64 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. may interpret into heresy, if considered apart from the rest of his discourse ; but a phrase is not to be opposed to volumes. There is scarcely a writer to be found (whose profession was not divinity), that has so frequently testified his belief of the sacred writings, has appealed to them with such unlimited submission, or mentioned them with such unvaried reverence. Browne professes him- self a Protestant of the Church of England, to whose faith (he writes thus) " I am a born sub- ject, and therefore in a double obligation sub- scribe unto her Articles, and endeavour to observe her constitutions : whatever is beyond, as points indifferent, I observe according to the rules of my private reason, or the humour and fashion of my devotion ; neither believing this because Luther affirmed it, or disproving that because Calvin hath disavouched it ; 1 condemn not all things in the reputation in arms, in a word, possessing all the advantages that nature and art could give him. It is impossible, however, to acquit him of excessive credulity, or of deliberate imposture; for, on his return from his travels, in 1623, he rendered himself remarkable by the application of a secret he had met with abroad, which after- wards made so much noise in the world, under the title of the " Sympathetic Powder," by which wounds were to be cured, al- though the patient Avas out of sight, — a piece of quackery scarcely credible. The virtues of this powder. Sir Kenelm main- tained, were thoroughly inquired into by King James, his son, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Buckingham, with other persons of the highest distinction, and all registered among the observations of the great Chancellor Bacon, and were to be added by way of Ap- pendix to his Lordship's Natural History. On the breaking out of the civil war, he was by order of Parlia- ment committed prisoner to Winchester House, but soon afterwards set at liberty at the intercession of the Queen Dowager of France. It was here, during his confinement, in 1643, that he wrote the Observations," alluded to above.
