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Religio Medici; And Other Writings
Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82) was a writer of breathtaking range and learning, whose works demonstrate a warm and humorous view of human nature. "Religio Medici" is a fascinating, witty and intimate exploration of his views on faith and tolerance, while substantial selections from "Pseudodoxia Epidemica" display Browne's breadth of knowledge and omnivorous curiosity in his account of common errors in a startling array of subjects including sciences, history, literature and philosophy. "Hydriotaphia" or 'Urn Buriall' is an intriguing meditation on death and the desire for immortality. "The Garden of Cyrus" considers the mysterious order to be found in nature, and "A Letter to a Friend" and the aphoristic "Christian Morals" provide profound spiritual guidance to readers.
299 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2013
About the author
Thomas Browne
649 books131 followersSir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) was an English polymath and author of works on various subjects, including science, medicine, religion and esoteric.
Browne's writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry. Browne's literary works are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffering from melancholia, his writings are also characterised by wit and subtle humour, while his literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence.
After graduating M.A. from Broadgates Hall, Oxford (1629), he studied medicine privately and worked as an assistant to an Oxford doctor. He then attended the Universities of Montpellier and Padua, and in 1633 he was graduated M.D. at Leiden.
Browne's medical education in Europe also earned him incorporation as M.D. from Oxford, and in 1637 he moved to Norwich, where he lived and practiced medicine until his death in 1682. While Browne seems to have had a keen intellect and was interested in many subjects, his life was outwardly uneventful, although during the Civil War he declared his support for King Charles I and received a knighthood from King Charles II in 1671.
Browne's writings display a deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry. Browne's literary works are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffering from melancholia, his writings are also characterised by wit and subtle humour, while his literary style is varied, according to genre, resulting in a rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence.
After graduating M.A. from Broadgates Hall, Oxford (1629), he studied medicine privately and worked as an assistant to an Oxford doctor. He then attended the Universities of Montpellier and Padua, and in 1633 he was graduated M.D. at Leiden.
Browne's medical education in Europe also earned him incorporation as M.D. from Oxford, and in 1637 he moved to Norwich, where he lived and practiced medicine until his death in 1682. While Browne seems to have had a keen intellect and was interested in many subjects, his life was outwardly uneventful, although during the Civil War he declared his support for King Charles I and received a knighthood from King Charles II in 1671.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 16, 2018
First read this assigned to my whole Freshman college class, probably in English. My notes, however, are from years later, reading from my 17C Ph.D., in Browne's Works, ed. Wilkins (1835, rpt. NY: AMS 1968) Vol II.
Dr. Browne writes in his twenties, with an eye for details that makes him a superior physician and writer who lived long enough to be recognized with a knighthood. One detail, the lightning rod used in ancient India. Ctesias, physician to Persian king Artaxerxes, told that in India, an iron bar averts lightning. Editor Wilkins says this was believed untrue until the 18C discovery—principally by Ben Franklin (p.234 n4).
Browne says the only indisputable axiom in philosophy (natural phil= “science”), Natura nihil agit frusta. Nature does nothing in vain. For example, Solomon admired ants and spiders, while Browne says “ruder heads stand amazed at..” prodigies, whales and elephants, but “the civility of these little citizens more neatly sets forth the wisdom of their Maker”(21). We may add the silkworm from section XL, “there is in these works of nature, which seem to puzzle reason, something divine”(58). Perhaps it’s the divine I look for when I see the one mulberry tree at the end of my road, but no silkworms on it.
This entire book hovers between Nature and beyond nature, “between a corporeal and a spiritual essence”(51). But he recognizes the main impulse for rulers to support scholarship and the arts: “It is not mere zeal to learning, or devotion to the muses, that wisest princes patron the arts, and…scholars; but a desire to have their names eternized by the memory of their writings, and a fear of the vengeful pen of succeeding ages”(93). With print replaced by the camera, governors—especially those who do not read like the Trumpster president—have little to fear from future writers.
Browne includes his own sonnet to God, the Sun in month Cancer (starts June 21):
But if thy quickening beams awhile decline,
A chilly frost surprises every member,
And in the midst of June I feel December.”(45)
Skeptical about hell: “I cannot think there were ever any scared into heaven” (75). May I add, Dante makes his Inferno almost inviting, so many neat people in it, and so accessible to everyone, unlike the doctrinal Purgatorio and Paradiso.
Writing at a time of great theater, publishing just as the Puritans shut down the stages, Browne admits “yet can I weep most seriously at play, and receive with a true passion the counterfeit griefs of those known and professed impostures” (96). Numerous accounts recall naive theater-goers attempting to rush onstage to save characters from their fate. My college friend, later a Yale professor, Tom Weiskel noted in his journals on some movie, lusting “like a boy and being moved by the sentimental." Now we are governed by actors, players pretending emotions, especially our president elected in 2016.
Browne reads on Nature and the Divine, but finds them, almost as Thoreau does, within himself. “I could never content my contemplation with those general wonders, the flux and reflux of the sea, the increase of the Nile, the conversion of the needle to the north; and have studied to match and parallel those in the more obvious and neglected pieces of nature, which, without farther travel, I can do in the cosmography of myself. There is all Africa and her prodigies in us.” (21)
When he writes “Not all ‘martyrs’ are as much a one as Socrates”(38), he reminds me of my conclusions from four decades of teaching: Good teachers are fired, great teachers are killed: Socrates, Christ, Giordano Bruno and [fill in the blank]. See my website, habitableworlds.com.
“Men’s works have an age, like themselves; and though they outlive their authors, yet have they a stint and period to their duration.” My first Shakespeare professor and correspondent for forty years, Amherst College Prof. T Baird wrote me, “Professors have a short period of influence, and styles change.”
Dr. Browne writes in his twenties, with an eye for details that makes him a superior physician and writer who lived long enough to be recognized with a knighthood. One detail, the lightning rod used in ancient India. Ctesias, physician to Persian king Artaxerxes, told that in India, an iron bar averts lightning. Editor Wilkins says this was believed untrue until the 18C discovery—principally by Ben Franklin (p.234 n4).
Browne says the only indisputable axiom in philosophy (natural phil= “science”), Natura nihil agit frusta. Nature does nothing in vain. For example, Solomon admired ants and spiders, while Browne says “ruder heads stand amazed at..” prodigies, whales and elephants, but “the civility of these little citizens more neatly sets forth the wisdom of their Maker”(21). We may add the silkworm from section XL, “there is in these works of nature, which seem to puzzle reason, something divine”(58). Perhaps it’s the divine I look for when I see the one mulberry tree at the end of my road, but no silkworms on it.
This entire book hovers between Nature and beyond nature, “between a corporeal and a spiritual essence”(51). But he recognizes the main impulse for rulers to support scholarship and the arts: “It is not mere zeal to learning, or devotion to the muses, that wisest princes patron the arts, and…scholars; but a desire to have their names eternized by the memory of their writings, and a fear of the vengeful pen of succeeding ages”(93). With print replaced by the camera, governors—especially those who do not read like the Trumpster president—have little to fear from future writers.
Browne includes his own sonnet to God, the Sun in month Cancer (starts June 21):
But if thy quickening beams awhile decline,
A chilly frost surprises every member,
And in the midst of June I feel December.”(45)
Skeptical about hell: “I cannot think there were ever any scared into heaven” (75). May I add, Dante makes his Inferno almost inviting, so many neat people in it, and so accessible to everyone, unlike the doctrinal Purgatorio and Paradiso.
Writing at a time of great theater, publishing just as the Puritans shut down the stages, Browne admits “yet can I weep most seriously at play, and receive with a true passion the counterfeit griefs of those known and professed impostures” (96). Numerous accounts recall naive theater-goers attempting to rush onstage to save characters from their fate. My college friend, later a Yale professor, Tom Weiskel noted in his journals on some movie, lusting “like a boy and being moved by the sentimental." Now we are governed by actors, players pretending emotions, especially our president elected in 2016.
Browne reads on Nature and the Divine, but finds them, almost as Thoreau does, within himself. “I could never content my contemplation with those general wonders, the flux and reflux of the sea, the increase of the Nile, the conversion of the needle to the north; and have studied to match and parallel those in the more obvious and neglected pieces of nature, which, without farther travel, I can do in the cosmography of myself. There is all Africa and her prodigies in us.” (21)
When he writes “Not all ‘martyrs’ are as much a one as Socrates”(38), he reminds me of my conclusions from four decades of teaching: Good teachers are fired, great teachers are killed: Socrates, Christ, Giordano Bruno and [fill in the blank]. See my website, habitableworlds.com.
“Men’s works have an age, like themselves; and though they outlive their authors, yet have they a stint and period to their duration.” My first Shakespeare professor and correspondent for forty years, Amherst College Prof. T Baird wrote me, “Professors have a short period of influence, and styles change.”
January 27, 2013
One of those rare (perhaps not so rare in the 17th c) polymaths able to write intelligently on any subject. Sir Thomas has delighted generations with his polished prose gems. An absolute delight.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews