THE CAMBRIAN.

Now, go write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the

VOL. VIII.

time to come for ever and ever.

REV. JAMES McCOSH, D. D., LL. D.

PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON COLLEGE, WHO RETIRES IN JUNE ON ACCOUNT OF HIS AD-
VANCED AGE, TO BE SUCCEEDED BY REV. FRANCIS LANDAY PATTON, D. D.,
LL. D., OF PRINCETON SEMINARY.

The Rev. James McCosh, D. D., LL. D., was born in, Ayrshire Scotland, on April 1, 1811. At thirteen years of age he went to Glasgow College, and five years later entered Ednburg University, where for five years

more he studied theology under Drs. Chalmers, Welsh, and other eminent ministers. At the suggestion of Sir William Hamilton, Edinburgh University conferred upon him the honorary degree of A. M. for an essay on the

was a second-class college, with nothing more than the decadent classical and mathematical course of those days, with no special departments, no cabinets or laboratories, and no provisions for research.

Stoic philosophy. He was ordained what was its condition in 1868. It a minister of the church of Scotland, in 1832. His first pastorate was at Arbroath, and lasted four years. He then removed to Brechin, where, having seceded from the Established Church with Dr. Chalmers and the other founders of the Free Church of Scotland, he busied himself in the organization of that body. In 1845 he married a daughter of Dr. Thomas Guthrie. Three years after he began a long meditated work-"The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral" that was published in 1850 and reached a second edition in six months, and had a large scale in this country. In 1851 he was appointed Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Queen's College, Belfast, a position he held until chosen President of Princeton. While there Dr. McCosh wrote several books, besides contribu ting to the North British Review, and other magazines.

In 1866 Dr. McCosh made an extended tour of the United States, visiting many colleges and theological seminaries and gaining an insight into the methods of teaching and governing in American institutions. He then returned to Queen's College. In 1868 the Rev. John Maclean resigned the Presidency at Princeton, and Dr. McCosh was chosen to succeed him. He reached here in October, 1868, and his inauguration took place the same month, when Harvard, Brown, and Jefferson gave him honorary degrees, and there was present an assemblage of noted men such as is seldon seen.

When Dr. McCosh came to the presidency of the college of New Jersey in 1868, he had already achieved his fame and done his chief work in Philosophy. Henceforth his task was in the field of general education. It is almost impossible for one who knows Princeton only as it has been of late years to conceive

But with his inauguration new life and energy were infused into the college, and its friends and alumni began to feel a special interest in its success and advancement. Magnificent gifts from wealthy friends were soon followed by great improvements. New college buildings, enlarged facilities for research and study, and a greatly increased number of students soon accompanied the new regime.

The vast wealth of the Presbyterian Church in New York was immediately put at his service; a church perhaps more generous than any other, and whose merchant princes needed only a master mind to tell them what was wanted to make their college the peer of any other. The stream of benefactions that has flowed in has been almost without limit, and the honor of the consequent growth belongs to Dr. McCosh.

Dr. McCosh's success as an organizer comes from the fact that he has a comprehensive mind. He is a metaphysician, but not that alone. He is no mere specialist. He would easily have made as great a naturalist as he has a philosopher. He is not one of those men who want to wait till science has said its last word. He is eager to ask science what she knows, and quick to show that she is the handmaid of religion. He is a man of great breadth, great faith, and great energy. Under him, Princeton College has made more rapid progress than any other institution of its class in the courtry, and has risen to deserve the title of University, which it will soon assume.

In accepting the resignation of Dr

REV. JAMES McCоsн, D. D., LL. D.