CHAPTER XVI

PARAPHRASING: HOW IT DEVELOPS MENTALITY

Clothing the Mighty Thoughts of the Past in Our Own Language Develops the Mentality and Facilitates Expression

HE old saying, "There is nothing new under the sun," is particularly true as regards ideas. It seems that no thought can be uttered today that cannot be traced in some form back to other men and

ages.

Throughout the books of the Bible are found thoughts that are re-clothed by Lincoln, and are finally ascribed to him. Truths that were spoken by Demosthenes and Cicero are re-worded and become Webster's. Truly, so far as ideas are concerned, there is "nothing new under the sun.”

Patrick Henry, in 1775, closed his speech in favor of placing the armed forces of the commonwealth of Virginia on a war footing in the following words:

I know not what course others may take; but, as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

In 1898, Senator Thurston, speaking in behalf of the people of Cuba, concluded his peroration as follows:

Others may hesitate, others may procrastinate, others may plead for further diplomatic negotiation, which means delay, but for me, I am ready to act now, and for my action I am ready to answer to my conscience, my country and my God.

Here are two extracts from two speeches delivered one hundred and twenty-three years apart where the same ideas are expressed, although they are clothed in different language. This is exactly what paraphrasing is. To paraphrase means to take an original idea, set it in a different framework of words, and pass it off as one's own.

All Great Minds Have Used Others' Ideas.

There is nothing wrong in all this, otherwise all writers and speakers would be thieves, as none has been so original as to escape the influence of those who have gone before.

Were paraphrasing a wrong, then would Demosthenes, Shakespeare, Bacon, Webster, Lincoln, Bryan and all speakers and writers of whom we have record be guilty of performing it. No, it is perfectly legitimate to make use of any idea, no matter where it may be found, provided one places enough of himself in it as to change its personality. This personality

—it is that counts in the decision as to whether an idea is stolen or adopted.

Emerson borrowed from Epictetus, from Plato, from Socrates, but all that he took from them he so saturated with Emerson that only an expert can separate the adopted matter from the original.

Since his time no writer has been so paraphrased as has Emerson. The great majority of writers of the nineteenth century drew upon his great fountain of wondrous thought and converted it to their own uses in such manner as to make it appear their own. The majority of modern "isms" would be but skeletons, and mighty poor specimens at that, if all of Emerson were removed from them.

The fact is, Emerson wrote only for the few, his matter being too deep and too dense for the understanding of the masses, his writings being read only by those who are willing to work for what they get out of them.

Emerson reaches the great body of readers only through the paraphrasing by other writers who often receive credit for what rightly belongs to him.

Paraphrasing, then, is perfectly legitimate so long as it is decently performed, but deliberately to take the expressed thoughts of another and thinly cover them with a new dress of words, or merely to rearrange the ideas, is nothing less than literary piracy; and he who is caught at it, is termed a plagiarist.

A person to deserve being so styled would have to be guilty of appropriating both the body and soul of the matter; or, as Swift puts it, "Purloining another man's literary works, or introducing passages from another man's writings and putting them off as one's own; literary theft."

Such strictures cannot justly be applied to a paraphraser, one who takes an idea and gives it an entirely new setting, making it, in many instances, appear as an original thought.

Some sayings are so old that no one knows whose they are nor whence they came, consequently they are common property to be finally assigned to those who best express them.

Many of the gems of Shakespeare are traceable to the Bible and lesser sources, but they are none the less Shakespeare's because he paraphrased them from matter that preceded from other authors. Have no hesitancy, then, in adopting ideas wherever you may find them and giving them out again re-clothed in a new arrangement of words and claiming them as children of your brain.

The Benefits from Paraphrasing

Great and many are the benefits to be derived from paraphrasing if care is taken to employ only the best of matter. For instance:

(1) It increases the vocabulary and makes one

expert in expressing the same idea in several ways. If judiciously selected, the original matter will be framed in excellent language, consequently here will be found expressive words so arranged as to clearly convey the author's meaning which will necessarily impress themselves upon the mind of the paraphraser. He must then find a new set of words that will carry the same ideas to the mind of the listeners without letting them appear to have come from the same source. In this manner new sets of words, new arrangements of phrases, and a complete change in the presentation of the matter must be made every time a new paraphrase is attempted, and the oftener this is done the greater will be the benefit derived.

(2) It strengthens the memory through compelling one to lay hold of all thoughts expressed in the original matter.

(3) It helps one to concentrate the mentality, because one cannot paraphrase unless he focuses all his mind upon the matter to be paraphrased, and thus keeps foreign matter from coming between him and his thoughts.

(4) It assists in making one an extemporaneous speaker, because the ideas contained in the matter to be paraphrased act as a framework. He must not memorize the words to be paraphrased, but only the ideas, thus working along the same lines as does an extempore speaker.