Thank you for your letter dated … The news of your entering the Roman Catholic Church was indeed unexpected. But whether it's good or bad news how would I know. This seems clear to me. The decision to become a Christian is like the decision to give up walking on roads & paths || the ground & to walk || take up walking on a tightrope; where nothing is more easy than to slip & every slip can be fatal. Now if a friend of mine were to take up tightrope walking & told me that in order to do it he has to wear a particular garment I should say to him: If you're serious about that || the tightrope walking I'm certainly not the man to say || tell you what clothes || outfit you should or shouldn't || should not wear, as I've || I myself have never tried the thing || to walk on a rope. Further your decision to wear these clothes is in a sense terrible, however you || one may look at it. For if they mean that you're going to do the rope || tightrope walking this is terrible even though it may be the best & greatest thing you can do. And if you dress in these clothes & then don't do the tightrope walking || act this is terrible too in a different way. There's one thing however I'd warn my friend against. There are certain devices (a weight properly attached || attached in the right way to the body & hanging underneath the rope) which will make tightrope walking quite || entirely easy. With such a device a man can go through all the motions of the tightrope walker with || and be in no more danger than there is in walking on an ordinary footpath. – I would || should therefore say to my friend: I can't applaud your decision to go in for tightrope walking because a man like myself who has always stayed safely on the ground has no right to encourage another person || man to such an enterprise. On the other hand if I am to decide whether my || I'm || I were asked whether my friend should rather go in for tightrope walking || this dangerous life or for shamming tightrope walking || it I'd have a right to say that the second would be by far more terrible than the first. || I should say that he should do anything rather than do the second. My only wish for you can be that whatever you do you should always be || will remain capable of despairing, & yet || that you will not || never despair.¹