ITS SEQUEL

Christian Morals.

BY

SIR THOMAS BROWNE, KT. M. D.

WITH RESEMBLANT PASSAGES FROM

COWPER'S TASK,

AND A VERBAL INDEX.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

MDCCCXLIV.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

It is very remarkable that notwithstanding their close relationship these two Treatises by Sir Thomas Browne have never been linked together in the same volume until now. RELIGIO MEDICI was the earliest production of his pen; that admirable Sequel CHRISTIAN MORALS the last which fell from it. It is delightful to perceive the perfect harmony that reigns in both works although well nigh half a century rolled away between the respective periods of their composition. The pure and lofty thoughts which dwelt in his heart in the pensive evening of life were but the same that the author had cherished and avowed in the bright morn of early manhood.

Eng.

9-22-44

RELIGIO MEDICI was at first surreptitiously pub

6

lished, in 1642. Even in those dissonant times' (to use the gentle phrase of Harry Lawes who lived in them) this piece of serene wisdom found so many readers that two editions were immediately disposed of. It came out under the author's sanction in the following year, and numerous reimpressions were called for in his lifetime. Some of his other works Sir Thomas Browne greatly altered and enlarged, but a majestic self-esteem led him to make no change whatever in this confession of faith after he had once delivered it to the world.

Its fate in one respect has been peculiarly untoward, for it has been constantly printed with great incorrectness. A table of errata prefixed to the authentick edition of 1643, shows that it underwent a nice examination by the author; who seems thenceforward to have left the care of the press to others, by whom the trust was discharged with singular indiligence. The subsequent editions were printed without any reference having been made to that table! A few of the errours pointed