THE PREFACE.

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IF any one, after he has read Religio Medici, and the ensuing discourse, can make doubt whether the same person was the author of them both, he may be assured, by the testimony of Mrs. Littleton, Sir Thomas Browne's daughter, who lived with her father when it was composed by him and who, at the time, read it written by his own hand; and also by the testimony of others (of whom I am one) who read the manuscript of the author, immediately after his death, and who have since read the same; from which it hath been faithfully and exactly transcribed for the press. The reason why it was not printed sooner is, because it was unhappily lost, by being mislaid among other manuscripts, for which search was lately made in the presence of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, of which his Grace, by letter, informed Mrs. Littleton, when he sent the manuscript to her. There is nothing printed in the discourse, or in the short notes, but what is found in the original manuscript of the author, except only where an oversight had made the addition or transposition of some words necessary.

JOHN JEFFERY,

Archdeacon of Norwich.

CHRISTIAN MORALS.

PART THE FIRST.

TREAD Softly and circumspectly in this funambulatory track1 and narrow path of goodness: pursue virtue virtuously:2 leaven not good actions, nor render virtue disputable. Stain not fair acts with foul intentions; maim not uprightness by halting concomitances, nor circumstantially deprave substantial goodness.

Consider whereabout thou art in Cebes's4 table, or that old philosophical pinax5 of the life of man: whether thou art yet in the road of uncertainties; whether thou hast yet entered the narrow gate, got up the hill and asperous way, which leadeth unto the house of sanity; or taken that purifying potion from the hand of sincere erudition, which may send thee clear and pure away unto a virtuous and happy life.

In this virtuous voyage of thy life hull not about like the ark, without the use of rudder, mast, or sail, and bound for no port. Let not disappointment cause despondency, nor difficulty despair. Think not that you are sailing from Lima

1 funambulatory track.] Narrow, like the walk of a rope-dancer.Dr. J.

2 Tread, &c.] This sentence begins the closing reflections to the Letter to a Friend, which were afterwards amplified into the Christian Morals, and therefore have been omitted as duplicate in the present edition.

3 Consider, &c.] The remainder of this section comprises the second and third paragraphs of the closing reflections to the Letter to a Friend. 4 Cebes's table.] The table or picture of Cebes, an allegorical representation of the characters and conditions of mankind; which is translated by Mr. Collier, and added to the Meditations of Antoninus.—Dr. J. pinax.] Picture.—Dr. J.

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to Manilla, when you may fasten up the rudder, and sleep before the wind; but expect rough seas, flaws, and contrary blasts and 'tis well, if by many cross tacks and veerings, you arrive at the port; for we sleep in lions' skins in our progress unto virtue, and we slide not but climb unto it.

Sit not down in the popular forms and common level of virtues. Offer not only peace-offerings but holocausts unto God: where all is due make no reserve, and cut not a cummin-seed with the Almighty: to serve Him singly to serve ourselves, were too partial a piece of piety, not like to place us in the illustrious mansions of glory.

SECT. II. Rest not in an ovation* but a triumph over thy passions. Let anger walk hanging down the head; let malice go manacled, and envy fettered after thee. Behold within thee the long train of thy trophies, not without thee. Make the quarrelling Lapithytes sleep, and Centaurs within lie quiet. Chain up the unruly legion of thy breast.

* Ovation, a petty and minor kind of triumph.

6 Lima to Manilla.] Over the Pacific Ocean, in the course of the ship which now sails from Acapulco to Manilla, perhaps formerly from Lima, or more properly from Callao, Lima not being a sea-port.-Dr.J. 7 flaws.] Sudden gusts or violent attacks of bad weather.-Dr. J.

8 lion's skins, &c.] That is, in armour, in a state of military vigilance. One of the Grecian chiefs used to represent open force by the lion's skin, and policy by the fox's tail.—Dr. J.

9 like.] Likely.

1 SECT. II.] The first and last two sentences compose par. 17th of closing reflections to the Letter to a Friend. The succeeding par. (18) is given here, having been omitted in the Christian Morals:-"Give no quarter unto those vices which are of thine inward family, and, having a root in thy temper, plead a right and property in thee. Examine well thy complexional inclinations. Raise early batteries against those strongholds built upon the rock of nature, and make this a great part of the militia of thy life. The politic nature of vice must be opposed by policy, and therefore wiser honesties project and plot against sin; wherein notwithstanding we are not to rest in generals, or the trite stratagems of art: that may succeed with one temper which may prove successless with another. There is no community or commonwealth of virtue; every man must study his own economy, and erect these rules unto the figure of himself."

Make the quarrelling, &c.] That is, thy turbulent and irascible passions. For the Lapithytes and Centaurs, see Ovid.-Dr. J.

Lead thine own captivity captive, and be Cæsar within thyself.3

SECT. III. He that is chaste and continent not to impair his strength, or honest for fear of contagion, will hardly be heroically virtuous. Adjourn not this virtue until that temper when Cato5 could lend out his wife, and impotent satyrs write satires upon lust; but be chaste in thy flaming days, when Alexander dared not trust his eyes upon the fair sisters of Darius, and when so many think there is no other way but Origen's.*

SECT. IV. Show thy art in honesty, and lose not thy virtue by the bad managery of it. Be temperate and sober ; not to preserve your body in an ability for wanton ends; not to avoid the infamy of common transgressors that way, and thereby to hope to expiate or palliate obscure and closer vices; not to spare your purse, nor simply to enjoy health; but, in one word, that thereby you may truly serve God, which every sickness will tell you you cannot well do without health. The sick man's sacrifice is but a lame oblation. Pious treasures, laid up in healthful days, plead for sick non-performances; without which we must needs look back with anxiety upon the lost opportunities of health; and may

*Who is said to have castrated himself.

3 thyself.] In MS. Sloan. 1848, I met with the following passage, which may be fitly introduced as a continuation to this section:-"To restrain the rise of extravagances, and timely to ostracise the most overgrowing enormities makes a calm and quiet state in the dominion of ourselves, for vices have their ambitions, and will be above one another; but though many may possess us, yet is there commonly one that hath the dominion over us; one that lordeth over all, and the rest remain slaves unto the humour of it. Such towering vices are not to be temporally exostracised, but perpetually exiled, or rather to be served like the rank poppies in Tarquin's garden, and made shorter by the head; for the sharpest arrows are to be let fly against all such imperious vices, which, neither enduring priority or equality, Cæsarean or Pompeian primity, must be absolute over all; for these opprobriously denominate us here, and chiefly condemn us hereafter, and will stand in capital letters over our heads as the titles of our sufferings."

SECT. III.] The 4th paragraph of closing reflections to the Letter to a Friend.

5 Cato.] The censor, who is frequently confounded, and by Pope, amongst others, with Cato of Utica.-Dr. J.

6 SECT. IV.] Except the first sentence, this section concludes the first paragraph of the concluding reflections of Letter to a Friend.

have cause rather to envy than pity the ends of penitent public sufferers, who go with healthful prayers unto the last scene of their lives, and in the integrity of their faculties? return their spirit unto God that gave it.

SECT. V.-Be charitable before wealth make thee covetous, and lose not the glory of the mite. If riches increase, let, thy mind hold pace with them; and think it not enough to be liberal, but munificent. Though a cup of cold water from some hand may not be without its reward, yet stick not thou for wine and oil for the wounds of the distressed; and treat the poor, as our Saviour did the multitude, to the reliques of some baskets.8 Diffuse thy beneficence early, and while thy treasures call thee master; there may be an atropos9 of thy fortunes before that of thy life, and thy wealth cut off before that hour, when all men shall be poor; for the justice of death looks equally upon the dead, and Charon expects no more from Alexander than from Irus.

SECT. VI.-Give not only unto seven, but also unto eight, that is, unto more than many.* Though to give unto every one that asketh may seem severe advice,† yet give thou also before asking; that is, where want is silently clamorous, and men's necessities not their tongues do loudly call for thy mercies. For though sometimes necessitousness be dumb, or misery speak not out, yet true charity is sagacious, and will find out hints for beneficence. Acquaint thyself with the physiognomy of want, and let the dead colours and first lines of necessity suffice to tell thee there is an object for thy bounty. Spare not where thou canst not easily be prodigal, and fear not to be undone by mercy; for since he who hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Almighty rewarder, who observes no ides1 but every day for his payments,

7 and in the integrity, &c.] With their faculties unimpaired.—Dr. J. 8 Be charitable, &c.] The preceding part of this section constitutes the 5th paragraph of the closing reflections of Letter to a Friend.

9 atropos.] Atropos is the lady of destiny that cuts the thread of life.-Dr. J.

ides, &c.] The ides was the time when money lent out at interest was commonly repaid.

Fœnerator Alphius

Suam relegit Idibus pecuniam,

Quærit calendis ponere.-HOR.-Dr. J.