_Histoire des Sévarambes_ (Vol. iii., p. 4.).--On the subject of the
authorship of this work I will transcribe a note which I subjoined to a
short account of Isaac Vossius (Worthington's _Diary_, p. 125):--
"Whether the History of the Sevarites, of Sevarambi by Captains Thomas
Liden, published in two parts (London, 1675-9, 12mo.), which is one of
the ablest of the fictions written after the model of More's _Utopia_,
and which has been ascribed to Isaac Vossius by J.A. Fabricius, be his,
is a point yet unsettled. On a careful consideration of the internal
evidence, and a comparison with his avowed publications, so far as such
a comparison can be made between works so dissimilar in character, I
incline to the conclusion that this tract is justly ascribed to Isaac
Vossius."
On a reconsideration of the subject, I see no reason to alter this opinion.
Morhof, who always attributed it to Isaac Vossius (see Polyhistor, vol. i.
p. 74., edit. 1747), was thoroughly versed in the literary history,
including the English, of the period, and was not likely to have been
mistaken. Vossius lived in England from 1670 to 1688, when he died. I have
seen several English letters of his, though his general correspondence was
in Latin or French, and he seems quite able to have written it, as far as
the language is concerned. Vairasse appears to have translated it into
French but to have had no other part in it. I may observe, that the
publication in English, London, 1738, is a retranslation from the French,
not a reprint of the original work of 1675-9.