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

For the other Invention, the Latine Annotator doubts whether the Author means Church-Organs, or Clocks? I suppose he means Clocks, because I find that Invention reckon'd by a German , with the other two, as a remarkable one. It is by Busbequius , speaking of the Turks, who hath these words: Testes majores minoresque bombardæ, multaque alia quæ ex nostris excogitata ipsi ad se avertunt; at libros tamen typis excuderent, horologia in publico haberent, nondum adduci potuerunt. Epist. Legat. Turcic. I suppose if he had known any Invention which next to the other two had been greater than this, he would not have named this, and this being the next considerable, we have no cause to doubt but the Author meant it.

To maintain the Trade and Mystery of Typographers. ] Of this Cunæus in his Satyre Sardi vœnates . Qui bis in anno nomen suum ad Germanorum nundinas non transmittit, eruditionem suam in ordinem coactam credit, itaq; nunquam tot fungi una pluvia nascuntur, quot nunc libri uno die .

Sect. 25. Pag. 40.

The Turk in the bulk that he now stands, is beyond all hope of conversion. ] That is, in respect of his great strength, against which it is not probable the Christians will prevail, as it is observed by Monsieur de Silhon . La Race des Ottomans (saith he) quæ oste a Dieu la Religion qu'il a revelee, et aux hommes la liberte que le droit des Gens leur laisse a fait tant de progres depuis trois Cens et quelques annees qu'il semble qu'elle n'ait plus rien a craindre de dehorse, et que son empire ne puisse perir que par la corruption de dedans, et par la dissolution des parties qui composent un corps si vaste. Mr. de Silhon en son Minist. D'Estat. l. 1. c.

None can more justly boast of persecutions, and glory in the number and valour of martyrs. ] Of the fortitude of the Christians in this particular, Minutius Felix , in the person of the Ethnique, hath these words, Per mira stultitia et incredibili audacia spernunt tormenta præsentia, dum incerta metuunt et futura; et dum mori post mortem timent, interim mori non timent. And afterwards, when he speaks in the person of the Christian, he saith, that Christian women and children have in this surpassed Scævola and Regulus : Viros (saith he) cum Mutio vel cum Atilio Regulo comparo: pueri et mulierculæ nostræ cruces et Tormenta, feros et omnes suppliciorum terriculas inspirata patientia doloris illudunt . Minut. in Octav. vide Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 1. c. 23, 24 .

If we shall strictly examine the circumstances and requisites which Aristotle requires to true and perfect valour, we shall find the name onely in his Master Alexander, (that is, no more than the name) and as little in that Roman worthy Julius Cæsar. ] Aristot. 3. Ethic. cap. 6. amongst other requisites, requires to valour, that it keep a mediocrity betwixt audacity and fear; that we thrust not our selves into danger when we need not; that we spare not to shew our valour when occasion requires: he requires for its proper object, Death; and to any death, he prefers death in War, because thereby a man profits his Country and Friends; and that he calls mors honesta , an honest or honourable death: and thereupon he defines a valiant man to be, Is qui morte honesta proposita, iisq; omnibus quæ cum sint repentina mortem adfuerunt metu vacat . So that by the Author's saying, there was onely the Name in Alexander , he means only that which is rendred in the two last words, metu vacans , and not the rest that goes to make up the definition of a valiant man, which is very truly affirmed of Alexander , who exposed himself to hazzard many times when there was no cause for it: As you may read in Curtius , he did, in the siege of Tyrus , and many other ways. Cettuy-cy semble rechercher et courir à force les dangiers comme un impetueux torrent, qui choque et attaque sans discretion, et sans chois tout ce qu'il rencontre , saith Montaign , speaking of Alexander, l. 2. des Ess. cap. 34 . And for Cæsar , it cannot be denied, but in his Wars he was many times (though not so generally as Alexander ) more adventrous than reason military could warrant to him; and therefore Lucan gives him no better Character than