s objection, though I do not recollect that it has
ever been made. His method is inconvenient and unscientific. He has
inverted the natural order. That natural order undoubtedly
dictates, that we should first search for the original principles
of the science, in human nature; then apply them to the regulation
of the conduct of individuals; and lastly employ them for the
decision of those difficult and complicated questions that arise
with respect to the intercourse of nations. But Grotius has chosen
the reverse of this method. He begins with the consideration of the
states of peace and war, and he examines original principles, only
occasionally and incidentally, as they grow out of the questions,
which he is called upon to decide. It is a necessary consequence of
this disorderly method, which exhibits the elements of the science
in the form of scattered digressions, that he seldom employs
sufficient discussion on those fundamental truths, and never in
the place where such a discussion would be most instructive to the
reader. This defect in the plan of Grotius was perceived, and
supplied by Puffendorf, who restored natural law to that
superiority which belonged to it, and with great propriety, treated
the law of nations as only one main branch of the parent stock."

[Sidenote: CHAP X. 1621-1634]

Whatever may be the merit of the work of which we are speaking, it must
be admitted, that few, on their first appearance, and during a long
subsequent period after publication, have received greater or warmer
applause. The stores of erudition displayed in it, recommended it to the
classical scholar, while the happy application of the author's reading
to the affairs of human life, drew to it the attention of common
readers. Among those, whose approbation of it, deserved to be recorded,
Gustavus Adolphus,--his prime minister the Chancellor Oxenstiern,--and
the Elector Palatine Charles Lewis, deserve particular mention.[035] As
the trophies of Miltiades are supposed to have kept Themistocles awake,
it has been said that the trophies of Grotius drove sleep from Selden,
till be produced his celebrated treatise, "_De Jure naturali et gentium
secundum leges Ebraeorim_." This important work equals that of Grotius
in learning; but, from the partial and recondite nature of its subject,
never equalled it in popularity.

[Sidenote: X. 9. His Treatise de Jure Belli