Sir Benjamin in his “Autobiography” gives a pleasing picture of his father, a man of sound classical knowledge, great energy, minute acquaintance with parishioners, and devotion to his parochial duties. Notwithstanding his wife’s considerable fortune, Mr. Brodie found he could not afford to send all his sons to public schools, and he consequently determined to educate them himself. An elder sister who joined the brothers at lessons became no mean proficient in classics. Under the strict discipline of their father the children grew up in the habit of methodical study, and Sir Benjamin records that idleness even for a day was always irksome to him in after life, and he had little inclination for any pursuit without a definite ulterior object. Seven miles distant from Salisbury, the family learned to be self-dependent for interest of all kinds, and their solitude was little varied except by occasional visits of cousins, such as Lord Denman, who was for a year a resident pupil with Mr. Brodie after leaving Eton, and a few others, one of whom was afterwards Dr. Maton, a well-known London physician, and (Sir) John Stoddart, afterwards Chief Justice at Malta. Vigour of character was shown markedly when in 1798 the brothers raised a company of volunteers on the alarm of a French invasion. The eldest at nineteen received a commission as captain, while Benjamin, only fourteen, was appointed ensign. Great pains were bestowed on the drill of this company, and the officers expended their pay in entertaining the men in a great barn; and the influence already possessed by the youths was evident in the maintenance and increase of the numbers of the corps and the attention paid to drill. The eldest brother, Peter, became a distinguished conveyancing barrister. The second was a local banker, proprietor of a newspaper, and represented Salisbury in three Parliaments. As he drew towards adult age, Brodie read extensively in science and philosophy and general literature. In the autumn of 1801, the medical profession having been chosen for him, he went to London without any special bent towards the occupation in which he was destined to shine so conspicuously. He gives it as his opinion, in after years, that those who succeed best in professions are those who have embarked in them not from irresistible prepossession but perhaps from some accidental circumstance, and persevere in their course as a matter of duty, or because they have nothing better to do. “They often feel their new pursuit to be unattractive enough in the beginning; but as they go on, and acquire knowledge, and find that they obtain some degree of credit, the case is altered; and from that time they become every day more interested in what they are about:”—a great encouragement to the vast majority of students who do not feel the stimulus and inspiration of genius.