Grotius; and had the
highest affection for him[30]. They corresponded by Letter whilst the
President lived: Grotius sent him memoirs[31] for his _History_, and
hints relating to the lives and deaths of illustrious men in the United
Provinces.

It was a thing infinitely pleasing, and at the same time extremely
honorable to a youth between seventeen and eighteen, to be most
intimately connected with one of the greatest men of his time, already
advanced in years, who filled a post of much eminence, and whom all
Europe beheld with admiration. The friendship and esteem of such a
personage is the highest encomium.

M. de Thou gave Grotius, towards the end of his life, sincere proofs of
the concern he took in his quiet and welfare. That great Historian, who
had experienced the fiery zeal of some Divines, beheld with pain his
friend engaging in controversies which would render him odious to a
powerful party. As if he had foreseen what was soon to happen, he
advised him to drop these dangerous disputes. Grotius wrote him in
answer, that he had entered into them only through necessity, to serve
his Country and the Church; that he thought himself obliged to obey
those who wished he would write on those matters; that, for the rest, he
would avoid, for the future, all disputes which were not absolutely
necessary. This Letter is the last we have of the valuable
correspondence between those illustrious men: the President de Thou died
soon after. Grotius wrote his _Elogium_ in verse, addressed to Francis
Augustus de Thou his son, and in this Poem, which was composed at the
time he escaped from Antwerp to go to Paris, he appears to regret much
that he had not the felicity to see his illustrious Father. It is looked
on as one of the best Grotius ever wrote.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] Ep. 1. p. 1. April 1, 1599.

[27] Ep. 2. p. 1.

[28] Ep. 3. p. 1.

[29] Poemata, p. 262. Ep. 24. p. 7.

[30] Ep. 1581. p. 711. Ep. 325. p. 115.

[31] Ep. 3. p. 1. Ep 4. p. 1.

X. Grotius, who had resolved to follow the Bar, pleaded his first cause
at Delft in the year 1599, at his return from France. The study of law
and poetry employed one part of his time; he spent the other in
publishing the works he had prepared for the press. The first he gave to
the public was _Martianus Capella_. This is one of those obscure
authors, who are commonly not read till we have nothing else to learn:
the title of his work is, _Of the marriage of Mercury and Philolog