New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-05-10
i GRsvEaLoE " OF IDEaS.

,it up. 60 crawl, and ultimately to go alone. /
e pleasant tosenquire in what Language werss
U first lispings; where it wass5by and by, pu
Q school, and made By due fustigation, to tr.
TO be o good boy, to learn proper proportion
IF its masters ignorance. in order to necom'
omething which it was nots what figure, i
coming to mans estate, il made in the world
| 5he company 1t kert; with what ideas it inter
married the progeny, and their likeness to til,
parents If rigorous enough fer transmission,
| now raee was formed, direct and collateral
sometimes merely perpetuating themselves il
their native seats; but migrating, at times, int
ther lands, and forming whole colonies abroad
las Greek, Roman and Hebrew thoughts hay
lone) subsisting, for century after century
under sky totally foreign to them.
I To do something Of this sort is our present
purpose As Adelung, Klaproth, Balbi, Malt,
Brun and others have explored the utilization
nations, in the distribution and intermixture
ongues, SO would we attempt, In some Imperfect
way, to investigate the geography, the history
md. the personal fortunes Gas they may b,
5alled) Of many Of those brighter and more
tasting forms of Conception and Expression, t.
which Genius has given birth, in the literatur,'
if our century or another; which have lived or
in lasting admiration, as q substantive part Of
Fhe very tongue to which they are proper; and
which, at last, have spread themselves, by con
quest. into other dialects. leaving vestiges OF
dqption or imitation, which the skilIful philo-
iogst Of Images and Expressions can detect,
long after sill memory has been lost of the his
sorio stock, from which bright thing came.
That men began to steal, almost as soon as
objects were created, Of which it was agreeable
to dispossess others, is certain, toall material
property. In like manner of Ideas: as soon as
lny were produced that were worth owning
they began to be purloined. That such was the
fact, We have abundant proof, in those Greek
tables which preserve the earliest account OF
these things. According to them, Hermes, the
inventor of Letters, was the great patron Of
Filching; and the NJ, SEES themselves were daugh,
ters Of Memory, not Originality tsst 2
Who first praeticed the art of Literary Ap.
preparation, we do not learn-probably because
we do mot know who was the first poet. As
surea it Is, that twas not Homer, whom certain
antique witnesses accuse of having eribbed his
entire poems from some Memphian original:
while certain modern ones maintain that all
which passes under his name is the imposture Of.
I. later age, the very designation of the 6 ;bind
Did man of Seio's rocky isle being but one Of
those aliases, which poets and pckpockets put
IA, in order that what they have pilfered may
aot be traced to them.
We are not entirely prepared, certainly, to
maintain that Poetry and thieving are SO inse-
parable that every thief is q poet, every poet
Is q thief But the latter proposition, we stand
prepared to. ayouch, with our body, against
I'll corners. sMe.a %
Observe how. with the progress of all Intelli-
sence, stealing gees hand in hand The NOR,
knowledge, the more Theft--a fact which al
he results Of the prevailing system of Popular
{ idueation make too clear for any but TIL,
! srossest eyes to miss. Take the rapscallionrS
Gud teach iy. what will you invariably find ;
That you have fitted its members for adroi,
/ 'ounterfeiting or Swindling or ouse-breaking
they apply the literary Arts chiefly to the first
purpose, their Improvement in Politsness to the
econd, and their acquaintance with the Me-
,hanic Powers to the third, Nay. such is tn
impulse which Learning imparts toward dis
honesty, that it will usually be found that,
however slight the proficiency in the former.
here will generally be a prodigious advance
snent in the latter, nv
Y IL one writes, then. he comes under grave
suspicion of being no honester than he should
she Though he write ever SO badly. it follows
not that he is observant, through superior yir
tue, of the ntestnt and tuuns of literature. The
snrest, the only certain element of Originality
is clearly Ignorance. If men use not the
thoughts Of others, it is rarely for any other
reason than because they have not grown &C.
quaintea with them.
He who writes, then, steals; and, as beggars,
when they can fitch nothing from richer ward
robes, purloin each others tatters, SO mean
authorssreb one another undeteeted, partly be-
cause their works pass unscanned, and partly
because they from whom they steal are toe
obscure for any one to remark that an idea ever
came from them. So THAI, after all, the main
the essential difference between the genius and
the soribbler is notin the fact, but in the quail
ity of what they appropriate.
Choosing to stop. in this matter, at nothing
| short Of absolute demonstration, we proceed
logically, thus; that if, to be even an indiffer
emit author, one must steal, to be a good one
you must plumber largely and that as, in the
humber matter of Prose, there, can be httl,
hope Of excellence, if you have not levied con
tributions on all the knowledge within YOU
reach, so, a .foftiori, to produce Poetry-th
very acme Of all good writing--you must prac
tce, without remorse, every violation of tn,
Seventh Commandment. IL SEGRETARIo.
z4=t A----A----~sa.-----
We are under obligations to the clerk of til,
steamer Winfield Scott for St. Louis and Mem
Iphis. papers. $3.50 50.
We are indebted to the purser Of the steam.
ship Louisiana, Mr.. Poole, for Texas papers.
We return our thanks TO Hon j. Perkins, NJ
G., for public documents.
=--=sz=z====zz--=
RAILROAD MEETING AT THE AMERICAN THEA
TIRE --Messrs. Stith, Dockery, and Rounsaville
of Arkansas, will address our citizens to-nigh
ut the American Theatre, on the subject Of thu
contemplated Railroad through Arkansas
ORLEANS THEATRE. AT the Orleans Theatr
on Thursday night occurs the benefit of Mir, Il
Provost, the able director of the orchestra a
this establishment. Wehers opera :. Der Frey
schu,za and an original opera, by Mr., Provost
entitled ssCosimo" are to be performed on TIL
oerssian s5-o.z5