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 loves of our parents, the affections of our wives and children, and they are all dumb shows 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 may 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,

* 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 error which had not only passed through the two surreptitious editions, but was repeated by the author in the first genuine edition; or rather the translator availed himself of the Errata, in Edit. 1643, as ought the present editor.-Ed.

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 rhyming, 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.

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.

8

whilst he labours to refute the ideas of Plato, falls upon one himself: for his 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

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

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

8 out of Pliny.] These words are not in MS. W. nor Edts. 1642; Edts. 1678, 1682, & 1736 add the following words here "a tale of Bocace or Malizpini," on what authority does not appear.-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.

453

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.

OBSERVATIONS.

[The numerals which occur throughout these "Observations" indicate the sections in "Religio Medici" referred to.]

To the Right Honourable Edward Earl of Dorset, Baron of Buckhurst, &c.

MY LORD,

I RECEIVED yesternight, your lordship's of the nineteenth current; wherein you are pleased to oblige me, not only by extreme gallant expressions of favour and kindness, but likewise by taking so far into your care the expending of my time, during the tediousness of my restraint, as to recommend to my reading a book that had received the honour and safeguard of your approbation; for both which I most humbly thank your lordship. And, since I cannot in the way of gratefulness express unto your lordship, as I would, those hearty sentiments I have of your goodness to me, I will at the least endeavour, in the way of duty and observance, to let you see how the little needle of my soul

is thoroughly touched at the great loadstone of yours, and followeth suddenly and strongly, which way soever you beckon it. In this occasion, the magnetick motion was impatience to have the book in my hands, that your lordship gave so advantageous a character of; whereupon I sent presently (as late as it was) to Paul's church-yard, for this favourite of yours, Religio Medici: which after a while found me in a condition fit to receive a blessing by a visit from any of such masterpieces, as you look upon with gracious eyes; for I was newly gotten into bed. This good natured creature I could easily persuade to be my bed-fellow, and to wake with me, as long as I had any edge to entertain myself with the delights I sucked from so noble a conversation. And truly, my lord, I closed not my eyes, till I had enriched myself with (or at least exactly surveyed) all the treasures that are lapped up in the folds of those few sheets. To return only a general commendation of this curious piece, or at large to admire the author's spirit and smartness, were too perfunctory an account, and too slight an one, to so discerning and steady an eye as yours, after so particular and encharged a summons to read heedfully this discourse. I will therefore presume to blot a sheet or two of paper with my reflections upon sundry passages through the whole context of it, as they shall occur to my remembrance. Whereas now your lordship knoweth this packet is not so happy as to carry with it any other expression of my obsequiousness to you, it will be but reasonable, you should even here give over your further trouble, of reading what my respect engageth me to the writing of.

Whose first step is ingenuity and a well natured evenness of judgment, shall be sure of applause and fair hopes in all men for the rest of his journey. And indeed, my lord, methinketh this gentleman setteth out excellently poised with that happy temper: and showeth a great deal of judicious piety in making a right use of the blind zeal that bigots lose themselves in. Yet I cannot satisfy my doubts thoroughly, how he maketh good his professing to follow the great wheel of the church (6) in matters of divinity; which surely is the solid basis of true religion. For to do so, without jarring against the conduct of that first mover by