that the whole _Religio_ is full of such things, and that all this
author's religious and moral writings partake of the same truly Apostolic
and truly Platonic character. In this noble temper, with the richest
mind, and clothed in a style that entrances and captivates us, Sir Thomas
proceeds to set forth his doctrine and experience of God; of God's
providence; of Holy Scripture; of nature and man; of miracles and
oracles; of the Holy Ghost and holy angels; of death; and of heaven and
hell. And, especially, and with great fulness, and victoriousness, and
conclusiveness, he deals with death. We sometimes amuse ourselves by
making a selection of the two or three books that we would take with us
to prison or to a desert island. And one dying man here and another
there has already selected and set aside the proper and most suitable
books for his own special deathbed. 'Read where I first cast my anchor,'
said John Knox to his wife, sitting weeping at his bedside. At which she
opened and read in the Gospel of John. Sir Thomas Browne is neither more
nor less than the very prose-laureate of death. He writes as no other
man has ever written about death. Death is everywhere in all Sir Thomas
Browne's books. And yet it may be said of them all, that, like heaven
itself, there is no death there. Death is swallowed up in Sir Thomas
Browne's defiant faith that cannot, even in death, get difficulties and
impossibilities enough to exercise itself upon. O death, where is thy
sting to Rutherford, and Bunyan, and Baxter, and Browne; and to those who
diet their imaginations and their hearts day and night at such heavenly
tables! But, if only to see how great and good men differ, Spinoza has
this proposition and demonstration that a 'free man thinks of nothing
less than of death.' Browne was a free man, but he thought of nothing
more than of death. He was of Dante's mind--

The arrow seen beforehand slacks its flight.