commonly find in men of that profession. He left some young children, in
whose education Grotius interested himself. Writing on this subject to
Vossius, he tells him that his Landlord's two sons were at the Hague
learning Grammar; that they were beginning to make Themes and Versions;
that if what they had already learnt were not cultivated, they would
soon forget it; and that the time which boys spent in their Studies at
Hamburg was lost, the method of teaching being only fit to make
blockheads. "Several, he adds, employ preceptors in the education of
their children; which method answers not expectation. I never approved
of it because I know that young people learn not but in company, and
that study languishes where there is no emulation. I also dislike those
schools when the master scarce knows the names of his scholars, and
where their number is so great that he cannot give that attention to
each, which his different genius and capacity may require. For this
reason I would have a middle course followed: that a master should take
but ten or twelve, to stay in the house together, and be in one form, by
which means he would not be overburdened." He begs of him to inform
himself whether there was not such a house in Amsterdam where he might
place Van Sorgen's sons. Vossius joined with Grotius in his thoughts on
education[185].

The death of his Landlord obliging Grotius to remove, he went to lodge
with a Dutchman called Ahasuerus Matthias[186], formerly Minister at
Deventer, which he left on account of his adhering to Arminianism. The
return of his wife from Zealand in Autumn 1633, who had always been his
consolation in adversity, rendered his life more agreeable. [187]He
mentions it to Descordes Nov. 13, 1633, and informs him that though
several settlements were offered him, he had not yet determined which to
embrace, but would soon come to a resolution. He passed his time in
writing his Sophomphanæus, or Tragedy of Joseph[188], which he finished