s
Bucard, who spoke it, distinguisheth Salmasius and Grotius from the
rest, styling them the Princes of literature and of the fine arts. We
cannot conceive a higher idea of Grotius than the celebrated Gerard
Vossius entertained, as appears from the beautiful poem written by him
in honour of his friend: we would give it at length if it were not too
long, but we cannot omit the last stanza:

_Felici omine dicte magne, quid te
Sol majus videt? o decus tuorum,
Delfi gloria, Patrii Deique amores,
Splendor inclute, Belgices ocelle,
Orbis delicium, Deique amores!_

He never mentions Grotius without admiration. "He is, says he[708], one
of the greatest ornaments of our times, or rather the miracle, the
eternal honour, of Holland, and of his age." He wrote to Meursius[709],
"If we would do him justice, there is none we can place above him, nor
even any we can compare with him."

Utengobard, who had been his master, said, that to speak after Grotius,
was to expose one's self to be laughed at.

Balzac has employed his most eloquent phrases to express his thoughts of
Grotius: he writes to Mesnage, "Is it true, what you tell me, of the
Swedish Ambassador, and shall I be so happy to share in his esteem? I
tell it you as solemnly as if I were by the altar on which we swore to
be friends, that my ambition was dead, but you have revived it, and my
transports would be as great as yours, if my blood were as fine and
sparkling: who would not glory in the esteem of one whose birth our age
ought to be proud of? he is a modern whom the President Jeannin sets in
opposition to the greatest of the ancients." In another letter written
to Chapelain[710], he says: "Whatever comes from Grotius is a high
recommendation of him to me; and besides the solidity of his learning,
the strength of his reasoning, and the graces of his language, I
observe in it an air of probity, that one may put entire confidence in
him, excepting in what regards our Church, to which he is unhappily a
stranger."

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
incomparabi