The Scottish Review (Volume 34) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1899 Excerpt: ... This is undoubtedly the most notable reprint of the quarter, and will be welcomed by a very large number of readers. Among a certain, and indeed a very numerous class, Mr. Holt Hutton was long a great intellectual power, and whatever may be thought of his opinions, there can be no hesitation in saying that he was a strong, clear, and fearless thinker, imbued with a broad and catholic spirit, and always disposed to allow the same freedom to others that he claimed for himself. The selections which have here been made from his papers in the Spectator from the pages of which he was wont to address his weekly homily to an audience which was almost as widely spread as the English speaking race, deal entirely as the title indicates with the varying aspects of religious and scientific thought, and they deal with these aspects for the most part, if not indeed always, from the religious or ethical point of view. To the condition of the religious and ethical atmosphere around him, Mr. Hutton was extremely sensitive, and nothing suited him better than to treat of the varying opinions which are continually being projected into it, and to bring them to the test of the eternal truths over which they float and sometimes obscure as clouds the heavens. The 'aspects' are here treated in no narrow or sectarian way, but in a broad and catholic spirit. The papers are short, and the style is sometimes a little involved; but it is often eloquent, and one is never at a loss to make out the aspect which Mr. Hutton contends against, and the one which he believed to be more consonant with the truth and more helpful to men. Some of the papers are exceedingly fine, and will commend themselves to all, while each of them is the utterance of a mind profoundly religious and profoundly inten...