The imitative tendency described by Bagehot clearly tends to preserve the old, as much as to facilitate the adoption of a new form.
"English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century"
Leslie Stephen
Some years later, Young complained of Pope for being imitative, and said that if he had dared to be original, he might have produced a modern epic as good as the Iliad instead of a mere translation.
"English Literature and Society in the Eighteenth Century"
Leslie Stephen
A world seemed some way to lie between her present self and the writer of those imitative verses.
"Rose of Dutcher's Coolly"
Hamlin Garland