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 Stobæus. 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
Stobæus, 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