This is an extract
taken from T.S: Eliot's Traditional and
Individual Talent (1920).
It deals with Eliot's concept of art and literature. The thesis of
this argumentative text can be found in the first lines: a great
artist has to recognize also literary works of the past because in
his opinion it's impossible to create a completely new text, so the
artist has to be inspired of the writers of the past. T.S. Eliot says
that the artist has not to look to all of works of the past, but only
to the works made in "the period of fully maturity" of every
artist of the past. On the other hand "copy" from previous
writers is something negative because "novelty is better than
repetition".

Looking
at the past is very important, but something of more important is to
look at the past and to its relation with present and
future(historical sense): a literary work which includes pastness and
at the same time presence of the past it's a very good word, it has
no time, and it's always contemporary. T.S. Eliot focuses his
attention on contrast and comparison, which are two reference point
to evaluate a work of art and this is also Eliot's aesthetic
principle. A new work of art changes the way to see to other forms of
art: this is Eliot's concept of simultaneity between the new and the
old.