The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-03-20

aud lm5iolng largely from earlier and
more Oriental peoples, they quickly di,
gested and assimilated their borrow ed
knowledga, and, as the great middlemen
between the East and he West, played an
important part. But though admirable
literary merchants, they were not produc.
ers OF thought. So, too, the Arabs, with
al their wonderful 1uickness and muscu
larity Of Intellect, were ''the hlerophants,
and not the oracle. They were the pur-
veyors and expounders Of science between
ancient Greece and modern Europe but
they gave to the world nothing unthought
of before.
Nearly all the great discoveries and
original inventions of modern times have
been shown to have existed in their germs
if not in full bloom, thousands of years
ago. Dlsraeli believes that the r I'M ms
knew tbs secret OF movable types, but
would not let it be known, for fear Of he
spread Of knowledge, an / the ,ss of th e
arlstoeratic monopoly Of enlightened
Thought. D-Qnincey holds that printing
was known to the ancicnts, but mad. o
progress for want OF paper Gunp ,wder
@a8 a pyrotechnlc pisything long before
IL WAS used to kill mon. Telescope, some
scientists tell Us, mist have been directed
to The stars Of the antique heavens, or It's
astronomy could unt have existed. Alex
ander's copy of shs Had, Inclnsed in Il
nutshell, could hardly have been written
without microscope and the gem
through which Nero looked at the dis
tant gladiatcrs was essentially an opera
glass. "fhe mslleahiity of glass, the in
debility of colors, and fly other things
of impor ance, dropped by the ancients
into the stream of time" says a wel-iu-
frtmed writer, eve have 10 f h up anew"
Photography, which the nineteenth cen
fury claims as beyond all cavil its own
tuNCut''H1 IL ucSCtiOSi Wy IL ttuCu VIII
ter in 1850 with even greater perfection
of detail than We can now attain to, -
producing color as well as
form; aud NJ. Fourier aas shown that
the pnagnetie telegraph was invented
more than two centuries aga.
What shall we say then? That origi-
nality in our day is an imp1ssibility p
that Parnassus has been robbed o. its
richest laurels, aud the unhappy writer of
this century can only pick up what by
gone explorers have left behind? Yes, 1t
10y originality is meant az absolute ctes
ton OF new MATERIAL isolated act of
bare imitation, instead Of an act of adap-
tation or moulding so as to resemble
new creation. and, indeed, IL be one. But
if by originality is meant just selection
and v!talizlng Of materials that already
exist, a fresh and novel combination OF
ideas, imparting new life to what is com.
biued and this is the only originality
that is or ever WAS possible in any age,-
then the writer's of to-day arc as original
as any that ever held s:ile or dipped
their pens in ink. To be literary crea.
tor, it is not necessary that man shonld
make td6uI0rdSG of his brain. Genius
would soon starvc and pine away, if not
ceaselessly fed by the memory. As Burke
justly says. "there is no faculty of the
mind which can bring its energy into Ell
fecs, unless thu memory be stored with
ideas for it to work upon" to which we
may add that the very best pumps viii!
not play till you pour water IN to start
them. Originality in the creative arts,as
we'll as in science, may be displayed as
signally IN method as in subjec matter.
To reproduce is. in fact, to produce again.
The produce is the same, provided that it
is carried out with equal energy and 1t
is simply nonsense TO y that vigor ceases
TO be vigor because it starts upon beat
en- track.
All of the great poets have at some
time been accused of being great thieves
but nothing can be more foolish than
most of these attempts to rob them of
their fame. Every great writer is neces-
sarily indebted both to his coutempora
lies and to his predecessors. The finest
passages in prose and poetry are often but
embellished recollections OF other mems
Thought and memory,it has
been 20 less finely than Justly i'd are AL