itself with the structure of his intsrior mind as the creations of Brown." The two had, indeed, nearly every leading trait in common, although Brown s weak health and narrow circumstances restrained him from carrying his enthusiastic aspirations into practice. Two subsequent novels, designed as representations of ordinary life, proved failures, and Brown betook himself to less ambitious literary pursuits, compiling a general system of geography, editing a periodical, and an annual register, and writing political pamphlets which attracted considerable attention at the time. He died of consumption, February 22, 1810. He is depicted by his biographer as the purest and most amiable of men, and in spite of a certain formality due, perhaps, to his Quaker education, the statement is borne out by his correspondence. As a novelist he ranks very high ; he is the precursor of Hawthorne, and hitherto his only American rival. Greatly inferior to Hawthorne in truth of natural description and insight into human character, ho surpasses him in narrative and constructive ability. Wieland and Edgar Huntly especially are thrill ing and exciting in the highest degree, while preserved by the constant presence of a psychological problem from degenerating into mere sensationalism. Most of Brown s novels have been reprinted in England, but none recently. His life by his friend Dunlop (Philadelphia, 1815) is a grievous piece of bookmaking, but is interesting from the subject. An edition of his works in 6 vols. was published
at Philadelphia in 1857.BROWN, John, D.D., an English divine and author, was born at Rothbury, Northumberland, in November 1715. . He was the son of John Brown, a descendant of the Browns of Goalstown near Haddington, who at the time of his son s birth was curate of Rothbury. He was educated at St John s, Cambridge ; and after graduating as B.A. with great distinction, he returned to his father s house at Wigton, received deacon s and priest s orders from Sir George Fleming, bishop of Carlisle, and in 1739 went to Cambridge to take his M.A. degree. In 1745 he distin guished himself as a volunteer, and was soon afterwards appointed one of his chaplains by Dr Osbaldeston, on his admission to the bishopric of Carlisle. It was probably during his residence at Carlisle that Brown wrote his poem entitled Honour, inscribed to Lord Lonsdale. His next poetical production was his Essay on Satire, addressed to Dr Warburton, to whom it was so acceptable, that he took Brown into his friendship. He also introduced him to Ralph Allen, of Prior Park, near Bath, to whom in 1751 Brown dedicated his Essay on the Characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury. In 1754 he was promoted by the earl of Hardwicke to the living of Great Horkeslcy in Essex, and in the following year he took the degree of doctor of divinity at Cambridge. In this year also he published his tragedy of Barbarossa, which, under the management of Garrick, was acted with considerable applause, though it was sharply censured when published. This tragedy was followed by a second, entitled Athelstane, which was represented at Drury Lane theatre. This was also well received by the public, but did not become so popular as Barbarossa. Among ths most remarkable of his other pro ductions are the Estimate of the Manners and Principles of th? Times, a bitter satire ; the Additional Dialogue of thz Dead, which was a vindication of Chatham s policy ; and the Dissertation on the Rise, Union, and Poiver, &c., of Poetry and Music. Dr Brown, who had an hereditary tendency to insanity, and from early life had been subject at times to fits of excessive melancholy, committted suicide on the 23rd of September 176G.
BROWN, John, author of the Self-Interpreting Bible, was born at Carpow, in Perthshire, in 1722. He was almost entirely self-educated, having acquired a knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew while employed as a shepherd. He was, for a great part of his life, minister of the Burgher branch of the Secession Church in Hadding ton, and also discharged the duties of professor of divinity. Though he had not enjoyed the advantages of a regular education, he mastered the classical tongues, as well a-; several modern and Oriental languages, and gained a just reputation for learning and piety. He died in 1787. The best of his works, which are very numerous, are his Self- Interpreting Bible and Dictionary of the Bible, works that were long very popular in Scotland. He also wrote a valuable Body of Divinity.
BROWN, John, the founder of the Brunonian theory of physic, was born in 1735 at Lintlaws or at Preston, Berwickshire. He was originally destined for the employ ment of a weaver, but the boy s talents attracted the atten tion of his schoolmaster, through whose endeavours his parents were encouraged to allow him to begin study for the church. At the age of twenty he came to Edinburgh and entered the classes at the university, supporting him self by private tuition. In 1759 he seems to have discon tinued his theological studies, and to have begun the study of medicine. He soon attracted the notice of Dr Cullen, who engaged him as private tutor to his family, and treated him in some respects as an assistant professor. Brown, however, thought that Cullen did not advance his candida ture for a vacant chair, and the friendship between the two was soon completely broken. In 1780 appeared the Elementa Medicince, expounding the new, or as it was then called the Brunonian, theory of medicine. The fundamental idea of this theory was the division of diseases into two classes, sthenic and asthenic, the one caused by excess, the other by deficiency of excitement, and the con sequent method of treatment by debilitating or stimulat ing medicines. That Brown s ideas should have excited the discussion they did seems now incredible. Shortly after the publication he obtained the degree of M.D. at St Andrews, and in 178G he set out for London in the hope of bettering his fortunes. He died of apoplexy in October 1788. A Life of Brown by Beddoes was published in 1801. An edition of his works, with notice of his life by his son, W. C. Brown, appeared in 1804.
of the Rev. John Brown of Whitburn, and grandson of the Rev. John Brown of Haddington, was born at Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, on the 12th July 1784. He studied at Glasgow university, and afterwards at the divinity hall of tho "Burgher" branch of the "Secession" Church at Sel kirk, under the celebrated Lawson. In 1806 he was ordained minister of the Burgher congregation at Biggar, Lanarkshire, where he continued to labour for sixteen years with growing popularity. Transferred in 1822 to the charge of Rose Street church, Edinburgh, he at once took a high rank as a preacher. Deficient in imagination and in spontaneity of utterance, he had nearly all the other qualities of a pulpit orator, a powerful and flexible voice, a presence at once winning and commanding, clear and persuasive reasoning, and a habitual earnestness, rising not unfrequently into fervour. In 1829 he succeeded Dr Hall in the pastoral charge of Broughton Place church, Edin burgh, where his congregation speedily became one of tho largest in the city. In 1835 he was appointed one of the professors in the theological hall of the Secession Church, and, great as was his ability as a preacher and pastor, it was probably in this sphere that he rendered his most valuable service to his own denomination and the church at large. He had been the first in Scotland to introduce in his pulpit ministrations what is known as the exegetical method of exposition of Scripture, and he fully availed
himself of his position as a professor to illustrate tho