city, and of honour, and fo perfectly virtuous, "that throughout his whole life, he made a

point of avoiding and of deferting men of bad character, but of feeking the acquaintance of men of worth, and perfons diftinguished by "talents, not only of his own country, but of "all Europe, with whom he kept up an epistolary correspondence."

Grotius efcaped from the caftle of Louveftein, where he had been confined on account of his connection with the illuftrious and unfortunate Barnevelt, by the addrefs of his wife. She was permitted to fend him books, and fhe fent them in a trunk large enough to hold her husband. She made a pretence to vifit him, and staid in the fortress till her husband was out of the reach of his perfecutors.

Grotius took refuge in France, and was accused by fome of his countrymen of intending to change his religion and become a Catholic.

Alas," replied he to one of his friends who had written to him on the fubject, "whatever "advantage there may be to quit a weaker દ્ party that oppreffes me, to go over to a

stronger one that would receive me with open "arms, I truft that I fhall never be tempted to "do fo. And fince," added he, "I have had 66 courage

courage enough to bear up under imprison"ment, I truft that I fhall not be in want of it "to enable me to fupport poverty and banish* ment."

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Louis XIII. gave Grotius a very confiderable penfion. He was, however, no favourite with. his Minister, the Cardinal de Richelieu, whom, it is faid, he did not fufficiently flatter for his lite rary talents, and the penfion was soon stopped. Grotius, however, met with a protectress in Chriftina, Queen of Sweden, who made him her Ambassador at Paris. Here again he was ha raffed by Richelieu, who was angry with him for not giving him that precedence as a Prince of the Church, to which Grotius thought himself entitled as a representative of a crowned head. This dignity, however, was fo little agreeable to a man of Grotius's great and good mind, that in a letter which he wrote to his father from Paris he tells him, "I am really quite tired out "with honours. A private and a quiet life "alone has charms for me, and I fhould be

very happy if I were in a fituation in which I "could only employ myself upon works of piety, " and works that might be useful to posterity." His celebrated work upon the Truth of the Christian Religion has been tranflated into all the languages of Europe, and into fome of those

of

of the Eaft. This great scholar in early life compofed a Devotional Treatife in Flemish verfe, for the ufe of the Dutch failors that made voyages to the Eaft and Weft Indies.

His countrymen, who had perfecuted him fo violently in his lifetime, ftruck a medal in honour of him after his death, in which he is styled the "Oracle of Delft, the Phoenix of his Country." It may be feen in the "Hiftoire Medallique de la "Hollande," and verifies what Horace faid long

ago,

Urit enim fulgore fuo, qui prægravat artes
Infra fe pofitas: extinctus amabitur idem.

The man whofe life wife Nature has defign'd
To teach, to humanize, to sway his kind,
Burns by a flame too vivid and too bright,
And dazzles by excefs of fplendid light.
Yet when the hero feeks the grave's fad state,
The vain and changing people, wife too late,
O'er his pale corpfe their fruitless honours pour,
Their friend, their faviour, and their guide deplore;
And each fad impotence of grief betray,

To reallumine the Promethean clay.

SIR TOBY MATTHEWS

fays, in the Preface to the Collection of English Letters which he made in King James the First's time," that there is no stock or people in the "whole world where men of all conditions live "fo peaceably, and fo plentifully, yea and fo "fafely alfo, as in England. The English," adds he, "unite the greatest concurrence of the "most excellent qualities: they are the most

obligeable, the moft civil, the most modest " and fafe in all kinds of all nations. To con"clude therefore upon the whole matter, I con"cur, generally, and even naturally, with a "certain worthy, honeft, and true-hearted Eng"lishman who is now dead (meaning Sir Dennis

Bruffels). For once after a grievous fit of the "ftone, (when he was no lefs than fourscore years old,) he found himself to be out of pain, “ and in such kind of ease in the way of re

66

covery as that great weight of age might ad"mit; wherewith the good man was so pleased, "that he fell to talk very honeftly, though very

66

pleafantly alfo, after his manner: If God "fhould fay thus to me, Thou art fourscore years of but age, yet I am content to lend "thee a dozen years more of life; and because "thou haft converfed with the men of fo many "nations in Europe, my pleasure is, that for

❝here

"hereafter thou fhalt have leave to chufe for

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thyfelf of which thou would rather be than of r any other; I would quickly know how to "make this anfwer without ftudying: Let me "be neither Dutch, nor Flemish, nor French, nor Italian, but an Englishman!-an Englishman, good Lord! This faid he, and this fay "I," adds Sir Toby, " as being moft clearly "of his mind."

INIGO JONES.

THIS great Architect, a pupil of Palladio, appears to have excelled his master in magnificence and fplendor of defign. What can be conceived more grand in defign, and more exquifite in decoration, than the palace of Whitehall planned by him, and of which the present banquetinghouse made a part. The original Drawings of this intended palace are in the Library of Worcefter College in Oxford; they are extremely highly finished, and are not supposed to have been executed by the hand of the architect himfelf.

Lord Burlington published a complete Collection of the Defigns of Inigo Jones, and was