d it under
different heads comprehending the principal points of Philosophy. His
work is the more valuable as it has preserved several fragments of the
Ancients found no where else. Grotius when very young purposed to
extract from this author all the maxims of the poets, to translate them
into Latin verse, and print the original with the translation. He began
this when a boy; he was employed in it at the time of his arrest, and
continued it as an amusement, whilst he had the use of books, in his
prison at the Hague. He tells us that when he was deprived of pen and
ink he was got to the forty-ninth title, which is an invective against
tyranny, that had a great relation to what passed at that time in
Holland. On his removal to Louvestein he resumed this work, and he
finished it at Paris. He made several happy corrections in the text of
Stobaeus, some from his own conjectures or those of his friends, others
on the authority of manuscripts in the king's library, which were very
politely lent him by the learned Nicholas Rigaut, librarian to his
Majesty.

Prefixed to this book are Prolegomena, in which the author shews that
the works of the ancient Pagans are filled with maxims agreeable to the
truths taught in Holy Writ. He intended to dedicate this book to the
Chancellor Silleri: he had even written the dedication; but his friends,
to whom he shewed it, thought he expressed himself with too much warmth
against the censurers of his _Apology_. They advised him therefore to
suppress it; and he yielded to their opinion. It may be observed in
reading the royal privilege that the present title of the book is
different from what it was to have had. To these extracts from the Greek
Poets translated into Latin verse, Grotius annexed two pieces, one of
Plutarch, the other of St. Basil, on the use of the Poets; giving the
Greek text with a Latin translation. Fabricius informs us, that in the
Library of the College of Leyden there is a copy of the Geneva edition
of Stobaeus, in the year 1609, with several notes in Grotius's own hand.
Three years after the publication of his Stobaeus, Grotius printed a work
which may be looked upon as a continuation of it; being an extract of
the Comedies and Tragedies of the Greeks: the text is translated into
Latin verse. In this work he inserted only such maxims as he thought
best worth preserving. He began it, as we have observed, when a prisoner
at Louvestein. The learned Fabricius very judiciously