INTRODUCTION. xi 



the prevailing method. Aristotle was still 

 the established authority, and commentaries on 

 his works occupied the minds of men to 

 the exclusion of original investigation, notwith- 

 standing that this great philosopher had himself, 

 both by precept and example, urged the 

 importance of direct observation and inquiry ; 

 the Mediseval school of thought still prevailed 

 and cramped every effort at progress. How 

 keenly Browne lamented this spirit of slavish 

 adherence to tradition may be judged from a 

 passage in one of his Essays in the " Vulgar 

 Errors " condemning the obstinate adherence 

 unto antiquity; he writes, "but the mortallist 

 enemy unto knowledge, and that which hath 

 done the greatest execution upon truth, hath 

 been a peremptory adhesion unto authority ; 

 and more especially the establishing of our belief 

 upon the dictates of antiquity. For (as every 

 capacity may observe) most men of ages 

 present, so supersticiously do look upon ages 

 past, that the authorities of one exceed the 

 reason of the other." In another place he 

 argues that the present should be the age of 

 authority, seeing that we possess all the wisdom 

 of the ancients which has come down to us, 

 with that of our own times added. In fact, 

 Browne's motto appears to have been "prove 



