Since Scotland sent to Princeton Dr.John Witherspoon to preside over it, and to be one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, she has sent no richer gift than Dr.James McCosh.

For several years before he came to America he was a professor in the Queen's College at Belfast.

Passing through Belfast in 1862, I looked in for a few moments at the Irish Presbyterian General Assembly, which was convened in Dr.Cook's church, and said to a man: "Whom can you show me here ?" Pointing to a tall, somewhat stooping figure, standing near the pulpit, he said: "There is McCosh." I replied: "It is worth coming here to see the brightest man in Ireland." What a great, all-round, fully equipped, many-sided mass of splendid manhood he was! What a complete combination of philosopher, theologian, preacher, scholar, and college president all rolled into one! During the twenty years of his brilliant career at Princeton he displayed much of Jonathan Edwards' metaphysical acumen, of John Witherspoon's wisdom, Samuel Davies' fervor and Dr."Johnny" McLean's kindness of heart; the best qualities of his predecessors were combined in him.

He came here a Scotchman at the age of fifty-seven, and in a year he became, as Paddy said, "a native American." To my mind the chief glory of Dr.McCosh's presidency at Princeton was the fervid interest he felt in the religious welfare of his students.

He often invited me to come over and deliver sermons to them, and occasionally a temperance address; for he was a zealous teetotaler and prohibitionist, and I always lodged with him at his house.