Conformity between the old and the new

‘The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so the relations, proportions, values of each work of art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity between the old and the new.’

— T.S. Eliot, ‘Tradition and the Individual Talent’

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ts-eliottraditionliterature