[520] Mr. Paterson, in a pamphlet, produced some evidence to shew that his work was written before Sterne's Sentimental Journey appeared. BOSWELL.
[521] Coryat's Crudities hastily gobled up in five Moneths Trauells in France, Sauoy, Italy, etc. London, 1611.
[522] 'Lord Erskine,' says Mr. Croker, 'was fond of this anecdote. He told it to me the first time that I was in his company, and often repeated it, boasting that he had been a sailor, a soldier, a lawyer, and a parson.'
[523] 185,000. 2 Kings, xix. 35.
[524] Lord Chatham wrote on Oct. 12, 1766, to Lord Shelburne that he 'had extremely at heart to obtain this post for Lord Cardross, a young nobleman of great talents, learning, and accomplishments, and son of the Earl of Buchan, an intimate friend of Lord Chatham, from the time they were students together at Utrecht.' Chatham Corres. iii. 106. Horace Walpole wrote on Oct. 26, 'Sir James Gray goes to Madrid. The embassy has been sadly hawked about it.' Walpole's Letters, v. 22. 'Sir James Gray's father was first a box-keeper, and then footman to James II.' Ib ii. 366.
[525] See ante, ii. 134, for Johnson's attack on Lord Chatham's 'feudal gabble.'
[526] In Boswell's Hebrides, on Aug. 25, 1773, Johnson makes much the same answer to a like statement by Boswell. See post, March 21, 1783.
[527] See ante, i. 343, 405, and post, April 10, 1772.
[528] 'I cannot,' wrote John Wesley, (Journal, iv. 74), 'give up to all Deists in Great Britain the existence of witchcraft, till I give up the credit of all history, sacred and profane. And at the present time, I have not only as strong but stronger proofs of this from eye and ear witnesses than I have of murder; so that I cannot rationally doubt of one any more the than the other.'
[529] See this curious question treated by him with most acute ability, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 3rd edit. p. 33. [Aug. 16.] BOSWELL. Johnson, in his Observations on Macbeth (Works, v. 55-7), shews his utter disbelief in witchcraft. 'These phantoms,' he writes, 'have indeed appeared more frequently in proportion as the darkness of ignorance has been more gross; but it cannot be shewn that the brightest gleams of knowledge have at any time been sufficient to drive them out of the world.' He describes the spread of the belief in them in the middle ages, and adds:—'The reformation did not immediately arrive at its meridian, and though day was gradually increasing upon us, the goblins of witchcraft still continued to hover in the twilight.' See post, April 8, 1779 and 1780, in Mr. Langton's Collection.