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12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till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 opiniatrement
qu'elle etait sorciere.... Elle etait folle, ses juges furent imbecilles
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 Systeme de la Nature est un peche contre
nature. Je vous sais bien bon gre de reprouver l'atheisme 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 pere pour
celui-la.' _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.

[133] Dr. John Gregory, Professor of Medicine in the