gation: he was the
more desirous that his Son might make this voyage, as the present state
of his affairs would not permit him to keep him in the way the latter
chose to live.

If this project did not succeed, Grotius wanted that his Son should pass
the winter at the Hague in the study of the Law, and come to France in
the spring, 1637, to take his degree in the university of Orleans; then
return to the Hague to study some time longer, and afterwards go to
Amsterdam to practise as an Advocate, this profession being there most
lucrative.

The voyage to the Brasils did not take place. Peter Grotius came to his
father in summer, 1637. He seems to have been well satisfied with him,
as we may judge by a letter written to his brother[756], Aug. 15, this
year. "Peter is arrived here: he is much indebted to you, to his
grandfather, and all his friends and relations, for instilling into him
such good principles. I am very well satisfied with his diligence." He
writes six months after[757], "I am only afraid for his ambition, which
is the vice of youth: he will live with more ease, and gain more as an
Advocate. I would beg of you, that as soon as he returns, which will be
immediately, you would put him upon studying the precedents in law. But
what is chiefly to be inculcated is diligence and love of labour." Peter
was preparing to return to Holland, when a Surgeon undertook to make him
walk without halting[758]. There were some hopes of his succeeding in
whole or in part; but the event did not correspond with the Surgeon's
promises, and Peter set out soon after for Holland, in the end of April,
1638. Grotius did not regret the time his Son had passed in France. "The
time Peter has been here, he says to his brother[759], was not lost
either for him or me: for he has learnt several useful things, and it
has been a great pleasure to me to communicate what I have learnt to one
of my children, or at least to have put him in a way of informing
himself. I recommend him to you, and would beg of you to give him such
exercises as may fit him to hold a distinguished rank amonst the Orators
and Advocates, that his merit may silently reproach the Dutch for what
they did against his Father. But, above all things, I would recommend to
you the cultivation of those sentiments of piety which I have instilled
into him, and to keep him from bad company."

Grotius wrote to Vossius[760], when his Son set out on his return to
Holland, begging of him