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together with

A LETTER TO A FRIEND

ON THE DEATH OF HIS INTIMATE FRIEND

and

CHRISTIAN MORALS

By

SIR THOMAS BROWNE KT. M.D.

EDITED BY HENRY GARDINER M.A.
of Exeter Coll. Oxford

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CHISWICK, PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM.

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T is not eafy to determine with accuracy at what period Sir Thomas Browne compofed his

Religio Medici: but the greatest weight of teftimony is in favour of the fuppofition, that it was between the years 1633-35, while he was refiding at Shipden Hall, near Halifax in Yorkshire, after his return from his travels, and previous to fixing his refidence, as a Physician, at Norwich. It was very likely that he would employ a portion of his leisure time, abundant enough no doubt at the commencement of his profeffional career, in thus putting together the impreffions which had been made on his mind by foreign travel, and the re

Preface.

Letter to
Digby.

fult of those impreffions, as either confirming his faith in God, or enlarging his sympathies with his fellow creatures. He tells us that the book was not intended for the prefs, but was compofed for his private exercise and fatisfaction. However, in the year 1642 a work appeared bearing the title, Religio Medici, but printed from a broken and imperfect MS. copy, which the Author had allowed to circulate among his friends and which had itself fuffered from frequent transcription.* This book created much sensation, and was so eagerly fought for, that two editions were published in the same year, both in very small octavo, one having 190 pp. the other 159 pp. They have no printed title page, but an engraved frontispiece, by Marshall, representing a figure falling from a rock into the sea, but caught by a hand issuing

*There are at least five MS. copies of Religio Medici; one in the Bodleian Library (MS. Rawl. Mifcell. 162); another, a fragment dated 1639, in the British Museum (MSS. Lanfdowne 489); and three more are known to be in private collections.

from the clouds. The motto à coelo falus, and the words Religio Medici, are engraved on the plate, and at the foot: Printed for Andrew Crooke, 1642, Will. Marshall, fcu. A copy of one of these editions falling into the hands of the Earl of Dorset, the work was by him recommended to the notice of Sir Kenelm Digby, then a prisoner in Winchester House, who “returned his judgment upon it, not in a letter, but a book; in which, though mingled with some positions fabulous and uncertain, there are acute remarks, just cenfures, and profound fpeculations; yet its principal claim to admiration is, that it was written in twenty-four hours, of which part was spent in procuring Browne's book, and part in reading it." While these animadverfions were paffing through the press Browne became aware of the fact, and wrote to Digby acknowledging the book to be his, but declaring its unworthiness to engage fuch notice at the fame time stating his intention, speedily to put forth the true and intended. original, by comparing which with the fpurious edition, it would clearly appear how far the

Johnfon's

Life of

Browne.

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