The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 92

BROWN, HENRY KIRKE, an American sculptor, did a number of statues, a colossal one of Was.h.i.+ngton among them (1814-1886).

BROWN, JOHN, American slavery abolitionist; settled in Kansas, and resolutely opposed the project of making it a slave state; in the interest of emanc.i.p.ation, with six others, seized on the State armoury at Harper's Ferry in hope of a rising, entrenched himself armed in it, was surrounded, seized, tried, and hanged (1800-1859).

BROWN, JOHN, of Haddington, a self-educated Scotch divine, born at Carpow, near Abernethy, Perths.h.i.+re, son of a poor weaver, left an orphan at 11, became a minister of a Dissenting church in Haddington; a man of considerable learning, and deep piety; author of "Dictionary of the Bible," and "Self-interpreting Bible" (1722-1787).

BROWN, JOHN, M.D., great-grandson of the preceding, born at Biggar, educated in Edinburgh High School and at Edinburgh University, was a pupil of James Syme, the eminent surgeon, and commenced quiet practice in Edinburgh; author of "Horae Subsecivae," "Rab and his Friends," "Pet Marjorie," "John Leech," and other works; was a fine and finely-cultured man, much beloved by all who knew him, and by none more than by John Ruskin, who says of him, he was "the best and truest friend of all my life.... Nothing can tell the loss to me in his death, nor the grief to how many greater souls than mine that had been possessed in patience through his love" (1810-1882).

BROWN, JOHN, M.D., founder of the Brunonian system of medicine, born at Bunkle, Berwicks.h.i.+re; reduced diseases into two cla.s.ses, those resulting from redundancy of excitation, and those due to deficiency of excitation; author of "Elements of Medicine" and "Observations on the Old and New Systems of Physic" (1735-1788). See BROUSSAIS.

BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON, three middle-cla.s.s Englishmen on their travels abroad, as figured in the pages of _Punch_, and drawn by Richard Doyle.

BROWN, MOUNT (16,000 ft.), the highest of the Rocky Mts., in N.

America.

BROWN, OLIVER MADOX, son of Ford Madox, a youth of great promise both as an artist and poet; died of blood-poisoning (1855-1874).

BROWN, RAWDON, historical scholar, spent his life at Venice in the study of Italian history, especially in its relation to English history, which he prosecuted with unwearied industry; his great work, work of 20 years' hard labour, "Calendar of State Papers and Ma.n.u.scripts relating to English Affairs existing in the Archives of Venice and Northern Italy,"

left unfinished at his death; died at Venice, where he spent a great part of his life, where Ruskin found him and conceived a warm friends.h.i.+p for him (1803-1883).

BROWN, ROBERT, a distinguished botanist, born at Montrose, son of an Episcopal clergyman; accompanied an expedition to survey the coast of Australia in 1801, returned after four years' exploration, with 4000 plants mostly new to science, which he cla.s.sified and described in his "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae"; became librarian to, and finally president of, the Linnean Society; styled by Humboldt _botanicorum facile princeps_; he was a man of most minute and accurate observation, and of a wide range of knowledge, much of which died along with him, out of the fear of committing himself to mistakes (1773-1858).

BROWN, SAMUEL, M.D., chemist, born in Haddington, grandson of John Brown of Haddington, whose life was devoted, with the zeal of a mediaeval alchemist, to a reconstruction of the science of atomics, which he did not live to see realised: a man of genius, a brilliant conversationist and an a.s.sociate of the most intellectual men of his time, among the number De Quincey, Carlyle, and Emerson; wrote "Lay Sermons on the Theory of Christianity," "Lectures on the Atomic Theory," and two volumes of "Essays, Scientific and Literary" (1817-1856).

BROWN, THOMAS, Scottish psychologist, born in Kirkcudbrights.h.i.+re, bred to medicine; professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, colleague and successor to Dugald Stewart; his lectures, all improvised on the spur of the moment, were published posthumously; "Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind" established a sixth sense, which he called the "muscular." He was a man of precocious talent, and a devoted student, to the injury of his health and the shortening of his life; he was obliged from ill-health to resign his professors.h.i.+p after 10 years (1778-1820).

BROWN w.i.l.l.y, the highest peak (1368 ft.) in Cornwall.

BROWNE, CHARLES FARRAR, a humorist and satirist, known by the pseudonym of "Artemus Ward," born in Maine, U.S.; his first literary effort was as "showman" to an imaginary travelling menagerie; travelled over America lecturing, carrying with him a whimsical panorama as affording texts for his numerous jokes, which he brought with him to London, and exhibited with the same accompaniment with unbounded success; he spent some time among the Mormons, and defined their religion as singular, but their wives plural (1834-1867).

BROWNE, HABLOT KNIGHT, artist, born in London; ill.u.s.trated d.i.c.kens's works, "Pickwick" to begin with, under the pseudonym of "Phiz," as well as the works of Lever, Ainsworth, Fielding, and Smollett, and the Abbotsford edition of Scott; he was skilful as an etcher and an architectural draughtsman (1815-1882).

BROWNE, ROBERT, founder of the Brownists, born in Rutland; the first seceder from the Church of England, and the first to found a Church of his own on Congregational principles, which he did at Norwich, though his project of secession proved a failure, and he returned to the English Church; died in jail at Northampton, where he was imprisoned for a.s.saulting a constable; he may be accounted the father of the Congregational body in England (1540-1630).

BROWNE, SIR THOMAS, physician and religious thinker, born in London; resided at Norwich for nearly half a century, and died there; was knighted by Charles II.; "was," Professor Saintsbury says, "the greatest prose writer perhaps, when all things are taken together, in the whole range of English"; his princ.i.p.al works are "Religio Medici," "Inquiries into Vulgar Errors," and "Hydriotaphia, or Urn-Burial, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns found in Norfolk"; "all of the very first importance in English literature,..." adds the professor, "the 'Religio Medici' the greatest favourite, and a sort of key to the others;" "a man," says Coleridge, "rich in various knowledge, exuberant in conceptions and conceits, contemplative, imaginative, often truly great, and magnificent in his style and diction.... He is a quiet and sublime enthusiast, with a strong tinge of the fantastic. He meditated much on death and the hereafter, and on the former in its relation to, or leading on to, the latter" (1605-1682).

BROWNE WILLIAM, English pastoral poet, born at Tavistock; author of "Britannia's Pastorals" and "The Shepherd's Pipe," a collection of eclogues and "The Inner Temple and Masque," on the story of Ulysses and Circe, with some opening exquisitely beautiful verses, "Steer hither, steer," among them; was an imitator of Spenser, and a parallel has been inst.i.tuted between him and Keats (1590-1645).

BROWNIE, a good-natured household elf, believed in Scotland to render obliging services to good housewives, and his presence an evidence that the internal economies were approved of, as he favoured good husbandry, and was partial to houses where it was observed.

BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT, _nee_ BARRETT, poetess, born at Carlton Hall, Durham; a woman of great natural abilities, which developed early; suffered from injury to her spine; went to Torquay for her health; witnessed the death by drowning of a brother, that gave her a shock the effect of which never left her; published in 1838 "The Seraphim," and in 1844 "The Cry of the Children"; fell in with and married Robert Browning in 1846, who immediately took her abroad, settling in Florence; wrote in 1850 "Sonnets from the Portuguese," in 1851 "Casa Guidi Windows," and in 1856 "Aurora Leigh," "a novel in verse," and in 1860 "Poems before Congress"; ranks high, if not highest, among the poetesses of England; she took an interest all through life in public affairs; her work is marked by musical diction, sensibility, knowledge, and imagination, which no poetess has rivalled (1806-1861).

BROWNING, ROBERT, poet, one of the two greatest in the Victorian era, born in Camberwell; early given to write verses; prepared himself for his literary career by reading through Johnson's Dictionary; his first poem "PAULINE" (q. v.) published in 1833, which was followed by "Paracelsus" in 1835, "Sordello" in 1840; after a time, in which he was not idle, appeared, with some of his "Dramatic Romances and Lyrics," in 1855 his "Men and Women," and in 1868 "THE RING AND THE BOOK" (q. v.), his longest poem, and more a.n.a.lytic than poetic; this was succeeded by a succession of others, finis.h.i.+ng up with "Asolando," which appeared the day he died at Venice; was a poet of great subtlety, deep insight, creative power, and strong faith, of a genius and learning which there are few able to compa.s.s the length and breadth of; lies buried in Westminster Abbey; of Browning it has been said by Professor Saintsbury, "Timor mortis non conturbabat, 'the fear of death did not trouble him.' In the browner shades of age as well as in the spring of youth he sang, not like most poets, Love and Death, but Love and Life.... 'James Lee,' 'Rabbi Ben Ezra,' and 'Prospice' are among the greatest poems of the century." His creed was an optimism of the brightest, and his restful faith "it is all right with the world"

(1812-1889).

BROWN-SeQUARD, physiologist, born in Mauritius, of American parentage; studied in Paris; practised in New York, and became a professor in the College de France; made a special study of the nervous system and nervous diseases, and published works on the subject; _b_.

1818.

BRUANT, a French architect, born in Paris; architect of the Invalides and the Salpetriere; _d_. 1697.

BRUAT, a French admiral, commanded the French fleet at the Crimea (1796-1885).

BRUCE, a family ill.u.s.trious in Scottish history, descended from a Norman knight, Robert de Bruis, who came over with the Conqueror, and who acquired lands first in Northumberland and then in Annandale.

BRUCE, JAMES, traveller, called the "Abyssinian," born at Kinnaird House, Stirlings.h.i.+re, set out from Cairo in 1768 in quest of the source of the Nile: believed he had discovered it; stayed two years in Abyssinia, and returned home by way of France, elated with his success; felt hurt that no honor was conferred on him, and for relief from the chagrin wrote an account of his travels in five quarto vols., the general accuracy of which, as far as it goes, has been attested by subsequent explorers (1730-1794).

BRUCE, MICHAEL, a Scotch poet, born near Loch Leven, in poor circ.u.mstances, in the parish of Portmoak; studied for the Church; died of consumption; his poems singularly plaintive and pathetic; his t.i.tle to the authors.h.i.+p of the "Ode to the Cuckoo" has been matter of contention (1746-1767).

BRUCE, ROBERT, rival with John Baliol for the crown of Scotland on the death of Margaret, the Maiden of Norway, against whose claim Edward I. decided in favour of Baliol (1210-1295).

BRUCE, ROBERT, son of the preceding, earl of Carrick, through Marjory his wife; served under Edward at the battle of Dunbar for one instance; sued for the Scottish crown in vain (1269-1304).

BRUCE, ROBERT, king of Scotland, son of the preceding, did homage for a time to Edward, but joined the national party and became one of a regency of four, with Comyn for rival; stabbed Comyn in a quarrel at Dumfries, 1306, and was that same year crowned king at Scone; was defeated by an army sent against him, and obliged to flee to Rathlin, Ireland; returned and landed in Carrick; cleared the English out of all the fortresses except Stirling, and on 24th June 1314 defeated the English under Edward II. at Bannockburn, after which, in 1328, the independence of Scotland was acknowledged as well as Bruce's right to the crown; suffering from leprosy, spent his last two years at Cardross Castle, on the Clyde, where he died in the thirty-third year of his reign (1274-1329).

BRUCIN, an alkaloid, allied in action to strychnine, though much weaker, being only a twenty-fifth of the strength.

BRuCKENAU, small town in Bavaria, 17 m. NW. of Kissingen, with mineral springs good for nervous and skin diseases.