The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1900-02-22
PLAGIARISM.

The Philadelphia Press contained an
interesting article the other day show,
ing how distinguished authors steal
from each other. We make the follow
ing extracts: ..... no" =.
Some future encyclopedia ought to contain
an authoritative article on plagiarisms and
parallelisms in literature The writer
should be psychologist acquainted with
literary processes and able to distinguish be-
tween the, deliberate appropriation of ideas
or phrases and the unconscious duplication
OF them, either by a cofhcidence that Is
compatible with strict originality, or by a
trick of memory that defeats honest inten-
tion cursory examination Of any collec-
ton of so-called literary larcenies will re-
veal instances of all these kinds as we'll as
justifiable borrowings, such as those Nof
Shakespeare, where, as 1t were, a coarse
pebble has been taken and cut. polished and
set as valuable brilliant.
English literature contains no more MOTOR
ious plagiarist than Stems, but what a
splendid mosaic he constructed. He claimed
absolute originality h3wever, and went so
far as. to insert in8his writings a paragraph
condemning literary theft and gibbeting the
thief, which passage was itself stolen almost
verbatim. Edgar Allen Poe was forever un-
happy in charging Longfellow Lowell and
less distinguished contemporaries with pla-
giarizing from his poems; whereas any wan
derer in the pleasant byways of literature
who has read the poems of James Clarence
Mangan cannot have failed to note that Poe
duplicated the rhythmic forms and in some
instances even the language of the gifted
and equally unfortunate Irish singer That
Poe may have been extravagant in his ac-
cusations against Longfellow is true, but
when 'Hiawatha" has been traced to its
source in the Finnish epic of "Kalevala,' -
and when he began his Legend Beautiful
with the lines that had ended Miss Eleanor
G. Donnelly's poem on the same legend
which she had published in book form six
years before we knew that the eminent poet
was inclined to adopt valuable ideas and
perhaps subject to unconscious lapses of
memory.
Byron fairly reveled in his plagiarisms.
He was wholly unconscionable in regard to
them. Moore once found him with book
full of pieces Of paper to mark pages, and
inquired what it was. Byron answered non
chalently, "Only book from which am
trying to crib, as / do whenever / can, and
that's the way I get the character Of an
original poet" or course, this was exag-
geration, but Byron wrote in his Journal
CAS- for originality, all pretensions to 1t are
ridiculous; there, is nothing new under the
SUM-" That is probably why the comparison
embodied in his beautiful lines on the death
of Henry Kirke White about the young
eagle slain with a dart which its own
feathers had winged was unblushingly con-
veyed from Waller. Burton. one Of his
favorite authors, supplied him with the
smile in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" Of q
broken mirror to illustrate the manner in
which broken heart multiplies images of
sorrow. Pope was; petty pilferer from
every available source, ancient and modern,
but many of the citations against him to
sustain charges of plagiarism were merely
condolences or tricks, of memory. 1t is
sufficient to- look through Bartlett's ga
miliar Quotations to discover that some Of
the most admired lines and phrases that
have entered into our common speech passed
through several minds before reaching their
final form. 1t would scarcely be justifable
to base an accusation of theft on every such
case, but some are very glazing.
Man wants but little here below nor
wants that little long," sang Goldmsith, but
Young had written before him, MAN wants
but little. nor that little long," However
Goldsmith claimed nothing more for mig
ballad Of Edwin and Angelina. than that
1t was a Cent?, or verse mosaic. Campbell
wrote Of ''angels' visits, few and far be-.
tween" and Blair had already written OF
''y1sits. like thnse Of angsls, short. and Tar