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_; but Noah," says he, "had neither _rest_ nor _quiet_ during the deluge. "MOSES--_mos-es_, that is, the 'mud of the waters;' being, when an infant, exposed and raised out of the mud and slime of the river Nile. The Chaldeans interpret his name 'raised,' simply according to the mere circumstance of his being taken up; but the Celtic (_i. e._ the Dutch) signification denotes the whole fact. "DAVID--_D'af-heid_, that is to say, 'lowness,' 'humility.' For David was not only of a low stature, but, above all, low and humble in his mind, as appears from 1 Kings," &c. &c. After Teutonising the Hebrew in this manner, he next proceeds to the Egyptian. "AEGYPTOS--_haeg-up-t'hos_, that is 'sylvae supra altitudines,' 'the woody heights above.' (How this is exactly applicable he does not inform us.) "NILUS--_N'hil-ho_, that is, the 'high descent,' to wit, of waters; for the Nile descends from the Mountains of the Moon, which are very high.