Lewis on Books - Part I

In preparation for 52 Men Trying, I started reading On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius, the first Church father to be featured in 2009. This particular translation has a foreword by C.S. Lewis, which has some pretty powerful words on the value of reading old books. Below is an excerpt, with more to follow.

" There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about "isms" and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said.... The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand [Plato]. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire."