Music and silence – how I detest them both! How thankful we should be that ever since our Father entered Hell – though longer ago than humans could ever express – no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of these abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise – Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless and virile – Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough, or anything like it. Meanwhile you, disgusting little –“

(Here the MS breaks off and is resumed in a different hand.)

In the heat of composition I find that I have inadvertently allowed myself to assume the form of a large centipede.

His Abysmal Sublimity Undersecretary Screwtape, T.E., B.S., etc, in “The Screwtape Letters”