What's wrong with originality

I've finished editing all the early (1899-1906) Bookman articles that I was able to find. Among these, "Alexandre Dumas" has some interesting thoughts on the modern concept of originality and plagiarism, including the contention that the originality "would seem to be almost entirely a modern idea, an idea belonging to the age of silk hats and over-education." In GKC's opinion of Dumas it is another instance of one of his most endearing traits - the willingness to find and point out what is best in artists whose defects critics seem to consider it their business to highlight. The same note rings in "Thackeray", "Matthew Arnold" and the review "Mr. Kipling's 'Just So Stories'," which I particularly liked: "One of the most lurid and awful marks of human degeneration that the mind can conceive is the fact that it is considered kind to play with children."