the nightmare; and that the country people would be tossing her into a
pond, and trying experiments with her every day, if it was not for him
and his chaplain.

I have since found, upon inquiry, that Sir ROGER was several times
staggered with the reports that had been brought him concerning this old
woman, and would frequently have bound her over to the county-sessions,
had not his chaplain with much ado persuaded him to the contrary.

I have been the more particular in this account, because I hear there is
scarce a village in _England_ that has not a _Moll White_ in
it. When an old woman begins to dote, and grow chargeable to a parish,
she is generally turned into a witch, and fills the whole country with
extravagant fancies, imaginary distempers, and terrifying dreams. In the
mean time, the poor wretch that is the innocent occasion of so many
evils begins to be frighted at herself, and sometimes confesses secret
commerce and familiarities that her imagination forms in a delirious old
age. This frequently cuts off charity from the greatest objects of
compassion, and inspires people with a malevolence towards those poor
decrepid parts of our species, in whom human nature is defaced by
infirmity and dotage. L.




No. 118. MONDAY, JULY 16.

_Haeret lateri lethalis arundo._
VIRG. AEn. iv. ver. 73.