In a peculiar sense he will be aware also that [the poet] must inevitably be judged by the standards of the past. i say judged, not amputated, by them; not judged to be as good as, or worse or better than, the dead; and certainly not judged by the canons of dead critics. it is a judgment, a comparison, in which two things are measured by each other. to conform merely would be for the new work not really to conform at all; it would not be new, and would therefore not be a work of art. and we do not quite say that the new is more valuable because it fits in; but its fitting in is a test of its value–a test, it is true, which can only be slowly and cautiously applied, for we are none of us infallible judges of conformity. we say: it appears to conform, and is perhaps individual, or it appears individual, and may conform; but we are hardly likely to find that it is one and not the other. using a dictionary, context clues, or a priori knowledge, define the following terms (in the sense that eliot is using them): peculiar inevitably canon infallible conform