of extensive knowledge, and very considerable learning. He was well skilled in theology, his sentiments were liberal, and he was a zealous advocate for freedom of inquiry. He appears, from the general tenor of his life, and of his writings, to have been a man of distinguished virtue, and of the most fervent piety, and to have been animated by an ardent zeal for the interests of rational and practical religion. His abilities made him respected, and his virtues rendered him beloved: but such was the peculiarity of his case, that he lived a melancholy instance of the weakness of human nature.

After Mr. Browne's death, in 1733, was published, in 8vo, as a separate piece, "The Close of the Defence of the Religion of Nature and the Christian Revelation: in answer to Christianity as old as the Creation. In an address to Christian ministers and the Christian people." The author of Christianity as old as the Creation urges it as an argument against the truth of the Gospel revelation, that it has been productive of but little good effect in the lives of Christians, and that it does not appear that they have arrived at any higher state of perfection than the rest of mankind. This objection Mr. Browne answered in his Defence; and his Close of that Defence is an earnest and pathetic exhortation to Christian ministers and people, of all denominations, not to give so much ground by their conduct for such objections of the deists, but to regulate their lives in a more exact conformity to the precepts of the excellent religion which they professed. Besides the works of Mr. Browne which have been enumerated, he also published several single sermons; and was one of the authors of the "Occasional Paper," a kind of periodical work, collected and published in 3 vols. 8vo. Some of his MSS. are in the British Museum, and among them a version of some of the Psalms. 1

BROWNE (THOMAS), a clergyman of the church of England in the seventeenth century, was born in the county of Middlesex in 1604, was elected student of Christ church in 1620, and took the degrees in arts, that of master being completed in 1627. In 1636, he served the office of proctor, and the year after was made domestic chaplain to archbishop Laud, and bachelor of divinity. Soon after he became rector of St. Mary, Aldermary, London, canon of Windsor in 1639, and rector of Oddington in Oxfordshire. On the breaking out of the rebellion, he was ejected from his church in London by the ruling party, and retired to his majesty, to whom he was chaplain, at Oxford, and in 1642 was created D. D. having then only the profits of Oddington to maintain him. He appears afterwards to have been stripped even of this, and went to the continent, where he was for some time chaplain to Mary, princess of Orange. After the restoration, he was admitted again to his former preferments, but does not appear to have had any other reward for his losses and sufferings. He died at Windsor Dec. 6, 1673, and was buried on the outside of St. George's chapel, where Dr. Isaac Vossius, his executor, erected a monument to his memory, with an inscription celebrating his learning, eloquence, critical talents, and knowledge of antiquities. Besides a sermon preached before the university in 1633, he published, "A Key to the King's Cabinet; or animadversions upon the three printed speeches of Mr. L'isle, Mr. Tate, and Mr. Browne, members of the house of commons, spoken at a common hall in London, July 1645, detecting the malice and falsehood of their blasphemous observations upon the king and queen's letters," Oxford, 1645, 4to. His next publication was a treatise in defence of Grotius against an epistle of Salmasius, "De posthumo Grotii;" this he printed at the Hague, 1646, 8vo, under the name of Simplicius Virinus, and it was not known to be his until after his death, when the discovery was made by Vossius. He wrote also, "Dissertatio de Therapeutis Philonis adversus Henricum Valesium," Lond. 1687, 8vo, at the end of Colomesius' edition of St. Clement's epistles; and he translated part of Camden's annals of queen Elizabeth, under the title, "Tomus alter et idem; or the History of the life and reign of that famous princess Elizabeth, &c." London, 1629, 4to. In the Republic of Letters, vol. VI. 1730, we find published for the first time, a "Concio ad Clerum," delivered for his divinity bachelor's degree in 1637; the subject, "the revenues of the clergy," which even at that period were threatened.1

BROWNE (SIR THOMAS), an eminent physician and antiquary, was born in London, in the parish of St. Michael, Cheapside, Oct. 19, 1605. His father was a merchant, of an ancient family at Upton in Cheshire. He lost his father very early, and was defrauded by one of his guardians, by whom, however, or by his mother, who soon after his father's death married sir Thomas Dutton, he was placed at Winchester school. In 1623 he was removed from Winchester to Oxford, and entered a gentlemancommoner of Broadgate-hall. Here he was admitted to his bachelor's degree, Jan. 31, 1626-27, being the first person of eminence graduated from Broadgate-hall, when endowed and known as Pembroke-college. After taking his master's degree, he turned his studies to physic, and practised it for some time in Oxfordshire, but soon afterwards, either induced by curiosity, or invited by promises, he quitted his settlement, and accompanied his father-in-law, who had some employment in Ireland, in a visitation of the forts and castles, which the state of Ireland then made necessary. From Ireland he passed into France and Italy ; made some stay at Montpelier and Padua, which were then the celebrated schools of physic; and, returning home through Holland, procured himself to be created M. D. at Leyden, but when he began these travels, or when he concluded them, there is no certain account. It is, however, supposed that he returned to London in 1634, and that the following year he wrote his celebrated treatise, the "Religio Medici," which he declares himself never to have intended for the press, having composed it only for his own exercise and entertainment. He had, however, communicated it to his friends, and by some means a copy was given to a printer in 1642, and was no sooner published than it excited the attention of the public by the novelty of paradoxes, the dignity of sentiment, the quick succession of images, the multitude of abstruse allusions, the subtlety of disquisition, and the strength of language.

The earl of Dorset recommended this book to the perusal of sir Kenelm Digby, who returned his judgment upon it, not in a letter, but in a book; in which, though mingled with some positions fabulous and uncertain, there are acute remarks, just censures, and profound speculations, yet its principal claim to admiration is, that it was written in twenty-four hours, of which part was spent in procuring Browne's book, and part in reading it. This induced sir Thomas to publish a more correct edition of his work, which had great success. A Mr. Merryweather, of Cambridge, turned it, not inelegantly, into Latin, and from his version it was again translated into Italian, German, Dutch, and French, and at Strasburgh the Latin translation was published with large notes, by Lenuus Nicolaus Moltfarius. Of the English annotations, which, in all the editions from 1644, accompany the book, the author is unknown. Merryweather, we are told, had some difficulty in getting his translation printed in Holland. The first printer to whom he offered it carried it to Salmasius, "who laid it by (says he) in state for three months," and then discouraged its publication: it was afterwards rejected by two other printers, and at last was received by Hackius. The peculiarities of the book raised the author, as is usual, many admirers and many enemies; but we know not of more than one professed answer, written under the title of " Medicus Medicatus," by Alexander Ross, which was universally neglected by the world. Abroad it was animadverted upon as having an irreligious tendency, by Guy Patin, by Tobias Wagner, by Muller, Reiser, and Buddeus, and was put into the Index Expurgatorius. At present it will probably be thought that it was both too much applauded and too much censured, and that it would have been a more useful book had the author's fancy been more guided by judgment.

At the time when this book was published, Dr. Browne resided at Norwich, where he had settled in 1636, by the persuasion of Dr. Lushington, his tutor, who was then rector of Barnham Westgate, in the neighbourhood. It is recorded by Wood, that his practice was very extensive. In 1637 he was incorporated M. D. at Oxford. He married in 1641 Mrs. Mileham, of a good family in Norfolk, a lady of very amiable character. Dr. Johnson says this marriage could not but draw the raillery of contemporary wits upon a man, who had been just wishing, in his new book, "that we might procreate, like trees, without conjunction;" and had lately declared, that "the whole world was made for man, but only the twelfth part of man for woman," and that " man is the whole world, but woman only the rib or crooked part of man." They lived happily, however, together for forty-one years, during which she bore him ten children, of whom one son and three daughters outlived their parents. She survived him two years.

In 1646, he printed "Enquiries into vulgar and common Errors," small folio, a work, says his biographer, which, as it arose not from fancy and invention, but from observation and books, and contained not a single discourse of one continued tenor, but an enumeration of many unconnected particulars, must have been the collection of years, and the effect of a design early formed, and long pursued. It is, indeed, adds the same writer, to be wished, that he had longer delayed the publication, and added what the remaining part of his life might have furnished. He published in 1673 the sixth edition, with some improvements. This book, like his former, was received with great applause, was answered by Alexander Ross, and translated into Dutch and German, and afterwards into French. It might, Dr. Johnson thinks, now be proper to reprint it with notes, partly supplemental and partly emendatory, to subjoin those discoveries which the industry of the last age has made, and correct those mistakes which the author has committed, not by idleness or negligence, but for want of Boyle's and Newton's philosophy..

The reputation of Browne encouraged some low writer to publish, under his name, a book called "Nature's cabinet unlocked," translated, according to Wood, from the physics of Magirus, but Browne advertised against it. In 1658, the discovery of some ancient urns in Norfolk gave him occasion to write "Hydriotaphia, Urn-burial, or a discourse of Sepulchral Urns," 8vo, in which he treats with his usual learning, on the funeral rites of the ancient. nations; exhibits their various treatment of the dead; and examines the substances found in these Norfolk urns. There is, perhaps, none of his works which better exemplifies his reading or memory. To this treatise was added "The Garden of Cyrus, or the Quincunxial lozenge, or net-work plantation of the ancients, artificially, naturally, mystically considered." This is a more fanciful performance than the other, but still it exhibits the fancy of a man of learning. Besides these, he left some papers prepared for the press, of which two collections have been published, the first by Dr. Thomas Tennison, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, in 1684, 8vo, entitled, Collection of Miscellaneous Tracts," and these, with what had been published in his life-time, were printed in one vol. fol. in 1686. In 1690. his son, Dr. Edward Browne, of whom we have already spoken, published a single tract, entitled " A Letter to a friend upon occasion of the death

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