The greatest sin that a king can commit is atoned for by sacrifices
accompanied with large gifts [cows, etc.] to the priests.

* * * * *



SIR THOMAS BROWNE


RELIGIO MEDICI


Sir Thomas Browne, English essayist, came of a Cheshire
family, but was born in London on October 19, 1605. Educated
at Oxford, where he graduated in 1626, he next studied
medicine at the great universities of Montpelier, Padua, and
Leyden, and in 1637 went to live at Norwich, where he remained
until his death on October 19, 1682. He was happily married in
1641, and was knighted by Charles II. in 1671. Sir Thomas
Browne is one of the greatest figures in English literary
history. He had extraordinary learning, a magnificent style, a
certain dry humour, and, above all, great power and nobility
of mind. In his two most valued works, "Religio Medici," or
"Religion of a Physician," published in 1643, and "Urn
Burial," in 1658, he deals with the greatest of all themes,
the mysteries of faith and of human destiny. The "Religio
Medici," written about 1635, was not at first intended for
publication; but the manuscript had been handed about and