On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening,: with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additionsFelton, Samuel
History
On the Portraits of English Authors on Gardening,: with Biographical Notices of Them, 2nd edition, with considerable additions
Felton, Samuel
Gardening -- Bibliography; Horticulturists -- England
1 vol. folio, 1686, with his portrait, engraved by White. His portrait
appears also to his "Certain Miscellany Tracts," 8vo. A list of his
numerous works may be seen in the Biogr. Dictionaires, or in Watts's
Bibl. Britt. To his "Christian Morals," Dr. Johnson has prefixed his
Life. It is so masterly written, that it is impossible to give even an
abstract. Dr. Kippis has, however, in part, transcribed it. He was
chosen Honorary Fellow of the College of Physicians, as a man _virtute
et literas ornatissimus_. In 1671, he received the honour of Knighthood
from Charles II., a prince, (says Dr. Johnson) "who, with many frailties
and vices, had yet skill to discover excellence, and virtue to reward it
with such honorary distinctions, at least, as cost him nothing, yet,
conferred by a king so judicious and so much beloved, had the power of
giving merit new lustre and greater popularity." Thus he lived in high
reputation, till, in his seventy-sixth year, an illness, which tortured
him a week, put an end to his life, at Norwich, on his birth-day,
October 19, 1682. "Some of his last words (we are told by _Whitefoot_)
were expressions of submission to the will of God, and fearlessness of
death." Dr. Johnson observes, "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 be easily 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. 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 before him, that he lost one by grasping
another. His memory supplied him with so many illustrations, parallel or
dependent notions, that he was always starting into collateral
considerations. But the spirit and vigour of his pursuit always gives
delight; and the reader follows him, without reluctance, 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 _Browne_, more formidable 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 difficult 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 professors of christianity.
He may perhaps, in the ardour of his imagination, have hazarded an
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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