BOSTON MONDAY LECTURES. 



therefore, soon transferred to Park-street Church. Two Vctures 

 were given in this large auditorium, when it was found to be much 

 too si"all, and the audiences were crowded out into Tremont Tem- 

 ple. The first lecture there was given Nov. 13, 1876. This hall will 

 contain from twenty-five hundred to three thousand people, and 

 was often more than full in the winter of 1S76-77. During the 

 delivery of a course of thirteen lectures on " Biology," and of eleven 

 on "Transcendentalism," and of eleven on "Orthodoxy," it was 

 often necessary to turn hearers away, as they could not obtain 

 standing-room. From the forty- fifth lecture "The Boston Daily 

 Advertiser" published full stenographic reports of the lectures. 

 The reporter's manuscript was revised by the lecturer. " The New- 

 York Independent " regularly republished the lectures from Feb- 

 ruary, 1876. "The Cincinnati Gazette" did the same; and a large 

 number of newspapers throughout the country published extracts 

 from them. In the course of the winter a few replies to certain 

 statements in the lectures were made by Rev. Dr. James Freeman 

 Clarke and other Unitarians, by Rev. Dr. Miner and other Univer- 

 salist ministers. 



From February, 1876, most of the Boston Monday Lectures were 

 republished in London by the firm of R. D. Dickinson, Farringdon 

 Street. Individual lectures were republished in "The Christian 

 World Pulpit," and other theological serials of Great Britain. At 

 the close of the course for 1876-77, in May, eighty lectures had been 

 given, of which all from the forty-fifth had been published. In 

 September, 1877, James R. Osgood and Company issued " Biology, 

 with Preludes on Current Events," a collection of thirteen Boston 

 Monday Lectures. This volume, at the beginning of December, 1877, 

 was in its twelfth edition. In November the same house issued 

 another course of Mr. Cook's lectures, entitled "Transcenden- 

 talism," and announced still another course, entitled " Orthodoxy." 



Oct. 1, a course of ten lectures on "Conscience" was opened, 

 and, Dec. 10, a course of ten on " Hereditary Descent." Full steno- 

 graphic reports, revised by Mr. Cook, are now published in "The 

 Boston Daily Advertiser,' - ' "The New-York Independent," "The 

 Cincinnati Gazette," and " The New- York Advocate." Very num- 

 erous other papers publish large extracts from them. At least a 

 hundred thousand copies appear weekly. The lectures are regularly 

 repubbshed in London. 



It ought to be added, that since the close of his lectures in May, 

 1877, Mr. Cook has delivered several of them in New-York city, 

 Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y., Princeton, N.J., and various other 

 places; has also supplied various pulpits in Boston and other cities. 

 Before a critic passes any severe criticism on these lectures, he may 

 wisely ask himself whether, without having a previously established 

 reputation, he would be able for two years to interest congregations 

 containing sometimes fifteen hundred hearers, of whom sometimes 

 five hundred are liberally educated men, assembled in the midst of 



firessing engagements, anil in the whirl of a great city; and whether, 

 q addition to his Monday-noon exercises, he would be able to super- 

 Intend the printing of three volumes of his lectures on abstruse 

 and complicated themes, to preach frequently on the sabbath, and 

 occasionally to deliver sermons, each one of which is from one t* 

 two hours in length. 



