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ing them. He found witches and enchantments mentioned in the Bible, as well as various forms of spiritual existence and agency; all these he therefore placed at once among the articles of his faith, scarcely allowing his reason either to investigate the meaning of terms, or even to enquire whether that which was permitted in those days might not, like miracles, long ago have ceased to exist. To advocate the principle just stated, and thus (as Browne quaintly says) endeavour to compose those feuds and angry dissensions between affection, faith, passion," was his object in his first and most celebrated work; in which we admire no less "the universal charity of his spirit, the catholic humanity of his feelings, and his strong assurance of hopeful faith," than that force of genius and fervour of imagination, those glowing sentences, and noble flights of fancy, with which it abounds.

It is not improbable, however, that the leisure, so favourable to the accomplishment of this work, was more ample than suited his professional aspirations; and inclined him to seek for a wider sphere of action. This was soon supplied by his migration, after a residence of about three years, to Norwich; whither, as Anthony a Wood informeth his readers, he "was induced in 1637 to remove, by the persuasions of Dr. Thomas Lushington, formerly his tutor, then rector of Burnham Westgate, in Norfolk. Whitefoot does not mention Dr. Lushington, but attributes his removal to the joint solicitations of Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Gillingham, Sir [or rather Dr.] Justinian Lewyn, and Sir Charles Le Gros, of Crostwick. Both these accounts, I have no doubt, are correct; and the question immediately arises, why did these men take so lively an interest in the affairs of Browne? His acquaintance with Dr. Lushington is explained by Wood; it was a college connexion ;-and I believe that of the others to have been the same. They were all probably at college together, and I suspect Dr. Lushington to have been tutor to more than one of the party: Mr. Bacon held him in such high regard and admiration, that he published a work of his on Logick in 1650, when he was living in obscurity, and subsisting on his pen, having been deprived of his spiritualities. From the anxiety thus evinced by both tutor and friends to place Browne within

f I find Justinian Lewyn, LL.D., mentioned as commissary in the archdeaconries of Norfolk and Norwich in 1633 and 1660; but no Sir J. L.-See Blomfield, ii. 474.

This was the father of Thomas Le Gros, Esq., to whom Hydriotaphia was dedicated. The grandfather, Sir Thomas, was knighted by James, in 1603. The Biographia Britannica says, on what authority I know not, that the grandson was afterwards knighted. The writer, probably, confounded the two.

VOL. I.

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their reach, we are entitled to infer that his university career was distinguished by that attractive amenity of disposition which conduced not less than his rare intellectual qualifications to secure him the attachment and admiration of all who knew him.

It was possibly in compliance with the suggestions of these friends, that Browne, in a few months after he settled at Norwich, was incorporated Doctor of Physick at Oxford, July 10, 1637. "When settled at Norwich," says Whitefoot, "he was much resorted to for his admirable skill in physick:" and we may presume, that the zealous recommendations of his powerful friends were not wanting to bring him into notice. In short, the advantages of connexion with which he started in this county were very considerable; and he was well calculated to improve them to the utmost. He very soon contracted an alliance with a family of some antiquity and well connected in the county, by marrying, in 1641, Dorothy, the fourth daughter of Edward Mileham, Esq., of Burlingham St. Peter, and grand-daughter (as I suppose) of John Hobart, Esq. By this marriage Dr. Browne's connexions were greatly extended, his father's family being numerous. I have not been able to trace his collateral alliances, but he asserts a relationship to several families of note in the county:--for example, those of Hobart, Townsend, Astley, &c. and it is highly probable that his marriage was the connecting link.

The unexpected publication of Religio Medici in the following year, his avowal of it, and his consequent correspondence with Digby, contributed no little to his fame and success. From that time he took that distinguished rank among the literary men of his day, which he ever after maintained. Respecting the occasion and circumstances of this his first appearance before the public, I shall say nothing here, having already spoken of it in my preface to the Religio Medici. No sooner was the book printed, than the public commenced operations upon it. Merryweather placed it more fully before the continental critics, by his excellent

This gentleman was of Magdalen College, Cambridge, and became B.D. before 1652, in which year is dated "Some short Directions for a Student in the University;" a MS. in the Bodleian, by him. Johnson attributes to him the authorship of "a small treatise for the instruction of young persons in the attainment of a Latin stile." Mr. Crossley pointed out to me some years ago the following article in the catalogue of Mr. Ford, a Manchester bookseller, for 1811:-" No. 11,701: Directions for the Latin Tongue, by the Author of Religio Medici (Sir Thomas Browne), VERY SCARCE, and not in his collected Works; 4s. 6d. London, 1681." In all probability this was the work spoken of, written not by the author, but by the translator of Rel. Med.

version into Latin, printed at Leyden in 1644, and immediately reprinted at Paris. In the following year came forth Ross's Medicus Medicatus, of which Johnson drily remarks, that it was “universally neglected by the world." Editions with copious annotations soon appeared,-by Moltke in Latin in 1652, and Keck in English two years later; and these were followed at short intervals by translations into several of the modern languages of Europe. No less various were the opinions expressed. By one of the translators Browne was announced in the preface as a Catholic; by another, as a Protestant: while the Holy See settled the question by consigning him to the Index Expurgatorius. From Samuel Duncon, a member of the Society of Friends, resident at Norwich, he received a most obliging communication, in which the writer seems to have been led, by some passages in Rel. Med., to entertain hopes of winning Browne over to his own opinions. It would, indeed, seem singular, that in the narrow compass of this little volume, Browne should have so expressed himself as to be claimed for a brother by such antipodes to each other as Roman Catholics and Quakers:-did we not consider, that in some of their vital characteristicks, these extremes in practice may be said to have almost met in point of principle. It is not difficult to find passages in which the author has indulged himself in expressions so imaginative, if not hyperbolical, as to lead easily to conclusions the very reverse of his real sentiments. Dr. Jortin1 has happily selected an instance in this remarkable passage:- Methinks there be not impossibilities enough in religion for an active faith. 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 am thankful that I lived not in the days of miracles, &c." k To this Abp. Tillotson had alluded when he said, "I know not what some men may find in themselves; but I must freely acknowledge, that I could never yet attain to that bold and hardy degree of faith, as to believe any thing for this reason-because it was impossible. So that I am very far from being of his mind, that wanted not only more difficulties, but even impossibilities, in the Christian religion, to exercise his faith upon.' But by impossibilities," replies Jortin, "Sir Thomas Browne, as well as Tertullian, meant seeming, not real, impossibilities: and what he says should be looked upon as a verbum ardens, a rhetorical flourish, and a trial of skill with Tertullian; in which, however, he had little chance to come off superior. Both of them were lively and ingenious; but the African had a warmer complexion

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i In his Remarks on Tillotson.-Tracts, v. i. p. 373.
k Rel. Med.

1 Sermon 140th, vol. iii.

than the Briton. Tillotson, however, judging that the Papists would make an ill use of this, and such passages as this, in Protestant writers, was willing to pass a gentle animadversion upon it. Sir Kenelm Digby, a Roman Catholic, who criticises several things in the Religio Medici, yet gives his loud approbation to these pious sallies. I am extremely pleased with him, when he saith, there are not impossibilities enough in religion for an active faith, &c.' Extremely pleased, without question; and full of hopes, that this young author might at last unreason himself into implicit belief, and go over to the church which would feed his hungry faith with a sufficient quantity of impossibilities! - Tendimus in Latium!" In the Biographia Brit. there is a short critique on the work from a MS. entitled A Century of Short Characters of Books and Authors: but it does not seem to me to deserve insertion.

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In the mean time, so industriously was Browne employed in completing and arranging his materials (the accumulation, no doubt, of many years), that in 1646 he published the first edition of his great work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica; which speedily attracted the notice of those who had attacked his former book. Ross again took the field in his Arcana Microcosmi, &c. and with him a new adversary, Robinson, who published a pedantic book with a suitable title:-Endoxa, or a Calm Ventilation, &c. Against these the following remark seems to have been levelled by Richard Whitlock," who enumerates, among writers, first some that write to eat ;-inke must earn ale, and three-penny ordinarys; write they must, against things or men, sparing neither Bacons, Harveys, Digbys, Brownes, or any the like—of Improvement College, &c." It is to be supposed, too, that a number of private communications were made to our author on his two books, the far greater part of which were complimentary; and few have reached us. Some I have omitted, especially_five Latin letters from Isaac Gruter (who translated some of Lord Bacon's works), respecting a projected (but never accomplished) Latin translation of Pseudodoxia.

On the continent our author received great attention: so early as 1645 did the foreign critics notice Religio Medici. Many broadly accused him of atheism, and more asserted his piety. The curious reader will find particulars of the controversy in Niceron, Bayle, Kippis, &c." Dr. Aikin, in speaking of these

m In his Zootomia, or Observations on the Present Manners of the English, 12mo. Lond. 1654, p. 232.

"Niceron, Nouvelles de la République de Lettres. Avril, 1684. Acta Eruditorum, Sup. vol. i. Leips. 1692. Bayle, Euvres Diverses, 3 vols. fol. vol. i. p. 25. Biogr. Brit. p. 629, note G. Wagner, Examen Elenchticus Atheismi Speculativi, 4to. Tubing. 1677, c. v. p. 11. Bud

critics, says: "The German divines treated [the Religio Medici] with severe censure; and more theologico represented the author as an infidel, and even an Atheist, though almost every page displays the fervour of his piety, and the docility of his belief."

Respecting Pseudodoxia, "the judicious Morhof speaks with all possible marks of approbation and esteem:-No modern author,' says he, has treated this subject more accurately or copiously. In his first book he learnedly enquires into the general causes of error; and in his succeeding books he not only discourses of the mistakes which are crept into natural philosophy, but such also as have corrupted history, theology, mechanic arts and physick.' Reimman says, 'As he excelled in theoretical and practical divinity, so he shone no less in philosophy, wherein he emulated Hercules; and undertaking by his Pseud. Ep. to clear the sciences from error, he fell nothing short of the other's labour, in cleansing the Augean stable.'" Niceron remarks, that "it is an excellent work and contains abundance of curious things."

Amidst the attacks of his enemies, and commendations of his admirers, the reputation of Browne became so established and extended, that he was applied to on all hands for professional, literary, and scientific advice and assistance, and as he delighted to oblige and assist others, his leisure, it may be readily imagined, became very soon too fully occupied to leave him much opportunity for further authorship.

pro

Among the earliest of these correspondents was Dr. Henry Power, who afterwards attained considerable eminence as a physician at Halifax. I apprehend that the long letter of fessional recommendation, inserted from Biogr. Britan. and which is there said to have been first published by Dr. Massey, was addressed to Dr. Power. He seems for many years to have kept up his intercourse with Browne, who probably communicated much curious information; though, unfortunately, we are not enabled to refer to his letters for proof. Some MSS. of Power's remain in the British Museum, and he is known by several works, especially by one on experimental philosophy.

It was probably in 1650, or soon after, that Browne was enabled to open a communication with Iceland, through the medium of one to whom he had rendered valuable professional assistance. He addressed some enquiries to Theodore Jonas, deus, Theses Theologica de Atheismo et Superstitione, p. 136. Reimman, Hist. Univers. Atheismi, p. 448. Reimman, Bibliothecæ Theologica Catalogus, 2 tom. 12mo. Hildesice, 1731, p. 1052. Morhof, Polyhistor, cura J. A. Fabricii, 3 tom. 4to. Lubecæ, 1747, tom. iii. lib. v. § 10. Elia Frederici Heisteri Apologia pro Medicis: Amstel. 1736, 8vo. • Hist. Univ. Atheismi, p. 448.