Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft

[1]

Walker's 'Lives,' Edinburgh, 1827, vol. i. p. xxxvi. It is evident that honest Peter believed in the apparition of this martial gear on the principle of Partridge's terror for the ghost of Hamlet—not that he was afraid himself, but because Garrick showed such evident marks of terror.

[2]

Long the president of the Berlin Academy, and much favoured by Frederick II., till he was overwhelmed by the ridicule of Voltaire. He retired, in a species of disgrace, to his native country of Switzerland, and died there shortly afterwards. 

[3]

The poem of 'Albania' is, in its original folio edition, so extremely scarce that I have only seen a copy belonging to the amiable and ingenious Dr. Beattie, besides the one which I myself possess, printed in the earlier part of last century. It was reprinted by my late friend Dr. Leyden in a small volume entitled 'Scottish Descriptive Poems.' 'Albania' contains the above, and many other poetical passages of the highest merit. 

[4]

 Most ancient authors, who pretend to treat of the wonders of natural magic, give receipts for calling up phantoms. The lighting lamps fed by peculiar kinds of medicated oil, and the use of suffumigations of strong and deleterious herbs, are the means recommended. From these authorities, perhaps, a professor of legerdemain assured Dr. Alderson of Hull, that he could compose a preparation of antimony, sulphur, and other drugs, which, when burnt in a confined room, would have the effect of causing the patient to suppose he saw phantoms.—See 'Hibbert on Apparitions,' p. 120. 

[5]

 The chart alluded to is one of the jac-similes of an ancient planisphere, engraved in bronze about the end of the 15th century, and called the Borgian Table, from its possessor, Cardinal Stephen Borgia, and preserved in his museum at Veletri.

[6]

'On Remarkable Mercies of Divine Providence.' 

[7]

See Patrick Walker's 'Biographia Presbyteriana,' vol. ii. p. 23; also 'God's Judgment upon Persecutors,' and Wodrow's 'History,' upon the article John Gibb. 

[8]

'Magnalia,' book vii. article xviii. The fact is also alleged in the 'Life of Sir William Phipps.'

[9]

See Tennant's 'Scottish Tour,' vol. i. p. III. The traveller mentions that some festival of the same kind was in his time observed in Gloucestershire. 

[10]

See 'Essay on the Subterranean Commonwealth,' by Mr. Robert Kirke, minister of Aberfoyle. 

[11]

'Codex,' lib. ix. tit. 18, cap. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8. 

[12]

By this more ancient code, the punishment of death was indeed denounced against those who destroyed crops, awakened storms, or brought over to their barns and garners the fruits of the earth; but, by good fortune, it left the agriculturists of the period at liberty to use the means they thought most proper to render their fields fertile and plentiful. Pliny informs us that one Caius Furius Cresinus, a Roman of mean estate, raised larger crops from a small field than his neighbours could obtain from more ample possessions. He was brought before the judge upon a charge averring that he conjured the fruits of the earth, produced by his neighbours' farms, into his own possession. Cresinus appeared, and, having proved the return of his farm to be the produce of his own hard and unremitting labour, as well as superior skill, was dismissed with the highest honours. 

[13]