History develops, art stands still.

Forster contrasts the forward motion of historical time—events accumulating, societies changing, knowledge and institutions evolving—with the peculiar “timelessness” of art. A work of art, once made, does not “develop” in the way history does; it remains available as a stable object of attention, capable of being re-encountered across eras. The line also implies that art’s power lies in its resistance to mere chronology: it can speak across centuries without needing to be updated, even as interpretations shift. In Forster’s critical outlook, this difference helps explain why literature can create enduring human connections that outlast the contingencies of politics and period.