He studied at Glasgow and Edinburgh, receiving at the latter university his M.A., at the suggestion of Sir William Hamilton, for an essay on the Stoic philosophy. He became a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, first at Arbroath and then at Brechin[?], and took part in the Free Church movement of 1843.
In 1852 he was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics in Queen's College, Belfast[?]; and in 1868 was chosen president and professor of philosophy of the college of New Jersey, at Princeton. He resigned the presidency in 1888, but continued as lecturer on philosophy till his death.
He was most successful in college administration, a good lecturer and an effective preacher. His general philosophical attitude and method were Hamiltonian he insisted on severing religious and philosophical data from merely physical, and though he added little to original thought he clearly, restated and vigorously used the conclusions of others. In his controversial writings he often failed to understand the real significance of the views which he attacked, and much of his criticism is superficial.
His chief works are:
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump