He sustained a heavy loss in April by the death of the President Jeannin.  This worthy Magistrate had so much acquired the esteem of the Dutch by the great services he did them when the truce was concluded with Spain in 1619, that all good men in Holland would have his picture.  Grotius received from him testimonies of the greatest friendship, and regretted him most sincerely.

In a Letter to his brother William Grotius, dated April 23, 1623, “Whilst I am now writing this, says he, I receive the melancholy news of the President Jeannin’s death:  it is a great loss to good men, to the King’s business, and to me in particular.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[133] Ep. 150.

[134] Ep. 156.

[135] Ep. 171.

[136] Ep. 165.

[137] Ep. 29. p. 763.

[138] Ep. 175 p. 65.

[139] Ep. 32. p. 764.

[140] Ep. 37. p. 765.

[141] Ep. 158. p. 60.

III.  The pains which he was obliged to take, and the trouble he underwent at the beginning of his new settlement at Paris, did not diminish his passion for literature.  April 23, 1621, he informs Vossius that the irksomeness of his solitary manner of life was relieved by his daily conversations with men of the greatest abilities.  He writes to Andrew Schot from Paris, July 8, 1621, that, delivered from public business which never leaves the mind at ease, and from that croud whose conversation is contagious, he spent the greatest part of his time in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and the ancient interpreters.

He enters into a detail of his studies in a letter to Vossius, September 29, 1621, “I persist, says he, in my respect for sacred antiquity:  there are many people here of the same taste.  My six books in Dutch will appear soon (this was his treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion, in Dutch verse) perhaps I shall also publish the Disquisition On Pelagianism, with the precautions hinted to me by you and some other learned men.  In the mean time, I am preparing an edition of Stobaeus; and to render it more perfect I collate the Greek Manuscripts with the printed copies.”  He sometimes attended the courts of Justice to hear the Advocates plead, that he might judge of their talents and eloquence.  To be applauded for eloquence at that time, says the Abbe D’Olivet, an Advocate was to say almost nothing of his cause; make continual allusions to the least-known passages of antiquity, and have the art of throwing a new kind of obscurity upon them, by, making his speech consist of a string of metaphors.  This fault shocked Grotius much.  He gives an account to his brother of the impression made upon him by the studied harangues which were delivered at Martinmas term 1622, by M. Servin and the First President:  they were wholly taken from Greek and Latin authors.  “Such, says Grotius, is the eloquence in fashion:  it is much disliked by men of sound judgment.”  The celebrated Patru first attempted, and accomplished the reformation of this bad taste.