Clafs III. APE iO SOR a De 9 
tutal powers, and made it a principal ingredient in 
the incantations of nocturnal hags : 
2 ‘Toad that under the cold ftone, 
Days and nights, has thirty-one, 
Swelter’d venom fleeping got, 
Boil thou, /ir/? i’ th’ charmed pot. 
We know by the poet that this charm was in- 
tended for a defign of the firft confideration, that of 
raifing the dead from their repofe, and bringing be- 
fore the eyes of Macbeth a hateful fecond-fight of 
the profperity of Banguo’s line. 
This fhews the mighty powers attributed to this 
animal by the dealers in the magic art; but the 
powers our poet indues it with, are far fuperior ta 
thofe than Ge/ner afcribes to it: Sbake/pear’s witches 
ufed it to difturb the dead; Gefner’s, only to ftill the 
living, Ut vim caeundi ni fallor, in viris tollerent*. 
We may add here another fuperftition in refpeét 
to this animal: it was believed by fome old writers 
to have a ftone in its head, fraught with great vir- 
tues medical and magical: it was diftinguifhed by the 
name of the Reptile, and called the Toad-Stone, Bufa- 
nites, Crapaudine, Krottenftein**, but all its fancied 
powers vanifhed on the difcovery of its being nothing 
but the foffil tooth of the fea wolf, or of fome flat- 
toothed fifh, not unfrequent in our ifland, as well as 
feveral other countries ; but we may well excufe this 
tale, fince Shakefpear has extracted from it a fimile 
of uncommon beauty: 
* Hifi. quad. ovip. 72. 
** Boet. de Boot. de Lap. et Gem 301. 303. 
Toad- 
ftone. 
