236 NOTES ON STYLE 



study under which we work now, force the artist to reflect 

 upon the various creations of numerous predecessors in any 

 field which he has undertaken. And thus the great monu- 

 ments of past ages are continually moulding and impressing 

 the style of the present, crossing and recrossing, blending 

 their influences. Ever more and' more, the literature of the 

 Occidental races tends to become a complicated mass of 

 hybrids. 



