Full Idea
The past: Something real, but absolutely beyond our reach, towards which we cannot take one step, towards which we can but turn ourselves, so that an emanation from it may come to us. Thus it is the most perfect image of eternal, supernatural reality.
Gist of Idea
The past is known to us but unreachable - a perfect image of eternal, supernatural reality
Source
Simone Weil (Gravity and Grace [1942], 'Harmony')
Book Reference
Weil,Simone: 'Gravity and Grace', ed/tr. Crawford/De Ruhr [Routledge 1952], p.175
A Reaction
For Weil that is a transcendent religious insight, but for the non-religious it is still a wonderful observation. There is nothing else in our experience like the eternal unchanging reality of the past.