Hugo Grotius

It follows, therefore, that if the universal suzerainty of an Imperial head had been admitted even in bare theory, the labours of Grotius would have been idle.

Whether the fusion of all the sources of authority would ultimately have evolved a system of international relations, and whether that system would have exhibited material differences from the fabric of Grotius, is not now possible to decide, for as a matter of fact the Reformation annihilated all its potential elements except one.

Having adopted from the Antonine jurisconsults the position that the Jus Gentium and the Jus Naturæ were identical, Grotius, with his immediate predecessors and his immediate successors, attributed to the Law of Nature an authority which would never perhaps have been claimed for it, if “Law of Nations” had not in that age been an ambiguous expression.

He has also consulted the French translation of Grotius by A.

” It was an open secret that it was written by the young Dutch scholar and lawyer, Hugo Grotius.

If it cannot be said that Grotius wears his learning “lightly like a flower”, the treatise of Selden is, in comparison, over-freighted with it;

In his earliest years the young Hugo gave evidence of marked and varied ability.

Amid the general wreck of institutions Grotius sought for light and guidance in great principles.

Of all benefactors in Literature of the human race, Grotius may perhaps rank as first among his equals.