SOURCE: Ellrodt, Robert. “Time and the Body in the Works of Sir Thomas Browne.” In Multiple Worlds, Multiple Words: Essays in Honour of Irène Simon, edited by Hena Maes-Jelinek, Pierre Michel and Paulette Michel-Michot, pp. 97-101. Liège, Belgium: University of Liège, 1987.

In the following essay, Ellrodt discusses Browne's conception of time in his works.

Sir Thomas Browne's conception of time, though often clothed in biblical imagery, is largely derived from the Platonic tradition. Yet his medical profession seems to be responsible for the most distinctive and original features of his intuition of temporality.

A vivid consciousness of physiological time is often disclosed in an unpremeditated way through the choice of an image or a phrase. The author of Christian Morals warns us: “Thou hast an alarum in thy Breast, which tells thee that thou hast a Living Spirit in thee above two thousand times in...