

In Search of Sir Thomas Browne - acsillag
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/19/books/review/in-search-of-sir-thomas-browne-by-hugh-aldersey-williams.html

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benbreen
I love this guy. A true eccentric. I recommend his essay "Urne-Buriall" as an
introduction to his writing. I suspect Tolkien, being a fellow Oxford
eccentric, was at some level influenced by passages like this:

"In sundry Graves and Sepulchres, we meet with Rings, Coynes, and Chalices;
Ancient frugality was so severe, that they allowed no gold to attend the
Corps, but only that which served to fasten their teeth. Whether the Opaline
stone in this Urne were burnt upon the finger of the dead, or cast into the
fire by some affectionate friend, it will consist with either custome. But
other incinerable substances were found so fresh, that they could feel no
sindge from fire."

[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/hydrionoframes/hydrion.html](http://penelope.uchicago.edu/hydrionoframes/hydrion.html)

~~~
gwern
_Urn Burial_ really is an amazing work of prose. It's a bit sad to read
Browne's biography and realize the truth of Nietzsche's dictum: "Behind a
remarkable scholar one often finds a mediocre man, and behind a mediocre
artist, often, a remarkable man."

