BORROWED THOUGHTS

Crenius wrote a dissertation *De Furibus Librariis*, and J. Conrad Schwarz another *De Plagio Literario*, in which some curious appropriations are pointed out; your pages have already contained some additional recent instances. The writers thus pillaged might exclaim, "Pereant iste qui *post* nos nostra dixerunt." Two or three instances have occurred to me which, I think, have not been noticed. Goldsmith's *Madame Blaize* is known to be a free version of *La fameuse La Galisse*. His well-known epigram,— "Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed," is borrowed from the following by the Cheva…