577 
P L A 
Their occupation is not pillaging, but collecting contri¬ 
butions: and, if you alk them. their authority, they will 
produce you the practice of their predeceilors of all ages 
and nations. 
We have called our work a Compilation; and fo it is in 
general, though with much original matter interfperfed. 
We have even (in our firft Propofals) given a lift of the 
books from which chiefly we compile. But are not thofe 
very books compilations ? no doubt they are tor the moft 
part. In Solomon’s time there was nothing new under 
the fun. The moft ancient writings we have are probably 
compiled or copied from fome more ancient, which have 
not reached us. Many of the ancients, fays Dr. Browne, 
(Vulgar Errors, ch. vi.) “take upon truft moft they have 
delivered, whofe volumes are mere collections drawn from 
the mouths orleavesof other authors, as may be obferved 
in Pliny, ./Elian, Athenseus, and many others. Not a 
few tranfcriptively, fubfcribing their names unto other 
men’s endeavours, and merely tranfcribing almoft all they 
have written ; the Latins tranfcribing the Greeks, the 
Greeks and Latins each other. Thus hath Juftin bor¬ 
rowed all from Trogus Pompeius; and Julius Solinus in 
a mannertranfcribed Pliny; thus have Lucian and Apu- 
leius ferved Lucius Pratenfii, men both living at the fame 
time, and both tranfcribing the fame author, in thofe 
famous books entitled “Lucius” by the one, and “Au¬ 
reus Afinus” by the other. In the fame meafure hath 
Simocrates, in his trad; cle Kilo, dealt with Diodorus 
Siculus, as may be obferved in that work annexed to 
Herodotus, and tranflated by Jungermannus. Thus 
Eratofthenes wholly tranflated Timotheus de Infulis, not 
fparing the very preface. The very fame doth Strabo 
report of Edorus and Arifton in a treatife de Milo . Cle¬ 
mens Alexandrinus hath alfo obferved many examples 
thereof among the Greeks; and Pliny fpeaketh very 
plainly in his Preface, that conferring his authors, and 
comparing their works together, he generally found thofe 
that went before tranfcribed verbatim by thofe that fol¬ 
lowed, and their originals never fo much as mentioned. 
Even the magnified Virgil hath borrowed almoft all his 
works; his Eclogues from Theocritus, his Georgies from 
Hefiod and Aratus, his ./Eneid from Homer, the fecond 
book whereof, containing the exploit of Sinon and the 
Trojan horfes, (as Macrobius obferveth,) he hath verba¬ 
tim derived from Pifander. Our own profeflion (phyfic) 
is not excufable herein : thus Oribafius, Aetius, and 
iEginetus, have in a manner tranfcribed Galen ; but 
Marcellinus Empiricus, who hath left a famous w’ork De 
Medicamentis, hath word for word tranfcribed all Scribo- 
nius Largus de Comp. Medic, and not left out his very 
peroration. And thus may we perceive the ancients 
were but men even like ourfelves. The practice of tranf- 
cription in our days was no monfter in theirs: plagiary 
had not its nativity with printing, but began in times 
when thefts were difficult, and the paucity of books 
fcarcely wanted that invention.” 
Barrow’s New Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, 1751, 
3 7 54-, is preceded by a tranflation of d’Alembert’s Preli¬ 
minary Difcourfe to the French Encyclopedic, but with¬ 
out the flighted acknowledgment whence derived. The 
Introduction to Croker’s Complete DiCt. of Arts, 1766, 
is nothing but a portion of the fame Preliminary Dilcourfe, 
but without any notice of the original author. 
A very flagrant and indefenfible inftance of plagiarifm 
is expofed in the New Monthly Magazine for November 
1814. 
PLA'GI ARY,_/i [Plagiarius, Lat. from theGr .n'huya., a 
ftroke, blow’, or ftripe.] A man-ftealer.—Among the Ro¬ 
mans, a plagiary (plagiarius) was properly a perfon who 
bought, told, or retained,a freeman fora Have; fo called, be- 
caufe the Flavian law condemned fuch a perfon adplagas, 
to be whipped. Chambers. —A thief in literature; one who 
Reals the thoughts or writings of another.—The enfuing 
difcourfe, left I chance to be traduced for a plagiary by 
him who has played the thief, was one of thole that, by a 
Vol. XX. No. 1392. 
P L A 
worthy hand, were ftolen from me. South. —Without 
invention, a painter is but a copier, and a poet but a pla¬ 
giary of others : both are allovyed fometimes to copy and 
trahflate. Dryden's Difrefnoy. —The crime of. literary 
theft; plagiarifm.— Plagiary had not its nativity with 
printing, but began when the paucity of books fcarce 
wanted that invention. Brown. —My firft with in attempt¬ 
ing a play was to avoid every appearance of plagiary. She¬ 
ridan, Pref. to the Rivals, 1775. 
PLA'GIARY.a#, Stealing men.—Some of thefe flaves 
fell into that condition by treachery; fome by chance of 
war; others by plagiary and man-dealing Tartars. 
Brown’s Trav. 1685.—PraCtifing literary theft.—A pla¬ 
giary fonnet - wright. Bp. Hall's Sat. —The plagiary 
prieft having ftolen this whole paflage verbatim out of 
Bellarmine. Bp- Hall's Hon. of the Marr. Clergy. 
PLA'GII CRI'MEN. The dealing of human creatures. 
This, in Scotland, was anciently punifhable with death, 
as a treafonable ufurpation of the royal authority in de¬ 
taining his majefty’s liege fubjeCts. The fame punifh- 
ment has been applied to the dealing of children in Scot¬ 
land. Bell’s Scotch Did. See Plagiary. 
PLAGUE, (. [playhe, Dutch; plaga, Lat. irtwyn, Gr. 
plaie, Fr.] Peftiience ; a difeafe eminently contagious 
and deltruCtive.—The general opinion is, that years hot 
and moilt are moft peftilent; yet many times there have 
been great plagues in dry years. Bacons Nat. Hijl, 
All thofe plagues which earth and air had brooded, 
Firft on inferior creatures try’d their force, 
And laft they feized on man. Lee and Dryden. 
Plague is a term which has been applied to various 
epidemic and fatal difeafes, but is now limited by phyfi- 
cians to a contagious and malignant fever, moftly accom¬ 
panied by buboes and carbuncles. It is the Anthracia 
peftis of Good. See the article Pathology, vol. xix. 
p. 279. 
Among ancient writers, though the mortality and mi- 
fery which the plague carried with it are powerfully de¬ 
picted, yet its peculiar fymptoms are not detailed; fo that 
it isimpoffible to afeertain the nature of the malady it- 
felf. And in fome cafes, though the phenomena of the 
difeafe are partially deferibed, yet the general defeription 
is obfeure and doubtful: hence it is better perhaps to 
pafsover thefe early accounts than increafe the abfurdity 
that belongs to them by conjecture and hypothefis. To 
this number efpecialiy belong the marvellous relation of 
Fernelius, who tells of a plague or murrain fatal only to 
cats; and that of Dionyfius Halicarnaffus, who mentions 
one that only attacked maids; and fo on. 
During the early ages of the republic of Rome, plagues 
as they are ftyled by Livy, (probably epidemics occa- 
fioned by the undrained marfties fcattered around the fite 
of the ancient city,) were of frequent occurrence; and 
the foie remedies we find employed againft them were 
fuch as religion only is known to afford. On one occa- 
fion, (B.C. 461.) prayers, offerings, and general fuppli- 
cations in the temples; (lib. iii. c. 6, 7.) On another, 
(B. C. 396.) after the Sibylline books had been confulted 
by the duumvirs, they inftituted the new and public cere¬ 
mony of thcledi/iernium, tovvhich werejoined thefamerite 
in private; univerlal feaftings throughout the city, even 
amongft the bittereft foes; the lufpenfion of quarrels and 
law-(uits, and the liberation of priloners from their bonds; 
(v. c. 13.) On a third, (B. C. 361.) after the leCtifter- 
niurn had failed, dramatic exhibitions in honour of the 
gods. Livy dates from this period the introduction of 
theatrical entertainments at Rome, and he further tells 
us, that as his countrymen, at this time, had no aCtors of 
their own, they were obliged to obtain -Them from Tuf- 
cany. It is curious to conlider that the important amufe- 
ment of the dmma, derived from the Romans to fo many 
nations, fliould at firft, among that people, have been 
nothing more than a mere medico-religious rite. 
Thucydides gives a beautiful and interefting account 
7 H of 
