text:  If there were sufficient reason to suppose that the vice-president of the Royal Dublin Society was acquainted with the Greek and Latin writers who concur in establishing the non-identity of these nations we would say that he exhibits as culpable a contempt for their authority as his Batavian precursors; but Sir William Betham appears scarcely to have read on the subject at all; and what was wilful presumption on their part may be the innocence of mere want of knowledge on his; for both Scrieck and Becan were perfectly aware that in identifying so many nations of antiquity with their own they were flying in the face of all authority; but Betham Hibernicizes all the nations from Taprobana to Thule apparently unconscious of any recorded reason against their universal identity