30 THE NEW SCIENCE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE 



transition, this effort of the mind to measure itself with a new rule 

 of reason and commonsense, this struggle of the imagination to 

 adjust itself to new imagery, which forms the subject of this chap- 

 ter. Those men of literary genius who were brought into intimate 

 contact with the new philosophy in its full encounter with the tra- 

 ditions of ancient faith will here be discussed. 



The transition from the old to the new attitude is well illus- 

 trated in the writings of Sir Thomas Browne. The Religio JMedici 

 (1635-6) was written under the domination of the "ancient faith" 

 There is found in it a frank avowal of the old spirit of acceptance, 

 the attitude of non-reason against which the new philosophers re- 

 volted. "I believe all this (divine mysteries) is true, which indeed 

 my reason would persuade me to be false; and this I think is no 

 vulgar part of Faith, to believe a thing not only above, but con- 

 trary to reason, and against the arguments of our proper senses".^ 

 Besides this quiescence of reason in The Religio Medici there is 

 also the old physical conception of the world. "To make a revo- 

 lution every day is the nature of the sun, because of that neces- 

 sary course which God ordained it, from which it cannot swerve 

 but by a faculty from that same voice which did first give it mo- 

 tion".'' Astrology, although curiously modified, also finds expression 

 here. "We need not labor with so many arguments to confute 

 Judicial Astrology; for if there be a truth therein, it doth not 

 injure Divinity; if to be born under Mercury disposeth us to be 

 witty; under Jupiter to be wealthy; I do not owe a Knee unto 

 those, but unto that Merciful Hand that hath ordered my indif- 

 ferent and uncertain Nativity unto such benevolous Aspects".'' 

 Many of the old beliefs are here in more or less direct form. ' ' For 

 my part, I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are 

 Witches".^ "I conceive there is a traditional Magick, not learned 

 immediately from the Devil, but at second hand from his Schol- 

 ars".^ "Therefore, for Spirits, I am so far from denying their 

 existence, that I could easily believe, that not only whole countries, 



' Browne, Sir Thomas, Religio Medici, vol. I, p. 18. 

 "Ibid. vol. I, p. 25. 

 7 Ibid. vol. I, p. 30. 

 'Ibid. vol. I, p. 45. 

 •Ibid. vol. I, p. 46. 



