This fashion originated
among French wits and declaimers, and it has been, I know not for
what reason, adopted, though with far greater moderation and
decency, by some respectable writers among ourselves. As to those,
who first used this language, the most candid supposition that we
can make with respect to them is, that they never read the work;
for, if they had not been deterred from the perusal of it by such a
formidable display of Greek characters, they must soon have
discovered that Grotius never quotes, on any subject, till he has
first appealed to some principles; and often, in my humble opinion,
though, not always, to the soundest and most rational principles.
[Sidenote: His treatise de Jure Belli et Pacis.]
"But another sort of answer is due to some of those, who have
criticised Grotius; and that answer might be given in the words of
Grotius himself. He was not of such a stupid and servile cast of
mind as to quote the opinions of poets or orators, of historians
and philosophers, as those of judges, from whose decision there was
no appeal.
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