AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE Collins SIR BENJAMIN C. BRODIE, BART. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. PREFACE. THE following Memoir was found among my father's papers. It bears marks of having been primarily intended for the benefit of those most immediately connected with him. Yet it contains so much of special interest to the members of his own profession, and such careful sketches of many persons distinguished in it as to whom he had the fullest means of forming a correct judgment, that it appeared unreasonable to withhold it from publication. There is also much of wider interest in such a record of the career of an eminent professional man. It must be profitable to many to learn how he was educated, and by what genuine work he won his way to the rewards which the public bestows. Also, in thus fully tracing his course in life, I cannot but believe that my father had reference to the encouragement and support which his example would afford to any who hereafter should find themselves in the position which he once occupied at the commencement of an arduous and responsible profession, from which they feel tempted to shrink as almost beyond their strength. OXFORD: March 8, 1865. B. C. B. |