[430] Rogers’ Life of Howe, 337, 309. An anecdote in the life of Samuel Wesley illustrates the same fact. He met with a profane officer, and so reproved him as to break for ever his habit of swearing.—Life of S. Wesley, by Tyerman, 134.
[431] Richard Dunning’s Bread for the Poor.
[432] History of his Own Time, ii. 101. See note by Lord Dartmouth in the Oxford edition.
[433] Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III., by Vernon, Secretary of State, ii. 302. I find amongst the Tanner MSS., xxviii. 162, “Case of Sir Peter Gleanes’ daughter, supposed to be suffering from witchcraft, Aug. 17, 1688.”
[434] This information is gathered chiefly from Hutchinson’s Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft.
[435] Not “your,” as often quoted.
[436] Athenian Oracle, i. 153.
[437] Hutchinson, 62. Hume says, in his Commentaries on the Laws of Scotland, ii. 556, that among the many trials for witchcraft, he had not observed “one which proceeds upon the notion of a vain, cheating art, falsely used by an impostor to deceive the weak and credulous.” It is not until faith in witchcraft expires that such a notion obtains. The Scotch were more superstitious than the English. English believers in witchcraft regarded the witch as the slave; the Scotch regarded her as the mistress, of the evil power. See Burton’s Criminal Trials in Scotland, i. 240. Dugald Stuart, in his Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysical and Ethical Philosophy, notices Malbranche’s scepticism as to sorcery, and gives an interesting extract on the subject, p. 75.
[438] Hutchinson, 58, 108.
[439] Monk’s Life of Bentley, 34.