Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1880-03-06
PARALLELS AND PLAGIARIsMs.

PARALLELS AND PLAGIARISMs.
IFrom the Hartford Times.l
AS supplementary to what the
Times said last week in reviewing
Tennyson's reviewer. it may be- adj
ded that il all literary coincidsaces
are to be considered quotatiolsa4nd
all parallels as plagiarisms, the use-of
language would be very limiten.
Words, like colors, are capable of in
finite combinations, aud where the
same effect is to be produced, OBJ
viously the same or similar uses
must be made of the means. 1t must
be patent to every one, on moments
reflection, that painters are the great
est "plagiarists" in the world next
come composers, aud after them au-
thors. Auy edition of Shakespeare
tells where the dramatist got his
plots, none of which are "orlginal,"
proverbs, paraphrases, parallels, pla-
giaris:ns, trans!ations, and what j.
T.. c., Tennyson's critic, calls "trans-
fuslons." Sancho Psnza is even more
immortal than Don Quix0te, because
his sayings embody the best Of the
old Spanish proverbs. All proverbisl
plagiarisms are permissible. Our
most common quotations, familiar
i'll our mouths as household words"
are the common property of numer-
Gus authors. Take for instance one
OF the commonest, "Allthat glitters
Is not gold" Chaucer. Spenser,
Shakespeare, Middleton, Herbert, ,Lyd-
gate, Dryden, Sancho Panza, josh
Billings and hundred more, all give
it as original. All of Poor Richards
popular proverbs were ssconveyed.y
One of his most quoted, sGod helps
those who help themselves" 10 Her
bert's s'Help thyself aud God will
help thee" Fontaime translates it in
one of his fables, and it ia clearly
transiused from hundred different
passages of promise in the Scriptures.
Many of our favorite quotations are
immediate translations,s such as Long
fellows line
Art is long, and Time is neeting.
which is Aphorism l., Of Hippo.
crates, Arslonga, vita brevis; and
Tennyson's
Howe'er it be, it seems to me,
'Tisonly NOBLE to be good,
is JuvenaPs Nobilitas sofa est atque
mica virtus (Satire viii, line 2O) ,and
both probably are proverbs as old as
language itself. j. G. e. 10 one Of the
weakest as we'll as worst iconoclasfs
who have lately taken the hammer in
hand. Smashing work has been done
before now with quotations which We
have fondIy fancied were so original,
30 peculiarly the property of the ut
tsrsr, that we irresistibly associate
them with the supposed author for
ever. His phrase 10 his az much as
his face is. Try this with Macaulay's
much-quoted New Zealander WHO is
by and by to stake his stand on,a
broken arch of London bridge to
sketch the ruins Of st. Paul's." It Is
direct, though probably uncohsci.
Gus TRANSMISSION from Volney's Ruins
(chapter p look also at Henry Kirk
Whites Time, and Shelley's Dedies-
tion to Peter Bell for the same figure,
aud especially to this passage in .
Horace Wslpole's Letter to Mason
(November "a, 1774, cat last some
curious traveller from Lima will visit
England, and give q descriptioneef
the ruins of St. PauPs." Where 10
Macaulay? Yet he was 50 pleased
with his own originality that he used
this figure not only in his review of
Ranke's History of the Popes. but
also in his reviews of Mitford's
Greece (1824) and of Mill's Essay on
Government (1829). How do Maoau-
lays many admirers like the follow
ing, which may be put under the
head OF parallels. not plagiarisms:
The h1sAHaas ra19aas hated Even DsspS.ti.r va.
bearhaitinp hn.l
bear. but because ID sport Of It, not The in
Macau odMan Msssory e.
lays History Of Eng England. vol. j., chap.
gland, vol. l.. chap. 2. 62. q ssl3Sli
Columns upon columns of similar
parallels might be given, aud yet
none of them eau be considered Dlaf- I.
iarisms (that is, thsfts), because
in all languages in all times certain
proverbial expressions, figures, ,phras-
es, sentiments, and 80 OH, are and
must be common property. Other.
wise, literature as well as language
would be exceedingly limited. After
the first use Of the .'red, red r0se," it
would be rather rough on the next
poet, for originality's sake, to COM
pei him 10 call it the green or blue
rose, or that after the first "glo wing
golden morning sky" was patented
the next man must perforce make it
":he FURNISHED pewter anie-meridian
ether" to avoid Infringement, Com
mon sense will make abundant al-
lowance for unavoidable Condolences
in the greatest authors. But WI hen q
carping critic like j. Z. G. attacks the
master poet of the country he flies
too high. A critic of his cslibre,
hunting for plagiarisms, should de-
vote himself to Tupper,. whose Phil
osophy is professedly paraphrase' Of
Soiomon's Proverbs. J.B. w: