ABOUT PLAGIARISM.

BY THEODORE WRIGHT.

A GREAT deal of fuss and outery is raised continually against plagiarism, all of which is quite intelligible from a selfish stand-point, but how it can be justified in the interests of our common humanity is very certainly hard to make out.

On the understanding that man is connected with spirit-spheres from which he draws directly for his highest intelligence, there is no difficulty in understanding that the same advanced thought may be simultaneously dropped into any number of minds. Well then, if one of these promptly utters his newly received thoughts, and others follow in the same track at various intervals, the fact is no proof of what is called "plagiarism ;" and even if it were, only motives utterly unworthy, because selfish, could urge anyone to blame the plagiarist.

Those who are disposed to condemn plagiarism, imply that the thing plagiarized is good and useful to man; then why should it not be intensely and intentionally plagiarized, so that its benefits may be the more speedily diffused abroad to bless the race? We advisedly ask - Why?* Why? We can see one reason why it should not be, and only that one; we can see that, by the many taking it up and echoing it abroad far and near, some one who was ambitious to receive all the credit for it would be deprived thereof; but we can just as clearly see that it is better one man should lose a little empty credit, if, thereby, a score would be benefited; in that case, then, we cheerfully applaud the plagiarist, and rebuke the one who cries out against him.

Where the rudiments of a worldly policy are admitted to be the correct thing, we can understand an outery against plagiarism; but where the

*The point should certainly not be overlooked that plagiarism consists in passing another's writings as one's own, and that a printing of the real author's name below the borrowed matter, enclosing it in quotation marks, or in any other suitable way showing that the borrower does not claim it as his own, effectually frees one from all imputation of plagiarism. It is not patent to us why this honest credit may not be given in every case, without in anywise whatever narrowing the application of the expressed truths, or the frequency of their public inculcation. We are not aware that writers, as a rule, object to having their published works quoted to almost any extent, although they do object to piracy. Another point which should not be overlooked is the fact that plagiarism is almost always a theft of an author's expressive media, i. e. his phraseology, rather than a purloining of his thought. There can be no monopoly, however restricted, upon thought, although it is possible for one author to express a series of thoughts, which from the absolute similarity of their sequence with the order of those of a previous author, may amount to a direct plagiarism. Then again, the thoughts which come to us out of the Universal Mind are clothed of necessity in the language of those concepts which we happen to possess, and, since these invariably differ in different persons, expressions, identical in thought and phraseology, claimed to emanate from two separate sources, may, with reasonable certainty, be held to be the result of theft or collusion. The position of the Author of this article that it should be the endeavor of every man to repeat and spread broadcast all the truth which he has been able to perceive, regardless of its source, is certainly well taken, but we feel that it is well to supplement this with the clause, rendering, in the meantime, to Cæsar those things which are Caesar's.

A great author has said, next to the man who enunciates a great truth, is he who first quotes it. We cannot see but this sentiment would suffer by being made to read: "Next to the man who enunciates a great truth, is he who first claims it as his own." We cannot see how the salntary effect of the poem "Solitude" is enhanced by its being claimed by Mrs. Ella Wheeler

Wilcox and a man Joyce; nor can we see how the world could derive more benefit from "Thanatopsis " from the fact that it was claimed by a person who was not born till after Bryant gave the poem to the world. It has been said that the authorship of "Beautiful Snow" has, at various times been claimed by upwards of twenty persons, and yet we venture to say the salutary effect of the poem has been none the greater for these attempts at literary piracy. While we believe in rendering due credit where credit belongs, we trust none of our Readers will esteem us blind to the above broad and noble sentiments of universal fellowship, and generous altruism.

(Ed.)

spiritual tone has found expression, and everything that can be done is lovingly and self-sacrificingly done in the interests of the race, we can see no possibility of the outcry against plagiarism, but everything the other

way.

And what is the advocacy of truth in any case, on any point, or by any person, if not plagiarism! Is there anything new under the sun? Are things constantly coming into being that had no prior existence? Is it so? we ask. Truth and reality are eternal, or we mistake. Time-serving things that come, and go, and are ever fleeting and transitory, should never be dignified with the name of "truth." All appearances of newness and change are but efforts to get at truth, and to grasp reality. The kingdom of truth is an eternal and an unchangeable one that cannot be moved or shaken. What time tries, and allows to pass away as refuse, may have been time-serving as a tentative thing; but the fact that it will not stand the test of time is the clearest of proof that it was unworthy of being dignified with the name of truth. If, then, truth as a whole be eternal, who can at any time advocate a fragment of it without being a plagiarist?

Those who are of the world, and who love its fleeting, false ways, must and will - because of that- - defend all measures promotive of individualism and self-interest. But those who are not of the world, and are so in tone with the race that they would willingly lay themselves upon the altar of self-sacrifice, that the many might be benefited, can but rejoice when they see the many lending themselves cheerfully to echo the recovered fragments of truth, which some of the most advanced specimens of humanity from time to time bring to light. No man or woman utters truth who is not, thereby, a plagiarist. It was uttered long ago thousands of times, and it deserves to be echoed by all who are worthy; so, then, without hesitation I, for one, declare myself a friend of plagiarism, and pray that it may multiply on every hand a thousand-fold.

There is nothing selfish in anything spiritual or true; wherever selfishness lifts its ugly head, there is the accuser of the race, there is the old serpent, the devil, the one and only curse of man, and cause of every evil. True spirituality can but rejoice when it sees a readiness and willingness to further its own high ends; and so, instead of a spiritual man lending himself for one moment to the hue and cry against plagiarism, he will be always found at the front urging each and all to become the most arrant, inveterate and determined plagiarists imaginable. This is as true as that the sun will show itself in the east at the break of day to-morrow. Then shame must and will be the portion of those who profess to be spiritual, yet who use these worthless, selfish weapons and maxims, as though the warfare they would wage was carnal. It is comparatively early to command psychic or soul-force, and to achieve wonders by it, but it requires something immensely higher to constitute spiritual reality or force.

Perhaps there is nothing which the average occult student is slower to realize, or the ignorance of which more hinders growth, than the immensity of the gap between intendment of doing and the real act of performance. It is seemingly so easy to say, when asked to become a pioneer in some sorely needed movement; "I'll wait till I see how it goes, and then, if likely to succeed, I'll join the triumphal march." Do you realize when you say this that you are trying to deceive Powers which know? Do you realize that if you say to yourself; "I will not found an Esoteric Branch because I can get the promised instructions through the Magazine without the trouble,' you are seeking to do yourself an injury, the accomplishment of which the Powers that know, will not permit ? (Ed.)

ESOTERIC TALKS.

BY J. VINCENT TAYLOR.

Planetary Life and Death. (Continued.)

From the second to the end of the thirteenth verse of Gen. I, you have a picture of creative God, busy in arranging the harmony of the heavens, the firmaments, and the elements; but nothing is claimed to be actually created; first then, the earth is claimed to have been without harmonious form, and "void empty; hence, even in so far as this earth was concerned at that time, there was no positive, practical creation. * It was not a virgin, spontaneous accumulation of material in space. Nay, quite the contrary, it was there in a precise location of the universe, and that locality well known to the Universal Architect, who, instead of creating light, said: "Let there BE light!" here we must confess that light somewhere existed then, though by a universal law, the immediate vicinity of a possible lost or buried world was excluded from it: yes, a lost or buried former world was the position just then occupied by Mother Earth. We do not pretend to say so from any fact or theory yet presented by authority to the world; but claim it upon our own responsibility, because we believe it from experience and close study of the matter.

True enough the ruins were there, submerged in conditions and elements of confusion. But, mark you, they were just where Supreme Intelligence knew them to be, the same as a captain, coming into port with a sinking ship would know, as it sank, where to afterward direct the divers to descend in search of the specie, and other things of value on board at the time of sinking.

"And God said; let the waters under the heaven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry land appear," Gen. I. 9. He did not command; "Let dry land be created, or made," † it was already made, acenmulated, or created, existing in conditions exactly resembling the ruins of a former scene of activity, engulfed; or hidden from its companion worlds of the universe, in a chacs of angry waters and ebon gloom. There it was under the surface of aquatic elements; of course it had lain there for a period of time, during which all former traces of vegetation became deposed, and covered up by land and rocks, moved to and fro by the angry waters, and thus we can more reasonably account for the existence of buried forests, than upon any other hypothesis or practical theory. In such a strain, too, the waters would naturally reach the internal chemical fires (now the sources of Vesuvius, Etna, and other volcanoes) of the globe, and so produce organic disruptions forcible enough to shatter a range of mountains in one locality while heaping up others in another. This may have continued for an age, or a succession of ages, until the former tone and shape of the ruined world became externally transformed; so much

*Things were commanded to evolve; when they did so, He saw they were good, etc.; even in the case of the heavens and the orb, He is represented as only regulating the first, and setting or resetting the others.

† But the theological critic will possibly claim that the first verse was a mere statement of fact, and that the others were contingent descriptive items of how the creation was performed. Please bear in mind the author claims distinct periods of time to be embraced in the meanings of the language used.

so, that had its former inhabitants seen it when recalled from the deep, they would not have known it.

THE SUCCESSION OF ENDLESS DURATIONS IN ETERNITY.

Since, as will be eventually demonstrated, nothing exists in the universe for nothing, it will be correctly logical to infer and believe that the globe, prior to the dark chaos in which the Creative Spirit is depicted as beholding it, was not an inorganic, idle, or useless mass in space; hence that there had been a motive in its existence, a cause for its being in the universe then, as well as it has a cause for revivifying life now a cause of action in itself, and of activity in its creatures. Said, or wrote, Thomas Dick, L. L. D., concerning a possible plurality of different durations for the same intelligence in the universe;

"The researches of astronomy demonstrate that it is in the power of the Creator to open to His intelligent offspring endless sources of felicity. In looking forward to the scene of our future destination, we behold a series of ages rising in succession without any prospect of a termination; and, at first view, it might admit of a doubt whether the universe presents a scene so diversified and boundless that intelligent beings, during an endless duration, could expect that new scenes of glory and felicity might be continually opening to their view, or whether the same series of perceptions and enjoyments might not be reiterated so as to produce satiety and indifference. Without attempting positively to decide on the particular scenes or sources of happiness that may be opened in the eternal world, it may be admitted that the Deity has it in His power to gratify His rational creatures, during every period of duration, with new objects and new sources of enjoyment; and that it is the science of astronomy alone which has presented us with a demonstration, and a full illustration of this important truth. For it has displayed before us a universe boundless in its extent, diversified as to its objects, and infinite as to their number and variety. Even within the limits of human vision, the number of worlds which exist cannot be reckoned less than three thousand millions; and those which are nearest to us, and subject to our particular examination, present varieties of different kinds, both as to magnitude, motion, splendor, color and diversity of surface evidently indicating that every world has its peculiar scenes of beauty and grandeur. But, as no one will be so presumptuous as to assert that the boundaries of the universe terminate at the limits of human vision, there may be an assemblage of creation beyond all that is visible to us, which as far exceeds the visible system, as the vast ocean exceeds in magnitude a single drop of water; and this view is nothing more than compatible with the idea of a Being whose creating energies are infinite, and whose presence fills immensity. Here, then, we have presented to our contemplation a boundless scene, corresponding in variety and extent of space, to the ages of endless duration: so that we can conceive an immortal mind expatiating amidst objects of benignity, sublimity, and grandeur, ever varied and ever new, throughout an eternal round of existence, without ever arriving at a point where it might be said, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther.' And we have reason to conclude that such will be the privilege and enjoyment of all holy beings.

"Pride is one of the distinguishing characteristics of puny man, and has been one of the chief causes of all the contentions, wars, devastations,.

oppressions, systems of slavery, despotisms, and ambitious projects which have desolated and demoralized our sinful world. Yet there is no disposition more incongruous to the character and circumstances of man. Perhaps there are no rational beings throughout the universe among whom pride would appear more unseemly or incompatible than in man; considering the abject situation in which he is placed. He is exposed to innumerable degradations and calamities, to the rage of storms and tempests, the devastations of earthquakes and volcanoes, the fury of whirlwinds, and the tempestuous billows of the ocean, the ravages of the sword, pestilence, famine, and numerous diseases, and, at length, he must sink into the grave, and his body become the companion of worms. The most dignified and haughty of the sons of men are liable to such degradations, and are frequently dependent on the meanest fellow creatures whom they despise, for the greater part of their accommodations and comforts. Yet, in such circumstances, man, that puny worm of the dust, whose knowledge as yet is so limited, whose follies are so numerous and glaring - has the effrontery to strut in all the haughtiness of pride, and to glory in his shame. When scriptural arguments and motives produce little effect, I know of no considerations which have a more powerful tendency to counteract this deplorable propensity of human beings than those which are borrowed from the objects connected with astronomy. They show us what an insignificant being what a mere atom, indeed, man appears amidst the immensity of creation. What is the whole of this globe, compared with the solar system, which contains a mass of matter ten hundred thousand times greater? What is it in comparison to the hundred millions of suns and worlds, which the telescope has descried throughout the starry regions, or of that infinity of worlds which doubtless lie beyond the range of human vision in the unexplored regions of immensity? What, then, is a kingdom or a province, or a baronial territory, of which we are as proud as if we were the lords of the universe, and for which we engage in so much devastation and carnage? What are they when set in competition with the glories of the sky! Could we take our station on the lofty pinnacle of heaven, and look down on this scarcely distinguishable speck of earth, we should be ready to exclaim with Seneca, Is it to this little spot that the great designs and vast desires of men are confined? Is it for this there is so much disturbance of nations, so much carnage, and so many ruinous wars? O folly of deceived men, to imagine great kingdoms in the compass of an atom, to raise armies to divide a point of earth with the sword!' It is unworthy of the dignity of an immortal mind to have its affections absorbed in the vanishing splendors of earthly grandeur, and to feel proud of the paltry possessions and distinctions of this sublunary scene. foster a spirit of pride and vainglory in the presence of Him who "sitteth on the circle of the heavens," and in the view of the overwhelming grandeur and immensity of His works, is a species of presumption and arrogance of which every rational mind ought to feel ashamed. And, therefore, we have reason to believe that those multitudes of fools, ‘dressed in a little brief authority,' who walk in all the loftiness of pride, have not yet considered the rank they hold in the scale of universal worlds without end."

To

This is all eloquently true from what we can see, and must be equally so from what it is possible for us to know; also whatever is peculiar to the present, is a peculiarity of the past; hence the present form of the