Abstract
A PENALTY of living is to outlast one's friends, especially the oldest, earliest and most esteemed. Not long ago, I engaged in the impossible task of painting a picture of James Dewar, whom I first met in 1875. Now, the call comes for a portrait of Horace Brown, my fellow-student in 1865, the last of the great Bur-tonian chemical quartette-Peter Griess, Cornelius O'S ullivan and the brothers Brown. My palette must be cleaned and charged anew with very different colours-the lights and shades to be depicted are of another order. No two persons stand in greater contrast. The one a man of fire and fury, a volcano of surging impetuosity, astounding in his individuality -the other, one of Nature's gentlest men, though adamant in purpose, gifted with a placid personality and a refined urbanity and charm of manner which won for him a large circle of devoted friends, scarce a detractor. Both were philosophers but the one was a consummate artist and actor, the other a naturalist from birth and, though not born to blush unseen, sparing in criticism, reticent and retiring, a conformist in most matters.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
ARMSTRONG, H. Dr. Horace T. Brown, F.R.S. Nature 115, 307–308 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115307a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115307a0