Ancient Inventions
The social forces of any real importance at any period are composed of the imitations of ancient inventions.
From The Laws of Imitation again:
The social forces of any real importance at any period are not composed of the necessarily feeble imitations that have radiated from recent inventions, but of the imitations of ancient inventions, radiations which are alike more intense and more widespread because they have had the necessary time in which to spread out and become established as habits, customs, . . . Our ignorance, therefore, of the unforeseen discoveries which will be made ten, twenty, or fifty years hence, of the art-inspiring masterpieces which are to appear, of the battles and revolutions and deeds of violence which will be noised abroad, does not hinder us from almost accurately predicting, on the foregoing hypothesis, the depth and direction of the current of ideas and aspirations which our statesmen and our great generals, poets, and musicians will have to follow and render navigable, or stem and combat.
