From the final paragraph of Mere Christianity (quoted in our last post), we now turn to the first paragraph of The Screwtape Letters. Here the subject is “acting on what we believe”—or "connecting thinking with doing"-and once again, the possible inspiration is that old favourite of Lewis's, MacDonald's beloved masterpiece Sir Gibbie.

Here we look at the famous conclusion to Mere Christianity- in which Lewis addresses the impossibility of "finding ourselves" outside of Christ-and note the similarity to a passage from Sir Gibbie, one of the Ulsterman's favourite MacDonald novels.

Just as Lucy's siblings fail to credit her "imaginary country" and her friendship with a faun, so Curdie dismisses Irene's tale about her great-great grandmother and the existence of a certain magic thread. Their slowness to accept the truth is then gently rebuked by two grown-ups (Professor Kirke and Curdie's mother) who DO believe the young heroines-and whose past histories, once we know them, make this belief almost inevitable

In this entry, we see a reversal of the usual trend, inasmuch as it is the Lewis quote which is taken from an overlooked masterpiece, while its precursor in MacDonald belongs to a (relatively) well known fairy tale.

Fans of The Magician's Nephew will remember the "perky jackdaw" who, thinking he had MADE the land's first joke, is informed by Aslan that he had only BEEN the first joke. The other creatures' laughter quickly follows after the Lion reassures them by echoing a thought from Sir Gibbie…

In this example we consider what is probably the most famous passage from Lewis's best-known essay, “The Weight of Glory.” Ironically, its counterpart is taken from a source which, even considering the general neglect of MacDonald's novels, is one of the Scotsman's obscurer works. The similarity of the quotes is striking, however…

Another Narnian gem (this time from The Silver Chair) is Puddleglum hurling defiance at the Green Witch after helping to deliver Prince Rilian from his long enchantment. The character of Lewis's beloved marshwiggle was based on his gardener Fred Paxford, but his inspired stand for Aslan ("even if there isn't any Aslan") may owe much more to MacDonald…

C S Lewis said of MacDonald's Unspoken Sermons, "My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another," and what seems a clear example of this indebtedness can be found in The Screwtape Letters…

To begin at the beginning, one of the best-known C S Lewis quotes, "farther up and farther in," is taken from the end of the seventh Narnian Chronicle, The Last Battle, in which it is repeated several times (and is even used as a chapter heading.) A very similar expression was used by MacDonald in one of his own novels—also a fantasy, also towards the end, and also in the context of a spirit-soaring "good death”…