Browne, Sir Thomas, M.D., the distinguished author of the Religio Medici, was born in London 1605. His early education was received at AVinchester and Oxford. He studied medicine subsequently, and took his degree at Leyden in 1033. In 1036 he settled at Norwich', where he remained as a practitioner during the rest of his life. His famous work, the Religio Mi did, was lirst published surreptitiously 1012, but afterward given to the world in a new edition by the author himself. This work, on its first appearance, drew down upon the author many grave charges against his orthodoxy and even his Christian belief, which were triumphantly refuted by Browne, who was the most sincerely religious of men. It has been very often reprinted. The Religio Medici was followed by the Treatise on Vulgar Errors (1646), the Hydriotaphia, or a Treatise on Urn Burials (1618), and the Garden of Cyrus (1658). His Christian Morals was published after his death by Dr. Jeffrey (1716). Browne died in 1682. The works of Sir Thomas Browne are mark- ed with the odd conceits and errors of his age, but are remarkable for their majestic eloquence and wealth of illustration. His life bj' Dr. Johnson was prefixed in 1756 to a second edition of Christian Morals. The Anglo-Latinity of Sir Thomas Browne is believed to have had a great influence on the style of Dr. John- son. It is a style too peculiar and idiomatic ever to 1 ■ generally liked, but Browne wrote at a time when our language was in a state of transition, and had scarcely assumed any fixed character. If it be blamed as too Latinized, it may be answered that it would be difficult to substitute adequate English words for those which he has employed, and that "lie by no means seeks to give false elevation to a mean idea by sounding phrases, but that he is compelled, by the remoteness of thai idea from ordinary apprehensions, to adopt ex- traordinary modes of speech. Coleridge {Literary Re- mams, vol. ii) has borne strong testimony to the great intellectual power, as well as to the quaint humor, ex- tensive learning, and striking originality of the "phi- i of Norwich." Browne was in his own day I ■■'. ith scepticism, and the charge has been re- peal sd in later times, but many passages occur in the Religio Medici and elsewhere, which show Browne to be a linn and Bincere Christian, although, perhaps, not free from certain fanciful prejudices. His Inquiry into Vulg n- Errors may be almost received as an encyclo- pedia of contemporary knowledge. For critical re- mark- on Browne, besides the writers above named, io. Rir. Ixiv, 1 ; North Am. Rev. xxi, 19; Meth. i>n. Hi r. 1851, p. 2ND. His writings are collected in his Works, with Life and C<>rn.<j>. (bond. 1836, -1 vols. 8vo).
Brownell, Thomas C. D.D., bishop of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church in the State of Connecticut, was born at Westport, Mass., October 19, 1779. He entered the College of Rhode Island (now Brown Uni- versity) in 1800 ; removed, with President Maxcy, to Union College in 1802, and graduated there in 1804. His mind had before this time been drawn to the study of theology, but the difficulties of the Calvinistic sys- tem perplexed and repelled him from the ministry. When the Rev. Dr. Nott, under whose direction he had placed himself in his theological studies, was elevated to the presidency of Union College, he (Brownell) was made tutor in Latin and Greek. Two years later he was appointed professor of Belles-Lettres and Moral Philosophy, and after two years was transferred to the chair of Chemistry and Mineralogy. In 1809 he visited Europe, and spent a year in attending lectures and trav- elling over Great Britain, chiefly on foot. It was dur- ing these pedestrian peregrinations that he, with a com- panion, was on one occasion arrested on suspicion of be- ing concerned in a robbery and murder — a charge ludi- crously inconsistent with his harmless character. In 1810 he returned to America, and entered on the duties of his professorship. He had been bred a Congregation- alism but in 1813 he united with the Protestant Episco- pal Church. In 1816 he was ordained deacon and priest, and some time after became one of the ministers of Trin- ity Church, New York. In 1819 he was elected bishop of Connecticut, and was consecrated on the 27th day of October. His administration of his diocese was emi- nently wise and successful. In the interest of domes- tic missions, he made a laborious journey to survey the Mississippi country as far as New Orleans. In 1821 he was the chief instrument in founding Wash-' ington College (now Trinity College), of which he was president until 1831. When, in that year, the pressing duties of the episcopate compelled him to relinquish the presidency of the college, he was made its chancel- lor, and continued to occupy that dignit}' up to the time of his death. In 1851, when the burden of age and the sense of growing infirmities admonished him to re- tire from active service, an assistant bishop was chosen at his request. In 1852, the death of Bishop Chase ele- vated him to the dignity of presiding bishop, and he held it for thirteen years. His last years were spent in peaceful retirement, and he died at Hartford, Jan- uary 13, 1865. Among his publications are, A Com- mentary on the Common Prayer (N. Y. 18J6, and often, imp. 8vo) : Consolation for the Afflicted, 18mo ; Chris- tian s Walk and Consolation, 18mo ; Exhortation to Re- pentance, 18mo; Family Prayer-book ,• and some small- er practical works. — American Church Review, July, 1865, p. 261 ; Allibone, Diet, of Authors, i, 266.