I plead guilty. When I was writing about pleasures last week I had quite forgotten about the mala mentis gaudia--the pleasures of the mind which are intrinsically evil. The pleasure, say, of having a grievance. What a disappointment it is--for one self-revealing moment--to discover that the other party was not really to blame? And how a resentment, while it lasts, draws one back and back to nurse and fondle and encourage it! It behaves just like a lust...resentment is pleasant only as a relief from, or alternative to, humiliation...'I was angry with my friend:I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe:I told it not, my wrath did grow.'(Blake) You too know better. Anger-no peevish fit of temper, but just, generous,scalding indignation--passes (not necessarily at once) into embracing, exultant, re-welcoming love. That is how friends and lovers are truly reconciled. Hot wrath, hot love. Such anger is the fluid that love bleeds when you cut it.
C.S.Lewis
Letters to Malcolm pp94-97
