BBOWNE. 566 BROWNING. most famous and best are the Religio Medici (first authorized and correct ed., 1G43). and the Hydriotaphia. or Vrn-Biinat (1658). The former was transhxted into Latin by John Jlerryweathcr (1644). and in one year passed tlirough two Levden and two Paris editions. It was subse- quently rendered into French, German, and Dutch". Alike in England and on the Continent it aroused much controversy as to its orthodoxy, and was assailed and defended with an equal vehemence. The latter discusses the burial us- ages of various times and places, and closes with a chapter which for lofty and sustained elo- quence must stand almost imequaled in English literature. The Fseudodocria Epidemica, or En- quiries info . . . Vtiiyar and Common Er- rors (1646), is a mixture of cleverness and credulity, science and superstition, quite worthy of Plinv the Elder. The Oarden of Cyrus (1658) contains some entertaining fantasies. A style more individual than Browne's was never writ- ten. Latin in derivation, it coins with an ease permitted only while language is yet plastic, and its periods move with a majestic solem- nity. Respecting his thought, Dr. Johnson says : "He was always starting into collateral con- siderations; biit the spirit and vigor of his pursuit always give delight; and the reader fol- lows him, without reluctance, through his mazes, in themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the point originally in view." And Charles I-amb, ho owed much of his own diction and viewpoint to Browne, has an acute phrase when he speaks of Sir Thomas's 'beautiful obliqui- ties.' The best edition of Browne's works is that by Simon Wilkin (4 vols., London, 1835- 36), which includes all the posthumous publica- tions, together with correspondence and other new matter. The reprint of 1852 (London, 3 vols.) is abridged and otherwise inferior. There is also an edition (1881) by Dr. Greenhill of the Beligio Medici. Consult further the fine essay on Browne in Pater, Appreciations (Lon- don." 1889). BROWNE, WiLLl.M (1501-1643). An Eng- lish poet. Little is known of his life, except that he was in Exeter College, Oxford, and was a tutor to Robert Dormer, afterwards Earl of Carnarvon. He was of the school of Spenser. and author of Britannia's Pastorals (1613) and The Shepherd's Pipe (1(U4). Consult the com- plete edition of his Works, edited by Hazhtt (London, 1868). BROWNELL, broun'el or brou-nfl', Henry How.vHi) (1820-72). An American poet and his- torian, born in Providence, R. I., February 0, 1820. He was graduated from Trinity College, Hartford, in 1841, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but settled as a teacher in Hartford. He published in 1847 a volume of Poetns, and in 1851 the People's Book of Ancient and Modern History, and followed this in 1863 with The Dis- coverers, Pioneers, and Settlers of ^^orth and South America. But Brownell first attracted gen- eral attention bv poems written during the Civil War. The earliest of these was a stirring version of the "General Orders" given by Admiral Farra- gxit at the attack on the defenses of New Orleans This led to his becoming attached to Admiral Farraeut as private secretary. He was present at the" naval battle in Mobile Bay, and after the war accompanied the Admiral on his European cruise. His best poems, "The River Fight" and "The Bay Fight," deal with the naval ac- tions at New Orleans and Mobile. "They are to all the drawing-iooin battle poems as the torn flags of our victorious armadas to the stately ensigns that dressed their ships in the harbor" (O. W. Holmes). He collected his war poems in Lyrics of a Day ; or. Newspaper Poetry by a Yotunteer in the United States Sen-ice (1864). A selection of his Poems, revised by himself, ap- peared in 1866. His was the most popular battle poetry produced in the North during the Civil War; but his work is unfinished, uneven, often undignified, and sometimes grotesque. At its best, however, it sounds the lyric cry of a great national emotion. There is an appreciative essay on J?rowncll, by O. V. Holmes, entitled "Our Battle Laureate." BROWNELL, William Craby (1851—). An American essayist and art critic, born in New York. He graduated at Amherst, and was for two years art critic of the Nation (New York). From 1890 he was a literary adviser of Charles Seribner's Sons. His published volumes are ; French Traits, an essay in comparative criticism (1889); French Art, classic and contemporary painting and sculpture ( 1892) ; Newport ( 1896) ; and Victoria)! Prose Masters (1901). His treat- ment of French life was recognized as remark- ably subtle and sympathetic, and of French art as very suggestive from a non-professional stand- point. His studies of the later English prose writers have been highly praised. BROWN'HILLS'. A mining town in Staf- fordshire, England, about nine miles east of Wolverhampton (Jlap: England, E 4). It has iron-foundries and collieries. Population, in 1891, 11,820; in 1901, 15,252. BROWN'IAN MOVEMENTS (discovered by the Scotch botanist. Dr. Robert Brown ) . The motion of very minute particles suspended in a fluid when seen through the microscope, often mistaken for motions of living matter. The cause of the movements has not been satisfac- torily shown, but it has been surmised that heat is the motive power. Consult Carpenter, The Microscope and Its Herelations, eighth edition, edited by Dallinger (Philadelphia, 1901). BROWN'IE (Scotch, from his suppo.sed brown color). A good-natui'ed and invisible goblin in the old popular superstitions of Scotland, who attached himself to farmhouses and other country dwellings, and while the inmates were asleep per- formed their labors, such aa churning and tfiresh- ing, for them. In Cornwall a similar brownie was evoked to assist at the swarming of tiees. The resemblance to the Robin Goodfcllow (q.v.) of the English and the Kobold of the Germans is conspicuous, and the Roman Lar is also sug- gested by this superstition. BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett (1806- 61 ) . An English poet. She was tlie eldest daugh- ter of Edward Moulton, or Moulton-Barrett, as he afterwards wrote his name, and JIary Graham, and was born at Coxhoe Hall, five miles from the city of Durham, March 6. 1806. In 1809 the family settled in Herefordshire, among the Mal- vern "Hills. Elizabeth early displayed great precocity, eagerly read books beyond the com- prehension of niost children, and when about eleven years old, composed an 'epic poem,' "The Battle "of Marathon," an echo of Pope's Iliad.
