Thomas Browne - The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1

SECT.20

Neither had these or any other ever such advantage of me, as to incline me to any point of Infidelity or desperate positions of Atheism; for I have been these many years of opinion there was never any. Those that held was the difference of Man from Beasts, have spoken probably, and proceed upon a principle as inductive as the other. That doctrine of Epicurus , that denied the Providence of God, was no Atheism, but a magnificent and high strained conceit of his Majesty, which he deemed too sublime to mind the trivial Actions of those inferiour Creatures. That fatal Necessity of the Stoicks, is nothing but the immutable Law of his will. Those that heretofore denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, have been condemned, but as Hereticks; and those that now deny our Saviour (though more than Hereticks) are not so much as Atheists: for though they deny two persons in the Trinity, they hold as we do, there is but one God.

That Villain and Secretary of Hell, that composed that miscreant piece of the Three Impostors, though divided from all Religions, and was neither Jew, Turk, nor Christian, was not a positive Atheist. I confess every country hath its Machiavel , every Age its Lucian , whereof common Heads must not hear, nor more advanced Judgments too rashly venture on: It is the Rhetorick of Satan, and may pervert a loose or prejudicate belief.

SECT.21

I confess I have perused them all, and can discover nothing that may startle a discreet belief; yet are there heads carried off with the Wind and breath of such motives. I remember a Doctor in Physick of Italy , who could not perfectly believe the immortality of the Soul, because Galen seemed to make a doubt thereof. With another I was familiarly acquainted in France , a Divine, and a man of singular parts, that on the same point was so plunged and gravelled with 11three lines of Seneca , that all our Antidotes, drawn from both Scripture and Philosophy, could not expel the poyson of his errour. There are a set of Heads, that can credit the relations of Mariners, yet question the Testimonies of St. Paul ; and peremptorily maintain the traditions of Ælian or Pliny , yet in Histories of Scripture raise Queries and Objections, believing no more than they can parallel in humane Authors. I confess there are in Scripture Stories that do exceed the Fables of Poets, and to a captious Reader sound like Garagantua or Bevis : Search all the Legends of times past, and the fabulous conceits of these present, and 'twill be hard to find one that deserves to carry the Buckler unto Sampson ; yet is all this of an easie possibility, if we conceive a divine concourse, or an influence but from the little Finger of the Almighty. It is impossible that either in the discourse of man, or in the infallible Voice of God, to the weakness of our apprehensions, there should not appear irregularities, contradictions, and antinomies: my self could shew a Catalogue of doubts, never yet imagined nor questioned, as I know, which are not resolved at the first hearing; not fantastick Queries or Objections of Air; for I cannot hear of Atoms in Divinity. I can read the History of the Pigeon that was sent out of the Ark, and returned no more, yet not question how she found out her Mate that was left behind: That Lazarus

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The quotation, now corrected, from Montaigne, on p. xxii, is a typical example of the pitfall into which one is liable to stumble. The passage there cited is in chapter xl. of the French author's later arrangement: a clear indication of the edition of the Essais used by the author of the Annotations. What is one to make of the readings in Lucretius on p. xxv? No light is thrown upon these difficulties by the edition of Browne's works published in 1686. Wilkin did not reprint the Annotations, except in selection.

In his Medicus Medicatus .

That he was a German appears by his notes page 35, where he useth these words, Dulcissima nostra Germania , etc.

In Præfat. Annotat.

Excepting two or three particulars in which reference is made to some Books that came over since that time.

Tho. Aquin. in com. in Boet. de Consolat. prope finem.

A Church Bell that tolls every day at six and twelve of the clock; at the hearing whereof, everyone in what place soever, either of House or Street, betakes himself to his prayer, which is commonly directed to the Virgin.

A revolution of certain thousand years, when all things should return unto their former estate, and he be teaching again in his School as when he delivered this Opinion.

Sphæra cujus centrum ubique, circumferentia nullibi.

Γνῶθι σεαυτὸν, Nosce teipsum.

Post Mortem nihil est, ipsaque Mors nihil. Mors individua est, noxia corpori, nec patiens animæ … Toti morimur, nullaque pars manet nostri.