C.S. Lewis on reading old books

Beautiful perspective.

None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. 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. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us.

C.S. Lewis, The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others’ Eyes

Hat tip to Mark Clavier:

Here I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis, who warned against any romantic notion that the past was purer: “Not […] that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes.” He wrote this about books, but the point applies to nostalgia too. Remembering the past rightly doesn’t mean pretending it was flawless, but recognising that its errors differ from ours. Their witness may guard us from arrogance, reminding us that our own age too will one day seem foolish. And if we can learn to meet our ancestors with mercy, perhaps our descendants will meet us with the same—for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.