Literary Property and International Copyright. 



genius, the Iliad, has not only preserved its identity through nearly 

 thirty centuries, but, according to Jacobs and other Greek scholars, 

 it was recited from memory at the Greek festivals for ages before it 

 was ' imprisoned in written characters.'" This fact alone refutes the 

 objection, that an intellectual creation is incapable of identification, 

 and hence lacks an essential requisite of property. It is idle to affirm 

 that the literary productions of genius cannot be distinguished from 

 each other by persons versed in the belles-lettres. It is a well-known 

 fact, that the individuality of a literary composition may be so marked, 

 its identity so complete and enduring, that it will live intact for ages 

 in the memory alone, without writing or print, pass from one gen- 

 eration to another, and, borne upon the wings of fame, encircle the 



When viewed in the light of reason, nothing can be more absurd 

 than the doctrine that a man cannot have property in the product of 

 his brain work. Scarcely more unreasonable is Proudhon's motto 

 that « Property is robbery." With a very small investment of time, 

 labor and skill, a man may grow a cabbage to feed his perishable body, 

 and it becomes his property, sacred as such in the eye of the law, and 

 to the protection of which the whole power of government is pledged. 

 But, according to Mr. Justice Yates and his disciples, if a man of 

 transcendent genius creates a grand poem, which ministers to the 

 immortal mind, and becomes itself immortal, he has no rights in it 

 which the public are bound to respect; it is an outlaw from birth, 

 and falls a prey to the vandalism of mercenary pirates and literary 

 ghouls. 



In the view of such law and logic, Homer's Iliad, Dante's Inferno, 

 Milton's Paradise Lost, or Shakespeare's Hamlet, is nothing in com- 

 parison with a cabbage. 



With a small piece of bass-wood, a twenty-five cent jack-knife, and 

 an hour's whittling, a boor may manufacture a rude wooden porridge- 

 spoon, which is immediately clothed upon with the attributes of prop- 

 erty, and becomes his by the force of natural law. But, let a man of 

 extraordinary ability, by years of toil and a large expenditure of 

 money, produce a literary work which shall contribute much to the 

 sum of human knowledge and greatly benefit the race, and it is at the 

 mercy of a selfish world or the caprice of an unappreciative legislature. 

 Such is the logic and such the fruit of the doctrine of no property in 



As a pertinent commentary upon the doctrine, and a fair illustration 

 of its injustice, may be mentioned the experience of Sir Archibald 

 Alison in the preparation of his History of Europe. In a petition to 

 14 



