as if he had been by Divine Providence ordained surveyor-general of the whole terrestrial globe and its products, minerals, plants, and animals.”  His memory is stated to have been inferior only to that of Seneca or Scaliger; and he was reputed master of seven languages.  Dr. Johnson, who has written his biography, sums up his character in the following terms:  “But it is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings, that he is to depend for the esteem of posterity, of which he will not easily be deprived, while learning shall have any reverence among men:  for there is no science in which he does not discover some skill; and scarce any kind of knowledge, profane or sacred, abstruse or elegant, which he does not appear to have cultivated with success.”

Sir Thomas Browne was considered by those of his own generation to have made great advances beyond the wisdom of his age.  He claimed the character of a reformer, and gave to his principal publication the title of an “Enquiry into Vulgar Errors.”  So bold and free were his speculations, that he was looked upon invidiously by many as a daring innovator, and did not escape the denunciatory imputation of heresy.  Nothing could be more unjust, however, than this latter charge.  He was a most ardent and zealous believer in the doctrines of the Established Church.  He declares “that he assumes the honorable style of a Christian,” not because “it is the religion of his country,” but because, “having in his riper years and confirmed judgment seen and examined all, he finds himself obliged, by the principles of grace and the law of his own reason, to embrace no other name but this.”  He exults and “blesses himself, that he lived not in the days of miracles, when faith had been thrust upon him, but enjoys that greater blessing pronounced to all that believed, and saw not:”  nay, he goes so far as to say, that they only had the advantage “of a bold and noble faith, who lived before the coming of the Saviour, and, upon obscure prophecies and mystical types, could raise a belief.”  The fact that such a man was accused of infidelity is an affecting proof of the injustice that is sometimes done by the judgment of contemporaries.

This prodigy of learning and philosophy went into Court, took the stand, and declared his opinion in favor of the reality of witchcraft, entered into a particular discussion of the subject before the jury, threw the whole weight of his great name into the wavering scales of justice, and the poor women were convicted.  The authority of Sir Thomas Browne, added to the other evidence, perplexed Sir Matthew Hale.  A reporter of the trial says, “that it made this great and good man doubtful; but he was in such fears, and proceeded with such caution, that he would not so much as sum up the evidence, but left it to the jury with prayers, ’that the great God of heaven would direct their hearts in that weighty matter.’”

The result of this important trial established decisively the interpretation of English law; and the printed report of it was used as an authoritative text-book in the Court at Salem.