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

BY PROF. WILLIAM MATHEWS, or THE
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.
Among the com plants made against
the literature of our day, one Of the com
INQUEST is that IL lacks originality. Not
only the poets, as Tennyson, Longfelow,
and Alexander Smith, are accused of
stringIng their Tyres ts the old tunes, nd
singing songs which nave been sung sub.
stantially thousand times before, but
our philosophers Ind historians, our nov
ellsts, essaysts, and thenlogians, are in
Guided in the same sweeping condemna
ton. There are some cynical critics who
not only claim that originality is rare
almost as rare as honesty in Congress.
men. but contend that it is nearly, If
not quite. impossible. II an enthusiastic
reader goes into raptures over what he
fancies to be some fresh, unique, and sHg-
gestive work, full of seed thoughts, ani
which positively gives him new sensa-
ton, critical Velpeans will proceed to dis
sect it, and show that every thought and
| illustration is traceable to some proceed
ing writer who fourlshed a hundred or
thousand years ago, The raw material
out of which poems aud novels are made
is limited, they say, in quantity, ans
speedily exhausted, The number of hui
mar passions upon which the changes can
be ruRg is very small; and the situa ions
to which their play gives rise may be
counted on their fingers. Love returned
and love unrequited, jealousy and envy,
anger, pride, avarice, generosity, and re-
Venge, are the hinges upon which al po-
ems and Tomauces turn. and these pas
sions have been the same ever since
Adam. In Homer, Virgil, Piautus, and
T9ence, we have an epitome Of al the
men and women on the planet; and there
is nothing new IN the w~rld except the
costumes of men, and the cot of their
hair and whiskers. Even in invention,
| it is urged, there is nothing new
The mOderns have utilized many
old ideas, but they have originated moth :
'ng. Franklin stole the thunder, if not
the lightning, of somebody else; Colts
revolver Is as old as Cromwell's troopers !;
and it is quito certain that neither Fulton
nor Watt, nor the Marquis of Worcester,
nor Blasco de Garay, but some country
man of Contucius, living centuries ago,
invented that wondrous engine through
which the lawless winds have been made
to COVER before the mightier powers of
steam. In short, in literature and in sci.
ence it is alike true that there Is nothing
of which it mry be said, "See, this is
new /" but. as Chaucer complained, five
hundred years ago,
Out OF the olde-felds, as mon salthe,
Cometh all this new corn fro year to year;
And out OF olde books, in good faithe.
Cometh all this newe science that men lere.
Is this just statement of the case :?
Must We admit that every domain Of
thought was preempted before the mod
erns appeared that the ancicnts stole all
their ideas before they had them, and
that to seek for originality in our day is
to chase will o'-the wispg To answer
this question,it is necessary to understand
clearly what Originality" is. If by orig
inslity is meant the invention of some
thing absolutely new, whether in science,
art, action, reflection, method or applca-
tion,-it is lard to believe in It's existence
now or at any time since the germs of
thought first began to shoot forth in the
prehistoric ages. No people on heearth
can claim, independently Of others, to
have struck out any thoughts for the
good of mankind. Of all the nations OF
antiquity, the PhGuicians might most
plauslbly make this boast. The first
known metallurgists, they also displayed
brilliant genius for navigation and trade
and introduced the letters of tho alpha
bet into Europe. But as to originality,
they had none, except Original SIM"
Possessing powerfully receptive nature,