Notice of Recent Publications [pp. 443-477]

Notices of Recent Publications.
power of the lectures themselves to lay hold of the minds, not only of
theologians, metaphysicians, scientists, and other experts in the topics
handled, but of cultivated and thinking men generally. This power,
which has been conspicuous in some of the more important works of
Dr. McCosh and especially so in his first great volume on the " Divine
Government Physical and Moral," is due to several characteristics
which are remarkably blended in him. Among them are, 1. His clear
insight into and grasp of the living issues between faith and existing
forms of scepticism, fundamental truth and the current forms of de structive thinking in science and philosophy, whether materalistic or
idealistic. 2. An aptitude not only for metaphysical'but for physical
science. Although his chief distinction has been achieved in the
region of mental science and metaphysics, yet in his work on "Typi cal Forms," and as occasion has offered, in his other works, he has
shown a strong turn for physical science, especially at its points of
contact with metaphysics and apologetics. All this gives him a great
advantage for the refutation of destructive doctrines whether originating with the physicists or metaphysicians; with Kant, German Idealism
and Transcendentalism, with Hamilton and his school, or with the
Positivists and Materialists of various grades, like Compte, Spencer,
Mill, Huxley and Darwin. 3. Dr. McCosh is thoroughly at home
among these combatants, and master of the literature of the subject.
4. He displays, when called for, an imaginative and even poetic
power which enables him to illustrate abstruse points with clearness
and beauty, and to lighten the heaviness and tedium toward which
such discussions tend, with flashes of wit, poetry, and eloquence.
All this is aided by a fine command of nervous, idiomatic, Saxon En glish which tends to marshal itself in short, pithy, sententious clauses.
The only other circumstance we note is the wonderful momentum
of Dr. Cosh, moral, intellectual, nay even physical and vocal, which
gives impetus to his every utterance, and carries it with magnetic
force to his hearers.
The same features that invested the delivery of these lectures with
such power, will commend them to a vastly wider circle of readers,
and render them powerful auxiliaries in defending the cause of God
and truth. Instead of stating any of the particular points made in the
volume, we prefer to let our readers see a partial statement of them
by Dr. McCosh himself, in which they may observe an average speci men of his manner and matter.
"I labored to show that the mind begins its intelligent acts with
knowledge, a knowledge of things. I have no objection to call it a
1871.]
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