 Lewis’ response demonstrated his conviction that much of the medieval age was closer to the world of universal ideas than the Renaissance was and, therefore, to be preferred and disagreeing with Abercrombie that we must first understand what a text said to its original audience before applying it to our situation today.Lewis remained consistent on this position, later criticizing F. R. Leavis for accepting a major error of much of literary criticism, namely that writing was largely a function of the writer's personality.On 11 March 1944, Lewis wrote the essay, “The Parthenon and the Optative,” in which he made this criticism ("The Parthenon and the Optative," 111f.