Addresses & Papers / Collectanea Part 10

"Be charitable before wealth make thee covetous, and lose not the glory of the mite. If riches increase, let thy mind hold pace with them, and think it not enough to be liberal, but munificent. Though a cup of cold water may not be without its reward, yet stick not thou for wine and oil for the wounds of the distressed."

"Let not the law of thy country be the _non ultra_ of thy honesty. . . .

Join Gospel righteousness with legal right."

"Let not the sun go down upon thy wrath, but write thy wrongs in ashes.

Draw the curtain of night upon injuries, shut them up in the tower of oblivion, and let them be as though they had not been. To forgive our enemies, yet hope that G.o.d will punish them, is not to forgive enough."

"Think not that always good which thou thinkest thou can always make good, nor that concealed which the sun doth not behold. There is no darkness unto conscience; which can see without light, and in the deepest obscurity give a clear draught of things, which the cloud of dissimulation hath concealed from all eyes."

As final quotations from "_Christian Morals_" let me give these sentences, "Bright thoughts, clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, bounty, and generous honesty, are the gems of n.o.ble minds,"-and

"Live happy in the Elysium of a virtuously composed mind. . . .

Tranquility is better than jollity, and to appease pain than to invent pleasure. . . . Forget not the capital end, and frustrate not the opportunity of once living. . . . Think every day the last, and live always beyond thy account."

I want neither to tire you, nor to read you a sermon at second-hand. So having now shown you the religious side of Browne's character, let me give you some idea of his learning and acquirements and general industry.

In his grand treatise on _Hydriotaphia_ or _Urn-burial_, which he wrote consequent upon the discovery of some ancient sepulchral urns at Old Walsingham, in Norfolk, he exemplifies the great stores of knowledge which by his reading and memory he had acc.u.mulated. He quaintly prefaces this treatise by saying, "Who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered?" And then he goes on to describe the various modes of disposal of the dead in various ages, and among different nations.

For instance, he says that "Carnal interment or burying was of the elder date," as shown by the older examples of Abraham and the Patriarchs.

"But the practice of burning was also of great antiquity, and of no slender extent." And he ill.u.s.trates this by the Grecian funerals of Homer; the funeral pyre of Hector; and by early records of the practice in various countries of Asia, in Rome itself, and in different countries of both Europe and Africa.

Touching the various modes of disposal of the dead, he says, "The Indian Brachmans thought it the n.o.blest way to end their days in fire.

"The Chaldeans abhorred fire.

"The Egyptians objected to the merciless consuming of their bodies by fire, but preserved them, by precious embalments, depositure in dry earths, or handsome enclosure in gla.s.ses.

"The Scythians, who swore by wind and sword, declined all interment, and made their graves in the air.

"The Icthyophagi, or fish-eating nations about Egypt, affected the sea for their grave.

"The Chinese, without cremation of their bodies, made use of trees, and much burning, while they plant a pine tree by their grave.

"The Jews usually buried their dead, but occasionally admitted cremation, as when Jabesh burnt the body of Saul, and as was their practice in times of pestilence.

"The Christians have preferred the practice of the Patriarchs, returning their bodies, not to ashes, but to dust."

He then goes on to discuss the various customs in this respect of the successive inhabitants of England; and he concludes his learned and interesting treatise by saying, as to the hopes of Christians, and the comparative unimportance of the mode of sepulture, "To subsist in lasting monuments, to live in their productions, . . . was large satisfaction unto old expectations. But all this is nothing in the metaphysicks of true belief. To live indeed is to be again ourselves, which being not only a hope, but an evidence in n.o.ble believers, 'tis all one to lie in St. Innocents' Churchyard, or in the sands of Egypt. Ready to be anything, in the ecstasy of being ever, and as content with six foot (of earth) as the _Moles_ of Adria.n.u.s."

But I must hurry on, and next very briefly call your attention to another of his great works, that which he styled _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_, or "Enquiries into many received tenets and presumed truths, which, examined, prove but vulgar and common errors."

These "errors," which he treats of in papers or treatises of various lengths, are very numerous, and for even a cursory knowledge of them I must refer you to the book itself.

To give you an idea of the subjects, I will only mention a few of the t.i.tles of the errors which he proceeds to refute:-

That crystal is nothing else but ice strongly congealed, That an elephant hath no joints, That a pigeon hath no gall, Of the Phnix, Of the Basilisk, That a Salamander lives in the fire, That an ostrich digesteth iron.

Or, to take another cla.s.s of subjects-

That snails have no eyes, Of the picture of Moses with horns, That the forbidden fruit was an apple,

and so forth.

But though his tracts on these "vulgar errors" may, in many instances-and looked at by the light of our present knowledge (and we must never forget the immense difference in the scientific knowledge of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries)-appear not only quaint, but almost trivial, yet even where the conclusion to the question discussed may appear to be self-evident, and the reasoning thrown away, we often see an amount of learning and research displayed which strikes us as quite remarkable.

For example, in discussing the "vulgar error," _that the ostrich digesteth iron_, he quotes the following writers in reference to it:-Rhodiginus, Johannes Langius, Aristotle, Oppia.n.u.s, Pliny, lian, Leo Africa.n.u.s, Fernelius, Riola.n.u.s, Albertus Magnus, and Ulysses Aldrovandus-a list which may well make us stand astonished at the extent of his studies, and cause us to say of him, even in such small matters, "_Nihil tetigit quod non ornavit_." It is almost needless to add that in this case Sir Thomas arrived at the common-sense conclusion that although ostriches may swallow iron they do not digest it.

His greatest works were undoubtedly those which I have already mentioned.

But he wrote also a very noted book, ent.i.tled the _Garden of Cyrus_, in which he discussed learnedly, and often fancifully, numerous questions connected with the vegetable world. He reviewed the practice of Horticulture, and the arrangements of gardens even from the first garden mentioned-that of Eden in Paradise. He makes reference to the hanging gardens of Babylon; the cla.s.sical gardens of the Hesperides and of Alcinous; and to the gardens and orchards, with their pools of water, of King Solomon. And he discusses the various forms in which ancient gardens were presumably laid out-dwelling largely upon the quincuncial {135a} arrangements probably adopted. The whole book teems also with allusions, showing his minute acquaintance with vegetable phenomena.

As to King Cyrus, he says, "All stories do look upon Cyrus as the splendid and regular planter."

Sir Thomas Browne also wrote _Some account of the tombs and monuments in the Cathedral Church of Norwich_; and many papers on the birds, and fishes, and vegetable life of Norfolk and other parts. {135b} But I should indeed weary you, were I merely to enumerate to you the bare t.i.tles of the long list of tracts and papers which his fertile brain produced.

Amongst his _Letters_, those to his sons, which will be found in Wilkin's Edition of his works, are worthy of mention as ill.u.s.trating the special bent of his mind, his wide range of thought, the peculiarity of his advice, and the strength of his family attachments.

The stilted and complimentary, as well as roundabout, epistolary style of those days is well known. Thus, in writing to Mr. Evelyn, he begins: "Worthy Sir,-In obedience unto the commands of my n.o.ble friend, Mr.

Paston, and the respects I owe unto so worthy a person as yourself," or again, addressing Dr. Merritt, he commences: "Most honoured Sir,-I take the boldness to salute you as a person of singular worth and learning, and whom I very much respect and honour," or again, "Honoured Sir,-I am sorry that I have had diversions of such necessity, as to hinder my more sudden salute since I received your last."

To his sons he writes many letters. In these he addresses his eldest son Edward as "Dear Sonne," or "Dear Sonne Edward;" but those to his younger son Thomas, always commenced "Honest Tom" or "Tom" only.

Much of his advice to "Honest Tom" is peculiar although essentially sound and practical. Thus he advises him, when a young man in France, in this fas.h.i.+on: "I would be glad you had a good handsome garb of your body, . . .

and take up a commendable boldness, without which you will never be fit for anything." "Live soberly and temperately, the heat of the place (Xaintes) will otherwise mischief you, and keep within in the heat of the day." "You may stay your stomach with little pastrys some times in cold mornings, for I doubt sea larks will be too dear a collation and drawe too much wine down."

Again, later on, he writes: "Bee sober and complacent. If you quit periwigs it would be better, and more for your credit." "Hee that goes to warre must patiently submit unto the various accidents thereof." And that this "Honest Tom" was a worthy son and a fine English sailor we learn from a pa.s.sage in another letter to him at a latter period, when a lieutenant of his Majesty's s.h.i.+p the "Marie Rose." He writes to his son: "Mr. Scudamore, your sober and learned chaplaine, in your voyage with Sir Jeremie Smith, gives you no small commendations for a sober, studious, courageous, and diligent person; that he had not met with any of the fleet like you, so civile, observing, and diligent to your charge, with the reputation and love of all the s.h.i.+ppe; and that without doubt you would make a famous man and a reputation to your country."

We can only regret that this promising son did not live to fulfil the high expectations formed of him.

Finally reference may be made to a _Letter_, because stated to have been previously unpublished, which may be found in the "Eastern Counties Collectanea," in which he exhaustively discusses the nature of _a large fish-bone_ dug up at Cunnington, and which had been sent to him for his opinion upon it.

To sum up-Sir Kenelm Digby writes to Sir T. Browne, of the _Religio Medici_ as "Your excellent piece, . . . of so weighty subjects, and so strongly penned."

Dr. Johnson says of him "There is no science of which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge profane or sacred, obstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success."

Carlyle says "The conclusion of the essay on urn burial is absolutely beautiful; a still elegiac mood, so soft, so solemn and tender, like the song of some departed saint flitting faint under the everlasting canopy of night-an echo of deepest meaning from the great and mighty nations of the dead. Browne must have been a good man."

Evelyn, as I have already quoted, writes of him as "That famous scholar and physician."

And to come nearer home, the late Captain Blakiston, in a paper read before the Archaeological Inst.i.tute, in Norwich, in 1847, writes of him as a "Great Antiquarian and eminent citizen; . . . a quaint and original thinker;" and as "Leaving behind him a s.h.i.+ning reputation."

By general consent Sir Thomas Browne was recognised, not only as a "curious thinker," but as a man of remarkable and original talent even in his lifetime, and the same reputation continued after his death. His works have always been regarded as those of a strong and original thinker, and they have never been held in higher estimation than at the present time. And I think I may fairly repeat that the more his writings are studied the more does their learning and power impress itself upon our understanding. With many faults, with many shortcomings-as judged by the standard of the present day-they yet remain the monument of genius, and worthy to be cla.s.sed amongst the highest productions of great and cultivated intellects.

Norwich may be well proud of so great a citizen-of one whose memory is held in higher and yet higher esteem, and who is justly regarded as one of the greatest of her literary men.

Perhaps the only drawback to our satisfaction is the fact that he was not a native of Norwich. And in this sense we cannot claim him as our own, as we are proud to claim so many of our citizens, who have distinguished themselves in literature, in science, in botany, in departments of natural history, in medicine, and in painting. But Norwich can look upon him with pride as an adopted son, as one who elected to live the whole of his working life in this city; and who identified himself so absolutely with it, that his name is inseparable from it, and who will be known for all time as Sir Thomas Browne, of Norwich.

ADDENDUM.-On October 19th, 1905, the admirable statue by Mr. Henry Pegram of Sir Thomas Browne, erected in the Norwich Haymarket, was unveiled by Lord Avebury, in the presence of the Mayor and other city officials and of a numerous company. This date was the tercentenary of the birth of this great philosopher, and he was both born and died on the 19th October.