ow not for what reason, adopted, though with far greater moderation
and decency, by some respectable writers among ourselves. As to those
who first used this language, the most candid supposition that we can
make with respect to them is, that they never read the work; for, if
they had not been deterred from the perusal of it by such a formidable
display of Greek characters, they must soon have discovered that Grotius
never quotes on any subject till he has first appealed to some
principles, and often, in my humble opinion, though, not always, to the
soundest and most rational principles.

But another sort of answer is due to some of those[10] who have
criticised Grotius, and that answer might be given in the words of
Grotius himself.[11] He was not of such a stupid and servile cast of
mind, as to quote the opinions of poets or orators, of historians and
philosophers, as those of judges, from whose decision there was no
appeal. He quotes them, as he tells us himself, as witnesses whose
conspiring testimony, mightily strengthened and confirmed by their
discordance on almost every other subject, is a conclusive proof of the
unanimity of the whole human race on the great rules of duty and the
fundamental principles of morals. On such matters, poets and orators are
the most unexceptionable of all witnesses; for they address themselves
to the general feelings and sympathies of mankind; they are neither
warped by system, nor perverted by sophistry; they can attain none of
their objects; they can neither please nor persuade if they dwell on
moral sentiments not in unison with those of their readers. No system of
moral philosophy can surely disregard the general feelings of human
nature and the according judgment of all ages and nations. But where are
these feelings and that judgment recorded and preserved? In those very
writings which Grotius is gravely blamed for having quoted. The usages
and laws of nations, the events of history, the opinions of
philosophers, the sentiments of orators and poets, as well as the
observation of common life, are, in truth, the materials out of which
the science of morality is formed; and those who neglect them are justly
chargeable with a vain attempt to philosophise without regard to fact
and experience, the sole foundation of all true philosophy.

If this were merely an objection of taste, I should be willing to allow
that Grotius has indeed poured forth his learning with a profusion that
som