you remitted to me; for which I sincerely thank you.  I could wish to be of use in your affairs in this Country, and would labour in them most chearfully:  but you know the constitution of things is such, that neither I, nor your other friends, can serve you agreeably to our wishes.  I would fain hope that time will bring about some change, and that I shall see you again here esteemed and honoured as your great qualities deserve; which will give me no less pleasure than I received from your regaining your liberty.  In the mean time, I wish you, while at a distance from your country, all the satisfaction, prosperity, and happiness which you can desire.  This I pray God to grant, and to me an opportunity of shewing by my actions that I am yours most affectionately to serve you, Henry de Nassau.”

VI.  The year after the publication of the Apology, that is to say, in 1623, Nicholas Buon printed at Paris Grotius’s improvements and additions to Stobaeus.  This author, as is well known, extracted what he thought most important in the ancient Greek writers, and ranged it under different heads comprehending the principal points of Philosophy.  His work is the more valuable as it has preserved several fragments of the Ancients found no where else.  Grotius when very young purposed to extract from this author all the maxims of the poets, to translate them into Latin verse, and print the original with the translation.  He began this when a boy; he was employed in it at the time of his arrest, and continued it as an amusement, whilst he had the use of books, in his prison at the Hague.  He tells us that when he was deprived of pen and ink he was got to the forty-ninth title, which is an invective against tyranny, that had a great relation to what passed at that time in Holland.  On his removal to Louvestein he resumed this work, and he finished it at Paris.  He made several happy corrections in the text of Stobaeus, some from his own conjectures or those of his friends, others on the authority of manuscripts in the king’s library, which were very politely lent him by the learned Nicholas Rigaut, librarian to his Majesty.

Prefixed to this book are Prolegomena, in which the author shews that the works of the ancient Pagans are filled with maxims agreeable to the truths taught in Holy Writ.  He intended to dedicate this book to the Chancellor Silleri:  he had even written the dedication; but his friends, to whom he shewed it, thought he expressed himself with too much warmth against the censurers of his Apology.  They advised him therefore to suppress it; and he yielded to their opinion.  It may be observed in reading the royal privilege that the present title of the book is different from what it was to have had.  To these extracts from the Greek Poets translated into Latin verse, Grotius annexed two pieces, one of Plutarch, the other of St. Basil, on the use of the Poets; giving the Greek text with a Latin translation.  Fabricius