"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook-- even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. … To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them."
"The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books."
C.S. Lewis, "Introduction," On the Incarnation : De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, by St. Athanasius.
"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook-- even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. … To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them."
ReplyDelete"The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books."
C.S. Lewis, "Introduction," On the Incarnation : De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, by St. Athanasius.
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm#ch_0