ce which put an end to it.

The celebrated translator of Grotius and Puffendorf assures us that
Grotius took the hint of attempting a system of natural law from Lord
Bacon's works; and certainly, he adds, none was more proper for such an
undertaking. A clear head, an excellent judgment, profound meditation,
universal learning, prodigious reading, continual application to study
amidst many distractions and the duties of several considerable places,
together with a sincere love to truth, are qualities which cannot be
denied to that great man without wronging our own judgment and giving
room to suspect us of black envy or gross ignorance. It is said that he
designed at first to give his book the title, of _The law of nature and
of nations_; but afterwards preferred that which it now bears, _Of the
rights of war and peace_. Never book met with such universal
approbation: Commentaries have been written upon it by many learned men,
and it has been publicly read at Universities. Though M. Barbeyrac
thinks Puffendorf's book much more useful, he is at the same time
persuaded that if Grotius had not led the way, we should not yet have
had any tolerable system of natural law: "and, he adds, if Puffendorf
had been in Grotius's place, and Grotius in Puffendorf's, the treatise
_Of the rights of war and peace_ would in my opinion have been much more
defective; and that _Of the law of nature and nations_ much more
perfect." Puffendorf himself owns that there remained few things to be
said after Grotius.

Though the Latin language was at that time more used than at present,
the principal nations of Europe wanted to have this work in their mother
tongue. Grotius, on examining the Dutch translation, found the
translator often wilfully deviating from the true sense of the original.
The Great Gustavus caused it to be translated into Swedish: a
translation of it into English was preparing in the year 1639: Mr.
Barbeyrac thinks it was not finished in Grotius's life-time, but there
have been two English translations of it since his death. It was first
translated into German in 1707 by Mr. Schutz. The Leipsick journalists
speak of this translation as very correct. There are two in French; one
by Mr. Courtin, which that of Barbeyrac has totally eclipsed, and most
justly: for never did a great author meet with a translator more worthy
of him. Mr. Barbeyrac possessed all the necessary qualifications for
executing properly such a difficult transla