I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has longbeen my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, ina way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairystory,or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They containmany marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, selfcontainedsignificance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivableeucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire andaspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christis the eucatastrophe of Man's history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story ofthe Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistencyof reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none whichso many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has theReadingsOn Fairy Stories24supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either tosadness or to wrath.

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