CHAPTER II. 



OF CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY IN THE TIME OF DR. DARWIN, 

 AND, SPECIALLY, OF HIS CRITIC, DR. THOMAS BROWN. 



As bearing on the personal character of Dr. Erasmus 

 Darwin, his reception of Dr. Thomas Brown has been, so 

 far, just named. It may, in the circumstances, be well, 

 however, to see what is concerned here a little more in 

 detail. It is matter of tolerably common knowledge, 

 doubtless, that the very first work of the Edinburgh 

 professor and distinguished philosopher in reference, was 

 Observations on Dr. Darwin's Zoonomia. I have elsewhere 

 spoken of Dr. Brown as " a man who is not only built 

 into our admiration by his rare subtlety, but endeared 

 to our very affections by his sweet candour ; " and, no 

 doubt, in Dr. Brown's own works, and in his Life by Dr. 

 Welsh, there occurs ample testimony to no less a praise. 

 But Dr. Welsh would wish for his master and friend a 

 great deal more to be said. Even as a poet Dr. Brown 

 is to him one of the greatest of men. Dr. Brown's 

 descriptions in that character, he says, "may in many 

 cases, for simplicity, fulness, and fidelity, be compared 

 with any in the English language." " It would be diffi- 

 cult to point out an equal number of lines in any other 

 author combining so many excellences;" and he has 

 " passages of exquisite pathos " passages, indeed, " the 

 most pathetic to be found in poetry." 



