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diff --git a/16359.txt b/16359.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc2e05a --- /dev/null +++ b/16359.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1952 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici', +by Alexander Whyte + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici' + an Appreciation + + +Author: Alexander Whyte + + + +Release Date: July 25, 2005 [eBook #16359] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR THOMAS BROWNE AND HIS 'RELIGIO +MEDICI'*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1898 Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +SIR THOMAS BROWNE AND HIS 'RELIGIO MEDICI': an Appreciation +with some of the best passages of the Physician's Writings selected and +arranged by Alexander Whyte +D. D. + + +[Illustration from 1642 edition of Religio Medici: ill.jpg] + +Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier + +Saint Mary Street, Edinburgh, and +21 Paternoster Square, London +1898 + +DEDICATED TO +SIR THOMAS GRAINGER STEWART +PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION +AT WHOSE REQUEST THIS APPRECIATION WAS DELIVERED AS +THE INAUGURAL DISCOURSE +AT THE OPENING MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION +IN ST. GILES' CATHEDRAL ON THE 26TH JULY 1898 +IN GREAT GOOD-WILL AND LOVE BY +ALEXANDER WHYTE + + + + +APPRECIATION AND INTRODUCTION + + +The _Religio Medici_ is a universally recognised English classic. And +the _Urn-Burial_, the _Christian Morals_, and the _Letter to a Friend_ +are all quite worthy to take their stand beside the _Religio Medici_. Sir +Thomas Browne made several other contributions to English literature +besides these masterpieces; but it is on the _Religio Medici_, and on +what Sir Thomas himself calls 'other pieces of affinity thereto,' that +his sure fame as a writer of noble truth and stately English most +securely rests. Sir Thomas Browne was a physician of high standing and +large practice all his days; and he was an antiquarian and scientific +writer of the foremost information and authority: but it is the +extraordinary depth and riches and imaginative sweep of his mind, and his +rare wisdom and wealth of heart, and his quite wonderful English style, +that have all combined together to seal Sir Thomas Browne with his well- +earned immortality. + +Sir Thomas Browne's outward life can be told in a very few words. He was +born at London in 1605. He lost his father very early, and it must have +been a very great loss. For the old mercer was wont to creep up to his +little son's cradle when he was asleep, and uncover and kiss the child's +breast, and pray, 'as 'tis said of Origen's father, that the Holy Ghost +would at once take possession there.' The old merchant was able to leave +money enough to take his gifted son first to Winchester School, and then +to Oxford, where he graduated in New Pembroke in 1626. On young Browne's +graduation, old Anthony a Wood has this remark, that those who love +Pembroke best can wish it nothing better than that it may long proceed as +it has thus begun. As soon as he had taken his university degree young +Browne entered on the study of medicine: and, in pursuit of that fast- +rising science, he visited and studied in the most famous schools of +France and Italy and Holland. After various changes of residence, +through all of which it is somewhat difficult to trace the young +physician's movements, we find him at last fairly settled in the city of +Norwich, where he spent the remainder of his long, and busy, and +prosperous, and honourable life. + +Dr. Johnson laments that Sir Thomas Browne has left us no record of his +travels and studies abroad, and all Sir Thomas's readers will join with +his great biographer in that regret. At the same time, as we turn over +the pile of letters that Sir Thomas sent to his student son Edward, and +to his sailor son Thomas, when they were abroad at school and on ship, we +can easily collect and picture to ourselves the life that the writer of +those so wise and so beautiful letters led when he himself was still a +student at Montpellier and Padua and Leyden. 'Honest Tom,--God bless +thee, and protect thee, and mercifully lead thee through the ways of His +providence. Be diligent in going to church. Be constant, and not +negligent in your daily private prayers. Be a good husband. Cast up +your accounts with all care. Be temperate in diet, and be wary not to +overheat yourself. Be courteous and civil to all. Live with an +apothecary, and observe his drugs and practice. Frequent civil company. +Point your letters, and put periods at the ends of your sentences. Have +the love and the fear of God ever before your eyes. And may God confirm +your faith in Christ. Observe the manner of trade: how they make wine +and vinegar, and keep a note of all that for me. Be courteous and humble +in all your conversation, and of good manners: which he that learneth not +in France travaileth in vain. When at sea read good books. Without good +books time cannot be well spent in those great ships. Learn the stars +also: the particular coasts: the depth of the road-steads: and the +risings and fallings of the land. Enquire further about the mineral +water: and take notice of such plants as you meet with. I am told that +you are looked on in the Service as exceeding faithful, valiant, +diligent, generous, vigilant, observing, very knowing, and a scholar. +When you first took to this manner of life, you cannot but remember that +I caused you to read all the sea-fights of note in Plutarch: and, withal, +gave you the description of fortitude left by Aristotle. In places take +notice of the government of them, and the eminent persons. The merciful +providence of God ever go with you, and direct and bless you, and give +you ever a grateful heart toward Him. I send you Lucretius: and with it +Tully's Offices: 'tis as remarkable for its little size as for the good +matter contained in it, and the authentic and classical Latin. I hope +you do not forget to carry a Greek Testament always to church: a man +learns two things together, and profiteth doubly, in the language and the +subject. God send us to number our days, and to fit ourselves for a +better world. Times look troublesome: but you have an honest and +peaceable profession like myself, which may well employ you, and you have +discretion to guide your words and actions. May God be reconciled to us, +and give us grace to forsake our sins which set fire to all things. You +shall never want my daily prayers, and also frequent letters.' And so +on, through a delightful sheaf of letters to his two sons: and out of +which a fine picture rises before us, both of Sir Thomas's own student +life abroad, as well as of the footing on which the now famous physician +and English author stood with his student and sailor sons. + +* * * * * + +You might read every word of Sir Thomas Browne's writings and never +discover that a sword had been unsheathed or a shot fired in England all +the time he was living and writing there. It was the half-century of the +terrible civil war for political and religious liberty: but Sir Thomas +Browne would seem to have possessed all the political and religious +liberty he needed. At any rate, he never took open part on either side +in the great contest. Sir Thomas Browne was not made of the hot metal +and the stern stuff of John Milton. All through those terrible years +Browne lived securely in his laboratory, and in his library, and in his +closet. Richard Baxter's _Autobiography_ is as full of gunpowder as if +it had been written in an army-chaplain's tent, as indeed it was. But +both Bunyan's _Grace Abounding_ and Browne's _Religio Medici_ might have +been written in the Bedford or Norwich of our own peaceful day. All men +are not made to be soldiers and statesmen: and it is no man's duty to +attempt to be what he was not made to be. Every man has his own talent, +and his corresponding and consequent duty and obligation. And both +Bunyan and Browne had their own talent, and their own consequent duty and +obligation, just as Cromwell and Milton and Baxter had theirs. Enough, +and more than enough, if it shall be said to them all on that day, Well +done. + +'My life,' says Sir Thomas, in opening one of the noblest chapters of his +noblest book, 'is a miracle of thirty years, which to relate were not a +history, but a piece of poetry; and it would sound to common ears like a +fable.' Now, as all Sir Thomas's readers must know, the most +extraordinary criticisms and comments have been made on those devout and +thankful words of his concerning himself. Dr. Samuel Johnson's were not +common ears, but even he comments on these beautiful words with a wooden- +headedness almost past belief. For, surely the thirty years of +schoolboy, and student, and opening professional life that resulted in +the production of such a masterpiece as the _Religio Medici_ was a +miracle both of God's providence and God's grace, enough to justify him +who had experienced all that in acknowledging it to God's glory and to +the unburdening of his own heart, so richly loaded with God's benefits. +And, how a man of Samuel Johnson's insight, good sense, and pious feeling +could have so missed the mark in this case, I cannot understand. All the +more that both the chapter so complained about, and the whole book to +which that chapter belongs, are full of the same thankful, devout, and +adoring sentiment. 'The world that I regard,' Sir Thomas proceeds, 'is +myself. Men that look upon my outside, and who peruse only my conditions +and my fortunes, do err in my altitude. There is surely a piece of +divinity in us all; something that was before the elements, and which +owes no homage unto the sun.' And again, 'We carry with us the wonders +we seek without us. There is all Africa and all its prodigies in us all. +We are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that studies +wisely learns, in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece +and endless volume.' And again, 'There is another way of God's +providence full of meanders and labyrinths and obscure methods: that +serpentine and crooked line: that cryptic and involved method of His +providence which I have ever admired. Surely there are in every man's +life certain rubs, and doublings, and wrenches, which, well examined, do +prove the pure hand of God. And to be true, and to speak out my soul, +when I survey the occurrences of my own life, and call into account the +finger of God, I can perceive nothing but an abyss and a mass of mercies. +And those which others term crosses, and afflictions, and judgments, and +misfortunes, to me they both appear, and in event have ever proved, the +secret and dissembled favours of His affection.' And in the _Christian +Morals_: 'Annihilate not the mercies of God by the oblivion of +ingratitude. Make not thy head a grave, but a repository of God's +mercies. Register not only strange, but all merciful occurrences. Let +thy diaries stand thick with dutiful mementoes and asterisks of +acknowledgment. And to be complete and to forget nothing, date not His +mercy from thy nativity: look beyond this world, and before the era of +Adam. And mark well the winding ways of providence. For that hand +writes often by abbreviations, hieroglyphics, and short characters, +which, like the laconism on Belshazzar's wall, are not to be made out but +by a key from that Spirit that indited them.' And yet again, 'To +thoughtful observers the whole world is one phylactery, and everything we +see an item of the wisdom, and power, and goodness of God.' How any man, +not to speak of one of the wisest and best of men, such as Samuel Johnson +was, could read all that, and still stagger at Sir Thomas Browne holding +himself to be a living miracle of the power, and the love, and the grace +of God, passes my understanding. + +We have seen in his own noble words how Sir Thomas Browne's life appeared +to himself. Let us now look at how he appeared to other observing men. +The Rev. John Whitefoot, the close and lifelong friend of Sir Thomas, has +left us this lifelike portrait of the author of _Religio Medici_. 'For a +character of his person, his complexion and his hair were answerable to +his name, his stature was moderate, and his habit of body neither fat nor +lean, but [Greek text]. In his habit of clothing he had an aversion to +all finery, and affected plainness. He ever wore a cloke, or boots, when +few others did. He kept himself always very warm, and thought it most +safe so to do. The horizon of his understanding was much larger than the +hemisphere of the world: all that was visible in the heavens he +comprehended so well, that few that are under them knew so much. And of +the earth he had such a minute and exact geographical knowledge as if he +had been by divine providence ordained surveyor-general of the whole +terrestrial orb and its products, minerals, plants, and animals. His +memory, though not so eminent as that of Seneca or Scaliger, was +capacious and tenacious, insomuch that he remembered all that was +remarkable in any book he ever read. He had no despotical power over his +affections and passions, that was a privilege of original perfection, but +as large a political power over them as any stoic or man of his time, +whereof he gave so great experiment that he hath very rarely been known +to have been overpowered with any of them. His aspect and conversation +were grave and sober; there was never to be seen in him anything trite or +vulgar. Parsimonious in nothing but his time, whereof he made as much +improvement, with as little loss as any man in it, when he had any to +spare from his drudging practice, he was scarce patient of any diversion +from his study: so impatient of sloth and idleness, that he would say, he +could not do nothing. He attended the public service very constantly, +when he was not withheld by his practice. Never missed the sacrament in +his parish, if he were in town. Read the best English sermons he could +hear of with liberal applause: and delighted not in controversies. His +patience was founded upon the Christian philosophy, and sound faith of +God's providence, and a meek and humble submission thereto. I visited +him near his end, when he had not strength to hear or speak much: and the +last words I heard from him were, besides some expressions of dearness, +that he did freely submit to the will of God: being without fear. He had +oft triumphed over the king of terrors in others, and given him many +repulses in the defence of patients; but when his own time came, he +submitted with a meek, rational, religious courage.' + +Taking Sir Thomas Browne all in all, Tertullian, Sir Thomas's favourite +Father, has supplied us, as it seems to me, with his whole life and +character in these so expressive and so comprehensive words of his, +_Anima naturaliter Christiana_. In these three words, when well weighed +and fully opened up, we have the whole author of the _Religio Medici_, +the _Christian Morals_, and the _Letter to a Friend. Anima naturaliter +Christiana_. + +* * * * * + +The _Religio Medici_ was Sir Thomas Browne's first book, and it remains +by far his best book. His other books acquire their value and take their +rank just according to the degree of their 'affinity' to the _Religio +Medici_. Sir Thomas Browne is at his best when he is most alone with +himself. There is no subject that interests him so much as Sir Thomas +Browne. And if you will forget yourself in Sir Thomas Browne, and in his +conversations which he holds with himself, you will find a rare and an +ever fresh delight in the _Religio Medici_. Sir Thomas is one of the +greatest egotists of literature--to use a necessary but an unpopular and +a misleading epithet. Hazlitt has it that there have only been but three +perfect, absolute, and unapproached egotists in all literature--Cellini, +Montaigne, and Wordsworth. But why that fine critic leaves out Sir +Thomas Browne, I cannot understand or accept. I always turn to Sir +Thomas Browne, far more than to either of Hazlitt's canonised three, when +I want to read what a great man has to tell me about himself: and in this +case both a great and a good and a Christian man. And thus, whatever +modification and adaptation may have been made in this masterpiece of +his, in view of its publication, and after it was first published, the +original essence, most genuine substance, and unique style of the book +were all intended for its author's peculiar heart and private eye alone. +And thus it is that we have a work of a simplicity and a sincerity that +would have been impossible had its author in any part of his book sat +down to compose for the public. Sir Thomas Browne lived so much within +himself, that he was both secret writer and sole reader to himself. His +great book is 'a private exercise directed solely,' as he himself says, +'to himself: it is a memorial addressed to himself rather than an example +or a rule directed to any other man.' And it is only he who opens the +_Religio Medici_ honestly and easily believing that, and glad to have +such a secret and sincere and devout book in his hand,--it is only he who +will truly enjoy the book, and who will gather the same gain out of it +that its author enjoyed and gained out of it himself. In short, the +properly prepared and absolutely ingenuous reader of the _Religio Medici_ +must be a second Thomas Browne himself. + +'I am a medical man,' says Sir Thomas, in introducing himself to us, 'and +this is my religion. I am a physician, and this is my faith, and my +morals, and my whole true and proper life. The scandal of my profession, +the natural course of my studies, and the indifference of my behaviour +and discourse in matters of religion, might persuade the world that I had +no religion at all. And yet, in despite of all that, I dare, without +usurpation, assume the honourable style of a Christian.' And if ever any +man was a truly catholic Christian, it was surely Sir Thomas Browne. He +does not unchurch or ostracise any other man. He does not stand at +diameter and sword's point with any other man; no, not even with his +enemy. He has never been able to alienate or exasperate himself from any +man whatsoever because of a difference of an opinion. He has never been +angry with any man because his judgment in matters of religion did not +agree with his. In short he has no genius for disputes about religion; +and he has often felt it to be his best wisdom to decline all such +disputes. When his head was greener than it now is, he had a tendency to +two or three errors in religion, of which he proceeds to set down the +spiritual history. But at no time did he ever maintain his own opinions +with pertinacity: far less to inveigle or entangle any other man's faith; +and thus they soon died out, since they were only bare errors and single +lapses of his understanding, without a joint depravity of his will. The +truth to Sir Thomas Browne about all revealed religion is this, which he +sets forth in a deservedly famous passage:--'Methinks there be not +impossibilities enough in revealed religion for an active faith. I love +to lose myself in a mystery, and to pursue my reason to an _O altitudo_! +'Tis my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension with those involved +enigmas and riddles of the Trinity, with incarnation and resurrection. I +can answer all the objections of Satan and my rebellious reason with that +odd resolution I learned of Tertullian, _Certum est quia impossibile +est_. I desire to exercise my faith in the difficultest point; for +anything else is not faith but persuasion. I bless myself, and am +thankful that I never saw Christ nor His disciples. For then had my +faith been thrust upon me; nor should I have enjoyed that greater +blessing pronounced to all that believe and saw not. They only had the +advantage of a noble and a bold faith who lived before the coming of +Christ; and who, upon obscure prophecies and mystical types, could raise +a belief and expect apparent impossibilities. And since I was of +understanding enough to know that we know nothing, my reason hath been +more pliable to the will of faith. I am now content to understand a +mystery in an easy and Platonic way, and without a demonstration and a +rigid definition; and thus I teach my haggard and unreclaimed reason to +stoop unto the lure of faith.' The unreclaimed reader who is not already +allured by these specimens need go no further in Sir Thomas Browne's +autobiographic book. But he who feels the grace and the truth, the power +and the sweetness and the beauty of such writing, will be glad to know +that the whole _Religio_ is full of such things, and that all this +author's religious and moral writings partake of the same truly Apostolic +and truly Platonic character. In this noble temper, with the richest +mind, and clothed in a style that entrances and captivates us, Sir Thomas +proceeds to set forth his doctrine and experience of God; of God's +providence; of Holy Scripture; of nature and man; of miracles and +oracles; of the Holy Ghost and holy angels; of death; and of heaven and +hell. And, especially, and with great fulness, and victoriousness, and +conclusiveness, he deals with death. We sometimes amuse ourselves by +making a selection of the two or three books that we would take with us +to prison or to a desert island. And one dying man here and another +there has already selected and set aside the proper and most suitable +books for his own special deathbed. 'Read where I first cast my anchor,' +said John Knox to his wife, sitting weeping at his bedside. At which she +opened and read in the Gospel of John. Sir Thomas Browne is neither more +nor less than the very prose-laureate of death. He writes as no other +man has ever written about death. Death is everywhere in all Sir Thomas +Browne's books. And yet it may be said of them all, that, like heaven +itself, there is no death there. Death is swallowed up in Sir Thomas +Browne's defiant faith that cannot, even in death, get difficulties and +impossibilities enough to exercise itself upon. O death, where is thy +sting to Rutherford, and Bunyan, and Baxter, and Browne; and to those who +diet their imaginations and their hearts day and night at such heavenly +tables! But, if only to see how great and good men differ, Spinoza has +this proposition and demonstration that a 'free man thinks of nothing +less than of death.' Browne was a free man, but he thought of nothing +more than of death. He was of Dante's mind-- + + The arrow seen beforehand slacks its flight. + +The _Religio Medici_ was Sir Thomas Browne's first book, and the +_Christian Morals_ was his last; but the two books are of such affinity +to one another that they will always be thought of together. Only, the +style that was already almost too rich for our modern taste in the +_Religio_ absolutely cloys and clogs us in the _Morals_. The opening and +the closing sentences of this posthumous treatise will better convey a +taste of its strength and sweetness than any estimate or eulogium of +mine. 'Tread softly and circumspectly in this funambulatory track, and +narrow path of goodness; pursue virtue virtuously: leaven not good +actions, nor render virtue disputable. Stain not fair acts with foul +intentions; maim not uprightness by halting concomitances, nor +circumstantially deprave substantial goodness. Consider whereabout thou +art in Cebes' table, or that old philosophical pinax of the life of man: +whether thou art yet in the road of uncertainties; whether thou hast yet +entered the narrow gate, got up the hill and asperous way which leadeth +unto the house of sanity; or taken that purifying potion from the hand of +sincere erudition, which may send thee clear and pure away unto a +virtuous and happy life.' And having taken his reader up through a +virtuous life, Sir Thomas thus parts with him at its close: 'Lastly, if +length of days be thy portion, make it not thy expectation. Reckon not +upon long life; think every day thy last. And since there is something +in us that will still live on, join both lives together, and live in one +but for the other. And if any hath been so happy as personally to +understand Christian annihilation, ecstasy, exaltation, transformation, +the kiss of the spouse, and ingression into the divine shadow, according +to mystical theology, they have already had an handsome anticipation of +heaven: the world is in a manner over, and the earth in ashes unto them.' +'Prose,' says Friswell, 'that with very little transposition, might make +verse quite worthy of Shakespeare himself.' + +* * * * * + +The _Letter to a Friend_ is an account of the swift and inevitable +deathbed of one of Sir Thomas's patients: a young man who died of a +deceitful but a galloping consumption. There is enough of old medical +observation and opening science in the _Letter_, as well as of sweet old +literature, and still sweeter old religion, to make it a classic to every +well-read doctor in the language. 'To be dissolved and to be with Christ +was his dying ditty. He esteemed it enough to approach the years of his +Saviour, who so ordered His own human state, as not to be old upon earth. +He that early arriveth into the parts and prudence of age is happily old +without the uncomfortable attendants of it. And 'tis superfluous to live +unto grey hairs, when in a precocious temper we anticipate the virtues of +them. In brief, he cannot be accounted young who outliveth the old man.' +Let all young medical students have by heart Sir Thomas Browne's +incomparable English, and wisdom, and piety in his _Letter to a Friend +upon the occasion of the death of his intimate Friend_. 'This unique +morsel of literature' as Walter Pater calls it. + +The _Vulgar Errors_, it must be confessed, is neither very inviting, nor +very rewarding to ordinary readers nowadays. And that big book will only +be persevered in to the end by those readers to whom everything that Sir +Thomas Browne has written is of a rare interest and profit. The full +title of this now completely antiquated and wholly forgotten treatise is +this, '_Pseudodoxia Epidemica_, or Enquiries into very many received +Tenets and commonly presumed Truths, which examined prove but Vulgar and +Common Errors.' The First Book of the _Pseudodoxia_ is general and +philosophical; the Second Book treats of popular and received tenets +concerning mineral and vegetable bodies; the Third, of popular and +received tenets concerning animals; the Fourth, of man; the Fifth, of +many things questionable as they are commonly described in pictures, +etc.; and the Sixth, of popular and received tenets, cosmo-graphical, +geographical, and historical; and the Seventh, of popular and received +truth, some historical, and some deduced from Holy Scripture. The +Introductory Book contains the best analysis and exposition of the famous +Baconian Idols that has ever been written. That Book of the +_Pseudodoxia_ is full of the profoundest philosophical principles set +forth in the stateliest English. The students of Whately and Mill, as +well as of Bacon, will greatly enjoy this part of the _Pseudodoxia_. _The +Grammar of Assent_, also, would seem to have had some of its deepest +roots in the same powerful, original, and suggestive Book. For its day +the _Pseudodoxia_ is a perfect encyclopaedia of scientific, and +historical, and literary, and even Biblical criticism: the _Pseudodoxia_ +and the _Miscellany Tracts_ taken together. Some of the most powerful +passages that ever fell from Sir Thomas Browne's pen are to be come upon +in the Introduction to the _Pseudodoxia_. And, with all our immense +advances in method and in discipline: in observation and in discovery: no +true student of nature and of man can afford to neglect the extraordinary +catalogue of things which are so characteristically treated of in Sir +Thomas Browne's great, if, nowadays, out-grown book. For one thing, and +that surely not a small thing, we see on every page of the _Pseudodoxia_ +the labour, as Dr. Johnson so truly says, that its author was always +willing to pay for the truth. And, as Sir Thomas says himself, a work of +this nature is not to be performed upon one leg, or without the smell of +oil, if it is to be duly and deservedly handled. It must be left to men +of learning and of science to say how far Sir Thomas has duly and +deservedly handled the immense task he undertook in this book. But I, +for one, have read this great treatise with a true pride, in seeing so +much hard work so liberally laid out according to the best light allowed +its author in that day. As Dr. Johnson has said of it, 'The mistakes +that the author committed in the _Pseudodoxia_ were not committed by +idleness or negligence, but only for want of the philosophy of Boyle and +Newton.' Who, then, will gird up his loins in our enlightened day to +give us a new _Pseudodoxia_ after the philosophy of Bacon and Boyle and +Newton and Ewald and Darwin? And after Sir Thomas's own philosophy, +which he thus sets forth before himself in this and in all his other +studies: 'We are not magisterial in opinions, nor have we dictator-like +obtruded our conceptions: but, in the humility of inquiries or +disquisitions, have only proposed them to more ocular discerners. And we +shall so far encourage contradiction as to promise no disturbance, or re- +oppose any pen, that shall fallaciously or captiously refute us. And +shall only take notice of such whose experimental and judicious knowledge +shall be employed, not to traduce or extenuate, but to explain and +dilucidate, to add and ampliate, according to the laudable custom of the +ancients in their sober promotions of learning. Unto whom, +notwithstanding, we shall not contentiously rejoin, or only to justify +our own, but to applaud or confirm his maturer assertions; and shall +confer what is in us unto his name and honour; ready, for our part, to be +swallowed up in any worthy enlarger: as having our aid, if any way, or +under any name, we may obtain a work, so much desired, and yet +desiderated, of truth.' Shall this Association, I wonder, raise up from +among its members, such a worthy successor and enlarger of Sir Thomas +Browne? + +The title, at least, of the _Urn-Burial_ is more familiar to the most of +us than that of the _Pseudodoxia_. It was the chance discovery of some +ancient urns in Norfolk that furnished Sir Thomas with the occasion to +write his _Hydriotaphia_. And that classical book is only another +illustration of his enormous reading, ready memory, and intense interest +in everything that touches on the nature of man, and on his beliefs, +habits, and hopes in all ages of his existence on this earth. And the +eloquence and splendour of this wonderful piece is as arresting to the +student of style as its immense information is to the scholar and the +antiquarian. 'The conclusion of the essay on Urn-Burial,' says Carlyle, +'is absolutely beautiful: a still elegiac mood, so soft, so deep, so +solemn and tender, like the song of some departed saint--an echo of +deepest meaning from the great and mighty Nations of the Dead. Sir +Thomas Browne must have been a good man.' + +_The Garden of Cyrus_ is past all description of mine. '_The Garden of +Cyrus_ must be read. It is an extravagant sport of a scholar of the +first rank and a genius of the first water. 'We write no herbal,' he +begins, and neither he does. And after the most fantastical prose-poem +surely that ever was written, he as fantastically winds up at midnight +with this: 'To keep our eyes longer open were but to act our antipodes. +The huntsmen are up in America, and they are already past their first +sleep in Persia.' At which Coleridge must incontinently whip out his +pencil till we have this note of his on the margin: 'What life! what +fancy! what whimsicality! Was ever such a reason given for leaving one's +book and going to bed as this, that they are already past their first +sleep in Persia, and that the huntsmen are up in America?' + +Sir Thomas Browne has had many admirers, and his greatest admirers are to +be found among our foremost men. He has had Samuel Johnson among his +greatest admirers, and Coleridge, and Carlyle, and Hazlitt, and Lytton, +and Walter Pater, and Leslie Stephen, and Professor Saintsbury; than whom +no one of them all has written better on Browne. And he has had princely +editors and annotators in Simon Wilkin, and Dr. Greenhill, and Dr. Lloyd +Roberts. I must leave it to those eminent men to speak to you with all +their authority about Sir Thomas Browne's ten talents: his unique natural +endowments, his universal scholarship, his philosophical depth, 'his +melancholy yet affable irony,' his professional and scientific +attainments, and his absolutely classical English style. And I shall +give myself up, in ending this discourse, to what is of much more +importance to him and to us all, than all these things taken +together,--for Sir Thomas Browne was a believing man, and a man of +unfainting and unrelaxing prayer. At the same time, and assuming, as he +does, and that without usurpation, as he says, the style of a Christian, +he is in reality a Theist rather than a Christian: he is a moral and a +religious writer rather than an evangelical and an experimental writer. +And in saying this, I do not forget his confession of his faith. 'But to +difference myself nearer,' he says, and 'to draw into a lesser circle, +there is no Church whose every part so squares unto my conscience: whose +Articles, Constitutions, and Customs seem so consonant unto reason, and +as it were framed to my particular Devotion, as this whereof I hold my +Belief, the Church of England: to whose faith I am a sworn subject, and +therefore in a double Obligation subscribe unto her Articles, and +endeavour to observe her Constitutions.' The author of the _Religio +Medici_ never writes a line out of joint, or out of tone or temper, with +that subscription. At the same time, his very best writings fall far +short of the best writings of the Church of England. Pater, in his fine +paper, says that 'Sir Thomas Browne is occupied with religion first and +last in all he writes, scarcely less so than Hooker himself,' and that is +the simple truth. Still, if the whole truth is to be told to those who +will not make an unfair use of it, Richard Hooker's religion is the whole +Christian religion, in all its height and depth, and grace and truth, and +doctrinal and evangelical fulness: all of which can never be said of Sir +Thomas Browne. I can well imagine Sir Thomas Browne recreating himself, +and that with an immense delectation, over Hooker's superb First Book. +How I wish that I could say as much about the central six chapters of +Hooker's masterly Fifth Book: as also about his evangelical and immortal +_Discourse of Justification_! A well-read friend of mine suddenly said +to me in a conversation we were holding the other day about Sir Thomas +Browne's religion, 'The truth is,' he said, 'Browne was nothing short of +a Pelagian, and that largely accounts for his popularity on the Continent +of his day.' That was a stroke of true criticism. And Sir Thomas's own +Tertullian has the same thing in that most comprehensive and conclusive +phrase of his: _anima naturaliter Christiana_. But, that being admitted +and accepted, which must be admitted and accepted in the interests of the +truth; this also must still more be proclaimed, admitted, and accepted, +that when he comes to God, and to Holy Scripture, and to prayer, and to +immortality, Sir Thomas Browne is a very prince of believers. In all +these great regions of things Sir Thomas Browne's faith has a height and +a depth, a strength and a sweep, that all combine together to place him +in the very foremost rank of our most classical writers on natural and +revealed religion. Hooker himself in some respects gives place to Sir +Thomas Browne. + +'I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and +the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind: and +therefore, God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because His +ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy +inclineth man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's +minds about to religion.' The old proverb, _Ubi tres medici, duo athei_, +cast an opprobrium on the medical profession that can never have been +just. At the same time, that proverb may be taken as proving how little +true philosophy there must have been at one time among the medical men of +Europe. Whereas, in Sir Thomas Browne at any rate, his philosophy was of +such a depth that to him, as he repeatedly tells us, atheism, or anything +like atheism, had always been absolutely impossible. 'Mine is that +mystical philosophy, from whence no true scholar becomes an atheist, but +from the visible effects of nature, grows up a real divine, and beholds, +not in a dream, as Ezekiel, but in an ocular and visible object, the +types of his resurrection.' Nor can he dedicate his _Urn-Burial_ to his +worthy and honoured friend without counselling him to 'run up his +thoughts upon the Ancient of Days, the antiquary's truest object'; so +continually does Browne's imagination in all his books pierce into and +terminate upon Divine Persons and upon unseen and eternal things. In his +rare imagination, Sir Thomas Browne had the original root of a truly +refining, ennobling, and sanctifying faith planted in his heart by the +hand of Nature herself. No man, indeed, in the nature of things, can be +a believing Christian man without imagination. A believing and a +heavenly-minded man may have a fine imagination without knowing that he +has it. He may have it without knowing or admitting the name of it. He +may have it, and may be constantly employing it, without being taught, +and without discovering, how most nobly and most fruitfully to employ it. +Not Shakespeare; not Milton; not Scott: scarcely Tennyson or Browning +themselves, knew how best to employ their imagination. Only Dante and +Behmen of all the foremost sons of men. Only they two turned all their +splendid and unapproached imagination to the true, and full, and final +Objects of Christian faith. Only to them two was their magnificent +imagination the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things +not seen. And though the _Religio_ does not at all rank with the +_Commedia_ and the _Aurora_, at the same time, it springs up from, and it +is strengthened and sweetened by the same intellectual and spiritual +root. Up through all 'the weeds and tares of his brain,' as Sir Thomas +himself calls them, his imagination and his faith shot, and sprang, and +spread, till they covered with their finest fruits his whole mind, and +heart, and life. + +Sir Thomas Browne was a noble illustration of Bacon's noble law. For Sir +Thomas carried all his studies, experiments, and operations to such a +depth in his own mind, and heart, and imagination, that he was able to +testify to all his fellow-physicians that he who studies man and medicine +deeply enough will meet with as many intellectual, and scientific, and +religious adventures every day as any traveller will meet with in Africa +itself. As a living man of genius in the medical profession, Dr. George +Gould, has it in that wonderful Behmenite and Darwinian book of his, _The +Meaning and the Method of Life_, 'A healing and a knitting wound,' he +argues, 'is quite as good a proof of God as a sensible mind would +desire.' This was Sir Thomas Browne's wise, and deep, and devout mind in +all parts of his professional and personal life. And he was man enough, +and a man of true science and of true religion enough, to warn his +brethren against those 'academical reservations' to which their strong +intellectual and professional pride, and their too weak faith and +courage, continually tempted them. Nor has he, for his part, any +clinical reservations in religion either, as so many of his brethren +have. 'I cannot go to cure the body of my patient,' he protests, 'but I +forget my profession and call unto God for his soul.' To call Sir Thomas +Browne sceptical, as has been a caprice and a fashion among his merely +literary admirers: and to say it, till it is taken for granted, that he +is an English Montaigne: all that is an abuse of language. It is, to all +but a small and select circle of writers and readers, utterly misleading +and essentially untrue. And, besides, it is right in the teeth of Sir +Thomas's own emphatic, and repeated, and indignant denial and repudiation +of Montaigne. Montaigne, with all his fascinations for literary men, and +they are great; and with all his services to them, and they are not +small; is both an immoral and an unbelieving writer. Whereas, Sir Thomas +Browne never wrote a single line, even in his greenest studies, that on +his deathbed he desired to blot out. A purer, a humbler, a more devout +and detached hand never put English pen to paper than was the hand of Sir +Thomas Browne. And, if ever in his greener days he had a doubt about any +truth of natural or of revealed religion, he tells us that he had fought +down every such doubt in his closet and on his knees. + +I will not profanely paraphrase, or in any way water down the strong +words in which Sir Thomas Browne writes to himself in his secret papers +about prayer. All that has been said about this very remarkable man only +makes what we are now to read all the more remarkable and memorable. All +Sir Thomas Browne's readers owe an immense debt to Simon Wilkin; and for +nothing more than for rescuing for us these golden words of this man of +God. 'They were not,' says Wilkin, 'intended by Browne for the perusal +of his son, as so many of his private papers were, or of any one else.' +And hence their priceless value. + +'To be sure that no day pass without calling upon God in a solemn, +fervent prayer, seven times within the compass thereof. That is, in the +morning, and at night, and five times between. Taken up long ago from +the example of David and Daniel, and a compunction and shame that I had +omitted it so long, when I heedfully read of the custom of the Mahometans +to pray five times in the day. + +'To pray and magnify God in the night, and in my dark bed, when I cannot +sleep; to have short ejaculations whenever I awake, and when the four +o'clock bell awakens me; or on my first discovery of the light, to say +this collect of our liturgy, Eternal God, who hast safely brought me to +the beginning of this day. . . . + +'To pray in all places where privacy inviteth: in any house, highway, or +street: and to know no street or passage in this city which may not +witness that I have not forgot God and my Saviour in it; and that no +parish or town where I have been may not say the like. + +'To take occasion of praying upon the sight of any church which I see or +pass by as I ride about. + +'Since the necessities of the sick, and unavoidable diversions of my +profession, keep me often from church; yet to take all possible care that +I might never miss sacraments upon their accustomed days. + +'To pray daily and particularly for sick patients, and in general for +others, wheresoever, howsoever, under whose care soever; and at the +entrance into the house of the sick, to say, The peace and mercy of God +be in this place. + +'After a sermon, to make a thanksgiving, and desire a blessing, and to +pray for the minister. + +'In tempestuous weather, lightning, and thunder, either night or day, to +pray for God's merciful protection upon all men, and His mercy upon their +souls, bodies, and goods. + +'Upon sight of beautiful persons, to bless God for His creatures: to pray +for the beauty of their souls, and that He would enrich them with inward +grace to be answerable to the outward. Upon sight of deformed persons, +to pray Him to send them inward graces, and to enrich their souls, and +give them the beauty of the resurrection.' + +* * * * * + +'But the greatest of these is charity.' Charity is greater than great +talents. Charity is greater than great industry. Charity is greater +than great learning and great literature. Charity is greater than great +faith. Charity is greater than great prayer. For charity is nothing +less than the Divine Nature Itself in the heart of man. In all English +literature two books stand out beside one another and are alone in this +supreme respect of charity: William Law's _Spirit of Love_, and Sir +Thomas Browne's _Religio Medici_. + + + + +SELECTED PASSAGES + + +SIR THOMAS ON HIMSELF + + +I have ever endeavoured to nourish the merciful disposition and humane +inclination I borrowed from my parents, and regulate it to the written +and prescribed laws of charity; and if I hold the true anatomy of myself, +I am delineated and naturally framed to such a piece of virtue. For I am +of a constitution so general that it comports and sympathiseth with all +things; I have no antipathy, or rather idiosyncrasy, in diet, humour, +air, anything. I wonder not at the French for their dishes of frogs, +snails, and toadstools; nor at the Jews for locusts and grasshoppers; but +being amongst them, make them my common viands; and I find them agree +with my stomach as well as theirs. I could digest a salad gathered in a +churchyard as well as in a garden. I cannot start at the presence of a +serpent, scorpion, lizard, or salamander: at the sight of a toad or viper +I find in me no desire to take up a stone to destroy them. I feel not in +myself those common antipathies that I can discover in others. Those +national repugnances do not touch me, nor do I behold with prejudice the +French, Italian, Spaniard, and Dutch: but where I find their actions in +balance with my countrymen's, I honour, love, and embrace them in the +same degree. I was born in the eighth climate, but seem to be framed and +constellated unto all. I am no plant that will not prosper out of a +garden: all places, all airs make unto me one country--I am in England +everywhere, and under any meridian. I have been shipwrecked, yet am not +enemy with the sea or winds. I can study, play, or sleep in a tempest. +In brief, I am averse from nothing: my conscience would give me the lie +if I should absolutely detest or hate any essence but the devil; or so at +least abhor anything, but that we might come to composition. + +I am, I confess, naturally inclined to that which misguided zeal terms +superstition: my common conversation I do acknowledge austere, my +behaviour full of rigour, sometimes not without morosity; yet at my +devotion I love to use the civility of my knee, my hat, and hand, with +all those outward and sensible motions which may express or promote my +invisible devotion. I should violate my own arm rather than a church, +nor willingly deface the name of saint or martyr. At the sight of a +cross or crucifix I can dispense with my hat, but scarce with the thought +or memory of my Saviour: I cannot laugh at, but rather pity the fruitless +journeys of pilgrims, or contemn the miserable condition of friars; for +though misplaced in circumstances, there is something in it of devotion. +I could never hear the Ave Maria bell without an elevation, or think it a +sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me to err +in all, that is, in silence and dumb contempt; whilst therefore they +direct their devotions to her, I offer mine to God, and rectify the +errors of their prayers, by rightly ordering mine own. At a solemn +procession I have wept abundantly, while my consorts, blind with +opposition and prejudice, have fallen into an excess of scorn and +laughter. There are, questionless, both in Greek, Roman, and African +churches, solemnities and ceremonies, whereof the wiser zeals do make a +Christian use, and stand condemned by us, not as evil in themselves, but +as allurements and baits of superstition to those vulgar heads that look +asquint on the face of truth, and those unstable judgments that cannot +consist in the narrow point and centre of virtue without a reel or +stagger to the circumference. + +As for those wingy mysteries in divinity, and airy subtleties in +religion, which have unhinged the brains of better heads, they never +stretched the _pia mater_ of mine. Methinks there be not impossibilities +enough in religion for an active faith; the deepest mysteries ours +contains, have not only been illustrated, but maintained by syllogism, +and the rule of reason. I love to lose myself in a mystery, to pursue my +reason to an _O altitudo_! It is my solitary recreation to pose my +apprehension with those involved enigmas and riddles of the Trinity, with +incarnation and resurrection. I can answer all the objections of Satan +and my rebellious reason, with that odd resolution I learned of +Tertullian, _Certum est quia impossible est_. I desire to exercise my +faith in the difficultest point; for to credit ordinary and visible +objects, is not faith, but persuasion. Some believe the better for +seeing Christ's sepulchre; and when they have seen the Red Sea, doubt not +of the miracle. Now, contrarily, I bless myself, and am thankful that I +lived not in the days of miracles; that I never saw Christ nor His +disciples. I would not have been one of those Israelites that passed the +Red Sea, nor one of Christ's patients on whom He wrought His wonders; +then had my faith been thrust upon me, nor should I enjoy that greater +blessing pronounced to all that believe and saw not. It is an easy and +necessary belief, to credit what our eye and sense hath examined: I +believe He was dead and buried, and rose again; and desire to see Him in +His glory, rather than to contemplate Him in His cenotaph or sepulchre. +Nor is this much to believe; as we have reason, we owe this faith unto +history. They only had the advantage of a bold and noble faith, who +lived before His coming, who upon obscure prophecies and mystical types +could raise a belief and expect apparent impossibilities. + +Now for my life, it is a miracle of thirty years, which to relate were +not a history but a piece of poetry, and would sound to common ears like +a fable; for the world, I count it not an inn but an hospital; and a +place not to live, but to die in. The world that I regard is myself; it +is the microcosm of my own frame that I cast mine eye on; for the other, +I use it but like my globe, and turn it round sometimes for my +recreation. Men that look upon my outside, perusing only my condition +and fortunes, do err in my altitude, for I am above Atlas's shoulders. +The earth is a point, not only in respect of the heavens above us, but of +that heavenly and celestial part within us; that mass of flesh that +circumscribes me limits not my mind; that surface that tells the heaven +it hath an end cannot persuade me I have any. I take my circle to be +above three hundred and sixty. Though the number of the arc do measure +my body it comprehendeth not my mind. Whilst I study to find how I am a +microcosm, or little world, I find myself something more than the great. +There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the +elements, and owes no homage unto the sun. Nature tells me I am the +image of God, as well as Scripture. He that understands not thus much +hath not his introduction, or first lesson, and is yet to begin the +alphabet of man. + + + +ON GOD + + +In my solitary and retired imagination, I remember I am not alone, and +therefore forget not to contemplate Him and His attributes who is ever +with me, especially those two mighty ones, His wisdom and eternity; with +the one I recreate, with the other I confound my understanding: for who +can speak of eternity without a solecism, or think thereof without an +ecstasy? Time we may comprehend. It is but five days older than +ourselves, and hath the same horoscope with the world; but to retire so +far back as to apprehend a beginning, to give such an infinite start +forwards as to conceive an end in an essence that we affirm hath neither +the one nor the other, it puts my reason to St. Paul's sanctuary. My +philosophy dares not say the angels can do it; God hath not made a +creature that can comprehend Him; it is a privilege of His own nature. 'I +am that I am,' was His own definition unto Moses; and it was a short one, +to confound mortality, that durst question God, or ask Him what He was; +indeed He only is; all others have been and shall be. But in eternity +there is no distinction of tenses; and therefore that terrible term, +predestination, which hath troubled so many weak heads to conceive, and +the wisest to explain, is in respect to God no prescious determination of +our estates to come, but a definitive blast of His will already +fulfilled, and at the instant that He first decreed it; for to His +eternity which is indivisible, and altogether, the last trump is already +sounded, the reprobates in the flame, and the blessed in Abraham's bosom. + +That other attribute wherewith I recreate my devotion is His wisdom, in +which I am happy; and for the contemplation of this only, do not repent +me that I was bred in the way of study: the advantage I have of the +vulgar, with the content and happiness I conceive therein, is an ample +recompense for all my endeavours, in what part of knowledge soever, +Wisdom is His most beauteous attribute; no man can attain unto it: yet +Solomon pleased God when he desired it. He is wise, because He knows all +things; and He knoweth all things, because He made them all: but His +greatest knowledge is in comprehending that He made not, that is, +Himself. And this is also the greatest knowledge in man. For this do I +honour my own profession, and embrace the counsel even of the devil +himself: had he read such a lecture in paradise, as he did at Delphos, we +had better known ourselves; nor had we stood in fear to know him. I know +God is wise in all, wonderful in what we conceive, but far more in what +we comprehend not; for we behold Him but asquint upon reflex or shadow; +our understanding is dimmer than Moses' eye; we are ignorant of the back +parts or lower side of His divinity; therefore to pry into the maze of +His counsels, is not only folly in man, but presumption even in angels; +like us, they are His servants, not His senators; He holds no counsel, +but that mystical one of the Trinity, wherein though there be three +persons, there is but one mind that decrees without contradiction: nor +needs He any; His actions are not begot with deliberation, His wisdom +naturally knows what is best; His intellect stands ready fraught with the +superlative and purest ideas of goodness; consultation and election, +which are two motions in us, make but one in Him; His action springing +from His power, at the first touch of His will. These are contemplations +metaphysical: my humble speculations have another method, and are content +to trace and discover those expressions he hath left in His creatures, +and the obvious effects of nature; there is no danger to profound these +mysteries, no _sanctum sanctorum_ in philosophy: the world was made to be +inhabited by beasts; but studied and contemplated by man: it is the debt +of our reason we owe unto God, and the homage we pay for not being +beasts; without this, the world is still as though it had not been, or as +it was before the sixth day, when as yet there was not a creature that +could conceive, or say there was a world. The wisdom of God receives +small honour from those vulgar heads that rudely stare about, and with a +gross rusticity admire His works; those highly magnify Him, whose +judicious inquiry into His acts, and deliberate research into His +creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration. Therefore + + Search where thou wilt, and let thy reason go + To ransom truth even to th' abyss below; + Rally the scattered causes: and that line + Which nature twists, be able to untwine; + It is thy Maker's will, for unto none, + But unto reason can He e'er be known. + + + +ON THE SPIRIT OF GOD + + +However, I am sure there is a common spirit that plays within us, yet +makes no part in us; and that is the Spirit of God, the fire and +scintillation of that noble and mighty essence, which is the life and +radical heat of spirits, and those essences that know not the virtue of +the sun, a fire quite contrary to the fire of hell. This is that gentle +heat that brooded on the waters, and in six days hatched the world; this +is that irradiation that dispels the mists of hell, the clouds of horror, +fear, sorrow, despair; and preserves the region of the mind in serenity. +Whatsoever feels not the warm gale and gentle ventilation of this spirit +(though I feel his pulse), I dare not say he lives; for truly without +this, to me there is no heat under the tropic; nor any light, though I +dwelt in the body of the sun. + + As when the labouring sun hath wrought his track + Up to the top of lofty Cancer's back, + The icy ocean cracks, the frozen pole + Thaws with the heat of the celestial coal; + So when Thy absent beams begin t'impart + Again a solstice on my frozen heart, + My winter's o'er, my drooping spirits sing, + And every part revives into a spring. + But if Thy quick'ning beams awhile decline, + And with their light bless not this orb of mine, + A chilly frost surpriseth every member, + And in the midst of June I feel December. + O how this earthly temper doth debase + The noble soul, in this her humble place! + Whose wingy nature ever doth aspire + To reach that place whence first it took its fire. + These flames I feel, which in my heart do dwell, + Are not Thy beams, but take their fire from hell. + O quench them all, and let Thy light divine, + Be as the sun to this poor orb of mine: + And to Thy sacred spirit convert those fires, + Whose earthly fumes choke my devout aspires. + + + +ON THE MERCY OF GOD + + +The great attribute of God--His mercy; and, to be true, and speak my +soul, when I survey the occurrences of my life, and call into account the +finger of God, I can perceive nothing but an abyss and mass of mercies, +either in general to mankind, or in particular to myself: and whether out +of the prejudice of my affection, or an inverting and partial conceit of +His mercies, I know not; but those which others term crosses, +afflictions, judgments, misfortunes, to me, who inquire further into them +than their visible effects, they both appear, and in event have ever +proved, the secret and dissembled favours of His affection. It is a +singular piece of wisdom to apprehend truly, and without passion, the +works of God; and so well to distinguish His justice from His mercy, as +not to miscall those noble attributes; yet it is likewise an honest piece +of logic, so to dispute and argue the proceedings of God, as to +distinguish even His judgments into mercies. For God is merciful unto +all, because better to the worst than the best deserve; and to say He +punisheth none in this world, though it be a paradox, is no absurdity. To +one that hath committed murder, if the judge should only ordain a fine, +it were a madness to call this a punishment, and to repine at the +sentence rather than admire the clemency of the judge. Thus our offences +being mortal, and deserving not only death, but damnation; if the +goodness of God be content to traverse and pass them over with a loss, +misfortune, or disease, what frenzy were it to term this a punishment, +rather than an extremity of mercy; and to groan under the rod of His +judgments, rather than admire the sceptre of His mercies! + + + +ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES + + +Such I do believe the holy Scriptures; yet were it of man, I could not +choose but say, it was the singularest, and superlative piece that hath +been extant since the creation; were I a Pagan, I should not refrain the +lecture of it, and cannot but commend the judgment of Ptolemy, that +thought not his library complete without it. The Alcoran of the Turks (I +speak without prejudice) is an ill-composed piece, containing in it vain +and ridiculous errors in philosophy, impossibilities, fictions, and +vanities beyond laughter, maintained by evident and open sophisms, the +policy of ignorance, deposition of universities, and banishment of +learning, that hath gotten foot by arms and violence; this, without a +blow, hath disseminated itself through the whole earth. It is not +unremarkable what Philo first observed, that the law of Moses continued +two thousand years without the least alteration; whereas, we see the laws +of other commonwealths do alter with occasions; and even those that +pretend their original from some divinity, to have vanished without trace +or memory. I believe, besides Zoroaster, there were divers that wrote +before Moses, who, notwithstanding, have suffered the common fate of +time. Men's works have an age like themselves, and though they outlive +their authors, yet have they a stint and period to their duration. This +only is a work too hard for the teeth of time, and cannot perish but in +the general flames, when all things shall confess their ashes. + +Rest not in the high-strained paradoxes of old philosophy, supported by +naked reason, and the reward of mortal felicity; but labour in the ethics +of faith, built upon heavenly assistance, and the happiness of both +beings. Understand the rules, but swear not unto the doctrines of Zeno +or Epicurus. Look beyond Antonius, and terminate not thy morals in +Seneca or Epictetus. Let not the twelve but the two tables be thy law: +let Pythagoras be thy remembrancer, not thy textuary and final +instructor: and learn the vanity of the world, rather from Solomon than +Phocylydes. Sleep not in the dogmas of the Peripatus, Academy, or +Porticus. Be a moralist of the mount, an Epictetus in the faith, and +christianise thy notions. + + + +ON PROVIDENCE + + +And truly there goes a great deal of providence to produce a man's life +unto threescore; there is more required than an able temper for those +years; though the radical humour contain in it sufficient oil for +seventy, yet I perceive in some it gives no light past thirty: men assign +not all the causes of long life, that write whole books thereof. They +that found themselves on the radical balsam, or vital sulphur of the +parts, determine not why Abel lived not so long as Adam. There is +therefore a secret glome or bottom of our days; it was his wisdom to +determine them, but his perpetual and waking providence that fulfils and +accomplishes them; wherein the spirits, ourselves, and all the creatures +of God in a secret and disputed way do execute His will. Let them not, +therefore, complain of immaturity that die about thirty: they fall but +like the whole world, whose solid and well-composed substance must not +expect the duration and period of its constitution; when all things are +completed in it, its age is accomplished; and the last and general fever +may as naturally destroy it before six thousand, as me before forty. +There is therefore some other hand that twines the thread of life than +that of nature; we are not only ignorant in antipathies and occult +qualities; our ends are as obscure as our beginnings; the line of our +days is drawn by night, and the various effects therein by a pencil that +is invisible; wherein, though we confess our ignorance, I am sure we do +not err if we say it is the hand of God. + + + +ON ANGELS + + +Therefore for spirits, I am so far from denying their existence, that I +could easily believe, that not only whole countries, but particular +persons have their tutelary and guardian angels; it is not a new opinion +of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato: there is +no heresy in it, and if not manifestly defined in Scripture, yet is an +opinion of a good and wholesome use in the course and actions of a man's +life, and would serve as an hypothesis to solve many doubts, whereof +common philosophy affordeth no solution. Now, if you demand my opinion +and metaphysics of their natures, I confess them very shallow, most of +them in a negative way, like that of God; or in a comparative, between +ourselves and fellow-creatures; for there is in this universe a stair, or +manifest scale of creatures, rising not disorderly or in confusion, but +with a comely method and proportion. Between creatures of mere existence +and things of life, there is a large disproportion of nature; between +plants and animals and creatures of sense, a wider difference; between +them and man, a far greater: and if the proportion hold on, between man +and angels there should be yet a greater. We do not comprehend their +natures, who retain the first definition of Porphyry, and distinguish +them from ourselves by immortality; for before his fall, it is thought +man also was immortal; yet must we needs affirm that he had a different +essence from the angels; having, therefore, no certain knowledge of their +natures, it is no bad method of the schools, whatsoever perfection we +find obscurely in ourselves, in a more complete and absolute way to +ascribe unto them. I believe they have an extemporary knowledge, and +upon the first motion of their reason do what we cannot without study or +deliberation; that they know things by their forms, and define by +specifical difference what we describe by accidents and properties; and +therefore probabilities to us may be demonstrations unto them: that they +have knowledge not only of the specifical, but numerical forms of +individuals, and understand by what reserved difference each single +hypostasis (besides the relation to its species) becomes its numerical +self. That as the soul hath power to move the body it informs, so there +is a faculty to move any, though inform none; ours upon restraint of +time, place, and distance; but that invisible hand that conveyed Habakkuk +to the lions' den, or Philip to Azotos, infringeth this rule, and hath a +secret conveyance, wherewith mortality is not acquainted. If they have +that intuitive knowledge, whereby, as in reflection, they behold the +thoughts of one another, I cannot peremptorily deny but they know a great +part of ours. They that to refute the invocation of saints have denied +that they have any knowledge of our affairs below, have proceeded too +far, and must pardon my opinion, till I can thoroughly answer that piece +of Scripture, 'At the conversion of a sinner the angels in heaven +rejoice.' I cannot with those in that great Father securely interpret +the work of the first day, _fiat lux_, to the creation of angels, though +I confess there is not any creature that hath so near a glimpse of their +nature, as light in the sun and elements. We style it a bare accident, +but where it subsists alone it is a spiritual substance, and may be an +angel: in brief, conceive light invisible, and that is a spirit. + +I could never pass that sentence of Paracelsus, without an asterisk, or +annotation; _Ascendens constellatum multa revelat, quaerentibus magnalia +naturae_, i.e. _opera Dei_. I do think that many mysteries ascribed to +our own inventions have been the courteous revelations of spirits; for +those noble essences in heaven bear a friendly regard unto their fellow- +nature on earth; and therefore believe that those many prodigies and +ominous prognostics which forerun the ruins of states, princes, and +private persons are the charitable premonitions of good angels, which +more careless inquiries term but the effects of chance and nature. + + + +ON MAN + + +These are certainly the magisterial and masterpieces of the Creator, the +flower, or (as we may say) the best part of nothing, actually existing, +what we are but in hopes, and probability; we are only that amphibious +piece between a corporeal and spiritual essence, that middle form that +links those two together, and makes good the method of God and nature, +that jumps not from extremes, but unites the incompatible distances by +some middle and participating natures. That we are the breath and +similitude of God, it is indisputable, and upon record of holy Scripture; +but to call ourselves a microcosm, or little world, I thought it only a +pleasant trope of rhetoric, till my near judgment and second thoughts +told me there was a real truth therein: for first we are a rude mass, and +in the rank of creatures, which only are, and have a dull kind of being +not yet privileged with life, or preferred to sense or reason; next we +live the life of plants, the life of animals, the life of men, and at +last the life of spirits, running in one mysterious nature those five +kinds of existences, which comprehend the creatures not only of the world +but of the universe; thus is man that great and true amphibium, whose +nature is disposed to live not only like other creatures in divers +elements, but in divided and distinguished worlds: for though there be +but one to sense, there are two to reason; the one visible, the other +invisible, whereof Moses seems to have left description, and of the other +so obscurely, that some parts thereof are yet in controversy. And truly +for the first chapters of Genesis, I must confess a great deal of +obscurity; though divines have to the power of human reason endeavoured +to make all go in a literal meaning, yet those allegorical +interpretations are also probable, and perhaps the mystical method of +Moses, bred up in the hieroglyphical schools of the Egyptians. + +The whole creation is a mystery, and particularly that of man. At the +blast of His mouth were the rest of the creatures made, and at His bare +word they started out of nothing: but in the frame of man (as the text +describes it) he played the sensible operator, and seemed not so much to +create, as make him. When he had separated the materials of other +creatures, there consequently resulted a form and soul; but having raised +the walls of man, he was driven to a second and harder creation of a +substance like himself, an incorruptible and immortal soul. . . . In our +study of anatomy there is a mass of mysterious philosophy, and such as +reduced the very heathens to divinity; yet amongst all those rare +discoveries, and curious pieces I find in the fabric of man, I do not so +much content myself, as in that I find not--that is, no organ or +instrument for the rational soul: for in the brain, which we term the +seat of reason, there is not anything of moment more than I can discover +in the cranium of a beast: and this is a sensible and no inconsiderable +argument of the inorganity of the soul, at least in that sense we usually +so conceive it. Thus we are men, and we know not how; there is something +in us that can be without us, and will be after us, though it is strange +that it hath no history what it was before us, nor cannot tell how it +entered in us. + + + +ON NATURE + + +Thus there are two books from whence I collect my divinity--besides that +written one of God, another of His servant nature; that universal and +public manuscript, that lies expanded unto the eyes of all--those that +never saw Him in the one, have discovered Him in the other. This was the +scripture and theology of the heathens; the natural motion of the sun +made them more admire Him, than its supernatural station did the children +of Israel; the ordinary effects of nature wrought more admiration in them +than in the other all His miracles: surely the heathens knew better how +to join and read these mystical letters, than we Christians, who cast a +more careless eye on these common hieroglyphics, and disdain to suck +divinity from the flowers of nature. Nor do I so forget God as to adore +the name of nature; which I define not with the schools, to be the +principle of motion and rest, but that straight and regular line, that +settled and constant course the wisdom of God hath ordained the actions +of His creatures, according to their several kinds. To make a revolution +every day, is the nature of the sun, because of that necessary course +which God hath ordained it, from which it cannot swerve, by a faculty +from that voice which first did give it motion. Now this course of +nature God seldom alters or perverts, but like an excellent artist hath +so contrived His work, that with the selfsame instrument, without a new +creation, He may effect His obscurest designs. Thus He sweeteneth the +water with a wood, preserveth the creatures in the ark, which the blast +of His mouth might have as easily created; for God is like a skilful +geometrician, who when more easily, and with one stroke of his compass, +he might describe or divide a right line, had yet rather to do this in a +circle or longer way, according to the constituted and fore-laid +principles of his art: yet this rule of His He doth sometimes pervert, to +acquaint the world with His prerogative, lest the arrogancy of our reason +should question His power, and conclude He could not. And thus I call +the effects of nature the works of God, whose hand and instrument she +only is; and therefore to ascribe His actions unto her, is to devolve the +honour of the principal agent upon the instrument; which, if with reason +we may do, then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our +houses, and our pens receive the honour of our writing. . . . Now nature +is not at variance with art, nor art with nature: they being both +servants of His providence. Art is the perfection of nature: were the +world now as it was the sixth day, there were yet a chaos. Nature hath +made one world, and art another. In brief, all things are artificial; +for nature is the art of God. + + + +ON PHILOSOPHY + + +Beware of philosophy, is a precept not to be received in too large a +sense; for in this mass of nature there is a set of things that carry in +their front, though not in capital letters, yet in stenography, and short +characters, something of divinity, which to wiser reasons serve as +luminaries in the abyss of knowledge, and to judicious beliefs, as scales +and rundles to mount the pinnacles and highest pieces of divinity. The +severe schools shall never laugh me out of the philosophy of Hermes, that +this visible world is but a picture of the invisible, wherein, as in a +portrait, things are not truly, but in equivocal shapes, and as they +counterfeit some real substance in that invisible fabric. + + + +ON FINAL CAUSE + + +There is but one first cause, and four second causes of all things; some +are without efficient, as God; others without matter, as angels; some +without form, as the first matter: but every essence, created or +uncreated, hath its final cause, and some positive end both of its +essence and operation; this is the cause I grope after in the works of +nature; on this hangs the providence of God. To raise so beauteous a +structure, as the world and the creatures thereof, was but His art; but +their sundry and divided operations, with their predestinated ends, are +from the treasure of His wisdom. In the causes, nature, and affections +of the eclipses of the sun and moon, there is most excellent speculation; +but to profound farther, and to contemplate a reason why His providence +hath so disposed and ordered their motions in that vast circle, as to +conjoin and obscure each other, is a sweeter piece of reason, and a +diviner point of philosophy; therefore sometimes, and in some things, +there appears to me as much divinity in Galen's books _De Usu Partium_, +as in Suarez's Metaphysics: had Aristotle been as curious in the inquiry +of this cause as he was of the other, he had not left behind him an +imperfect piece of philosophy, but an absolute tract of divinity. + + + +ON DEATH + + +This is that dismal conquest we all deplore, that makes us so often cry, +O Adam, _quid fecisti_? I thank God I have not those straight ligaments +or narrow obligations to the world as to dote on life, or be convulsed +and tremble at the name of death. Not that I am insensible of the dread +and horror thereof, or by raking into the bowels of the deceased, +continual sight of anatomies, skeletons, or cadaverous relics, like +vespilloes, or grave-makers, I am become stupid, or have forgot the +apprehension of mortality; but that marshalling all the horrors, and +contemplating the extremities thereof, I find not anything therein able +to daunt the courage of a man, much less a well-resolved Christian. And +therefore am not angry at the error of our first parents, or unwilling to +bear a part of this common fate, and like the best of them to die, that +is, to cease to breathe, to take a farewell of the elements, to be a kind +of nothing for a moment, to be within one instant of a spirit. When I +take a full view and circle of myself, without this reasonable moderator +and equal piece of justice, death, I do conceive myself the miserablest +person extant. Were there not another life that I hope for, all the +vanities of this world should not entreat a moment's breath for me; could +the devil work my belief to imagine I could never die, I would not +outlive that very thought; I have so abject a conceit of this common way +of existence, this retaining to the sun and elements, I cannot think this +is to be a man, or to live according to the dignity of humanity. In +expectation of a better, I can with patience embrace this life, yet in my +best meditations do often desire death. I honour any man that contemns +it, nor can I highly love any that is afraid of it: this makes me +naturally love a soldier, and honour those tattered and contemptible +regiments that will die at the command of a sergeant. For a pagan there +may be some motives to be in love with life; but for a Christian to be +amazed at death, I see not how he can escape this dilemma, that he is too +sensible of this life or hopeless of the life to come. + +I am naturally bashful, nor hath conversation, age, or travel, been able +to effront or enharden me; yet I have one part of modesty which I have +seldom discovered in another, that is, (to speak truly), I am not so much +afraid of death, as ashamed thereof. It is the very disgrace and +ignominy of our natures, that in a moment can so disfigure us, that our +nearest friends, wife and children stand afraid and start at us. The +birds and beasts of the field, that before in a natural fear obeyed us, +forgetting all allegiance, begin to prey upon us. This very conceit hath +in a tempest disposed and left me willing to be swallowed up in the abyss +of waters; wherein I had perished unseen, unpitied, without wondering +eyes, tears of pity, lectures of mortality, and none had said, _Quantum +mutatus ab illo_! Not that I am ashamed of the anatomy of my parts, or +can accuse nature for playing the bungler in any part of me, or my own +vicious life for contracting any shameful disease upon me, whereby I +might not call myself as wholesome a morsel for the worms as any. + + + +ON HEAVEN + + +Now, the necessary mansions of our restored selves are those two contrary +and incompatible places we call heaven and hell; to define them, or +strictly to determine what and where these are, surpasseth my divinity. +That elegant apostle which seemed to have a glimpse of heaven hath left +but a negative description thereof: 'which neither eye hath seen, nor ear +hath heard, nor can enter into the heart of man': he was translated out +of himself to behold it; but being returned into himself could not +express it. St. John's description by emeralds, chrysolites, and +precious stones is too weak to express the material heaven we behold. +Briefly, therefore, where the soul hath the full measure and complement +of happiness, where the boundless appetite of that spirit remains +completely satisfied that it can neither desire addition nor alteration, +that I think is truly heaven: and this can only be in the enjoyment of +that essence whose infinite goodness is able to terminate the desires of +itself, and the insatiable wishes of ours; wherever God will thus +manifest Himself, there is heaven, though within the circle of this +sensible world. Thus the soul of man may be in heaven anywhere, even +within the limits of his own proper body; and when it ceaseth to live in +the body it may remain in its own soul, that is, its Creator. And thus +we may say that St. Paul, whether in the body, or out of the body, was +yet in heaven. . . . Moses, that was bred up in all the learning of the +Egyptians, committed a gross absurdity in philosophy when with these eyes +of flesh he desired to see God, and petitioned his Maker, that is truth +itself, to a contradiction. + + + +ON HELL + + +Men commonly set forth the torments of hell by fire, and the extremity of +corporeal afflictions, and describe hell in the same method that Mahomet +doth heaven. This indeed makes a noise, and drums in popular ears; but +if this be the terrible piece thereof, it is not worthy to stand in +diameter with heaven, whose happiness consists in that part that is best +able to comprehend it, that immortal essence, that translated divinity +and colony of God, the soul. Surely, though we place hell under earth, +the devil's walk and purlieu is about it: men speak too popularly who +place it in those flaming mountains, which to grosser apprehensions +represent hell. The heart of man is the place the devils dwell in. I +feel sometimes a hell within myself; Lucifer keeps his court in my +breast; Legion is revived in me. There are as many hells as Anaxagoras +conceited worlds. There was more than one hell in Magdalene, when there +were seven devils; for every devil is a hell unto himself. He holds +enough of torture in his own _ubi_, and needs not the misery of +circumference to afflict him. And thus, a distracted conscience here, is +a shadow or introduction unto hell hereafter. Who can but pity the +merciful intention of those hands that do destroy themselves? The devil, +were it in his power, would do the like; which being impossible, his +miseries are endless, and he suffers most in that attribute wherein he is +impassible--his immortality. + +I thank God that (with joy I mention it) I was never afraid of hell, nor +never grew pale at the description of that place. I have so fixed my +contemplations on heaven, that I have almost forgot the idea of hell, and +am afraid rather to lose the joys of the one, than endure the misery of +the other--to be deprived of them is a perfect hell, and needs, methinks, +no addition to complete our afflictions. That terrible term hath never +detained me from sin, nor do I owe any good action to the name thereof. I +fear God, yet am not afraid of Him; His mercies make me ashamed of my +sins, before His judgments afraid thereof. These are the forced and +secondary methods of His wisdom, which He useth but as the last remedy, +and upon provocation; a course rather to deter the wicked, than incite +the virtuous to His worship. I can hardly think there was ever any +scared into heaven: they go the fairest way to heaven that would serve +God without a hell. Other mercenaries that crouch unto Him, in fear of +hell, though they term themselves the servants, are indeed but the slaves +of the Almighty. + + + +ON PRAYER + + +I cannot contentedly frame a prayer for myself in particular, without a +catalogue for my friends; nor request a happiness wherein my sociable +disposition doth not desire the fellowship of my neighbour. I never +heard the toll of a passing-bell, though in my mirth, without my prayers +and best wishes for the departing spirit. I cannot go to cure the body +of my patient, but I forget my profession, and call unto God for his +soul. I cannot see one say his prayers, but instead of imitating him, I +fall into a supplication for him, who, perhaps, is no more to me than a +common nature; and if God hath vouchsafed an ear to my supplications, +there are surely many happy that never saw me, and enjoy the blessing of +my unknown devotions. To pray for enemies, that is, for their salvation, +is no harsh precept, but the practice of our daily and ordinary +devotions. + + + +ON CHARITY + + +The vulgarity of those judgments that wrap the Church of God in Strabo's +cloak, and restrain it unto Europe, seem to me as bad geographers as +Alexander, who thought he had conquered all the world, when he had not +subdued the half of any part thereof. For we cannot deny the Church of +God both in Asia and Africa, if we do not forget the peregrinations of +the apostles, the deaths of the martyrs, the sessions of many, and, even +in our reformed judgment, lawful councils, held in those parts in the +minority and nonage of ours. Nor must a few differences, more remarkable +in the eyes of man than perhaps in the judgment of God, excommunicate +from heaven one another, much less those Christians who are in a manner +all martyrs, maintaining their faith in the noble way of persecution, and +serving God in the fire, whereas we honour Him in the sunshine. It is +true we all hold there is a number of elect, and many to be saved; yet +take our opinions together, and from the confusion thereof there will be +no such thing as salvation, nor shall any one be saved. For first, the +Church of Rome condemneth us, we likewise them; the sub-reformists and +sectaries sentence the doctrine of our Church as damnable; the atomist, +or familist, reprobates all these; and all these them again. Thus, +whilst the mercies of God do promise us heaven, our conceits and opinions +exclude us from that place. There must be therefore more than one St. +Peter. Particular churches and sects usurp the gates of heaven, and turn +the key against each other: and thus we go to heaven against each other's +wills, conceits, and opinions, and, with as much uncharity as ignorance, +do err, I fear, in points not only of our own, but one another's +salvation. + +I believe many are saved, who to man seem reprobated; and many are +reprobated who in the opinion and sentence of man stand elected. There +will appear at the last day strange and unexpected examples, both of His +justice and His mercy; and therefore to define either is folly in man, +and insolency even in the devils. Those acute and subtle spirits, in all +their sagacity, can hardly divine who shall be saved; which if they could +prognosticate, their labour were at an end; nor need they compass the +earth, seeking whom they may devour. Those who, upon a rigid application +of the law, sentence Solomon unto damnation, condemn not only him but +themselves, and the whole world; for by the letter, and written word of +God, we are, without exception, in the state of death; but there is a +prerogative of God, and an arbitrary pleasure above the letter of His own +law, by which alone we can pretend unto salvation, and through which +Solomon might be as easily saved as those who condemn him. + +The number of those who pretend unto salvation, and those infinite swarms +who think to pass through the eye of this needle, have much amazed me. +That name and compellation of 'little flock' doth not comfort but deject +my devotion, especially when I reflect upon mine own unworthiness, +wherein, according to my humble apprehensions, I am below them all. I +believe there shall never be an anarchy in heaven; but as there are +hierarchies amongst the angels, so shall there be degrees of priority +amongst the saints. Yet it is, I protest, beyond my ambition to aspire +unto the first ranks; my desires only are, and I shall be happy therein, +to be but the last man, and bring up the rear in heaven. + + + +ON THE REFORMATION + + +As there were many reformers, so likewise many reformations; every +country proceeding in a particular way and method, according as their +national interest, together with their constitution and clime inclined +them; some angrily, and with extremity; others calmly, and with +mediocrity, not rending, but easily dividing the community, and leaving +an honest possibility of a reconciliation; which, though peaceable +spirits do desire, and may conceive that revolution of time and the +mercies of God may effect, yet that judgment that shall consider the +present antipathies between the two extremes, their contrarieties in +condition, affection, and opinion, may with the same hopes expect a union +in the poles of heaven. + +It is the promise of Christ to make us all one flock; but how, and when +this union shall be, is as obscure to me as the last day. + + + +ON A DYING PATIENT OF HIS + + +Upon my first visit I was bold to tell them who had not let fall all +hopes of his recovery, that in my sad opinion he was not like to behold a +grasshopper, much less to pluck another fig; and in no long time after +seemed to discover that odd mortal symptom in him not mentioned by +Hippocrates, that is, to lose his own face, and look like some of his +near relations; for he maintained not his proper countenance, but looked +like his uncle, the lines of whose face lay deep and invisible in his +healthful visage before: for as from our beginning we run through variety +of looks, before we come to consistent and settled faces; so before our +end, by sick and languishing alterations, we put on new visages: and in +our retreat to earth, may fall upon such looks which from community of +seminal originals were before latent in us. + +Not to fear death, nor desire it, was short of his resolution: to be +dissolved, and be with Christ, was his dying ditty. He conceived his +thread long, in no long course of years, and when he had scarce outlived +the second life of Lazarus; esteeming it enough to approach the years of +his Saviour, who so ordered His own human state as not to be old upon +earth. + +Though age had set no seal upon his face, yet a dim eye might clearly +discover fifty in his actions; and therefore, since wisdom is the grey +hair, and an unspotted life old age; although his years came short, he +might have been said to have held up with longer livers, and to have been +Solomon's old man. And surely if we deduct all those days of our life +which we might wish unlived, and which abate the comfort of those we now +live; if we reckon up only those days which God hath accepted of our +lives, a life of good years will hardly be a span long: the son in this +sense may outlive the father, and none be climacterically old. He that +early arriveth unto the parts and prudence of age, is happily old without +the uncomfortable attendants of it; and 'tis superfluous to live unto +grey hairs, when in a precocious temper we anticipate the virtues of +them. In brief, he cannot be accounted young who outliveth the old man. +He that hath early arrived unto the measure of a perfect stature in +Christ, hath already fulfilled the prime and longest intention of his +being: and one day lived after the perfect rule of piety, is to be +preferred before sinning immortality. + + + +ON A HEAVENLY MIND + + +Lastly; if length of days be thy portion, make it not thy expectation. +Reckon not upon long life: think every day the last, and live always +beyond thy account. He that so often surviveth his expectation lives +many lives, and will scarce complain of the shortness of his days. Time +past is gone like a shadow; make time to come present. Approximate thy +latter times by present apprehensions of them: be like a neighbour unto +the grave, and think there is but little to come. And since there is +something of us that will still live on, join both lives together, and +live in one but for the other. He who thus ordereth the purposes of this +life, will never be far from the next; and is in some manner already in +it, by a happy conformity and close apprehension of it. And if, as we +have elsewhere declared, any have been so happy, as personally to +understand Christian annihilation, ecstasy, exolution, transformation, +the kiss of the spouse, and ingression into the divine shadow, according +to mystical theology, they have already had an handsome anticipation of +heaven; the world is in a manner over, and the earth in ashes unto them. + + + +ON THE RELIGIO MEDICI + + +This I confess, about seven years past, with some others of affinity +thereto, for my private exercise and satisfaction I had at leisurable +hours composed; which being communicated unto one, it became common unto +many, and was by transcription successively corrupted, until it arrived +in a most depraved copy at the press. He that shall peruse that work, +and shall take notice of sundry particulars and personal expressions +therein, will easily discern the intention was not public: and being a +private exercise directed to myself, what is delivered therein, was +rather a memorial unto me, than an example or rule unto any other: and +therefore if there be any singularity therein correspondent unto the +private conceptions of any man, it doth not advantage them: or if +dissentaneous thereunto, it no way overthrows them. It was penned in +such a place, and with such disadvantage, that (I protest) from the first +setting of pen unto paper, I had not the assistance of any good book, +whereby to promote my invention, or relieve my memory, and therefore +there might be many real lapses therein, which others might take notice +of, and more than I suspected myself. It was set down many years past, +and was the sense of my conception at that time, not an immutable law +unto my advancing judgment at all times; and therefore there might be +many things therein plausible unto my past apprehension, which are not +agreeable unto my present self. There are many things delivered +rhetorically, many expressions therein merely tropical, and as they best +illustrate my intention, and therefore also there are many things to be +taken in a soft and flexible sense and not to be called unto the rigid +test of reason. Lastly, all that is contained therein, is in submission +unto maturer discernments; and as I have declared, shall no further +father them than the best and learned judgments shall authorise them; +under favour of which considerations I have made its secrecy public, and +committed the truth thereof to every ingenuous reader. + + + +LAST LINES OF THE RELIGIO MEDICI + + +Bless me in this life with but peace of my conscience, command of my +affections, the love of Thyself and my dearest friends, and I shall be +happy enough to pity Caesar. These are, O Lord, the humble desires of my +most reasonable ambition, and all I dare call happiness on earth; wherein +I set no rule or limit to Thy hand of Providence; dispose of me according +to the wisdom of Thy pleasure. Thy will be done, though in my own +undoing. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR THOMAS BROWNE AND HIS 'RELIGIO +MEDICI'*** + + +******* This file should be named 16359.txt or 16359.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/3/5/16359 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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