[117] ‘The Memoirs of Scriblerus,’ says Johnson (Works, viii. 298), ’seem to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches, perhaps, by Pope.’  Swift also was concerned in it.  Johnson goes on to shew why ’this joint production of three great writers has never obtained any notice from mankind.’  Arbuthnot was the author of John Bull.  Swift wrote to Stella on May 10, 1712:—­’I hope you read John Bull.  It was a Scotch gentleman, a friend of mine, that wrote it; but they put it upon me.’  See ante, i. 425.

[118] See ante, i. 452, and ii. 318.

[119] Horace, Satires.  I. iii. 19.

[120] See ante, i. 396, and ii. 298.

[121] See ante, ii. 74.

[122] ’At supper there was such conflux of company that I could scarcely support the tumult.  I have never been well in the whole journey, and am very easily disordered.’ Piozzi Letters, i. 109.

[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to the year 1682; but the Statute of I James I, c. 12, so minute in its enactments against witches, was not repealed till the 9 Geo.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 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.