BOSTON MONDAY LECTURES. 



Pmfessor Borden P. Boione of Boston University, in the Sunday Afternoon. 



In the chapters on the Theories of Life, these discussions are, in 

 many respects, models of argument; and the descriptions of the 

 facts under discussion are often unrivalled for both scientific exact- 

 ness, and rhetorical adequacy of language. In the present state of 

 the debate there is no better manual of the argument than the 

 work in hand. The emptiness of the mechanical explanatipn of 

 l'.fe was never more clearly shown. 



Appletons' Journal. 



It may be said that the distinguishing and striking characteristic 

 of Mr. Cook's work is, that he pours out the treasures of the latest 

 German thought before audiences and readers whose ideas of 8( i- 

 ence and philosophy have been moulded almost exclusively by that 

 English school, which, as Taine says, tends naturally (by racial in- 

 heritance) to materialistic views of life. Our knowledge of the author 

 is confined to what we can obtain from his book; but this is amply 

 sufficient to show that his intellectual equipment has been obtained 

 in Germany, and is truly German in its comprehensiveness and pre- 

 cision. . . . Aside from the rhetorical brilliancy of his style, and the 

 aptness and fertility of his illustrations, Mr. Cook's method of ex- 

 position is remarkably effective. By numbering his propositions, 

 and stating them in the concisest possible phrase, he secures a clear- 

 ness and intelligibility that are seldom so well maintained in a long 

 and complicated argument; and the epigrammatic guise in which 

 most of his principles and conclusions are presented impresses them 

 with peculiar vividness upon the mind of the reader or hearer. 



The Eclectic Magazine. 



Mr. Cook's rhetorical and literary skill would obtain him a hear- 

 ing on any subject he chose to discuss ; but it is very soon seen, that, 

 beneath the glowing and almost too fervidly eloquent language, there 

 is a force of logic, a breadth of intellectual culture, and a mastery 

 of all the issues involved, such as are seldom exhibited by partici- 

 pants on either side in the great controversy between religion and 

 science. It may be said unqualifiedly that the pulpit has never 

 brought such comprehensiveness and precision of knowledge, com- 

 bined with such logical and literary skill, to the discussion of the 

 questions raised by the supposed tendency of biological discovery. 



International Review. 



The lecture-form is retained, and the implied comments of the 

 audience, as given by the reporters, are furnished us, a feature 

 which will strike readers favorably or otherwise, as their ideas are 

 more or less severe on the composition and make-up of a book. For 

 our part, we like this feature. 



The Advance (Chicago). 



The reasons given .for retaining the responses of the audienco, 

 applause, &c., seem to us in this case satisfactory. .It is frequently 

 as much a matter of significant interest to know how statements 

 were received by such an audience as to know what the one indi- 

 vidual said. This Boston Lectureship is altogether unique in 



