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 Microcosmiš

u 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,b 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.

a 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 vanity, and more spleen; but withal there wants not truth, learning, and some sense.'

b 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 Miscellaneous, 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 alienæ, 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

mentioned; though many have very probably escaped my notice.

Espagne John d'. Erreurs Populaires en Points Généraux qui concernent l'intelligence de la Religion. To this work there is no date, nor do I find it in the British Museum, which contains several other of his works. He was a French Protestant divine of the 17th century.

ΠΕΡΙΑΜΜΑ ΕΠΙΔΗΜΙΟΝ: or, Vulgar Errors in practice censured. Also the Art of Oratory, composed for the benefit of young students, cap. 8vo. Lond. Royston, 1659, pp. 112. The Vulgar Errours in practice censured are, 1. That of reproaching red-haired men. 2. That of censuring some professions. 3. That of reproaching the feminine sex. 4. The neglect of many writers to defend the deity of Christ. 5. The vanity of epitaphs. 6. The running from one extreme in religion to another. 7. The common practice of railing against an adversary.

Ralph Battell. Vulgar Errors in Divinity Removed, Lond. 8vo. 1683, containing, with title, &c. pp. 152. These relate to, 1. Reprobation. 2. Kingly government. 3. God's house and service in it. 4. Man's will. 5. Man's redemption. 6. Praying by the Spirit.

Two works on popular superstitions, viz. Traité des Superstitions, by M. Thiers, published in 1679, and L'Histoire Critique des pratiques superstitieuses qui ont séduit les peuples, et embarrassé les Savans, by Pierre Le Brun, published in 2 vols. at Rouan, in 1702 and 1732,-were published together in 1733 in one vol. fol. with plates. One of these gives several figures of mandrakes.

Fovargue Stephen. A New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors, 8vo. pp. 202, Camb. 1767. A work of slight pretension, and of slender merit; introduced by a preface somewhat flippant and in bad taste. Two of his errors had been already noticed by Sir Thomas Browne, and many of the rest are by no means generally received opinions.

Vulgar Errors, Lond. Debrett [8vo. 1784.] A political pamphlet against Mr. Pitt, at the time of the coalition between Lord North and Mr. Fox. The "Errors" enumerated are six :— 1. That the union between Lord North and Mr. Fox was interested, and without any public spirit to support it. 2. That Mr. Fox's India bill was a violation of charters. 3. That it was a confiscation of property. 4. That, in the issue of this contest, the people will take part against the House of Commons. 5. That the king must succeed in the struggle by dissolving edition was in Latin, Amst. 1639 :-it was that which Wittie translated: subsequent editions appeared, and in 1668 one very much enlarged at Rotterdam; it was this which De Rostagny translated.

parliament. 6. That the opposition to the present ministers has been carried on with violence. These six positions the author terms " Vulgar Errors," and professes to disprove.

A notice of some Vulgar Errors, as to points of law, will be found in Barrington on the Statutes, 4to. 1775, p. 474.

London, June 17, 1835.

S. W.

In the Sloanian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 1839, there is a very neatly-written MS. extending to 85 pages, 4to., of Observations on Ps. Ep. which is proved to have proceeded from the pen of Sir Hamon L'Estrange.

66

The knight commences by thus expressing his admiration of his author: Boterus, magnifying the latitude of the pope's power, sayes that he hath una jurisditione che no conosce oriente, a command that knows no east,' and another dedicates a booke to the king of Spaine, thus, 'To the great king, to whom the sun never sets.' I cannot but prædicate the vast expanse of the Dr.'s learning, reading, and knowledge, from the cedar to the hyssope." He then begins his observations by pointing out, in Browne's chapter on magnetism and the compass, several remarks which had not been made by previous writers;-Borough, Norman, or Gilbert. He goes on successively to notice Browne's remarks on electricity, flies in amber, white powder, and the rose of Jericho. After noticing, in connection with this last topic, several marvellous stories of omens, apparitions, and miracles, (among which this one, told to the writer by the old Countess of Arundel, respecting her father, Lord Dacre of the North, that he had a pasture on the scite of an old abbey, and that his sheep never failed, if within that scite, to produce twins :)-he thus proceeds. "And I see no barr against mee to think that in the dayes of darkness and ignorance of popery, some cloysterers might truck with the devil (att a deare rate) for an ape's trick (as witches do) for the shewing, effecting, and continuance of such pranks and toyes, whereby to acquire a stupendous reputation of working miracles (of which they were not a little ambitious,) to drawe affection, respect, and honour, to their religion and profession, and to celebrate the place with a mark and character of extraordinary sanctity for the future," p. 6. After touching upon Deer casting their horns, he mentions, on the subject of Griffins, having seen in Sir Rob. Cotton's library a griffin's claw, p. 7. Discussing the story of the ostrich swallowing iron, he mentions having seen one eat pellets of chewed paper as large as a walnut. He gives also, as a parallel, the following story :-"About 1638, as I walked London streets, I sawe the picture of a strange fowle hang out upon a e and my selfe, with one or two more then in company, went in to see it. It was kept in a chamber, and was a great

e A burnt hole occurs here in MS.