"Men that look no further than outside think health an appurtenance unto life and quarrel with our condition of being sick. But I who have looked at the innermost parts of man and known what tender filaments that fabric hangs on oft wonder that we are not always so. And considering the thousand doors that lead to death do thank our God that I can die but once".Religio Medici -Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682).

The Religio Medici ('The Religion of a Physician') described as a prose-poem, confession of faith and 'sort of private diary of the soul', is hard to categorize. Although an exploration of religious thought, it cannot be described as theological, and although written by a physician, neither is it medical or scientific; indeed, as Browne explores the central themes of faith and charity, he acknowledges the need to keep religion separate from science for 'many things are true in Divinity, which are neither inducible by reason nor confirmable by sense'.