to
his name, his stature was moderate, and his habit of body neither fat nor
lean, but [Greek text]. In his habit of clothing he had an aversion to
all finery, and affected plainness. He ever wore a cloke, or boots, when
few others did. He kept himself always very warm, and thought it most
safe so to do. The horizon of his understanding was much larger than the
hemisphere of the world: all that was visible in the heavens he
comprehended so well, that few that are under them knew so much. And of
the earth he had such a minute and exact geographical knowledge as if he
had been by divine providence ordained surveyor-general of the whole
terrestrial orb and its products, minerals, plants, and animals. His
memory, though not so eminent as that of Seneca or Scaliger, was
capacious and tenacious, insomuch that he remembered all that was
remarkable in any book he ever read. He had no despotical power over his
affections and passions, that was a privilege of original perfection, but
as large a political power over them as any stoic or man of his time,
whereof he gave so great experiment that he hath very rarely been known
to have been overpowered with any of them. His aspect and conversation
were grave and sober; there was never to be seen in him anything trite or
vulgar. Parsimonious in nothing but his time, whereof he made as much
improvement, with as little loss as any man in it, when he had any to
spare from his drudging practice, he was scarce patient of any diversion
from his study: so impatient of sloth and idleness, that he would say, he
could not do nothing. He attended the public service very constantly,
when he was not withheld by his practice. Never missed the sacrament in
his parish, if he were in town. Read the best English sermons he could
hear of with liberal applause: and delighted not in controversies. His
patience was founded upon the Christian philosophy, and sound faith of
God's providence, and a meek and humble submission thereto. I visited
him near his end, when he had not strength to hear or speak much: and the
last words I heard from him were, besides some expressions of dearness,
that he did freely submit to the will of God: being without fear. He had
oft triumphed over the king of terrors in others, and given him many
repulses in the defence of patients; but when his own time came, he
submitted with a meek, rational, religious courage.'

Taking Sir Thomas Browne all in all, Tertullian, Si