SOURCE: Kitzes, Adam H. “Hydriotaphia: ‘The Sensible Rhetorick of the Dead.’” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 42, no. 1 (winter 2002): 137-54.

In the following essay, Kitzes studies the problem of decay in language as it is addressed by Browne in his Hydriotaphia, writing that in this work, Browne clearly concluded that the decay experienced by society is a result of its own constitution and not of any external influences.

In Philosophy where truth seemes double-faced, there is no man more paradoxicall then my self; but in Divinity I love to keepe the road, and though not in an implicite, yet an humble faith, follow the great wheele of the Church, by which I move, not reserving any proper poles or motion from the epicycle of my own braine.

I love to lose my selfe in a mystery to pursue my reason to an oh altitudo. 'Tis my solitary recreation to...