"The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. 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 him. 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 it is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire." -C. S. Lewis, in his Introduction to "On the Incarnation," by Saint Athanasius
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I am blessed and amused by Leighton’s drawings and doubly so because he quotes C.S. Lewis in articulating the inspiration that hides behind the colors and shades of his art. Leighton’s work reminds me of other words from the master, this time from The Weight of Glory, “We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously.” Amen my brother Leighton!
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