was published with the Posthumous Works, in 1712; the Second by Curl (as just mentioned) in 1736. The present is the Third.
I have not met with any MS. copy either of Hydriotaphia or the Garden of Cyrus, though many passages occur in MSS. Sloan. 1847, 1848, and 1882— which were evidently written for these discourses. Several of the variations they exhibit, from the printed text, are pointed out in the notes.
Of the Brampton Urns I have met with three copies, differing from each other and more or less complete, in the British Museum and Bodleian Libraries, namely, Brit. Mus. MS. Sloan. No. 1862, p. 26; No. 1869, p. 60;— and Bibl. Bodl. MS. Rawlins. 391;—from the first of which Curl's edition was (incorrectly) printed, and with all of which it has, in the present edition, been carefully collated.
I have modernized the spelling, and endeavoured to improve the pointing of the Garden of Cyrus and Hydriotaphia, as of all Browne's other works; but the phraseology, (as characteristick of the writer,) I have not thought it right, (except in very rare instances, and those acknowledged,) to touch. For this reason, I have even denied myself the adoption of several decided improvements, (though but slight alterations,) introduced by my friend Mr. Crossley, in the Hydriotaphia.
With respect to the Brampton Urns, which (like the Miscellany Tracts) never met his own eye in print, I have felt myself far more unfettered; and have used my own discretion as to a choice of various readings supplied by the several copies which I have found; selecting from them those which I preferred.
A few words will suffice respecting the notes attached to this edition. If any one object that a letter from Dr. Power to Sir Thomas, with his reply, ought to have appeared among the Correspondence, instead of being thrown into the form of notes,[B 1] my defence is, that, though formally "Correspondence," they are substantially "Notes and Illustrations," and those of the most interesting kind. Dr. Power's letter is the work of an enthusiastick lover of the mysteries of natural science; and Sir Thomas's reply places him in the
- ↑ At page 405.
