Auftrians and Saxons were at laft compelled to receive from him fuch a peace as he would grant. He impófed no fevere conditions except the payment of the contributions, made no new claim of dominions, and, with the elector Palatine, acknowledged the duke of Tuscany for emperor. The lives of princes, like the hiftories of nations, have their periods, We shall here fufpend our narrative of the king of Pruffia, who was now at the height of human greatnefs, giving laws to his enemies, and courted by all the powers of Europe. BROWNE. BRO W N E*.. IR THOMAS BROWNE was born at Lon in parish Michael in on don, in the parish of St Michael in Cheapfide, on the 19th of October, 1605. His father was a merchant, of an antient family at Upton in Cheshire. Of the name or family of his mother, I find no ac count. Of his childhood or youth, there is little known, except that he loft his father very early; that he was, according to the common fate of orphans, defrauded by one of his guardians; and that he was placed for his education at the school of Winchefter. His mother, having taken § three thousand pounds, as the third part of her husband's property, left her fon, by confequence, fix thousand, a large fortune for a man deftined to learning at that time, when com * First printed in 1752. + Life of fir Thomas Browne, prefixed to the Antiquities of Norwich. Whitefoot's character of fir Thomas Browne, in a marginal note. merce had not yet filled the nation with nominal riches. But it happened to him, as to many others, to be made poorer by opulence; for his mother foon married fir Thomas Dutton, probably by the induce ment of her fortune; and he was left to the rapacity of his guardian, deprived now of both his parents, and therefore helpless and unprotected. He was removed in the beginning of the year 1623 from Winchefter to Oxford *, and entered a gentleman-commoner of Broadgate-Hall, which was foon afterwards endowed, and took the name of Pembrokecollege, from the earl of Pembroke, then chancellor of the University. He was admitted to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, January 31, 1626-7; being, as Wood remarks, the first man of eminence graduated from the new college, to which the zeal or gratitude of those that love it most can with little better than that it may long proceed as it began. Having afterwards taken his degree of master of arts, he turned his ftudies to phyfick †, and practifed it for fome time in Oxfordshire; but foon afterwards, either induced by curiofity, or invited by promifes, he quit ted his fettlement, and accompanied his father-inlaw, who had fome employment in Ireland, in a vifitation of the forts and caftles, which the ftate of Ireland then made neceffary. He that has once prevailed on himself to break his connections of acquaintance, and begin a wandering life, very easily continues it. Ireland had, at that time, very little to offer to the observation of a man of letters: he, therefore, paffed § into France and Italy; * Wood's Athenæ Oxonienfes. ↑ Wood. Life of fir Thomas Browne. § Ibid. made made some stay at Montpellier and Padua, which were then the celebrated schools of phyfick; and, returning home through Holland, procured himself to be created doctor of phyfick at Leyden. When he began his travels, or when he concluded them, there is no certain account; nor do there remain any obfervations made by him in his paffage through thofe countries which he vifited. To confider, therefore, what pleasure or inftruction might have been re ceived from the remarks of a man fo curious and diligent, would be voluntarily to indulge a painful reflection, and load the imagination with a wifh, which, while it is formed, is known to be vain. It is, however, to be lamented, that those who are most capable of improving mankind, very frequently neglect to com← municate their knowledge; either because it is more pleafing to gather ideas than to impart them, or because, to minds naturally great, few things appear of fo much importance as to deferve the notice of the pub lick. About the year 1634 *, he is fupposed to have returned to London; and the next year to have written his celebrated treatise, called Religio Medici, "The re"ligion of a phyficiant," which he declares himself never to have intended for the prefs, having composed it only for his own exercise and entertainment. It, indeed, contains many paffages, which, relating merely to his own person, can be of no great importance to the publick: but when it was written, it happened to him as to others, he was too much pleased with his * Biographia Britannica., + Letter to fir Kenelim Digby, prefixed to the Religio Medici, folio edition. Pp 4 performance, performance, not to think that it might please others as much; he, therefore, communicated it to his friends, and receiving, I fuppofe, that exuberant applause with which every man repays the grant of perufing a manufcript, he was not very diligent to obftruct his own praife by recalling his papers, but fuffered them to wander from hand to hand, till at laft, without his own confent, they were in 1642 given to a printer. This has, perhaps, fometimes befallen others; and this, I am willing to believe, did really happen to Dr. Browne: but there is furely fome reafon to doubt the truth of the complaint fo frequently made of furreptitious editions. A fong, or an epigram, may be eafily printed without the author's knowledge; because it may be learned when it is repeated, or may be written out with very little trouble: but a long treatise, however elegant, is not often copied by mere zeal or curiofity, but may be worn out in paffing from hand to hand, before it is multiplied by a tranfcript. It is eafy to convey an imperfect book, by a diftant hand, to the prefs, and plead the circulation of a falfe copy as an excufe for publifhing the true, or to correct what is found faulty or offenfive, and charge the errors on the tranfcriber's depravations. This is a ftratagem, by which an author panting for -fame, and yet afraid of feeming to challenge it, may at once gratify his vanity, and preferve the appearance of modefty; may enter the lifts, and fecure a retreat; and this candour might fuffer to pafs undetected as an innocent fraud, but that indeed no fraud is innocent; for the confidence which makes the happiness of fociety is in fome degree diminished by every man, whose practice is at variance with his words. |