the use of the precepts it would be proper to
read with attention some Orations of Demosthenes and Cicero,
particularly those which relate to public Affairs, such as the
_Philippics_, the _Olinthiacs_, the Oration _pro lege Manilia_, that
against the _Agrarian Law_, and some others. The next thing, to be
applied to is _Jus publicum_, that is to say, the knowledge of the
different forms of government, the Conventions between Nations, and, in
fine, whatever regards Peace and War. The treatises of Plato and Cicero
_On Laws_ shew in what manner the principles of this law are to be
deduced from morality. It will not be unprofitable to read likewise, or
at least to run over the second book of _St. Thomas Aquinas_, especially
what he says of Justice and Laws: The _Pandecta_, particularly the first
and last book, the first and the three last books of _Justinian's
Codex_, point out the use to be made of those principles. The Lawyers
who have best handled the questions relating to the Law of Nations and
_Jus publicum_, are Vasques, Hotoman, and Gentilis. After the
acquisition of these several branches of knowledge, the study of History
will be extremely useful, by the application which may be made of the
examples to the precepts. History is to be begun with an abridgement of
universal history; such as _Justin_, _Florus_, and the abridgement of
_Livy_. But in reading History a man ought to please his own taste: for
they all contain many useful things: and we retain best those we read
with pleasure. In general, we ought not to begin with the most ancient,
but with such as, being nearer our own times, have greater relation with
what we know already: we may afterwards go back to what is more distant.
It is proper to observe, that there is more advantage to be reaped from
reading the Greek historians who have written the history of Rome, than
the Latin, who have treated the same subject; because Foreigners give
more attention to the public manners and customs, than the Natives.

M. du Maurier received this Letter with the highest satisfaction; he
permitted several copies to be taken of it, and it was printed by the
Elzevirs in 1637, in a collection of several Methods of Study, under the
title of _De omni genere studiorum recte instituendo_.

Grotius acquaints us[70] that it was published with out his consent.

FOOTNOTES:

[69] Ep. 54. p. 17.

[70] Ep. 740. p. 976.

BOOK II.

Grotius has hitherto appeared to us chiefly