In general, one’s memories of any period necessarily weaken ①as one moves away from it. One is constantly learning new facts, and old ones have to drop out to ②make way for them. At twenty, I could have written the history of my school days with an accuracy which would be quite impossible now. But it can also happen that one’s memories grow ③much sharper even after a long passage of time. This is ④because one is looking at the past with fresh eyes and can isolate and, as it were, notice facts which previously existed undifferentiated among a mass of others. There are things ⑤what in a sense I remembered, but which did not strike me as strange or interesting until quite recently.

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