Sir Thomas Browne and his Religio Medici | Page 2

your eyes.
And may God confirm your faith in Christ. Observe the manner of
trade: how they make wine and vinegar, and keep a note of all that for
me. Be courteous and humble in all your conversation, and of good
manners: which he that learneth not in France travaileth in vain. When

at sea read good books. Without good books time cannot be well spent
in those great ships. Learn the stars also: the particular coasts: the depth
of the road-steads: and the risings and fallings of the land. Enquire
further about the mineral water: and take notice of such plants as you
meet with. I am told that you are looked on in the Service as exceeding
faithful, valiant, diligent, generous, vigilant, observing, very knowing,
and a scholar. When you first took to this manner of life, you cannot
but remember that I caused you to read all the sea-fights of note in
Plutarch: and, withal, gave you the description of fortitude left by
Aristotle. In places take notice of the government of them, and the
eminent persons. The merciful providence of God ever go with you,
and direct and bless you, and give you ever a grateful heart toward Him.
I send you Lucretius: and with it Tully's Offices: 'tis as remarkable for
its little size as for the good matter contained in it, and the authentic
and classical Latin. I hope you do not forget to carry a Greek Testament
always to church: a man learns two things together, and profiteth
doubly, in the language and the subject. God send us to number our
days, and to fit ourselves for a better world. Times look troublesome:
but you have an honest and peaceable profession like myself, which
may well employ you, and you have discretion to guide your words and
actions. May God be reconciled to us, and give us grace to forsake our
sins which set fire to all things. You shall never want my daily prayers,
and also frequent letters.' And so on, through a delightful sheaf of
letters to his two sons: and out of which a fine picture rises before us,
both of Sir Thomas's own student life abroad, as well as of the footing
on which the now famous physician and English author stood with his
student and sailor sons.
* * * * *
You might read every word of Sir Thomas Browne's writings and never
discover that a sword had been unsheathed or a shot fired in England all
the time he was living and writing there. It was the half-century of the
terrible civil war for political and religious liberty: but Sir Thomas
Browne would seem to have possessed all the political and religious
liberty he needed. At any rate, he never took open part on either side in
the great contest. Sir Thomas Browne was not made of the hot metal

and the stern stuff of John Milton. All through those terrible years
Browne lived securely in his laboratory, and in his library, and in his
closet. Richard Baxter's Autobiography is as full of gunpowder as if it
had been written in an army-chaplain's tent, as indeed it was. But both
Bunyan's Grace Abounding and Browne's Religio Medici might have
been written in the Bedford or Norwich of our own peaceful day. All
men are not made to be soldiers and statesmen: and it is no man's duty
to attempt to be what he was not made to be. Every man has his own
talent, and his corresponding and consequent duty and obligation. And
both Bunyan and Browne had their own talent, and their own
consequent duty and obligation, just as Cromwell and Milton and
Baxter had theirs. Enough, and more than enough, if it shall be said to
them all on that day, Well done.
'My life,' says Sir Thomas, in opening one of the noblest chapters of his
noblest book, 'is a miracle of thirty years, which to relate were not a
history, but a piece of poetry; and it would sound to common ears like a
fable.' Now, as all Sir Thomas's readers must know, the most
extraordinary criticisms and comments have been made on those
devout and thankful words of his concerning himself. Dr. Samuel
Johnson's were not common ears, but even he comments on these
beautiful words with a wooden- headedness almost past belief. For,
surely the thirty years of schoolboy, and student, and opening
professional life that resulted in the production of such a masterpiece as
the Religio Medici was a miracle both of God's providence and God's
grace, enough to justify him who had experienced all that in
acknowledging it to God's glory and to the unburdening of his own
heart, so richly loaded with God's benefits. And, how a man of