USA > New Jersey > Memorial cyclopedia of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 33
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In 1850 he published his first important
work "The Method of Divine Government, Physical and Moral." It met with ap- proval by Sir William Hamilton and Hugh Miller, two leading thinkers of Scotland, and it was everywhere favorably received. To this book, it is said, Dr. McCosh in a measure owed his call to the chair of Logic and Metaphysics in Queen's College, Bel- fast, where, in January, 1852, Dr. McCosh began his lectures. He instantly won popu- larity with his students as a stimulating lec- turer and a keen judge of human nature. His introductory lecture "On the method in which metaphysics should be prose- cuted" showed that he was neither content with Scottish philosophical methods nor intended to lead his classes along quite the traditional lines. In the main he followed experimental methods in his lectures on psychology and metaphysics, while in logic he recast the elements. He laid special emphasis on the written work of his stu- dents, and took great delight in examining their aptitudes and characters. Several of his pupils fulfilled his prophecy of emi- nence.
He also was active in evangelical work. He not only organized a school in the slum district of Belfast, which grew to have six hundred pupils, but in another neglected portion of the city he formed a congrega- tion from the people whom he found to be without a pastor, and when the time was ripe he secured a minister and contrived the erection of a church. He organized a club house for temperate working men to offset the social attractiveness of the sa- loon. He aided to found the Ministerial Support Fund of the Irish Presbyterian Church. His arguments against establislı- ment and state endowment largely influ- enced Mr. Gladstone in disestablishing the Irish Church. He advocated the abolition of the Regum Donum, or government addi- tion to clerical stipends, and in his essay on the "Duty' of Irish Presbyterians to their church at the present crisis in the sustenta- tion of the Gospel Ministry" ( Belfast.
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1868) afforded much needed guidance to troubled Irish Presbyterians. Meanwhile he was reading widely and observing keen- ly, as is shown in his address "The Present Tendency of Religious Thought throughi- out of three Kingdoms" read before the British Organization of the Evangelical Al- liance in July, 1864. He served also as examiner for Queen's University, Ireiand, for the Indian Civil Service, and for the Fergusson scholarships. He strongly advo- cated a system of intermediate schools for Ireland, and supported the cause of na- tional elementary schools as one method to break down the narrow class exclusiveness so prevalent in Ireland. In 1854 he pub- lished a series of letters to the Lord Lieu- tenant on "The Necessity for an Inter- mediate System of Education between the National Schools and the Colleges of Ire- land." In 1867 he brought the question up again when, at the Belfast meeting of the National Association for the promotion of Social Science, he read a paper on "The Present State of the Intermediate Educa- tion Question in Ireland."
While at Belfast he continued his literary work by publishing, in 1855, his "Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation" ( with Professor George Dickie) which went into several editions : in 1860 his "Intuitions of the Mind," also several times republished ; in 1862 his "Supernatural in Relation to the Natural." published simultaneously in Cambridge, Belfast and New York; and in 1866 his "Examination of J. S. Mill's Phil- osophy." The first of this group of works is directly traceable to his genius for obser- vation.
In May, 1858, having learned the Ger- man language, he sailed for Germany to spend five months examining Prussian schools and universities, and familiarizing himself with their methods and organiza- tion. He also attended the philosophical lectures of Trendelenburg and Michelet and met other leaders in German thought. He returned to his Belfast lecture room in Sep-
tember, 18;8. In 1866, to rest from his arduous duties and his literary labors (he had just published his important "Examin- ation of J. S. Mill's Philosophy"), he sailed for America. During the Civil War he had staunchly upheld the Union in the face of strong opposition. In America he visited the principal cities and leading institutiont and was received with distinction. Hit habit of keen observation stood him in such good stead that, when in 1868 the trustees of Princeton extended to him a call to the presidency, he was well informed as to the condition of the country and the outlook for higher education.
He came to Princeton at an opportune time The Civil War had just ended and the country at large was beginning to turn its attention to the development not only of its natural, but also of its educational resources. Harvard, Yale and Columbia had just entered on new eras of growth and Johns Hopkins University was soon to be founded. Dr. McCosh was called to Prince- ton to bring it abreast of the times and to lay the university foundations it now en- joys and on which it is still building. The foretaste of future material growth hinted at in his Inaugural Address was not merely rhetorical. It was evident from the begin- ning that he had grasped the situation and would live up to the promise of his address. During the twenty years of his presidency the campus was enlarged and beautified ; to the six buildings on that campus in 1868 fourteen were added by 1888; the faculty was increased from sixteen to forty-three. and the number of students from two hun- dred and sixty-four to six hundred and four; the Princeton restricted elective sys- tem was introduced and courses leading to the degrees of B. S. and C. E., were added, together with graduate courses leading to the higher degrees; the library was in- creased from 30,000 to 70.000 and a library building, in its day one of the handsomest in the country, was erected; fellowships were endowed and several special annual
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prizes were founded; alumni associations were organized to keep the graduates in touch with the institutions and with each other. Nearly $3,000,000 came into the col- lege treasury during the two decades; fac- ulty espionage, Greek letter fraternities, class-room disorder, and most of the vicious hazing of earlier days, were done away with . or suppressed.
Dr. McCosh advocated the restricted elective system in the college curriculum as opposed to the free elective method intro- duced by President Eliot at Harvard. The latter advocated his views before the Nine- teenth Century Club of New York in Feb- ruary, 1885, and Dr. McCosh was invited to criticize them. His comments were pub- lished in pamphlet form under the title "The New Departure in College Educa- tion." He favored freedom of elective studies under limitations, holding that cer- tain fundamental studies should be compul- sory in any curriculum leading to the his- toric academic degrees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. Moreover he believed firmly that all education should have Chris- tian foundation and he never let this point of view be lost. He constantly endeavored to develop the Christian element in college life, but as earnestly avoided anything like denominationalism in the college chapel. As a teacher he stands pre-eminent in Ameri- can academic history with Woolsey, Mark Hopkins, and Wayland, as one who con- trived by his earnestness, his enthusiasm and his knowledge, to spur the interest of his classes. He was prominent in all edu- cational gatherings and his last public ap- pearance was as presiding officer at the In- ternal Congress of Education held at Chi- cago, in July, 1803, when his eminence as a teacher and philosopher made him the re- cipient of every mark of honor and distinc- tion.
He believed in the parental theory of col- lege government and did not confine his theory to his undergraduates. He ruled and moulded his faculty. He won the af-
fection of his students by his strong per- sonality, his dry humor, his shrewdness, his perfect understanding of them, and his fa- vor of gymnastics and athletics. And in his personal relations with them he was wonderfully aided by his wife, whose gentie solicitude for, and motherly interest in, any that were sick or in need of care made her the sharer in the affection that he enjoyed. It was to perpetuate the memory of her goodness especially to undergradu- ates that the Isabella McCosh Infirmary was erected on the Princeton campus.
Dr. McCosh was as prolific a writer after his advent to America as he had been in Belfast. Beginning with his striking In- augural Address on "Academic Teaching in Europe," published in New York in 1869, he continued publication until the very year of liis death. In 1870 he brought out a text book of formal logic. "The Laws of Discursive Thought," which was reissued in revised and enlarged editions at least three times during the next twenty years. In 1871 he delivered a series of lectures at Union Theological Seminary, New York. on natural theology and apologetics, which was published in New York and London in 1871. and again in 1875, under the title of "Christianity and Positivism." In 1874 he issued his well known "Scottish Philos- ophy, biographical. expository, critical ; from Hutcheson to Hamilton" being a his- of which he was the most brilliant living pupil. Of more ephemeral character were his essays: "Ideas in Nature overlooked by Dr. Tyndall," being a searching examina- tion of Tyndall's Belfast address (New York, 1875); his "Development Hypo- thesis: is it Sufficient?" (New York, 1876), and his "Conflicts of the Age" (New York, 1881). In 1882 he began to issue a valuable "Philosophical Series" of eight small volumes discussing the leading philosophical questions of the day and set- ting forth his contention that while the old truths may have to be put in new form and their defense taken up on new lines yet
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they are as deeply founded as ever. This series was republished in two volumes in 1887. In 1886 he published his "Psycho- logy : the Cognitive Powers," and in the following years its second part, "Psycho- logy : the Motive Powers." In 1887 he de- livered the Bedell Lectures, publishing them in 1888 under the title "The Religious Aspect of Evolution," enlarging them in a new edition which was called for in 1890. In 1889 he issued his treatise on metaphys- ics "First and Fundamental Truths" and in the same year he delivered a series of lec- tures before the Ohio Wesleyan University on "The Tests of various Kinds of Truth," being a treatise on applied logic, published in New York and Cincinnati in 1889. The following year he issued a small work "The Prevailing Types of Thought: can they reach Reality logically?" and in 1892 his brief volume on ethics "Our Moral Na- ture." In 1894 he published his last work, "Philosophy of Reality: should it be fa- vored by Americans?" His belief contribu- tions to purely American educational dis- cussions were, not including his reply to President Eliot on the Elective System and several addresses at educational conven- tions, his papers "Discipline in American Colleges" (North American Review, vol. 126, pp. 428-441), "Course of Study in the Academical Department of Princeton Col- lege" (Princeton Book 1879), "What an American University should be" (1885), "Religion in College" (1886).
As a philosophical writer Dr. McCosh belongs to the great school of traditional Scottish thought whose history he wrote. Here he stands next to his great teacher, Sir William Hamilton. During his lifetime his position, as has been pointed out, suf- fered because of the reaction against that school led by John Stuart Mill. and because of the evolution movement begun by Dar- win and led philosophically by Herbert Spencer. His emphatic and positive tone moreover, says Professor A. T. Ormond, his foremost pupil and his successor in the
Princeton school of philosophy, had some- thing to do with the mistaken tendency to undervalue his work. Much of this work was necessarily transitional, as for instance his attitude toward evolution itself. He may be said to have accepted evolution pro- visionally, that is, rejecting its atheistic and irreligious forms while adopting its scien- tific truth. His attitude is thus summed up : He maintained the possibility of conceiving evolution from the theistic basis as a fea- ture of Divine government and this led him to take a hospitable view attitude to- ward the evolution idea at the same time that it enabled him to become its most formidable critic. It is believed, however, that he has contributed elements of value to the thought of the time, as for instance his treatment of intuition by a more dis- criminating, keen and careful analysis than had hitherto been given to it. He was an ardent realist and had an almost virulent antipathy for idealism and the phenomenal theory. The progress of thought since his time would prevent an unqualified accept- ance of his views at this day, but his basic realistic principle is one "which a very wide view school of thinkers have at heart." He had a genius for observation and an intense interest in human character which he culti- vated incessantly and turned to good ac- count in his psychological work becoming in reality a pioneer in the science of physi- ological psychology. In the sphere of re- ligious thought his work will be valued for its union of philosophy and religion. Ex- cepting his annual baccalaureates and a vol- ume of "Gospel Sermons" (New York, 1888), few of his sermons were given to the press.
Dr. McCosh left an autobiography which has been expanded and edited by Professor William M. Sloane ("Life of James Mc- Cosh : A Record Chiefly Autobiographical," New York, 1896) and which contains a very extensive list of Dr. McCosh's writ- ings extending from 1833 to 1804 and num-
He received the honorary degree of A.
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M. from Aberdeen in 1850, D. D. from Edinburgh in 1851 and from Brown and Washington and Jefferson in 1868, LL. D. from Dublin in 1863 and from Harvard in 1868, and Litt. D. from Queen's University in 1882. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society.
Dr. McCosh married, September 29, 1845, Isabella, born April 30, 1817, daughter of Alexander and Mary (Stirling) Guthrie. Alexander Guthrie was the well known physician, and brother of Thomas Guthrie, Dr. McCosh's intimate friend. Five child- ren were born of this marriage beside a son who died in infancy : Mary Jane, born July 7, 1846, married, June, 1881, Alexander tory and critique of the school of thought Maitland, of New York City. Alexander Guthrie, born January 16, 1850, died Oc- tober 30, 1881, at Princeton. Margaret, born June 21, 1852, married Dr. David Magie. Andrew James, born March 15, 1858, at Belfast, a graduate of Princeton of the class of 1877, and a brilliant sur- geon in New York.
POTTS, Stacy G., Distinguished Jurist.
Stacy Gardiner Potts was born in Harris- burg, Pennsylvania, in November, 1799. His paternal ancestor from whom he was fourth in descent, was a Friend who came from England in company with Mahlon Stacy and family, landing at Burlington, New Jersey, in the winter of 1678, from the first ship that went so far up the Delaware river. The Stacy and Potts families intermarried, and the two names were interchanged in both. Stacy Potts, grandfather of Stacy G. Potts, was a tanner, in Trenton; during the Revolution he kept an inn, which the Hessian Colonel Rahl made his headquar- ters, and where he was taken after being mortally wounded, and there dying.
When only nine years old, Stacy G. Potts
walked with his father to Trenton, where they arrived on the fourth day of their journey of more than a hundred miles, and on viewing the place from across the river, young Potts remarked, as quoted by Elmer, "I like the looks of that place, and think I shall live there all my life." The lad made his home with his grandfather, who was then the mayor. After attending a Friends' school for four years, he became a printer's apprentice. Broader educational opportu- nities now opened for him. In the printing office he had access to newspapers and books, also to a bookstore, and became a dili- gent reader, and as a member of a debating society he found benefit in hearing and engaging in discussions. He developed a talent for composition and public speaking, and soon became a contributor of both prose and verse to the local journals. The year he came of age (1821) he became editor of "The Emporium," a Jackson-Demo- cratic weekly, and also wrote for a Philadel- phia magazine, and this employment pro- vided him means with which he felt justified in entering into marriage, and also in be- coming a law student under Mr. Stockton and Garret D. Wall, and he also taught in a girls' school one hour daily. In 1828-29 he was a member of the Legislature. In 1831 he was elected clerk of the Court of Chancery, and was re-elected, occupying the position ten years in all. This office placed him on the high road to comfortable cir- cumstances. He was an adept in drafting legal papers, and the solicitors were glad to liberally add to his official compensation. In 1841 he published a volume of chancery precedents which was held in high value for very many years.
Having suffered impairment of health by reason of his close attention to clerical du- ties, when he retired from his office he made a visit to Europe, in company with a broth- er, Rev. William S. Potts. He added large- ly to his now rich store of legal knowledge by careful observation of the methods of
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; rxedure in the English courts. In 1844 :. , attainments were recognized by Prince- : n College, which conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1845. he was associated with Peter D. Vroom, Henry W. Green, and William L. Dayton in collating and revising the laws si the State, the greater part of the labor of arrangement, indexing, etc., devolving upon himself.
In 1852, being now in his fifty-third year, he was made by Governor Fort one of the five justices of the Supreme Court, asso- ciated with Chief Justice Green and Judges Ogden, Elmer and Haines. Perhaps the most important case that came before him was the determination of the boundary line between East Jersey and West Jersey, con- cerning which Elmer remarks, "His ruling on that question remains undisturbed, al- though the judgment was reversed on the question of fact as to adverse posses- sion." In 1859 his term of office expiring, he declined a reappointment on account of impaired health and devoted himself to lit- erary pursuits, along historical and religious lines. His parents were Presbyterians, and from his early youth he was deeply re- ligious, but resolutely opposed to Calvinism, and did not unite with the church until he was twenty-three years old. He was or- (lained a ruling elder in 1836, and in 1851 was a member of the General Assembly, and as chairman of a special committee to arrange the complicated financial concerns of that body, he prepared an elaborate re- port which won for him high praise. For thirty-six years he was a teacher in the Sun- day school, or superintendent. In his re- tirement, after leaving the bench, the Scrip- tures and theological works enchained his principal interest. He began a volume of "The Christ of Revelation," but he did not live to complete it. After a gradual decline. he died, in 1865.
MACLEAN, John,
Clergyman, Educator, Author.
John Maclean, D. D., LL. D., was the oldest son of Professor John Maclean, M. D., and Phoebe Bainbridge, of Princeton. He was born March 3, 1800, and was pre- pared for college by his father and at the Princeton Academy. Entering college in 1813 he was graduated in 1816, one of its youngest students. For a few months he taught at Lawrenceville. In 1818 entering Princeton Theological Seminary he re- mained there two years. At the same time he had been appointed a tutor in Greek in the college, and had thus commenced his long career in connection with that institu- tion. In 1822 he was elected to the chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy ; in 1823 he was made professor of Mathe- matics alone; six years later he was trans- ferred to the chair of Languages and in 1830 to that of Ancient Languages, and in 1847 he was made professor of the Greek Language and Literature. He was elected vice-president of the college in 1829, and in 1854, on the resignation of President Carnahan, he was made president, resign- ing in turn in 1868 to be succeeded by Dr. James McCosh. From 1868 he was a re- gent of the Smithsonian Institution. He was also president of the American Colon- ization Society. He received the honorary degree of D. D. from Washington and Jef- ferson in 1841, and the degree of LL. D. from the University of the State of New York in 1854. He was a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary from 1861, and a member of the New Jersey State Board of Education. He died of old age on August 10, 1886, at Princeton, and is buried in the Princeton cemetery. He was unmarried.
Dr. Maclean was ordained a minister by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in Feb-
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ruary, 1828, and from that time, although he never held a formal pastoral charge, he he was prominent in the affairs of the church. He was repeatedly a member of the General Assembly, taking active part in all matters pertaining to the constitution of the church, to education, to temperance and to the doctrinal discussions that led to the division of the church in 1837-1838. In order to promote a better understanding between the parties at odds, and to defend the more important proceedings of the gen- eral assembly on the issues between the old and new school branches of the church, he wrote in 1837 for the "Presbyterian" a series of six exceptionally able letters, re- published the following year in pamphlet form under the title "A Review of the Pro- ceedings of the General Assembly at the Session of 1837." In 1838, as a representa- tive of the Presbytery of New Brunswick, he was present at the assembly when the division in the church occurred, and was appointed to draw up a "Cir- cular Letter to the Foreign Evan :- gelical Churches," on the issues in- volved. Again in 1843 and 1844 he was a member of the assembly when the im- portant question of the office of ruling elder was settled, and his ability in defence of the majority's view again led to his appoint- ment as the official public spokesman in drawing up a reply to the minority's dissent and protest. In 1844 he published under the title "Letters on the Elder Question" the thirteen communications which he had written on the question, for the "Presby- terian" and which contains a clear summing up of the majority's position.
His most pretentious literary work was a "History of the College of New Jersey" in two volumes, written after he had resigned from the presidency, and published in 1877. containing the history of the institution from the founding in 1746 to his inaugura- tion in 1854. He left materials for the his- tory of his own administration partly in the form of an autobiography which has not
yet been made public. Furthermore in 1876 he issued for private distribution a memoir of his father, Professor Maclean, which was republished in a second edition in 1885.
Beside his essays on the General As- sembly of 1837 and on the elder question of 1844, one of his most remarkable produc- tions was his reply in 1841 to two prize es- says published in England and sanctioned by the National Temperance Society main- taining the duty of total abstinence on the grounds that the Scripture condemned all use of intoxicating drinks, and asserting that the wine used in instituting the Sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper was the unfer- mented juice of the grape. Dr. Maclean's exhaustive and conclusive argument en- titled "An examination of the Essays Bac- chus and Anti Bacchus," originally publish- ed in the "Princeton Review," and reprint- ed in pamphlet form (140 pages) in 1841, in opposition to this doctrine attracted much attention and secured for him a reputation for classical, biblical and patriotic scholar- ship. While not a total abstainer he ap- proved cordially of temperance, but his mental and moral integrity could not allow him to confuse temperance with total ab- stinence nor to admit a position in favor of the latter, when alleged to be based entirely on Scripture and on the testimony of an- tiquity. An interesting and valuable piece of work was an article published in the "Presbyterian" of October, 1873, entitled "The Harmony of the Gospel Accounts of Christ's Resurrection," defending the cred- ibility of the various accounts of the Res- urrection on the basis of the mathematical theory of probabilities.
Beside his college work, Dr. Maclean was engaged in manifold public enterprises. and no scheme of benevolence, educational advance, or public welfare failed to secure his earnest and active co-operation. In- deed, he had been called the "pastor at large" to the people of Princeton and its vicinity. He was largely instrumental in
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