"Can you tell me who wrote the _History of the Sevarambians_? The book
is to me curious. Wieland steals from it so often, that it must have
been a favourite in his library; if I had to impute the book by guess,
I would fix on Maurice Ashby, the translator of Xenophon's _Cyropaedia_,
as the author."
to which Southey replies,--
"Of the Sevarambians I know nothing!" (See _Gent. Mag._ N.S. xxi. p.
355.)
Sir W. Scott, in his _Memoirs of Swift_, p. 304. (edit. 1834), speaking of
_Gulliver's Travels_, says--
"A third volume was published by an unblushing forger, as early as
1727, without printer's name, a great part of which is unacknowledged
plunder from a work entitled _Hist. des Sevarambes_, ascribed to Mons.
Alletz, suppressed in France and other Catholic kingdoms on account of
its deistical opinions."
It would seem from this, that Sir Walter was not aware of the English work,
or knew much of its origin or the author.