354 MEMOIRS OF 



fubjecT: of plagiarifm from the Ancients, and 

 from former Bards of this nation. He dif- 

 tinguiflies well what is, and what is not 

 amenable to that cenfure, and acknow- 

 ledges the few paflages of borrowed ideas 

 in the three preceding Cantos. He fays, 

 " Where the fentiment and expreffion are 

 " taken from other writers without due 

 " acknowledgment, an author is guilty of 

 " plagiarifm, but not on the teftimony of 

 " fmgle words and cafual phrafes ;" and 

 adds, " they are lawful game, wild by, 

 " nature^ the property of all who can 

 " capture them. Perhaps a few common 

 " flowers of fpeech may be gathered as 

 " we pafs over our neighbour's ground, 

 " but we muft not plunder his cultivated 

 " fruit." Dr. Darwin forgot that juft 

 reftraint when he took, unacknowledged, 

 forty-fix entire lines, the publifhed verfes 

 of his friend, for the exordium of the firft 

 part of his work. That extraordinary, and 



in 



