Read it through once

That there is such a thing as tradition, I do not doubt. By tradition I mean the historical sense; not merely the sense of the past as a series of facts, but the sense of the past as an active force in the present. A writer who follows tradition must be aware of the place which his work occupies in a continuous human activity of which he forms a part. To know that the present is a product of the past, and to be conscious of the past as a living presence in the mind of the writer, gives him power and firmness.