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It may be presumed, that the Repertorium was too slight a sketch to satisfy "perfectly" the antiquarian taste and knowledge of Tanner. May we not, however, fairly urge in extenuation, a similar plea to that which has been offered by D'Israeli, in defence of Dugdale, Sir Thomas's learned friend and correspondent?—" He hurried on his itinerant labours of taking draughts and transcribing inscriptions, as he says, to preserve them for future and better times. Posterity owes to the prescient spirit of Dugdale, the ancient monuments of England, which bear the marks of the haste, as well as the zeal, which have perpetuated them." Curiosities, 8(c. Second Series^ Chapter on Prediction. Kippis says (on what authority does not appear) that the work was printed in Norwich.
Of the Christian Morals I have a copy which belonged to Archdeacon Wrangham, with reprint title, dated 1761;[B 1] and I believe there are such copies dated 1765.
I will take this opportunity to correct an error in my preface to the Christian Morals, at p. 55. It was not Dodsley, as I have there inadvertently said, but Payne, who published the second edition of that work, and for whom Dr. Johnson wrote his biographical sketch. In the first volume, p. 141,of The Literary Magazine, or Universal Review, (not Register, as stated by Mr. Croker in his edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson,) I have recently met with the Doctor's review of the work;—if that can be called a review, which comprises in the following few words all that is offered by way of stricture or opinion on the work reviewed:—"This little volume consists of short essays, written with great vigour of sentiment, variety of learning, and vehemence of style." A quotation of two pages from the Life, closes this article. In 1773 Davies republished the Life, with those of Blake, the King of Prussia, and others, in his Fugitive and Miscellaneous Pieces, 3 vols. 8vo. vol. ii, p. 254.
In the half title to Miscellany Tracts and Miscellanies, I
- ↑ The half title is, True Christian Morals; by Sir Thomas Browne, M.D. Title, True Christian Morals: by Sir Thomas Browne, M.D. Author of Religio Medici, &c. with his Life written by the celebrated Author of the Rambler; and explanatory Notes. The Third Edition. There is an engraved vignette of a lamb browsing in a hedge, and this imprint below:—London: printed for, and sold by Z, Stuart, at the Lamb in Paternoster Row, MDCCLXI.
