way by his possible civil defence duties (it is stated in an earlier letter that he is eligible for military service, but it is never actually confirmed that he was indeed called). While Wormwood is delighted with this and by the Second World War in general, Screwtape admonishes Wormwood to keep the Patient safe in hopes that they can compromise his faith over a long lifetime. In the last letter, the Patient has been killed during the Blitz and has gone to Heaven, and for his ultimate failure, Wormwood is doomed to suffer the consumption of his spiritual essence by the other demons, especially by Screwtape himself. He responds to Wormwood's final letter by saying that he may expect as little assistance as Screwtape would expect from Wormwood were their situations reversed ("My love for you and your love for me are as alike as two peas ... The difference is that I am the stronger."), mimicking the situation where Wormwood himself reported his uncle to the Infernal Police for Infernal Heresy (making a religiously positive remark that would offend Satan). Screwtape starts every letter with, "My dear Wormwood," except the last letter, which sarcastically says, "My dear, my very dear Wormwood; my poppet, my pigsnie." Literary sequels "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" The short sequel "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" (1959), first published as an article in The Saturday Evening Post, is an addendum to The Screwtape Letters; the two works are often published together as one book. The sequel takes the form of an after-dinner speech given by Screwtape at the Tempters' Training College for young demons. In stage adaptations it is sometimes added as a prelude, making the work a prequel. "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" is Lewis' criticism of leveling and featherbedding trends in public education; more specifically, as he reveals in the foreword to the American edition, public education in America (though in the text, it is English education that is held up as the purportedly awful example). The Cold War opposition between the West and the Communist World is explicitly discussed as a backdrop to the educational issues. Screwtape and other demons are portrayed as consciously using the subversion of education and intellectual thought in the West to bring about its overthrow by the communist enemy from without and within. In this sense "Screwtape Proposes a Toast" is more strongly political than The Screwtape Letters, wherein no