The Lawyers who have best handled the questions relating to the Law of Nations and _Jus publicum_, are Vasques, Hotoman, and Gentilis.

After the acquisition of these several branches of knowledge, the study of History will be extremely useful, by the application which may be made of the examples to the precepts.

History is to be begun with an abridgement of universal history; such as _Justin_, _Florus_, and the abridgement of _Livy_.

But in reading History a man ought to please his own taste: for they all contain many useful things: and we retain best those we read with pleasure.

In general, we ought not to begin with the most ancient, but with such as, being nearer our own times, have greater relation with what we know already: we may afterwards go back to what is more distant.
It is proper to observe, that there is more advantage to be reaped from reading the Greek historians who have written the history of Rome, than the Latin, who have treated the same subject; because Foreigners give more attention to the public manners and customs, than the Natives.
M.du Maurier received this Letter with the highest satisfaction; he permitted several copies to be taken of it, and it was printed by the Elzevirs in 1637, in a collection of several Methods of Study, under the title of _De omni genere studiorum recte instituendo_.
Grotius acquaints us[70] that it was published with out his consent.
FOOTNOTES: [69] Ep.54.p.