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IntroductionIntroductory Note
Introductory Note
Sir Thomas Browne was born in London on October 19, 1605, educated at
Winchester and Oxford, and trained for the practise of medicine. After
traveling on the Continent he finally settled as a physician in Norwich, and
enjoyed a distinguished professional reputation. Later he became equally
famous as a scholar and antiquary, and was knighted by Charles II on the
occasion of the King`s visit to Norwich in 1671. In 1641 he married, and he
was survived by four of his ten children. He died on his seventy-seventh
birthday.
[See Sir Thomas Browne]
His "Religio Medici" seems to have been written about 1635, without being
intended for publication. In 1642, however, two surreptitious editions
appeared, and he was induced by the inaccuracies of these to issue an
authorized edition in 1643. Since that time between thirty and forty editions
have appeared, and the work has been translated into Latin, Dutch, French,
German, and Italian. Of his other works the most famous are "Pseudodoxia
Epidemica, or Enquiries into Vulgar Errors" (1646), a treatise of vast
learning and much entertainment; "Hydriotaphia, or Urn Burial," a discourse on
burial customs, which closes with a chapter on death and immortality, the
majestic eloquence of which places Browne in the first rank of writers of
English prose; and "The Garden of Cyrus," a fantastic account of horticulture
from the Garden of Eden down to the time of Cyrus, King of Persia, with much
discussion on the mystical significations of the number five. His
miscellaneous writings cover a great variety of subjects, religious,
scientific, and antiquarian.
The "Religio Medici" is an excellent typical example of the author`s
style. At once obscured and enriched by his individual and sometimes
far-fetched vocabulary, his full and sonorous periods remain the delight of
readers with an ear for the cadences of English prose. The matter of the book
also reveals a personality of great charm and humor, a mind at once
surprisingly acute and surprisingly credulous, and a character of an exalted
nobility.
To The Reader
Certainly that man were greedy of Life, who should desire to live when
all the world were at an end; and he must needs be very impatient, who would
repine at death in the society of all things that suffer under it. Had not
almost every man suffered by the Press, or were not the tyranny thereof become
universal, I had not wanted reason for complaint: but in times wherein I have
lived to behold the highest perversion of that excellent invention, the name
of his Majesty defamed, the Honour of Parliament depraved, the Writings of
both depravedly, anticipatively, counterfeitly imprinted; complaints may seem
ridiculous in private persons; and men of my condition may be as incapable of
affronts, as hopeless of their reparations. And truely, had not the duty I owe
unto the importunity of friends, and the allegiance I must ever acknowledge
unto truth, prevailed with me, the inactivity of my disposition might have
made these sufferings continual, and time, that brings other things to light,
should have satisfied me in the remedy of its oblivion. But because things
evidently false are not onely printed, but many things of truth most falsly
set forth, in this latter I could not but think my self engaged: for, though
we have no power to redress the former, yet in the other the reparation being
within our selves, I have at present represented unto the world a full and
intended Copy of that Piece, which was most imperfectly and surreptitiously
published before.
[Footnote 1: Not in accordance.]
This, I confess, about seven years past, with some others of affinity
thereto, for my private exercise and satisfaction, I had at leisurable hours
composed; which being communicated unto one, it became common unto many, and
was by Transcription successively corrupted, untill it arrived in a most
depraved Copy at the Press. He that shall peruse that work, and shall take
notice of sundry particularities and personal expressions therein, will easily
discern the intention was not publick; and, being a private Exercise directed
to my self, what is delivered therein, was rather a memorial unto me, than an
Example or Rule unto any other; and therefore, if there be any singularity
therein correspondent unto the private conceptions of any man, it doth
not advantage them; or if dissentaneous^1 thereunto, it no way overthrows
them. It was penned in such a place, and with such disadvantage, that, (I
protest,) from the first setting of pen unto paper, I had not the assistance
of any good Book whereby to promote my invention or relieve my memory; and
therefore there might be many real lapses therein, which others might take
notice of, and more that I suspected my self. It was set down many years past,
and was the sense of my conceptions at that time, not an immutable Law unto my
advancing judgement at all times; and therefore there might be many things
therein plausible unto my passed apprehension, which are not agreeable unto my
present self. There are many things delivered Rhetorically, many expressions
therein meerly Tropical, and as they best illustrate my intention; and
therefore also there are many things to be taken in a soft and flexible sense,
and not to be called unto the rigid test of Reason. Lastly, all that is
contained therein is in submission unto maturer discernments; and, as I have
declared, shall no further father them than the best and learned judgments
shall authorize them: under favour of which considerations I have made its
secrecy publick, and committed the truth thereof to every Ingenuous Reader.
Tho. Browne.
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