Colomiez, in his Bibliotheque choisie[711], has collected some of the Elogiums which had been then made of Grotius:  “The President Jeannin, says he, according to the relation of Balzac, opposes Grotius to the greatest men of antiquity.  Salmasius, in his notes on Solinus, styles him Virum excellentissimae doctrinae in omni genere litterarum; Selden, in his Mare clausum, virum acuminis et omnigenae doctrinae praestantia incomparabilem; Gerard Vossius, in his Latin Poems, Seculi nostri grande ornamentum; Pricaeus, on the xivth of St. Matthew, Virum ingentem, quem non sine horrore mirati sumus:  In fine, M. Blondel, who was not lavish of his praise, says of him in his Sibyls, that he was a very great man, whether we consider the sublimity of his genius, the universality of his learning, or the diversity of his writings; in fine, says Colomiez[712], he appears a great critic in his Martianus Capella, his Aratus, and his Stobaeus; in his Notes on Lucan and Tacitus a great historian, a great statesman, a great divine; but however excellent these different works may be, we must however acknowledge that Grotius’s Letters and Poems much surpass them; and that if he appeared great in those, in these he is incomparable.  But what astonishes me is, that he should have written so many letters, and made so many verses, and all should be of equal strength, that is, that all should partake of the powerful and divine genius which animated that great man.”  Episcopius, who was regarded as an oracle by his party, looked on Grotius as his oracle.  “Your opinion, he writes to him[713], shall be to me the decision of an oracle; for I know your love to truth and friendship for me to be such, that in giving it you regard only truth.”

Christian Habsoeker and Philip Limborch speak of him with raptures in the Preface to the Letters of illustrious men:  “At the name of the incomparable Grotius, who is above all praise, and even all envy, we are in a sort of transport.  How shall we sufficiently praise the virtues of that most illustrious hero, whom all true scholars regard as the most learned of the Learned:  we shall only relate the prophecy concerning him in 1614 by Daniel Heinsius in some verses which ought to be put under his picture.”

Those lines are in fact the most complete Elogium that can be made of a man.

     Depositum Coeli, quod jure Batavia mater
       Horret, et baud credit se peperisse sibi;
     Talem oculis, talem ore tulit se maximus Hugo: 
        Instar crede hominis, caetera crede Dei.