Thou's advice; and till he had his answer, shewed the verses to none.
Whether it was that M. de Thou advised him to suppress them, or that he
took this step of himself[28] because there were several facts in the
_Epithalamium_ not strictly true, it is not to be found in the
collection of his _Poems_. He intended to dedicate some Work to the
President, as a public testimony of his profound esteem for that
excellent Magistrate, whom he regarded as the greatest Man of his
age[29].

M. de Thou soon perceived the great merit of young Grotius; and had the
highest affection for him[30]. They corresponded by Letter whilst the
President lived: Grotius sent him memoirs[31] for his _History_, and
hints relating to the lives and deaths of illustrious men in the United
Provinces.

It was a thing infinitely pleasing, and at the same time extremely
honorable to a youth between seventeen and eighteen, to be most
intimately connected with one of the greatest men of his time, already
advanced in years, who filled a post of much eminence, and whom all
Europe beheld with admiration. The friendship and esteem of such a
personage is the highest encomium.

M. de Thou gave Grotius, towards the end of his life, sincere proofs of
the concern he took in his quiet and welfare. That great Historian, who
had experienced the fiery zeal of some Divines, beheld with pain his
friend engaging in controversies which would render him odious to a
powerful party. As if he had foreseen what was soon to happen, he
advised him to drop these dangerous disputes. Grotius wrote him in
answer, that he had entered into them only through necessity, to serve
his Country and the Church; that he thought himself obliged to obey