DR. JOHNSON'S LIFE
OF
SIR THOMAS BROWNE.
Though the writer of the following Essays[B 1] seems to have had the fortune common among men of letters, of raising little curiosity after his private life, and has, therefore, few memorials preserved of his felicities or misfortunes; yet, because an edition of a posthumous work appears imperfect and neglected, without some account of the author, it was thought necessary to attempt the gratification of that curiosity which naturally inquires, by what peculiarities of nature or fortune eminent men have been distinguished, how uncommon attainments have been gained, and what influence learning has had on its possessors, or virtue on its teachers.
Sir Thomas Browne was born at London, in the parish of St. Michael in Cheapside,[B 2] on the 19th of
- ↑ The following Essays.] It will be recollected that this life was written in 1756, not for an entire edition of Browne's works, but for a second impression of his Christian Morals, originally published by Archdeacon Jeffery in 1716, and reprinted by Payne in 1756.
- ↑ St. Michael in Cheapside.] St. Michael's Cheap, as it was formerly called, or St. Michael-le-Quern, probably a corruption of the translation of St. Michael ad Bladum, or "at the Corn: " the church having been originally erected about the reign of Edward III, on the site of a corn market. The church was taken down and rebuilt in 1430, in the eighth of Henry VI. In the great fire of London it was destroyed, and not subsequently rebuilt, the parish being united to that of St. Vedast, in Foster-lane, The registers have all perished.
