ROBERT, a schismatic divine, the founder of the Brownists, a numerous sect of dissenters in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was the son of Mr Anthony Brown of Tolthorp 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 dissension from the established church; and the following year he preached at Norwich, Brown, where he soon accumulated a numerous congregation. He was violent in his abuse of the church of England, and pretended to divine inspiration, alleging that he alone was the sure guide to heaven. This new sect 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 Burghley, 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 natural stimulus 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 Burghley, 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 indiscretion to increase his sect, 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 afterwards, 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 eighty. 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 deathbed that he had been confined in no less than thirty-two 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 other pieces; making together a thin quarto, published at Middleburg, 1582.
Brown, Ulysses Maximilian, a celebrated general of the eighteenth 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 Basel in 1705; and having finished his first studies at Limerick 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 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 Corsica with a battalion of his regiment, and contributed greatly to the taking of Callansara, 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, by an excellent manoeuvre, he favoured the retreat of the army, after the unhappy battle of Banjuluka in Bosnia, 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.
On his return to Vienna in 1739 the emperor Charles VI. raised him to the rank of 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 occasions; and in 1748 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, that is, 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 Velletri 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 Wilshausen by assault, and received a dangerous wound in the thigh. The same year he was made general of artillery; and in January 1746 he marched for Italy at the head of a body of eighteen thousand men. He then drove the Spaniards out of the Milanese; and having joined the forces under Prince de Lichtenstein, he 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 Bocchetta, though defended by above four thousand men; and took the city of Genoa. Count Brown at length joined the king of Sardinia's troops, and, in conjunction with them, took 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 expected to have rendered himself master of a much greater part of Provence, when the revolution which happened in Genoa, and Marshal Belleisle's advancing with his army, obliged him to execute 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 campaign 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 Lowositz on the 1st of October, though he had only twenty-seven thousand men, and the king of Prussia had at least forty thousand. 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 afterwards 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, he 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 the age of fifty-two. There is reason to believe, that if he had 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, William, an English poet of the seventeenth 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 on the 20th of September 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 honorum 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 improved his fortune so much that he purchased an estate. His poetical works procured him a very great reputation. Among these may be mentioned—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 in 1625. 2. The Shepherd's Pipe, in seven eclogues; London, 1614, 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.
Browne, 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, and other compositions, 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 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, when Mr Brown, to his agreeable surprise, found a bank note of L50 under his plate, and Mr Dryden at the same time was presented with another of L100. Mr Brown died in the year 1704, and was interred in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, near the remains of Mrs Behm, with whom he was intimate in his lifetime. His works have been printed both in 8vo and 12mo, making four volumes.
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, being descended of the Browns of Colstown, near Haddington; and at the time of his son's birth he 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 in obscurity; and nothing further 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 assises held at Carlisle in the summer of 1746, he preached at the cathedral church of that city two excellent discourses, on the mutual connection 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 Osbaldeston, who was the only person that continued to be his friend through life; the peculiarities of his temper, or some other cause, having produced quarrels with every one else. When Dr Osbaldeston was advanced to the see of Carlisle, he appointed Mr Brown 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 Lord Viscount Lonsdale. Our author's next poetical production was his Essay on Satire, 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 Essay on the Characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury, 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, although, 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 Athelstan, represented at Drury-Lane theatre. This was also well re- ceived 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 well-known Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times. 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 as well as 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. 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 periodical critics, whom he had gone out of his way to abuse, treated him with uncommon severity; and such a multitude of antagonists rose against him, and 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.
In 1760 he published an Additional Dialogue of the Dead, between Pericles and Aristides; being a sequel to a dialogue of Lord Lyttleton's between Pericles and Cosmo. 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 Dissertation on Poetry and Music.
In 1764 he published, in octavo, The History of the Rise and Progress of Poetry through its several Species; which is no more than the substance of the dissertation above mentioned. The same year Dr Brown published a volume of sermons, dedicated to his patron Dr Osbaldeston, 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 prescribed 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 1766, before the guardians of the asylum for deserted female orphans. His last publication was in 1766, being a Letter to the Rev. Dr Lowth, occasioned by his late Letter to the right reverend Author of the Divine Legation 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 latter writings he advertised his design of publishing Christian Principles of Legislation; but he was prevented from executing it by his unhappy death. He put a period to his life on the 23rd of September 1766, in the fifty-first year of his age, by cutting the jugular vein with a razor. Such was the 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.
Brown, Simon, a dissenting minister, whose uncommon talents and singular misfortunes justly entitle him 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 pastor 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 office; but at length all hopes were over, when 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. Some time after his secession from the Old Jewry he retired to Shepton Mallet, his native place; and though in his retirement he was perpetually contending that his powers of reason and imagination were gone, yet he was as 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, and 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 in a short compass all the Thesaurus 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 bewailing the loss of it, were the works composed during the two 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. 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. 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 towards the close of the year 1722. Besides the two pieces above mentioned, and before he became 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, on the 21st January 1705–6, of which place his father was the minister. He received his grammatical instruction first at Lichfield, and then at Westminster; whence, at sixteen 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 piece is in imitation of Cibber, Ambrose Phillips, Thomson, Young, Pope, and Swift, who were then all living, and is reckoned one of the most pleasing and popular of his performances. In 1744 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 servile 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 fifty-five. In 1768 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, I. 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 in 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 Sir Martin Browne Folkes, baronet. A great number of lively essays, 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 sublita puellarum. When he lived at Lynn, a pamphlet was written against him, which he nailed up against his house door. At the age of eighty, on St Luke's day 1771, he came to Batson'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 eighty-two; and by his will he left two prize medals to be annually contended for by the Cambridge poets.
Brown, John, the founder of the Brunonian 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 drudgery of which having either disliked, or discovering abilities which by cultivation would raise him to a more conspicuous station, his destination was changed, and he was placed at the grammar school of Dunse. 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 thirteenth 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 ecclesiastical courts of Scotland, which was held in the church of Dunse. 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 session, and required either to submit to ecclesiastical censure, or to suffer a sentence of expulsion. Too proud and 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 joined 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 Dunse, he remained till about his twentieth 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 Dunse for a year, and 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 to be thus prepared for the examinations which were 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 assiduous in recommending him to others. This situation afforded him an excellent opportunity of improving in medical studies by the conversation of that celebrated professor, and by the permission which was granted him of delivering to private pupils illustrations of the doctor's public lectures. 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 by misconduct, his affairs were soon greatly embarrassed, and at last terminated in total bankruptcy. Soured 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.
It was in the year 1780 that the first edition of his *Elementa Medicine* 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 his succeeding there; and he was therefore induced to make an excursion to St Andrews, when he took the degree of M.D.
But the terms on 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 fifty-third 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.
**Brown, William Laurence**, born at Utrecht on the 7th of January 1755, was the son of the Rev. William Brown, minister of the English church in that city, and of his wife Janet Ogilvie, daughter of the Rev. George Ogilvie, minister of Kirriemuir. The father, having been appointed professor of ecclesiastical history in the university of St Andrews, returned to his native country in the year 1757; and the son was in due time sent to the grammar school, but his early education was chiefly of a more domestic nature. The professor was regarded as a great proficient in Latin literature, and his public lectures were partly delivered in that language. At the early age, we may safely say at the too early age, of twelve, his son became a student in the university. It is still a prevalent error in the same country, to send boys to college at a period of life when they are scarcely prepared for a high form in a well-appointed grammar school; and till we depart from this common practice, we shall have too much reason to regret the condition of our public seminaries of learning. Brown was however a youth of superior talents, and he possessed some domestic advantages beyond the ordinary lot. The branches of study to which he chiefly devoted his attention were classical literature, logic, and ethics; and notwithstanding his premature age, he passed through his academical course with no small distinction. Of the prizes distributed by the chancellor of that period, the earl of Kinnoull, he obtained a greater number than fell to the share of any other competitor. Two of his college friends were William Thomson, LL.D., well known in the literary world, and Mr Gray, who afterwards resided in a diplomatic capacity at some of the courts of Germany. When he was of five years standing, he became a student of divinity; and after a further residence of two years, namely in 1774, he removed to the university of Utrecht, where he not only prosecuted the study of theology, but likewise of the civil law. Leyden and Utrecht had long been eminently distinguished as schools of jurisprudence; and Mr Brown, whose views were liberal and enlarged, perceived the various advantages which a knowledge of the Roman law confers, not merely upon the professional lawyer, but even upon the classical scholar. From this study he frequently declared that he had derived essential benefit.
His uncle, Dr Robert Brown, had succeeded as minister of the English church at Utrecht; and after his decease, which took place in the year 1777, the magistrates of that city, in compliance with the general wishes of the congregation, offered the vacant charge to his young relation. This invitation he finally accepted, though not without some degree of reluctance. After having spent nearly a year in Scotland, where he was licensed and ordained by the presbytery of St Andrews, he was admitted minister of the English church at Utrecht in the month of March 1778. His congregation was highly respectable, but at the same time was far from being numerous, and consequently his sphere of professional utility was very circumscribed. We are informed that although the congregation seldom exceeded forty persons, his preparation for the pulpit was not less assiduous than at Aberdeen, where he had to address a larger audience; for he was of opinion that the minister of the gospel who cannot find in the dignity and importance of his office, and in his attachment to the spiritual interests of his flock, however small, a stimulus to exertion sufficiently powerful, will never find it in what is termed a wider field, or what is considered as a more important station. As it was only incumbent upon him to preach once every Sunday, he possessed a sufficient degree of literary leisure; and he increased his income as well as his avocations by receiving pupils into his house. He was intrusted with the education of many young men of rank and fortune; nor is it superfluous to mention that one of these was the present Lord Dacre, of whom he has spoken in very favourable terms. His character and conduct were such as could not fail to secure the cordial attachment of his own little flock; he gradually extended his acquaintance among individuals distinguished by their talents and learning, as well as by their station and influence; and he enlarged his sphere of knowledge and observation by various excursions in France, Germany, and Switzerland. On the 28th of May 1786, he married his own cousin, Anne Eliza- beth Brown, the daughter of his immediate predecessor. This excellent woman, who was likewise a native of Holland, became the mother of five sons and four daughters, and all of them still survive.
At an early period of his life he had begun to distinguish himself by his superior talents, and by his superior proficiency in various branches of knowledge. The curators of the Stolpian Legacy at Leyden, appropriated to the encouragement of theological learning, having in the year 1783 proposed as the subject of their annual prize that most difficult of all questions, the origin of evil, he appeared in the list of twenty-five competitors. The first prize was awarded to Joseph Paap de Fagoros, a learned Hungarian; but the second honour, namely, that of publication at the expense of the trust, was adjudged to the dissertation of Mr Brown. It was accordingly printed among the memoirs of the society, under the title of "Disputatio de Fabrica Mundi, in quo Mala insunt, Nature Dei perfectissimae haud repugnante." Other honours awaited him about the same period. He had formerly taken the degree of A.M. at St Andrews, and in 1784 the same university created him D.D. On three different occasions he obtained the medals awarded by the Teylerian Society at Haarlem for the best compositions in Latin, Dutch, French, or English, on certain prescribed subjects. His essay on scepticism obtained the gold medal in 1786, his dissertation on the immortality of the soul the silver medal in 1787, and his essay on the natural equality of men the silver medal in 1792. The dissertation, which was written in Latin, has never been printed, but the two English essays were in due time given to the public. "An Essay on the Folly of Scepticism, the Absurdity of Dogmatizing on Religious Subjects, and the proper Medium to be observed between these two extremes," Lond. 1788, 8vo. "An Essay on the natural Equality of Men, the Rights that result from it, and the Duties which it imposes," Edinb. 1793, 8vo. The latter work, which was the most successful of all his publications, was reprinted at London in the course of the following year. Many of us are old enough to remember the political and intellectual fermentation of that eventful period, when the wildest reveries of one class of men were opposed by the superannuated bigotry of another. Dr Brown's work, although it evinces sufficient liberality, is at the same time sober and discriminating; it was considered as an able and a seasonable discussion of topics which had been so egregiously perverted; it even attracted the attention of the British government, and had no small influence in preparing the way for his subsequent preferment.
Before this period he had been appointed to a professorship in the university of Utrecht. He had for some time been involved in considerable difficulties, in consequence of the civil commotions which arose between the partizans of the house of Nassau and those who delighted in the name of patriots. He was led to regard the authority and influence of the prince as the best security against the tyranny of the aristocracy, and he accordingly became a decided adherent of the Orange party. Although he was not exposed to any direct molestation on account of his political opinions and connexions, yet during the temporary triumph of the opposite party, he found himself placed in a situation both precarious and harassing. In the expectation of removing himself beyond their power, Brown began to cast an anxious glance towards the land of his fathers; but after he had repaired to London with the view of obtaining some literary or ecclesiastical appointment in Scotland, the armed interposition of the Prussians occasioned a sudden change in the government of Holland. The friends of Dr Brown had now regained their ascendancy, and were anxious to testify their approbation of his public conduct and personal merit: the states and the magistrates of Utrecht jointly instituted a professorship of moral philosophy and ecclesiastical history, and appointed him to this new office. The lectures were to be delivered in the Latin language; and two courses, to be continued during a session of nearly eight months, were to be commenced after an interval of not many weeks. So great an effort was very prejudicial to his health, and laid the foundation of complaints by which he was frequently harassed during the remainder of his life.
On entering upon the duties of his office, he pronounced an inaugural oration, which was immediately published under the title of "Oratio de Religione et Philosophia Societate et Concordia maxime salutari." Traj. ad Rhen. 1788, 4to. Two years afterwards he was nominated rector of the university; and on depositing his temporary dignity, he pronounced an "Oratio de Imaginatione, in Vitae Institutione, regunda," Traj. ad Rhen. 1790, 4to. During this interval he had been offered the Greek professorship at St Andrews; but the curators of the university of Utrecht induced him, by a promise of augmenting his salary, to retain a situation in which he had acquitted himself with eminent ability. To his other offices was now added the professorship of the law of nature; a branch of study to which a great degree of attention had long been devoted in the universities of Holland and Germany. It has usually been conjoined with the law of nations, and taught by members of the law faculty; but we have already seen that the previous studies of Dr Brown had been partly juridical, and indeed this department is most intimately connected with ethics. By the professors of moral philosophy in the Scottish universities, particularly by Dr Hutcheson, and his predecessor Mr Carmichael, the law of nature was at one period regularly discussed as an essential part of their course; nor were the general principles of law excluded from the ethical course of a more recent professor of eminence, the late Dr Ferguson.
Dr Brown resided at Utrecht, and discharged his public duties with credit and reputation, till the war which followed the French revolution finally drove him from the place of his nativity. After a long interval of painful anxiety and suspense, he was at length impelled, by the rapid approach of the invading army, to seek a place of refuge. In the course of a very severe winter, he embarked in the month of January 1795, and with his wife and five children, together with some other relations, quitted the coast of Holland in an open boat, and landed in England after a stormy passage. Having proceeded to London, he experienced such a reception as was due to his literary talents and moral worth. During the late Lord Auckland's embassy at the Hague, he had formed more than a common acquaintance with that nobleman, who was himself a person of literature, and a judge of li-
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1 The same political sentiments were adopted by the most eminent scholars of that period. "Ita enim judicabat [Hemsterhusius], et rei publicae opus esse gubernatore, qui totum ejus corpus curaret atque ad consensum dirigere, et civibus quasi tribuno plebis, qui eos adversus patriciorum dominationem ac libidinem tueretur. Item et Ruhnkenius et Valckenarius judicabant. Postea, quia optimis instituta praesidiaque libertatis a publico ad privatum commodum traducit, et bello Britannico imperia ac successus praeverando eum vulnerant, uterque partes optimum probare coeperunt, ut solas vindicis glorias ac prosperitatis Batavae adversus hostiles in- juriarum." (Wyttenbachii, Vitis Davidis Ruhnkenii: Opuscula, tom. I. p. 665. Lugd. Bat. 1821, 2 tom. 8vo.) terary merit: his Principles of Penal Law are a respectable monument of his intellectual attainments, and he published other works of a more temporary nature. Having conceived a very favourable opinion of the professor, he had some years before recommended him to the notice of Dr Moore, archbishop of Canterbury; and it was to their united influence that he was chiefly indebted for the honourable station in which he terminated his long and useful life. A distant prospect of succeeding to the divinity chair at Aberdeen had presented itself at a much earlier period. Dr Campbell, who was bending beneath the load of years, had expressed a wish to resign his offices. The proposal of a pension, which his public services had well earned, and the nomination of a successor with whose acquirements he was duly acquainted, now led to the completion of such an arrangement as he entirely approved: he first resigned the professorship of divinity, and in the summer of 1795 the magistrates of Aberdeen presented Dr Brown to that chair; the office of principal of Marischal College having been vacated soon afterwards, he received a presentation from the crown, and entered upon his new functions at the commencement of the ensuing session. With his distinguished predecessor he formed a most cordial friendship, which however was suspended by the feeble thread of a very lengthened life. Dr Campbell died in the ensuing month of April, and Dr Brown honoured his memory by a funeral sermon, which was immediately printed. Aberd. 1796, 8vo. This venerable person, long the chief ornament of the university, was a man of great acuteness and perspicacity, united with accurate and extensive learning; his Philosophy of Rhetoric is a work of very singular merit, and the value of his theological writings has been universally acknowledged. Dr Beattie, an elegant and accomplished writer of verse as well as prose, was still a member of the same college; and to these conspicuous names we must add that of Dr Hamilton, professor of mathematics, whose Inquiry into the National Debt first exposed the futility and delusion of the sinking fund.
This new professorship imposed upon him a very serious task. He composed, as we are informed, a course of theological lectures, extending over five sessions. After a review of the different systems of religion, those laying claim to a divine origin, he discussed most amply the evidences and doctrines of natural religion. He then proceeded to the evidences of revealed religion, of which he gave a very full and learned view. The Christian scheme formed the next subject of an enquiry, in which the peculiar doctrines of Christianity were very extensively unfolded. Christian ethics were also explained; and it formed part of his original plan to treat of all the great controversies that have agitated the religious world. This portion of the course was not however completed.—It is observable that, in this extensive outline, no department is allotted to biblical literature, which in the Scottish universities has been too much neglected. But in King's College two successive professors of the same family assigned a particular part of their academical course to this very important subject; and the younger of them, Dr Gilbert Gerard, further recommended the study by the publication of his Institutes of Biblical Criticism, printed at Edinburgh in the year 1808.
Dr Brown soon became a very conspicuous member of the church of Scotland. He was an impressive preacher, a prompt and forcible speaker, and some of his appearances in the general assembly produced a powerful effect. The manly temperament of his mind rendered him incapable of cowering to mere rank and station; and his first aspect, with the first sound of his voice, conveyed to those who saw and heard him the idea that he was no ordinary person. His speech on the case of Dr Arnot, delivered in the first assembly of which he was a member, classed him among the best public speakers of the time. It was printed in a separate form, under the title of "Substance of a Speech delivered in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, on Wednesday the 28th of May 1800, on the Question respecting the Settlement, at Kingsbarns, of the Rev. Dr Robert Arnot, Professor of Divinity in St Mary's College, St Andrews." Edinb. 1800, 8vo. His public opposition to pluralities in the church has very frequently been represented as inconsistent with his private practice; but this inconsistency was less real than apparent. The office of principal, though honourable, was not very lucrative: for a considerable time it had generally been united with the professorship of divinity; but in one instance it was held by a layman, Dr Blackwell, the learned professor of Greek. And for the same reason, the want of an adequate endowment, the divinity professorship had been conjoined with the charge of a minister of the West Church; but the professor was only bound to preach alternately with his colleague, and was exempted from all the other routine of parochial duties. Most of the other preferments subsequently bestowed upon him were altogether unconnected with professional exertion.
For several years he regularly attended the assembly, and, steadily adhering to the popular party, took a conspicuous share in its public deliberations; but it has been truly remarked that although he could be roused to the most lively interest in general questions, he felt no inclination to learn or to practise the tactics of a leader in the ecclesiastical courts. The discharge of his academical and pastoral duties was better adapted to his taste and disposition. These duties he discharged with much zeal and ability; and his ordinary habits being sedentary and studious, he found sufficient leisure for his favourite pursuits of literature. Together with genuine piety and theological knowledge, he was particularly anxious to disseminate a taste for classical learning. It was his practice to deliver a Latin oration to the professors and students of his college at the commencement of each session; and he bestowed particular attention on the style of the Latin exercises read in the divinity hall.
Of the energy of his pulpit discourses he has left an adequate specimen in his printed volume of Sermons. Edinb. 1803, 8vo. But the most serious of his intellectual efforts was the essay which obtained Burnet's first prize, amounting to L.1250. The competitors were about fifty in number; and the judges were Dr Gerard, professor of divinity, Dr Glennie, professor of moral philosophy, and Dr Hamilton, professor of mathematics. The second prize, amounting to L.400, was awarded to Dr Sumner, the present bishop of Chester. Dr Brown's work was published under the title of "An Essay on the Existence of a Supreme Creator," &c. Aberd. 1816, 2 vols. 8vo. The last considerable work which he committed to the press was "A Comparative View of Christianity, and of the other Forms of Religion which have existed, and still exist, in the World, particularly with regard to their moral Tendency." Edinb. 1826, 2 vols. 8vo. This is a production of varied learning and of solid merit, but being the result of mature thought, and being written in a sober and manly style, it was less calculated to attract the mobility of readers; for there is a fashion in theology as well as in novels.
In the year 1800 Dr Brown had been appointed chaplain in ordinary to his majesty, and in 1804 dean of the chapel royal, and of the most ancient and most noble order of the Thistle. He was last of all appointed to read the Gordon lecture in Marischal College, and he delivered his inaugural discourse on the 22d of November 1825. It was published under the title of a "Lecture introductory..." to the Course of Practical Religion, instituted by the Will of John Gordon, Esq. of Murtle." Aberd. 1826, 8vo.
All his publications have not yet been enumerated. Before he quitted Utrecht, he had published a poem entitled "An Essay on Sensibility;" and at a more recent period he sent to the press "Philemon, or the Progress of Virtue; a Poem." Edinb. 1809, 2 vols. 8vo. Beside the works which we have mentioned, he printed several detached sermons, and likewise the following tracts. An Examination of the Causes and Conduct of the present War with France, and of the most effectual Means of obtaining a speedy, a secure, and an honourable Peace: together with some Observations on the late Negotiations at Lisle. Lond. 1798, 8vo. This pamphlet was published without the author's name. Letters to the Rev. Dr George Hill, Principal of St Mary College, St Andrews. Aberd. 1801, 8vo. Remarks on certain Passages of "An Examination of Mr Dugald Stewart's Pamphlet, by one of the Ministers of Edinburgh;" relative to subjects nearly connected with the Interests of Religion and Learning. Aberd. 1806, 8vo. A Letter to George Hill, D.D. Principal of St Mary's College, St Andrews; occasioned by the publication of the Substance of his Speech in the General Assembly, May 23, 1807. Edinb. 1807, 8vo. Nobilissimi Viri Georgii Marchionis de Huntly, Domini de Gordon, Provinciae Aberdonensis Prefecti Legii, Academiae Marischallanae Cancellerii, xxixdo Decembri die anno Christi m.dccc.xv° inaugurandi Formula atque Modus. Aberdoniae, 1816, 4to. Librorum Societas; Carmen, recitatum in Comitiis Academicis qua prima post Ferias vestivas an. m.dccc.xxix. habebantur. Aberd. 1830, 8vo.
Although his health had never been robust, and he reached a very advanced period of life, he retained his mental faculties till the day of his death; and his dissolution was rather occasioned by the gradual decay of his bodily frame, than by any acute suffering. For two years his strength had imperceptibly declined; and although the decline became rapid about a week before his decease, yet he did not relinquish his usual employments. Reduced as he was to extreme weakness, he wrote part of a letter to two of his sons on the very last day of his mortal existence: to his third son, the Greek professor in Marischal College, he dictated a few sentences within six hours of his decease. Having been assisted to move from his bed-chamber to the parlour, he continued till midnight in the society of his family: after joining in their domestic devotions, he was with much difficulty removed to his bed; he then slept quietly for three hours, and having repeatedly spoken in a cool and intelligible manner, he calmly breathed his last at four in the morning. So gently was the spark of life extinguished, that his family did not mark the precise time. He died on the eleventh of May 1830, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. It has been faithfully stated that the regrets of his fellow-citizens, and of a numerous circle of friends in various parts of the kingdom, have paid to his character the most affecting and unequivocal tribute which can be offered to the memory of those who have neither lived unnoticed nor died unhonoured. And we cannot refrain from adding, in the words of Minucius Felix, "Nec immorto discedens vir eximius et sanctus, immensus sui desiderium nobis reliquit."
Dr Brown was of the middle size, and had a very intelligent countenance. He had been much accustomed to elegant society, and his manners were easy and polished, but, in a certain sense, he never could be initiated in the ways of the world: he possessed an unusual simplicity of heart, and so habitual a regard for what is upright and manly in the human character, that he not unfrequently displayed his caution less prominently than his honesty. He was not without considerable warmth of temper, but at the same time he was open, sincere, and generous; nor is this ardour and intensity of feeling so easily separated from quickness of discernment and vigour of perception. Men of a colder temperament, possessing less than one half of its moral excellence, may pass through life with a very decent share of respectability. His talents and learning are not unknown to the public; but his warmth of affection, his rectitude of purpose, and his fervour of piety, are best known to those who had frequent opportunities of seeing him in the circle of his own family, or in the house of an intimate friend. To an unusual share of classical learning Dr Brown added a very familiar acquaintance with several of the modern languages. Latin and French he wrote and spoke with great facility. His successive study of ethics, jurisprudence, and theology, had habituated his mind with the most important topics of speculation, relating to the present condition of man and to his future destiny. His political sentiments were liberal and expansive, not cautiously circumscribed by one party-circle, or coldly limited to one small spot of earth, but connected with ardent aspirations after the general improvement and happiness of the human race. The liberality of his theological opinions was widely removed from indifference. His reading in divinity had been very extensive: he was well acquainted with the works of British and foreign theologians, particularly of those who wrote in the Latin language during the seventeenth century. In his more elaborate publications he evinces no mean portion of erudition, ingenuity, and judgment; but the intellectual vigour and promptitude which he displayed in conversation, were such as to impress many of his friends with a still higher opinion of his capabilities than they derived from any of the numerous works which he communicated to the public.
Brown, Thomas, an eminent metaphysician, was born at Kirkmabreck, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, on the 9th of January 1788, and was the youngest son of the Rev. Samuel Brown, minister of the parish of Kirkmabreck, and of Mary Smith, daughter of John Smith, Esq. of Wigton. His father survived his birth only a short time, and he received the first rudiments of his education from his mother. In the first lesson he learned all the letters of the alphabet, and every succeeding step was equally remarkable. From his seventh till his fourteenth year he was placed, under the protection of a maternal uncle, at different schools in the neighbourhood of London, at all of which he distinguished himself, and made great progress in classical literature. Upon the death of his uncle in 1799, he returned to his mother's house in Edinburgh, and entered as a student in the university.
His attention was first directed to metaphysical subjects by the elegant and benevolent biographer of Burns, Dr Currie of Liverpool, to whom he was introduced in the summer of 1793. About that time the first volume of Mr Stewart's Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind was published. Dr Currie put a copy of the work into his hands, and was struck not more with the warmth of admiration which the young philosopher expressed, than with the acuteness he displayed in many of his remarks. The next winter he attended Mr Stewart's class; and at the close of one of the lectures of that celebrated philosopher, he went up, though personally unknown, and modestly submitted some difficulties which had occurred to him respecting one of Mr Stewart's theories. Mr Stewart listened to him patiently, and, with a candour which did him infinite honour, informed him that he had just received a communication from the distinguished M. Prevost of Geneva, containing a similar objection. This proved the commencement of a friendship which Dr Brown continued to enjoy till the time of his death. It has already been mentioned in one of the preliminary dissertations to this work (p. 395), that at the age of nineteen he took a part with others, some of whom became the most memorable men of their time, in the foundation of a private society in Edinburgh under the name of the Academy of Physics. This society is interesting in the history of letters, as having given rise to the publication of the Edinburgh Review. Some articles in the early numbers of that work were written by Dr Brown, and bear the marks of his genius.
In 1798 he published "Observations on the Zoonomia of Dr Darwin." When it is considered that the greater part of this work was written in his eighteenth year, it may perhaps be regarded as the most remarkable of his productions; and it may be doubted if, in the history of philosophy, there is to be found any work exhibiting an equal prematurity of talents and attainments. Those who take an interest in tracing the progress of intellect will find in it the germ of all his subsequent views in regard to mind, and of those principles of philosophizing by which he was guided in his future inquiries.
In 1803, after attending the usual course pursued by medical students, he took his degree of doctor of medicine.
In the same year he brought out the first edition of his poems, in two volumes. The greater number of the pieces contained in them were written while he was at college. They are of a very miscellaneous description, and are certainly inferior to many of his subsequent compositions; at the same time they all exhibit marks of an original mind, and of a singularly refined taste.
His next publication was an examination of the principles of Mr Hume respecting causation. Though this tract was occasioned by a local controversy, it is entirely of an abstract nature, and all reference to the circumstances that led to the publication is studiously avoided. Its great merits have been universally acknowledged. It was alluded to in the most flattering manner in the Edinburgh Review, in a very able article by Mr Horner; Mr Stewart also gave a valuable testimony as to its excellence; and Sir James Mackintosh has pronounced it the finest model in mental philosophy since Berkeley and Hume. A second edition, considerably enlarged, was published in 1806; and in 1818 it appeared in a third edition, with so many additions and alterations, as to constitute it almost a new work, under the title of "An Inquiry into the Relation of Cause and Effect."
From the time when Dr Brown had taken his degree, he continued for several years to practise as a physician in Edinburgh. In 1806 he was associated in partnership with the late Dr Gregory; and there was every prospect of his attaining in due time the highest eminence in his profession. But success as a physician was not sufficient to satisfy his ambition. The discharge of his professional duties was marked by that assiduous tenderness of attention which might have been expected from a disposition so truly amiable; but still philosophy was his passion, from which he felt it as a misfortune that his duty should so much estrange him.
The period, however, at last arrived when he was to be elevated to a situation suited to his tastes and habits, and where his public duties corresponded with his inclinations. Mr Stewart, in consequence of the gradual decline of his health, being frequently prevented from attending to the duties of his class, found it necessary to have recourse to the assistance of some of his friends during his temporary absence. He therefore applied to Dr Brown, who undertook the arduous task of supplying his place with lectures of his own composition. He first appeared in the moral philosophy class in the winter of 1808-9. At this time, however, there was no great call for his exertions, as Mr Stewart was soon able to resume his professional duties. In the following winter he again presented himself as Mr Stewart's substitute, and by a succession of eloquent lectures during several weeks, he so decidedly established his character, that when Mr Stewart signified a desire to have Dr Brown united with him in the professorship, but little opposition was made, and in 1810 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in conjunction with Mr Stewart.
Immediately after his appointment he retired to the country, where he remained till within a few weeks of the meeting of the college; judging that, with a constitution not naturally strong, nothing was so important for his approaching labours as a confirmed state of health and spirits. For many years he had devoted his attention to the science of mind, and was intimately acquainted with the subject; and, from the experience of the two preceding winters, he had acquired sufficient confidence in his own powers to be assured that he could prepare his lectures upon the spur of the occasion. Accordingly, when the college opened, except the lectures that were written during Mr Stewart's absence, he had no other preparation in writing. His exertions during the whole of the winter were very great, and completely successful. The expectations that had been excited among his friends were more than realized, and he secured the highest place in the respect and affections of his students.
For some years after his appointment to the moral philosophy chair, Dr Brown had little leisure for engaging in any literary undertaking. Even the long summer vacation he found to be no more than sufficient for restoring his energies for the exertions of the succeeding season. By degrees, however, he became familiarised with the duties of his situation, and was enabled to indulge occasionally in other pursuits. In the summer of 1814 he brought to a conclusion his "Paradise of Coquettes," which he published anonymously, and which met with a favourable reception. In succeeding seasons he published various other poetical works.
Any notice of the life of Dr Brown would be incomplete if it did not contain a reference to his mother, whom he loved with a tenderness and reverence of affection that formed a distinguishing feature of his character. This excellent woman died in 1817. Her character is faithfully delineated in the beautiful lines addressed to her memory, prefixed to one of his poetical productions.
In the autumn of 1819, at a favourite retreat in the neighbourhood of Dunkeld, he commenced his text-book, a work which he long intended to prepare for the benefit of his students. At that time he was in excellent health; but towards the end of December of the same year he became indisposed, and after the recess he was in such a state of weakness as to be unable for some time to resume his official duties. When he again met his class his lecture unfortunately happened to be one which he was never able to deliver without being much moved, and from the manner in which he recited the very affecting lines from Beattie's Hermit, it was conceived by many that the emotion he displayed arose from a foreboding of his own approaching dissolution.
'Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more,— I mourn, but, ye woodlands, I mourn not for you, For morn is approaching your charms to restore, Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew; Nor yet for the savage of winter I mourn, Kind nature the embryo blossom shall save; But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn, O when will it dawn on the night of the grave.
This was the last lecture he ever delivered. From this period his health rapidly declined. Having upon a former occasion derived great benefit from a sea voyage, he proceeded, by the advice of his medical attendants, to London, accompanied by his two sisters, with the intention of removing, as soon as the season allowed, to a milder climate. But all means of remedy were now too late; and nothing could permanently retard the progress of his disease. Day after day he became weaker.
During the whole period of his illness he was never heard to utter a complaint. Gentle as he ever was, sickness and pain made him still more so. His only anxiety seemed to be the distress which his sufferings occasioned to those around him. A few days after his arrival in London he went to Brompton, where he died on the 2d of April 1830. His remains were put into a leaden coffin, and laid, according to his own request, in the church-yard of his native parish, beside those of his father and mother.
Dr Brown was in height rather above the middle size. The expression of his countenance was that of calm reflection. His likeness is well preserved in a picture by Watson in 1806. Among the more prominent features of Dr Brown's character may be enumerated the most perfect gentleness, and kindness, and delicacy of mind, united with great independence of spirit, a truly British love of liberty, and a most ardent desire for the diffusion of knowledge, and virtue, and happiness among mankind. All his habits were simple, temperate, studious, and domestic; and he was remarkable for nothing more than his love of home, and the happiness he shed around him there.
As a philosopher he was possessed in an eminent degree of that comprehensive energy which, according to his own description, "sees, through a long train of thought, a distant conclusion, and separating at every stage the essential from the accessory circumstances, and gathering and combining analogies as it proceeds, arrives at length at a system of harmonious truth." The predominating quality of his intellectual character was unquestionably the power of analysis, in which he has had few equals. In all his prose Dr Brown has shown great powers of eloquence. His poetry has never been popular, though it contains many passages of exquisite beauty. As a writer, simplicity is the quality in which he is most deficient, and subtlety that in which he most excels.
His character as a philosopher will chiefly rest upon his lectures, which were published after his death. It would be foreign to the object of the present sketch to give an account of the principles of his philosophy, or to enter upon a discussion of any of the questions that have been agitated upon the subject. We shall merely observe that the estimation in which his lectures are held by the public appears from the number of editions which, under all the disadvantages of a posthumous publication, have been called for; and his virtues as a man are almost universally allowed to have been in beautiful accordance with his talents as a philosopher.
An account of the life and writings of Dr Brown was published in 1825, in 8vo, by the Rev. Dr Welsh. (w.w.)