FOOTNOTES: 

[471] Ep. 572. p. 225.

[472] Ep. 622. p. 250.

[473] Ep. 641. p. 259.

[474] Ep, 645. p. 263.

[475] Ep. 676. p. 275.

[476] Ep. 780. p. 331.

[477] Ep. 825. p. 360.

[478] Ep. 408, p. 871.

[479] Ep. 410, p. 872.

[480] Ep. 1667, p. 727.

VIII.  The nomination of Grotius, when very young, to be Historiographer of the States, led him to enquire particularly into the troubles of the Low Countries and their consequences with regard to the Seven Provinces.  He was employed about this in the year 1614, as appears by a letter, written on the 8th of February, to the President de Thou.  He informs him[481], that love to his Country had engaged him in a work very like his, but as much inferior as Holland is to France.  “I own, indeed, the work is above my abilities, but I shall not publish it till years and judgment enable me to mend it.”  Communicating this work to Heinsius, with whom he was then very intimate, that learned youth wanted words to express his admiration.  Balzac informs us of these particulars in a letter to Chapelin, dated Sept. 20, 1640, in which he mentions a letter from Heinsius concerning this History when Grotius was very young.

An author, more fond of his works than Grotius, would have made haste to publish this, which appears to have been finished in 1636; for that year he wrote to Martinus Opitius[482], “My Belgic annals are transcribing.”  He writes to his brother the year following[483], “My Annals and my History of the Low Countries are transcribed:  but I think I must still keep them a while.”  He consulted several of his friends on this subject, and among others Gerard Vossius.

The sudden deaths of many of his acquaintance leading him to reflect on the uncertainty of life, he wrote to his brother, May 21, 1639[484], “I would have my works printed before my death, that I may be useful to those that shall come after me; and would therefore have my Annals correctly printed as soon as possible; but I would not have them printed by those, who, from a party spirit, would tell what was in them before they were published, and thereby prevent perhaps their ever appearing.  I therefore beg of you to find out some honest man to whom I may intrust my copy.”

In the mean time he was still revising them; and near two years after he wrote to his brother, March 23, 1641[485], “Till I put the last hand to my History, I would not have any one see it:  you must therefore find a handsome excuse to those who ask you for it.  Read it, however, yourself, and send me your remarks.”  Grotius had not the satisfaction to see his History printed:  it was not published till twelve years after his death, by his two sons Cornelius and Peter, who dedicated it, in 1657, to the States of Holland and West-Friesland.