Sir Thomas Browne and his Religio Medici

Sir Thomas Browne and his
'Religio Medici'

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio
Medici',
by Alexander Whyte
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Title: Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici' an Appreciation
Author: Alexander Whyte

Release Date: July 25, 2005 [eBook #16359]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIR
THOMAS BROWNE AND HIS 'RELIGIO MEDICI'***

Transcribed from the 1898 Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier edition by
David Price, email [email protected]

SIR THOMAS BROWNE AND HIS 'RELIGIO MEDICI': an
Appreciation with some of the best passages of the Physician's Writings
selected and arranged by Alexander Whyte D. D.
[Illustration from 1642 edition of Religio Medici: ill.jpg]
Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier
Saint Mary Street, Edinburgh, and 21 Paternoster Square, London 1898
DEDICATED TO SIR THOMAS GRAINGER STEWART
PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION AT
WHOSE REQUEST THIS APPRECIATION WAS DELIVERED AS
THE INAUGURAL DISCOURSE AT THE OPENING MEETING OF
THE ASSOCIATION IN ST. GILES' CATHEDRAL ON THE 26TH
JULY 1898 IN GREAT GOOD-WILL AND LOVE BY
ALEXANDER WHYTE

APPRECIATION AND INTRODUCTION
The Religio Medici is a universally recognised English classic. And the
_Urn-Burial_, the Christian Morals, and the Letter to a Friend are all
quite worthy to take their stand beside the Religio Medici. Sir Thomas
Browne made several other contributions to English literature besides
these masterpieces; but it is on the Religio Medici, and on what Sir
Thomas himself calls 'other pieces of affinity thereto,' that his sure
fame as a writer of noble truth and stately English most securely rests.
Sir Thomas Browne was a physician of high standing and large practice
all his days; and he was an antiquarian and scientific writer of the
foremost information and authority: but it is the extraordinary depth
and riches and imaginative sweep of his mind, and his rare wisdom and
wealth of heart, and his quite wonderful English style, that have all
combined together to seal Sir Thomas Browne with his well- earned
immortality.
Sir Thomas Browne's outward life can be told in a very few words. He
was born at London in 1605. He lost his father very early, and it must

have been a very great loss. For the old mercer was wont to creep up to
his little son's cradle when he was asleep, and uncover and kiss the
child's breast, and pray, 'as 'tis said of Origen's father, that the Holy
Ghost would at once take possession there.' The old merchant was able
to leave money enough to take his gifted son first to Winchester School,
and then to Oxford, where he graduated in New Pembroke in 1626. On
young Browne's graduation, old Anthony a Wood has this remark, that
those who love Pembroke best can wish it nothing better than that it
may long proceed as it has thus begun. As soon as he had taken his
university degree young Browne entered on the study of medicine: and,
in pursuit of that fast- rising science, he visited and studied in the most
famous schools of France and Italy and Holland. After various changes
of residence, through all of which it is somewhat difficult to trace the
young physician's movements, we find him at last fairly settled in the
city of Norwich, where he spent the remainder of his long, and busy,
and prosperous, and honourable life.
Dr. Johnson laments that Sir Thomas Browne has left us no record of
his travels and studies abroad, and all Sir Thomas's readers will join
with his great biographer in that regret. At the same time, as we turn
over the pile of letters that Sir Thomas sent to his student son Edward,
and to his sailor son Thomas, when they were abroad at school and on
ship, we can easily collect and picture to ourselves the life that the
writer of those so wise and so beautiful letters led when he himself was
still a student at Montpellier and Padua and Leyden. 'Honest
Tom,--God bless thee, and protect thee, and mercifully lead thee
through the ways of His providence. Be diligent in going to church. Be
constant, and not negligent in your daily private prayers. Be a good
husband. Cast up your accounts with all care. Be temperate in diet, and
be wary not to overheat yourself. Be courteous and civil to all. Live
with an apothecary, and observe his drugs and practice. Frequent civil
company. Point your letters, and put periods at the ends of your
sentences. Have the love and the fear of God ever before