The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1. Browne Thomas
accuser et fuyr comme insolent et dishoneste, en rougir et recommander l'abstinence, etc. Montaign liv. 3. chapit. 5.
Sect. 10. Pag. 103.
And may be inverted on the worst. ] That is, that there are none so abandoned to vice, but they have some sprinklings of vertue. There are scarce any so vitious, but commend virtue in those that are endued with it, and do some things laudable themselves, as Plin. saith in Panegyric. Machiavel upon Livy, lib. 1. cap. 27. sets down the ensuing relation as a notable confirmation of this truth. Julius Pontifex ejus nominis secundus, anno salutis 1505. Bononiam exercitus duxit, ut Bentivolorum familiam, quæ ejus urbis imperium centum jam annos tenuerat, loco moveret. Eudemque in expeditione etiam Johannem Pagolum, Bagloneum tyrannum Perusinum sua sede expellere decreverat, ut cæteros item, qui urbes Ecclesiæ per vim tenerent. Ejus rei causa cum ad Perusinam urbem accessisset, et notum jam omnibus esset quid in animo haberet: tamen impatiens moræ, noluit exercitus expectare, sed inermis quasi urbem ingressus est, in quant Johannes Pagolus defendendi sui causa, non exiguas copias contraxerat. Is autem eodem furore, quo res suas administrare solebat, una cum milite, cui custodiam sui corporis demandarat, sese in pontificis potestatem dedidit; à quo abductus est relictusque alius, qui Ecclesiæ nomine urbem gubernaret. Hac ipsu in re magnopere admirati sunt viri sapientes, qui Pontificem comitabantur, cum Pontificis ipsius temeritatem, cum abjectum vilemq; Johannis Pagoli animum: nec causam intelligebant, ob quam permotus idem Pagolus, hostem suum inermem (quod illi cum perpetua nominis sui memoria facere licebat) non subitò oppresserit, et tam pretiosa spolia diripuerit; cum Pontifex urbem ingressus fuisset, Cardinalibus tantum suis stipatus, qui pretiosissimas quasq; suarum rerum secum habebant. Neque enim credebatur Pagolus a tanto facinore vel sua bonitate, vel animi conscientia abstinuisse: quod in hominem sceleratum, qui et propria sorore utebatur, et consobrinos nepotesque dominandi causa e medio sustulerat hujusmodi pii affectus cadere non viderentur. Cum igitur hac de re variæ essent sapientum virorum sententiæ; concluserunt tandem id ei accidisse, quod ita comparatum sit, ut homines neque plane pravi esse queant, neque perfecte boni. Pravi perfecte esse nequeant, propterea quod, ubi tale quoddam scelus est, in quo aliquid magnifici ac generosi insit, id patrare non andeant. Nam cum Pagolus neq; incestam prius horraisset, neque patricidio abstinnisset: tamen cnm oblata esset occasio, pravi quidem sed memorabilis, atque æternæ memoriæ facinoris patrandi, id attentare non ausus fuit, cum id sine infamia prestare licuisset, quod rei magnitudo omnia priora scelera obtegere potuisset, et a periculo conservare. Quibus accedit, quod illi gratulati fuissent etiam quam plurimi, si primus ausus esset Pontificibus monstrare rationem dominandi; totiusque humanæ vitæ usum ab illis nimis parei pendi.
Poysons contain within themselves their own Antidote. ] The Poyson of a Scorpion is not Poyson to it self, nor the Poyson of a Toad is not Poyson to it self; so that the sucking out of Poyson from persons infected by Psylls, (who are continually nourished with venomous aliment) without any prejudice to themselves, is the less to be wondred at.
The man without a Navil yet lives in me. ] The Latine Annotator hath explicated this by Homo non perfectus, by which it seems he did not comprehend the Author's meaning; for the Author means Adam, and by a Metonymie original sin; for the Navil being onely of use to attract the aliment in utero materno, and Adam having no mother, he had no use of a Navil, and therefore it is not to be conceived he had any; and upon that ground the Author calls him the man without a Navil.
Sect. 11. Pag. 106.
Our grosser memories have then so little hold of our abstracted understandings, that they forget the story, and can onely relate to our awaked senses a confused and broken tale of that that hath pass'd. ] For the most part it is so. In regard of the Author's expression of forgetting the story, though otherwise it be not very pertinent to this place, I shall set down a relation given by an English Gentleman, of two dreams that he had, wherein he did not forget the story, but (what is more strange) found his dreams verified. This it is.
Whilst I lived at Prague, and one night had sit up very late drinking at a feast, early in the morning the Sun beams glancing on my face, as I lay in my bed, I dreamed that a shadow passing by told me that my Father was dead; at which awaking all in a sweat, and affected with this dream, I rose and wrote the day and hour, and all circumstances thereof in a Paper-book, which book with many other things I put into a Barrel, and sent it from Prague to Stode, thence to be conveyed into England. And now being at Nurenburgh, a Merchant of a noble Family well acquainted with me and my friends, arrived there, who told me my Father dyed some two months ago. I list not to write any lyes, but that which I write, is as true as strange. When I returned into England some four years after, I would not open the Barrel I sent from Prague, nor look into the Paper-book in which I had written this dream, till I had called my Sisters and some friends to be witnesses, where my self and they were astonished to see my written dream answer the very day of my Father's death.
I may lawfully swear that which my Kinsman hath heard witnessed by my brother Henry whilst he lived, that in my youth at Cambridge, I had the like dream of my Mother's death, where my brother Henry living with me, early in the morning I dreamed that my Mother passed by with a sad countenance, and told me that she could not come to my Commencement: I being within five months to proceed Master of Arts, and she having promised at that time to come to Cambridge. And when I related this dream to my brother, both of us awaking together in a sweat, he protested to me that he had dreamed the very same; and when we had not the least knowledge of our Mother's sickness, neither in our youthful affections were any whit affected with the strangeness of this dream, yet the next Carrier brought us word of our Mother's death. Mr. Fiennes Morison in his Itinerary. I am not over-credulous of such relations, but methinks the circumstance of publishing it at such a time, when there were those living that might have disprov'd it, if it had been false, is a great argument of the truth of it.
Sect. 12. Pag. 107.
I wonder the fancy of Lucan and Seneca did not discover it. ] For they had both power from Nero to chuse their deaths.
Sect. 13. Pag. 108.
To conceive our selves Urinals is not so ridiculous. ] Reperti sunt Galeno et Avicenna testibus qui se vasa fictilia crederent, et ideirco hominum attactum ne confringerentur solicite fugerent. Pontan. in Attic. bellar. (Hist. 22.) Which proceeds from extremity of Melancholy.
Pag. 109.
Aristot. is too severe, that will not allow us to be truely liberal without wealth.] Aristot. l. 1. Ethic. c. 8.
Sect. 15. Pag. 112.
Thy will be done though in mine own undoing. ] This should be the wish of every man, and is of the most wise and knowing, Le Christien plus humble et plus sage et mieux recognoissant que c'est que de luy se rapporte a son createur de choisir et ordonner ce qu'il luy faut. Il ne le supplie dautre chose que sa volunte soit faite. Montaign.
A Letter sent upon the information of Animadversions to come forth, upon the imperfect and surreptitious copy of Religio Medici, whilst this true one was going to Press
Honoured Sir, Give your Servant, who hath ever honour'd you, leave to take notice of a Book at present in the Press, intituled (as I am informed) Animadversions upon a Treatise lately printed under the name of Religio Medici; hereof, I am advertised, you have descended to be the Author. Worthy Sir, permit your Servant to affirm there is contain'd therein nothing that can deserve the Reason of your Contradictions, much less the Candor of your Animadversions: and to certifie the truth thereof, That Book (whereof I do acknowledge myself the Author) was penn'd many years past, and (what cannot escape your apprehension) with no intention for the Press, or the least desire to oblige the Faith of