vanity of human life, based
on the discovery of certain cinerary urns in Norfolk,--appeared, in company
with the quaint _Garden of Cyrus_, a half-learned, half-fanciful discussion
of the mysteries of the quincunx and the number five. Nor did he publish
anything more himself; but two collections of posthumous works were issued
after his death, the most important item of which is the _Christian
Morals_, and the total has been swelled since by extracts from his MSS.,
which at the death of his grandson and namesake in 1710 were sold by
auction. Most fortunately they were nearly all bought by Sir Hans Sloane,
and are to this day in the British Museum. Browne's good luck in this
respect was completed by the devotion of his editor, Simon Wilkin, a
Norwich bookseller of gentle blood and good education, who produced (1835)
after twelve years' labour of love what Southey has justly called the best
edited book in the English language. Not to mention other editions, the
_Religio Medici_, which exhibits, owing to its history, an unusual
variation of text, has been, together with the _Christian Morals_,
separately edited with great minuteness by Dr. Greenhill. Nor is it
unimportant to notice that Johnson, during his period of literary
hack-work, also edited Sir Thomas Browne, and wrote what Wilkin's good
taste has permitted to be still the standard text of his Life.

The work of this country doctor is, for personal savour, for strangeness,
and for delight, one of the most notable things in English literature. It
is not of extraordinary voluminousness, for though swollen in Wilkin's
edition by abundant editorial matter, it fills but three of the well-known
volumes of Bohn's series, and, printed by itself, it might not much exceed
two ordinary library octavos; but in character and interest it yields to
the work of no other English prose writer. It may be divided, from our
point of view, into two unequal parts, the smaller of which is in truth of
the greater interest. The _Vulgar Errors_, those of the smaller tracts
which deal with subjects of natural history (as most of them do), many of
the commonplace book entries, the greater part of the _Garden of Cyrus_,
and most of the _Letters_, are mainly distinguished by an interest of
matter constantly increased, it is true, by the display of the author's
racy personality, and diversified here and there by passages also
displaying his style to the full, but in general character not differing
f