THE DEATH OF GROTIUS.

1645

Every thing respecting the recall of Grotius being settled, he embarked at Dieppe for Holland. He was extremely well received at Amsterdam and Rotterdam: the constituted authorities, of the former city fitted a vessel, which was to take him to Hamburgh: there, after along and harassing journey, he arrived on the 16th of May. From Hamburgh he proceeded to Luebec: the magistrates of that city gave him an honourable reception. He proceeded to Wismar; where Count Wismar, the admiral of the Swedish fleet, gave him a splendid entertainment, and afterwards sent him in a man-of-war to Colmar: thence, he went by land to Stockholm. When he arrived there, Queen Christina was at Upsal; but, hearing that Grotius was at Stockholm, she returned to that city to meet him. On the day after her arrival, she favoured him with a long audience: she expressed to him great satisfaction at his conduct, and made him large promises. These audiences were often repeated; and once she permitted him to have the honour of dining with her. She assured him, that if he would continue in her service, as Councillor of State, and bring his family into Sweden, he should have no reason to complain of her. But Grotius was anxious to leave Sweden; and his passport being delayed, he resolved to quit it without one, and actually proceeded to a seaport about seven leagues distant from Stockholm. The Queen, being informed of his departure, sent a gentleman to inform him, that she wished to see him once more. On this invitation he returned to Stockholm, and was immediately admitted into the Queen’s presence; he then explained to her his reasons for wishing to quit Sweden. The Queen appeared to be satisfied with them: she made him a present in money of twelve or thirteen thousand Swedish imperials, of the value of about ten thousand French crowns; she added to the present, some plate, the finishing of which had, she told him, been the only cause of the delay of his passport. She then put it into his hands, and a vessel was appointed to carry him to Luebec. On the 12th August he embarked for that city.

What were his real motives for refusing Christina’s offers, or in what place he ultimately intended to fix himself, is not known.

The vessel in which he embarked had scarcely sailed from Luebec, when it was overtaken by a violent storm, and obliged, on the 17th August, to take shelter in a port fourteen miles distant from Dantzic. Grotius went from it in an open wagon to Luebec, and arrived very ill at Rostock on the 26th August. No one, there, knew him: his great weakness determined him to call in the aid of a physician: one accordingly attended him: his name was Stochman. On feeling Grotius’s pulse, he said his indisposition proceeded from weakness and fatigue, and that, with rest and some restoratives, he might recover; but, on the following day he changed his opinion. Perceiving that the weakness of Grotius increased, and that it was accompanied with a cold sweat and other symptoms indicating an exhaustion of nature, the physician announced that the end of his patient was near. Grotius then asked for a clergyman. John Quistorpius was brought to him. Quistorpius, in a letter to Calovius, gives the following particulars of Grotius’s last moments:

“You are desirous of hearing from me, how that Phoenix of Literature, Hugo Grotius, behaved in his last moments, and I am going to tell you. He embarked at Stockholm for Luebec, and after having been tossed for the three days, by a violent tempest, he was shipwrecked, and got to shore on the coast of Pomerania, from whence he came to our town of Rostock, distant above sixty miles, in an open wagon through wind and rain. He lodged with Balleman; and sent for M. Stochman, the physician, who observing that he was extremely weakened by years, by what he suffered at sea, and by the inconveniences attending the journey, judged that he could not live long. The second day after Grotius’s arrival in this town, that is, on the 18th of August, O.S. he sent for me, about nine at night, I went, and found him almost at the point of death: I said, ’There was nothing I desired more, than to have seen him in health, that I might have the pleasure of his conversation.’ He answered, ’God had ordered it otherwise.’ I desired him: to prepare himself for a happier life, to acknowledge that he was a sinner, and to repent of his faults: and, happening to mention the publican, who acknowledged that he was a sinner, and asked God’s mercy; he answered, ‘I am that publican.’ I went on, and told him that he must have recourse to Jesus Christ, without whom there is no salvation.’

“He replied, ‘I place all my hope in Jesus Christ.’

“I began to repeat aloud in German, the prayer which begins Herr Jesu: he followed me in a very low voice; with his hands clasped. When I had done, I asked him, ‘if he understood me.’ He answered, ‘I understand you very well.’ I continued to repeat to him those passages of the word of God, which are commonly offered to the remembrance of dying persons; and asking him, ’if he understood me,’ he answered, ’I heard your voice, but I did not understand what you said.’

“These were his last words; soon afterwards he expired; just at midnight. His body was delivered to the physicians, who took out his bowels. I easily obtained leave to bury them in our principal church, which is dedicated to the Virgin.”

His corpse, was afterwards carried to Delft, and deposited in the tomb of his ancestors. He wrote this modest epitaph for himself,

“GROTIUS HIC HUGO EST, BATAVUM
CAPTIVUS ET EXSUL,
LEGATUS REGNI, SUECIA MAGNA, TUI.”

Burigni informs us that Grotius had a very agreeable person, a good complexion, an aquiline nose, sparkling eyes, a serene and smiling countenance; that he was not tall, but very strong, and well built. The engraving of him prefixed to the Hugonis Grotii Manes answers this description.

It is needless to give an account of his descendants, or their prosperous or adverse fortunes: they are noticed at length by Burigni. In Mr. Boswell’s Life of Johnson, mention is made of one who was then in a state of want. Dr. Johnson, in a letter to Dr. Vyse,

“requests him to recommend, an old friend, to his grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. His name,” says the Doctor, “is De Groot. He has all the common claims to charity; he is poor and infirm in a great degree. He has likewise another claim, to which no scholar can refuse attention: he is, by several descents, the nephew of Hugo Grotius; of him, of whom every man of learning has perhaps learned something. Let it not be said, that, in any lettered country, the nephew of Grotius, ever asked a charity, and was refused.”

The reader must be pleased, to be informed, that the application, it was for some situation, in the charter-house, was successful. Dr. Vyse informed Dr. Johnson of it, by letter. In his answer,

“Dr. Johnson,” by Dr. Vyse’s account, “rejoiced much, and was lavish of the praise he bestowed upon his favourite Hugo Grotius."

Three points were united in Grotius, each of which would strongly recommend him to Dr. Johnson: he was learned, pious, and opposed to the doctrines of Calvin. It is still more unnecessary to mention the various encomiums, which the learned of all nations have made of Grotius, in prose and verse. That he was one of the most universal scholars, whom the world has produced, and that he possessed sense, taste, and genius in a high degree, is universally confessed. It is equally true, that both his public and his private character, are entitled to a high degree of praise.

When Queen Christina, heard of his death, she wrote to his widow, a letter of condolence, and requested, that the manuscripts which he had left, might be sent to her:

“My ambassador,” the Queen says in this letter, “has made you acquainted, with my high esteem, for his learning, and the good services he did me; but he could not express, how dear I hold his memory, and the effects of his great labours. If gold, or silver, could do any thing towards redeeming such a valuable life, I would gladly employ all, I am mistress of, for that purpose.”

She concludes by asking his widow, for all the manuscripts “of that learned man, whose works had given her such pleasure.” The Queen assures her, that “they could not fall into better hands,” and that, “the author, having been useful to her in his lifetime, it was not just that she should be deprived, after his death, of the fruits of his labours.”

It remains to mention, that, after the death of Grotius, his wife communicated with the Church of England: this, it is said, she did in conformity to the dying injunctions of her husband: it is certain, that Grotius respected the Church of England. His wife died at the Hague, in the communion of the Remonstrants. Through life, she was uniformly respected; and, whenever the services of Grotius, to sacred and profane literature, are recorded, her services to him, should be mentioned with praise.