, 1879-03-30
FOUR YEARS OF JOSEPH cooK..

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FOUR YEARS OF JOSEPH COOK:
That peculiar institution Of Boston, tht
"Monday Lecture" has just closed its fourth
season, and the modern BoASERGzs who pre-
| sides over it will now stop awhile for breath,
and to lay in fresh store of thunder and
theology for the next campaign. No merely
human powers can stand indefinite drains
upon them; and many, even Of Mr. CooK's
tho universally Of human nature and the
| common limitations Of human energy in the
! fact that even his tremendous enginery de-
mands occasional stops for rest, and possibly
for repairs. It is at least comforting to find
that Mr. CooK is, after all, in this view, quite
human, n,-almost "one Of u.s.. as it we're,
and not, as he has evidently appeared to his
more ardent followers, an extra-mundane
being Titan from some upper region Of
thought and intellect, falling into the midst
Of our crude nineteenth-century life.
This pause in the career of Mr.. Cook may
be proper opportunity for taking, the
measure of himself and his works, or at least
for marking some Of their most prominent
outlines. It has not been found an easy
matter to persuade him to remain quiet long
enough to have his portrait taken, and those
that have been made of him are mostly in
complete and meagre,-overdrawn and un-
truthful in some respects, and altogether
wanting in others. The views are rendered
still more unlike and contradictory by the
wide divergence Of standpoints from which
they were made. While to one class he has
appeared master Of eloquence and logic, O
model Of fairness, an original and powerful
thinker, and q philosopher and scientist Of
profound ind comprehensive learning,
another clase have seen in him only pomp-
GUS declaimer, q turgid and sensational rhet-
orician, superficial philosopher, smat-
terer in science, bully in debate. and
dogmatist in everything, word, hum
bug whose distinguishing characteristic is his
boldness. These views of course represent
the extremes of prejudice on either side, and
the truth must be sought somewhere be-
tween them.
It is not the purpose Of this article to pre-
sent an elaborate estimate Of Mr. CooK, but
rnther to give few hints Of whnt, in our
judgment, that estimate is likely to be. In
the first place, no appraisal can be correct
which does not treat him as essentially
phenomenal He belongs to no school but
his own. He is q curious and unique COM
bination of Greek philosophy, German meta
physics, and Puritanic orthodoxy, into which
is infused the restless energy Of our American
life. His natural and acquired position is
that of an intellectual pugilist. He sprang
like giant into the arena Of modern theo-
logical dispute, and for four years he has
been the acknowledged champion of the
orthodox side. In the contest be has de-
pended less upon dexterity than upon
strength and bo1dness. His methods
have been novel and startling, and,
while at first astonishing to his
opponents, have caused his followers to fancy
with vast force Of intellectual muscle, but
often clumsily; and his want Of skill and pre-
cision have frequently exposed him to the
keen thrusts of more agile antagonists, who
have seen their opportunity to attack him
upon some weak side. The same ,vigor
which has enabled him to give blows has,
however, ena bled him to receive them with
out much damage in return, his intellectual
constitution being probably as well calcu-
lated to endure punishment as that Of any
man of the age. He has thus perhaps suf-
fered less from the assaults of his adver-
snries than from his own impetuosity, his
blows being often needlessly terrific and i'm
d,sproportioned to the resisting
power Of the object upen which they were
directed. Not infrequently he has in this
way fallen over some insignificant question
which he has rushed to attack, and tumbled
headlong in the philosophic dust from his
own momentum, like the valiant Knight
Sir HuDmRAs IN his charge upon the willy
female warrior TnuL1A, who, seeing his i'm
pending blow, and
Avoiding it. the force and weight
lie charg'd upon it was SO great -
AS almost sway'd him to the ground.
It was inevitable that the place perma-
nently assigned to Mr. CooK as philosopher
should be less high than that accorded HIM
during the sensational period of his caller
appearance before the public There was
something about his very bo1dness, his
colossal egotism and selt-assertion, that for
time carried things by storm. But this very
success was really the most dangerous thing
that could befall him. 1t led him into wider
sweeps and more ambitious range Of inves-
tigation. He sought not only to combat in
fidelity and to instruct aud inspire religious
and theological teachers in their OWL do
main,-a task for which his attaiuments and
temperament admirably fitted him, but to
teach philosophy to the philosophers and to
instruct scientists in scientific things. In
this he failed, as must any man who attempts
to do 30 much. Mr. Cook is big and
bury, but he is not universal. To