xlviii PKOCEEDEfGS OP THE 



The Norfolk and Norwich Literary Institution and the Mu- 

 seum (now one of the best county collections) owe their origin 

 very much to his exertions and his influence. Both were esta- 

 blished under his roof, and continued tbere for a number of years. 



The Catalogue of the Institution Library was compiled by him 

 with great care, and was so highly esteemed by the late Eev. 

 Hartwell Home, that, on being applied to by the projectors of the 

 Surry Literary Institution to draw up a skeleton catalogue for 

 their guidance, he replied that he could not produce them a better 

 than that of the Xorfolk and Norwich Literary Institution, drawn 

 up by his firiend Mr. Simon "Wilkin. 



"VThile resident at Norwich, he undertook his well-known edition 

 of the ' Life, Works, and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Browne.' 

 The compilation of this work occupied all the time he could spare 

 from more urgent business for several years, and is remarkable 

 for the careful research and elaborate elucidation which form the 

 essential characteristics of a good editor. So copious were the 

 materials which he collected, bearing on the career of Sir Thomas 

 and his family, that he found it necessary to add to the weU- 

 known ' Life ' by Dr. Johnson an entirely new and much longer 

 " Supplementary Memoir." 



The Correspondence, published for the first time from the ori- 

 ginal MSS. in the Bodleian and British Museum Libraries, is full 

 of interest both to the naturalist and the antiquarian, giving, as it 

 does, a lively picture of the then position of the sciences, inter- 

 spersed with touches of domestic manners, both in England and on 

 the Continent, which equally amuse by their quaintness and inter- 

 est by their veracity. 



The "Works contain not only those already known, but many 

 that had never before been published ; and in all the editor appears 

 to have caught the spirit of the author, and to have aimed at every 

 point to elucidate the text, and to throw the light of modern re- 

 search upon the speculations of the seventeenth century. Separate 

 editorial prefaces accompany the principal works ; copious notes 

 are interspersed throughout, and a most elaborate index closes the 

 whole. It was a gratifying compliment which Southey paid to his 

 labours, when he said it was "the best reprint in the English 

 language." 



Shortly after the completion of this work, Mr. "Wilkin removed 

 to the neighbourhood of London, where he was prevented by his 

 commercial pursuits from keeping up any active connexion with 

 the literary and scientific world. 



