Religio medici.

  • Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Religio medici. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    folly and disputable dotage of avarice to that sub- terraneous idol, and god of the earth. I do confess I am an atheist, I cannot persuade myself to honour that the world adores ; whatsoever virtue its prepared substance within may have within my body, it hath no influence nor operation without: I would not entertain a base design, or an action that should call me villain, for the Indies ; and for this only do I love and honour my own soul, and have methinks two arms too few to embrace myself. Aristotle is too severe, that will not allow us to be truly liberal without wealth, and the bountiful hand of fortune : if this be true, I must confess I am charitable only in my liberal intentions, and bountiful well-wishes. But if the example of the mite be not only an act of wonder, but an example of the noblest charity, surely poor men may also build hospitals, and the rich alone have not erected cathedrals. I have a private method which others observe not; I take the opportunity of myself to do good ; I borrow occasion of charity from my own necessities, and supply the wants of others, when I am in most need myself; for it is an honest stratagem to make advantage of ourselves, and so to husband the acts of virtue, that where they were i defective in one circumstance, they may repay their their want, and multiply their goodness in another. I have not Peru in my desires, but a competence and ability to perform those good works, to which