erbal and tasteless lawyers, not many years past, with legal
metaphysics, wrangled like the schoolmen, inquiring of each other,
"whether the _style_ and _ideas_ of an author were tangible things; or
if these were a _property_, how is _possession_ to be taken, or any
act of _occupancy_ made on mere intellectual _ideas_." Nothing, said
they, can be an object of property but which has a corporeal
substance; the air and the light, to which they compared an author's
ideas, are common to all; ideas in the MS. state were compared to
birds in a cage; while the author confines them in his own dominion,
none but he has a right to let them fly; but the moment he allows the
bird to escape from his hand, it is no violation of property in any
one to make it his own. And to prove that there existed no property
after publication, they found an analogy in the gathering of acorns,
or in seizing on a vacant piece of ground; and thus degrading that
most refined piece of art formed in the highest state of society, a
literary production, they brought us back to a state of nature; and
seem to have concluded that literary property was purely ideal; a
phantom which, as its author could neither grasp nor confine to
himself, he must entirely depend on the public benevolence for his
reward.[13]

The Ideas, that is, the work of an author, are "tangible things."
"There are works," to quote the words of a near and dear relative,
"which require great learning, great industry, great labour, and great
capital, in their preparation. They assume a palpable form. You may
fill warehouses with them, and freight ships; and the tenure by which
they are held is superior to that of all other property, for it is
original. It is tenure which does not exist in a doubtful title; which
does not spring from any adventitious circumstances; it is not
found--it is not purchased--it is not prescriptive--it is original; so
it is the most natural of all titles, because it is the most simple
and least artificial. It is paramount and sovereign, because it is a
tenure by creation."[14]

There were indeed some more generous spirits and better philosophers
fortunately found on the same bench; and the identity of a literary
composition was resolved into its sentiments and language, besides
what was more obviously valuable to some persons, the print and paper.
On this slight principle was issued the profound award which accorded
a certain term of years to any work, however immor