The Major Works (English Library)

by Sir Thomas Browne

  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,33 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.34

  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.

  Tho’ he were no prophet, nor son of a prophet, yet in that faculty which comes nearest it, he excelled, i.e. the stochastick,35 wherein he was seldom mistaken, as to future events, as well publick as private; but not apt to discover any presages or superstition.’

  It is observable, that he who in his earlier years had read all the books against religion, was in the latter part of his life averse from controversies. To play with important truths, to disturb the repose of established tenets, to subtilize objections, and elude proof, is too often the sport of youthful vanity, of which maturer experience commonly repents. There is a time, when every wise man is weary of raising difficulties only to task himself with the solution, and desires to enjoy truth without the labour or hazard of contest. There is, perhaps, no better method of encountering these troublesome irruptions of scepticism, with which inquisitive minds are frequently harrassed, than that which Browne declares himself to have taken: ‘If there arise any doubts in my way, I do forget them; or at least defer them, till my better settled judgment and more manly reason be able to resolve them: for I perceive, every man’s reason is his best Oedipus, and will, upon a reasonable truce, find a way to loose those bonds, wherewith the subtilties of error have enchained our more flexible and tender judgments.’ (above, p. 66)

  The foregoing character may be confirmed and enlarged, by many passages in the Religio Medici; in which it appears, from Whitefoot’s testimony, that the author, though no very sparing panegyrist of himself, has not exceeded the truth, with respect to his attainments or visible qualities.

  There are, indeed, some interior and secret virtues, which a man may sometimes have without the knowledge of others; and may sometimes assume to himself, without sufficient reasons for his opinion. It is charged upon Browne by Dr. Watts,36 as an instance of arrogant temerity, that, after a long detail of his attainments, he declares himself to have escaped ‘the first and father-sin of pride.’ A perusal of the Religio Medici will not much contribute to produce a belief of the author’s exemption from this father-sin: pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself.

  As easily may we be mistaken in estimating our own courage, as our own humility; and, therefore, when Browne shews himself persuaded, that ‘he could lose an arm without a tear, or with a few groans be quartered to pieces,’ I am not sure that he felt in himself any uncommon powers of endurance; or, indeed, any thing more than a sudden effervescence of imagination, which, uncertain and involuntary as it is, he mistook for settled resolution.

  ‘That there were not many extant, that in a noble way feared the face of death less than himself,’ he might likewise believe at a very easy expence, while death was yet at a distance; but the time will come to every human being, when it must be known how well he can bear to die; and it has appeared, that our author’s fortitude did not desert him in the great hour of trial.

  It was observed by some of the remarkers on the Religio Medici, that ‘the author was yet alive, and might grow worse as well as better:’ it is, therefore, happy, that this suspicion can be obviated by a testimony given to the continuance of his virtue, at a time when death had set him free from danger of change, and his panegyrist from temptation to flattery.

  But it is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings, that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity; of which he will not easily be deprived, while learning shall have any reverence among men: for there is no science, in which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success.

  His exuberance of knowledge, and plenitude of ideas, sometimes obstruct the tendency of his reasoning, and the clearness of his decisions: on whatever subject he employed his mind, there started up immediately so many images before him, that he lost one by grasping another. His memory supplied him with so many illustrations, parallel or dependent notions, that he was always starting into collateral considerations: but the spirit and vigour of his persuit always gives delight; and the reader follows him, without reluctance, thro’ his mazes, in themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the point originally in view.

  To have great excellencies, and great faults, ‘magnæ virtutes nec minora vitia, is the poesy,’ says our author, ‘of the best natures.’ This poesy may be properly applied to the style of Browne: It is vigorous, but rugged; it is learned, but pedantick; it is deep, but obscure; it strikes, but does not please; it commands, but does not allure: his tropes are harsh, and his combinations uncouth. He fell into an age, in which our language began to lose the stability which it had obtained in the time of Elizabeth;37 and was considered by every writer as a subject on which he might try his plastick38 skill, by moulding it according to his own fancy. Milton, in consequence of this encroaching licence, began to introduce the Latin idiom: and Browne, though he gave less disturbance to our structures and phraseology, yet poured in a multitude of exotick words; many, indeed, useful and significant, which, if rejected, must be supplied by circumlocution, such as commensality for the state of many living at the same table; but many superfluous, as a paralogical for an unreasonable doubt; and some so obscure, that they conceal his meaning rather than explain it, as arthritical analogies for parts that serve some animals in the place of joints.39

  His style is, indeed, a tissue of many languages; a mixture of heterogeneous words, brought together from distant regions, with terms originally appropriated to one art, and drawn by violence into the service of another.40 He must, however, be confessed to have augmented our philosophical diction; and in defence of his uncommon words and expressions, we must consider, that he had uncommon sentiments, and was not content to express in many words that idea for which any language could supply a single term.

  But his innovations are sometimes pleasing, and his temerities happy: he has many ‘verba ardentia,’ forcible expressions, which he would never have found, but by venturing to the utmost verge of propriety; and flights which would never have been reached, but by one who had very little fear of the shame of falling.

  There remains yet an objection against the writings of Browne, more formidable than the animadversions of criticism. There are passages, from which some have taken occasion to rank him among Deists, and others among Atheists. It would be difficult to guess how any such conclusion should be formed, had not experience shewn that there are two sorts of men willing to enlarge the catalogue of infidels.

  It has been long observed, that an Atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harrass those minds which they can influence, with more importunity o
f solicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation of another understanding; and industriously labour to win a proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretence to dignify their sect with a celebrated name.41

  The others become friends to infidelity only by unskilful hostility: men of rigid orthodoxy, cautious conversation, and religious asperity. Among these, it is too frequently the practice, to make in their heat concessions to Atheism, or Deism, which their most confident advocates had never dared to claim or to hope. A sally of levity, an idle paradox, an indecent jest, an unseasonable objection, are sufficient, in the opinion of these men, to efface a name from the lists of Christianity, to exclude a soul from everlasting life. Such men are so watchful to censure, that they have seldom much care to look for favourable interpretations of ambiguities, to set the general tenor of life against single failures, or to know how soon any slip of inadvertency has been expiated by sorrow and retractation; but let fly their fulminations, without mercy or prudence, against slight offences or casual temerities, against crimes never committed, or immediately repented.

  The Infidel knows well, what he is doing. He is endeavouring to supply, by authority, the deficiency of his arguments; and to make his cause less invidious, by shewing numbers on his side: he will, therefore, not change his conduct, till he reforms his principles. But the zealot should recollect, that he is labouring, by this frequency of excommunication, against his own cause; and voluntarily adding strength to the enemies of truth. It must always be the condition of a great part of mankind, to reject and embrace tenets upon the authority of those whom they think wiser than themselves; and, therefore, the addition of every name to infidelity, in some degree invalidates that argument upon which the religion of multitudes is necessarily founded.

  Men may differ from each other in many religious opinions, and yet all may retain the essentials of Christianity; men may sometimes eagerly dispute, and yet not differ much from one another: the rigorous persecutors of error, should, therefore, enlighten their zeal with knowledge, and temper their orthodoxy with Charity; that Charity, without which orthodoxy is vain; Charity that ‘thinketh no evil,’ but ‘hopeth all things,’ and ‘endureth all things.’42

  Whether Browne has been numbered among the contemners of religion, by the fury of its friends, or the artifice of its enemies, it is no difficult task to replace him among the most zealous Professors of Christianity. He may, perhaps, in the ardour of his imagination, have hazarded an expression, which a mind intent upon faults may interpret into heresy, if considered apart from the rest of his discourse; but a phrase is not to be opposed to volumes: there is scarcely a writer to be found, whose profession was not divinity, that has so frequently testified his belief of the Sacred Writings, has appealed to them with such unlimited submission, or mentioned them with such unvaried reverence.

  It is, indeed, somewhat wonderful, that He should be placed without the pale of Christianity, who declares, that ‘he assumes the honourable stile of A Christian,’ not because it is ‘the religion of his country,’ but because ‘having in his riper years and confirmed judgment seen and examined all, he finds himself obliged, by the principles of Grace, and the law of his own reason, to embrace no other name but this:’ Who, to specify his persuasion yet more, tells us, that ‘he is of the Reformed Religion: of the same belief our Saviour taught, the Apostles disseminated, the Fathers authorized, and the Martyrs confirmed:’ Who, tho’ ‘paradoxical in philosophy, loves in divinity to keep the beaten road;’ and pleases himself, that ‘he has no taint of heresy, schism, or error:’ To whom ‘where the Scripture is silent, the Church is a text; where that speaks, ’tis but a comment;’ and who uses not ‘the dictates of his own reason, but where there is a joint silence of both:’ Who ‘blesses himself, that he lived not in the days of miracles, when faith had been thrust upon him; but enjoys that greater blessing, pronounced to all that believe and saw not.’ He cannot surely be charged with a defect of faith, who ‘believes that our Saviour was dead, and buried, and rose again, and desires to see him in his glory:’ and who affirms, that ‘this is not much to believe;’ that ‘as we have reason, we owe this faith unto history;’ and that ‘they only had the advantage of a bold and noble faith, who lived before his coming; and, upon obscure prophecies and mystical types, could raise a belief.’ Nor can contempt of the positive and ritual parts of religion be imputed to him, who doubts, whether a good man would refuse a poisoned eucharist; and ‘who would violate his own arm, rather than a church.’

  The opinions of every man must be learned from himself: concerning his practice, it is safest to trust the evidence of others. Where these testimonies concur, no higher degree of historical certainty can be obtained; and they apparently concur to prove, that Browne was a zealous adherent to the faith of Christ, that he lived in obedience to his laws, and died in confidence of his mercy.

  A DICTIONARY OF NAMES

  The entries include mythological and Biblical figures and places. The dates of historical figures are ‘A.D.’ unless otherwise stated.

  Aaron: the brother of Moses (q.v.), and priest

  Abel: second son of Adam (q.v.)

  Abrabanel (Leo Hebraeus, d. 1535): Spanish Neoplatonist, author of Dialogues of Love (in Italian)

  Abraham: Hebrew patriarch (see Genesis 11–25)

  Abram, Nicolas (1589–1655): French classical and Biblical scholar

  Abramas: see previous entry

  Absalom: favourite son of and rebel against David (q.v.; see 2 Samuel 18)

  Absolom: see previous entry

  Acheron: the river in Hades (q.v.)

  Achilles: the Greek hero of the Trojan war (for his armour see Iliad, XVIII, 478 ff.)

  Achmet: see Ahmed ibn Sirin

  Acosta, Christopher (d. 1580): Portuguese physician and naturalist

  Actius: see p. 139, note 27

  Adam: according to tradition, the first man (said to have been created c. 4000 B.C.)

  Adrastea: see p. 423, note 25

  Adrian(us): see Hadrian

  Aegineta: see Paulus Aegineta

  Aelfric (955?–1022?): English writer

  Aelian (3rd cent. or earlier): Roman historian

  Aeneas: the Trojan protagonist of Virgil’s Aeneid

  Aeschulapius (Asclepius): the god of medicine and healing

  Aeson: restored to youth by Medea (q.v.)

  Aesop (c. 620–560 B.C.): Greek fable writer

  Aetius (fl. 500): Greek medical writer

  Agamemnon: King of Argos, leader of the Greek host before Troy

  Agostino, Antonio (1517–1586): Spanish numismatist and jurisprudent

  Agricola, G. Julius (37–93): Roman general and statesman

  Ahab: king of Israel, personification of wickedness (see 1 Kings 16 ff.)

  Ahasuerus: see Artaxerxes I

  Ahmed I: Ottoman emperor (1603–1617)

  Ahmed ibn Sirin (fl. 820): Arab interpreter of dreams

  Ajax (Aias) Oileus: leader of the Locrians at the siege of Troy

  Ajax (Aias) Telamonian: the noble if obstinate Greek warrior at the siege of Troy (see Iliad, XVII, 279 ff.)

  Alacci, Leone (1586–1669): Greek scholar and theologian

  Alaric (c.370–410): Visigothic chief, conqueror of Rome

  Alberti, Leandro (1479–1553?): Italian Dominican historian and geographer

  Albertus Magnus, St (1193?–1280): scholastic philosopher, ‘the universal Doctor’

  Alchmena: see Alcmene

  Alcinous: king of the Phaeacians (see Odyssey, VI, 12 ff.)

  Alcmene: the mother of Hercules (q.v.)

  Aldrovandi, Ulisse (1522–1604): Italian naturalist

  Alexander (3rd cent.): Christian martyr

  Alexander III the Great: king of Macedon (336–323 B.C.)

  Alexander Severus: Roman emperor (222–235)

  Allatius, Leo: see Alacci

  Almanzor (Al Mansur): Caliph
of Baghdad (754–775), patron of learning

  Amandus, St (d. c. 675): Merovingian Apostle of Flanders

  Amatus (1511–1568): Portuguese physician, anatomist, and botanist

  Ambrose, St (c.339–397): Bishop of Milan, Doctor of the Church

  Ammianus Marcelinus (fl. c. 390): Roman soldier and historian

  Anastasius (fl. 869): Italian scholar and writer

  Anaxagoras (500?-428 B.C.): Greek philosopher

  Andreas: author of a lost treatise (see p. 167, note 7) as reported by Athenaeus (q.v.)

  Andrewes, Lancelot (1555–1626): Bishop of Winchester, formative influence on Anglican theology

  Angelo: see Michelangelo

  Angelus Victorius: see Victorius

  Annius (Giovanni Nanni, 1432–1502): Italian literary impostor

  Ansgarius (801–865): Archbishop of Hamburg Bremen, Apostle of the North

  Anthony, St: see Antony

  Antipater (398?–319 B.C.): Macedonian general

  Antoninus: see Marcus Aurelius

  ‘Antonio the Rich’: see p. 391, note 2

  Antonius: see Mark Antony

  Antony, St (251?–356): hermit

  Antony, Mark: see Mark Antony

  Apelles (4th cent. B.C.): Greek painter

  Apollinaris Sidonius: see Sidonius

  Apollo: Olympian god of music, poetry, and medicine

  Apollo Daphnes: a prophetess according to Theodoret (Eccl. History, III, 6–7)

  Apomazar: see Ahmed ibn Sirin

  Aquapendente, Girolamo Fabrici d’ (1533–1619): Italian biologist, surgeon, and medical writer

  Arachne: challenged Minerva to a weaving contest and, for her pride, was transformed into a spider