Dr. J. M. Ellis McTaggart

Abstract

THE news of the sudden death of Dr. McTaggart on -L January 18, at the early age of fifty-eight, came as a great shock to his numerous colleagues and friends both in Cambridge and throughout Great Britain. He had, indeed, resigned his lectureship in Trinity College, Cambridge, more than a year ago in order to devote more time to literary work; but he went on giving some of the courses of lectures he had been accustomed to give, and his interest in everything that pertained to the University continued to be as keen as ever. His Friday evening lectures, open to students of all schools, have been for many years past a Cambridge institution; and various stories are related of his acuteness, resource, and ready wit in endeavouring to initiate the profanum vulgus in the problems of metaphysics. In the affairs of his College and in those of the University he took a leading and conspicuous part, bringing to bear upon every issue a fearless independence of judgment, which won for him the respect and esteem even of those to whom he was most opposed in opinion. In politics he was strongly conservative, although here again he never allowed himself to be fettered by party ties but pursued a path distinctly his own.