Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682)

I bought this at the same time as Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy, as being another example of a 17th century mind and its digressions. While this volume, consisting of Browne's two best known works, has the considerable virtue of being much much (much) shorter than The Anatomy of Melancholy, it lacks the wit and the humor of Burton's satire, with its long lists and incredible range of quotes. Still, this is enjoyable once you get into the rhythm of it. Browne is certainly trying to convince himself of the truth of Christianity--in both pieces, as unrelated as they may seem at first--and, I think, largely succeeding, though not with this reader.

The introduction is good, but in addition to the notes at the back--some of which seem unnecessary since I was better at figuring out the meaning of 17th century phrases than I gave my self credit for--should have been supplemented by translations of ALL the Latin (and occasionally Greek) in Browne's own footnotes. This is one area where an ebook would have been far superior, since it would have been an easy task to highlight and paste into Google Translate. Still, good to have checked this one off my list!… (more)

And to have new names given us like many of the mummies

Tortuosity of thought in the Religio redeemed by the erudition of Urn Burial

"When men that feared to die shall groan that they can die but once, the dismal state is the second and living death; when life puts despair on the damned; when men shall wish the coverings of mountains, not of monuments, and annihilation shall be courted"
"one face of Janus holds no proportion unto the other" --> with respect to time and the Great Silent Majority (which continues to bide its time)
"but all was vanity. feeding the wind"
"five languages secured not the epitaph of gordianus" (in greek, latin, hebrew, egyptian, arabic, defaced by licinius the emperor)
Exolution… (more)