The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-13
Defining Plagiarism.

| by the discovery that the Easter SER
mon preached by Rev. DR.. ID. Parker
Morgan in the Church of the Heavenly
| Rest in New York was for the greater
| part identical with sermon published
eighteen years ago by Rev. DIR. George
Putnam is being debated just now with
| Il great deal of spirit. For instance,
| last Saturday in the Temple Emanu-
FL, New York, Rev. DR.. Joseph Silver
| man. assistant to Rabbi Gottheil, en-
| deavored, in Il sermon of much force.
| to extenuate Dr. Morgan's offense, and
got for his pains a sharp. rebuke from
| his ecclesiastical superior and also one
| from the president of the congregation.
| The facts in DIR. Morgan's case are too
| many to be reviewed in detail; for the
| benefit of those who do not know them
| it may be said that he admits having
| plagiarized the sermon in question, be-
| cause he had been so busy during the
! preceding week that he was unable
to prepare an original sermon.
| The point raised by Dr.. Silverman in
| the comment that excited criticism
| from his colleague and his flock was
that plagiarism is sinful only when
there is u deliberate intent to deceive
| the public or to defraud another writer
| or speaker of credit due him. IN lit
! erature," the doctor went on to say,
there are many condolences and imi-
| tatiops n fbolrpbtc md nb ro Sas Mast
ii not ALL poets, dramatists, novelists.
| and orators have borrowed from one
another. Give and take is the unwrit-
ten rule in literature. What is a great
man. asks Emerson, but one of great
| atiinities. who takes up into himself all
arts, sciences. all knowables as his
food?' Milton says William Mat
| thews, has been called the celestial
| thief and boldly plagiarized from
| Dante and Tasso, and all Of them from
| Homer, and who does not believe that
Homer had a reservoir of learning to
draw from, a mysterious lake of knowl-
| edge into which he could now and then
throw bucket? Goethe laughed the
! idea of absolute originality to scorn,
and declared that it was an authors
| duty to use all that was suggested to
| him from any quarter. When Shake
speare is accused Of pilfering, Landur
replies: Yes, he was more original
| than his originals. He breathed upon
dead bodies and brought them into life
1t has been said of Pope that what
ever jewel he appropriated, he set it
in gold. Perhaps the best definition of
legitimate appropriation was given by
Hegel when Cousin was accused &C
stealing his ideas. Cousin said he.
has caught some small fishes in my
pond, but he has drowned them in his
own sauce"
1t would have been fairer on the part
of Rev. DR.. Morgan to have notified
| his congregation frankly Of his lack of
time and to have told it that the SER
| mon about to be preached was bor-
rowed from the book by DR.. Putnam.
! To this course there could have been
no exception. His failure to do this
| N'' WI ili Gllcl vi Judgment.
But 1t can hardly be magnified into an
objectionable crime The Indignation
with which DR.. Slverman denounced
the Newark clergyman who rushed
into print with a public expose of the
Morgan plagiarism will be shared by
all persons who have a speaking ac-
quaintance with charity. "The clergy"
says he, and his words apply to Gen
tile no less than to Jew, "ought to
practice some of the brotherly love Of
which they prate SO eloquently. They
| ought to dispense some of the milk of
human kindness which they recon-
mend with such fervor to the world.
Certainly the preacher ought not to
initiate satan and take lessons from
the snake that coileth in the grass,
but from the Lord, who reproveth gent
ly and doth both forgive and forget"
That the congregation of EMANUEL
should find in these remarks of its
assistant rabbi anything to censure, is
very singular. 1t seems to us that DR..
Silverman spoke as Il broadminded
| and charitable man. The type Of in
tellect which goes about hunting among
the literary treasures of the world for
evidences of appropriated ideas is first
of kin to that type which, when brought
before a canvas Of some great master
of painting, studies, not the genius in
the picture, but its fly specks. 1t is
very small type, and merits little re-
spect.