0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – Bk 6 – Retrospection and Introspection – Chpt 27 – Plagiarism

                           PLAGIARISM 

 1	    The various forms of book-borrowing without credit
  	spring from this ill-concealed question in mortal
 3	mind, Who shall be greatest? This error violates the
  	law given by Moses, it tramples upon Jesus' Sermon
  	on the Mount, it does violence to the ethics of Christian
 6	Science. 
  	    Why withhold my name, while appropriating my lan-
  	guage and ideas, but give credit when citing from the works
 9	of other authors? 
  	    Life and its ideals are inseparable, and one's writings
  	on ethics, and demonstration of Truth, are not, cannot be,
12	understood or taught by those who persistently misunder-
  	stand or misrepresent the author. Jesus said, "For there
  	is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can
15	lightly speak evil of me." 
  	    If one's spiritual ideal is comprehended and loved, the
  	borrower from it is embraced in the author's own mental
18	mood, and is therefore honest.  The Science of Mind ex-
  	cludes opposites, and rests on unity. 
  	    It is proverbial that dishonesty retards spiritual growth
21	and strikes at the heart of Truth. If a student at Harvard
  	College has studied a textbook written by his teacher, is
  	he entitled, when he leaves the University, to write out as
24	his own the substance of this textbook? There is no war-
  	rant in common law and no permission in the gospel
 
   
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Plagiarism                            76


 1	for plagiarizing an author's ideas and their words. 
  	Christian Science is not copyrighted; nor would pro-
 3	tection by copyright be requisite, if mortals obeyed
  	God's law of manright. A student can write volumi-
  	nous works on Science without trespassing, if he writes
 6	honestly, and he cannot dishonestly compose Christian
  	Science. The Bible is not stolen, though it is cited,
  	and quoted deferentially. 
 9	    Thoughts touched with the Spirit and Word of Christian
  	Science gravitate naturally toward Truth. Therefore the
  	mind to which this Science was revealed must have risen
12	to the altitude which perceived a light beyond what others
  	saw. 
  	    The spiritually minded meet on the stairs which lead up
15	to spiritual love. This affection, so far from being per-
  	sonal worship, fulfils the law of Love which Paul enjoined
  	upon the Galatians. This is the Mind "which was also
18	in Christ Jesus," and knows no material limitations. It is
  	the unity of good and bond of perfectness. This just affec-
  	tion serves to constitute the Mind-healer a wonder-worker,
21	 — as of old, on the Pentecost Day, when the disciples were
  	of one accord. 
  	    He who gains the God-crowned summit of Christian
24	Science never abuses the corporeal personality, but up-
  	lifts it. He thinks of every one in his real quality, and
  	sees each mortal in an impersonal depict. 
27	    I have long remained silent on a growing evil in plagi-
  	arism; but if I do not insist upon the strictest observance
  	of moral law and order in Christian Scientists, I become
 
   
  Retrospection and Introspection --- Plagiarism                            77


 1	responsible, as a teacher, for laxity in discipline and law-
  	lessness in literature. Pope was right in saying, "An
 3	honest man's the noblest work of God;" and Ingersoll's
  	repartee has its moral: "An honest God's the noblest
  	work of man."SHOW ALL