1#
feNî
432 M O U N T A IN L IM E S T O N E .
h e r e ; it is my intention to advert to it
more fully in a third edition of my Introduction
to Geology, which I propose to
publish, if my health permit, with such additions
and alterations, as the present improved
state of the science requires. The
second edition has long been out o f print
in England, but it has been translated into
German by M. Muller, and published at
Freyberg.
NOTES
TO
TH E SECO N D V O LUM E .
C h a p . V. p. 127.
Witchcraft.
I t ought to be mentioned, that after the execution
or murder of so many people for sorcery, Geneva
had the honour of being the first protestant state in Europe,
which declared publicly its disbelief in witchcraft ;
the last person who was executed there for this supposed
crime was in the year 1652, which was nearly
half a century before we renounced the practice of
hanging witches in England. The belief in withcraft is
still prevalent in Cornwall. The Genevese appear to
have lost the art of discovering witches, before they discontinued
the practice of burning them, for in the last
trials, they were obliged to bring some men from Nyon to
discover whether certain spots on the body were the true
marks of the devil. In the year 1681, all Switzerland
celebrated a solemn fast on the appearance of the comet,
which was considered a sign of divine anger ; some of
the pastors at Geneva objected at first, but conformed
to preserve unanimity.
V O L . I I . F F
'■wk . mm ^