The Rambles of an Idler 



the memory of the truly great of other ages 

 that the truth should be suppressed? The fact 

 is indisputable that the century just closed 

 has given the world but very little originality. 

 If this blessed quality is exhausted, then let 

 the fact be candidly admitted; and, instead of 

 new "authors," let us have new "adapters." 

 New versions of old stories printed as such will 

 be so far welcome as possibly to warrant their 

 publication; but let us not hail as an origin- 

 ator one who has no originality. However 

 smooth the prose or liquid the verse, correct the 

 rhyme and accurate the metre, if the idea 

 clothed in a new suit of words is an old idea, 

 let it be so heralded. 



If this severe but just measure is applied by 

 the historian to the writers of the past century, 

 those truly original are quickly named. Per- 

 haps, we have had a million books in the last 

 one hundred years, but, have we had a thousand 

 genuinely-new ideas? Have we had a hun- 

 dred? 



Place modern literature in another light, and 

 see how far it has added new words or phrases 

 to our speech. For long we have had Homeric, 

 Virgilic, and Aristotelian; Dantesque, Shakes- 



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