VANITY.
(Ludicrous instance of.)

Peter le Loyer, counseller in the presidial court at Angers, was born, in the village of Huillé, in Anjou, the twenty-fourth of November, 1540. He was one of the most learned men of his age, and at the same time one of the greatest visionaries that ever lived. He perfectly understood the Oriental tongues, but was so infatuated with Hebrew etymologies, that he made himself ridiculous. In his books of the Idumean Colonies, he derives from the Hebrew or Chaldee tongues, not only the names of the cities of France, but even those of the villages of Anjou; of the hamlets, houses, barns, fields, and meadows. “I shall therefore say,” these are his words, at page 217, “that the village of Huillé (his birth-place) is derived from Ahalé or Oholé of Ezekiel, which is Ada, or Gada, the wife of Esau, and mother of Eliphaz. Near Huillé, about half a mile on the river Loire, there is, on a hill, a little hamlet, called Bassetas, which I derive from Bassemath, and Bassemtis, another wife of Esau, and mother of Raguel, grand-mother to Jerah, and great-grand-mother to Job.” M. Menage, having given three or four other instances of the same stamp, adds, “all the book is filled with such observations, which makes me boldly say that we are not much the worse for the loss of ten or twelve volumes of other books of Colonies of the same author. He pretended to find in Homer, says Menage, whatever he had a mind to. He found in one single verse his own

christian name, the name of his family, the name of the village where he was born, the name of the province in which this village lay, and the name of the kingdom which contained this province. In a thing so incredible as this I speak of, Menage gives his own words in his Idumean Colonies.“After this great prophecy, which is wholly owing to me, Homer comes to speak this verse, addressing himself to Ulysses:

Σόν δʹ οὔπω τις ἔχει καλόν γέωασι άλλα ἒκηγος. Verse 183 of the Odyssey V. ¹⁴⁵

‘ And in no body,’ says Anticlea’s shade to her son Ulysses, ‘ has yet thy (Loyer) reward, in all respects happily reposed; and what follows, which bears another meaning. In all this long verse you will exactly find,

Πέρος Λωὲριος, Άνδίνκαος, Γάλλος, Υλείη.

That is to say, Peter Loyer, Angevin, Gaullois d’Hu illé: there is neither more nor less in it; let who will make the trial. This I offer to defend to all that read me; and why should not I defend what is notoriously my own in Homer? there is no satisfaction in a thing which is not bur own, or doubted to be our own. Now Homer attributes this verse to me, and by so doing he makes it mine and not another's; and whatever way we turn this verse in Homer, it will still be mine, and I can claim it for my own. There are three letters, which remain in this whole verse, which perhaps may be said to be superfluous, but they are not so. These are the numeral Greek letters, α, χ, κ, which denote the time when the name should be revealed which is contained in this verse of Homer, to wit, the year of Christ 1620; and what is less superfluous? Now this is sufficient, as to what concerns myself; which I do not relate for the glory I hope from it;

but rather because I cannot, and ought not to be silent as to what has been revealed to Homer concerning me. This will serve moreover to strengthen my work concerning the originals, migrations, and colonies of people, which had been reserved for me. Homer in vain concealed the origin of many nations, under the cover of fables; since there was to be one, in future ages, who should discover what he had attempted to conceal. I do not boast, for all this, to know more than other men; but who will withstand the grace of God, co-operating in me?· This is what Homer discovered, even to the naming the little village where I should receive my birth, that I might not glory in my weakness and meanness, but rather in God, who makes me what I am, and renders me so potent and vigorous, in that he comforts me.” Nothing could be left out of this long passage, where every thing shows so learned and singular a madness.

Art. Loyer.