Mr. Copeland gave the second of his four lectures on "English Worthies" yesterday in the Fogg Art Museum. The subject was Sir Thomas Browne.

On account of the slight acquaintance which most persons, even most cultivated persons, have with the life and writings of Sir Thomas Browne, Mr. Copeland began his lecture with an unusually full comment upon the life and surroundings of this writer. Browne, although the son of a London merchant, was of gentle descent on both sides of the house. His father's comfortable fortune enabled him to send his son to school at Winchester. He afterward took the Bachelor's Degree at Oxford and as the result of study at Montpelier, Padua, and Leyden received the degree of Doctor of Physic. After something like three years of practice in another place, Browne, in 1836, settled at Norwich which was to be his home almost uninterruptedly for the remainder of his life. In 1642, the year of the Battle of Edgehill, appeared what has always been known as a surreptious edition of "Religio Medici," Browne's earliest work. This had been in existence a long time, as the writer tells us that he finished it before reaching his thirtieth year; but, except for the unauthorized edition of 1642 it is by no means certain that the world would have had the authorized edition so early as the following year. In 1646, the date of Charles I's surrender to the Scotch, came the "Vulgar Errors." 1658, the year of Cromwell's death saw the publishing of Urn Burial. In 1671 Charles II visited Norwich, and, as the mayor refused the proffered honor of knighthood, the King fulfilled his intention of distinguishing some eminent citizen by dubbing Browne Sir Thomas. In 1682, three years before the death of Charles, Sir Thomas Browne departed this life. The speaker made this association of the chief chief circumstances of Browne's life with the chief dates of contemporaneous history in order to underline the fact of an uncommonly retired and peaceful existence by contrast with the troubled course of public affairs.

Mr. Copeland related the main particulars of the personal account of Browne given by his friend, the Rev. Mr. Whitefoot. As that his complexion and hair sorted with his name, that he was neither short nor tall, that he was neither fat nor lean, but as the Greeks would say, eusarchos. "Browne," said Whitefoot, "was always cheerful, though seldom merry; and in spite of the vivacity of his writings he jested seldom and then with apparent embarassment to himself."

The lecturer stated briefly the general character of "Religio Medici," "Vulgar Errors," Urn Burial," "A Letter to a Friend," and, the most fantastic of all Browne's works, the "Garden of Cyrus." He commented upon the Latin origin of much of Sir Thomas's writings, upon its quaintness, its dignity, and-when it is at its best-the solemn music of its cadences. The distinguishing qualities of seventeenth century prose were brought out, or rather suggested, by a rough comparison of Browne with Bacon, Ralegh, Hooker, Isask Walton, and Jeremy Taylor, who is Browne's only equal in his most splendid passages of ornate prose.