Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-08-13
a sAvANr ovERLooKEp.


EDITOR OF THE CHRONICLE:-
When / gave you an account OF
some. of the professors in this Uni
versity | had not yet made the ae-
quaintance of one who is not only
its leading intellect but a great
light in science wherever science is
made the business of life.
Prof. John McCrady was the fa-
vorite pupil of the great Agassiz,
and upon the death of that eminent
zoologist succeeded him in the chair
he had so long adorned. He was
of Southern origin, and when the
troubles which led to our great
civil war broke out, the diversities
of opinion and feeling which arose
between him and his colleagues led
to his withdrawal from Harvard
and from the North. Since then
his home has been in the South,
and for some years at Sewanee.
His chair in this institution is Ehat
of biology, which is combination
including what used to be taught
separately as comparative physiolo-
gy and psychology. His depart
ment also includes the relations of
religion to science, but in his
method of treatment these are not
two departments but one. The diff
ference of all material being organ
ic and inorganic for its qualities and
functions upon the actuation and
interfusion of spirit, which is a di-
rect emanation from deity, is the
central idea of his teaching. "It is
God that worketh in US TO will and
to do'' is a text which he interprets
literally, and he extends it not only
to all humanity but to all material
existence, and what we call the
properties of matter and the forces
acting upon and through it, are
only diverse manifestations of the
Divine essence and will.
In short, McCrady and Huxley
are direct antagonists Huxley de-
veIops everything, even to our in
tellectual and moral conceptions
and the faculties of reason and con-
science themselves, from the action
and realities of matter and material
forces. McCrady develops matter
and the material forces themselves
from the divine intellect and will.
In fact, he recognizes no force in
nature except the will of God,
These two eminent men, in fact,
the two great schools of
thought which were first developed
from the philosophy of Locke, the
schools represented by Berkely and
Hume. McCFady is a thorough
Berkelynite, and Huxley is the BIZ
ographer and champion of Hume,
Ever since the days of those great
leaders, metaphysical opinion has
oscilliated between their respective
types of thought. The danger of
the one is atheism; that of the
other, pantheisln. We neither con-
slider Huxley an atheist nor Nc
Grady pantheist, but less
thoughtful followers of such men
are always liable to the error to-
wards which the opinions of their
leaders gravitate when carried to
an extreme. 81
But the remarkable thing I in
tended to dwell on in this paper is
the Inconsistencies of US Tennes-
seeans that we have such a man as
Prof. McCrady dwelling in our
state. In England, Germany and
France, the. professor has been a
prominent object sometimes of an
tagonism, sometimes of vindica-
ton, but in both cases he is always
spoken of, even by the greatest, with
profound respect. Here, we simply
know nothing about him. Verify,
a prophet is no prophet in his own
country. d. f. W.
Sewanee University, Tenn.