and incantations, as well as the demoniacal possessions related in the Bible. And, from their regarding alleged cases of witchcraft in their days as being liable to investigation, and open to evidence, it is clear that they knew of no proof satisfactory to their minds, that what existed in the days of the Bible, had at any subsequent period totally and universally ceased. We know that Browne had previously considered this question. More than 20 years before, he had published his conviction thereon in these terms: -" for my part, I have always believed, and do now know, that there are witches," and in one of his common-place books there occurs a passage on possession and witchcraft, beginning with a similar assertion,-" we are no way doubtful that there are witches, &c." He believed, in short, on the highest of all testimony, that witchcraft had existed: and-in the absence of either argument or evidence satisfactory to him that it had at some defined period altogether ceased-he also believed that it still existed. These sentiments he declared openly, and has been the victim of his opinions, as every man must expect to be, who does not flinch from their avowal. But they were opinions, as I have elsewhere remarked, which he held in great and good company; -in common with Bacon, Bishop Hall, Baxter, Hale, Lavater, &c. &c.

Dr. Browne was admitted Socius Honorarius of the College of Physicians, cum multis aliis, in the December of 1664;but for some reason, which appeareth not, he did not receive his diploma till July 6, 1665.

In the year 1666 Browne presented to the Royal Society some fossil bones found at Winterton, on the coast of Norfolk ;— then a much greater rarity than they have since been, and perhaps the more valued, as they were less understood.

a

"The judge in giving his direction to the jury, told them, that he would not repeat the evidence unto them, least by so doing, he should wrong the evidence on one side or on the other. Only this he acquainted them that they had two things to inquire after. First, whether or no these children were bewitched? Secondly, whether the prisoners at the bar were guilty of it?—

"That there were such creatures as witches he made no doubt at all; first, the Scriptures had affirmed so much. Secondly, the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such persons, which is an argument of their confidence of such a crime. And such hath been the judgment of this kingdom, as appears by that act of parliament which hath provided punishments proportionable to the quality of the offence. And desired them strictly to observe their evidence; and desired the great God of heaven to direct their hearts in this weighty thing they had in hand; for to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go free, were both an abomination to the Lord."-Tryal of Witches, p. 102.

Hooke mentions the fact in his Posthumous Works, and I record it, though unimportant, in order to show Browne's early connexion with the Royal Society, as a correspondent, though (probably from local considerations) he never became a fellow.

The next correspondence of interest in which Browne engaged was in 1668, with Dr. Christopher Merrett, librarian to the College of Physicians; who had brought out, in 1666 and 1667, two editions (or rather re-impressions) of his Pinax Rerum Naturalium Britannicarum: and was contemplating a third. In an auspicious moment he sought the assistance of Browne, who had been most industriously employed in collecting materials for an account of the Natural History of Norfolk, at the request of some friend. But that friend having died, the work remained unfinished; and the collectanea were placed at the disposal of Dr. Merrett. But, unhappily, Browne's liberal readiness to render his knowledge serviceable to others, here failed of its object. Either superseded by the more learned labours of Ray and Willoughby, or laid aside on account of the perplexities in which its author became involved with the College of Physicians, the Pinax never attained an enlarged edition. He preferred to contribute to the labours of those whom he considered better naturalist than himself; and in his third attempt thus to render his observations useful he had somewhat better success. He placed his materials, including a number of coloured drawings, at the disposal of Ray, the father of systematic natural history in Great Britain, who has acknowledged the assistance he derived from him in his editions of Willoughby's Ornithology and Ichthyology, especially the former. But Browne, it seems, found it more easy to lend than to recover such materials; for he complains, several years afterwards, that these drawings, of whose safe return he was assured, both by Ray and by their mutual friend, Sir Philip Skippon, had not been sent back to him.

On the 28th of September, 1671, Charles II., who had been carousing with his profligate court, at Newmarket, made an excursion to Norwich, attended by the Queen, the Dukes of York, Monmouth, and Buckingham, and others of his nobility. It would appear from Blomfield's account, that the king was not content to leave the city without knighting some one, and therefore, on Mr. Mayor's declining the honour, it was conferred upon Browne. After relating other particulars of the king's progress,-his visit to Mr. Howard, his attendance on divine service at the cathedral, his review of the trained bands, his feasting in the New Hall, at an expense of £900 to the city, and his visits to Blickling, Oxnead, and Rainham, the historian informs us that "when his majesty was at the New

Hall, he was earnest to have knighted the mayor, who as earnestly begged to be excused; but at the same time, conferred the honour on that deserving physician, Dr. Thomas Browne, &c." The fact however probably was, that though the literary celebrity of Browne must have been well known, his loyalty was the crowning excellence in the eyes of Charles. In perilous times, Dr. Browne had steadily adhered to the royal cause. He was one of the 432 principal citizens who, in 1643, refused to subscribe towards a fund for regaining the town of Newcastle. Charles was not likely to have been ignorant of this, and he had the good feeling to express his sense of it, by a distinction, which was no doubt valuable as well as gratifying to Sir Thomas Browne. It is remarkable that he has never recorded it, and only once made a slight allusion to it, in his Repertorium; where, among royal visits to Norwich, he mentions that of Charles II., adding, "of which I had particular reason to take notice." But though he never boasted of his distinction, I strongly suspect that he has left a costly memorial of it. In the drawing room of the house in which he lived, there is, over the mantel-piece, and occupying the entire space to the ceiling, a most elaborate and richly ornamented carving of the royal arms of Charles the Second:who will undertake to disprove my assertion, that this was placed there by Sir Thomas, to express his loyalty, and to commemorate his knighthood b

In Matthew Stevenson's Poems, 12mo. 1673, there is a long poem on this progress of Charles II. into Norfolk, in which the honour conferred on Browne is thus noticed.

"There the King knighted the so famous Browne,

Whose worth and learning to the world are known," &c.

b In support of this position, I ought perhaps to point out the house in which I suppose Browne to have resided. Blomfield asserts that he lived where Dr. Howman then lived; and that he succeeded Ald. Anguish in that house. I have ascertained, by reference to title-deeds, that the last house at the southern extremity of the Gentleman's Walk, Haymarket, in the parish of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich (which has for very many years been occupied as a china and glass warehouse, and which tradition has always asserted to have been Sir Thomas Browne's residence), belonged in Blomfield's time, to Dr. Howman. Still further I find that "Sep. 22, 1650, Katherine, the wife of Mr. Alex. Anguish, was buried in St. Peter's; and that, July 26, 1654, Mr. Alex. Anguish was there buried, from St. Julian's Parish. The earliest register of a birth in Browne's family in St. Peter's, occurs in Nov. 1650. I conclude, therefore, that the Alderman left the parish on the decease of his wife, and that Browne took immediate possession of his house.-Of Browne's previous residence, I regret to say I find not the smallest trace.

Early in October, Evelyn went down to the Earl of Arlington's (then Lord Chamberlain) at Euston, in company with Sir Thomas Clifford, to join the royal party. Lord Henry Howard arrived soon after and prevailed on Mr. Evelyn to accompany him to Norwich, promising to convey him back_after a day or two.-"This," says he, "as I could not refuse I was not hard to be persuaded to, having a desire to see that famous scholar and physitian, Dr. T. Browne, author of the Religio Medici,' and Vulgar Errors,' &c., now lately knighted. Thither then went my lord and I alone, in his flying chariot with six horses; and by the way, discoursing with me of severall of his concernes, he acquainted me of his going to marry his eldest sonn to one of the king's natural daughters by the Dutchesse of Cleaveland, by which he reckon'd he should come into mighty favour.

"Next morning I went to see Sir Tho. Brown (with whom I had some time corresponded by letter, tho' I had never seen him before). His whole house and garden being a paradise and cabinet of rarities, and that of the best collections, especially medails, books, plants, and natural things. Amongst other curiosities, Sir Thomas had a collection of the eggs of all the foule and birds he could procure, that country (especialy the promontary of Norfolck) being frequented, as he said, by severall kinds, which seldome or never go farther into the land, as cranes, storkes, eagles, and variety of water-foule. He led me to see all the remarkable places of this ancient citty, being one of the largest, and certainly, after London, one of the noblest of England, for its venerable cathedrall, number of stately churches, cleanesse of the streetes, and buildings of flints, so exquisitely headed and squared, as I was much astonished at; but he told me they had lost the art of squaring the flints, in which they once so much excell'd, and of which the churches, best houses, and walls, are built. The castle is an antique extent of ground, which now they call Marsfield, and would have been a fitting area to have placed the ducal palace on. The suburbs are large, the prospects sweete, with other amenities, not omitting the flower gardens, in which all the inhabitants excel. The fabric of stuffs brings a vast trade to this populous towne."

In the succeeding year, 1672, the name of Sir Thomas occurs as having given his testimony, in the following terms, to the extraordinary precocity of Wotton, afterwards the friend of Bentley :

"I do hereby declare and certify, that I heard Wm. Wotton, son to Mr. Henry Wotton, of Wrentham, of the age of six years, read a stanza in Spencer very distinctly, and pronounce

it properly. As also some verses in the 1st Eclogue of Virgil, which I purposely chose out, and also construe the same truly. Also some verses in Homer, and the Carmina Aurea of Pythagoras, which he read well and construed. As he did also the Ist verse of the 4th ch. of Genesis in Hebrew, which I purposely chose out.

66

'July 20, 1672.

"THO. BROWNE."

In the same year, in compliance with the request of Anthony Wood, the Oxford historian, Sir Thomas communicated, through his friend John Aubrey, some information respecting Dr. Lushington, his former tutor, and several other persons, together with those few biographical particulars respecting himself, which have formed the basis of all subsequent notices of him. These letters were detected in the Ashmolean Museum, by Mr. Black, with some others: one from Sir Thomas to Lilly, the astrologer, and two to Ashmole, in reference principally to Dr. John Dee and his son, Dr. Arthur Dee, who resided for many years on terms of the kindest friendship with Browne at Norwich, and there died. Sir Thomas, in these letters, bears testimony most unequivocally to the sincerity of Dr. Arthur Dee's belief in the power of alchymy to transmute the baser metals into gold and silver; which he assured Sir Thomas he had "ocularly, undeceivably, and frequently" beheld. He was even on the point of going to the continent in pursuit of such riches, had not the death of the artist, with whom he was about to hazard his property, most opportunely prevented him.

Sir Thomas had also another zealous alchymist among his correspondents, in the person of one of his earliest friends, Sir Robert Paston, with whom he corresponded from 1663 to 1672, principally on experiments which Sir Robert was making in alchymy. Blomfield speaks of this gentleman as "a person of good learning, who, travelling into foreign countrys, collected many considerable rarities and curiosities, and being an accomplished fine gentleman, entertained King Charles II., his queen, and the Duke of York at Oxnead, with the nobility that attended them."

But though Sir Thomas was willing enough to afford all the assistance in his power to those who sought it, in pursuit of astrology and alchymy (as on every other subject within his range), it does not follow, nor do his writings justify our supposing, that he placed any reliance on the one, or entertained any hopes from the other, of those pseudo-sciences; which, indeed, ought rather to be regarded as the cradles of astronomy and chemistry. Sir Isaac Newton is said to have been at one time on the hunt after the philosopher's stone: and he himself owned that it was his pursuit of the idle and vain study of astrology, which led him into the love of astronomy.

Lord