BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 5s
deliver in the public hall the usual academical exercise prescribed prior to ordination
as a clergyman of the Scottish Establishment. At this point he stopped,
and relinquished the profession of divinity altogether ; the sequel will sufficiently
explain his motives for this change. Its immediate consequence was his retreat
from Edinburgh to Dunse. Here he engaged himself as usher to the school
which he had lately quitted ; and in this capacity he officiated a whole year, in
the course of which one of the classes in the High School at Edinburgh
becoming vacant, Brown appeared as a candidate, but proved unsuccessful.
When Brown renounced divinity, he turned his thoughts to the study of
medicine ; and in order to defray the necessary expense attendant upon this
new pursuit, he became what in college parlance is termed a “grinder,” or
preparer of Latin translations of the inaugural dissertations which medical
students are bound to publish before taking their degree as Doctors in Medicine.
His attention was first directed to this employment by accident. Application
being made to one of his friends to procure a person sufhiently qualified to
turn an essay of this kind into tolerable Latin, Brown was recommended, and
performed the task in a manner that exceeded the expectations both of the
friend and the candidate. When it was observed how much he had excelled
the ordinary style of such compositions, he said he had now discovered his
strength, and was ambitious of riding in his own carriage as a physician. This
occurred towards the close of 1759.
Brown next turned his attention to the establishment of a boarding-house
for students, a resource which would enable him to maintain a family. His
reputation for various attainments was, he thought, likely to draw round him a
number sufficient to fill a large house. With this prospect he married in 1765
Miss Euphemia Lamont, daughter of Mr. John Lamont, merchant in Edinburgh,
by whom he had twelve children. His wccess answered his expectations, and
his house was soon filled with respectable boarders ; but he lived too splendidly
for his income ; and it is said that he managed so ill, that in two or three years
he became bankrupt. Towards the end of 1770, he was miserably reduced in
circumstances, but he nevertheless continued to maintain his original independence
of character. He seemed to be happy in his family ; and, as far as could
be observed, acquitted himself affectionately both as a husbhd and a parent.
He still attended the medical classes, which, according to his own account, he
had done for ten or eleven years.
From the celebrated Cullen he early received the most flattering marks of
attention. This speculatist, like Boerhaave, and other men of genius in the same
station, was accustomed to watch the fluctuating body of students with a vigilant
eye, and to seek the acquaintance of the most promising. Brown’s intimate
and classical knowledge of the Latin language served him as a peculiar
recommendation ; and his circumstances might induce Cullen to believe that
he could render this talent permanently useful to himself. Taking, therefore,
its possessor under his immediate patronage, he gave him employment as a
private instructor in his own family, and spared no pains in recommending
