Page 218

Sir Thomas Browne. (1605–1682) (continued)

2422

Nature is the art of God. 1

Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. xvi.

2423

The thousand doors that lead to death. 2

Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. xliv.

2424

The heart of man is the place the Devil ’s in: I feel sometimes a hell within myself. 3

Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. li.

2425

There is no road or ready way to virtue.

Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. lv.

2426

It is the common wonder of all men, how among so many million of faces there should be none alike. 4

Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. ii.

2427

There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument; for there is music wherever there is harmony, order, or proportion; and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres. 5

Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. ix.

2428

Sleep is a death; oh, make me try
By sleeping what it is to die,
And as gently lay my head
On my grave as now my bed!

Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. xii.

2429

Ruat cœlum, fiat voluntas tua. 6

Religio Medici. Part ii. Sect. xii.

Note 1.
The course of Nature is the art of God.—Edward Young: Night Thoughts, night ix. line 1267. [back]

Note 2.
See Massinger, Quotation 2. [back]

Note 3.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
John Milton: Paradise Lost, book i. line 253. [back]

Note 4.
The human features and countenance, although composed of but some ten parts or little more, are so fashioned that among so many thousands of men there are no two in existence who cannot be distinguished from one another.—Pliny the Elder: Natural History, book vii. chap. i.

Of a thousand shavers, two do not shave so much alike as not to be distinguished.—Samuel Johnson (1777).

There never were in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity.—Montaigne: Of the Resemblance of Children to their Fathers, book i. chap. xxxvii. [back]

Note 5.
Oh, could you view the melody
Of every grace
And music of her face.
Richard Lovelace: Orpheus to Beasts. [back]

Note 6.
See Herbert, Quotation 18. [back]

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