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upon even the most trifling or absurd questions,-together with the ready access, which his great celebrity and extended acquaintance procured him, to the collections and observations of the literary and scientific men of his day; all these supplied him with copious materials for the exercise of his inquisitive propensities. Every doubt was brought to the test of experiment and examination. His Common-place Books exhibit abundant evidence that he trusted nothing to memory, but noted down, at the moment they struck him, the experiments and inquiries he deemed necessary to be made, together with results as they arose. That this process of accumulation began early in life, is evident from the date of his first edition; while subsequent alterations, and the constant accessions of new matter, (some even now first printed) may serve to convince us, that throughout life he continued, as the constantly increasing "diversion" of his business or acquaintance allowed him opportunity, to enrich his treasury of doubts and speculations.

Let us now proceed to enumerate the editions and translations which have appeared.

The First Edition is in pot folio, with the following title-page. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into very many received Tenets, and commonly presumed Truths. By Thomas Browne, Dr. of Physick. Jul. Scalig. Ex libris colligere quæ prodiderunt authores, longe est periculosissimum; rerum ipsarum cognitio vera e rebus ipsis est. London, Printed by T. H. for Edward Dod, and are to be sold in Ivie Lane. 1646. On the leaf opposite the title is Downame's Imprimatur.¶

The Second Edition is the handsomest, as to typography, which has hitherto appeared. It is in foolscap folio. The title is, Pseudodoxia, &c. (as before); Second Edition, corrected and much enlarged by the author, Together with some Marginal Observations, and a Table alphabeticall at the end. London, Printed by A. Miller, for Edw. Dod and Nath. Ekins, at the Gunne in Ivie Lane. 1650.

The Third Edition, with some additions, appeared in folio, in

P These alterations and additions are pointed out in the notes to the present edition. They occur chiefly in the 2nd and 3rd editions, and in the 6th, the last which the author revised. The 4th and 5th editions differ little from the 3rd.

a Downame's Imprimatur.] "March the 14th, 1645. I have perused these learned Animadversions upon the Common Tenets and Opinions of Men in former and in these present times, entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica; and finding them much transcending vulgar conceipt, and adorned with great variety of matter, and multiplicity of reading, I approve them as very worthy to be printed and published. "JOHN DOWNAME."

1658. It is printed on the model of the second, but is very inferior.

The Fourth Edition was printed in the same year, in 4to. with the Hydriotaphia and Garden of Cyrus-two Discourses which had just appeared in 8vo. The title is Pseudodoxia, &c. The Fourth Edition, with Marginal Observations, and a Table Alphabetical. Whereunto are now added two Discourses :-the one of Urn Burial, or Sepulchrall Urns, lately found in Norfolk; the other, of the Garden of Cyrus, or Network Plantations of the Antients. Both newly written by the same Author. Ex libris, &c. London, Printed for Edward Dod, and are to be sould by Andrew Crook, at the Green Dragon in Paul's Church-yard. 1658. No sooner had Dod brought out this edition, so enriched, than Ekins, his former partner, printed, in double column, not only the Tracts appended by Dod, but also Religio Medici :and thus, in 1659, produced, as altogether new, his unsold copies of the 3rd edition, with these enrichments, preceded by this title-page-Religio Medici: whereunto is added a Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urns, lately found in Norfolk. Together with the Garden of Cyrus; or the Quincunciall Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mistically Considered. With sundry Observations. By Thomas Brown, Doctour of Physick, Printed for the good of the Commonwealth; -the whole set forth with a new title-page to the volume, calling it The Last Edition, with the date 1659.

The Fifth Edition, in 4to. by the Assigns of Dod, in 1669, is nearly a reprint of his Fourth, and contains the two Discourses. It is remarkable for having a portrait (the first, I believe, which appeared) of the author; but so different from all others I have seen, that it is not easy to suppose them to have had a common original. Mr. Ottley, of the British Museum, has had the kindness to give me his opinion as to the engraver, that it may probably have been executed by John Dunstall.

The Sixth Edition, published by Ekins, under the author's especial superintendence, and with his final revision and improvements, and the last which appeared during his life-time, came out in 1672, in 4to. with this title:-Pseudodoxia, &c. The Sixth and last Edition, corrected and enlarged by the Author, with many Explanations, Additions, and Alterations throughout. Together with many more Marginal Observations, and a Table Alphabetical at the end. London, Printed by J. R. for Nath. Ekins. 1672. A portrait by Van Hove

As declared in the Postscript. Of this edition there were large papers.

accompanied it; which, in all probability, had a common original with all the subsequent portraits :-viz. that of Van der Bane, published with the Miscellany Tracts, in 1683-that of White, with the Works, in 1686-that of Van der Gucht, with the Posthumous Works, in 1712-that of Trotter, in Malcolm's Lives of Topographers-together with a Dutch 4to. print, which probably accompanied a Dutch translation of the Works.

In 1686, Abp. Tenison published the folio volume, which contained the Seventh Edition of Pseudodoxia, Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Quincunx, together with the Miscellany Tracts, which he had himself first edited in 1683 (but of which many copies have a reprint title with the date 1684), with this title, in red and black ink.

I know of but three translations of Pseudodoxia: two of which are those of Grundal and Knorr, in 1668 and 1680; the third is a French translation, in 2 vol. 12mo. of the seventh edition." I cannot say by whom it was made, unless by Peter Briot, the translator of Ricault's Ottoman Empire, and several other works into French.

Watt mentions an edition of the Works of Browne in Latin, in 1682; but I have never seen it, nor any other mention of it. Peti, a mathematician, who wrote on comets, is mentioned as having translated some part into Latin; and Isaac Gruter corresponded with Sir Thomas, respecting a translation which he was preparing; but which I believe never appeared.

In 1652 our old enemy, Alexander Ross, again took up arms, and made an attack at the same time on our author, and on Lord Bacon, Dr. Harvey, and others, in his Arcana Microcosmi

"With this title :-Essai sur les Erreurs Populaires, ou Examen de plusieurs Opinions reçues comme vrayes, qui sont fausses ou douteuses. Traduit de l'Anglois de Thom. Brown, Chevalier et Docteur en Medecine. Nouvelle edition revue et corrigée. Ex libris, &c. Jul. Scalig. A Paris, chez Briasson, Rue Saint Jacques, à la Science et à l'Ange Gardien. MDCCXXXVIII. Avec Approbation et privilège du Roy. My copy of this work has also reprint titles, with the date 1753.

Gruter published several of Lord Bacon's pieces in Latin; and Abp. Tenison in his Baconiana (Lond. 1679, sm. 8vo.) has given, at p. 221, several Latin letters on the subject, from Isaac Gruter to Dr. Rawley.

y Arcana Microcosmi: or, The hid Secrets of Man's Body discovered; in an Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen concerning the Parts thereof: as also by a discovery of the Strange and marvellous Diseases, Symptomes, and Accidents of Man's Body. With a Refutation of Doctor Brown's Vulgar Errors, the Lord Bacon's Natural History, and Doctor

To assail at once three such men, must be admitted as a proof that Alexander was not wanting in spirit; and to say the truth, there is much amusement to be found in the volume." He adheres to antiquity, “through thick and thin," as John Gilpin hath it; but in his very blunders and wrongheadedness, he often shows a quaintness and humour which not a little atones for them.

The next, and I believe the only other attack which appeared in print, was the Still Gale of John Robinson, a pompous and somewhat coxcombical personage, who calls himself "his fellow

Harvy's Book de Generatione, Comenius, and Others; whereto is annexed a Letter from Doctor Pr. to the Author, and his Answer thereto, touching Doctor Harvy's Book de Generatione. By A. R. London.

Dr. Kippis remarks, that "the Arcana is far from being so mean a piece as many have represented it. There is in it a great deal of yanity, and more spleen; but withal there wants not truth, learning, and some sense."

↳ He published in 1649 a work entitled Miscellaneous Propositions and Quares, by J. R. Dr. in Physick in Norwich-with this motto: Fabricanda Fabri Fimus, enclosed in a wreath. London, Printed for R. Royston, at the Angel in Ivie Lane. That they are truly Miscel laneous, will be sufficiently proved by their enumeration:-1. of a Church. 2. of Ministers. 3. of Sacraments. 4. of Adam. 5. of Marriage. 6. of Sympathy. 7. of an Egge. 8. of Swimming or Floating. 9. of Remedies. 10. of Telesmes. From this work it appears, that he was an Independent, in his opinions on church government, and the ministerial office. He held marriage to be a civil, not a religious institution. He seems to have been a person of some acuteness, and his belief in Satanic agency, resembled that of his fellow citizen Sir Thomas, as appears by his last chapter on "Telesmes," whose effect in removing Epidemical diseases, "if any," he would ascribe "unto the Prince of the Air." This work he translated into Latin and published with two additional pieces, under the following title :-Endoxa seu Questionum quarundam Miscellanearum examen probabile, ut et Lapis ad Altare, sive Exploratio Locorum paucorum difficiliorum S. Scripturæ, una cum Pseudodoxia Epidemica Ventilatione tranquilla, per Johannem Robinsonum, M.D. (here occurs a rude wood-cut of 3 faces, with this motto :) Sunt variæ quamvis facies mentesque aliena, Unus fit cordis nexus amore boni. Londini, &c. 1656. Two years afterwards the work made its appearance, with slight alterations, in English, under this title :-Endoxa, or some probable Inquiries into Truth, both Divine and Humane: together with a Stone to the Altar, or short Disquisitions on a few difficult places of Scripture; as also a Calm Ventilation of Pseudodoxia Epidemica, by John Robinson, Doctor of Physick, Translated and Augmented by the Author. (Four faces in a heart.)

Though divers heads; faces averse you see; Yet, for truth's sake, they all in heart agree. London, Printed by J. Streater, for Francis Tylor. 1658.

citizen and collegian." There was little in this gale to ruffle a far more excitable antagonist than Sir Thomas; and it seems to have died away unnoticed.

The present Edition is printed from the folio of 1686, and all the important variations of that edition, from preceding ones, are pointed out in notes. The fifth book contains some pages of new matter, from the MSS. in the British Museum.

In speaking of the notes which accompany it, I must first mention those marked Wr. They were written by Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor, and father of the architect of St. Paul's, on the margins of a copy of the first edition. This copy, preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, caught the attention of my very kind friend Dr. Bliss, who enabled me to obtain a transcript of the entire notes. I hope that in printing nearly the whole of these notes, I shall be allowed to have really enhanced both the interest and the value of this edition, by adding the very curious_commentary of a learned and distinguished contemporary. In extent of reading, as well as in acuteness, the commentator was probably far inferior to Browne; but he went beyond him, though at the same time strongly resembling him, in a certain superstitious tinge of feeling, and in love of the marvellous; he was inclined to believe in astrology; and was a regarder of dreams; of which a very curious instance is recorded in the Parentalia, as having been written by him on the margin of Aubrey's Miscellanies, cap. v. p. 52. He, moreover, admired Sir Thomas for being (like himself) a stout adherent to the falling fortunes of the Ptolemaic system of astronomy.

Browne has enumerated in his preface several works similar and anterior to his own.d Several others may here be

"Sir C. W. being at his father's home, anno 1651, at Knoyle, Wilts, dreamt that he saw a fight in a great market-place, which he knew not, where some were flying, and others pursuing; and among those that fled, he saw a kinsman of his, who went into Scotland to the king's army. They heard in the country that the king was come into England, but whereabout he was they could not tell. The next night his kinsman came to his father's at Knoyle, and was the first that brought the news of the fight at Worcester, fought Sep. 3.

"When Sir C. W. was at Paris, about 1665, he was taken ill and feverish, made but little water, and had a pain in his reins: he sent for a physician, who advised him to let blood, thinking he had a pleurisy; but bleeding much disagreeing with his constitution, he would defer it a day longer; that night he dreamt that he was in a place where palmtrees grew (suppose Egypt), and that a woman in a romantick habit reached him dates. The next day he sent for dates, which cured him of the pain in his reins."

d Respecting Primrose, De Vulgi Erroribus, I may add that his first

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