unto them an increase and improvement of knowledge; whereby it comes to pass that those things which, without the suggestion of doubts, had been slightly, and without observation, passed over, are, by occasion of such dubitations, more seriously and attentively considered.'-Lord Bacon, in various parts of his works, admonishes us of our duty to keep our minds open to improvement, and not to admit as truths what may be either false, or only a proper subject for doubts. He warns us in his doctrine of the idols of the understanding, that, from our love of truth, we are anxious to possess it, and too ready to imagine ourselves enriched by the possession of counterfeit, instead of real coin. He says-The mind of man doth wonderfully endeavour and extremely covet, that it may not be pensile; but that it may light upon something fixed and immoveable, on which, as on a firmament, it may support itself in its swift motions and disquisitions. Aristotle endeavours to prove that, in all motions of bodies, there is some point quiescent, and very elegantly expounds the fable. of Atlas, who stood fixed, and bare up the heavens from falling, to be meant of the poles of the world, whereupon the conversion is accomplished. In like manner, men do earnestly seek to have some Atlas, or axis of their cogitations within themselves, which may, in some measure, moderate the fluctuations and wheelings of the understanding, fearing it may be the falling of their heaven. An impatience of doubt, and an unadvised haste of assertion, without due and mature suspension of the judgment, is an error in the conduct of the understanding. For the two ways of contemplation, are not unlike the two ways of action, commonly spoken of by the ancients; of which the one was a plain and smooth way in the beginning, but in the end impassable;-the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplations :-if a man will begin in certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, and have patience a while, he shall end in certainties. ** * Wherefore I report as deficient a calendar of dubitations, or problems in nature, and approve the undertaking of such a work as a profitable pains; so care be had that, as knowledge daily grows up (which certainly

will come to pass if men hearken unto us,) such doubts as be clearly discussed, and brought to resolution, be rased out of the catalogue of problems. It would be a very profitable course to adjoin to the calendar of doubts and non-liquets, a calendar of falsehoods, and of popular errors, now passing unargued in natural history and opinions, that sciences be no longer distempered and abased by them.'

"Since Lord Bacon's time, there have been publications on vulgar errors, or erroneous opinions received as truths by the community. The first was published in the year 1646, by Sir Thomas Browne. It is entitled, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into very many received Tenets, and commonly received Truths, by Sir Thomas Browne, Knt. M.D. (From his preface it will be found, that before Lord Bacon's time, as I conceive, but certainly before the time of Sir Thomas Browne, there were other works upon this subject.) Of this work, Mr. Jeremy Bentham, in his work on Fallacies, says, 'Vulgar Errors is a denomination which, from a work on this subject by a physician of name in the 17th century, has obtained a certain degree of celebrity. Not the moral (of which the political is a department,) but the physical was the field of the errors, which it was the object of Sir Thomas Browne to hunt out and bring to view; but of this restriction, no intimation is given by the words of which the title. of his work is composed.' It is rather interesting to see that antipathy to improvement in the time of Sir Thomas Browne was, as it is, and to a certain extent ever will be, so rife, that he thought it expedient to guard against such prejudices by an amulet to charm priests, physicians, and philosophers."-Mr. Montagu's MS.

By whatever inducements, however, we may suppose Browne to have been stimulated to the production of the Pseudodoxia Epidemica, few will hesitate to admit that he was peculiarly qualified for the task. It was in his very nature to inquire (as I have remarked), and he was not content to receive any thing, without scrutiny,-except in matters of

1 "See his preface, in which he says, we cannot expect the frown of theology herein, &c. &c.' to the end of the paragraph."

"In

"4

faith. The exception may be given in his own words. philosophy, where truth seems double-faced, there is no man more paradoxical than myself; but in divinity, I love to keep the road: and, though not in an implicit, yet an humble faith, follow the great wheel of the church, by which I move, not reserving any proper poles, or motion from the epicycle of my own brain." Again:-" where the scripture is silent, the church is my text; where that speaks, 't is but my comment; where both are silent,"3 &c. If we add to these passages the following avowal,-"I am, I confess, naturally inclined to that which misguided zeal terms superstition,' we are furnished with the true key to explain his belief in witchcraft, and Satanic influence, as well his partiality for the Ptolemaic system of the universe. He regarded these all as being, to a certain extent, subjects of revelation; and therefore 5 to be received implicitly. But every thing not so supported, fell under the process of his excruciation. His very curious and extensive reading,-his daily and ardent pursuit of every branch of natural history,—the labour he was constantly willing (as Dr. Johnson observes) to pay for truth, in patient and reiterated experiments upon even the most trifling or absurd questions,-together with the ready access, which his great celebrity and extended acquaintance procured him, to the collections and observations of the literary and scientific men of his day; all these supplied him with copious materials for the exercise of his inquisitive propensities. Every doubt was brought to the test of experiment and examination. His Common-place Books' exhibit abundant evidence that he trusted nothing to memory, but noted down, at the moment they struck him, the experiments and inquiries he deemed necessary to be made, together with results as they arose. That this process of accumulation began early in life, is evident from the date of his first edition; while subsequent alterations, and the constant accessions of new matter, (some even now first printed) may serve to convince

8

2 Rel. Med. p. 9.

3 Rel. Med. p. 6.

4 Rel. Med. p. 4.

5 See this ground stated by his annotator Dean Wren, who with still greater vehemence advocated Browne's astronomical belief.-Vol. ii, 210, note 6.

In his Life of Browne, vol. i.

7 Vol. iv.

8 These alterations and additions are pointed out in the notes to the present

us, that throughout life he continued, as the constantly increasing "diversion" of his business or acquaintance allowed him opportunity, to enrich his treasury of doubts and speculations.

Let us now proceed to enumerate the editions and translations which have appeared.

The First Edition is in pot folio, with the following titlepage. Pseudodoxia Epidemica: or, Enquiries into very many received Tenets, and commonly presumed Truths. By Thomas Browne, Dr. of Physick. Jul. Scalig. Ex libris colligere quæ prodiderunt authores, longe est periculosissimum; rerum ipsarum cognitio vera e rebus ipsis est. London, Printed by T. H. for Edward Dod, and are to be sold in Ivie Lane. 1646. On the leaf opposite the title is Downame's Imprimatur.9 The title, preface, and table of contents, occupy 20 pages, and the rest of the work 386 pp. the last of which contains a table of errata.

The Second Edition is the handsomest, as to typography, which has hitherto appeared. It is in foolscap folio, with marginal notes; a single line runs close round each page, with a second above the running title and on the outside of the marginal notes. The title is, Pseudodoxia, &c. (as before); Second Edition, corrected and much enlarged by the author. Together with some Marginal Observations, and a Table alphabeticall at the end. London, Printed by A. Miller, for Edw. Dod and Nath. Ekins, at the Gunne in Ivie Lane. 1650. The title, prefaces, and table of contents, occupy 16 pp.: then follow 329 pp. of the work, 10 pp. of index, and a blank. The Epistle" to the Reader," is followed by "an Advertisement concerning the Marginall Annotations," which, as inapplicable to the present, I have not prefixed to it, but have subjoined it as a note.' From this advertisement, it is obvi

edition. They occur chiefly in the 2nd and 3rd editions, and in the 6th, the last which the author revised. The 4th and 5th editions differ little from the 3rd. 9 Downame's Imprimatur.] "March the 14th, 1645. I have perused these learned Animadversions upon the Common Tenets and Opinions of Men in former and in these present times, entitled Pseudodoxia Epidemica; and finding them much transcending vulgar conceipt, and adorned with great variety of matter, and multiplicity of reading, I approve them as very worthy to be printed and published. JOHN DOWNAME."

An Advertisement, &c.] "Reader, be pleased to understand, that upon the

ous that the superintendence of the edition had fallen into the hands of an admirer of the author, who was anxious to do him all the credit he could.

The Third Edition, with some additions, appeared in folio, in 1658. It is printed on the model of the second, but is very inferior. The only variation in the title is in the number of the edition, and in the imprint:-Printed by R. W. for Nath. Ekins, at the Gun in Paul's Church-yard. 1658.

The Fourth Edition was printed in the same year, in 4to. with the Hydriotaphia and Garden of Cyrus-two Discourses which had just appeared in 8vo. The title is Pseudodoxia, &c. The Fourth Edition, with Marginal Observations, and a Table Alphabetical. Whereunto are now added two Discourses: the one of Urn Burial, or Sepulchrall Urns, lately found in Norfolk; the other, of the Garden of Cyrus, or Network Plantations of the Antients. Both newly written by the same Author. Ex libris, &c. London, Printed for Edward Dod, and are to be sould by Andrew Crook, at the Green Dragon in Paul's Church-yard. 1658. No sooner had

second edition of this excellent piece (whereto the authour intendeth no further additions hereafter,) some strange hand hath attempted (yet sparingly, and but here and there,) to affix annotations on the margin, not imagining thereby to adde any lustre to the authour's text, but only to invite or fix the reader's eye upon some things (among as many other omitted) which he thought observable. They are distinguished from some other, which the authour himself hath been pleased to adde, by a smaller character, wherein they goe printed: and (that we doe the authour no wrong, by imposing something upon him, which it were not fit he should own,) this also must be added concerning them, viz:-that the reader would never judge of the authour's sense solely by the note in the margin, but (and that principally) by reflexion, and consideration of the text itself; wherein, according to the variety of the matter handled, and the authour's acute and cautious manner of discourse, the attentive reader will easily observe, in some things that he delivers himself positively, or in the way of direct and resolute assertion; in others more reservedly and with respect unto different judgements; he will observe some things argued for and concluded, some only insinuated or hinted at, others barely related; all which, in the right interpretation of the authour, ought to be distinguished, but could not well be distinguisht, that is, represented with their peculiar and respective qualifications in the brevity of a note.

There is also an Alphabeticall Table at the end, added by the same hand, and capable (perhaps) in some passages of the like caution. This only is desired of the ingenuous reader, both that himself may receive better satisfaction by what is done, and the learned authour lesse disservice. Farewell.

Cal. Nov. 1649.

N. N."

2 Very possibly this might be his neighbour and friend, the Rev. Mr. Whitefoot, of Norwich. He was a very likely person to have undertaken with alacrity such a task; and it is remarkable, that the initials following the Advertisement, (N. N.) are the same which he has employed in his Arcanum Theologicum, a MS. Discourse before noticed, as preserved in the British Museum. See notice respecting him in the Life of Browne, vol. i.