proof, is too often the fport of youthful vanity, of which maturer experience commonly repents. There is a time when every man is weary of raising difficulties only to talk himself with the solution, and defires to enjoy truth without the labour or hazard of conteft. There is, perhaps, no better method of encountering these troublesome irruptions of fcepticism, with which inquifitive minds are frequently, haraffed, than that which Browne declares himself to have taken: "If there arife any doubts in my way, I do forget "them; or at least defer them, till my better fettled judgment, and more manly reason, be able to re"folve them: for I perceive, every man's reason is "his best Oedipus, and will, upon a reasonable truce, "find a way to loose those bonds, wherewith the "fubtilties of error have enchained our more flexible "and tender judgments." The foregoing character may be confirmed and enlarged by many paffages in the Religio Medici; in which it appears, from Whitefoot's teftimony, that the author, though no very fparing panegyrift of himself, has not exceeded the truth, with respect to his attainments or vifible qualities. There are, indeed, fome interior and fecret virtues, which a man may fometimes have without the knowledge of others; and may fometimes affume to himself, without fufficient reasons for his opinion. It is charged upon Browne, by Dr. Watts, as an instance of arrogant temerity, that, after a long detail of his attainments, he declares himself to have escaped the first and father-fin of pride." A perufal of the Religio Medici will not much contribute to produce a belief of the author's exemption from this father father-fin pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself. As easily may we be mistaken in estimating our own courage, as our own humility; and therefore, when Browne fhews himself perfuaded, that "he "could lose an arm without a tear, or with a few groans be quartered to pieces," I am not fure that he felt in himself any uncommon powers of endurance; or, indeed, any thing more than a fudden effervefcence of imagination, which, uncertain and involuntary as it is, he mistook for fettled refolution. "That there were not many extant, that in a "noble way feared the face of death lefs than him"felf;" he might likewife believe at a very easy expence, while death was yet at a distance; but the time will come to every human being, when it must be known how well he can bear to die; and it has appeared that our author's fortitude did not defert him in the great hour of trial. It was observed by fome of the remarkers on the Religio Medici, that "the author was yet alive, and "might grow worfe as well as better;" it is therefore happy, that this fufpicion can be obviated by a teftimony given to the continuance of his virtue, at a time when death had fet him free from danger of change, and his panegyrift from temptation to flattery. But it is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings, that he is to depend for the esteem of pofterity; of which he will not eafily be deprived while learning fhall have any reverence among men; for for there is no science in which he does not discover some skill; and fcarce any kind of knowledge, profane or facred, abftrufe or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with fuccefs. His exuberance of knowledge, and plenitude of ideas, fometimes obftruct the tendency of his reasoning and the clearness of his decifions: on whatever fubject he employed his mind, there started up immediately fo many images before him, that he loft one by grafping another. His memory supplied him with fo many illuftrations, parallel or dependent notions, that he was always ftarting into collateral confiderations but the fpirit and vigour of his purfuit always gives delight; and the reader follows him, without reluctance, through his mazes, in themselves flowery and pleafing, and ending at the point originally in view. To have great excellences and great faults, mag66 næ virtutes nec minora vitia, is the poefy," fays our author," of the best natures." This poefy may be properly applied to the ftyle of Browne: it is vigorous, but rugged; it is learned, but pedantick; it is deep, but obfcure; it ftrikes, but does not please ; it commands, but does not allure: his tropes are harfh and his combinations uncouth. He fell into an age in which our language began to lose the stability which it had obtained in the time of Elizabeth; and was confidered by every writer as a fubject on which he might try his plaftick skill, by moulding it according to his own fancy. Milton, in confequence of this incroaching licence, began to introduce the Latin idiom and Browne, though he gave less difturbance to our structures in phraseology, yet poured in a multitude of exotick words; many, indeed, useful and fignificant, which, if rejected, must be fupplied by circumlocution, fuch as commenfality for the state of many living at the same table; but many fuperfluous, as a paralogical for an unreasonable doubt; and some so obfcure, that they conceal his meaning rather than explain it, as arthritical analogies for parts that serve some animals in the place of joints. His ftyle is, indeed, a tiffue of many languages; a mixture of heterogeneous words, brought together from diftant regions, with terms originally appropriated to one art, and drawn by violence into the fervice of another. He muft however be confessed to have augmented our philosophical diction: and in defence of his uncommon words and expreffions, we must confider, that he had uncommon sentiments, and was not content to express in many words that idea for which any language could fupply a fingle term, But his innovations are fometimes pleafing, and his temerities happy: he has many verba ardentia, forcible expreffions, which he would never have found, but by venturing to the utmoft verge of propriety; and flights which would never have been reached, but by one who had very little fear of the fhame of falling. There remains yet an objection against the writings of Browne, more formidable than the animadverfions of criticism. There are paffages from which fome have taken occafion to rank him among deifts, and others among atheists. It would be difficult to guess how any fuch conclufion fhould be formed, had not experience experience fhewn that there are two forts of men willing to enlarge the catalogue of infidels. It has been long obferved, that an atheist has no juft reafon for endeavouring converfions; and yet none harafs thofe minds which they can influence, with more importunity of folicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are defirous to gain the atteftation of another understanding: and industriously labour to win a profelyte, and eagerly catch at the flightest pretence to dignify their fect with a celebrated The others become friends to infidelity only by unskilful hostility; men of rigid orthodoxy, cautious converfation, and religious afperity. Among thefe, it is too frequently the practice, to make in their heat conceffions to atheism, or deifm, which their most confident advocates had never dared to claim, or to hope. A fally of levity, an idle paradox, an indecent jeft, an unfeasonable objection, are fufficient in the opinion of these men, to efface a name from the lifts of Chriftianity, to exclude a foul from everlasting life. Such men are fo watchful to cenfure, that they have seldom much care to look for favourable interpretations of ambiguities, to fet the general tenor of life against fingle failures, or to know how foon any flip of inadvertency has been expiated by forrow and retraction; but let fly their fulminations, without mercy or prudence, against flight of *Therefore no Hereticks defire to spread DAVIES. fences |