original genius, but on the other hand too ready, it may be, to submit the freedom of his mind to system and authority, he was endowed with a strong aptitude for acquisition, and great power of arrangement, a sound and generally sober judgment, and a rich and vivid fancy, though united with a defective, or rather, perhaps, an uncultivated taste. The selection of subjects, and general conception of almost every one of them, are very happy, and in many cases the execution proves his high endowments for the task he undertook.

The time now drew near that he should die. For some years previous, he had been greatly annoyed with a gradual failure, at once in the bodily power of digestion and the mental faculty of memory-the symptoms of a constitution fairly worn out by the intense and incessant labours to which it had been subjected. In the beginning of 1787, his complaints increased in such an alarming degree, accompanied by a general and extreme debility, that he found it necessary to abandon the pulpit. During the months of spring, he lived in a continual state of earnest and active preparation for the great change he was about to undergo. He expired on the 19th June, and on the 24th his remains were followed to their place of repose in Haddington church-yard, by nearly the whole inhabitants of the town, and a large concourse of his friends and brethren from a distance. At the first meeting of the Associate Synod after his decease, "the Synod," as their minute bears, " unanimously agreed to take this opportunity of testifying their respect to the memory of the Rev. John Brown, their late Professor, whose eminent piety, fervent zeal, extensive charity, and unwearied diligence in promoting the interests of religion, will be long remembered by this court, especially by those members of it who had the happiness of studying divinity under his inspection."

BROWN, JOHN, M. D. founder of what is termed the Brunonian system in medicine, and one of the most eccentric and extraordinary men of his time, was a native of the parish of Bunkle, in Berwickshire, where he was born, in the year 1735, or, as others assert, in 1737. Though only the son of a day-labourer, he contrived to obtain an excellent classical education at the school of Dunse, which was then taught by Mr William Cruickshank, one of the most celebrated teachers that Scotland has produced. The genius and application of Brown were alike so great, that, at an age when the most of children are only beginning their letters, he was far advanced in a knowledge of Latin. His studies, after some time, were broken off in consequence of the inability of his father to maintain him at school. He was bound apprentice to the gloomy and monotonous craft of a weaver, which must have been peculiarly unsuitable to his lively faculties. However, he seems to have afterwards been enabled by the kindness of his teacher to renew his studies; and it is known that for this purpose he had employed himself on the harvest-field. His proficiency in the Latin recommended him, first to the situation of usher in the school, and afterwards to that of tutor in a neighbouring family. When about twenty years of age, he removed to Edinburgh, and entering the university, advanced so far in the study of divinity, as to deliver a discourse preparatory to commencing his trials before the presbytery. Brown, however, was not destined to be a mem ber of this profession. Owing to some unexplained freak of feeling, he turned back from the very threshold, and for some years supported himself in the humble capacity of a grinder in the university. His services in this capacity to the medical students introduced him to a knowledge of medicine, which he suddenly resolved to prosecute as a profession. His natural ardour of mind enabled him very speedily to master the necessary studies, in which he was greatly assisted by the particular kindness and attention of Dr Cullen, then professor of medi cine in the university. At one period, he acted as Latin secretary to this great

never

man, with whom he afterwards quarrelled in the most violent manner. In 1765, he married, and set up a house for the purpose of receiving medical students as boarders. But, his irregular and improvident conduct reduced him to bankruptcy in the short space of two years. A vacancy occurring in the High School, he became a candidate; but being too proud of his real qualifications to think any other recommendation necessary, he was overlooked in favour of some child of patronage. It is said that, when his name, and his name alone, was presented to the eyes of the magistrates, they derisively asked who he was; to which Cullen, then separated in affection from his former pupil, is stated to have answered, with some real or affected hesitation—“ Why, sure, this can ne be our Jock!" Brown met with a similar repulse, on applying for the chair of theoretical medicine in the university. Yet, notwithstanding every discouragement from the great men of his own profession, this eccentric genius was pressing on towards the completion of that peculiar system by which his name has been distinguished. His views were given to the world, in 1780, under the title "Elementa Medicinæ ;" and he illustrated them further by lectures, which were attended, as a supernumerary course, by many of the regular students of the university. The Brunonian system simply consisted in the administration of a course of stimulants, instead of the so-called anti-phlogistic remedies, as a means of producing that change in the system which is necessary to work a cure. The idea was perhaps suggested by his own habits of life, which were unfortunately so very dissolute as to deprive him of all personal respect. He was, perhaps the only great drinker, who ever exulted in that degrading vice, as justified by philosophical principles. So far from concealing his practices, he used to keep a bottle of whiskey, and another of laudanum, upon the table before him; and, throughout the course of the lecture, he seldom took fewer than three or four doses from each. In truth, Brown lived at a time when men of genius did not conceive it to be appropriate to their character as such, to conduct themselves with decency. Thus, a man who might have adorned the highest walks of society by his many brilliant qualities, was only fit for the company of the lowest and most despicable characters. He was a devout free-mason, but more for the sake of the conviviality to which it affords so fatal an excuse, than for the more recondite and mysterious attractions (if any such exist) of the fraternity. He was the founder of a peculiar lodge in Edinburgh, called the Roman Eagle," where no language but Latin was allowed to be spoken. One of his friends remarked with astonishment the readiness with which he could translate the technicalities and slang of masonry into this language, which, however he at all times spoke with the same fluency as his vernacular Scotch. It affords a lamentable view of the state of literary society in Edinburgh between the years 1780 and 1790, that this learned lodge was perhaps characterised by à deeper system of debauch than any other. In 1786, Brown removed to London, in order to push his fortune as a lecturer on his own system of medicine, which had already acquired no little fame. But the irregularity of his conduct, and the irascibility of his temperament, rendered all his hopes fruitless. He died at London, October 7, 1788, of a fit of apoplexy, being then little more than fifty years of age. His works have been collected and published by his son; but, like the system which they explain, they are now forgotten.

BROWN, JOHN, an ingenious artist, was the son of Samuel Brown, goldsmith and watch-maker at Edinburgh, where he was born in 1752. He received an excellent education, after the fashion of Scotland, and was early destined to take up the profession of a painter. Having formed a school friendship of no ordinary warmth with Mr David Erskine, son of Thomas Erskine of Cambo, he travelled with that young gentleman in 1774, into Italy, where he was kindly

received by Charles Erskine of the Rota, an eminent lawyer and prelate, the cousin of his companion. He immediately attached himself to the Academy, with a resolution to devote himself entirely to the arts. During the course of ten years' residence in Italy, the pencil and crayon were ever in his hand, and the sublime thoughts of Raphael and Michael Angelo ever in his imagination. By continual practice, he obtained an elegance and correctness of contour, never equalled by any British artist; but he unfortunately neglected the mechanism of the pallet till his taste was so refined, that Titian, and Marillo, and Corregio, made his heart sink within him whenever he touched the canvas. When he attempted to lay in his colours, the admirable correctness of his contour was lost, and he had never self-sufficiency to persevere till it should be recovered in that tender evanescent outline which is so difficult to be attained even by the most eminent painters. He wished every thing important to be made out, and when it was made out, he found his work hard and disagreeable, like the first pictures painted by Raphael, and by all that preceded that wonderful artist. Brown, besides his genins for painting, possessed a high taste for music. His evenings in Italy were spent at the opera, and he penetrated deeply into the study of music as a science.

At Rome Brown met with Sir William Young and Mr. Townley, who, pleased with some of his pen and ink sketches, engaged him to accompauy them to Sicily as a draughtsman. Of the antiquities of this island, he took several very fine views in pen and ink, exquisitely finished, yet still preserving the character and spirit of the buildings he intended to represent.

It was the belief of one of Brown's Scottish patrons, that if he had gone to Berlin, he would have obtained the favour of Frederick the Great, on account of his extraordinary talents and refined personal character. A pious regard, however, for his parents, induced him to return to his native city, where, though universally beloved and admired, he found no proper field for the exertion of his abilities. Amongst the few persons of taste who afforded him their patronage was Lord Monboddo, who, with that liberality by which he was distinguished, gave him a general invitation to his elegant and convivial table, and employed him in making several pencil-drawings. He was also employed to draw pencil. heads of fifty of the more distinguished members of the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, then just established; of which he finished about twenty. Among other works which he produced at Edinburgh, were heads of Dr. Blair, Sir Alexander Dick of Prestonfield, Runciman, his friend and brother artist, Drs. Cullen and Black, all of which were done in the most happy and characteristic manner. His talent in this line is described as having been very great. Amidst the collection which he had brought home to Edinburgh, was a portrait of the cele. brated Piranese, who, being unable to sit two moments in one posture, reduced his painter to the necessity of shooting him flying like a bat or snipe. This rara avis was brought down by Brown at the first shot.

In 1786 Brown was induced to remove to London in order to prosecute, on a larger field, his profession as a portrait-draughtsman in black lead. He was here occasionally employed by Mr. Townley in drawing from his collection of Greek statues, a branch of art in which Brown is allowed to have greatly excelled. After some time spent in unremitting application, his health gave way, and he was recommended to try the benefit of a visit to his native country, by On his passage from London to Leith, he was somehow neglected as he lay sick in his hammock, and, on his arrival, he was found at the point of death. With much difficulty he was brought up to town, and laid on the bed of his friend Runciman, who had died not long before in the same place. Here he expired, September 5, 1787, having only attained the age of thirty-five.

sea.

BROWN, WILLIAM LAWRENCE, D. D., an eminent theological and miscellaneous writer, was born, January 7, 1755, at Utrecht, where his father, the reverend William Brown, was minister to the English congregation. In 1757, his father removed with his family to St Andrews, in order to undertake the duties of professor of ecclesiastical history; and the subject of our memoir, having comienced his education under his father's care, was placed successively at the grammar-school and university of that city, entering the latter at the early age of twelve. His native abilities, favoured by the fostering care of his father, enabled him, notwithstanding his immature years, to pass through his academical course with distinction; classical literature, logic, and ethics, being the branches of study to which he chiefly devoted his attention. After studying divinity for two years at St Andrews, he removed to Utrecht, where he prosecuted the same study, and also that of civil law. In 1778, having previously been licensed by the presbytery of St Andrews, he succeeded his uncle as minister of the English church at Utrecht; a field of exertion too narrow for his abilities, but which he, nevertheless, cultivated with the same zeal and application which a conscientious clergyman might be expected to bestow upon one more extensive Such spare time as his duties left to him, he employed in attention to a few pupils whom he received into his house. He at the same time enlarged his range of study, and occasionally made excursions into France, Germany, and Switzerland. In 1786, he married his cousin, Anne Elizabeth Brown, by whom he had five sons and four daughters.

The first literary effort of Mr Brown, was an essay on the origin of evil, written for a prize offered by the curators of the Holpian legacy at Utrecht, and which was adjudged the second honour among the essays of twenty-five competitors, that of being published at the expense of the trust. Soon after this, namely, in 1784, the university of St Andrews conferred upon him the degree of Doctor in Divinity. Dr Brown was successful in several other prize essays, two of which were published, under the titles of "An Essay on the Folly of Scepticism," London, 1788; and "An Essay on the Natural Equality of Man," Edinburgh, 1793. The latter took a more sober view of the subject than was generally adopted at the time of its publication; and it accordingly became the means of introducing Dr Brown to the notice of the British government. Previously to the armed interposition of the Prussians in 1788, Dr Brown was exposed to so much annoyance on account of his attachment to the dynasty of Nassau, that he found it necessary to proceed to London, in quest of another situation. The event alluded to, not only enabled him to retain his former office, but caused his elevation to a professorship, newly erected in the university of his native city, for moral philosophy and ecclesiastical history. He unfortunately was not allowed sufficient time to prepare the two elaborate courses of lectures required in this new situation; and, by his extraordinary exertions to accomplish what was expected of him, laid the foundation of ailments, from which he never afterwards recovered. His inaugural discourse was published under the title of "Oratio de Religionis et Philosophiæ Societate et Concordia maxime Salutari." Two years afterwards, he was nominated rector of the university; and on depositing his temporary dignity, he pronounced an "Oratio de Imaginatione in Vitæ Institutione regenda," which was published in 1790. Though offered the Greek professorship at St Andrews, he continued in Utrecht, till the invasion of Holland by the French, in the beginning of 1795, when he was obliged to leave the country in an open boat, with his wife and five children, besides some other relations. Notwithstanding the severity of the season, the roughness of the weather, and the frail nature of the bark to which so many lives were committed, he reached the English coast in safety.

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