EDITOR'S TABLE. 



699 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



A CASE m MORAL EDUCATION. 



IT is encouraging to observe, by the 

 recent discussions in Congress, that 

 there is a deepening conviction of the 

 need of an international copyright law 

 to put a stop to the scandalous robbery 

 of those foreign authors who are doing 

 80 much to sustain and elevate our intel- 

 lectual life. There are evinced a grow- 

 ing sense of reprobation of this practice, 

 and much greater agreement than ever 

 before, both as to tlie necessity of put- 

 ting an end to it, and the means to be 

 adopted for the purpose. The commit- 

 tee was addressed by but one down- 

 right opponent of international copy- 

 right, and he admitted that he was 

 . opposed to all copyright, and would 

 take away the legal protection of their 

 literary property from American au- 

 thors. Mr. James Russell Lowell, Presi- 

 dent of the Copyright League, made 

 an excellent address, putting the whole 

 question on the high moral ground of 

 the rights of men to property in their 

 brain-work, and the outrage of allow- 

 ing other men to appropriate it from 

 mercenary motives and because they 

 find it valuable ; and he did not hesi- 

 tate to say that the reasoning by which 

 international copyright was there op- 

 posed was but a virtual defense of 

 pocket-picking. We call attention to 

 this matter here simply to show that 

 there is an undoubted quickening of 

 the moral sense of the community 

 over this question, so that what was 

 long regarded witli indifference as but 

 a venial wrong is now reprobated as 

 a practice so bad that it can be no 

 longer tolerated. 



And even while the question is being 

 thus debated, there comes a fresh and 

 flagrant instance of that spoliation of for- 

 eign authors which will continue to be 

 perpetrated until the law lays its hand 



upon men destitute of any restraining 

 moral sense. The case is peculiarly ag- 

 gravated in this respect. A foreign au- 

 thor writes a valuable book, which is 

 found especially useful in this country 

 for cultivating the mindsof teachers; and 

 their sense of obligation to him for his 

 great service is expressed by a virtual 

 conspiracy among them to steal it. Mr. 

 James Sully, of London, is the author 

 of the ''Outlines of Psychology." The 

 work was created by his labor. It was 

 made at the cost of time, faculty, and 

 blood; he consumed his vital energy in 

 preparing it just as much as is done in 

 producing any other piece of work of 

 any kind that was ever constructed. If 

 there be such a thing as property, Mr. 

 Sully's book was his property by every 

 principle of justice and right. That was 

 recognized by his American publishers, 

 who made an arrangement with him to 

 pay a royalty on the sales at an equal 

 rate that it is customary to pay Amer- 

 ican authors. The arrangement was 

 doubly vahd in the eyes of all honor- 

 able men, for it was intrinsically just 

 and equitable and was voluntarily 

 made without any compulsion of law. 



Mr. Sully's work was a large text- 

 book of general psychology, but it gave 

 prominence to the bearings of that sci- 

 ence upon theoretical and practical edu- 

 cation, and this was the feature that 

 was specially appreciated by our edu- 

 cators. It was an obvious suggestion 

 that to separate the educational part of 

 the book from its connections and issue 

 it separately in a cheaper form would 

 be a desirable thing. Ditferent parties, 

 in fact, applied to the publisiiers to get 

 the job of cutting the book down ; but 

 they answered that this was a matter 

 belonging entirely to the author. He 

 was written to, and, approving the plan, 

 engaged to make a compend of his work 



