and Gaul, into Dutch equivalents, through the three-and-twenty
books of his first impression, followed up his fantasy, in 1615, by an
additional essay, in which whatever was extravagant before, became, if
possible, still more transcendently nonsensical. Perhaps no part of the
entire work is more characteristic of the vanity and blindness of the
writer than his preface to this second part, where he gravely takes his
guide, Goropius, to task for founding so large a work as the _Becceselana_
on so small a foundation as the "_bec_" of Psammetichus, and regrets that
his predecessor did not confine himself to etymons more consistent with
the local and personal characteristics of his several subjects. For his
own part the ground he goes upon is this, that the names of men and places
among the Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, as also among the
Scythians, Celts, Etruscans, and Belgae, (which latter, he says, are all
Celts,) are properly significant in that Scythic tongue which the Belgae
and Dutch to this day preserve; whence it follows, says he, "as an
argument superior to all exception, that not only the Chaldaic, Egyptian,
Greek, and Latin tongues (he does not mention the Hebrew, which he
concedes to be the language of Paradise) are inferior and posterior to the
tongue now used by the Belgae and Dutch; but also that the same Belgae and
Dutchmen are extracted from a more ancient people, and a higher original,
than the said Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans."

And that this may appear by sufficient proofs, he proceeds to show that
the chief names of men and places in each of these counties are rightly
significant in Dutch, and not in their respective proper languages: as,
for example--

"ADAM--_Scythice Ad-ham_, sive _Haid-am_, ens conjunctivum, 'a united
entity.' The Chaldeans," says he, "interpreted Adam to mean 'red,'
for what reason I cannot see. It doth not appear a name of sufficient
dignity for the first and most perfect and absolute of men. 'Tis much
more to the purpose that he should have got the name of an united
entity, from the first institution of marriage by his Creator.

"EVA--_i. e. heve_, significat _praegnans_ vel _elevata_, ab
_elevatione_ ventris; than which nothing could be said more _in rem_.

"NOE--_N'hohe_, that is, _altus_, _celsus_; as Noah was at the head
of time after the deluge. The Chaldeans interpret it _cessatio_,
_quies_; b