whose sole object perhaps is to get decently through a task for
which they feel themselves unfit; but it is much more irritating
to find men of considerable talent, and of more than considerable
popularity, practising it in a very gross degree. And it is curious
how such dishonest persons gain in hardihood as they go on. Either
because they really escape detection, or because no one tells
them that they have been detected, they come at length to parade
themselves in their swindled finery upon the most public occasions.
I do believe that, like the liar who has told his story so long
that he has come to believe it at last, there are persons who have
stolen the thoughts of others so often and so long, that they hardly
remember that they are thieves. And in two or three cases in which
I put the matter to the proof, by speaking to the thief of the
characteristics of the stolen composition, I found him quite prepared
to carry out his roguery to the utmost, by talking of the trouble
it had cost him to write Dr. Newman's or Mr. Logan's discourse.
'Quite a simple matter--no trouble; scribbled off on Saturday
afternoon,' said, in my hearing, a man who had preached an elaborate
sermon by an eminent Anglican divine. The reply was irresistible:
'Well, if it cost you little trouble, I am sure it cost Mr. Melvill
a great deal.'

I am speaking, you remark, of those despicable individuals who
falsely pass off as their own composition what they have stolen
from some one else. I do not allude to such as follow the advice
of Southey, and preach sermons which they honestly declare are
not their own. I can see something that might be said in favour of
the young inexperienced divine availing himself of the experience
of others. Of course, you may take the ground that it is better
to give a good sermon by another man than a bad one of your own.