Sir Thomas Browne · 1658 · EPUB · Calibre ID 149
Resurfaced in The Chemist’s Shelf (2026-10-20).
Role in the triad
Hinge: holds both Russian positions at once — faith that scattered ashes reassemble (God’s work) and scepticism toward every human preservation; mummy ends on the apothecary’s shelf.
Why this book
Religio Medici I.47–48 states resurrection of divided dust and supports it by palingenesis (plant revived from its ashes); Urne-Buriall V catalogues the failures of pyramids, mummies, inscriptions; uses ‘Ossuaries’ (1658). Years: RM 1642/43, UB 1658; NYRB ed. 2012.
Quotations
Verified against the book’s own text on the day of the reading.
- “I beleeve that our estranged and divided ashes shall unite againe; that our separated dust after so many pilgrimages and transformations into the parts of mineralls, Plants, Animals, Elements, shall at the voyce of God returne into their primitive shapes, and joyne againe to make up their primary and predestinated formes.” (RM I.48) | “I have heard some with deepe sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero; others with as many groanes deplore the combustion of the Library of Alexandria; for my owne part, I thinke there be too many in the world, and could with patience behold the urne and ashes of the Vatican” (RM I.24) | “But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? who hath the Oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered?” (UB, Epistle Dedicatory) | “He that hath the ashes of his friend, hath an everlasting treasure” (UB III) | “But the iniquity of oblivion blindely scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit of perpetuity.” (UB V) | “The Ægyptian Mummies, which Cambyses or time hath spared, avarice now consumeth. Mummie is become Merchandise, Miszraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for balsoms.” (UB V) | “Though the earth had confounded the ashes of these Ossuaries, yet the bones were so smartly burnt, that some thin plates of brasse were found half melted among them” (UB III)
Themes
antiquarianism · apothecary · ashes · monuments · mummy · oblivion · ossuary · palingenesis · resurrection · urn burial