Screwtape Proposes a Toast Summary

Some time later, Screwtape remains an erudite bureaucrat, quite high up in the Lowerarchy. He has been asked to give a toast at the annual dinner of the Tempters' Training College for young devils. Slubgob is still the principal, and Screwtape is the guest of honor.

This dinner, Screwtape says, although there was plenty of it, lacked the savor of eating great sinners. He laments losing the flavors of a Henry VIII or a Hitler. It was gratifying to crunch down on their fabulous egos and boundless cruelties. This evening's feast had more to do with people who went to hell for corruption, for graft, for petty crimes. Even the adulterers were rather hapless fools who had gotten into the wrong beds for silly, misguided reasons—they were not like Casanova, who was lustfully tasty.

At...