BBOWN. 557 BKOWN. Army throughout the Civil War, and since then has been engaged in mercantile pursuits and farming. He has devoted most of his time, how- ever, to the study of the early history of Vir- ginia, from the standpoint of the Virginia Com- pany, and by his writings has connected his name with the view that the commonly accepted account of the early Virginia history, based almost solely, as it is, on works and documents approved by the Court party, is largely inaccu- rate, and is grossly unjust to the original found- ers and their patrons. To establish this thesis, and to correct current misconceptions and mis- judgments, has been the aim of the various vol- umes published by him. Besides numerous magazine articles and papers read before his- torical societies, he has written: Xew Victrs on Early Virr/iiiia Uistorij. a pamphlet (1886); The Genesis of the United States. 2 vols. (1890), a valuable collection of previously unprinted hi.-torical manuscripts and of rare tracts : The Cabells and Their Kin (1895); The First Re- public in America ( 1898) . an account of the early history of Virginia; The History of Our Earliest History (1898) ; and English Politics in Early Virginia History (1901). BKOWN, Bexjamix Gr.tz (1826-85). An American politician. He was bom in Lexing- ton, Ky. ; graduated at Yale in 1847; practiced law in Saint Louis; and during 1852-58 was a member of the Legislature. In 1854 he started the Missoitri Democrat. In the Civil War he fought on the Union side, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. He served as United States Senator from Missouri ( 1863- 67), and in 1871 was elected Governor of the State. In 1872 he was candidate for Vice-Presi- dent on the ticket headed by Horace Greeley. BROWN, CHABI.E.S Brockden (1771-1810). An American novelist and editor. He was born in Philadelphia, .January 17, I77I. As a boy he was very precocious and at the age of 11 he entered the school of Robert Proud, an historian and noted teacher, where he remained for five years, and by zealous application to his books frequently overtaxed his naturally weak consti- tution. He never after enjoyed perfect health. On leaving school he studied law, but soon chose literature as his profession. He wrote much verse and practiced his pen in numerous essays for a belles-lettres club, of which he was the leading spirit. He now drew giadually away from the Quaker modes of life and thought, and yielded to the influence of the current French philosophy, and to the social teachings of Godwin and other Knglish radicals. Growing out of touch with his Philadelphia surroundings, he moved to Xew York, and in 1797 published Aleuyn: A Dialogue o« the Rights of Women; but its radical teaching on divorce attracted little attention. The next year he issued his first novel Wieland, or the Transformatioti, a story of ventriloquism. This was his third attempt at fiction, and parts of an earlier novel, i^ky Walk, were afterwards in- corporated in Bdgar Huntley. Both of these early novels are tales of terror, improbable, sometimes horrible, but with scenes of great power, though as radically morbid as the work of his master. Godwin. During the next three years he published four other novels — Arthur Meriyn, Ormond. Edgar Huntley, and f'lara Hoicard — establishing his rank as the first and unrivaled American novelist, until the appear- ance of Cooper's .Spy ( 1821 ) . During this period of feverish activity. Brown attempted to estab- lish a Monthly Magazine and .imcriean Re- vietc, which did not outlive its second year. He was more successful in 1803, with the Literary Magazine and .Imerican Register (1803-08), and in 1800 began to issue a semi-anniial Ameri- can Register, which continued till his death, from consumption, February 22, 1810. He pub- lished also another novel. Jane Talbot (1801), did some translating, and wrote several political pamphlets, of which the most noteworthy is an Address to Congress on the Vtilily and Justice of Restrictions on Foreign Commerce. Death found him engaged in completing a System of General Geography and a Treatise on Rome Dur- ing the Age of the Antonines. Brown made early use of American frontier life. Thus he suggests Cooper, while his morbid ps^-chology has a tinge of Poe, and sometimes seems precursive of Haw- thorne. Like the English novelists of his school, his work is improbable, sentimental, and unreal. In construction it shows marks of haste, but it never fails to bear witness to native genius. There is a weird intensity of power in Wieland, and the description given in Arthur Mcrvyn and Ormond of the yellow-fever epidemics in Phila- delphia is generally acknowledged to be mas- terly. Prescott, iiargaret Fuller, and others have praised him highly, but he has not held his popularity. He should be remembered as the first really professional American man of letters. His novels were collected in seven volumea (1827), with a Life by Dunlap, originally pub- lished in two volumes (1815). These volumes contain many minor Avritings of Brown. The works were reedited in six volumes (Philadel- phia, 1857), and again by McKay (1887). For his biography, consult also: Prescott. Biograph- ical and Critical .Miscellanies (Philadelphia, 1867). BROWN, Ford Madox (1821-93). An Eng- lish painter. He was born in Calais, France, of English parentage; studied art on the Continent, and in 1844 sent to Westminster Hall two car- toons which won the admiration of Haydon and of Dante Rossetti. A warm friendship l)etween Rossetti and himself resulted, and wlien the former founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Brown, though he held himself aloof from actual membership in the society, was generally looked upon as one of its master spirits. Among his best-known pictures are "Widiff Reading His Translation of the Scriptures (1848); "King Lear" (1849) ; "Chaucer at the Court of Edward III." (1851); "Christ Washing Peter's Feet" (1852); "Work" (1868); "Don .Juan" (1870); and an historical series in the Town Hall, Man- chester, 1890. Consult Hueffer, Ford Madox Broun: .4 Record of His Life and Work (Lon- don. ISIiin. containing numerous reproductions. BROWN, Francis (1840—). An American educator. He was born in Hanover, N. H., and graduated at Dartmouth in 1870. and at Union Theological Seminary, Xew York City, as fellow of his class, in 1877. He then studied in Ger- many (1877-79), was appointed instructor in biblical philology- at the Union Theological Semi- nary in 1870, and became associate professor of biblical philology there in ISSl. and professor of Hebrew and the cognate languages in 1890. He has ])ublished some minor scholarly works, As-
