The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-07-22
WHO ARE THE PLAGIARIsTs?


Paper Read Before the Chalutauqua C,rcle.]
The paper on plagiarism presented
to us by one of our members few
meetings ago, gave us the history of
the word from its inception. 1t told of
the use of the word in it's beginning,
and the meaning that the word con-
veyed in its present use. The one i'm.
portant point omitted was the value of
the word
10 my mind the word plagiarism has
no value, and if it ever did have
value or a use, it has long ago outlived
that usefulness. If a person steals
roll of paper on which is manuscript of
some writer, and that paper has
value of ten cents, he is called thief.
If the same person were to steal the
contents of that manuscript, which is
perhaps worth many hundreds of dol
lars to its author, and foist the article
upon the public as his own, he would
be called plagiarist. Why this dis
tinction?
ors under the cover of the word pla-
giarist are many. No successful writer
has ever escaped the ridiculous charge.
And the strange part of it is that the
author who is known and loved by
thousands, is generally accused of hav-
ing plagiarised from some person the
world has navar heard Of
In recent magazine article writer
says: 81 am weary of hearing this
word plagiarism. Every man is
plagiarist if we want to make him
such. Every word and almost every
combination of words that he employs
has been used before. And very likely
the very idea which he pours forth
has been exploited by somebody else.
Every man is in some sense a copy
of some one that has gone before him."
Do not let the word plagiarist fright.
en- you, and do not follow the advice
given you in the last paper on this sub
ject, "To lay aside your books when
you are writing an article" 1 believe
it is best to keep your books at your
elbow, and if you cannot give us orig
inal thought, give us the thought you
have on the thoughts of others.
TO critic or would-be critic, very
slight grounds are necessary to charge
plagiarism. What follows in this
paper are few examples of the slight
preteXts that have been used in class.
ing men of genius as plagiarists.
Geoffrey Chaucer in "Marchantes'
Tale" has the following lines:
"Thern' is no workman whatever he be,
That may both werken wei and hastily
This vol be done at leisure parftIy''
AT the command of some critic are
we to call Chaucer a plagiarist, be-
cause thirteen hundred years previous
Plutarch fathered the thought in the
following:
"Ease and speed in doing a thing do
not give the works lasting solidity or
exactness of beauty
100, B. c., Plautus, Roman author,
gave the world this thought:
"Consider the little mouse how saga
ciOus an animal it is, which never
trusts it's life to one hole only"
Fifteen hundred years after Geoffrey
Chaucer works out the same thought
in his "Canterbury Tales
81 hold mouse's wit not worth a leke,
That hath but one hole to starten to-"
For such trifles Chaucer is held pla-
giarist. The immortal Shakespeare of
course stole his style and ideas from
somebody that has been forgotten, or
rather never existed. In the "Mer-
chant of Venice" we have that beauti-
full thought:
"Makes swan like end
Fading out in music"
Our critic claims that this thought is
plagiarized from Platos Phaede, in
which Socrates gives utterance to the
following:
"You think that upon the eve of
fore-knowledge that I am infinitely in
ferior to the swans. When they pre-
ceive approaching death they sing
more merrily than before, because Of
the Joy in going to the God they serve"