AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA: A Popular Dictionary OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE. EDITED BY GEORGE RIPLEY AND CHARLES A. DANA. VOLUME IV. NEW YORK: D. . APPLETON AND COMPANY, 346 & 348 BROADWAY. LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. M.DCCC.LVIIL ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by D. APPLETON & COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. BROWNSON, ORESTES AUGUSTUS, LL. D., an American author, born at Stockbridge, Vt., Sept. 16, 1803. His early life, passed chiefly with old people in a lonely locality, was without the sports and charms which usually belong to childhood. He was taught the assembly's catechism, the apostles' creed, and the Lord's prayer; and, with a fondness for reading, had for books almost nothing but the Scriptures and a few religious treatises. Hence his thoughts took a deeply religious turn; and at 9 years of age, having been permitted to witness a general military muster, and being asked what he had seen to interest him, his answer was, that he had seen two old men talking on religion. In fact, he had forgotten the soldiers to listen to a debate on election and free-will, in which he himself took part. One of his earliest aspirations was to become a clergyman. In his 19th year, he joined the Presbyterian church at Ballston, N. Y., where he was attending an academy, but soon meeting with men of various religious opinions, he changed his views after much argumentation and a period of perplexity, and became, in 1825, a Universalist minister. He preached in different villages of Vermont and New York, and wrote for and edited various religions periodicals, disseminating a confused medley of bold thoughts. His ecclesiastical position had grown into disfavor with him, when, making acquaintance with Robert Owen, he was fascinated by schemes of social reform; and in 1828 he was prominent in the formation of the working-men's party in New York, the design of which was to relieve the poorer and more numerous classes by political organization. Of the effectiveness of this movement he presently despaired, when the writings of Dr. Channing drew his attention to the Unitarians, and in 1832 he became pastor of a Unitarian congregation. He now enjoyed the acquaintance of many cultivated persons; was introduced to the French and German literatures; and began the methodical study of philosophy and theology. His chief advisers were the works of the French philosophers, and the most important result of his study was a conviction of the necessity of a new religious organization of mankind, which should render the religious senti ments efficient in society, and give to faith, love, and union the supremacy over disbelief, uncertainty, and individualism. In 1836 he organized, in Boston, the "society for Christian union and progress," of which he retained the pastorate till he ceased preaching, in 1843. Immediately after removing to Boston, he published his "New Views of Christianity, Society, and the Church," remarkable for its protest against Protestantism; and in which, by speculations akin to those of Benjamin Constant and the St. Simonians, he looked to the immediate future for a transformation of religious and social ideas and institutions. In 1838 he established the "Boston Quarterly Review," of which he was proprietor, and almost sole writer, during the 5 years of its separate existence, and to which he contributed largely during the first year after it was merged into the "Democratic Review," of New York. It was designed not to support any definite doctrine, but to awaken thought on great subjects, with reference to speedy and radical changes. To this end also he published, in 1840, "Charles Elwood, or the Infidel Converted, " a philosophico-religious treatise, in the form of a novel. This book has passed through several editions in England, but as the author soon afterward changed his views on the subjects treated in it, he declined to have more than one edition issued in this country. In his sermons, essays, and books, he had pushed abstract principles to speculative results, and, as he afterward said, had accepted and vindicated nearly every error into which the human race has ever fallen. Having gone in one direction about as far as was possible, and meeting with little either of sympathy or success, he began to suspect that man was not made for a church-builder, but that God himself had founded a church centuries since, fully adapted to the nature and destiny of human beings. This reactionary tendency in his thoughts was encouraged by a course of reasoning; and the ultra iconoclast in institutions, and "chartered libertine" in doctrine, began to look to the Roman Catholic church as the organization which he had vainly endeavored to construct for the redemption of humanity. With his entrance into the Roman communion, in was incorporated in 1815, and contained in 1853 about 4,500 inhabitants, who are extensively engaged in various manufactures, and in steamboat building. 1844, the romance of his intellectual career terminates, and he has since been laboring strenuously for the doctrines of that church. His course as a metaphysical thinker runs parallel with his ecclesiastical career At one BROWNSVILLE, formerly Fort Brown, a time a sensationalist, he passed to the senti- post town, capital of Cameron co., Texas, on mental or intuitional philosophy, and was one the left bank of the Rio Grande, opposite Mataof the earliest admirers of Cousin in this coun- moras, and about 40 miles from the gulf of Mextry. Two articles which he published on ico. It is easily accessible by steamboats, and eclecticism in the "Christian Examiner," in its advantageous situation and trade with Mex1837, were noticed and applauded by Cousin in ico have rendered it one of the most prosperous the preface to the 3d edition of his Fragments and populous towns of the state. The value of Philosophiques. After devoting more atten- its imports in 1852 was estimated at $5,000,000. tion to philosophy, he embraced rationalism. It contains a custom-house, 2 newspaper offices, A later persuasion of the necessity of what may and 3 churches; pop. in 1854, about 5,000.-At be called the traditional element, made him a the commencement of the war with Mexico, in Catholic in religion, and produced in his philoso- 1846, the U. S. troops under Gen. Taylor occuphy a union of the two systems of traditional- pied this place, threw up a strong work, and, ism and rationalism, which is substantially his leaving in it a small garrison, marched to the present doctrine. The method which he adopts relief of Point Isabel, on the coast, where their in his system is the distinction between intuition supplies were threatened. In the mean time (direct perception) and reflection (indirect or re- the Mexicans, under cover of the guns of Mataflex knowledge). The mind is unconciously in- moras, erected batteries, and on May 4 comtuitive; it does not, in intuition, know that it has menced a bombardment of the fort, which intuition of this or that truth, because as soon lasted 160 hours. The Americans defended as it knows or is conscious of the intuition it themselves with spirit and success, maintaining has reflex knowledge. Reflection can contain their position until the surrender of the city to nothing which is not first in intuition. In or- Taylor, but losing their commander, Major der to reflect on that which we know intuitive- Brown, who was killed by a shell on the 6th. ly, we must have some sensible sign by which It is in honor of this officer that the town was the mind may apprehend or take hold of it. named. It has of late years been the starting Such a sign is language, both in the ordinary point of several unsuccessful fillibuster expediand figurative sense of the word, which thus tions into the Mexican territory. holds in the metaphysics of Mr. Brownson a place corresponding to that which tradition holds in his religious system. The knowledge of God, he maintains, is intuitive. The ideal element of every intellectual act is God creating creatures, ens creat existentias. The later publications of Mr. Brownson are the "Spirit Rapper," in 1854, and the "Convert, or Leaves from my Experience," in 1857. Since 1844 he has supported almost single-handed, in Boston and New York, "Brownson's Quarterly Review," devoted especially to the defence of Catholic doctrines, but also discussing the questions in politics and literature with which the public mind is occupied. An attempt was made by Dr. John H. Newman and others to persuade him to accept a chair in the new Irish university in Dublin, but he preferred to continue his labors in his native country. Translations of several of his works and essays have been published and favorably received in Europe, and his "Review" is regularly republished in London simultaneously with its appearance in this country. BROWNSVILLE, a post borough of Fayette co., Penn. It is situated on the Monongahela river, where it is crossed by the national road. A bridge over the river has been erected here at a cost of $50,000, and a 2d bridge, of castiron, over Dunlap's creek, connects Brownsville with the neighboring borough of Bridgeport. In the vicinity are rich mines of bituminous coal. The Monongahela is navigable to this point for large steamboats. The borough BROWNSVILLE, the capital of Haywood co., Tenn., is situated in the midst of a rich, level country, is surrounded by cotton and maize plantations, and is the centre of an active trade. It contains a female college under the direction of the Baptists. Pop. 1,000. BRUAT, ARMAND JOSEPH, a French admiral, born at Colmar, 1796, died in 1855. In 1843 he was governor of the Marquesas islands. In 1848, after having, under the administration of Cavaignac, officiated for a short time as prefect of the port of Toulon, he was appointed governor of Martinique and commander of the naval depot in the Antilles, of which he became governorgeneral, March 12, 1849. In 1852 he became a member of the board of admiralty, and in the following year commander-in-chief of the ocean squadron. In 1854 he served in the fleet in the Black sea as vice-admiral, under Admiral Hamelin, and took an active part in the first bombardment of Sebastopol. On Dec. 8 he took the place of Hamelin, and was on the point of returning to France when, after leaving the port of Messina, he died of the cholera. BRUCE, a noble family of Scotland, 2 members of which occupied the throne, after one had pretended to it in vain.-ROBERT, 7th lord of Annandale, was one of the 13 claimants of the crown in 1290, when, by the demise of Margaret, the "maiden of Norway," the posterity of the 3 last kings of Scotland had become extinct, and the succession reverted to the posterity of David, earl of Huntington, and younger |