312 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “‘ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
verstaen’’, etc. etc. (in which en is now unnecessary and 
untranslatable): and the habit which Leeuwenhoek (not 
alone) had of dividing up his compound words into their 
constituents—e.g., he commonly wrote over geset, voort comen, 
al hoe wel, on na speurlijk, door gaens, etc., where we should 
now write overgezet, voortkomen, alhoewel, onnaspeurlijk, door- 
gaans, and so forth. 
Leeuwenhoek’s language appears, to me, to be full of 
philological interest ; but I am no philologist, and must there- 
fore content myself with noting some of the more obvious 
etymological and orthographic peculiarities of his writings. 
In my study of his manuscripts and printed letters I have 
been greatly aided not only by his contemporary translators 
but also by the lexicographers of his own period; and for 
the information of other students I therefore cite the chief 
dictionaries and other linguistic works which I have found 
most useful. Oudemans—the standard authority on Old and 
Middle Dutch—I have consulted only occasionally, on special 
points. Hexham, Hannot, and Halma have been of frequent 
assistance, while Kiliaan and Martinez and Minsheu have 
sometimes helped me over difficulties. Meijer’s Woordenschat 
(1745) contains numerous words which I have found in no 
other vocabulary : I should have used this valuable book more 
if I had known of its existence earlier. But my chief help, 
in translating Leeuwenhoek, has been the great dictionary of 
Sewel (1708)—a man’ who possessed a wonderful knowledge 
of the Dutch and English languages in Leeuwenhoeks time. 
This dictionary has been my constant aid during the last 17 
years, and I can confidently recommend it to anyone who 
wishes to know the exact Dutch and English equivalents of 
1 Willem Sewel (or William Sewell, as he would now be called in English) 
was born at Amsterdam in 1654. His grandfather was an Englishman, who 
married a Dutchwoman and settled in Holland. Sewel visited England as 
a boy, but lived most of his life in Holland, where he was first a weaver, 
then a journalist and translator, and finally the greatest of Dutch-English 
lexicographers. His parents were Quakers ; and in addition to his dictionary 
—which first appeared in 1691, and ran through several editions—he wrote 
a ‘‘ History of the Rise, Increase, and Progress’”’ of this sect (published in 
Dutch, 1717, and in English, 1722). Sewel died in 1720, aged 66. As he 
regarded himself as a Hollander, he would be pained to learn that his life 
is now to be found in our Dict. Nat. Biogr. but in no Dutch biographical 
works which I have consulted. 
