give thee a glance of things which visive organs reach not. Have a
glimpse of incomprehensibles; and thoughts of things, which thoughts but
tenderly touch.' Browne had, in fact, as Dr. Johnson puts it, 'uncommon
sentiments'; and how was he to express them unless by a language of
pomp, of allusion, and of elaborate rhythm? Not only is the Saxon form
of speech devoid of splendour and suggestiveness; its simplicity is
still further emphasised by a spondaic rhythm which seems to produce (by
some mysterious rhythmic law) an atmosphere of ordinary life, where,
though the pathetic may be present, there is no place for the complex or
the remote. To understand how unsuitable such conditions would be for
the highly subtle and rarefied art of Sir Thomas Browne, it is only
necessary to compare one of his periods with a typical passage of Saxon
prose.

Then they brought a faggot, kindled with fire, and laid the same
down at Doctor Ridley's feet. To whom Master Latimer spake in this
manner: 'Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We
shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as
I trust shall never be put out.'

Nothing could be better adapted to the meaning and sentiment of this
passage than the limpid, even flow of its rhythm. But who could conceive
of such a rhythm being ever applicable to the meaning and sentiment of
these sentences from the _Hydriotaphia_?

To extend our memories by monuments, whose death we daily pray for,
and whose duration we cannot hope without injury to our
expectations in the advent of the last day, were a contradiction to
our beliefs. We, whose generations are ordained in this setting
part of time, are providentially taken off from such imaginations;