When an author sells the thoughts of another man for his own, the larceny5 is called plagiarism. All the makers6 of dictionaries, all compilers who do nothing else than repeat backwards7 and forwards the opinions, the errors, the impostures, and the truths already printed, we may term plagiarists, but honest plagiarists, who arrogate9 not the merit of invention. They pretend not even to have collected from the ancients the materials which they get together; they only copy the laborious10 compilers of the sixteenth century. They will sell you in quarto that which already exists in folio. Call them if you please bookmakers, not authors; range them rather among second-hand11 dealers12 than plagiarists.
The true plagiarist8 is he who gives the works of another for his own, who inserts in his rhapsodies long passages from a good book a little modified. The enlightened reader, seeing this patch of cloth of gold upon a blanket, soon detects the bungling13 purloiner14.
Ramsay, who after having been a Presbyterian in his native Scotland, an Anglican in London, then a Quaker, and who finally persuaded Fénelon that he was a Catholic, and even pretended a penchant15 for celestial16 love — Ramsay, I say, compiled the “Travels of Cyrus,” because his master made his Telemachus travel. So far he only imitated; but in these travels he copies from an old English author, who introduces a young solitary17 dissecting18 his dead goat, and arriving at a knowledge of the Deity19 by the process, which is very much like plagiarism. On conducting Cyrus into Egypt, in describing that singular country, he employs the same expressions as Bossuet, whom he copies word for word without citing; this is plagiarism complete. One of my friends reproached him with this one day; Ramsay replied that he was not aware of it, and that it was not surprising he should think like Fénelon and write like Bossuet. This was making out the adage20, “Proud as a Scotsman.”
The most singular of all plagiarism is possibly that of Father Barre, author of a large history of Germany in ten volumes. The history of Charles XII. had just been printed, and he inserted more than two hundred pages of it in his work; making a duke of Lorraine say precisely21 that which was said by Charles XII.
He attributes to the emperor Arnold that which happened to the Swedish monarch22. He relates of the emperor Rudolph that which was said of King Stanislaus. Waldemar, king of Denmark, acts precisely like Charles at Bender, etc.
The most pleasant part of the story is, that a journalist, perceiving this extraordinary resemblance between the two works, failed not to impute23 the plagiarism to the author of the history of Charles XII., who had composed his work twenty years before the appearance of that of Father Barre. It is chiefly in poetry that plagiarism is allowed to pass; and certainly, of all larcenies24, it is that which is least dangerous to society.
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1 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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2 condemnation | |
n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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3 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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4 plagiarism | |
n.剽窃,抄袭 | |
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5 larceny | |
n.盗窃(罪) | |
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6 makers | |
n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式) | |
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7 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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8 plagiarist | |
n.剽窃者,文抄公 | |
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9 arrogate | |
v.冒称具有...权利,霸占 | |
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10 laborious | |
adj.吃力的,努力的,不流畅 | |
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11 second-hand | |
adj.用过的,旧的,二手的 | |
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12 dealers | |
n.商人( dealer的名词复数 );贩毒者;毒品贩子;发牌者 | |
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13 bungling | |
adj.笨拙的,粗劣的v.搞糟,完不成( bungle的现在分词 );笨手笨脚地做;失败;完不成 | |
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14 purloiner | |
[法] 小偷,窃盗者 | |
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15 penchant | |
n.爱好,嗜好;(强烈的)倾向 | |
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16 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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17 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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18 dissecting | |
v.解剖(动物等)( dissect的现在分词 );仔细分析或研究 | |
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19 deity | |
n.神,神性;被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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20 adage | |
n.格言,古训 | |
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21 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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22 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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23 impute | |
v.归咎于 | |
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24 larcenies | |
n.盗窃(罪)( larceny的名词复数 ) | |
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