CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY. 11 



its place; but the reason lies fully in Homer, and very 

 uncertainly in Pope. Brown evidently was of another 

 way of thinking ; and even for his biographer we may 

 say no less. His Paradise of Coquettes, says the latter, 

 lias " placed the name of Brown in the playful species of 

 epic next to that of Pope." " It is worthy of remark," 

 he adds elsewhere, " that Pope, whom Brown as a poet 

 most resembles, was distinguished by his filial virtues." 

 Brown, besides his Paradise of Coquettes, has any number 

 of poems Wanderers in Norway, Bowers of Spring, Agnes, 

 War Fiends, and what not ; but despite quantity and 

 even quality (for with " correctness and elegance " there 

 are " occasional fine thoughts "), " the poetry of Dr. 

 Brown," say the critics of the day, " is now utterly for- 

 gotten." If this then be so, we are apt rather to admire 

 all these Popian references on the part of Dr. Welsh. The 

 contemporary halo (such halo as hovers before Hume) 

 may have long faded from most of the works of Pope ; 

 but Pope is still Pope at the very head, namely, of our 

 poets of the second rank ; and one cannot but feel a cer- 

 tain sense of discrepancy when even such a name as 

 Brown is placed side by side with such another as Pope. 

 So it is we smile when we read in Welsh, " In delicacy of 

 perception, in correctness, in wit, in melody, he (Brown) 

 was at least equal to that great genius (Pope) ; in refine- 

 ment and temper far superior ; in condensation and prac- 

 tical wisdom, the palm " magnanimously ! the " palm ! " 

 " must unquestionably be given to Pope ! " 



But Dr. Brown, if a great poet to Dr. Welsh, is still 

 to him an even greater philosopher. Dr. Brown, he 

 decides, "may be pronounced at least equal, and in 

 subtlety of intellect and powers of analysis as superior, 

 to any metaphysician that ever existed." This, indeed, 

 that he was " the first of modern metaphysicians, has 

 been confirmed by public opinion." " The discovery of 



