[Sir Thomas Browne.] ... And for better nourishment I read Sir Thomas Browne here always: his grand pomp pleases me. This morning he said to me, "Whatever influences, impulsions or inclinations there be from the lights above, it were a piece of wisdom to make one of those wise men who over-ruke their stars and with their own militia contend with the Host of Heaven" - and that is handsome astrology. He says a nice thing about another life. "It is the heaviest stone that melancholy can throw at a man to tell him he is at the end of his nature - or that there is no further state to come, into which this seems progressional and otherwise made in vain." And yesterday he stirred me when he said, "But man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing nativities and deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting ceremonies of bravery in the infamy of his nature." ...