“But it is not on the praises of others, but on his own writings, that [Thomas Browne] 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.
“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 persuit always gives delight; and the reader follows him, without reluctance, thro’ his mazes, in themselves flowery and pleasing, and ending at the point originally in view.”
from Samuel Johnson’s delightful guide to the works and life of Sir Thomas Browne. Read it in full here.
(Source: penelope.uchicago.edu)
