The St. Johns herald., 1889-08-15
ABOUT MIsQuoTATIoRs.
Learned Men as We'll as Common People
 Guilty of Inaccuraciess

 tention, says the Boston Advertiser. Nigga zines, daily and weekly newspapers and college professors are, with one accord, pointing out the number and variety of in stances where familiar words are ascribed to the wrong authors, or quoted with greater or less variation from the original form, or made to express ideas widely different from the meaning ascribed to them in the first place. The literature of the subject lis al- ready very voluminous, and when re- searches now taking place have been com pleted, promises to become yet greater. It is alleged that the taint of inaccuracy at taches to a very large portion of all our ordinary citations, and that, strange to say, the most learned men and the most eminent authors are equally guilty in this matter with the common people. This whole sub ject calls for more philosophical treat ment than has as yet been given to 1t. Nothing seems to have been attempted thus far, except to collect instances of misquota- tion and then to eXclaim upon the shocking g carelessness or ignorance which they imply. Yet it may well excite wonder that the very facts brought to light have ere this sug- gested the query whether some deeper in- sight can not be obtained into the cause.
 One of the most remarkable cases of change in all authors meaning is that first pointed out by Mir. R. G. White, who shows, what ought to be plain as day to the dullest reader of Shakespeare's TroiluS and Cres- sida, that the words of that play where Ulysses says to Achilles: ''One touch of nature makes the whole world kID,'' are spoken, not of mans noblef but of his baser nature As used all the world over by all sorts and conditions of men, thls senti- meut is made to imply human brother hood. If Mir. White had looked more deeply he would have seen that Shake speare's meaning here has thus not been so much perverted as extended, The wise and keen-witted Ulysses lays down broad principle and proceeds to applyit il a par ticular way Mankind has accepted the principle, but with another larger and loftier application. It is as if the moral in- stinct of humanity had said: "Yes, one touch of nature does make the whole world kin in meaning, but it likewise makes it kin in magnani1nity" The same kind of re- mark applies to the lines in Milton's Ly 'idas:
 And every shepherd tells his tale
 Under the hawthorn in the vale.
 The critics are in great glee because they can prove that what the blind bard had in mlnd was not Corydon telling tale of love to Phyllis, but the far less romantic pro- ceedipg of counting the sheepI But how do the critics knew that the shepherd did not make love as well as count sheep under the hawthorn? Are not all the probabilities in favor of the more pleasing suppositionl 2 Here, again, the alleged misquotation would appear to be only an enlarged ap- plication And it may be said Tn general that wherever any utterance, in prose or verse, has found it's way to the hearts and lips of mankind, and in the process has acquired different significance from that originally given, the new meaning is some- how better adapted to bIman natures needs than the old.
 Even in the case of real misquotation, a similar reason is often discoverable, d. though such errors are to be regretted and avoided. Every body repeats, upon occa- sion, the lines:
 ae that fights and runs away
 May 1.-Two to fight another day.
 C2d almost every body, with any preten- sions to literary knowledge, attributes them to Buffers "Hudlbras.' Goldsmith did so. These lines are not to be found in But Ter; but the same idea, much more clumsily expressed, has been traced to that source. The most probable explanation IS that Goldsmith, quoting from memory, uncon- sciously translated Butler into Goldsmith's more felicitous verse.
 Fully three-fourths of the instances fur nished in any collection of mlsquotations will be found to relate to the Bible or Shakespeare. In regard to the former, a curious observation may be made. It is a fact, perfectly well known to all educated clergymen, that the New Testament abounds in quotations from the Old Testa- ment, and that they are very rarely accu- rate, if accuracy means verbal identity. The most usual explanation, and one entire ly acceptable to many theologians of strict est orthodoxy, is that exactness of phrase not being needed or intended, the ment gave, in any particular instance, either the language of the popular Septua- gint translation-often, as every scholar is aware, exceedingly faulty-or the form of words lodged in the writer's memory, or a free rendering deemed to express the thought better than the original.
 Those who think this explanation sats- factory should not-but some of them do complain that editors of what has been aptly called tour uninspired DlDIe, SnakeSpeare, depart OCCASIONAL ly from their great authors very words, when modern words will reveal the thought which archaic words conceal. A great outcry IS raised because, on the monument to Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey, where the splendid passage from the Tempest beginning: "And like the baseless fabric of this vision,' is engraved, the word "wreck" is substituted for track" in the last line. It is, however, just possi- ble that the authority which supervised the inscription is entitled to as much confidence as the fault-finders.
 The subject of Christian hymns holds prominent place in all these discussions. It is certain that many of the most familiar of our social lyrics appear in the hymn books and are constantly sung with important deviations from the forms in which they were composed. Of late several compila tions of sacred poetry nave been published of which the special merit claimed is tha every hymn is given as the author wrote it. But there are two sides to this question, as to most questions. There are numerous iu- stances where the consensus of the Chris tian world has decreed alterations that ar, indisputable improvements. Perhaps tn most precious hymn of the church is To-