him, that, writing to Daniel Heinsius, December 29, 1603, he assures him
if the place could have made Grotius's fortune, he wished he had got
it, because he loved him, and admired his prodigious genius.


XVI. Grotius was at that time principally employed as an Advocate. He
tells us that to make himself master of the forms of law, he carefully
studied the practical part, transcribing precedents of Petitions,
Prosecutions, and Defences. He pleaded his first cause when he was but
seventeen, with universal applause, which he maintained whilst he
continued at the Bar. We learn the method he followed in his pleadings
from a letter to his son Peter advising him to imitate it. "That you may
not, says he, be embarrassed by the little order observed by those
against whom you speak, mind one thing, of which I have found the
advantage. Distribute all that can be said on both sides under certain
heads, which imprint strongly in your memory; and whatever your
adversary says, refer it to your own division, and not to his[50]."
Grotius's great attention was to avoid prolixity and confusion in his
pleadings[51].

The employment of an advocate, though he acquired infinite honour by it,
did not however please him. The reasons of his dislike we have in a
letter to Daniel Heinsius, dated July 21, 1603. "Besides that law-suits
are improper for a peaceable man, what doth he derive from them? They
procure him hatred from those against whom he pleads, small
acknowledgments from his clients, and not much honour with the Public.
Add to this, that the time spent in things so little agreeable, might be
employed in acquiring others much more useful. I should have been a
better philosopher, more master of the Greek, better acquainted with the
manners of the Ancients, with the Poets, and Philologists, if I had