Many stories, few plots

it is impossible to find a new plot. "History repeats itself" in small
affairs as well as in great, and the human mind has not changed
materially since the first days of story telling. Indeed, some one
has said that all the stories ever told can be traced to less than a
dozen original plots, whose origin is lost in obscurity. But if we
can neither find nor invent a new story we can at least ring the
changes on the old ones, and in this lies our hope to-day. Each one
of these old plots is capable of an infinite variety of phases, and
what we are constantly hailing as an original story is merely one of
our old friends looked at from a different point of view. How many
good, fresh stories have you read that were based on the ancient
elemental plot of two men in love with one woman, or on that equally
hoary one of fond lovers severed by disapproving parents? Irving's
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is derived from the first, yet few
readers would so recognize it on first perusal; for unless you stop
and analyze it, it seems distinct and new.