PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME.

IN completing this volume, I wish to offer some observations, partly in addition to the brief notices which precede several of the pieces it contains, and partly with reference to those which are now first printed from the original MSS. of the author.

I omitted to remark, respecting the Posthumous Works, and the Christian Morals, that copies are in existence with reprint titles-that contemptible form of lying under which publishers have endeavoured to persuade the public of the rapidity of their sales. This was especially the case with the former work, which was first published in 1712.1 In the

1 With this title:-Posthumous Works of the learned Sir Thomas Browne, Knt. M.D. late of Norwich, printed from his Original Manuscripts, viz. 1. Repertorium; or, the Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Norwich. II. An Account of some Urnes, &c. found at Brampton in Norfolk, Anno. 1667. III. Letters between Sir William Dugdale and Sir Thomas Browne. IV. Miscellanies. To which is prefixed his Life. There is also added Antiquitates Capellæ D. Johannis Evangelista; hodie Schola Regia Norwicensis. Authore Johanne Burton, A.M. ejusdem Ludimagistro. Illustrated with Prospects, Portraitures, Draughts of Tombs, Monuments, &c. London, printed for E. Curll, at the Dial and Bible; and R. Gosling, at the Mitre in Fleetstreet. 1712. Price 6s.

In a copy which belonged to Mr. John Ives, (the author of Garianonum, &c.) occurs, in his hand writing, the following list of plates, which a perfect copy ought to contain. It is remarkable, however, that he has not mentioned the portrait by Vander Gucht, published with the volume, but wanting in his copy, which has instead of it a copy of White's portrait, engraved for the folio of 1686. "Plates in this volume, originally belonging to the book ;

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libraries of the Royal Institution, and of E. H. Barker, Esq. are copies (the former on large paper) having a reprint title with this imprint:-Printed for W. Mears, at the Lamb without Temple Bar, and I. Hooke, at the Flower-de-Luce against St. Dunstan's Church, in Fleetstreet. MDCCXXIII. (Price six shillings.) Others are mentioned of the dates 1715, 1721, and 1722-the latter said to be "edited by Owen Brigstock, Esq." An assertion which was probably occasioned by a passage in Curll's preface.

We are informed that the Posthumous Works was a speculation of Curll's, by the following passage in a letter from Dr. (afterwards Bp.) Tanner, to Dr. Charlet, the master of University College, Oxford, Oct. 20, 1712. "Curll, the bookseller, has bought, of Dr. Browne's executors, some papers of Sir Thomas Browne, one of which is some account of the Cathedral, which he is printing under the title of the Antiquities of Norwich. If I had perfectly liked the thing, I should not have been backward to have given a cut; but it was hurried by him into the press, without advising with any body here, or with Mr. Le Neve, who has great collections that way. However, out of regard to Mr. Hase, the herald, the Dean has suffered them to reprint his catalogue of Bishops, Deans, and Prebendaries, and, I think, to send a list of the Chancellours and Archdeacons." Ballard's MS. Letters in the Bodleian Library, vol. iv, p. 58.

Besides these Mr. Ives inserted in his copy a number of other engravings, and I apprehend that the enumeration of plates given in Mr. Upcott's Topography, as belonging to this volume, may have been taken from a similarly illustrated copy, or perhaps collected from several.

2 a passage in Curll's preface.] "The public is here presented with those other remains of the learned Sir Thomas Browne, so long since promised, (and for which we are obliged to Owen Brigstock, Esq. grandson by marriage to the author.)"

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It may be presumed, that the Repertorium was too slight a sketch to satisfy "perfectly" the antiquarian taste and knowledge of Tanner. May we not, however, fairly urge in extenuation, a similar plea to that which has been offered by D'Israeli, in defence of Dugdale, Sir Thomas's learned friend and correspondent?" He hurried on his itinerant labours of taking draughts and transcribing inscriptions, as he says, to preserve them for future and better times. Posterity owes to the prescient spirit of Dugdale, the ancient monuments of England, which bear the marks of the haste, as well as the zeal, which have perpetuated them." Curiosities, &c. Second Series, Chapter on Prediction. Kippis says (on what authority does not appear) that the work was printed in Norwich.

Of the Christian Morals I have a copy which belonged to Archdeacon Wrangham, with reprint title, dated 1761;3 and I believe there are such copies dated 1765.

I will take this opportunity to correct an error in my preface to the Christian Morals, at p. 55. It was not Dodsley, as I have there inadvertently said, but Payne, who published the second edition of that work, and for whom Dr. Johnson wrote his biographical sketch. In the first volume, p. 141, of The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review, (not Register, as stated by Mr. Croker in his edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson,) I have recently met with the Doctor's review of the work;-if that can be called a review, which comprises in the following few words all that is offered by way of stricture or opinion on the work reviewed :-"This little volume consists of short essays, written with great vigour of sentiment, variety of learning, and vehemence of style." A quotation of two pages from the Life, closes this article. In 1773 Davies republished the Life, with those of Blake, the King of Prussia, and others, in his Fugitive and Miscellaneous Pieces, 3 vols. 8vo. vol. ii, p. 254.

In the half title to Miscellany Tracts and Miscellanies, I

Title,

3 The half title is, True Christian Morals: by Sir Thomas Browne, M.D. True Christian Morals: by Sir Thomas Browne, M.D. Author of Religio Medici, &c. with his Life written by the celebrated Author of the Rambler; and explanatory Notes. The Third Edition. There is an engraved vignette of a lamb browsing in a hedge, and this imprint below:-London: printed for, and sold by Z. Stuart, at the Lamb in Paternoster Row, MDCCLXI.

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have omitted to number the present as the third edition of the former and second of the latter. I have also erroneously assigned to the former 1684 as the date of its first appearance. I have a copy of it bearing the date 1683, which belonged to John Evelyn, and contains several important, though brief, MS. notes by himself, with his autograph and motto, "Catalogo J. Evelyni inscriptus ;-Meliora Retinete," inscribed above the portrait; which is by Vander Banc, and was, without doubt, published with the volume. I am inclined, however, to think, that only a few early copies were thus dated, and that 1684 was the date of the impression. I have already remarked Browne's habit of multiplying transcripts of his compositions in MS. On the fly leaf of one of his volumes (MS. Sloan. No. 1827, folio,) I find two small square parchment labels, probably cut from the original cover, giving (in autograph) brief titles to the vol. with this addition, “Also in 4to." 4 As No. 1827 contains copies, more or less complete, of a greater number of the pieces published under the title of Miscellany Tracts, than are to be found in any other of his MSS. now remaining, it may be supposed that the copy "also in 4to." is not in existence, having been that from which the vol. was printed. Of several, however, there still remain in MS. two or three copies, each differing from the other. I have collated these with some care, and have inserted the most remarkable variations; but two sheets of copy containing some of these collations were mislaid, so that they could not be inserted in their place. I shall therefore give them at the close of this preface.

Respecting the hitherto unpublished portion of the present volume, I shall say but little. Whether it was judicious to publish so much, and of a character so miscellaneous, must be left to the reader to determine. I readily admit, that the greater part was not intended by its author to meet the public eye;

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and none perhaps were prepared for that purpose (unless we except the Harveian Oration, which was intended for his son's use.) But on the other hand, it must be allowed, that the papers on Natural History, the fragments on Dreams, and on Mummies, with some others, are fully as characteristick, and as interesting as several of those printed by Abp. Tenison. But the especial object which I have had in view in my selection, is to exhibit, as far as possible, the literary and scientific character, pursuits, and habits of my author: in natural science, his unwearied love of experiment and observation ;— in literature, his laborious reading, and his constant habit of accumulating treasure for future use ;-in every thing, that intellectual life and activity which never flagged, that play of fancy and imagination which was ever on the wing. Now all these, it seems to me, will be as strikingly displayed by his commonplace books, and occasional sketches, as by his more digested or systematic productions, -if not much more so.

With these observations and explanations, I leave my work to the judgment of those who may care to read it.