Robert, a schismatic divine, the founder of the Brownists, a numerous sect of dissenters in reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was the son of Mr Anthony Brown of Tolthorpe in Rutlandshire; whose father obtained the singular privilege of wearing his cap in the king's presence, by a charter of Henry VIII. Robert was educated at Cambridge, in Corpus Christi, or, according to Collier, in Bennet college, and was afterwards a schoolmaster in Southwark. About the year 1580, he began to promulgate his principles of diffusion from the established church; and the following year preached at Norwich, where he soon accumulated a numerous congregation. He was violent in his abuse of the church of England; pretended to divine inspiration, and that he alone was the sure guide to heaven. This new feet daily increasing, Dr Freake bishop of Norwich, with other ecclesiastical commissioners, called our apostle before them. He was insolent to the court, and they committed him to the custody of the sheriff's officer; but he was released at the intercession of lord treasurer Burleigh, to whom it seems he was related. Brown now left the kingdom; and with permission of the states, settled at Middleburg in Zeeland; where he formed a church after his own plan, and preached without molestation; but here persecution, the sine qua non of fanaticism, was wanting. In 1585, we find him again in England: for in that year he was cited to appear before Archbishop Whitgift; and seeming to comply with the established church, was, by Lord Burleigh, sent home to his father: but relapsing into his former obstinacy, his aged parent was obliged to turn him out of his house. He now wandered about for some time, and in the course of his mission endured great hardships. At last he fixed at Northampton; where, labouring with too much indiscipline to increase his feet, he was cited by the bishop of Peterborough, and, refusing to appear, was finally excommunicated for contempt. The solemnity of this censure, we are told, immediately effected his reformation. He moved for absolution, which he obtained, and from that time became a dutiful member of the church of England. This happened about the year 1590; and, in a short time after, Brown was preferred to a rectory in Northamptonshire, where he kept a curate to do his duty, and where he might probably have died in peace: but having some dispute with the constable of his parish, he proceeded to blows; and was afterwards so insolent to the justice, that he committed him to Northampton jail, where he died in 1630, aged 80. Thus ended the life of the famous Robert Brown; the greatest part of which was a series of opposition and persecution. He boasted on his death-bed, that he had been confined in no less than 32 different prisons. He wrote "A treatise of reformation without tarrying for any, and of the wickedness of those teachers which will not reform themselves and their charge, because they will tarry till the magistrate command and compel them, by me Robert Brown;" and two others, making together a thin quartos; published at Middleburg, 1582.

Ulysses Maximilian, a celebrated general of the 18th century, was son of Ulysses, baron Brown and Camus, colonel of a regiment of cuirassiers in the emperor's service, and descended from one of the most ancient and noble families in Ireland. He was born at Basil in 1705; and having finished his first studies at Limeric in Ireland, was, in 1715, sent for into Hungary, by Count George Brown, his uncle, member of the aulic council of war, and colonel of a regiment of infantry. He was present at the famous battle of Belgrade, in 1717. Next year he followed his uncle into Italy, who made him continue his studies, in the Clementine college at Rome, till the year 1721, when he was sent to Prague in order to learn the civil vil law. At the end of the year 1723, he became captain in his uncle's regiment; and in 1725, lieutenant-colonel; in 1730, he went into Corfua with a battalion of his regiment; and contributed greatly to the taking of Callanfara, where he received a considerable wound in his thigh. In 1732, the emperor made him chamberlain: He was raised to the rank of colonel in 1734; and distinguished himself so much in the war of Italy, especially at the battles of Parma and Guastalla, and in burning in the presence of the French army the bridge which the marshal de Noailles had caused to be thrown over the Adige, that he was made general in 1736. The following year he favoured the retreat of the army, after the unhappy battle of Banjulca in Bosnia, by an excellent manoeuvre, and saved all the baggage. His admirable conduct upon this occasion was rewarded by his obtaining a second regiment of infantry, vacant by the death of Count Francis de Wallis.

At his return to Vienna, in 1739, the emperor Charles VI, raised him to the rank of general-field-marshal-lieutenant, and made him counsellor in the aulic council of war. After the death of that prince, the king of Prussia entering Silesia, Count Brown, with a small body of troops, disputed the country with him inch by inch. He signalized himself on several other occasions; and, in 1743, the queen of Hungary made him a privy-counsellor, at her coronation in Bohemia. He at length passed into Bavaria, where he commanded the van-guard of the Austrian army; seized Deckendorf, with a great quantity of baggage; and obliged the French to abandon the banks of the Danube, which the Austrian army passed in full security. The same year, viz. in 1743, the queen of Hungary sent him to Worms, in quality of her plenipotentiary to the king of Britain; where he put the last hand to the treaty of alliance between the courts of Vienna, London, and Turin. In 1744, he followed Prince Lobkowitz into Italy; took the city of Veletri, on the 4th of August, in spite of the superior numbers of the enemy; entered their camp, overthrew several regiments, and took many prisoners. The following year he was recalled into Bavaria, where he took the town of Willshofen by assault, and received a dangerous shot in the thigh. The same year he was made general of the artillery; and in January 1746, marched for Italy, at the head of a body of 18,000 men. He then drove the Spaniards out of the Milanese; and having joined the forces under Prince de Lichtenstein, commanded the left wing of the Austrian army at the battle of Placentia on the 15th of June 1746, and defeated the right wing of the enemy's forces commanded by Marshal de Maillebois. After this victory, he commanded in chief the army against the Genoese; seized the pass of Boffetta or Bochetta, though defended by above 4000 men; and took the city of Genoa. Count Brown at length joined the king of Sardinia's troops; and took, in conjunction with him, Mont-Alban, and the county of Nice. On the 30th of November he passed the Var, in spite of the French troops; entered Provence; took the isles of St Margaret and St Honorat; and thought to have rendered himself master of a much greater part of Provence, when the revolution which happened in Genoa, and Marshal de Belleisle's advancing with his army, obliged him to make that fine retreat which procured him the admiration and esteem of all persons skilled in war. He employed the rest of the year 1747 in defending the states of the house of Austria in Italy; and after the peace in 1748, he was sent to Nice to regulate there, in conjunction with the duke of Belleisle and the marquis de la Minas, the differences that had arisen with respect to the execution of some of the articles of the definitive treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.

The empress queen, to reward these signal services, especially his glorious campaigns in Italy in 1749, made him governor of Transylvania, where he rendered himself generally admired for his probity and disinterestedness. In 1752, he obtained the government of the city of Prague, with the chief command of the troops in that kingdom; in 1753, the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, honoured him with the collar of the order of the white eagle; and the next year he was declared field-marshal.

The king of Prussia entering Saxony in 1756, and attacking Bohemia, Count Brown marched against him; and repulsed that prince at the battle of Lobitz, on the 1st of October, though he had only 27,000 men, and the king of Prussia had at least 40,000. Seven days after this battle, he undertook the famous march into Saxony, to deliver the Saxon troops shut up between Pirna and Konigstein; an action worthy of the greatest captains, ancient or modern. He at length obliged the Prussians to retire from Bohemia; for which he was rewarded, by being made a knight of the golden fleece. Soon after, Count Brown hastily assembled an army in Bohemia, to oppose the king of Prussia, who had again penetrated into that kingdom at the head of all his forces; and on the 6th of May fought the famous battle of Prague; in which, while he was employed in giving his orders for maintaining the advantages he had gained over the Prussians, he was so dangerously wounded, that he was obliged to be carried to Prague, where he died of his wounds, on the 26th of June 1757, at 52 years of age. There is reason to believe, that, had he not been wounded, he would have gained the victory, as he had broken the Prussians, and the brave Count Schwerin, one of their greatest generals, was slain.

Brown, Sir Thomas, an eminent physician and celebrated writer, was born at London, October 19th 1605. Having studied at Winchester college, and afterwards at Oxford, he travelled through France and Italy; and returning by the way of Holland, took his degree of doctor of physic at Leyden. In 1636, he settled at Norwich; and the year following, was incorporated as doctor of physic at Oxford. His Religio Medici made a great noise; and being translated into Latin, instantly spread throughout Europe, and gained him a prodigious reputation: it was then translated into almost every language in Europe. This book has been heavily censured by some, as tending to infidelity, and even atheism; while others, with much more reason, have applauded the piety, as well as the parts and learning, of the author. The reverend Mr Granger observes, that among other peculiarities in this book, he speaks of the ultimate act of love as a folly beneath a philosopher; and says, that he could be content that we might procreate, like trees, without conjunction: but, after the writing of it, he defended Brown, scended from his philosophic dignity, and married an agreeable woman. It was said, that his reason for marrying was, because he could discover no better method of procreation. His Treatise on Vulgar Errors was read with equal avidity; he also published Hydriotaphia, or a Diligence of Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk. His reputation in his profession was equal to his fame for learning in other respects; and therefore the college of physicians were pleased to take him into their number as an honorary member; and King Charles II. coming to Norwich in his progress, in 1671, was pleased to knight him, with singular marks of favour and respect. He died on his birthday, in 1682, leaving several manuscripts behind him, which were published under the title of The posthumous works of the learned Sir Thomas Brown, Knt. M.D.

Brown, Edward, the son of the former, physician to King Charles II. and president of the royal college at London. He was born in the year 1642; and studied at Cambridge, and afterwards at Merton college, Oxford. He then travelled; and at his return published a brief account of some travels in Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thessaly, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Friuli, &c.; he also published an account of several travels through great part of Germany; and joined his name to those of many other eminent men, in a translation of Plutarch's lives. He was acquainted with Hebrew, was a critic in Greek, and no man of his age wrote better Latin, High Dutch, Italian, French, &c. he spoke and wrote with as much ease as his mother-tongue. King Charles said of him, that "he was as learned as any of the college, and as well bred as any at court." He died August 27th 1708.

Brown, William, an English poet of the 17th century, was descended from a good family, and born at Tavistock in Devonshire in the year 1590. After he had passed through the grammar school, he was sent to Exeter college in the university of Oxford, in the beginning of the reign of James I. and became tutor to Robert Dormer, who was afterwards earl of Carnarvon, and killed at Newbury battle, September 20. 1643. He is styled in the public register of the university, "a man well skilled in all kinds of polite literature and useful arts;" vir omnium humanae literaturae et bonarum artium cognitione instructus. After he had left the college with his pupil, he was taken into the family of William earl of Pembroke, who had a great respect for him; and he made his fortune so well, that he purchased an estate. His poetical works procured him a very great reputation. They are as follow: 1. Britannia's pastorals. The first part was published at London, 1613, in folio; and ushered into the world with several copies of verses made by his ingenious and learned friends John Selden, Michael Drayton, Christopher Cook, &c. The second part was printed at London in 1616, and recommended by various copies of verses written by John Glanville, who afterwards became eminent in the profession of the law, and others. These two parts were reprinted in two vols. 8vo. 1625. 2. The shepherd's pipe, in seven eclogues; London, 1614, in 8vo. 3. An elegy on the never-enough bewailed death of Prince Henry, eldest son of King James I. Mr Wood tells us, that it is probable our author wrote several other poems which he had not seen. It is uncertain when he died.

Brown, Thomas, "of facetious memory," as he is styled by Addison, was the son of a farmer in Shropshire; and entered in Christ-church college, Oxford, where he soon distinguished himself by his uncommon attainments in literature. But the irregularities of his life not suffering him to continue long there, he, instead of returning to his father, went to London to seek his fortune; his companions, however, being more delighted with his humour than ready to relieve his necessities, he had recourse to the usual refuge of half-starved wits, scribbling for bread; and published a great variety of poems, letters, dialogues, &c. full of humour and erudition, but often indelicate. Though a good-natured man, he had one pernicious quality, which was, rather to lose his friend than his joke.

Towards the latter end of Tom Brown's life, we are informed by Mr Jacob, that he was in favour with the earl of Dorset, who invited him to dinner on a Christmas day, with Mr Dryden and some other gentlemen celebrated for their ingenuity, (as his lordship's custom was); when Mr Brown to his agreeable surprise found a bank note of 50l. under his plate, and Mr Dryden at the same time was presented with another of 100l. Mr Brown died in the year 1704; and was interred in the cloister of Westminster abbey, near the remains of Mrs Behn, with whom he was intimate in his lifetime. His works have been printed both in 8vo and 12mo, making 4 vols.

Brown, Dr John, a clergyman of the church of England, and an ingenious writer, was born at Rothbury in Northumberland in November 1715. His father John Brown, was a native of Scotland; of the Browns of Colftown near Haddington; and at the time of his son's birth was curate to Dr Tomlinson rector of Rothbury. He was afterwards collated to the vicarage of Wigton in Cumberland; to which place he carried his son, who received the first part of his education there. Thence he was removed in 1732 to the university of Cambridge, and entered of St John's college, under the tuition of Dr Tunstall. After taking the degree of bachelor of arts with great reputation (being among the list of wranglers, and his name at the head of the list), he returned to Wigton, and received both deacon's and priest's orders from Sir George Fleming bishop of Carlisle. Here he was appointed by the dean and chapter a minor canon and lecturer of the cathedral church. For some years he lived here in obscurity; and nothing farther is known concerning him, than that in 1739 he went to Cambridge to take his degree of master of arts. In 1745 he distinguished himself as a volunteer in the king's service, and behaved with great intrepidity at the siege of Carlisle. After the defeat of the rebels, when several of them were tried at the assizes held at Carlisle in the summer of 1746, he preached at the cathedral church of that city two excellent discourses, on the mutual connexion between religious truth and civil freedom; and between superstition, tyranny, irreligion, and licentiousness.

Mr Brown's attachment to the royal cause and to the Whig party procured him the friendship of Dr Oxbaldington, who was the only person that continued to Brown's temper, or some other cause, having produced quarrels with every one else. When Dr O'haldefton was advanced to the see of Carlisle, he appointed Mr Brown to be one of his chaplains.

It was probably in the early part of his life, and during his residence at Carlisle, that Mr Brown wrote his poem entitled Honour, inscribed to the lord viscount Londale. Our author's next poetical production was his Essay on Satire; and which was of considerable advantage to him both in point of fame and fortune. It was addressed to Dr Warburton; to whom it was so acceptable, that he took Mr Brown into his friendship, and introduced him to Ralph Allen, Esq., of Prior Park, near Bath, who behaved to him with great generosity, and at whose house he resided for some time.

In 1751 Mr Brown published his "Essays on the Characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury, &c." dedicated to Ralph Allen, Esq. This was received with a high degree of applause, though several persons attempted to answer it. In 1754 our author was promoted by the earl of Hardwicke to the living of Great Horkeley in Essex.

In 1755, our author took the degree of doctor of divinity at Cambridge. This year he published his tragedy of Barbarossa; which, under the management of Mr Garrick, was acted with considerable applause; but when it came to be published, it was exposed to a variety of strictures and censures. This tragedy introduced our author to the acquaintance of that eminent actor; by whose favour he had a second tragedy, named Abelion, represented at Drury-Lane playhouse. This was also well received by the public; but did not become so popular as Barbarossa, nor did it preserve so long the possession of the stage.

In 1757 appeared his famous "Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times." The reception which this work met with from the public was very flattering to his vanity; no fewer than seven editions of it having been printed in little more than a year. The chief design of this performance was to show, that a vain, luxurious, and selfish effeminacy in the higher ranks of life marked the character of the age; and to point out the effects and sources of this effeminacy. Several antagonists appeared, some of whom were neither destitute of learning nor ingenuity; though Dr Brown himself asserted that Mr Wallace, a clergyman of Edinburgh, was the only candid and decent adversary that appeared against him. The testimony given by M. de Voltaire to the effect which the Estimate had on the conduct of the nation, is very honourable to Dr Brown. "When Marshal Richelieu, in 1756, (says that celebrated writer), laid siege to Port Mahon, the capital of Minorca, the British sent out Admiral Byng with a strong naval force, to drive the French fleet off the island, and raise the siege. At this time there appeared a book, entitled An Estimate of the Manners of the Times; of which there was no less than five editions printed off in London in the space of three months. In this treatise the author proves that the English nation was entirely degenerated;—that it was near its ruin;—that its inhabitants were no longer so robust and hardy as in former times;—and that its soldiers had lost their courage.

This work roused the sensibility of the English nation, and produced the following consequences. They attacked, almost at once and the same time, all the sea coasts of France, and her possessions in Asia, Africa, and America." In 1758, our author published the second volume of his Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times; containing additional remarks on the ruling manners and principles, and on the public effects of those manners and principles. The design of this volume was, to retract such mistakes as he thought he had committed; to prove such points as were affirmed and not proved; to illustrate those particulars which were hinted, but not explained; to reply to such capital objections as had been made to his general system by preceding writers on the same subject; and to display the consequences which might be fairly deduced from his principles, and through a designed brevity were omitted in the first volume. But it unfortunately happened that the doctor's self-opinion, which gave so much offence in his first volume, broke out in the second with still greater violence. The consequence of this was, that he exposed himself to general censure and dislike; and the prejudices against him occasioned the real excellencies of the work to be very much overlooked. The periodical critics, whom he had gone needlessly out of his way to abuse, treated him with uncommon severity; and such a multitude of antagonists rose against him, so many objections were urged upon him, by friends as well as enemies, that he seems to have been deeply impressed, and to have retired for a while into the country. From the country it was that he wrote, in a series of letters to a noble friend, "An Explanatory Defence of the Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times; being an appendix to that work, occasioned by the clamours lately raised against it among certain ranks of men."

But while Dr Brown thus distinguished himself as a political writer, he was advanced to no higher dignity in the church: nay, on some disgust, it is supposed, he resigned his living in Essex; however, in recompense, Dr O'haldefton procured him the rectory of St Nicholas in Newcastle on Tyne. He would probably have received further favours from this prelate, had not the latter died soon after his promotion to the see of London.

In 1760 our author published an Additional Dialogue of the Dead, between Pericles and Ariadne; being a sequel to a dialogue of Lord Lyttleton's between Pericles and Cofmo. One design of this additional dialogue was to vindicate the measures of Mr Pitt, against whose administration Lord Lyttleton had been supposed to have thrown out some hints. Our author's next publication, in 1763, was "The cure of Saul," a sacred ode; which was followed in the same year by "A Dissertation on the Rise, Union, and Power, the Progressions, Separations, and Corruptions of Poetry and Music." This is one of the most pleasing of Dr Brown's performances, and abounds with a variety of critical discussions. A number of strictures on this piece were published; and the doctor defended himself in a treatise entitled "Remarks on some Observations on Dr Brown's Dissertations on Poetry and Music." In 1764 our author published, in octavo, "The History of the Rise and Progress of Poetry through its several Species;" which is Brown, no more than the substance given in the dissertation above mentioned. The same year Dr Brown published a volume of sermons, dedicated to his patron Dr Ofaldeon bishop of London; but most, if not all, of these, had been separately published, excepting the first three, which were on the subject of education. In the beginning of the year 1765, the doctor again returned to politics, and published "Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and Faction." At the conclusion of this work the author prefabricated a code of education, upon which Dr Priestley made remarks at the end of his "Essay on the Course of a liberal Education for civil and active Life." The same year he published a sermon "On the Female Character and Education," preached on the 16th of May 1765, before the guardians of the asylum for deserted female orphans. His last publication was in 1766, "A Letter to the Rev. Dr Lowth, occasioned by his late Letter to the Right Rev. Author of the Divine Legislation of Moses." This was occasioned by Dr Lowth's having clearly, though indirectly, pointed at Dr Brown as one of the extravagant adulators and defenders of Bishop Warburton. Besides these works, Dr Brown published a poem on Liberty, and two or three anonymous pamphlets. At the end of several of his later writings, he advertised his design of publishing "Christian Principles of Legislation," but was prevented from executing it by his death; though the work appears to have been completed.

We come now to the concluding events of our author's life; concerning which the following is the most authentic intelligence that can be procured. Whilst Dr Dumaresq resided in Russia in the year 1765, to which he had been invited in the preceding year to give his advice and assistance for the establishment and regulation of several schools which her imperial majesty intended to erect, he received a letter from a lady of distinguished character in England, recommending to him Dr Brown as a proper correspondent on this occasion. Dr Dumaresq then wrote a letter to Dr Brown, telling him the occasion of his application, and the difficulties that occurred. He had imagined that nothing more would be wanted of him than what concerned classical learning, and a general foundation for the sciences; as that had been the common introduction to every kind of useful knowledge in the western parts of Europe. But on his arrival he found that a much more extensive scheme was required; and such as extended not only to learning properly so called, but also to matters military and naval, civil and commercial. But having stated his difficulties in executing this plan to Dr Brown, the latter proposed a scheme still more extensive; and which was no less than a general plan of civilization throughout the whole Russian empire. In this plan, however, though it showed very enlarged ideas and great strength of mind, there were several defects which rendered it, as Dr Brown himself was afterwards convinced, impracticable. He had laid greater stress upon the support, energy, and efficacy of absolute power in princes when exerted in a good cause, than experience would warrant; and he was ready to imagine that the bulk of the Russian nation, just emerging out of barbarism, was like a taluwa ra'a, upon which any characters might be written. At last the doctor's letter was laid before the empress, who was so pleased with it that she immediately invited him to Russia. He accepted the invitation, and procured his majesty's leave to go: 1000l. were ordered for his expense, and he actually received 200l. But when he was on the point of setting out, an attack of the gout and rheumatism, to which he had been all his lifetime subject, so impaired his health, that his friends dissuaded, and at last succeeded in preventing him from going. The money was returned excepting 97l. 6s. which had been expended in necessaries for the intended journey. But though he thus declined the journey, a long letter which he afterwards wrote to the empress, and which does honour to his abilities, shows that he had not abandoned his intention of being serviceable. The affair, however, taking in all its circumstances, did no doubt greatly agitate his mind; and his being obliged at length to give up the journey, must have been no small disappointment to a man of his sanguine expectations. This disappointment concurring with the general state of his health, and perhaps the recollection of some other failures that had happened, was followed by a dejection of spirits; in consequence of which he put an end to his life on the 23rd of September 1766, in the 51st year of his age. On the morning of that day his servant came into his bed-chamber, and asked him what sort of a night he had had? to which he replied, "A pretty good one." The servant having quitted the bedside for a few minutes, heard a noise in the doctor's throat, which he imagined to be owing to some obstruction occasioned by phlegm. Going to assist his master, he found him speechless, and bleeding profusely, having cut the jugular vein with a razor; and this he had done so effectually, that death speedily ensued. Such was the unhappy end of this ingenious writer; but the manner of it, when some previous circumstances of his life are understood, will cast no stain on his character. He had a tendency to insanity in his constitution; and, from his early life, had been subject at times to some disorder in his brain, at least to melancholy in its excess. Mrs Gilpin of Carlisle, soon after Dr Brown's decease, wrote in the following terms, in a letter to a friend. "His distemper was a frenzy, to which he had by fits been long subject; to my own knowledge above 30 years. Had it not been for Mr Farish frequently, and once for myself, the same event would have happened to him long ago. It was no premeditated purpose in him; for he abhorred the thought of self-murder; and in bitterness of soul expressed his fears to me, that one time or another some ready mischief might present itself to him, at a time when he was wholly deprived of his reason."

Brown, Simon, a dissenting minister, whose uncommon talents and singular misfortunes entitle him justly to a place in this work, was born at Shepton Mallet in Somersetshire, 1680. Grounded and excelling in grammatical learning, he early became qualified for the ministry, and actually began to preach before he was twenty. He was first called to be a parson at Portsmouth, and afterwards removed to the Old Jewry, where he was admired and esteemed for a number of years. But the death of his wife and only son, which happened in 1723, affected him so as to deprive him of his reason; and he became from that time lost to himself, to his family, and to the world; his congregation at the Old Jewry, in expectation of his recovery, delayed for some time to fill his post; yet at length all hopes were over, and Mr. Samuel Chandler was appointed to succeed him in 1725. This double misfortune affected him at first in a manner little different from distraction, but afterwards sunk him into a settled melancholy. He quitted the duties of his function, and would not be persuaded to join in any act of worship, public or private. Being urged by his friends for a reason of this extraordinary change, at which they expressed the utmost grief and astonishment, he told them, after much importunity, that "he had fallen under the sensible displeasure of God, who had caused his rational soul gradually to perish, and left him only an animal life in common with brutes: that, though he retained the human shape, and the faculty of speaking in a manner that appeared to others rational, he had all the while no more notion of what he said than a parrot; that it was therefore profane in him to pray, and incongruous to be present at the prayers of others." And, very consistently with this, he considered himself no longer as a moral agent, or subject of either reward or punishment. In this way of thinking and talking he unalterably and obstinately persisted to the end of his life; though he afterwards suffered, and even requested prayers to be made for him. Some time after his secession from the Old Jewry, he retired to Shepton Mallet, his native place; and though in this retirement he was perpetually contending that his powers of reason and imagination were gone, yet he was constantly exerting both with much activity and vigour. He amused himself sometimes with translating parts of the ancient Greek and Latin poets into English verse: he composed little pieces for the use of children; An English Grammar and Spelling Book; An Abstract of the Scripture-History, and A Collection of Fables, both in metre; and with much learning he brought together into a short compass all the Thesmata of the Greek and Latin tongues, and also compiled a Dictionary to each of those works, in order to render the learning of both these languages more easy and compendious. Of these performances none have been made public. But what showed the strength and vigour of his understanding, while he was daily bemoaning the loss of it, were two works composed during the last years of his life, in defence of Christianity, against Woolston and Tindal. He wrote an answer to Woolston's fifth Discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour, entitled, A fit rebuke for a ludicrous Infidel, with a preface concerning the prosecution of such writers by the civil power. The preface contains a vigorous plea for liberty, and is strongly against prosecutions in matters of religion; and in the Answer, Woolston is as well managed as he was by any of his refuters, and more in his own way too. His book against Tindal was called, A Defence of the Religion of Nature and the Christian Revelation, against the defective account of the one and the exceptions against the other, in a book entitled, Christianity as old as the Creation; and it is allowed to be as good a one as that controversy produced. He intended to dedicate it to Queen Caroline; but as the unhappy state of his mind appeared in the dedication, some of his friends very wisely suppressed it, as sure to defeat the use and intent of his work. The copy however was preserved, and is subjoined in the note (a), as much too great a curiosity.

(a) Madam, Of all the extraordinary things that have been rendered to your royal hands since your first happy arrival in Britain, it may be boldly said, what now behooves your majesty's acceptance is the chief. Not in itself indeed: it is a trifle unworthy your exalted rank, and what will hardly prove an entertaining amusement to one of your majesty's deep penetration, exact judgment, and fine taste; but on account of the author, who is the first being of the kind, and yet without a name. He was once a man, and of some little name; but of no worth, as his present unparalleled case makes but too manifest: for, by the immediate hand of an avenging God, his very thinking substance has for more than seven years been continually wasting away, till it is wholly perished out of him, if it be not utterly come to nothing. None, no, not the least remembrance of its very ruins remains; not the shadow of an idea is left; nor any sense, so much as one single one perfect or imperfect, whole or diminished, ever did appear to a mind within him, or was perceived by it. Such a present from such a thing, however worthless in itself, may not be wholly unacceptable to your majesty, the author being such as history cannot parallel; and if the fact, which is real, and no fiction or wrong conceit, obtains credit, it must be recorded as the most memorable, and indeed astonishing, even in the reign of George II. that a tract, composed by such a thing, was presented to the illustrious Caroline; his royal comfort needs not be added; fame, if I am not misinformed, will tell that with pleasure to all succeeding times. He has been informed, that your majesty's piety is as genuine and eminent as your excellent qualities are great and conspicuous. This can indeed be truly known to the great Searcher of hearts only. He alone, who can look into them, can discern if they are sincere, and the main intention corresponds with the appearance; and your majesty cannot take it amiss if such an author hints, that his secret approbation is of infinitely greater value than the commendation of men, who may be easily mistaken, and are too apt to flatter their superiors. But, if he has been told the truth, such a case as his will certainly strike your majesty with astonishment; and may raise that commiseration in your royal breast, which he has in vain endeavoured to excite in those of his friends: who, by the most unreasonable and ill-founded conceit in the world, have imagined, that a thinking being could for seven years together live a stranger to its own powers, exercises, operations, and state; and to what the great God has been doing in it and to it. If your majesty, in your most retired address to the King of kings, should think of so singular a case, you may perhaps make it your devout request, that the reign of your beloved sovereign and comfort may be renowned to all posterity by the recovery of a foul now in the utmost ruin, the restoration of one utterly lost, at present amongst men. And should this case affect your royal breast, you will recommend it to the piety and prayers of all the truly devout who have the honour to be known. Brown. osity to be suppressed. The above pieces were published by Mr. afterwards Dr. W. Harris, who, in an advertisement to the reader, recommends the afflicted case of the author, under a deep and peculiar melancholy, to the compassion and prayers of all his friends, and every serious Christian. Mr Brown survived the publication of this last work a very short time. A complication of distempers, contracted by his sedentary life (for he could not be prevailed on to refresh himself with air and exercise), brought on a mortification, which put a period to his labours and sorrows about the latter end of 1732. He was unquestionably a man of uncommon abilities and learning; his management of Woolton showed him to have also vivacity and wit; and, notwithstanding that strange conceit which perplexed him, it is remarkable that he never appeared feeble or absurd, except when the object of his frenzy was before him. Besides the two pieces above mentioned, and before he was ill, he had published some single Sermons, together with a Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. He left several daughters.

Brown, Isaac Hawkins, an ingenious English poet, was born at Burton upon Trent, in Staffordshire, Jan. 21, 1705-6; of which place his father was the minister. He received his grammatical institution first at Lichfield, then at Wolfminster; whence, at fifteen years of age, he was removed to Trinity College, Cambridge, of which his father had been fellow. He remained there till he had taken a master of arts degree; and about 1727 settled himself in Lincoln's Inn, where he seems to have devoted more of his time to the Muses than to the law. Soon after his arrival there, he wrote a poem on Design and Beauty, which he addressed to Mr Highmore the painter, for whom he had a great friendship. Several other poetical pieces were written here; and particularly his Pipe of Tobacco. This is in imitation of Cibber, Ambrose Philips, Thomson, Young, Pope, and Swift, who were then all living; and is reckoned one of the most pleasing and popular of his performances. In 1743-4, he married the daughter of Dr Trimmell, archdeacon of Leicester. He was chosen twice to serve in parliament, first in 1744, and afterwards in 1748: both times for the borough of Wenlock in Shropshire, near which place he possessed a considerable estate, which came from his maternal grandfather, Isaac Hawkins, Esq. In 1754, he published what has been deemed his capital work, De Animi Immortalitate, in two books; in which besides a most judicious choice of matter and arrangement, he is thought to have shown himself not a fervent but happy imitator of Lucretius and Virgil. The universal applause and popularity of this poem produced several English translations of it in a very short time; the best of which is that by Soame Jenyns, Esq., printed in his Miscellanies. Mr Brown intended to have added a third part, but went no farther than to leave a fragment. This excellent person died, after a lingering illness, in 1760, aged 55. In 1768, the present Hawkins Brown, Esq.; obliged the public with an elegant edition of his father's poems, in large octavo; to which is prefixed a print of the author, from a painting of Mr Highmore, engraved by Ravenet.

Brown, Sir William, a noted physician and multifarious writer, was settled originally at Lynn in Norfolk, where he published a translation of Dr Gregory's Elements of Catoptries and Dioptries; to which he added, 1. A method for finding the Foci of all Specula, as well as Lenses universally; as also magnifying or lessening a given object by a given Speculum or Lens, in any assigned Proportion. 2. A Solution of those Problems which Dr Gregory has left undemonstrated. 3. A particular Account of Microscopes and Telescopes, from Mr Huygens; with the discoveries made by Catoptries and Dioptries. Having acquired a competence by his profession, he removed to Queen's Square, Ormond Street, London, where he resided till his death. By his lady, who died in 1763, he had one daughter, grandmother to the present Sir Martin Brown Folkes, bart. A great number of lively elays, both in prose and verse, the production of his pen, were printed and circulated among his friends. The active part taken by Sir William Brown in the contest with the licentiates, 1768, occasioned his being introduced by Mr Foote in his Devil upon Two Sticks. Upon Foote's exact representation of him with his identical wig and coat, tall figure, and glass stiffly applied to his eye, he sent him a card complimenting him on having so happily represented him; but as he had forgotten his muff, he had sent him his own. This good-natured method of resenting disarmed Foote. He used to frequent the annual ball at the ladies' boarding-school, Queen Square, merely as a neighbour, a good-natured man, and fond of the company of sprightly young folks. A dignitary of the church being there one day to see his daughter dance, and finding this upright figure stationed there, told him he believed he was Hermippus redivivus, who lived ambelitu puerarum. When he lived at Lynn, a pamphlet was written against him: he nailed it up against his house door. At the age of 80, on St Luke's day, 1771, he came to Batton's coffee house in his laced coat and band, and fringed white gloves, to show himself to Mr Crosby, then lord mayor. A gentleman present observing that he looked very well, he replied, he had neither wife nor debts. He died in 1774, at the age of 82; and by his will he left two prize medals to be annually contended for by the Cambridge poets.

Brown, John, M.D., the founder of a modern theory of physic, was born about the year 1735 or 1736, in the parish of Buncle, in Berwickshire, Scotland. His parents being in an inferior rank of life, while he was very young, he was put as an apprentice to a weaver, the

known to your majesty: many such doubts there are, though courts are not usually the places where the devout resort, or where devotion reigns. And it is not improbable, that multitudes of the pious throughout the land may take a case to heart, that under your majesty's patronage comes thus recommended. Could such a favour as this restoration be obtained from heaven by the prayers of your majesty, with what transport of gratitude would the recovered being throw himself at your majesty's feet, and adoring the divine power and grace, profess himself, Madam, your majesty's most obliged and dutiful servant,

Simon Brown. the drudgery of which having either disliked, or discovering abilities which would by cultivation raise him to a more conspicuous station, his destination was changed, and he was placed at the grammar school of Dunfermline. Here he soon distinguished himself, and gave abundant proofs, by his ardour and success in the studies which occupied his attention, that he was worthy of being encouraged in literary pursuits. His parents belonged to that body of dissenters, in Scotland called Seceders. Flattered with the rapid and successful progress which their son had begun to make in the acquisition of the Latin language, they destined him to the ministerial office among their own sect. With this view his education was for some time directed. But an accident, it is said, made him at once renounce this plan and the sect, the tenets of which, as will appear from this circumstance, are extremely rigid. So early as his 13th year, while at the grammar school, he was prevailed upon, though not without showing considerable reluctance, to attend a meeting of synod, one of the church courts of Scotland, which was held in the church of Dunfermline. This, in the estimation of the party to which he belonged, was a transgression which could not be passed over without notice. Young Brown was called upon to appear before the church court, and he must either submit to ecclesiastical censure, or suffer a sentence of expulsion. Too proud or indignant to yield to the one, or to wait for the other, he anticipated or prevented the effects of both, by declaring that he was no longer a member of the sect, and joining himself to the established church. From this time, it would appear, his religious ardour was much abated, and his rigid principles were greatly relaxed.

After this period, Brown was for some time engaged as a private tutor in a gentleman's family in the country; and here, and as an assistant in the grammar school of Dunfermline, he remained till about his 20th year, when he went to Edinburgh, and having passed through the previous necessary studies in the classes of philosophy, entered himself as a student of divinity in the university. His classical knowledge was now of real advantage to him; for while he resided in Edinburgh, pursuing the plan of his studies, he was able to support himself by private teaching. In this situation he continued for some time, after which he resumed his former labours as assistant in the grammar school of Dunfermline for a year, returned to Edinburgh about the year 1759, when he finally renounced the study of theology, and commenced that of physic.

During his medical studies, he supported himself by his own exertions. He was employed in giving private instructions to students who wished to acquire the habit of expressing themselves with facility and correctness in the Latin language, and thus to be prepared for the examinations which are conducted in that language, for medical degrees in the university. For this employment, as well as for translating inaugural dissertations into the same language, the previous studies and acquirements of Brown peculiarly fitted him. Thus occupied, he soon recommended himself to the notice of several of the professors, and particularly to that of Dr Cullen, whose patronage and friendship he obtained in an eminent degree. The doctor not only employed him as a private tutor in his own family, but was extremely affiluous in recommending him to others.

This situation afforded him an excellent opportunity of improving in medical studies by the conversation of the celebrated professor, and by the permission which was granted him of delivering lectures or illustrations of the doctor's public lectures to private pupils. In this way Mr Brown began to have full employment, and prosperity seemed to smile upon him. It was about this time that he married the daughter of a respectable tradesman in Edinburgh, and opened a house for boarding students. His house was soon filled with boarders, who were attracted by the hope of great benefit from his instructions and conversation. But here it soon appeared, that he was unfit for the management of such concerns. By want of economy or misconduct his affairs were soon greatly embarrassed, and at last terminated in total bankruptcy. Sourred and irritated by this misfortune, and still more so, it is probable, by being disappointed of one of the medical chairs in the university, which he supposed had been occasioned by the interference of Dr Cullen, he quarrelled with his friend and patron, and from that moment set himself up as a keen opponent of his doctrines. His application to be admitted a member of the philosophical society was about the same time rejected; and this, which he imagined arose from the same influence, tended not a little to foment the quarrel.

This seems to have been the origin of the celebrated theory which divided the medical world, which excited so much interest in those who espoused or opposed it, and inspired such a degree of enthusiasm in the debates and writings, especially of the pupils of the seminary which gave it birth, that it not unfrequently burst forth with all the violence of religious frenzy. This indeed is little to be wondered at, when we consider that half educated young men, as is the case with the great proportion of medical students, unaccustomed to patient investigation, and fond of novelty, are the most apt to embrace such speculations, as could be supported and defended by ingenious and subtle reasonings, rather than by accurate and extensive observation; and think themselves regarded by their friends and admirers as distinguished philosophers, in proportion to their ability in starting objections to received opinions, and overthrowing established doctrines. At the same time, it is but justice to observe, that those who adhered to his opinions, were also often treated with suspicion and similar violence. This opposition of sentiment and struggle of opinions had a natural tendency to unite more closely those who were on the same side, and this probably in the end was the cause of poor Brown's future misfortunes. Besides, on account of the convivial talents which he possessed, his company was earnestly courted by the gay and the dissipated, and this led him to frequent meetings and clubs in taverns, where the dictates of prudence and the rules of temperance were rarely observed. Indulging the same spirit, he was principally concerned in the institution of a lodge of free masons, in which the business was conducted in the Latin language. His views in promoting this institution, were it is said, to attract students to attend his lectures, or to become professed to his doctrines.

It was about the year 1780, that the first edition of his *Elementa Medicinae* appeared. This work is a compendium of his opinions, which he continued for several years to illustrate by a course of public lectures. And as he now proposed to prosecute the profession of medicine by private practice and public instruction, it was found necessary to have a medical degree, as a testimony to the world of his qualifications. Having opposed and quarrelled with all the professors in the university of Edinburgh, there was little hope of succeeding there; and therefore, in consequence of an application to the university of St Andrews, he was admitted to medical honours.

But the terms in which Dr Brown lived with his medical brethren, and the unfortunate habits which were daily gathering strength, precluded him from all rational hopes of success, either as a private practitioner or a public teacher. He therefore turned his thoughts to London, and removed to that metropolis in the year 1786. Previous to 1788, he had delivered one course of lectures; for in October of this year, he was cut off by a fit of apoplexy, on the day after he had delivered his introductory lecture to a second course. He died in the 53rd year of his age.

Dr Brown possessed great vigour of mind, and seems to have been capable of considerable application. His talents, had they been directed to more practical and more useful objects, would have probably raised him to more eminent distinction, and rendered him a more valuable member of society. The style of his *Elementa* is harsh and unpolished. His meaning is often dark and ambiguous. But perhaps this want of perspicuity is as much owing to the subjects which he treated, the principles of which are far from being settled, as to the obscurity of his expression. He attempted an unbeaten path; it is not wonderful that he was often bewildered and lost.

To the sketch which we have now given of the life of Dr Brown, it will be expected, by some of our readers, that we add some account of the leading features of his theory. The following extracted from the observations prefixed to an edition of the Elements of Medicine, published by Dr Beddoes, will perhaps be as correct and satisfactory as anything we can give.

"The varied structure of organized beings, it is the business of anatomy to explain. Confining ourselves, assisted by common observation, will distinguish animated from inanimate bodies with precision more than sufficient for all the ends of medicine. The cause of gravitation has been left unexplored by all prudent philosophers; and Brown, avoiding all useless disquisition concerning the cause of vitality, confines himself to the phenomena which this great moving principle in nature may be observed to produce. His most general propositions are easy of comprehension.

"1. To every animated being is allotted a certain portion only of the quality or principle on which the phenomena of life depend. This principle is denominated excitability.

"2. The excitability varies in different animals, and in the same animal at different times. As it is more intense, the animal is more vivacious or more susceptible of the action of exciting powers.

"3. Exciting powers may be referred to two classes. 1. External; as heat, food, wine, poisons, contagions, the blood, secreted fluids, and air. 2. Internal; as the functions of the body itself, muscular exertion, thinking, emotion and passion.

"4. Life is a forced state; if the exciting powers are withdrawn, death ensues as certainly as when the excitability is gone.

"5. The excitement may be too great, too small, or in just measure.

"6. By too great excitement, weakness is induced, because the excitability becomes defective; this is indirect debility: when the exciting powers or stimulants are withheld, weakness is induced; and this is direct debility. Here the excitability is in excess.

"7. Every power that acts on the living frame is stimulant, or produces excitement by expending excitability. Thus, although a person, accustomed to animal food, may grow weak if he lives upon vegetables, still the vegetable diet can only be considered as producing an effect, the same in kind with animals, though inferior in degree. Whatever powers, therefore, we imagine, and however they vary from such as are habitually applied to produce due excitement, they can only weaken the system by urging it into too much motion, or suffering it to sink into languor.

"8. Excitability is seated in the medullary portion of the nerves, and in the muscles. As soon as it is anywhere affected, it is immediately affected everywhere; nor is the excitement ever increased in a part, while it is generally diminished in the system; in other words, different parts can never be in opposite states of excitement.

"I have already spoken of an illustration, drawn up by Mr Christie from a familiar operation, to facilitate the conception of Brown's fundamental positions. I introduce it here as more likely to answer its purpose than if separately placed at the end of my preliminary observations. Suppose a fire to be made in a grate, filled with a kind of fuel not very combustible, and which could only be kept burning by means of a machine containing several tubes, placed before it, and constantly pouring streams of air into it. Suppose also a pipe to be fixed in the back of the chimney, through which a constant supply of fresh fuel was gradually let down into the grate, to repair the waste occasioned by the flame, kept up by the air machine.

"The grate will represent the human frame; the fuel in it, the matter of life—the excitability of Dr Brown, and the senatorial power of Dr Darwin; the tube behind, supplying fresh fuel, will denote the power of all living systems, constantly to regenerate or reproduce excitability; while the air machine, of several tubes, denotes the various stimuli applied to the excitability of the body; and the flame drawn forth in consequence of that application represents life, the product of the exciting powers acting upon the excitability.

"As Dr Brown has defined life to be a forced state, it is fitly represented by a flame forcibly drawn forth from fuel little disposed to combustion, by the constant application of streams of air poured into it from the different tubes of a machine. If some of these tubes are supposed to convey pure or deplogificated air, they will denote the highest class of exciting powers, opium, musk, camphor, spirits, wine, tobacco, &c., the diffusible stimuli of Dr Brown, which bring forth for a time a greater quantity of life than usual, as the blowing in of pure air into a fire will temporarily draw forth an uncommon quantity of flame. If others of the tubes..." be supposed to convey common or atmospheric air, they will represent the ordinary exciting powers or stimuli, applied to the human frame, such as heat, light, air, food, drink, &c., while such as convey impure and inflammable air may be used to denote what have formerly been termed sedative powers, such as poisons, contagious misfortunes, foul air, &c.

The reader will now probably be at no loss to understand the seeming paradox of the Brunonian system; that food, drink, and all the powers applied to the body, though they support life, yet consume it; for he will see, that the application of these powers, though it brings forth life, yet at the same time it wastes the excitability or matter of life, just as the air blown into the fire brings forth more flame, but wastes the fuel or matter of fire. This is conformable to the common saying, "the more a spark is blown, the brighter it burns, and the sooner it is spent." A Roman poet has given us, without intending it, an excellent illustration of the Brunonian system, when he says,

"Balnea, vina, Venus, confumunt corpora nostra; "Sed vitam faciunt balnea, vina, Venus. "Wine, warmth, and love, our vigour drain; "Yet wine, warmth, love, our life sustain."

Or to translate it more literally,

"Baths, women, wine, exhaust our frame; "But life itself is drawn from them."

Equally easy will it be to illustrate the two kinds of debility, termed direct and indirect, which, according to Brown, are the cause of all diseases. If the quantity of stimulus, or exciting power, is proportioned to the quantity of excitability, that is, if no more excitement is drawn forth than is equal to the quantity of excitability produced, the human frame will be in a state of health; just as the fire will be in a vigorous state when no more air is blown in than is sufficient to consume the fresh supply of fuel constantly poured down by the tube behind. If a sufficient quantity of stimulus is not applied, or air not blown in, the excitability in the man, and the fuel in the fire, will accumulate, producing direct debility; for the man will become weak, and the fire low. Carried to a certain degree, they will occasion death to the first, and extinction to the last. If, again, an over proportion of stimulus be applied, or too much air blown in, the excitability will soon be wasted, and the matter of fuel almost spent. Hence will arise indirect debility, producing the same weakness in the man, and lowness in the fire, as before, and equally terminating, when carried to a certain degree, in death and extinction.

As all the diseases of the body, according to Dr Brown, are occasioned by direct or indirect debility, in consequence of too much or too little stimuli, so all the defects of the fire must arise from direct or indirect lowness, in consequence of too much or too little air blown into it. As Brown taught that one debility was never to be cured by another, but both by the more judicious application of stimuli, so will be found the case in treating the defects of the fire. If the fire has become low, or the man weak, by the want of the needful quantity of stimulus, more must be applied, but very gently at first, and increased by degrees, lest a strong stimulus applied to the accumulated excitability should produce death; as in the case of a limb benumbed with cold (that is, weakened by the accumulation of its excitability in consequence of the abstraction of the usual stimulus of heat), and suddenly held to the fire, which we know from experience is in danger of mortification; or as in the case of the fire becoming very low by the accumulation of the matter of fuel, when the feeble flame, assailed by a sudden and strong blast of air, would be overpowering and put out, instead of being nourished and increased. Again, if the man or the fire have been rendered indirectly weak, by the application of too much stimulus, we are not suddenly to withdraw the whole, or even a great quantity of the exciting powers or air, for then the weakened life and diminished flame might sink entirely; but we are by little and little to diminish the surplus of stimulus, so as to enable the excitability, or matter of fuel, gradually to recover its proper proportion. Thus a man who has injured his constitution by the abuse of spirituous liquors is not suddenly to be reduced to water alone, as is the practice of some physicians, but he is to be treated as the judicious Dr Pitcairn of Edinburgh is said to have treated a Highland chieftain, who applied to him for advice in this situation. The doctor gave him no medicines, and only exacted a promise of him, that he would every day put as much wax into the wooden queich, out of which he drank his whisky, as would receive the impression of his arms. The wax thus gradually accumulating, diminished daily the quantity of the whisky, till the whole queich was filled with wax; and the chieftain was thus gradually, and without injury to his constitution, cured of the habit of drinking spirits.

These analogies might be pursued farther; but my object is solely to furnish some general ideas, to prepare the reader for entering more easily into the Brunonian theory, which I think he will be enabled to do after perusing what I have said. The great excellence of that theory, as applied, not only to the practice of physic, but to the general conduct of the health, is, that it impresses on the mind a sense of the impropriety and danger of going from one extreme to another. The human frame is capable of enduring great varieties, if time be given it to accommodate itself to different states. All the mischief is done in the transition from one state to another. In a state of low excitement we are not rashly to induce a state of high excitement, nor when elevated to the latter, are we suddenly to descend to the former, but step by step, and as one who from the top of a high tower descends to the ground. From hasty and violent changes, the human frame always suffers; its particles are torn asunder, its organs injured, the vital principle impaired, and disease, often death, is the inevitable consequence.

I have only to add, that though in this illustration of the Brunonian system (written several years ago), I have spoken of a tube constantly pouring in fresh fuel, because I could not otherwise convey to the reader a familiar idea of the power possessed by all living systems, to renew their excitability when exhausted; yet it may be proper to inform the student, that Dr Brown supposed every living system to have received at the beginning its determinate portion of excitability; and, therefore, although he spoke of the exhaustion, augmentation, tion, and even renewal of excitability, I do not think it was his intention to induce his pupils to think of it as a kind of fluid substance existing in the animal, and subject to the law by which such substances are governed. According to him, excitability was an unknown something, subject to peculiar laws of its own, and whose different states we were obliged to describe (though inaccurately) by terms borrowed from the qualities of material substances.

"The Brunonian system has frequently been charged with promoting intemperance. The objection is serious; but the view already given of its principles shews it to be groundless. No writer had inflicted so much upon the dependence of life on external causes, or so strongly stated the inevitable consequences of excesses. And there are no means of promoting morality upon which we can rely, except the knowledge of the true relations between man and other beings or bodies. For by this knowledge we are directly led to shun what is hurtful, and pursue what is salutary: and in what else does moral conduct, as far it regards the individual, consist? It may be said that the author's life disproves the justness of this representation: his life, however, only shews the superior power of other causes, and of bad habits in particular; and I am ready to acknowledge the little efficacy of instruction when bad habits are formed. Its great use consists in preventing their formation; for which reason popular instruction in medicine would contribute more to the happiness of the human species, than the complete knowledge of everything which is attempted to be taught in education, as it is conducted at present. But though the principles of the system in question did not correct the propensities of its inventor, it does not follow that they tend to produce the same propensities in others."

Brown, among dyers, painters, &c., a dusky colour inclining towards redness. Of this colour there are various shades or degrees, distinguished by different appellations; for instance, Spanish-brown, a fad-brown, a tawney-brown, the London brown, a clove-brown, &c.

Spanish-brown is a dark dull red, of a horse-flesh colour. It is an earth; and is of great use among painters, being generally used as the first and priming colour that they lay upon any kind of timber-work in house-painting. That which is of the deepest colour, and freest from stones, is the best. Though this is of a dirty brown colour, yet it is much used, not to colour any garment, unless it be an old man's gown; but to shadow vermilion, or to lay upon any dark ground behind a picture, or to shadow yellow berries in the darkest places, when you want lake, &c. It is best and brightest when burnt in the fire till it be red-hot; although, if you would colour any hare, horse, dog, or the like, it should not be burnt: but, for other uses, it is best when it is burnt; as for colouring wood, pots, bodies of trees, or any thing else of wood, or any dark ground of a picture.