XU INTRODUCTION. 



all things and hold fast only to that which 

 is good."* 



Aristotle, whose works on Natural History 

 have descended to us in a very imperfect con- 

 dition, lived in 385-322 B.C., and it was not till 

 A.D. 79 that the Historia Naturalis of Pliny the 

 Elder, the next great work, which has survived 

 till our days, was completed, and by some of 

 those most competent to form a judgment the 



* There was one form of ancient authority before which Browne bowed 

 down with absolute and unquestioning submission — the authority of the 

 Scriptures. In all secular matters he was ever ready to point the lance 

 and do battle, but all that appealed to him on what he regarded as 

 divine authority was beyond the pale, and it never entered into his mind 

 to submit it to the test of reason. In the " Religio Medici" he declares 

 his devoted adherence first to the guidance of Scripture, and secondly to the 

 Articles of the Church, "whatsoever is beyond, as points indifferent, I 

 observe according to the rules of my private reason ;" and again, " where the 

 Scripture is silent, the Church is my text ; where that speaks 'tis but my 

 comment : where there is a joint silence of both I borrow not the rules of my 

 religion from Rome or Geneva, but the dictates of my own reason." This 

 implicit adherence to the literal text of Scripture led to his — shall I say 

 active belief in, or passive acceptance of, the existence of Witchcraft, and 

 thus to the only act in an otherwise blameless life which we must regard 

 with regret and astonishment. I refer to the consenting part he took in the 

 doing to death of two poor women at Bury St. Edmund's in the year 1664. 

 It is my business to act as Browne's exponent, not as his apologist, but it 

 must be borne in mind that in his day the "higher criticism" was a thing 

 unheard of, and that the literal sense of the English translation of the Bible 

 was accepted as binding not only by him but by the vast majority of the 

 people, including the most learned men of the time. " Thou shalt not suffer 

 a witch to live " was a plain command, and given a witch the believer's 

 duty was also plain ; that there had been witches there was ample 

 scriptural evidence, but there was none that the days of witchcraft had 

 passed away. Browne only shared this belief with his pious friend, the 

 venerable Bishop Hall, and many men equally devout according to their 

 lights ; he makes no secret of the fact and acts in accordance with his 

 convictions and the plain authority of Scripture. Thus it came about that 

 these conscientious but mistaken men were induced to render possible, if 



