THE HAPPINESS OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE
[Sidenote: _Religio Medici_]
In my solitary and retired imagination (Neque enim cum porticus, aut me
lectulus accepit, desum mihi) I remember I am not alone, and therefore
forget not to contemplate Him and His Attributes who is ever with me,
especially those two mighty ones, His Wisdom and Eternity; with the one
I recreate, with the other I confound, my understanding; for who can
speak of Eternity without a soloecism, or think thereof without an
Extasie? Time we may comprehend; 'tis but five days elder than
ourselves, and hath the same Horoscope with the World; but to retire so
far back as to apprehend a beginning, to give such an infinite start
forwards as to conceive an end in an essence that we affirm hath neither
the one nor the other, it puts my Reason to _St. Paul's_ Sanctuary: my
Philosophy dares not say the angels can do it; God hath not made a
Creature that can comprehend Him; 'tis a privilege of His own nature....
[Sidenote: _Religio Medici_]
Art is the perfection of Nature: were the World now as it was the sixth
day, there were yet a Chaos: Nature hath made one World, and Art
another. In brief, all things are artificial; for Nature is the Art of
God.
[Sidenote: _Religio Medici_]
There is surely a piece of divinity in us, something that was before the
Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun.
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