SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1892. PLAGIARISM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4113, 14 May 1892, Page 2

SATURDAY, MAY 14, 1892. PLAGIARISM.

. There is a reveren J gentleman namei ' Woods who ran against a nasty snaj ; the other day, He was an applican 11 for the post of Secretary of the (Jon gregational Church io London, whei some one acoused him of plagiarism . It is not made quite olear who tbi thoughtful person was; but it wouh seem to have been the Rev. J. Parker e another minister of thn eamereligiou: ii body. At least we.gather this fiou • the statement that the latter gentle 1 man was hissed, Our own sympa ibiesare with the sibilants; nndwi observe with equal satisfaction tlm t Mr Woods received the appointmen 0 which he wanted. By the way, wi are inclined to take exception to th' r telegraphed announcement that thi " minister "admitted" that he wa: • greatly indebted to one Dykes—,r presumably Dr. Oswald Dykes, "thf well kno ?ra hymn-writer. An " ad mission " suggests.tho inference tha •. the faot admitted was in itself some thing wrong, We venture; to bin that what is rather vaguely spoken o: as" Plagiarism" iB the subject of con sidetable misconception, No doub . it is a plagiarism proper, and rightlj " reprehensible as suoli, to take thi |; ipsisswiq.verk.ol anther speaker ant i| deliver-them to an'audience who wil distinctly' understand that they are ! : your own words, and will givi | you the credit due to theii : eloquence. Yet even this prao : tice, dishonest though we shall all agree in thinking it, finds sanction ii: high places. Mr Disraeli, pronouncing a eulogium upon the Duke o; Wellington on his decease," cribbed' 1 a long passage from a speech of M j Thiers, delivered on a like occasion, • He was found out, his speech and thai i of the French statesman were printeo ' in parallel columns, and it certainlj was pt felt that in the process o! , translation Jip had in apy py ,ex : pl.oded the charge of plagiarism, . But. in the case of a professiopa' i preacher we are disposed to take a t greatly modified view. We concern ' it to be impossible, in the first place, ! for persons delivering two or three 1 set discourses eaoh week on subjects I which have been before their audi' i ences for yeavs, and before past generI ations of like audiences for hundred! > of years, to find anything absolutely [ fresh' to say. 1 As the Salvation Army ; hymn says, it is " an old, old story " : that tao have to tell, Even i freshness of language must argue very eonsiderabla ability in the preapbjerj gnd as to freshness of thought, none but mm ip fI)P very front rank ' pr/i likely to attempt it. like the pflet y?ho ; in peeking to It brief, became obspupje j tp,e average ' preacher, in seeking to be fresh, woiild become foolish. "Originality of ex. pression " has, before now, won for its , reverend author an undesirable reputation for eccentricity; and even vul garity i 3 not altogether unknown in ' the pulpit, i But, apart from the wording of a

; sermoD. it to us that its very thought is'likely to be better for a close acquaintance with the thoughts already expressed by recognised theological writers, We are .of opinion that it is only a very young minister of religion who would give the congregation nothing but thoughts 11 out of his own headand in the interests of churchdgoers generally' we could wish that this charge of" plag iarism" were not so unkindly flung about, Ohuroh-goera will be the sufferers in the long ran, if they .'insist on originality and nothing but originality. ■ And we may as well say that no i one really supposes that every olergyinan'ssermons nre altogether his own: the idea of formulating everlastingly the odious oharge of "plagiarism" would only occur to some church-going smelMungus-or, indeed, to a rival preacher anxiouatominimiseanother'a success. If our memory serves us, this is not the first time that the Rev. ■ Joseph Parker, of the . City Temple, has appeared in the rdle of a clerical Diogenes, looking for, an honest man among the preachers; j and wecannot congratulate the gen tieman on the figure which he outs as 5 a self-constituted judge! We believe that he. passes for a popular preacher in his own sect; and, since he has, not the genius of a Sptirgeon, it would be amusing if he . himself were caught out some day. Kather' oddly, we find jn the ' " Evening Post" of Wednesday last, a letter which shows us this charge of plagiarism in still another aspect.' A Mr Cottle, of Auckland, has published a novel of colonial life, entitled "-Frank Melton's Luck." Since doing so, lie has. read fiolf Boldrevvood'a - " Nevermore." He finds so great a similarity between his own slory and the novel of the more famous author, and that too in what may be called crucial points of the narrative, that he feels bound to explain through the newspaper that he had not seen "Nevermore" till his' own book was in the hands of the public. There is • no reason whatever for discrediting Mr Cottle's statement; and we call attention to it in order to show how easily a charge of plagiarism may be brought; how often it is founded upon the discovery of mere coincidence, and how much injustice may ly 'sometimes be done to authors and , speakers by the too-ready acceptance of a mere statement as a proven i- oharge, •