same errors are continued from one edition to another, even down to the present century.1

During the next hundred and fifty years only about four editions appeared; but early in the second quarter of the present century the little book, which seemed almost forgotten in the publishing world, was being edited simultaneously by a Norwich bookseller, an Oxford undergraduate, and an American divine; and in 1831, after an interval of nearly eighty years, a precocious youth of nineteen (?) had the honour of once more bringing it before public notice.3 It has since been republished seven times in England, and four times in America, so there is no probability of its ever again falling into comparative oblivion.

2

2. "A Letter to a Friend, upon Occasion of the Death of his Intimate Friend," appears from internal evidence to have been written by Sir T. B. about 1672,4 ten years before his death, about the same time as the Christian Morals, but shortly after.5 Great

Of thirty-four passages mentioned in the list of Errata in C, only eight were corrected in D, thirteen in E, one in J, two in K, four in Q, and the rest in different modern editions.

2 A few particulars relating to THOMAS CHAPMAN, and the other modern editors, will be found in the Appendix to this Preface, No. III.

3 Wilkin's Preface is dated "Oct. 30, 1829," but his edition was not published till 1835. Chapman's Preface is dated “June, 1831," Young's "October, 1831." 4 See Note on p. 136. 1. 27.

5 See Notes on p. 147. l. 1, and p. 162. 1. antep. Former editors, on the contrary, say that it was written before the Christian Morals, but they give no reason for this opinion: e.g. The latter part was afterwards expanded into the Chr. M." (Crossley, Pref to ed. 1822). "The rest of this Letter served as the basis for his larger work, the Chr. M." (Wilkin, vol. iii. p. 80, ed. Bohn). "It seems to have been intended as an introduction to the

part of it has the appearance of being a cento (as the author would call it,) of passages which he had treasured up in his copious Common Place Books, and which he was glad to make use of before his death. Several sentences are to be found in the extracts from these Common Place Books given by Wilkin, and others may probably exist in those which are still unpublished. It consists of two parts, the former (§§ 1-29) relating more or less closely to the subject inatter of the Letter, the latter (§§ 30-48) altogether distinct from it, and found with numerous variations in different parts of the Christian Morals.

It first appeared about eight years after the author's death (1690), and has since been reprinted about ten times, which is perhaps more frequently than it deserves the former portion is comparatively uninteresting, and the latter chiefly valuable as furnishing the means of correcting the text of the Christian Morals. Dr. Edward Browne, in editing the Letter, did not do justice to his father's memory, and the first edition is disfigured by various errors which are certainly not attributable to the author. These have been corrected in the present edition; 3 the few Notes

2

Chr. M." (Gardiner, Pref. to ed. 1845). "The concluding reflections are the basis of a larger work, Chr. M." (Mr. Willis Bund, Introd. to ed. 1869). See Notes on p. 132. l. 21: 133. 28: 134. 12: 136. 26: 138. 13, 14. 2 See Notes on p. 128. l. 5: 130. 13: 132, 27: 142. 17: 143. 21: 148. 25: 151. 14: 153. 15, 22.

3 With one exception, p. 128. 1. 5, and this might have been corrected with the rest.

by the author have been preserved, and references have been given to the parallel passages in the Christian Morals. There is a MS. in the British Museum (Sloane, 1862) which varies considerably from the printed text. Some additional passages have been extracted by Wilkin from this MS., which are given in the Notes in this edition.

3. The "Christian Morals" are called by Dr. Edward Browne 66 a continuation of the Religio Medici," and therefore, though in this edition (as in those of Wilkin, Gardiner, and Fields) they are separated from it, probably future editors will think it better to place the two works in juxtaposition. The exact date of their composition cannot be determined with certainty; but it was after 1662,2 and before 1680,3 and probably about 1671.4 They are said by his daughter, Mrs. Littelton, to have been "the last work of her honoured and learned father." 5

They are very different in style from the Religio Medici. There is a greater admixture of strange and pedantic words, and also a more frequent allusion to events and personages in ancient and mediæval history. The book by its title raises expectations

Wilkin's Supplementary Memoir, vol. i. 2 See Note on p. 191. 1. 3.

4 If they were written a little before the

on p. 136. 1. 27: p. 198. 1. penult.

5 See the Dedication, p. 159; meaning probably the "last work" of any great length.

which are hardly realized, and it contains nothing equal in piety or eloquence to some passages in the Religio Medici and Urn Burial. There is, however, in many parts, a grave, solemn, stately flow of words, very artificial, but not unpleasing, and not unsuited to the subject matter, which must evidently have been imitated from the parallelism of Hebrew poetry,1 and which not unfrequently reminds us, in this particular, of passages in the De Imitatione Christi. The following is an elaborate specimen of this peculiarity of style, examples of which will be found in almost every page :

:

"When death's heads on our hands have no influence upon our

heads,

and fleshless cadavers abate not the exorbitances of the flesh;' when crucifixes upon men's hearts suppress not their bad commotions,

and His image Who was murdered for us withholds not from blood and murder;

phylacteries prove but formalities,

and their despised hints sharpen our condemnations."

(pp. 210, 211.)

They were first published in 1716, about thirty-four years after Sir T. B.'s death, by Archdeacon Jeffery, and have enjoyed a fair amount of popularity, having

Perhaps this is what Wilkin means when he says that the "Christian Morals appears to have been written on the model of the Book of Proverbs." (Note to Tract xiii. vol. iii. p. 267, ed Bohn.)

2 Especially as they are brought more prominently before the eye in Hirsche's edition (Berol. 1874) by being divided into lines. Why should not future editions of the Christian Morals be printed in the same way?

been reprinted about eleven times. Of these reprints the only one that deserves particular notice is the first (1756), to which was prefixed Johnson's wellknown Life of the author.1

In the present volume the text has been printed from the first edition with (it is believed) only three alterations; 2 but several other improvements and corrections have been suggested in the Notes, (chiefly arising from the parallel passages in the Letter to a Friend,) some of which may probably be adopted by future editors.3 All the Notes in the first edition have been retained, as they were copied from the original MS. of the author; and also most of those in ed. 1756, which have been of much use in the Glossarial Index. The marginal abstract of the different sections is taken, (with a few alterations,) from Peace's edition, 1844. The extracts from MSS. in the British Museum are taken from Wilkin's edition, 1852.

B. The present volume was at first intended to be little more than a corrected and improved reprint of Gardiner's edition of 1845 (W). When, however,

I It is not quite certain whether Johnson contributed to this edition more than the Life, as it would almost seem from the wording and the punctuation of the title-page, as if a marked distinction were intended to be drawn between the writer of the Life and of the Explanatory Notes.

2 See Notes at p. 161. 1. 17: 165. 28: 199. 8.

3 See Notes at p. 165. l. 19: 165. 11: 168. 22: 169. ult.: 170. 20: 190. 6: 199. 8: 200. 3.