How is it that words published in 1872 can sound as if they were meant for me?
I’ve recently finished reading George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin, the book that all Trinity School students and faculty were to read this summer. I read it aloud to my children, and they enjoyed it. I read to them from a copy I received for Christmas in 1981, so my parents must know and enjoy the book. C.S. Lewis credits MacDonald as the greatest influence on his writing. Clearly, people have been enjoying the work of George MacDonald for generations.
But I really think that Mr. MacDonald was writing it for me:
“‘You must be content not to be believed for awhile. It is very hard to bear, but I have to bear it and will have to bear it many more times….
Seeing is not believing– it is only seeing.
In the meantime you must be content to be misunderstood. We are all very anxious to be understood, but there is one thing much more necessary: to understand other people.'”
