in the following passage from Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, which we will suppose to be thus printed:-- But the "age of chivalry" is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded; and the "glory of Europe" is extinguished for ever. The unbought grace of life, the "cheap defence of nations[3]," the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, "is gone!" * * * * * This cunning practice of acknowledging a few words borrowed, with a view to divert suspicion from the many you have stolen, is like confessing a lawful debt of sixpence, due to the man which you have just plundered of fifty pounds; and this practice, Sir Fretful Plagiary, to his immortal honour, scorned to adopt. Could his original and abundant genius have stooped to steal, he would have stolen conscientiously; he would have taken the whole passage outright; instead of spoiling everything he laid his hands upon, and making (as Dryden says) "the fine woman end in a fish's tail." War is honourable, manslaying is not; pillage is legalised by custom, which cannot be said of picking pockets. Thus, as it is more honourable to pillage than to pilfer, so is it to seize upon a whole line, or even a couplet, than to extract the essence of it surreptitiously, or sneak off with a valuable epithet; and it is the more honest, because every author has a better chance, after the robbery has served its purpose, of getting back his own. Had this principle been in operation from the beginning, what confusion it would have prevented! what discords between authors! what perplexities in settling their claims to disputed metaphors, and their rights in contested ideas! From the mere want of this common honesty in purloining, it is impossible, in many instances, to come to an equitable adjustment. It is a wise poet that knows his own conceit--or to prevent mistakes, let us say, his own idea. He sees his private property transferred to the pages of another, and cannot swear to it. There is no saying which is yours and which is his. _Tuum_ rhymes to _suum_, and always will. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 2: The printer's devil had taken upon himself to make the following addition to these lines:-- Blind Thamyris, and blind Mæonides, (_Something like Milton_). Pursue the triumph and partake the gale! (_Rather like Pope_). Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees, (_Why, this_ is _Shakspeare_). To point a moral, or adorn a tale. (_Oh! it's Dr. Johnson_). To the succeeding lines the same authority had added in succession the names of Gray Wordsworth, Campbell, and so on throughout the poem. What does he mean? Does he mean to say he has ever met with any one of these lines _before?_] [Footnote 3: Burke.] FRANK HEARTWELL; OR, FIFTY YEARS AGO. BY BOWMAN TILLER. CHAPTER II.