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cess. His exuberance of knowledge, and plenitude of ideas, 

 sometimes obstruct the tendency of his reasoning, and the 

 clearness of his decisions. On whatever subject he employed 

 his mind, there started up immediately so many images be- 

 fore him, that he lost one by grasping another. His memory 

 supplied him with so many illustrations; parallel or depend- 

 ent notions, that he was always starting into collateral consi- 

 derations. But the spirit and vigour of his pursuit always 

 gives delight; and the reader follows him, without reluct- 

 ance, through his mazes, of themselves flowery and pleasing, 

 and ending at the point originally in view. There remains 

 yet an objection against the writings of Broione, more for- 

 midable than the animadversions of criticism. There are 

 passages from which some have taken occasion to rank him 

 among deists, and others among atheists. It would be diffi- 

 cult to guess how any such conclusion should be formed, 

 had not experience shewn that there are two sorts of men 

 willing to enlarge the catalogue of infidels. When Browne 

 has been numbered among the contemners of religion by the 

 fury of its friends, or the artifices of its enemies, it is no 

 difficult task to replace him among the most zealous profes- 

 sors of Christianity. He may perhaps, in the ardour of his 

 imagination, have hazarded an expression, which a mind in- 

 tent upon faults may interpret into heresy, if considered 

 apart from the rest of his discourse ; but a phrase is not to 

 be opposed to volumes. There is scarcely a writer to be 

 found, whose profession was not divinity, that has so fre- 

 quently testified his belief of the sacred writings, has ap- 

 pealed to them with such unlimited submission, or mentioned 

 them with such unvaried reverence." 



John Evelyn, Esq. His portrait by Nanteuil, and that 

 by Kneller, holding his Sylva in his hand, are well engraved 

 in Mr. Bray's Memoirs. The following remark is from the 

 Quarterly Review, in its review of the same work, in 1818: — 



o 



