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president, and held his office, till in 1708 he died in a degree of estimation suitable to a man so variously accomplished, that King Charles had honoured him with this panegyrick, that He was as learned as any of the college, and as well bred as any of the court."

Of every great and eminent character, part breaks forth into public view, and part lies hid in domestic privacy. Those qualities which have been exerted in any known and lasting performances, may, at any distance of time, be traced and estimated; but silent excellencies are soon forgotten; and those minute peculiarities which discriminate every man from all others, if they are not recorded by those whom personal knowledge enabled to observe them, are irrecoverably lost. This mutilation of character must have happened, among many others, to Sir Thomas Browne, had it not been delineated by his friend, Mr. Whitefoot, who "esteemed it an especial favour of Providence, to have had a particular acquaintance with him for twothirds of his life.' Part of his observations I shall, therefore, copy.1

1 copy.] Mr. Whitefoot's being the earliest existing biographical sketch of our author, and the work of a contemporary, and an intimate friend, I had felt strongly disposed to print it entire, rather than give Dr. Johnson's extracts. But as he has omitted only the commencement, and two or three paragraphs in the midst, I have thought it better to present Dr. Johnson's Biography just as it stood, supplying his omissions in notes. Here follow the introductory paragraphs, thus headed :“Some Minutes for the Life of Sir Thomas Browne, by John Whitefoot, M.A. late Rector of Heigham, in Norfolk.

"Had my province been only to preach a funeral sermon for this excellent person, I might, perhaps, have been allowed, upon such a singular occasion, to have chosen my text out of a book, which though it be not approved to be canonical, yet is not permitted only, but ordered to be read publicly in our church, and for the eminent wisdom of the contents, well deserving that honour, I mean that of Syracides, or Jesus, the son of Syrach, commonly called Ecclesiasticus, which, in the thirty-eighth chapter, and the first verse, hath these words: 'Honour a physician with the honour due unto him; for the uses which you may have of him, for the Lord hath created him; for of the most High cometh healing, and he shall receive honour of the king?' (as ours did that of knighthood from the present king, when he was in this city.) "The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men shall be in admiration.' So was this worthy person by the greatest men of this nation that ever came into this country, by whom also he was frequently and personally visited.

"But a further account of his extraordinary merits, whereby he obtained so great a degree of honour from all that knew him, remains to be given in the history of his life. And had that been written by him

"For a character of his person, his complexion and hair was answerable to his name, his stature was moderate, and habit of body neither fat nor lean but εὐσάρκος.

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In his habit of clothing, he had an aversion to all finery, and affected plainness, both in the fashion and ornaments. 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, though he never loaded himself with such a multitude of garments, as Suetonius reports of Augustus, enough to clothe a good family. "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. He could tell the number of the visible stars in his horizon, and call them all by their names that had any; and of the

self, as hath been done by many eminent persons, both antient and modern, Hebrews, Greeks, Latins, and others,* it would not only have gratified, but obliged, the world beyond what is possible to be done by any other hand, much more by that, into which (upon divers particular obligations) that task is fallen: 'For what man knows the things of a man, save the Spirit of a Man, which is in him.'+ And though that must needs know more of any man, than can be known by others, yet may it be, and generally is (being blinded with that original sin of selflove), very defective in the habit and practice of that original precept, that is said to have come down from heaven, γνῶθι σαυτον, ‘Know thyself.' Two things there are in nature, which are the greatest impediments of sight; viz. nearness and distance of the object, but of the two, distance is the greater; in ordinary cases every man is too near himself, others are too far distant from him, to observe his imperfections; some are greater strangers to themselves than they are to their neighbours; this worthy person had as complete an intelligence of himself as any other man, and much more perfect than most others have, being a singular observer of everything that belonged to himself, from the time that he became capable of such observation, whereof he hath given several remarkable instances in his Religio Medici, of which I shall have occasion to speak more hereafter.

"I ever esteemed it a special favour of Divine Providence to have had a more particular acquaintance with this excellent person, for twothirds of his life, than any other man that is now left alive; but that which renders me a willing debtor to his name and family, is the special obligations of favour that I had from him above most men.

"Two and thirty years, or thereabouts, of his life was spent before I had any knowledge of him, whereof I can give no other account than I received from his relations: by whom I am informed, that he was born in the year 1605, in the city of London."

(Then follows the text, to p. xxix.)

* Moses, Josephus, Antoninus, Cardan, Junius, Bishop Hall, &c. +1 Cor. ii. 11.

earth he had such a minute and exact geographical knowledge, as if he had been by Divine Providence ordained surveyorgeneral of the whole terrestrial orb, and its products, minerals, plants, and animals. He was so curious a botanist, that besides the specifical distinctions, he made nice and elaborate observations, equally useful as entertaining.

"His memory, though not so eminent as that of Seneca or Scaliger, was capacious and tenacious, insomuch as he remembered all that was remarkable in any book that he had read; and not only knew all persons again that he had ever seen at any distance of time, but remembered the circumstances of their bodies, and their particular discourses and speeches.

"In the Latin poets he remembered everything that was acute and pungent; he had read most of the historians, antient and modern, wherein his observations were singular, not taken notice of by common readers; he was excellent company when he was at leisure, and expressed more light than heat in the temper of his brain.

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He had no despotical power over his affections and passions (that was a privilege of original perfection, forfeited by the neglect of the use of it), but as large a political power over them as any stoick or man of his time, whereof he gave so great experiment, that he hath very rarely been known to have been overcome with any of them. The strongest that were found in him, both of the irascible and concupiscible, were under the controul of his reason. Of admiration, which is one of them, being the only product, either of ignorance, or uncommon knowledge, he had more, and less, than other men, upon the same account of his knowing more than others; so that though he met with many rarities, he admired them not so much as others do.

"He was never seen to be transported with mirth, or dejected with sadness; always cheerful, but rarely merry, at any sensible rate, seldom heard to break a jest; and when he did, he would be apt to blush at the levity of it: his gravity was natural without affectation.

"His modesty was visible in a natural habitual blush, which was increased upon the least occasion, and oft discovered without any observable cause.

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They that knew no more of him than by the briskness of his writings, found themselves deceived in their expectation when they came in his company, noting the gravity and sobriety of his aspect and conversation; so free from loquacity, or much talkativeness, that he was something difficult to be engaged in any discourse; though when he was so, it was always singular and never 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.TM

"Sir Thomas understood most of the European languages, viz. all that are in Hutter's bible, which he made use of. The Latin and Greek he understood critically; the oriential languages, which never were vernacular in this part of the world, he thought the use of them would not answer the time and pains of learning them; yet had so great a veneration for the matrix of them, viz. the Hebrew, consecrated to the Oracles of God, that he was not content to be totally ignorant of it; though very little of his science is to be found in any books of that primitive language. And though much is said to be written in the derivative idioms of that tongue, especially the Arabick, yet he was satisfied with the translations, wherein he found nothing admirable.

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"In his religion he continued in the same mind which he had declared in his first book, written when he was but thirty years old, his Religio Medici, wherein he fully assented to that of the church of England, preferring it before any in the world, as did the learned Grotius. He attended the publick service very con

do nothing.] Here Dr. Johnson has omitted the following passages:

"In his papers left behind him, which were many, nothing was found that was vulgar, but all savouring of much ingenuity and curiosity; some of them designed for the press, were often transcribed and corrected by his own hand, after the fashion of great and curious wits.

"He had ten children by his surviving only wife,* a lady of such a symmetrical proportion to her worthy husband, both in the graces of her body and mind, that they seemed to come together by a kind of natural magnetism.

"Four of his children survived, a son and three daughters, all of them remarkably partakers of his ingenuity and virtues; who were left behind to propagate that evpvia, that excelled in his person. Though health, grace, and happiness, are no hereditary portions, yet good nature generally is.

"His surviving son + was his eldest child, a person of eminent reputation in the city of London; and hath seen the best part of Europe-France, Italy, Lower and High Germany, Croatia, and Greece, as far as Larissa has been in four of the greatest princes' courts that border upon the Mediterranean, viz. that of the Emperor, that of France, the Pope, and the Grand Signior."

* Whose maiden name was Mileham, a gentlewoman of a very considerable family in the county of Norfolk.

+ Dr. Edward Browne, late President of the College of Physicians.

stantly, 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. In his last sickness, wherein he continued about a week's time, enduring great pain of the cholick, besides a continual fever, with as much patience as hath been seen in any man, without any pretence of stoical apathy, animosity, or vanity, of not being concerned thereat, or suffering no impeachment of happiness. Nihil agis dolor.

"His patience was founded upon the Christian philosophy, and a sound faith of God's providence, and a meek and humble submission thereunto, which he expressed in few words. I visited him near his end, when he had not strength to hear or speak much; the last words which 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 many repulses in the defence of patients; but when his own turn came, he submitted with a meek, rational, and religious courage.

"He might have made good the old saying of dat Galenus opes, had he lived in a place that could have afforded it. But his indulgence and liberality to his children, especially in their travels, two of his sons in divers countries, and two of his daughters in France, spent him more than a little. He was liberal in his house entertainments, and in his charity; he left a comfortable, but no great estate, both to his lady and children, gained by his own industry, having spent the greatest part of his patrimony* in his travels.

"Such was his sagacity and knowledge of all history, antient and modern, and his observations thereupon so singular, that it hath been said by them that knew him best, that if his profession, and place of abode, would have suited his ability, he would have made an extraordinary man for the privy council, not much inferior to the famous Padre Paulo, the late oracle of the Venetian state.

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Though he were no prophet or son of a prophet, yet, in that faculty which comes nearest it, he excelled, i. e. the stochastick,"

* He was likewise very much defrauded by one of his guardians.

stochastick.] On the predictive power expressed by this term, I meet with the following passage in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, 2nd series, vol. ii. 425:-"This faculty seems to be described by a remarkable expression employed by Thucydides in his character of Themistocles, of which the following is given as a close translation. 'By a species of sagacity peculiarly his own, for which he was in no degree indebted either to early education or after study, he was super