Dr. Watson,[B 1] and, more recently, Dr. Whitaker,[B 2] have adopted the statement, which derives additional countenance from the fact, that Dr. Henry Power and Mr. J. Brearcliffe, both resident at Halifax, were among Browne's correspondents.
In such a spot, and especially at the commencement of his professional career, he must have had considerable leisure; which it is very natural to suppose he would endeavour to improve, by reviewing and preparing some memento of the events of his past life. We may regard Religio Medici as the result of such retrospect; for though not pretending to the character of a narrative, it makes frequent allusion to incidents and conversations which had occurred in the course of his travels; and exhibits to us the impressions made on him by the imposing ceremonies of the Romish church, which he had witnessed abroad. It was not, however, Browne's object to draw up a narrative; but to compose "a treatise upon the spirit and form of his religious belief, and it may claim (as one of his reviewers has well said[B 3]) a high rank among the fairest monuments of English mind." It has always appeared to me, that it was Browne's great aim, in the conduct of his understanding, and in the regulation of his feelings, to assign just limits to the respective jurisdictions of faith and reason; asserting, on the one hand, his right to the free exercise of his understanding on those subjects of which it is the legitimate province of reason to judge; but, on the other hand, submitting both intellect and feeling wherever the decisions of revelation have commanded the exercise of faith. This was his rule; and if he fell into false philosophy, it was less through the fallacy of his reason than the erroneous or overstrained application of his rule. For example, he too hastily deemed the language of scripture opposed to the tenets of Copernicus; and, therefore, rejected instead of examining them. He found witches and inchantments mentioned in the Bible, as well as various forms of spiritual existence and agency; all these he therefore placed at once among the articles of his faith, scarcely allowing his reason either to investigate the meaning of terms, or even to inquire whether that which was
