[123] See ante, iv. 17, and under June 9, 1784.
[124] Johnson was thinking of Sir Matthew Hale for one.
[125] 'It is supposed that there were no executions for witchcraft in England subsequently to the year 1682; but the Statute of I James I, c. 12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till the 9 Geo. II, c. 5. In Scotland, so late as the year 1722, when the local jurisdictions were still hereditary [see post, Sept. 11], the sheriff of Sutherlandshire condemned a witch to death.' Penny Cyclo. xxvii. 490. In the Bishopric of Wurtzburg, so late as 1750, a nun was burnt for witchcraft: 'Cette malheureuse fille soutint opiniâtrément qu'elle était sorcière.... Elle était folle, ses juges furent imbécilles et barbares.' Voltaire's Works, ed. 1819, xxvi. 285.
[126] A Dane wrote to Garrick from Copenhagen on Dec. 23, 1769:—'There is some of our retinue who, not understanding a word of your language, mimic your gesture and your action: so great an impression did it make upon their minds, the scene of daggers has been repeated in dumb show a hundred times, and those most ignorant of the English idiom can cry out with rapture, "A horse, a horse; my kingdom for a horse!"' Garrick Corres. i. 375. See ante, vol. iv. under Sept. 30, 1783
[127] See ante, i. 466.
[128] Johnson, in the preface to his Dictionary (Works, v. 43), after stating what he had at first planned, continues:—'But these were the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer.' See ante, i. 189, note 2, and May I, 1783.
[129] See his letter on this subject in the APPENDIX. BOSWELL. He had been tutor to Hume's nephew and was one of Hume's friends. J.H Burton's Hume, ii. 399.
[130] By the Baron d'Holbach. Voltaire (Works, xii. 212) describes this book as 'Une Philippique contre Dieu.' He wrote to M. Saurin:—'Ce maudit livre du Système de la Nature est un péché contre nature. Je vous sais bien bon gré de réprouver l'athéisme et d'aimer ce vers: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." Je suis rarement content de mes vers, mais j'avoue que j'ai une tendresse de père pour celui-là.' Ib. v. 418.
[131] One of Garrick's correspondents speaks of 'the sneer of one of Johnson's ghastly smiles.' Garrick Corres. i. 334. 'Ghastly smile' is borrowed from Paradise Lost, ii. 846.
[132] See ante, iii. 212. In Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh, ii. 158, is given a comic poem entitled The Court of Session Garland, written by Boswell, with the help, it was said, of Maclaurin.