Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/29

 "  upon Dr Darwin's Zoonomia  ," in a pamphlet which far surpassed the work which had called it forth. It appeared in 1798, and, while it excited astonishment in those who knew the years of the author, was received in other quarters as the work of a veteran in philosophy. Dr. Welsh justly characterises it as one of the most remarkable exemplifications of premature intellect which has ever been exhibited, and states that, though unfortunate in its object, and the exposure of an unworthy production, it is found to contain the germ of all Dr Brown's subsequent discoveries as to mind, and of those principles of philosophizing by which he was guided in his future inquiries. Dr Brown at this time belonged to an association of young men, which, whether from its peculiar object, the celebrity since acquired by several of its members, or one remarkable result of its existence, must be acknowledged as possessing no ordinary claims to attention. It was called the Academy of Physics, and its object is described in the minutes of its first meeting to have been, "the investigation of nature, the laws by which her phenomena are regulated, and the history of opinions concerning these laws." The first members were Messrs Brougham, Erskine, Reddie, Brown, Rogerson, Birbeck, Logan, and Leyden; to whom were afterwards joined Lord Webb Seymour, the Rev. Sydney Smith, and Messrs Horner, Jeffrey, and Gillespie. The Academy prosecuted its investigations with great assiduity and success for about three years; like many other clubs, the spirit in which it was originated began to change with the changed years, and altered views of its members; it flagged, failed, and was finally broken up. The remarkable result of its existence, above alluded to, was the establishment of the Edinburgh Review. The first writers in this work were Jeffrey, Brougham, Sydney Smith, Horner, and Brown. The leading article of the second number, upon Kant's philosophy, was by the last of these gentlemen. Mr. Brown, however, did not long continue to contribute; a misunderstanding with the gentleman who superintended the publication of the third number, regarding some liberties taken with one of his articles, was the cause of his retirement. Brown's first ideas as to a profession, led him to choose the bar, and for a twelvemonth he prosecuted the dry studies of the law. An insurmountable repugnance, however, to this pursuit caused him afterwards to study medicine. He obtained his degree of M.D. in 1803, on which occasion he was honoured with the highest commendations from Dr Gregory, not only for his proficiency in medical learning, but for the amazingly fluent and elegant style of his Latinity, of which no one could judge better than that learned professor, himself acknowledged to be the best Latinist of his time in Scotland. Previous to this period, namely in 1800, when he was only twenty-two years of age, his friends had, unsuccessfully, endeavoured to obtain for him the chair of rhetoric; but a system by which the clergy of the university seat were almost invariably preferred to the vacant chairs, blasted his hopes on this occasion. This disappointment, with his antipathy to the courtly party of the church, by which it was patronized, seems to have inspired him with a vehement aversion to a system, which can only be palliated by a consideration of the narrow stipends then enjoyed by the clergy, and the propriety of enriching, by this oblique means, the prospects which were to induce men of abilities to enter the church. Upon the promotion of Mr Playfair to the chair of Natural Philosophy, Mr Leslie competed for the vacant chair of Mathematics with a clergyman whose attainments in that study, though more than respectable, certainly could not be placed on an equality with those of the opposing candidate. The church party, knowing- that they could not make out any superior qualifications in their candidate on the score of mathematics, endeavoured to produce the same effect by depreciating Mr Leslie's qualifications on the score of religion. Their proof lay in a note to Mr Leslie's essay on heat, containing an expression of approbation respecting Hume's doctrine of causation. The can-