"Grotius,"
says Condillac, "was able to think for himself; but he constantly
labours to support his conclusions by the authority of others. Upon many
occasions; even in support of the most obvious and indisputable
propositions, he introduces a long string of quotations from the Mosaic
law, from the Gospels, from the fathers of the church, from the
casuists, and not unfrequently, even in the very same paragraph, from
Ovid, and Aristophanes." This strange mixture is subject of many
witticisms of Voltaire. But let us hear what is urged in the defence of
Grotius, by a gentleman, of whose praise the ablest of writers may be
proud:
"Few writers," says Sir James Mackintosh, in his Discourse on the
Study of the Law of Nature and Nations, "were more celebrated than
Grotius in his own days, and in the age which succeeded. It has,
however, been the fashion of the last half century to depreciate
his work, as a shapeless compilation, in which reason lies buried
under a mass of authorities and quotations.
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