proportion in both, whereby becoming equable to others, I become unjust to myself, and supererogate in that common principle, "Do unto others as thou wouldst be done unto thyself." I was not born unto riches, neither is it, I think, my star to be wealthy; or if it were, the freedom of my mind, and frankness of my disposition, were able to contradict and cross my fates: for to me avarice seems not so much a vice, as a deplorable piece of madness; to conceive ourselves urinals, or be persuaded that we are dead, is not so ridiculous, nor so many degrees beyond the power of hellebore, as this. The opinions of theory, and positions of men, are not so void of reason, as their practised conclusions. Some have held that snow is black, that the earth moves, that the soul is air, fire, water; but all this is philosophy: and there is no delirium, if we do but speculate the folly and indisputable dotage of avarice. To that subterraneous idol, and God of the earth, I do confess I am an atheist. I cannot persuade myself to honour that the world adores; whatsoever virtue its prepared substance may have within my body, it hath no influence nor operation without. I would not entertain a base design, or an action that should call me villain, for the Indies; and for this only do I love and honour my own soul, and have methinks two arms too few to embrace myself. Aristotle is too severe, that will not allow us to be truly liberal without wealth, and the bountiful hand of fortune; if this be true, I must confess I am charitable only in my liberal intentions, and bountiful well wishes. But if the example of the mite be not only an act of wonder, but an example of the noblest charity, surely poor men may also build hospitals, and the rich alone have not erected cathedrals. I have a private method which others observe not; I take the opportunity of myself to do good; I borrow occasion of charity

described in two kinds-one, named justice distributive, which is in distribution of honour, money, benefice, or other thing semblable: the other is called commutative, or by exchange." Sir T. Elyot, Gov. fol. 142.-Ed.

4 hellebore,] Said to be a specific against madness.-Ed.

5 there is no delirium, &c.] "Meaning there is nothing deserving the name of

delirium, when compared with the folly of avarice, &c."-Ed.

6 its prepared substance, &c.] Alluding to the aurum portabile, of which see Vulgar Errors, b. iii, c. 23.-Ed.

7 surely poor men &c.] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, "I can justly boast I am as charitable as some who have built hospitals, or erected cathedrals.”—Ed.

from my own necessities, and supply the wants of others, when I am in most need myself: for it is an honest stratagem to take advantage of ourselves, and so to husband the acts of virtue, that, where they are defective in one circumstance, they may repay their want, and multiply their goodness in another. I have not Peru in my desires, but a competence and ability to perform those good works to which [the Almighty] hath inclined my nature. He is rich who hath enough to be charitable; and it is hard to be so poor that a noble mind may not find a way to this piece of goodness. "He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord:" there is more rhetorick in that one sentence than in a library of sermons. And indeed, if those sentences were understood by the reader with the same emphasis as they are delivered by the author, we needed not those volumes of instructions, but might be honest by an epitome. Upon this motive only I cannot behold a beggar without relieving his necessities with my purse, or his soul with my prayers. These scenical and accidental differences between us cannot make me forget that common and untoucht part of us both: there is under these centoes and miserable outsides, those mutilate and semi bodies, a soul of the same alloy with our own, whose genealogy is God as well as ours, and in as fair way to salvation as ourselves. Statists that labour to contrive a commonwealth without poverty take away the object of our charity; not understanding only the commonwealth of a christian, but forgetting the prophecy of Christ.*

a

SECT. XIV.-Now, there is another part of charity, which is the basis and pillar of this, and that is the love of God, for whom we love our neighbour; for this I think charity, to love God for himself, and our neighbour for God. All that is truly amiable is God, or as it were a divided piece of him, that retains a reflex or shadow of himself. Nor is it strange

"The poor ye shall have always with you."- MS. W.

8 myself:] Here all the MSS. and Edts. 1642 add, "when I am reduced to the last tester, I love to divide it with the poor."-Ed.

9 the Almighty] The words between brackets are inserted from MS. W. and Edts. 1642; the others read, he.-Ed.

1 centoes] Patched garments.-Ed.

2 both: there is under &c.] Instead of this sentence, all the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, "both, the soul, being of the same alloy."-Ed.

3 not understanding only] Or rather "not only not understanding."-Ed.

that we should place àffection on that which is invisible: all that we truly love is thus. What we adore under affection of our senses deserves not the honour of so pure a title. Thus we adore virtue, though to the eyes of sense she be invisible. Thus that part of our noble friends that we love is not that part that we embrace, but that insensible part that our arms cannot embrace. God being all goodness, can love nothing but himself; he loves us but for that part which is as it were himself, and the traduction of his Holy Spirit. Let us call to assize the loves1 of our parents, the affections of our wives and children, and they are all dumb shews and dreams, without reality, truth, or constancy. For first there is a strong bond of affection between us and our parents; yet how easily dissolved? We betake ourselves to a woman, forgetting our mother in a wife, and the womb that bare us in that which shall bear our image. This woman blessing us with children, our affection leaves the level it held before, and sinks from our bed unto our issue and picture of posterity: where affection holds no steady mansion; they growing up in years, desire our ends; or, applying themselves to a woman, take a lawful way to love another better than ourselves. Thus I perceive a man be buried alive, and behold his grave in his own issue. I conclude therefore, and say, there is no happiness under (or, as Copernicus* will have it, above) the sun; nor any crambo" in that repeated verity and burthen of all the wisdom of Solomon; "All is vanity and vexation of spirit ;" there is no felicity in that the world adores. Aristotle, whilst he labours to refute the ideas of Plato, falls upon one himself: for his

may

Who holds that the sun is the centre of the world." -MS. W.

4 loves] Edts. 1642 and 1643 read, lives.

All the MSS. and the later Edts. read, loves with which reading the foreign editions agree.

In this instance then it is clear that the translator detected an errour which had not only passed through the two surreptitious editions, but was repeated by the author in the first genuine edition. -Ed.

a who holds &c.] An opinion which Sir Thomas Browne would by no means adopt; as has already appeared, and will

be noticed again in another place.-Ed.

5 nor any crambo in that repeated verity &c.] Meaning that the sentiment expressed by Solomon is a truth which cannot be too often repeated.

Crambo is a play in rhymning, in which he that repeats a word that was said before forfeits something.-Crabb's Techn. Dict.

In all the MSS. and Edts. 1642 the words nor any crambo are wanting -Ed.

6 Aristotle, whilst &c.] Vid. Eudemior. 1. i, c. 8, et Metaphys. 1. i, c. 7. -M.

8

summum bonum is a chimæra; and there is no such thing as his felicity. That wherein God himself is happy, the holy angels are happy, in whose defect the devils are unhappy ;that dare I call happiness: whatsoever conduceth unto this, may, with an easy metaphor, deserve that name; whatsoever else the world terms happiness is, to me, a story out of Pliny, an apparition or neat delusion, wherein there is no more of happiness than the name. Bless me in this life with but the peace of my conscience, command of my affections, the love of thyself and my dearest friends, and I shall be happy enough to pity Cæsar! These are, O Lord, the humble desires of my most reasonable ambition, and all I dare call happiness on earth:1 wherein I set no rule or limit to thy hand or providence; dispose of me according to the wisdom of thy pleasure. Thy will be done, though in my own undoing.3

7 his summum bonum] Vid. Eudemior. 1. i, et ii.—et De Moribus, l. i, c. 7, 8, 9, et seq.-M.

8 out of Pliny,] These words are not in MS. W. nor Edts. 1642.-Ed.

9 thyself and] Not in MSS. nor Edts. 1642.-Ed.

1 These are, O Lord, the humble desires &c.] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642

read, "These are, O Lord, happiness on earth."-Ed.

2 wisdom] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, justice.-Ed.

3 Thy will &c.] This concluding sentence is not in MSS. W. 2. & R. MS. W. and Edts. 1642 read, "Thy will be done, though in mine own damnation."-Ed.

The OBSERVATIONS ON RELIGIO MEDICI, which occupy the following pages, were communicated by SIR KENELM DIGBY (during his confinement in Winchester House) to the Earl of Dorset. While they were in the press, a correspondence respecting them took place between the author and Sir Thomas Browne, in which it appears to have been Sir Thomas's object to induce Sir Kenelm Digby to delay the publication of his Observations, which were on the surreptitious edition, till the appearance of the genuine one should have enabled him to revise them. That correspondence, together with an anonymous notice on the same subject, were printed at the end of the edition of 1643. In the subsequent editions they precede Religio Medici; an arrangement which has in the present been preferred.-Ed.