The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3Browne, Thomas, Sir
Religion
The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 3
Browne, Thomas, Sir
Christianity; Ethics; Religion and medicine
Live by old Ethicks and the classical Rules of Honesty. Put no new names
or notions upon Authentick Virtues and Vices. Think not that Morality is
Ambulatory; that Vices in one age are not Vices in another; or that
Virtues, which are under the everlasting Seal of right Reason, may be
Stamped by Opinion. And therefore though vicious times invert the
opinions of things, and set up a new Ethicks against Virtue, yet hold
thou unto old Morality; and rather than follow a multitude to do evil,
stand like _Pompey's_ pillar conspicuous by thyself, and single in
Integrity. And since the worst of times afford imitable Examples of
Virtue; since no Deluge of Vice is like to be so general but more than
eight will escape; Eye well those Heroes who have held their Heads above
Water, who have touched Pitch, and not been defiled, and in the common
Contagion have remained uncorrupted.
[Sidenote: SECT. 13]
Let Age not Envy draw wrinkles on thy cheeks, be content to be envy'd,
but envy not. Emulation may be plausible and Indignation allowable, but
admit no treaty with that passion which no circumstance can make good. A
displacency at the good of others because they enjoy it, though not
unworthy of it, is an absurd depravity, sticking fast unto corrupted
nature, and often too hard for Humility and Charity, the great
Suppressors of Envy. This surely is a Lyon not to be strangled but by
_Hercules_ himself, or the highest stress of our minds, and an Atom of
that power which subdueth all things unto it self.
[Sidenote: SECT. 14]
Owe not thy Humility unto humiliation from adversity, but look humbly
down in that State when others look upwards upon thee. Think not thy own
shadow longer than that of others, nor delight to take the Altitude of
thyself. Be patient in the age of Pride, when Men live by short
intervals of Reason under the dominion of Humor and Passion, when it's
in the Power of every one to transform thee out of thy self, and run
thee into the short madness. If you cannot imitate _Job_, yet come not
short of _Socrates_, and those patient Pagans who tired the Tongues of
their Enemies, while they perceived they spit their malice at brazen
Walls and Statues.
[Sidenote: SECT. 15]
Let not the Sun in Capricorn[330] go down upon thy wrath, but write thy
wrongs in Ashes. Draw the Curtain of night upon injuries, shut them up
in the Tower of Oblivion[331] and let them be as though they had not
been. To forgive our Enemies, yet hope that God will punish them, is not
to forgive enough. To forgive them our selves, and not to pray God to
forgive them, is a partial piece of Charity. Forgive thine enemies
totally, and without any reserve that however God will revenge thee.
[330] Even when the Days are shortest.
[331] Alluding unto the Tower of Oblivion mentioned by _Procopius_,
which was the name of a Tower of Imprisonment among the
_Persians_: whoever was put therein was as it were buried alive,
and it was death for any but to name him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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