After doing justice to the excellent judgment and profound erudition of Grotius, he ventures to assert, that he found nothing in his Dissertation that could satisfy a man moderately acquainted with the History of America; and approves of what was observed by Joseph Acosta, that it was easier to confute what was written on the origin of the Americans, than to know what to hold; because there were no monuments among them, nor any books of Europeans to throw light on this matter: and hence concludes, that it is rashness to promise truth on such an obscure subject. Laet's answer vexed Grotius: he replied to it in a second Dissertation, entitled, _Adversus obtrectatorem, opaca quem bonum facit barba_. Printed at Paris by Cramoisi, in 1643. Laet answered in a piece, printed in 1644, by Lewis Elzevir, in which he inserts Grotius's second Dissertation. There is nothing new in these two last books: and it were to be wished that they had been written with less bitterness. It has been[533] observed, that Grotius's system is not new; and that it had been already advanced by Myl, whom Grotius does not once quote. FOOTNOTES: [532] This work was printed at Paris the same year. [533] Hornius, de Orig. Gent. Amer. l. 1. c. 2. p. 17. XIV. It now remains to give some account of the other works of Grotius, which hitherto we have not had occasion to mention. In 1629, he printed at William Blaeu's the History of the Siege of Grolla: _Grollae obsidio cum annexis anni 1627_. This piece would have been brought into his History[534] if he could have continued it. He speaks of it with great modesty[535] in his letters to his brother. "I don't expect, he says, much honour from such a small tract." He published, in 1631, _An Introduction to the Laws of Holland_, in Dutch. Simon Groenovegius de Madin, a Lawyer, wrote Notes on this work, which Grotius thought well done and very useful; and sent the author a letter of thanks[536]. He left several manuscripts prepared for the press, which were published after his death. Lewis Elzevir printed, in 1652, a small collection in twelves with this title: _Hugonis Grotii quaedam hactenus inedita, aliaque ex Belgice editis Latine versa, argumenti Theologici, Juridici, Politici._ It contains, among other Dissertations, _Remarks on the Philosophy_ or rather _on the Politics of Campanella_; and a tract entitled: _Hugonis Grotii Responsio ad quaedam ab utroque judicum consessu objecta, ubi multa disputantur de Jure Summarum Potestatum in Hollandia, Westfrisi[^ae], & Magistratuum in oppidis_. The disputes of the Province of Holland with the States-General probably gave occasion to this treatise. Grotius intended to publish the Golden verses of Pythagoras[537], with a translation by himself: but what he could not do in his life-time was done in England after his death, in the year 1654[538].