The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-05-24
INGALLS, AND PLAGIARISM.
Brewer Peacock. in St. Louis Chronicle.

l
7. Brewer Peacock, in st. Louis Chronicle
| If not before, certainly often since the
| time when, colossal in intellectual su-
| premacy, among the men of his time, as
| the Cog and Magog Of ages past, Lorenzo,
the Magnificent, restored literature from
| the dark ages to its pristine splendor and
! glory, authors have been accused, by the
envious and suspicious, of plagiarism.
By a process of ratiocinatiop all au-
thors might be called plagaristic, for all
authors must think and all thinkers
draw their inspiration from a common
source. We all plagarize from nature,
| for all around and about us extends a
| paradise of beautiful pictures, painted
by the omnipotent hand who gave to the
great bow its colors, and paints each
| glowing sunset. copied by masters of
art, and yet we call them our own. So
with the immortality of the soul. 1t was
no problem solved by Massillon, but was
taught centuries before his time. Mighty
shadows float between the invisible
realm and the dull intellect, but the
mind of the genius in1bibes from this
great ocean, which is as deep as the mys-
terry of life, and as wide as the realm of
death. Ideas, in themselves, are in
SEPARATIONS from the divine, and become
common material upon which the
thinker may build his essay or poem,
and it is in the manner in which he
delivers his message to the world that
gives him his place in the kingdom of
thought
Language, without a central idea,
though beautiful, can make no perma-
nent impression.
Like shifting, shadowy forms of beauty
beheld in dreams to fade in the mists of
slumber, they perish for want Of found
alton. \ prose message may contain a
great truth, but be so barren of the
flowers of rhetoric and peosy, that it
fails to take hold of the minds of men.
Truth and beauty should be insepara-
BILE. 1t is the grand thought which the
genius clothes with his forest of rhetori-
cal beauty and loneliness that makes the
lasting impression. Hence, the true
poet, with passionate sense of beauty
and a corresponding passionate sense of
decay, whether he writes in prose or
verse, enthralls the minds and hearts,
and souls of men.
A mans learning may be so profound
as to cause him at times to uncOnsciOusly
repeat another language and believe it
his own and yet this same man may have
the ability to produce something in the
way of literature, far superior to that
which he has borrowed. Hence the arti-
Gle published in the Kansas City Times,
on the 18th inst, as an expose of the
literary methods of the brilliant United
States senator from Kansas, by one
Charles Carroll Carlton, does not
signify that Senator Ingalls, is
not an original thinker. Whatever
similarity may exist between Senator
ingalls, eulogy upon the late Congress
man Burnes, and the sermon OF the
French priest, Jean Baptiste MassillOn,
bishop of Clermont, during the reign of
Louis XIV, upon the immortality of the
soul, the fact remains and will bear re-
peating, that not few of the greatest
authors who have shOne and still shine
in the armament of fame have been
accused of plagiarism in one or more of
their prOductiOns-for instance Henry
Inman, the inimatable author, accuses
MassillOn of plagiarising Job.
The famous author of Geographic
Literaria, in this very treatise, has either
plagiarised from the great Bavarian pro-
fessor, Schelling. or else, rich with the
treasures of ancient and modern lore, it
is a. lease of Unconscious adoption of Schel-
ing's thoughts and language.
And vet, this man ranks today and
probably will always rank, among the
intellectual potentates of the century,
and is pronounced by no less a celebrity
and authority than Thomas DeQuincv as
the greatest of men. Says DeQuincy:
'He had the largest and most spacious
intellect, and the subtlest and most COM
prehensive, in my Judgment, that has
existed among men. A man of most
original genius. he was the profoundest
of philosophers. and one destined to
sound the intellectual depths and the
depths below depths, beyond any other
of the children of men,"
The author TO whom reference is here
made was no less than the immortal
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, philoso-
pher and metaphysician. He was one Of
the most original of authors, when he
chose to be. that ever lived.
The profundity and versatility of his
mind is startling. The Rhyme of the
Ancient Mariner, Christabel, The Fall of
an historical drama, Hymn
Before Sunrise in the Vale of ChamOunt.
Kubia Khan, his odes and other fine
poems equally unique, besides many eX
cellent compositions in prose-who dare
question his originality in these:
If DR.. Johnson may be called the
Leviathan of literature, Coleridge may
be as justly termed the Leyiathan of
learning.
With no desire to detract from Shake |
speare or other immortal lights shining
in glory and splendor along the in /
tellectual heavens or To throw franklin /
cense upon the affairs Of lesser Caesars. |
the prodigality of his intellectual opUl- /
ence entities COleridge to be designated /
The Protagonist Of Modern Thought.
With such precedents, it Is but Just to !
Senator Ingalls, that he be treated as /
fairly and considerably by all, and /
the press. as other /
great men accused Of plagiarism /
for iIliterate people, who have in all ages /
the majority. should not BE- I
mislead in forming an estimate Of ones I
ability and originality from an attack (
ike that of the contributor 10 the Times /
Of Kansas CITY.
Mr. Ingalls, is a man of sterling worth. |
Though living in this grasping, avari- /
cious age. the glitter Of gold can in no !
way compensate him for the sale or \
transfer Of his ballot If he Is conscious /
Of being right, nothing but that implaca-
bic foe which translates the sons Of men /
into the eternal shades, can stop his 4
fearless voice.
He Is a man of strong personality. an 1
orator. an excellent, ornate 4
writer, a statesman. a leader distin-
yuished and justly famed as the most
brilliant parsonage who graces our ma
tons capital. and IS wholly deserving Of I