[196] In the article on Crichton in the _Biographia Britannica_, Dr Kippis subjects our author to grave censure (see p. 158). With respect to Urquhart's present work he says: "Of his total disregard to truth there is incontestible evidence in another work of his, entitled _The True Pedigree_, etc. In this work it is almost incredible what a number of falsities he has invented, both with respect to names and facts. Perhaps a more flagrant instance of imposture and fiction was never exhibited; and the absurdity of the whole pedigree is beyond the power of words to express. It can only be felt by those who have perused the Tract itself." It is to be feared that Dr Kippis was mentally akin to the Irish bishop who remarked of _Gulliver's Travels_ when it appeared, that "all was not gospel that was in that book." Some one has said that the names of Urquhart's ancestors, at any rate on the male side, are very likely those of the giants and heathen in the _Amadis of Gaul_; and certainly Famongomadan, Cartadaque, Madanfabul, Arcalaus, and Basagante remind one of chiefs and heroes of the Cromartie line. In the female line the resemblance is much closer; for Asymbleta, Eromena, and Gonima distinctly recall the Darioleta, Brisena, and Madasima of the romance. [197] Fountainhall, _Decisions_, ii. 265 and 315; Morrison, _Dictionary of Decisions_, xxvii. 11304. [198] In some ways the elder Sir Thomas reminds us of the pedantic and undignified monarch, James VI., from whom he received knighthood. Both were the first Protestants of their respective houses, both were attached to prelacy rather than to Presbyterianism, and both were wasteful and slovenly in money matters. If the above conjecture be well founded, they had a further point of resemblance to each other, in their interest in fabulous genealogies. And it may be said of them both that they prepared a series of misfortunes for their chivalrous, high-spirited sons. CHAPTER VI ΕΚΣΚΥΒΑΛΑΥΡΟΝ: or, THE JEWEL, and LOGOPANDECTEISION: or, THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. Sir Thomas Urquhart's previous excursions into literature had been of a somewhat tentative kind, and calculated to whet the desire of a judicious reader for him to enter upon more serious undertakings. He had appeared in the world of letters in several different aspects,--as a man of science, and as the representative and poet, as historian of a family which, for long descent and glorious achievements, could not be rivalled, if his statements concerning it were to be credited,--but no one could forecast, from what he had already published, the nature of his next literary exploit.