lled on the
continent, and returning to England in 1633, he began to write his most
important work, _Religio Medici_, at once a transcript of his own life and
a manifesto of what the religion of a physician should be. It was kept in
manuscript for some time, but was published without his knowledge in 1642.
He then revised the work, and published several editions himself. No
description of the treatise can give the reader a just idea of it; it
requires perusal. The criticism of Dr. Johnson is terse and just: it is
remarkable, he says, for "the novelty of paradoxes, the dignity of
sentiment, the quick succession of images, the multitude of abstruse
allusions, the subtilty of disquisition, and the strength of language." As
the portraiture of an inner life, it is admirable; and the accusation of
heterodoxy brought against him on account of a few careless passages is
unjust.

Among his other works are _Essays on Vulgar Errors_ (_Pseudoxia
Epidemica_), and _Hydriotaphica_ or _Urne burial_; the latter suggested by
the exhumation of some sepulchral remains in Norfolk, which led him to
treat with great learning of the funeral rites of all nations. To this he
afterwards added _The Garden of Cyrus, or The Quincunxial Lozenge_, in
which, in the language of Coleridge, he finds quincunxes "in heaven above,
in the earth below, in the mind of man, in tones, optic nerves, in the
roots of trees, in leaves, in everything." He died in 1682.

Numerous sects, all finding doctrine and forms in the Bible, were the
issue of the religious and political controversies of the day. Without
entering into a consideration or even an enumeration of these, we now
mention a few of the principal names among them.

RICHARD BAXTER.--Among the most devout, independent, and popular of the
religious writers of the day, Richard Baxter occupies a high rank. He was
born in 1615, and was ordained a clergyman in 1638. In the civil troubles
he desired to remain neutral, and he opposed Cromwell when he was made
Protector. In 1662 he left the Church, and was soon the subject of
persecution: he was always the champion of toleration. In prison, poor,
hunted about from place to place, he was a martyr in spirit. During his
great earthly troubles he was solaced by a vision, which he embodied in
his popular work, _The Saints' Everlasting Rest_; and he wrote with great
fervor _A Call to the Unconverted_. He was a very voluminous writer; the
brutal Judge Jeffries, before w