Sir Thomas Browne and his Religio Medici | Page 3

Samuel
Johnson's insight, good sense, and pious feeling could have so missed
the mark in this case, I cannot understand. All the more that both the
chapter so complained about, and the whole book to which that chapter
belongs, are full of the same thankful, devout, and adoring sentiment.
'The world that I regard,' Sir Thomas proceeds, 'is myself. Men that
look upon my outside, and who peruse only my conditions and my
fortunes, do err in my altitude. There is surely a piece of divinity in us
all; something that was before the elements, and which owes no
homage unto the sun.' And again, 'We carry with us the wonders we

seek without us. There is all Africa and all its prodigies in us all. We
are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that studies
wisely learns, in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided
piece and endless volume.' And again, 'There is another way of God's
providence full of meanders and labyrinths and obscure methods: that
serpentine and crooked line: that cryptic and involved method of His
providence which I have ever admired. Surely there are in every man's
life certain rubs, and doublings, and wrenches, which, well examined,
do prove the pure hand of God. And to be true, and to speak out my
soul, when I survey the occurrences of my own life, and call into
account the finger of God, I can perceive nothing but an abyss and a
mass of mercies. And those which others term crosses, and afflictions,
and judgments, and misfortunes, to me they both appear, and in event
have ever proved, the secret and dissembled favours of His affection.'
And in the _Christian Morals_: 'Annihilate not the mercies of God by
the oblivion of ingratitude. Make not thy head a grave, but a repository
of God's mercies. Register not only strange, but all merciful
occurrences. Let thy diaries stand thick with dutiful mementoes and
asterisks of acknowledgment. And to be complete and to forget nothing,
date not His mercy from thy nativity: look beyond this world, and
before the era of Adam. And mark well the winding ways of
providence. For that hand writes often by abbreviations, hieroglyphics,
and short characters, which, like the laconism on Belshazzar's wall, are
not to be made out but by a key from that Spirit that indited them.' And
yet again, 'To thoughtful observers the whole world is one phylactery,
and everything we see an item of the wisdom, and power, and goodness
of God.' How any man, not to speak of one of the wisest and best of
men, such as Samuel Johnson was, could read all that, and still stagger
at Sir Thomas Browne holding himself to be a living miracle of the
power, and the love, and the grace of God, passes my understanding.
We have seen in his own noble words how Sir Thomas Browne's life
appeared to himself. Let us now look at how he appeared to other
observing men. The Rev. John Whitefoot, the close and lifelong friend
of Sir Thomas, has left us this lifelike portrait of the author of Religio
Medici. 'For a character of his person, his complexion and his hair were
answerable to his name, his stature was moderate, and his habit of body

neither fat nor lean, but [Greek text]. In his habit of clothing he had an
aversion to all finery, and affected plainness. He ever wore a cloke, or
boots, when few others did. He kept himself always very warm, and
thought it most safe so to do. The horizon of his understanding was
much larger than the hemisphere of the world: all that was visible in the
heavens he comprehended so well, that few that are under them knew
so much. And of the earth he had such a minute and exact geographical
knowledge as if he had been by divine providence ordained
surveyor-general of the whole terrestrial orb and its products, minerals,
plants, and animals. His memory, though not so eminent as that of
Seneca or Scaliger, was capacious and tenacious, insomuch that he
remembered all that was remarkable in any book he ever read. He had
no despotical power over his affections and passions, that was a
privilege of original perfection, but as large a political power over them
as any stoic or man of his time, whereof he gave so great experiment
that he hath very rarely been known to have been overpowered with
any of them. His aspect and conversation were grave and sober; there
was never to be seen in him anything trite or vulgar. Parsimonious in
nothing but his time, whereof he made as much improvement, with as
little loss as any man in it, when he had any to spare from