  BOOK FIVE

  THE GRAND CANYON

  I.

  THE GRAND CANYON

  II.

  MOTHER KIRK’S STORY

  III.

  THE SELF-SUFFICIENCY OF VERTUE

  IV.

  MR. SENSIBLE

  V.

  TABLE TALK

  VI.

  DRUDGE

  VII.

  THE GAUCHERIE OF VERTUE

  BOOK SIX

  NORTHWARD ALONG THE CANYON

  I.

  FIRST STEPS TO THE NORTH

  II.

  THREE PALE MEN

  III.

  NEO-ANGULAR

  IV.

  HUMANIST

  V.

  FOOD FROM THE NORTH

  VI.

  FURTHEST NORTH

  VII.

  FOOLS’ PARADISE

  BOOK SEVEN

  SOUTHWARD ALONG THE CANYON

  I.

  VERTUE IS SICK

  II.

  JOHN LEADING

  III.

  THE MAIN ROAD AGAIN

  IV.

  GOING SOUTH

  V.

  TEA ON THE LAWN

  VI.

  THE HOUSE OF WISDOM

  VII.

  ACROSS THE CANYON BY MOONLIGHT

  VIII.

  THIS SIDE BY SUNLIGHT

  IX.

  WISDOM—EXOTERIC

  X.

  WISDOM—ESOTERIC

  XI.

  MUM’S THE WORD

  XII.

  MORE WISDOM

  BOOK EIGHT

  AT BAY

  I.

  TWO KINDS OF MONIST

  II.

  JOHN LED

  III.

  JOHN FORGETS HIMSELF

  IV.

  JOHN FINDS HIS VOICE

  V.

  FOOD AT A COST

  VI.

  CAUGHT

  VII.

  THE HERMIT

  VIII.

  HISTORY’S WORDS

  IX.

  MATTER OF FACT

  X.

  ARCHTYPE AND ECTYPE

  BOOK NINE

  ACROSS THE CANYON

  I.

  ACROSS THE CANYON BY THE INNER LIGHT

  II.

  THIS SIDE BY LIGHTNING

  III.

  THIS SIDE BY THE DARKNESS

  IV.

  SECURUS TE PROJICE

  V.

  ACROSS THE CANYON

  VI.

  NELLA SUA VOLUNTADE

  BOOK TEN

  THE REGRESS

  I.

  THE SAME YET DIFFERENT

  II.

  THE SYNTHETIC MAN

  III.

  LIMBO

  IV.

  THE BLACK HOLE

  V.

  SUPERBIA

  VI.

  IGNORANTIA

  VII.

  LUXURIA

  VIII.

  THE NORTHERN DRAGON

  IX.

  THE SOUTHERN DRAGON

  X.

  THE BROOK

  AFTERWORD TO THIRD EDITION

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY C. S. LEWIS

  COPYRIGHT

  ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

  BOOK ONE

  THE DATA

  This every soul seeketh and for the sake of this doth all her actions, having an inkling that it is; but what it is she cannot sufficiently discern, and she knoweth not her way, and concerning this she hath no constant assurance as she hath of other things.

  PLATO

  Whose souls, albeit in a cloudy memory, yet seek back their good, but, like drunk men, know not the road home.

  BOETHIUS

  Somewhat it seeketh, and what that is directly it knoweth not, yet very intentive desire thereof doth so incite it, that all other known delights and pleasures are laid aside, they give place to the search of this but only suspected desire.

  HOOKER

  I

  The Rules

  I DREAMED OF A BOY who was born in the land of Puritania and his name was John. And I dreamed that when John was able to walk he ran out of his parents’ garden on a fine morning on to the road. And on the other side of the road there was a deep wood, but not thick, full of primroses and soft green moss. When John set eyes on this he thought he had never seen anything so beautiful; and he ran across the road and into the wood, and was just about to go down on his hands and knees and to pull up the primroses by handfuls, when his mother came running out of the garden gate, and she also ran across the road, and caught John up, and smacked him soundly and told him he must never go into the wood again. And John cried, but he asked no questions, for he was not yet at the age for asking questions. Then a year went past. And then, another fine morning, John had a little sling and he went out into the garden and he saw a bird sitting on a branch. And John got his sling ready and was going to have a shot at the bird, when the cook came running out of the garden and caught John up and smacked him soundly and told him he must never kill any of the birds in the garden.

  ‘Why?’ said John.

  ‘Because the Steward would be very angry,’ said cook.

  ‘Who is the Steward?’ said John.

  ‘He is the man who makes rules for all the country round here,’ said cook.

  ‘Why?’ said John.

  ‘Because the Landlord set him to do it.’

  ‘Who is the Landlord?’ said John.

  ‘He owns all the country,’ said the cook.

  ‘Why?’ said John.

  And when he asked this, the cook went and told his mother. And his mother sat down and talked to John
about the Landlord all afternoon: but John took none of it in, for he was not yet at the age for taking it in. Then a year went past, and one dark, cold, wet morning John was made to put on new clothes. They were the ugliest clothes that had ever been put upon him, which John did not mind at all, but they also caught him under the chin, and were tight under the arms which he minded a great deal, and they made him itch all over. And his father and mother took him out along the road, one holding him by each hand (which was uncomfortable, too, and very unnecessary), and told him they were taking him to see the Steward. The Steward lived in a big dark house of stone on the side of the road. The father and mother went in to talk to the Steward first, and John was left sitting in the hall on a chair so high that his feet did not reach the floor. There were other chairs in the hall where he could have sat in comfort, but his father had told him that the Steward would be angry if he did not sit absolutely still and be very good: and John was beginning to be afraid, so he sat still in the high chair with his feet dangling, and his clothes itching all over him, and his eyes starting out of his head. After a very long time his parents came back again, looking as if they had been with the doctor, very grave. Then they said that John must go in and see the Steward too. And when John came into the room, there was an old man with a red, round face, who was very kind and full of jokes, so that John quite got over his fears, and they had a good talk about fishing tackle and bicycles. But just when the talk was at its best, the Steward got up and cleared his throat. He then took down a mask from the wall with a long white beard attached to it and suddenly clapped it on his face, so that his appearance was awful. And he said, ‘Now I am going to talk to you about the Landlord. The Landlord owns all the country, and it is very, very kind of him to allow us to live on it at all—very, very kind.’ He went on repeating ‘very kind’ in a queer sing-song voice so long that John would have laughed, but that now he was beginning to be frightened again. The Steward then took down from a peg a big card with small print all over it, and said, ‘Here is a list of all the things the Landlord says you must not do. You’d better look at it.’ So John took the card: but half the rules seemed to forbid things he had never heard of, and the other half forbade things he was doing every day and could not imagine not doing: and the number of the rules was so enormous that he felt he could never remember them all. ‘I hope,’ said the Steward, ‘that you have not already broken any of the rules?’ John’s heart began to thump, and his eyes bulged more and more, and he was at his wit’s end when the Steward took the mask off and looked at John with his real face and said, ‘Better tell a lie, old chap, better tell a lie. Easiest for all concerned,’ and popped the mask on his face all in a flash. John gulped and said quickly, ‘Oh, no sir.’ ‘That is just as well,’ said the Steward through the mask. ‘Because, you know, if you did break any of them and the Landlord got to know of it, do you know what he’d do to you?’ ‘No, sir,’ said John: and the Steward’s eyes seemed to be twinkling dreadfully through the holes of the mask. ‘He’d take you and shut you up for ever and ever in a black hole full of snakes and scorpions as large as lobsters—for ever and ever. And besides that, he is such a kind, good man, so very, very kind, that I am sure you would never want to displease him.’ ‘No, sir,’ said John, ‘But, please, sir. . .’ ‘Well,’ said the Steward. ‘Please, sir, supposing I did break one, one little one, just by accident, you know. Could nothing stop the snakes and lobsters?’ ‘Ah! . . .’ said the Steward; and then he sat down and talked for a long time, but John could not understand a single syllable. However, it all ended with pointing out that the Landlord was quite extraordinarily kind and good to his tenants, and would certainly torture most of them to death the moment he had the slightest pretext. ‘And you can’t blame him,’ said the Steward. ‘For after all, it is his land, and it is so very good of him to let us live here at all—people like us, you know.’ Then the Steward took off the mask and had a nice, sensible chat with John again, and gave him a cake and brought him out to his father and mother. But just as they were going he bent down and whispered in John’s ear, ‘I shouldn’t bother about it all too much if I were you.’ At the same time he slipped the card of the rules into John’s hand and told him he could keep it for his own use.

  II

  The Island

  NOW THE DAYS and the weeks went on again, and I dreamed that John had little peace either by day or night for thinking of the rules and the black hole full of snakes. At first he tried very hard to keep them all, but when it came to bed-time he always found that he had broken far more than he had kept: and the thought of the horrible tortures to which the good, kind Landlord would put him became such a burden that next day he would become quite reckless and break as many as he possibly could; for oddly enough this eased his mind for the moment. But then after a few days the fear would return and this time it would be worse than before because of the dreadful number of rules that he had broken during the interval. But what puzzled him most at this time was a discovery which he made after the rules had been hanging in his bedroom for two or three nights: namely, that on the other side of the card, on the back, there was quite a different set of rules. There were so many that he never read them all through and he was always finding new ones. Some of them were very like the rules on the front of the card, but most of them were just the opposite. Thus whereas the front of the card said that you must be always examining yourself to see how many rules you had broken, the back of the card began like this:

  Rule 1.—Put the whole thing out of your head

  The moment you get into bed.

  Or again, whereas the front said that you must always go and ask your elders what the rule about a certain thing was, if you were in the least doubt, the back said:

  Rule 2.—Unless they saw you do it,

  Keep quiet or else you’ll rue it.

  And so on. And now I dreamed that John went out one morning and tried to play in the road and to forget his troubles; but the rules kept coming back into his head so that he did not make much of it. However, he went on always a few yards further till suddenly he looked up and saw that he was so far away from home that he was in a part of the road he had never seen before. Then came the sound of a musical instrument, from behind it seemed, very sweet and very short, as if it were one plucking of a string or one note of a bell, and after it a full, clear voice—and it sounded so high and strange that he thought it was very far away, further than a star. The voice said, Come. Then John saw that there was a stone wall beside the road in that part: but it had (what he had never seen in a garden wall before) a window. There was no glass in the window and no bars; it was just a square hole in the wall. Through it he saw a green wood full of primroses: and he remembered suddenly how he had gone into another wood to pull primroses, as a child, very long ago—so long that even in the moment of remembering the memory seemed still out of reach. While he strained to grasp it, there came to him from beyond the wood a sweetness and a pang so piercing that instantly he forgot his father’s house, and his mother, and the fear of the Landlord, and the burden of the rules. All the furniture of his mind was taken away. A moment later he found that he was sobbing, and the sun had gone in: and what it was that had happened to him he could not quite remember, nor whether it had happened in this wood, or in the other wood when he was a child. It seemed to him that a mist which hung at the far end of the wood had parted for a moment, and through the rift he had seen a clam sea, and in the sea an island, where the smooth turf sloped down unbroken to the bays, and out of the thickets peeped the pale, small-breasted Oreads, wise like gods, unconscious of themselves like beasts, and tall enchanters, bearded to their feet, sat in green chairs among the forests. But even while he pictured these things he knew, with one part of his mind, that they were not like the things he had seen—nay, that what had befallen him was not seeing at all. But he was too young to heed the distinction: and too empty, now that the unbounded sweetness passed away, not to seize greedily whatever it had left behind.
He had no inclination yet to go into the wood: and presently he went home, with a sad excitement upon him, repeating to himself a thousand times, ‘I know, now what I want.’ The first time that he said it, he was aware that it was not entirely true: but before he went to bed he was believing it.

  III

  The Eastern Mountains

  JOHN HAD A disreputable old uncle who was the tenant of a poor little farm beside his father’s. One day when John came in from the garden, he found a great hubbub in the house. His uncle was sitting there with his cheeks the colour of ashes. His mother was crying. His father was sitting very still with a solemn face. And there, in the midst of them, was the Steward with his mask on. John crept round to his mother and asked her what the matter was.

  ‘Poor Uncle George has had notice to quit,’ she said.

  ‘Why?’ said John.

  ‘His lease is up. The Landlord has sent him notice to quit.’

  ‘But didn’t you know how long the lease was for?’

  ‘Oh, no, indeed we did not. We thought it was for years and years more. I am sure the Landlord never gave us any idea he was going to turn him out at a moment’s notice like this.’

  ‘Ah, but it doesn’t need any notice,’ broke in the Steward. ‘You know he always retains the right to turn anyone out whenever he chooses. It is very good of him to let any of us stay here at all.’