In 1658 Browne composed the solemn 'Hy driotaphia, Urn-Burial; or, A Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately Found in Norfolk.' At the same time he published the most fantastic of his writings, (The Garden of Cyrus; or, The Quincuncial, Lozenge, or Network Plantations of the Ancients, Artificially, Naturally, Mys tically Considered) In December 1664, he was created socius honorarius of the College of Physicians, and received the diploma of the in stitution on 6 July 1665. On 28 Sept. 1671, he was knighted by Charles II, on the occasion of a royal visit to Norwich. Although Browne's literary activity continued unabated until his death, he published nothing after 1658. He died on his 77th birthday, and was buried in the church of Saint Peter Mancroft, Norwich. In 1840, some workmen who were making a new grave accidently fractured the lid of Browne's coffin with a pickaxe. The skeleton was thus exposed, and the sexton took possession of the skull. It is now on exhibition in the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital.
Many of Browne's manuscript writings were published posthumously. In 1684 his friend Archbishop Tenison brought out a col lection of 'Miscellany
on subjects ranging from the ancient monuments of Nor wich to the plants mentioned in the Bible and the fishes eaten by our Saviour with his dis ciples after his resurrection from the dead. In 1690 his son, Dr. Edward Browne, published his beautiful (Letter to a Friend, upon occasion of the death of his intimate friend,' which forms a sort of prelude to the careful dis sertation on (Christian Morals'— intended per haps as a continuation of the
Browne's greatest work is the
It is a mystical acceptance of the creed of the Anglican Church leavened with a touching tol erance of other beliefs. Paradoxically it com bines an imaginative scepticsm with a naive credulity. Browne believed in witches, for ex ample; and refused to accept the Copernican system of astronomy because it contradicted the literal statements of the Hebrew Scriptures. But there is no narrowness in Browne's most characteristic mood. He rises on the wings of exaltation until he soars into the presence of Infinitude and glows with a religious ecstasy known of all nations and of all times.
The is a less worthy work It is a vast chaos of recondite lore, bewildering by the very extent of its voluminous observa tion. It opens with an enquiry into the sources of error not a little resembling Bacon's famous arraignment of °Idols)); but Browne had no true sense of natural law as Bacon understood it, and often fallacies pursue him in his pursuit of fallacy.
'The Garden of Cyrus' is a fanciful dis sertation on the quincunx, that geometrical arrangement of five points familiar in the five of a domino. As Coleridge said, Browne finds "quincunxes in heaven above, quincunxes in earth below, quincunxes in the mind of man, quincunxes in tones, in optic nerves, in roots of trees, in leaves, in everything." The grandeur of Browne's style is displayed most fully in (Hydriotaphia) Some Roman sepulchral urns accidentally unearthed in Nor folk furnished him with the suggestion for this eloquent monody, which, beginning with an historical discussion of ancient modes of burial, soon develops into a solemn homily on death and the vicissitudes of worldly fame. The style shows an eloquent spontaneity rather than a conscious mastery of art. It would not be a serviceable model for a modern writer; it is hyper-latinised and capricious; but it is incom parable for pompous rhythm and resonant har mony. See RELIGIO MEDICI ; HYDRIOTAPH IA.
Bibliography.— The standard edition of Browne's works is that edited by Simon Wilkin (4 vols., 1835-36) which has been called the best edited book in the language; it contains a life of Dr. Johnson. The posthumous works (ed. 1712) contain also a life and Whitefoot's minutes. His (Notes and Letters,' edited by Southwell, were published in 1902. Consult also S. T. Coleridge,