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Extract from the Preface to the French Translation.

POUR moy, qui ay un peu contribué à la production de ce livre par la traduction que j'en ay faite; je puis donner cette assurance et porter ce tesmoignage à sa gloire, que j'ay beaucoup profité dans la pratique des vertus par son estude et sa lecture, en ce qu'il m'a appris d'avoir tousiours un Dieu devant mes yeux, et de n'oublier jamais que je suis en sa presence. Ayez donc à jamais cette gloire, grand et docte personnage, de m'avoir rendu plus vertueux, plus sçavant, et mieux entendu que je n'estois, par la lecture de vostre ouvrage. Je croirois estre infame le reste de mes jours, si je manquois maintenant à vous rendre graces de l'honneur que vous me fites à Vorburg chès mon noble Cousin Monsieur M. où vous eustes la bonté de me recommander tres-particulièrement à ce livre, lors que nous estions à table, et que nous eusmes la satisfaction de vous entendre discourir sur beaucoup de matières rares et curieuses, et que nous eusmes le plaisir de vous voir entretenir, avec tant d'eloquence et d'esprit, toute cette illustre compagnie qui resta tout à fait dans l'admiration d'avoir ouy tant d'oracles, et d'avoir escouté tant de merveilles depuis ce temps-là, mon cher Monsieur, j'ay conçu une telle estime de vos merites, qu'il n'est jour de ma vie que je ne me souvienne de vous, et que je ne fasse des vœux afin qu'un chacun vous rende l'honneur qui vous est deu.

At page x, of my preface, line 4, the folio edition of Pseud. Epid. 1659, is called the Fourth: it was the Third. On the same page, the seventh edition of R. M. is said to contain 283 pp. Having, since, obtained a copy, I find that the work itself is paged to 297: and Digby's Observations, which follow it, are separately paged to 78; besides 23 pp. of prefaces, titles, and list of books:-together, 398.

I have recently seen in Mr. Rodd's possession, a very choice copy, in old red morocco, gilt edges, (which had successively belonged to Mr. Bindley and Mr. Heber,) of The Religion of a Lady. Written by a Right Reverend Prelate of the Church of England, and published by command of a Noble Lady.-Proper to be read by all, but more particularly the Ladies of Great Britain. London: Printed for J. Torbuck, in Clare Court, near Drury Lane, and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1736.foolscap 12mo. Is it probable that a " Right Reverend prelate of the Church of England" should have uttered such sentiments as the following, which surely are inconsistent with, if not in direct contradiction to the doctrines of that church? "Your Ladyship sees, first, what is meant by saving a soul, viz.

to deliver it from vitious habits, and fearful punishments, the fatal consequents of such habits; and by establishing virtue therein to recommend it to the favour of God. And, secondly, that the Gospel of Christ was designed to this very end; and its tendency hereunto is its wisdom; and thirdly, from hence you also perceive in what respect faith in Jesus Christ is said - viz. because this faith is our receiving the Christian moral for the rule of our lives, and the threats and promises contained in the Gospels for the outward motives of our practice according to that rule.”

to save us:

Opposite to the title page of this little volume, is a list of "Books printed for J. Torbuck," beginning with “Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici, or &c. &c."-to which is appended the following paragraph :

:

“The publick are hereby cautioned against a surreptitious pamphlet just published, which contains but part of this book, being no more than seven sheets, on a gouty letter, and imposed on the world at 1s. 6d. stitched. The above new and genuine edition, with notes, annotations, and observations by Sir Kenelm Digby and other learned men, make above twelve sheets, each of which contains double the quantity of the surreptitious one, and is sold, neatly bound in a pocket size, and adorned with an emblematical frontispiece, for 2s. 6d. or sewed in blue covers for 2s." In all probability the edition here spoken of is that which I have enumerated as the fourteenth edition, page xi, of my preface to R. M.

From Mr. Rodd of Newport Street, (to whose remarkably accurate and extensive knowledge of books, as well as to his great courtesy and kindness in communicating it, I am already much indebted,) I have just received the following notices :"Reflections on a book entitled A Lady's Religion forms one of the articles in The Occasional Paper, 4to. 1697.

:

"The Religion of a Soldier appears to be the first paper in some on the publications about the year 1730-40 under the title of Miscellany, viz. A new M. the Pall Mall M. §c.”

Pseudodoria Epidemica.

OR

ENQUIRIES INTO

VERY MANY RECEIVED TENETS AND COMMONLY PRESUMED TRUTHS, WHICH EXAMINED

PROVE BUT

VULGAR AND COMMON ERRORS.

EIGHTH EDITION.

WITH ADDITIONS FROM MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, AND NOTES BY DEAN WREN, E. W. BRAYLEY, JUN. F.L.S., AND OTHERS.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN

1646.

Ex libris colligere quæ prodiderunt authores longe est periculosissimum ; ipsarum cognitio vera e rebus ipsis est.-JUL. SCALIGER.

rerum

EDITOR'S PREFACE

TO PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA.

Ir the conception and plan of the present work is not to be ascribed to the mental activity of its author alone,-if we are not to regard it solely as the result of his own native and irrepressible thirst for knowledge, and of that unrelenting spirit of investigation which led him to scrutinize every position before he admitted it; if, in short, we are to allow, that Sir Thomas Browne might have been, in some degree, impelled to this undertaking by the suggestions of another, may we not with great probability attribute the impulse to the opinions expressed by Lord Bacon as to the Use of Doubts, and the advantages which might result from drawing up a Calendar of Doubts, Falsehoods, and Popular Errors? In support of this conjecture, I will insert some of those opinions, (from Mr. Basil Montagu's Lectures on Bacon, with which I have been favored by that gentleman, at the request of my kind friend Mr. Amyot,) with Mr. Montagu's remarks.

"The recording and proposing of doubts hath in it a twofold use. One, that it munites and fortifies philosophy against error, when that which is not altogether so clear and evident is not defined and avouched, (lest error should beget error,) but a judgment upon it is suspended and not definitive.'—It will be seen in a future lecture, that Lord Bacon enumerates a tendency to hasty assent among the idols of the understanding, by which we are diverted from the truth. In this place, he contents himself with incidentally noticing, that a record of doubts has a tendency to prevent the influence of this idol.-'The other, that the entry of doubts, and recording of them, are so many sponges which continually draw and suck

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