BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR. OR a more detailed account of the life of SIR THOMAS BROWNE, the reader is referred to his Biography by Dr. Johnson, and the Supple mentary Memoir by Simon Wilkin, Esq., both included in the London edition of the Complete Works, in four volumes. Coleridge, Lamb, Hazlitt, Hallam, Bulwer, and other distinguished writers, have put on record their estimate of his genius, and Cowper was so imbued with the spirit and beauty of the thought in the Religio Medici and other writings of Browne, that numerous resemblant passages in the Task have been frequently pointed out. The present Editor will content himself with giving a few dates of the principal occurrences in the author's life, and adding to these some interesting passages written by one who was for thirty years |