Nothing contributed more to his amazing progress, than the excellent education he received.  He was so happy, as to find in his own father a pious and able governor, who formed his mind and his morals.  He did not confine himself to making his son a man of learning, he purposed making him a good man.  The young Grotius, like Horace, has celebrated his gratefulness for so good a father in some verses still extant.  He often declared in the course of his life,[18] that he could never sufficiently acknowledge his obligation to his father and mother for the principles of piety they instilled into him.  We learn from his letters[19], that his preceptor was one Lusson, whom he calls an excellent man; and seems to have been greatly affected with his death:  which is all we know of him.

He was scarce past his childhood[20] when he was sent to the Hague; and boarded with Mr. Utengobard, a celebrated clergyman among the Arminians, with whom he kept up the most tender friendship till his death, in return for the care he had taken of his education.  Before he was twelve, he was sent to the famous university of Leyden to perfect himself:  and continued there three years with the learned Francis Junius, who was so kind to superintend his behaviour.  Joseph Scaliger, the ornament of the university of Leyden, who enjoyed the most brilliant reputation among the learned, and whom his worshippers regarded as the Dictator of the republic of Letters, was so struck with the prodigious capacity of young Grotius, that he condescended to direct his studies.  In 1597 he maintained public theses in Mathematics, Philosophy, and Law with the highest applause.  Hence we may judge with what ardour he applied to study.  He tells us himself that he spent a part of the night in it.[21] The device which he adopted[22] shews that he had reflected on the swiftness of time, and the necessity of employing it well.

The reputation of this learned youth spread every-where; and learned men spoke of him in their works as a prodigy.  So early as the year 1597 Isaac Pontanus calls him a young man of the greatest hopes; Meursius, in 1599, declared he had never seen his equal.  James Gilot, in a letter written from Paris to Meursius in 1601, affirmed the capacity of young Grotius bordered on prodigy; the famous Poet Barlaeus said the childhood of Grotius astonished all the old men.  Daniel Heinsius maintained that Grotius was a man from the instant of his birth, and never had discovered any signs of childhood.  He was scarce eleven when John Dowza bestowed the highest encomiums on him in some verses that might deserve to be copied entire:  he can scarce believe that the great Erasmus promised so much as the young Grotius:  and foretels that he will soon excel all his cotemporaries, and be fit to be compared with the most esteemed of the Antients.

At this early age, Grotius ventured to form plans, which required very great learning; and he executed them to such perfection, that the Republic of Letters was struck with astonishment.  But as he did not publish these works till after his return from France, we shall defer giving an account of them till we have first spoken of his journey thither, and displayed the situation of affairs in Holland, in whose government Grotius had soon a share.