724 



BROWNE. 



cause and effect, first suggested by Hume, will ever 

 prove the extent ami accuracy of his views. He died 

 at Brompton, near London, April ', 1820. 



BROWNE, Isaac Hawkins, an elegant poet in the 

 tatin and English languages, was oorn in 1700 at 

 Burton-upon-Trent, of which parish his father was 

 minister. He received his early education at 

 Lilchfield, whence he was removed to Westminster 

 school, and in due time to Trinity college, Cam- 

 bridge, where he wrote a poem on the death of 

 George 1., which appeared among the university pro- 

 ductions, and gained him much credit. In 1727 he 

 s. at led in Lincoln's Inn as a student of law, but al- 

 though he pursued the profession for some time, be- 

 ing possessed of a moderate but adequate fortune, he 

 finally relinquished it, and dedicated himself entirely 

 to literary occupation. While at Lincoln's Inn he 

 addressed a poem of some length to Highmore, the 

 painter, on the subject of " Design and Beauty," in 

 which he adopted the ideas of the Platonic philoso- 

 phy. Among his smaller poems, one entitled " The 

 Pipe of Tobacco," obtained great popularity. It 

 consisted of an imitation of the styles of six poets, all 

 then living Cibber, Ambrose Philips, Thomson, 

 Young, Pope, and Swift, and is composed in a very 

 happy strain of humour and skilful adaptation, of 

 different modes of thought and language. In 1744 

 he married, and in 1748 was brought into parliament 

 for the borough of Wenlock in Shropshire, by the 

 interest of the Forrester family. In that capacity he 

 supported the Pelham administration, but never ac- 

 cepted of post or employment ; nor, although possess- 

 ed of happy elocution, would his timidity ever allow 

 him to become a parliamentary speaker. In 1754 he 

 published his principal work, a Latin poem entitled 

 '" De Animi Immortalitate," in two books, modelled 

 upon the style of Lucretius, and the more perfect 

 versification of Virgil. This work which abounds 

 with poetical beauties, and is otherwise able and vi- 

 gorous, became very popular, and underwent several 

 translations, the last of which is that of Soame Jenyns. 

 The author designed a. third book, but left only a 

 fragment of it. Mr Browne, after passing a life of 

 distinguished private virtue, and graced by a variety 

 of accomplishments, died in 1766, in the fifty-fifth 

 year of his age. His only son, Mr Hawkins Browne, 

 published an elegant edition of his poems in 1768, in 

 large 8vo. Many of them are also in Dodsley's 

 Collection. 



BROWNE, Maximilian Ulysses, count, field-marshal 

 in the Austrian service, was born at Bale, in 1705. 

 His father, Ulysses de Browne, left Ireland in 1690, 

 us a follower of king James II., became colonel in the 

 Austrian service, and died in 1721. The son served 

 from his early youth in the imperial army ; distin- 

 guished himself in the Italian war, in particular, in 

 the battles of Parma and Guastalla; and, in 1739, 

 was made lieutenant field-marshal. In the Silesian 

 wars, B. served with zeal and ability ; the 15th June, 

 1746, he gained the battle of Piacenza against the 

 French, took the pass of Bochetta, and made himself 

 master of Savona. In 1752, he was made governor 

 of the city of Prague, and commander-in-chief of the 

 forces in Bohemia ; and, in 1756, when king Frederic 

 II. attempted to penetrate through Saxony to Bohe- 

 mia, he was appointed field- marshal. October 1, 

 1756, he. lost the battle of Lowositz, but, seven days 

 after, advanced towards Saxony, to rescue the Saxon 

 troops, who were surrounded between Pirna and 

 Konigstein. Although he did not effect this purpose, 

 he forced the Prussians to evacuate Bohemia, and 

 was, in' consequence, rewarded with the order of the 

 golden fleece. Frederic invaded Bohemia a second 

 time with his whole force, and, May 6, 1757, the bat- 

 tle of Prague was fought. B. was obliged to leave 



the field, and was carried to Prague, mortally wound- 

 ed, and died in June, 1757. Frederic II. called him 

 his master. 



BROWNE, Simon ; a learned and ingenious dissent- 

 ing divine, remarkable for an extraordinary species 

 ot mental derangement, was born about 1680. He 

 preached for some time at Portsmouth ; afterwards at 

 the Old Jewry, one of the principal congregations of 

 Dissenters in London. Here he publislred a volume 

 of hymns, and one of sermons. In 1723, the loss of 

 his wife and only son threw him into a settled melan- 

 choly, attended with the persuasion, that God had 

 annihilated in him the thinking substance, and utterly 

 divested him of consciousness; and, although he re- 

 tained the human shape, and the faculty of speaking 

 in a manner that appeared to others rational, he had 

 all the while no more notion of what he said than a 

 parrot. He therefore thought himself no longer a 

 moral agent, or a subject of reward or punishment, 

 and, desisting from his functions, could not be pre- 

 vailed upon to join in any act of worship, public or 

 private. This persuasion, which remained with him 

 to the end of his life, at first tempted him to commit 

 suicide ; but he at length became calm, and appeared 

 uneasy only when his friends appeared to doubt the 

 truth of his assertions. Notwithstanding this aliena- 

 tion of mind, his faculties, in other respects, were in 

 full vigour, which he proved by various publications, 

 including the compilation of a dictionary. This, he 

 observed, " was nothing that required a reasonable 

 soul." Towards the close of his life, he published 

 several clearly-written theological pieces, and, among 

 the rest, a defence of revelation. So strong, how- 

 ever, was his delusion, that, in a dedication to queen 

 Caroline, which his friends would not permit him to 

 publish, but which appeared in the 88th number of 

 the Adventurer, he describes his deprivation of a soul 

 with great force of expression, and even pathos. He 

 died in 1732, aged fifty-five. 



BROWNE, Sir Thomas, a physician and very cele- 

 brated writer, was the son of a merchant of London, 

 where he was born in 1605. He lost his father early, 

 and was defrauded by one of his guardians ; but his 

 mother, who married Sir Thomas Dutton, had him 

 educated at Winchester school, whence he was at a 

 proper time removed to Oxford, where he took the 

 degree of M. A., and practised as a physician for some 

 time hi Oxfordshire. He subsequently accompanied 

 his father-in-law to Ireland, and afterwards visiting 

 the continent, received the degree of M.D. at Leyden. 

 On his return to England he settled as a physician at 

 Norwich, where he married, and acquired extensive 

 practice and reputation. In 1642 he published his 

 famous work entitled " Religio Medici," which excit- 

 ed the attention of the learned not only in England, 

 but throughout Europe, and was translated into vari- 

 ous languages. In 1646 his literary character was 

 still further exalted by the appearance of his " Pseu- 

 dodoxia Epidemica," or " Treatise on Vulgar Errors," 

 a work of extraordinary learning, and accounted the 

 most solid and useful of his literary labours. Owing 

 probably to his extent of practice, it was not until 

 1658 that his " Hydriotaphia, or Treatise on Urn- 

 burial" appeared, conjointly with his " Garden of 

 Cyrus." These works ranked him very high as an 

 antiquary ; and he maintained a wide correspondence 

 with the learned, both at home and abroad. In 1665 

 he was constituted an honorary member of the college 

 of physicians, and in 1671, king Charles II. visiting 

 Norwich, conferred on him the honour of knighthood, 

 with great marks of esteem. Of a most amiable pri- 

 vate character, he was singularly happy in the affec- 

 tion of his large family and numerous friends; and 

 after passing through a remarkably tranquil and pros- 

 perous literary and professional life, he died in October, 



