The Life of the Truly Eminent and Learned Hugo Grotius | Page 8

the pleasure of seeing a fine kingdom, a great king, very valuable noblemen, but had the mortification of not seeing him; that he would endeavour to repair this misfortune by his letters; and that he took the liberty to present him with a book he had just dedicated to the Prince of Condé.
This Letter was extremely well received by the President; and from that time to the death of M. de Thou, notwithstanding the disproportion of their age and fame, a most intimate correspondence subsisted between them.
Grotius sent him, July 4, 1600,[27] the Epithalamium he had written on the Marriage of King Henry IV. with Mary of Medicis. Mention was made in it of the Massacre on St. Bartholomew's day: this was an invidious subject; but the author, after consulting Scaliger, thought he could not dispense with recalling the remembrance of that horrid scene. He was in doubt whether he ought to publish this piece: he asked the President de Thou's advice; and till he had his answer, shewed the verses to none. Whether it was that M. de Thou advised him to suppress them, or that he took this step of himself[28] because there were several facts in the Epithalamium not strictly true, it is not to be found in the collection of his Poems. He intended to dedicate some Work to the President, as a public testimony of his profound esteem for that excellent Magistrate, whom he regarded as the greatest Man of his age[29].
M. de Thou soon perceived the great merit of young 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 Philology, in two books; to which are annexed seven other books on the liberal arts_. The author was an African, and his style, like that of most authors of his nation, obscure and barbarous; which makes it not easy to be understood. Before this there was no good edition of his works. John Grotius had put into his son's hands a manuscript of Capella: Hugo shewed it to Scaliger; and this learned man, whose counsels were commands to the young Grotius, engaged him to study that author, and publish a new edition of him.
Though Grotius was then but fourteen, the difficulty of the undertaking did not discourage him: he read