Religio Medici, Hydriotaphia, and the Letter to a Friend

Browne is one of the best early examples of this school; his style, to quote Johnson himself, 'is vigorous but rugged, it is learned but pedantick, it is deep but obscure, it strikes but does not please, it commands but does not allure.'

Yet in spite of this qualified censure, there are passages in Browne’s works not inferior to any in the English language; and though his writings may not be 'a well of English undefiled,' yet it is the very defilements that add to the beauty of the work.