EDITOR'S PREFACE. IN arranging the present edition, I have endeavoured to preserve the order in which the several works were first published; and at the same time to bring together, as far as possible, similar subjects. To secure, these objects, I have placed the Hydriotaphia between the Garden of Cyrus and the Brampton Urns ; though in the first edition of the two former pieces, the author placed the Garden of Cyrus last. That edition was published in 1658, in small 8vo. The Second edition is that which appeared with the Fourth edition of Pseudodoxia, under the direction of its author; who has prefixed to the volume two pages of " Marginal Illustrations omitted, or to be added to the Discourses of Urn-burial, and of the Garden of Cyrus." The Third edition, in double columns, was printed with the sixth of Religio Medici, as an addition to the third (erroneously called the fourth) of Pseudodoxia, in folio. The Fourth edition of the two Discourses was printed with the fifth of Pseudodoxia, in 1669. But, most absurdly, the "Marginal Illustrations," &c., instead of being incorporated in the edition, are reprinted as a table, and not even the pages altered to suit the edition! The (Fifth) edition was published by Abp. Tenison, with the "Works" in folio, 1686. In 1736, Curl reprinted (in an 8vo. tract of 60 pages, with 6 pp. of Epistles, &c.), the Hydriotaphia, Brampton Urns, and the ninth of the Miscellany Tracts, "Of Artificial Hills, &c." followed by the three first chapters only (unless my copy is imperfect) of the Garden of Cyrus-in 40 pages-with 6 PP: of Title and Epistle Dedicatory. This is called the Fourth edition, but is in fact the Sixth. The First edition of the account of the Brampton Urns was published with the Posthumous Works, in 1712; the Second by Curl (as just mentioned) in 1736. I have not met with any MS. copy either of Hydriotaphia or the Garden of Cyrus, though many passages occur in MSS. Sloan. 1847, 1848, and in 1882-which were evidently written for these discourses. Of the Brampton Urns I have met with three copies, differing from each other and more or less complete, in the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries, namely, BRIT. MUS. MS. Sloan. No. 1862, p. 26; No. 1869, p. 60-and BIBL. BODL. MS. Rawlins. 391;-from the first of which Curl's edition was (incorrectly) printed, and with all of which it has, in the present edition, been carefully collated. I have modernized the spelling, and endeavoured to improve the pointing of the Garden of Cyrus and Hydriotaphia, as of all Browne's other works; but the phraseology (as characteristick of the writer), I have not thought it right (except in very rare instances, and those acknowledged), to touch. For this reason, I have even denied myself the adoption of several improvements introduced by my friend Mr. Crossley, in the Hydriotaphia, published in his neat little selection of Browne's Tracts, Edinburgh, 1822. A few words will suffice respecting the notes attached to this edition. If any one object that a letter from Dr. Power to Sir Thomas, with his reply, ought to have appeared among the Correspondence, instead of being thrown into the form of notes, my defence is, that, though formally "Correspondence," they are substantially "Notes and Illustrations," and those of the most interesting kind. Dr. Power's letter is the work of an enthusiastick lover of the mysteries of natural science; and Sir Thomas's reply places him in the new light of his own commentator. The Garden of Cyrus has, by general consent, been regarded as one of the most fanciful of his works. The most eminent even of his admirers have treated it as a mere sport of the imagination," in the prosecution of which, he considers every production of art and nature, in which he could find any decussation or approaches to the form of a quincunx, and, as a man once resolved upon ideal discoveries, seldom searches long in vain, he finds his favourite figure in almost every thing;' "quincunxes," as Coleridge says, "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 every thing."* The increased attention, however, which modern naturalists have paid to the prevalence of certain numbers in the distribution of nature, and Mr. Macleay's persevering and successful advocacy of A QUINARY ARRANGEMENT would naturally lead an admirer of Browne to look at this work in a higher point of view than as a mere jeu d'esprit. How far, in short, has he anticipated in this work-as he certainly must be allowed to have done in the Pseudodoxia,-those who have conducted their inquiries in the midst of incomparably greater light and knowledge, and with the advantage of an immensely increased accumulation of facts and observations of kind? every * See Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. vii. 169. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND NICHOLAS BACON, OF GILLINGHAM, ESQUIRE.' HAD I not observed that purblind* men have discoursed well of sight, and some without issue, † excellently of generation; I, that was never master of any considerable garden, had not attempted this subject. But the earth is the garden of nature, and each fruitful country a paradise. Dioscorides made most of his observations in his march about with Antonius; and Theophrastus raised his generalities chiefly from the field. Besides, we write no herbal, nor can this volume deceive you, who have handled the massiest thereof: who know * Plempius, Cabeus, &c. + Dr. Harvey. Besleri Hortus Eystetensis. 1 Nicholas Bacon, of Gillingham, Esq.] Created a baronet, Feb. 7, 1661, by Charles II. His father was the sixth son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who was created premier baronet of England, May 22, 1611, by James I., and was the eldest son of the lord keeper of Queen Elizabeth, and half-brother of Francis, Lord Bacon, the lord keeper's youngest son by a second marriage. This gentleman was a man of letters, and a patron of learning; and intimately acquainted with Browne, several of whose Miscellany Tracts were addressed to him: as we are informed by Evelyn. He is mentioned by Wood as having published a work of Dr. Thomas Lushington's, which had come into his hands in MS. from the author, entitled. Logica Analytica, de Principiis, Regulis, et Usu Rationis recta, lib. 3. Lond. 1650, 8vo.; and gave this as his motive :—“ Propter operis perfectionem, in quo nihil dictum, quod non statim probatum est, vel a principiis, primo et per se notis, vel a propositionibus inde demonstratis: deinde etiam propter ejus usum, vel fructum eximiam.-Wood's Athena, by Bliss, iii. 530. He died in his 43rd year in 1666, leaving two sons, Sir Edmund and Sir Richard, who both succeeded to the Gillingham baronetcy; but, both dying s. p., it became extinct. that three folios* are yet too little, and how new herbals fly from America upon us: from persevering enquirers, and hold in those singularities, we expect such descriptions. Wherein England is now so exact, that it yields not to other countries. We pretend not to multiply vegetable divisions by quincuncial and reticulate plants; or erect a new phytology. The field of knowledge hath been so traced, it is hard to spring any thing new. Of old things we write something new, if truth may receive addition, or envy will have any thing new; since the ancients knew the late anatomical discoveries, and Hippocrates the circulation. You have been so long out of trite learning, that 'tis hard to find a subject proper for you; and if you have met with a sheet upon this, we have missed our intention. In this multiplicity of writing, by and barren themes are best fitted for invention; subjects so often discoursed confine the imagination, and fix our conceptions unto the notions of forewriters. Besides, such discourses allow excursions, and venially admit of collateral truths, though at some distance from their principals. Wherein if we sometimes take wide liberty, we are not single, but err by great example. § He that will illustrate the excellency of this order, may easily fail upon so spruce a subject, wherein we have not affrighted the common reader with any other diagrams, than of itself; and have industriously declined illustrations from rare and unknown plants. Your discerning judgment, so well acquainted with that study, will expect herein no mathematical truths, as well understanding how few generalities and Ufinitas || there are in nature; how Scaliger hath found exceptions in most *Bauhini Theatrum Botanicum. My worthy friend M. Goodier, an ancient and learned botanist. As in London and divers parts, whereof we mention none, lest we seem to omit any. § Hippocrates de superfœtatione, de dentitione. Rules without exceptions.2 2 rules without exceptions.] This is, no doubt, an allusion to the well known and invariable rule in prosody,-" Postremo, U finita producuntur omnia," of which Browne here (most characteristically) avails himself in a proverbial sense. |