The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

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Browne Thomas. The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3

PREFATORY NOTE

THE SEVENTH BOOK

CHAPTER I. Of the Forbidden Fruit

CHAPTER II. That a Man hath one Rib less then a Woman

CHAPTER III. Of Methuselah

CHAPTER IV. That there was no Rain-bow before the Flood

CHAPTER V. Of Sem, Ham and Japhet

CHAPTER VI. That the Tower of Babel was erected against a second Deluge

CHAPTER VII. Of the Mandrakes of Leah

CHAPTER VIII. Of the three Kings of Collein

CHAPTER IX. Of the food of John Baptist, Locusts and Wild-honey

CHAPTER X. That John the Evangelist should not die

CHAPTER XI. More compendiously of some others

CHAPTER XII. Of the Cessation of Oracles

CHAPTER XIII. Of the death of Aristotle

CHAPTER XIV. Of the Wish of Philoxenus

CHAPTER XV. Of the Lake Asphaltites

CHAPTER XVI. Of divers other Relations

CHAPTER XVII. Of some others

CHAPTER XVIII. More briefly of some others

CHAPTER XIX. Of some Relations whose truth we fear

HYDRIOTAPHIA. URNE-BURIALL. OR A DISCOURSE OF THE SEPULCHRALL URNES LATELY FOUND IN NORFOLK

TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND THOMAS LE GROS. Of Crostwick Esquire

TO MY WORTHY AND HONOURED FRIEND NICHOLAS BACON. Of Gillingham Esquire

HYDRIOTAPHIA: URNE BURIAL. Or, a brief Discourse of the Sepulchrall Urnes lately found in Norfolk

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

THE GARDEN OF CYRUS

THE GARDEN OF CYRUS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

THE STATIONER TO THE READER

CERTAIN MISCELLANY TRACTS

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER

OBSERVATIONS UPON SEVERAL PLANTS MENTION’D IN SCRIPTURE

OF GARLANDS AND CORONARY OR GARDEN-PLANTS

OF THE FISHES EATEN BY OUR SAVIOUR

AN ANSWER TO CERTAIN QUERIES RELATING TO FISHES, BIRDS, INSECTS

OF HAWKS AND FALCONRY

OF CYMBALS, Etc

OF ROPALIC OR GRADUAL VERSES, ETC

OF LANGUAGES AND PARTICULARLY OF THE SAXON TONGUE

OF ARTIFICIAL HILLS, MOUNTS OR BURROWS

OF TROAS

OF THE ANSWERS OF THE ORACLE OF APOLLO AT DELPHOS TO CROESUS KING OF LYDIA

A PROPHECY CONCERNING THE FUTURE STATE OF SEVERAL NATIONS,

MUSÆUM CLAUSUM OR BIBLIOTHECA ABSCONDITA:

A LETTER TO A FRIEND, UPON OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF HIS INTIMATE FRIEND

POSTHUMOUS WORKS

REPERTORIUM: OR, SOME ACCOUNT OF THE TOMBS AND MONUMENTS IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NORWICH, IN 1680

MISCELLANIES

An Account of Island, alias Ice-land,In the Year 1662

Concerning some Urnes found inBrampton-Field, in Norfolk,Ann. 1667

Concerning the too nice Curiosity ofcensuring the Present, or judginginto Future Dispensations

Upon Reading Hudibras

CHRISTIAN MORALS,

THE PREFACE

CHRISTIAN MORALS

PART I

PART II

PART III

NOTES ON CERTAIN BIRDS AND FISHES FOUND IN NORFOLK

NOTES ON CERTAIN FISHESAND MARINE ANIMALS FOUNDIN NORFOLK

ON THE OSTRICH

BOULIMIA CENTENARIA

UPON THE DARK THICK MIST HAPPENING ON THE 27TH OF NOVEMBER, 1674

ACCOUNT OF A THUNDER STORM AT NORWICH, 1665

ON DREAMS

OBSERVATIONS ON GRAFTING

Отрывок из книги

That the Forbidden fruit of Paradise was an Apple, is commonly believed, confirmed by Tradition, perpetuated by Writings, Verses, Pictures; and some have been so bad Prosodians, as from thence to derive the Latine word malum, because that fruit was the first occasion of evil; wherein notwithstanding determinations are presumptuous, and many I perceive are of another belief. For some have, conceived it a Vine; in the mystery of whose fruit lay the expiation of the transgression: Goropius Becanus reviving the conceit of Barcephas, peremptorily concludeth it to be the Indian Fig-tree; and by a witty Allegory labours to confirm the same. Again, some fruits pass under the name of Adams apples, which in common acception admit not that appellation; the one described by Mathiolus under the name of Pomum Adami, a very fair fruit, and not unlike a Citron, but somewhat rougher, chopt and cranied, vulgarly conceived the marks of Adams teeth. Another, the fruit of that plant which Serapion termeth Musa, but the Eastern Christians commonly the Apples of Paradise; not resembling an apple in figure, and in taste a Melon or Cowcomber. Which fruits although they have received appellations suitable unto the tradition, yet can we not from thence infer they were this fruit in question: No more then Arbor vitæ, so commonly called, to obtain its name from the tree of life in Paradise, or Arbor Judæ, to be the same which supplied the gibbet unto Judas.

Again, There is no determination in the Text; wherein is only particulared that it was the fruit of a tree good for food, and pleasant unto the eye, in which regards many excell the Apple; and therefore learned men do wisely conceive it inexplicable; and Philo puts determination unto despair, when he affirmeth the same kind of fruit was never produced since. Surely were it not requisite to have been concealed, it had not passed unspecified; nor the tree revealed which concealed their nakedness, and that concealed which revealed it; for in the same chapter mention is made of fig-leaves. And the like particulars, although they seem uncircumstantial, are oft set down in holy Scripture; so is it specified that Elias sat under a juniper tree, Absalom hanged by an Oak, and Zacheus got up into a Sycomore.

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Again, Beside the negative of Authority, it is also deniable by reason; nor will it be easie to obtrude such desperate attempts upon Aristotle, from unsatisfaction of reason, who so often acknowledged the imbecillity thereof. Who in matters of difficulty, and such which were not without abstrusities, conceived it sufficient to deliver conjecturalities. And surely he that could sometimes sit down with high improbabilities, that could content himself, and think to satisfie others, that the variegation of Birds was from their living in the Sun, or erection made by deliberation of the Testicles; would not have been dejected unto death with this. He that was so well acquainted with ἢ ὅτι, and πότερον utrum, and An Quia, as we observe in the Queries of his Problems: with ἴσως and ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ, fortasse and plerumque, as is observable through all his Works: had certainly rested with probabilities, and glancing conjectures in this: Nor would his resolutions have ever run into that mortal Antanaclasis, and desperate piece of Rhetorick, to be compriz’d in that he could not comprehend. Nor is it indeed to be made out that he ever endeavoured the particular of Euripus, or so much as to resolve the ebb and flow of the Sea. For, as Vicomercatus and others observe, he hath made no mention hereof in his Works, although the occasion present it self in his Meteors, wherein he disputeth the affections of the Sea: nor yet in his Problems, although in the twenty-third Section, there be no less than one and forty Queries of the Sea. Some mention there is indeed in a Work of the propriety of Elements, ascribed unto Aristotle: which notwithstanding is not reputed genuine, De placitis Philosophorum. and was perhaps the same whence this was urged by Plutarch.

Lastly, the thing it self whereon the opinion dependeth, that is, the variety of the flux and the reflux of Euripus, or whether the same do ebb and flow seven times a day, is not incontrovertible. For though Pomponius Mela, and after him Solinus and Pliny have affirmed it, yet I observe Thucydides, who speaketh often of Eubœa, hath omitted it. Pausanias an ancient Writer, who hath left an exact description of Greece, and in as particular a way as Leandro of Italy, or Cambden of great Britain, describing not only the Country Towns, and Rivers; but Hills, Springs and Houses, hath left no mention hereof. Æschines in Ctesiphon only alludeth unto it; and Strabo that accurate Geographer speaks warily of it, that is, ὡς φασὶ, and as men commonly reported. And so doth also Maginus, Velocis ac varii fluctus est mare, ubi quater in die, aut septies, ut alii dicunt, reciprocantur æstus. Botero more plainly, Il mar cresce e cala con un impeto mirabile quatra volte il di, ben che communimente si dica sette volte, etc. This Sea with wondrous impetuosity ebbeth and floweth four times a day, although it be commonly said seven times, and generally opinioned, that Aristotle despairing of the reason, drowned himself therein. In which description by four times a day, it exceeds not in number the motion of other Seas, taking the words properly, that is, twice ebbing and twice flowing in four and twenty hours. And is no more than what Thomaso Porrcacchi affirmeth in his description of famous Islands, that twice a day it hath such an impetuous flood, as is not without wonder. Livy speaks more particularly, Haud facile infestior classi statio est et fretum ipsum Euripi, non septies die (ficut fama fert) temporibus certis reciprocat, sed temere in modum venti, nunc hunc nunc illuc verso mari, velut monte præcipiti devolutus torrens rapitur. There is hardly a worse harbour, the fret or channel of Euripus not certainly ebbing or flowing seven times a day, according to common report: but being uncertainly, and in the manner of a wind carried hither and thither, is whirled away as a torrent down a hill. But the experimental testimony of Gillius is most considerable of any: who having beheld the course thereof, and made enquiry of Millers that dwelt upon its shore, received answer, that it ebbed and flowed four times a day, that is, every six hours, according to the Law of the Ocean: but that indeed sometimes it observed not that certain course. And this irregularity, though seldom happening, together with its unruly and tumultuous motion, might afford a beginning unto the common opinion. Thus may the expression in Ctesiphon be made out: And by this may Aristotle be interpreted, when in his Problems he seems to borrow a Metaphor from Euripus: while in the five and twentieth Section he enquireth, why in the upper parts of houses the air doth Euripize, that is, is whirled hither and thither.

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