A Danger in Quotation

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 23, 11 June 1908, Page 10

A Danger in Quotation

•Some years ago we lead, in an Italian provincial paper, an article which made Sciacsper (Shakespeare) a ' great G-erman writer '. A few days ago ' The Executive of the Dunedin Branch New Zealand Socialist P^arty ', in an official communication to the local morning paper, added a fresh laurel to the brow of the Fatherland by making Bossuet, the eloquent and historic (French) Catholic Bishop af Meaux, a ' great German Catholic priest '. The incident, though small in itself, affords a fresh illustration of the dangers of 1 stock ' and second-hand quotation. But we do not find it in our heart to deal harshly with the error of ' The Executive of the Dunedin Branch New Zealand Socialist Party ', when we reflect on the egregious follies perpetrated a few years ago in Dunedin, and a few weeks ago in Christchurch, by high-placed churchmen, of university training^ when, in the stress of controversy, they fell back upon the usual ' stock ' and secondhand ' quotations ' improperly alleged to have been taken from St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Thomas of Aquin, and other Catholic divines. From the reverend divines we were entitled to expect much better ; from the Socialist Executive we could well pardon much worse.