Religio medici with Observations thereon / by Sir Kenelm Digby. To which is added, Hydriotaphia, or Urn-burial, a discourse on sepulchral urns; and also Christian morals ; by Sir Thomas Browne.

  • Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religio medici with Observations thereon / by Sir Kenelm Digby. To which is added, Hydriotaphia, or Urn-burial, a discourse on sepulchral urns; and also Christian morals ; by Sir Thomas Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    and the ambition to co-operate with these seized many whom nature never designed to become leaders in philosophy. Our own countrymen, in whom, though apparently divided from the world, the universal pulse of humanity beats as strongly as in the inhabitants of the greatest continents, may be said to have pushed forward, and led the van at that period ; and, though their achievements cannot be regarded as unmixed good, it will ever be recorded of them in the history of philosophy that no men have exhibited greater energy, loftier views, or a more daring freedom of speculation. Chiefly by their instrumentality, indeed, a reform was effected in philosophy; and in politics, al- though, from being too abruptly precipitated into trial by events, it fell short of the point aimed at. Time had not been allowed for moulding the pub- lic mind into the proper shape, for imparting to it, as a mass, those powerful impulses which might have gone on operating irresistibly for ages, before the Commonwealth sprang into existence at the command of a few highly-educated gentlemen, im- patient of monarchy, and eager to realize on a grand scale those schemes of national happiness and prosperity suggested to them by their peculiar studies. The establishment of the Commonwealth, however, was not a vain act. It influenced, and will for ever influence, the politics of the world ; and, though its direct agency be more visible in another hemisphere, the leaven it left behind is not yet effete in Europe, as the events of our days have proved.