Ellen G. White and Her Critics

“Taken Largely”!

The critics say that when the first (1884) edition of The Great Controversy came out it was found to have been “taken largely” from other works, that in the 1888 edition “a few of the plagiarized portions were enclosed in quotation marks,” and that finally in the current (1911) edition Mrs. White gave “the proper credit to the authors from which she had plagiarized so much.” If these words mean anything, they mean that this 1911 edition was “taken largely” from other works. But, as just noted, a count of lines in this edition discloses that the actual words of other writers constitute only 4 per cent of the contents. Again, if the critics’ words mean anything, they mean that the same amount of borrowing was done in the preceding editions. Probably the reader now has a better idea of what they mean when they say “taken largely“: namely, taken in very small part, taken very limitedly, that is, 4 per cent! EGWC 421.3