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Well, scholar, I have almost tired myself, and, I fear, more than almost tired you. But I now see Tottenham High Cross, and our short walk thither will put a period to my too long discourse, in which my meaning was, and is, to plant that in your mind with which I labour to possess my own soul-that is, a meek and thankful heart. And to that end I have shewed you that riches without them (meekness and thankfulness) do not make any man happy. But let me tell you that riches with them remove many fears and cares. And, therefore, my advice is, that you endeavour to be honestly rich, or contentedly poor; but be sure that your riches be justly got, or you spoil all; for it is well said by Caussin, "He that loses his conscience has nothing left that is worth keeping." Therefore, be sure you look to that. And, in the next place, look to your health, and if you have it, praise God, and value it next to a good conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of a blessing that money cannot buyand therefore value it, and be thankful for it. As for money (which may be said to be the third blessing), neglect it not; but note, that there is no necessity of being rich; for I told you there may be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side them; and if you have a competence, enjoy it with a meek, cheerful, thankful heart. I will tell you, scholar, I have heard a grave divine say that God has two dwellings, one in heaven, and the other in a meek and thankful heart; which Almighty God grant to me and to my honest scholar! And so you are welcome to Tottenham High Cross.

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

Milton himself not excepted, there is no author so poetical in his prose, so enigmatical in his expositions, so Latin in his English, as the sage of Norwich; nor, we may add, are there many authors at once so fantastic and so sublime, so exact in

SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

177

their learning, and so unrestrained in the flights of their imagination. Indeed, the boldness of his excursions, and his fondness for paradox, brought into question the soundness of his faith, and the cabalistic style of his composition repels many readers to this day; but for those who have the patience of translators, and who are not ashamed of being occasionally puzzled, a rich reward is provided in the "Religio Medici," the "Hydriotaphia," and "Christian Morals." As a recent critic has remarked-" He seems like no other writer, and his vast and solitary abstractions, stamped with his peculiar style, like the hieroglyphic characters of the East, carry the imagination back into the primeval ages of the world, or forward into the depths of eternity." At the same time, far from impeaching the sincerity of his faith, we could almost envy that willingness to be "unclothed," partly the result of superiority to sensual enjoyments, and partly the impatience of a spirit strong in the excess of immortality, which bursts through many noble passages. The conclusion of Dr Johnson, will be the conclusion of the candid student of his works in connexion with his history, "that he was a zealous adherent to the faith of Christ, that he lived in obedience to His laws, and died in confidence of His mercy."

Sir Thomas Browne was born in London, Oct. 19, 1605, and in 1636, settled as a physician in the city of Norwich, where he attained to a large practice and a great reputation, and where he died Oct. 19, 1682.

Immortality.

There is nothing strictly immortal but immortality. Whatever hath no beginning may be confident of no end, which is the peculiar of that necessary essence which cannot destroy itself, and the highest strain of omnipotency to be so power

* Chambers's Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. p. 300.

fully constituted, as not to suffer even from the power of itself. All others have a dependent being, and within the reach of destruction. But the sufficiency of Christian immortality frustrates all earthly glory, and the quality of either state after death makes a folly of posthumous memory. God, who can only destroy our souls, and hath assured our resurrection, either of our bodies or names, hath directly promised no duration. Wherein there is so much of chance, that the boldest expectants have found unhappy frustration; and to hold long subsistence, scems but a scape in oblivion. But man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnising nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature.

Life is a pure flame, and we live by an invisible sun within us. A small fire sufficeth for life, great flames seemed too little after death, while men vainly affected precious pyres, and to burn like Sardanapalus; but the wisdom of funeral laws found the folly of prodigal blazes, and reduced undoing fires unto the rule of sober obsequies, wherein few could be so mean as not to provide wood, pitch, a mourner, and an urn.

Five languages secured not the epitaph of Gordianus. The man of God lives longer without a tomb than any by one, invisibly interred by angels, and adjudged to obscurity, though not without some remarks directing human discovery. Enoch and Elias, without either tomb or burial, in an anomalous state of being, are the great examples of perpetuity, in their long and living memory in strict account being still on this side death, and having a late part yet to act upon this stage of earth. If in the decretory term of the world, we shall not all die but be changed, according to received translation, the last day will make but few graves; at least, quick resurrections will anticipate lasting sepultures. Some graves will be opened

* Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Egyptian, and Arabic, defaced by Licinius the Emperor.

MONUMENTAL IMMORTALITY.

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before they be quite closed, and Lazarus be no wonder. When many that feared to die shall groan that they can die but once, the dismal state is the second and living death, when life puts despair on the damned; when men shall wish the coverings of mountains, not of monuments, and annihilation shall be courted.

While some have studied monuments, others have studiously declined them; and some have been so vainly boisterous, that they durst not acknowledge their graves; wherein Alaricus seems more subtle, who had a river turned to hide his bones at the bottom. Even Sylla, who thought himself safe in his urn, could not prevent revenging tongues, and stones thrown at his monument. Happy are they whom privacy makes innocent, who deal so with men in this world, that they are not afraid to meet them in the next; who, when they die, make no commotion among the dead, and are not touched with that poetical taunt of Isaiah.

Pyramids, arches, obelisks, were but the irregularities of vain-glory, and wild enormities of ancient magnanimity; but the most magnanimous resolution rests in the Christian religion, which trampleth upon pride, and sits on the neck of ambition, humbly pursuing that infallible perpetuity, unto which all others must diminish their diameters, and be poorly seen in angles of contingency.

To subsist in lasting monuments, to live in their productions, to exist in their names and predicament of chimeras, was large satisfaction unto old expectations, and made one part of their Elysium. But all this is nothing in the metaphysics of true belief. To live, indeed, is to be again ourselves, which being not only a hope but an evidence in noble believers, it is all one to lie in St Innocent's churchyard, as in the sands of Egypt: ready to be anything, in the ecstacy of being ever, and as content with six feet as the Moles of Adrianus.

*

* In Paris, where bodies soon consume.

A Letter to a Friend on the Death of his Entimate
Acquaintance.

[The moral maxims with which this letter concludes were afterwards expanded into "Christian Morals." They are, therefore, omitted in the edition of Browne's works edited by Mr Wilkin in 1835.]

Avarice, which is not only infidelity but idolatry, either from covetous progeny or questuary education, had no root in his breast who made good works the expression of his faith, and was big with desires unto public and lasting charities; and surely, where good wishes and charitable intentions exceed abilities, theoretical beneficiency may be more than a dream. They build not castles in the air who would build churches on earth; and though they leave no such structures here, may lay good foundations in heaven. In brief, his life and death were such, that I could not blame them who wished the like, and almost to have been himself; almost, I say: for though we may wish the prosperous appurtenances of others, or to be another in his happy accidents, yet so intrinsical is every man unto himself, that some doubt may be made, whether any would exchange his being, or substantially become another

man.

He had wisely seen the world at home and abroad, and thereby observed under what variety men are deluded into the pursuit of that which is not here to be found. And although he had no opinion of reputed felicities below, and apprehended men widely out in the estimate of such happiness; yet his sober contempt of the world wrought no Democratism or Cynicism, no laughing or snarling at it, as well understanding there are not felicities in this world to satisfy a serious mind. And, therefore, to soften the stream of our

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