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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Holland, v. 1 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Holland, v. 1 (of 2)
+
+Author: Edmondo de Amicis
+
+Translator: Helen Zimmern
+
+Release Date: January 13, 2009 [EBook #27799]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOLLAND, V. 1 (OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jen Haines and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The following spelling/typographical errors have been changed.
+
+p19--changed "defense" to "defence" for consistency with rest of book.
+
+p74--changed "treschkuit" to "trekschuit".
+
+p180--changed "cites" to "cities".
+
+p194--changed "tactiturn" to "taciturn".
+
+p210--changed "were" to "where" in 'the cell were (changed to where)
+Philip II. died;'.
+
+Other spelling, grammatical, punctuation and typographic errors have
+been left as in the original book.
+
+
+[Illustration: A Dutch Windmill.]
+
+
+    HOLLAND.
+
+
+    BY
+    EDMONDO DE AMICIS,
+
+    AUTHOR OF "SPAIN," "MOROCCO," ETC.
+
+
+    TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRTEENTH EDITION OF THE ITALIAN BY
+    HELEN ZIMMERN.
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATED.
+
+
+    IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+
+    VOL. I.
+
+
+    PHILADELPHIA
+    HENRY T. COATES & CO.
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY
+    PORTER & COATES.
+
+
+    TO
+    PIETRO GROLIER.
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS.
+
+
+                       PAGE
+    HOLLAND               9
+
+    ZEALAND              29
+
+    ROTTERDAM            57
+
+    DELFT               131
+
+    THE HAGUE           171
+
+
+
+
+    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+    VOLUME I.
+
+    Photographs taken expressly for this edition of "Holland" by
+    Dr. CHARLES L. MITCHELL, Philadelphia.
+
+    Photogravures by A.W. ELSON & CO., Boston.
+
+
+                                                       PAGE
+
+    A DUTCH WINDMILL                          _Frontispiece._
+
+    DUTCH FISHING-BOATS                                  26
+
+    DORDRECHT--CANAL WITH CATHEDRAL IN THE DISTANCE      48
+
+    IN ROTTERDAM                                         64
+
+    INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE               80
+
+    ON THE MEUSE, NEAR ROTTERDAM                         94
+
+    THE STEIGER, ROTTERDAM                              110
+
+    THE STATUE OF TOLLENS                               126
+
+    NEAR THE ARSENAL, DELFT                             134
+
+    MONUMENT OF ADMIRAL VAN TROMP                       140
+
+    STAIRWAY WHERE WILLIAM THE SILENT WAS ASSASSINATED
+    IN THE PRINSENHOF, DELFT                            150
+
+    REFECTORY OF THE CONVENT OF ST. AGATHA, DELFT       156
+
+    OLD DELFT                                           166
+
+    ON THE CANAL NEAR DELFT                             174
+
+    THE BINNENHOF, THE HAGUE                            184
+
+    PAUL POTTER'S BULL                                  198
+
+    ON THE ROAD TO SCHEVENINGEN                         214
+
+    FISHERMAN'S CHILDREN, SCHEVENINGEN                  228
+
+    THE MAIN DRIVE IN THE BOSCH, THE HAGUE              246
+
+    THE VYVER, THE HAGUE                                262
+
+
+
+
+HOLLAND.
+
+
+One who looks for the first time at a large map of Holland must be
+amazed to think that a country so made can exist. At first sight, it
+is impossible to say whether land or water predominates, and whether
+Holland belongs to the continent or to the sea. Its jagged and narrow
+coast-line, its deep bays and wide rivers, which seem to have lost the
+outer semblance of rivers and to be carrying fresh seas to the sea;
+and that sea itself, as if transformed to a river, penetrating far
+into the land, and breaking it up into archipelagoes; the lakes and
+vast marshes, the canals crossing each other everywhere,--all leave an
+impression that a country so broken up must disintegrate and
+disappear. It would be pronounced a fit home for only beavers and
+seals, and surely its inhabitants, although of a race so bold as to
+dwell there, ought never to lie down in peace.
+
+When I first looked at a large map of Holland these thoughts crowded
+into my mind, and I felt a great desire to know something about the
+formation of this singular country; and as what I learned impelled me
+to make a book, I write it now in the hope that I may lead others to
+read it.
+
+Those who do not know a country usually ask travellers, "What sort of
+place is it?"
+
+Many have told briefly what kind of country Holland is.
+
+Napoleon said: "It is an alluvium of French rivers, the Rhine, the
+Scheldt, and the Meuse," and under this pretext he annexed it to the
+Empire. One writer defined it as a sort of transition between the
+earth and the sea. Another calls it "an immense surface of earth
+floating on the water." Others speak of it as an annex of the old
+continent, the China of Europe, the end of the earth and the beginning
+of the ocean--a huge raft of mud and sand; and Philip II. called it
+"the country nearest hell."
+
+But on one point they were all agreed, and expressed themselves in the
+same words: Holland is a conquest of man over the sea; it is an
+artificial country; the Dutch made it; it exists because the Dutch
+preserve it, and would disappear if they were to abandon it.
+
+To understand these words we must picture to ourselves Holland as it
+was when the first German tribes, wandering in search of a country,
+came to inhabit it.
+
+Holland was then almost uninhabitable. It was composed of lakes, vast
+and stormy as seas, flowing into each other; marshes and morasses,
+thickets and brushwood; of huge forests, overrun by herds of wild
+horses; vast stretches of pines, oaks, and alder trees, in which,
+tradition tells us, you could traverse leagues passing from trunk to
+trunk without ever putting your foot to the ground. The deep bays
+carried the northern storms into the very heart of the country. Once a
+year certain provinces disappeared under the sea, becoming muddy
+plains which were neither earth nor water, on which one could neither
+walk nor sail. The large rivers, for lack of sufficient incline to
+drain them into the sea, strayed here and there, as if uncertain which
+road to take, and then fell asleep in vast pools amongst the
+coast-sands. It was a dreary country, swept by strong winds, scourged
+by continual rain, and enveloped in a perpetual fog, through which
+nothing was heard save the moaning of the waves, the roaring of wild
+beasts and the screeching of sea-fowl. The first people who had the
+courage to pitch their tents in it were obliged to erect with their
+own hands, hillocks of earth as a protection from the inundations of
+the rivers and the invasions of the ocean, and they were obliged to
+live on these heights like shipwrecked-men on lonely islands,
+descending, when the waters withdrew, to seek nourishment by fishing,
+hunting, and collecting the eggs which the sea-fowl had laid on the
+sands. Cæsar, when he passed by, gave the first name to this people.
+The other Latin historians spoke with mingled pity and respect of
+these intrepid barbarians who lived on "a floating country," exposed
+to the inclemency of an unfeeling sky and to the fury of the
+mysterious North Sea. Imagination can picture the Roman soldiers from
+the heights of the utmost wave-washed citadels of the empire,
+contemplating with sadness and wonder the wandering tribes of that
+desolate country, and regarding them as a race accursed of Heaven.
+
+Now, when we reflect that such a region has become one of the richest,
+most fertile, and best-governed countries in the world, we understand
+how justly Holland is called the conquest of man.
+
+But it should be added that it is a continuous conquest.
+
+To explain this fact,--to show how the existence of Holland,
+notwithstanding the great works of defence built by its inhabitants,
+still requires an incessant struggle fraught with perils,--it is
+sufficient to glance rapidly at the greatest changes of its physical
+history, beginning at the time when its people had reduced it to a
+habitable country.
+
+Tradition tells of a great inundation of Friesland in the sixth
+century. From that period catastrophes are recorded in every gulf, in
+every island, one may say, in almost every town, of Holland. It is
+reckoned that through thirteen centuries one great inundation, besides
+smaller ones, has taken place every seven years, and, since the
+country is an extended plain, these inundations were very deluges.
+Toward the end of the thirteenth century the sea destroyed part of a
+very fertile peninsula near the mouth of the Ems and laid waste more
+than thirty villages. In the same century a series of marine
+inundations opened an immense gap in Northern Holland and formed the
+Gulf of the Zuyder Zee, killing about eighty thousand people. In 1421
+a storm caused the Meuse to overflow, and in one night buried in its
+waters seventy-two villages and one hundred thousand inhabitants. In
+1532 the sea broke the embankments of Zealand, destroyed a hundred
+villages, and buried for ever a vast tract of the country. In 1570 a
+tempest produced another inundation in Zealand and in the province of
+Utrecht; Amsterdam was inundated, and in Friesland twenty thousand
+people were drowned. Other great floods occurred in the seventeenth
+century; two terrible ones at the beginning and at the end of the
+eighteenth; one in 1825, which laid waste Northern Holland, Friesland,
+Over-Yssel, and Gelderland; another in 1855, when the Rhine,
+overflowing, flooded Gelderland and the province of Utrecht and
+submerged a large part of North Brabant. Besides these great
+catastrophes, there occurred in the different centuries innumerable
+others which would have been famous in other countries, but were
+scarcely noticed in Holland--such as the inundation of the large Lake
+of Haarlem caused by an invasion of the sea. Flourishing towns of the
+Zuyder Zee Gulf disappeared under water; the islands of Zealand were
+repeatedly covered by the sea and then again left dry; the villages on
+the coast from Helder to the mouths of the Meuse were frequently
+submerged and ruined; and in each of these inundations there was an
+immense loss of life of both man and beast. It is clear that miracles
+of courage, constancy, and industry must have been wrought by the
+Dutch people, first in creating, and then in preserving, such a
+country.
+
+The enemy against which the Dutch had to defend their country was
+threefold--the sea, the rivers, and the lakes. The Dutch drained the
+lakes, drove back the sea, and imprisoned the rivers.
+
+To drain the lakes they called the air to their aid. The lakes and
+marshes were surrounded with dykes, the dykes with canals and an army
+of windmills; these, putting the suction-pumps in motion, poured the
+waters into the canals, which conducted them into the rivers and to
+the sea. Thus vast areas of ground which were buried under water saw
+the light, and were transformed, as if by enchantment, into fertile
+plains covered with villages and traversed by roads and canals. In the
+seventeenth century, in less than forty years, twenty-six lakes were
+emptied. In Northern Holland alone at the beginning of this century
+more than six thousand hectares of land were delivered from the
+waters, in Southern Holland, before 1844, twenty-nine thousand
+hectares, and in the whole of Holland, from 1500 to 1858, three
+hundred and fifty-five thousand hectares. By the use of steam pumps
+instead of windmills, the great undertaking of draining the Lake of
+Haarlem was completed in thirty-nine months. This lake, which
+threatened the towns of Haarlem, Amsterdam, and Leyden with raging
+storms, was forty-four kilometers in circumference. At present the
+Hollanders are contemplating the prodigious enterprise of draining the
+Gulf of the Zuyder Zee, which covers a space of more than seven
+hundred square kilometers.
+
+The rivers, another internal enemy of Holland, did not cost less
+fatigue or fewer sacrifices. Some, like the Rhine, which loses itself
+in the sand before reaching the ocean, had to be channelled and
+protected from the tide at their mouths by immense locks; others, like
+the Meuse, were flanked by large dykes, like those raised to force
+back the sea; others were turned from their channels. The wandering
+waters were gathered together, the course of the rivers was regulated,
+the streams were divided with rigorous precision, and sent in
+different directions to maintain the equilibrium of the enormous
+liquid mass,--for the smallest deviation might cause the submersion of
+whole provinces. In this manner all of the rivers, which originally
+wandered unrestrained, swamping and devastating the whole country,
+have been reduced to streams and have become the servants of man.
+
+But the fiercest struggle of all was the battle with the ocean.
+Holland, as a whole, lies lower than the sea-level; consequently,
+wherever the coast is not defended by downs it had to be protected by
+embankments. If these huge bulwarks of earth, wood, and granite were
+not standing like monuments to witness to the courage and perseverance
+of the Dutch, it would be impossible to believe that the hand of man,
+even in the course of many centuries, could have completed such an
+immense work. In Zealand alone the dykes extend over an area of four
+hundred kilometers. The western coast of the island of Walcheren is
+protected by a dyke, the cost of whose construction and preservation
+put out at interest would, it is calculated, have amounted to a sum
+great enough to have paid for the building of the dyke of solid
+copper. Round the town of Helder, at the northern extremity of
+Northern Holland, there is a dyke made of blocks of Norwegian granite
+which is ten kilometers long and stretches sixty meters into the sea.
+The province of Friesland, which is eighty-eight kilometers long, is
+protected by three rows of enormous palisades sustained by blocks of
+Norwegian and German granite. Amsterdam, all the towns on the coast of
+the Zuyder Zee, and all the islands which have been formed by
+fragments of the land that has disappeared, forming a sort of circle
+between Friesland and Northern Holland, are protected by dykes. From
+the mouths of the Ems to the mouths of the Scheldt, Holland is an
+impenetrable fort, in whose immense bastions the mills are the towers,
+the locks the gates, the islands the advanced forts; of which, like a
+real fortress, it shows to its enemy, the sea, only the tips of its
+steeples and the roofs of its buildings, as though in derision or in
+challenge.
+
+In truth, Holland is a fortress, and the Dutch live as though they
+were in a fort--always in arms against the sea. A host of engineers,
+dependent on the minister of the interior, is scattered throughout the
+land, disciplined like an army. These men are continually on the
+alert, watching over the waters of the interior, anticipating the
+rupture of the dykes, ordering and directing the works of defence. The
+expenses of this warfare are distributed: one part is paid by the
+state, the other by the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the
+general imposts, a special tax on the dykes in proportion to the
+extent of his property and to its proximity to the waters. Any
+accidental breach, any carelessness, may cause a flood: the danger is
+ever present. The sentinels are at their posts on the ramparts, and at
+the first attack of the sea, give the war-cry, whereupon Holland sends
+out arms, materials, and money. And even when great battles are not in
+progress, a slow, noiseless struggle is ever going on. Innumerable
+windmills, even in the drained lakes, are continually working to
+exhaust the rain-water and the water that oozes from the earth, and to
+pump it into the canals. Every day the locks of the gulfs and rivers
+shut their gigantic doors in face of the high tide, which attempts to
+launch its billows into the heart of the country. Work is continually
+going on to reinforce any weakened dykes, to fortify the downs by
+cultivation, to throw up fresh embankments where the downs are
+low--works towering like immense spears brandished in the midst of the
+sea, ready to break the first onset of the waves. The sea thunders
+eternally at the doors of the rivers, ceaselessly lashes their banks,
+roars forth its eternal menace, raises the crests of its billows
+curious to behold the contested ground, heaps banks of sand before the
+doors to destroy the commerce of the cities it wishes to possess;
+wastes, rasps, and undermines the coasts, and, unable to overthrow the
+ramparts, against which its impotent waves break in angry foam, it
+casts ships laden with corpses at the feet of the rebellious country
+to testify to its fury and its strength.
+
+Whilst this great struggle continues Holland is becoming transformed.
+A map of the country as it was eight centuries ago would not at first
+sight be recognized. The land is changed, the men are changed. The sea
+in some parts has driven back the coast; it has taken portions of the
+land from the continent, has abandoned and again retaken it; has
+reunited some of the islands to the continent by chains of sand, as in
+Zealand; has detached the borders of the continent and formed of them
+new islands, such as Wieringen; has withdrawn from some provinces, and
+has converted maritime cities into inland towns, as at Leeuwarden; it
+has changed vast plains into archipelagoes of a hundred isles, such
+as the Bies-Bosch; it has separated the city from the land, as at
+Dordrecht. New gulfs two leagues wide have been formed, such as the
+Gulf of Dollart; two provinces have been separated by a new
+sea--namely, North Holland and Friesland. Inundations have caused the
+level of the ground to be raised in some places, lowered in others;
+unfruitful soil has been fertilized by the sediment of the overflown
+rivers; fertile ground has been changed into deserts of sand. The
+transformations of the waters have given rise to a transformation of
+labor. Islands have been joined to the continent, as was the island of
+Ameland; whole provinces are being reduced to islands, as is the case
+with North Holland, which will be separated from South Holland by the
+new canal of Amsterdam; lakes as large as provinces have been made to
+disappear, like the Lake of Beemster. By the removal of the thick mud,
+land has been converted into lakes, and these lakes are again
+transformed into meadows. So the country changes, ordering and
+altering its aspect in accordance with the violence of the waters and
+the needs of man. As one glances over the latest map, he may be sure
+that in a few years, it will be useless, because at the moment he is
+studying it, there exist bays which will disappear little by little,
+tracts of land which are on the point of detaching themselves from the
+continent, and large canals which will open and carry life into
+uninhabited regions.
+
+But Hollanders did more than defend themselves from the water; they
+became its masters. The water was their scourge; it became their
+defence. If a foreign army invades their territory, they open the
+dykes and loose the sea and the rivers, as they loosed them on the
+Romans, the Spanish, and the army of Louis XIV., and then defend the
+inland towns with their fleets. Water was their poverty; they have
+made it riches. The whole country is covered with a network of canals,
+which irrigate the land and are at the same time the highways of the
+people. The towns communicate with the sea by means of the canals;
+canals lead from town to town, binding the towns to the villages, and
+uniting the villages themselves, as they lie with their homesteads
+scattered over the plain. Smaller canals surround the farms, the
+meadows, and the kitchen-gardens, taking the place of walls and
+hedges; every house is a little port. Ships, barges, boats, and rafts
+sail through the villages, wind round the houses, and thread the
+country in all directions, just as carts and carriages do in other
+places.
+
+And here, too, Holland has accomplished many gigantic works, such as
+the William Canal in North Brabant, which, more than eighty kilometers
+long and thirty meters wide, crosses the whole of Northern Holland and
+unites Amsterdam to the North Sea: the new canal, the largest in
+Europe, which will join Amsterdam to the ocean, across the downs, and
+another, equally large, which will unite the town of Rotterdam to the
+sea. The canals are the veins of Holland, and the water is its blood.
+
+But, aside from the canals, the draining of the lakes, and the works
+of defence, as one passes rapidly through Holland he sees on every
+side indications of marvellous labor. The ground,--in other countries
+the gift of nature,--is here the result of industry. Holland acquired
+the greater part of its riches through commerce, but the earth had to
+yield its fruits before commerce could exist; and there was no
+earth--it had to be created. There were banks of sand, broken here and
+there by layers of peat, and downs which the wind blew about and
+scattered over the country; large expanses of muddy land, destined, as
+it seemed, to eternal barrenness. Iron and coal, the first elements of
+industry, were lacking; there was no wood, for the forests had already
+been destroyed by storms before agriculture began; there was neither
+stone nor metal. Nature, as a Dutch poet has said, had denied all its
+gifts to Holland, and the Dutch were obliged to do everything in spite
+of her. They began by fertilizing the sand. In some places they made
+the ground fruitful by placing on it layers of soil brought from a
+distance, just as a garden is formed; they spread the rubble from the
+downs over the sodden meadows; they mixed bits of the peat taken from
+the water with the earth that was too sandy; they dug up clay to give
+a fresh fertility to the surface of the ground; they strove to till
+the downs; and thus, by a thousand varied efforts, as they continually
+warded off the threatening waters, they succeeded in cultivating
+Holland as highly as other countries more favored by Nature. The
+Holland of sands and marshes, which the ancients considered barely
+habitable, now sends abroad, year by year, agricultural products to
+the value of a hundred million francs, possesses about a million three
+hundred thousand head of cattle, and may be rated in proportion to its
+size among the most populous countries in Europe.
+
+Now, it is obvious that in a country so extraordinary the inhabitants
+must be very different from those of other lands. Indeed, few peoples
+have been more influenced by the nature of the country they inhabit,
+than the Dutch. Their genius is in perfect harmony with the physical
+character of Holland. When one contemplates the memorials of the great
+warfare which this nation has waged with the sea, one understands that
+its characteristics must be steadfastness and patience, conjoined with
+calm and determined courage. The glorious struggle, and the knowledge
+that they owe everything to themselves, must have infused and
+strengthened in them a lofty sense of their own dignity and an
+indomitable spirit of liberty and independence. The necessity for a
+continual struggle, for incessant work, and for continual sacrifices
+to protect their very existence, confronts them perpetually with
+realities, and must have helped to make them an extremely practical
+and economical nation. Good sense necessarily became their most
+prominent quality; economy was perforce one of their principal
+virtues. This nation was obliged to excel in useful works, to be sober
+in its enjoyments, simple even in its greatness, and successful in all
+things that are to be attained by tenacity of purpose and by activity
+springing from reflection and precision. It had to be wise rather than
+heroic, conservative rather than creative; to give no great architects
+to the edifice of modern thought, but many able workmen, a legion of
+patient and useful laborers. By virtue of these qualities of prudence,
+phlegmatic activity, and conservatism the Dutch are ever advancing,
+although step by step. They acquire slowly, but lose none of their
+acquisitions;--they are loth to quit ancient usages, and, although
+three great nations are in close proximity to them, they retain their
+originality as if isolated. They have retained it through different
+forms of government, through foreign invasions, through the political
+and religious wars of which Holland was the theatre--in spite of the
+immense crowd of foreigners from every country who have taken refuge
+in their land, and have lived there at all times. They are, in short,
+of all the northern nations, that one which has retained its ancient
+typical character as it advanced on the road toward civilization. One
+recalling the conformation of this country, with its three and a half
+millions of inhabitants, can easily understand that although fused
+into a solid political union, and although recognizable amongst the
+other northern nations by certain traits peculiar to the inhabitants
+of all its provinces, it must nevertheless present a great variety.
+Such, indeed, is the case. Between Zealand and Holland proper, between
+Holland and Friesland, between Friesland and Gelderland, between
+Groningen and Brabant, although they are closely bound together by
+local and historical ties, there is a difference as great as that
+existing between the most distant provinces of Italy and France. They
+differ in language, in costume and in character, in race and in
+religion. The communal _régime_ has impressed on this nation an
+indelible stamp, because nowhere else has it so conformed to the
+nature of things. The interests of the country are divided into
+various groups, of whose organization the hydraulic system is an
+example. Hence association and mutual help against the common enemy,
+the sea, but freedom of action in local institutions. The monarchical
+_régime_ has not extinguished the ancient municipal spirit, which
+frustrated the efforts of all those great states that tried to absorb
+Holland. The great rivers and deep gulfs serve both as commercial
+roads which constitute a national bond between the various
+provinces, and as barriers which defend their ancient traditions and
+provincial customs. In this land, which is apparently so uniform, one
+may say that everything save the aspect of nature changes at every
+step--changes suddenly, too, as does nature itself, to the eye of one
+who crosses the frontier of this state for the first time.
+
+[Illustration: Dutch Fishing Boats.]
+
+But, however wonderful the physical history of Holland may be, its
+political history is even more marvellous. This little country,
+invaded first by different tribes of the Germanic race, subdued by the
+Romans and by the Franks, devastated by the Danes and by the Normans,
+and wasted for centuries by terrible civil wars,--this little nation
+of fishermen and merchants preserved its civil freedom and liberty of
+conscience by a war of eighty years' duration against the formidable
+monarchy of Philip II., and founded a republic which became the ark of
+salvation for the freedom of all peoples, the adopted home of the
+sciences, the exchange of Europe, the station of the world's commerce;
+a republic which extends its dominion to Java, Sumatra, Hindostan,
+Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of Good Hope, the
+West Indies, and New York; a republic that conquered England on the
+sea, that resisted the united armies of Charles II. and of Louis XIV.,
+that treated on terms of equality with the greatest nations, and for a
+time was one of the three powers that ruled the destinies of Europe.
+
+It is no longer the grand Holland of the eighteenth century, but it is
+still, next to England, the greatest colonizing state of the world. It has
+exchanged its former grandeur for a quiet prosperity; commerce has been
+limited, agriculture has increased; the republican government has lost its
+form rather than its substance, for a family of patriotic princes, dear to
+the people, govern peaceably in the midst of the ancient and the newer
+liberties. In Holland are to be found riches without ostentation, freedom
+without insolence, taxes without poverty. The country goes on its way
+without panics, without insurrections,--preserving, with its fundamental
+good sense, in its traditions, customs, and freedom, the imprint of its
+noble origin. It is perhaps amongst all European countries that nation in
+which there is the best public instruction and the least corruption.
+Alone, at the extremity of the continent, occupied with its waters and
+its colonies, it enjoys the fruits of its labors in peace without
+comment, and can proudly say that no nation in the world has purchased
+freedom of faith and liberty of government with greater sacrifices.
+
+Such were the thoughts that stimulated my curiosity one fine summer
+morning at Antwerp, as I was stepping into a ship that was to take me
+from the Scheldt to Zealand, the most mysterious province of the
+Netherlands.
+
+
+
+
+ZEALAND.
+
+
+If a teacher of geography had stopped me at some street-corner, before
+I had decided to visit Holland, and abruptly asked me, "Where is
+Zealand?" I should have had nothing to say; and I believe I am not
+mistaken in the supposition that a great number of my fellow-citizens,
+if asked the same question, would find it difficult to answer. Zealand
+is somewhat mysterious even to the Dutch themselves; very few of them
+have seen it, and of those few the greater part have only passed
+through it by boat; hence it is mentioned only on rare occasions, and
+then as if it were a far-off country. From the few words I heard
+spoken by my fellow-voyagers, I learned that they had never been to
+the province; so we were all equally curious, and the ship had not
+weighed anchor ere we entered into conversation, and were exciting
+each other's curiosity by questions which none of us could answer.
+
+The ship started at sunrise, and for a time we enjoyed the view of the
+spire of Antwerp Cathedral, wrought of Mechlin lace, as the enamoured
+Napoleon said of it.
+
+After a short stop at the fort of Lillo and the village of Doel, we
+left Belgium and entered Zealand.
+
+In passing the frontier of a country for the first time, although we
+know that the scene will not change suddenly, we always look round
+curiously as if we expect it to do so. In fact, all the passengers
+leaned over the rail of the boat, that they might be present when the
+apparition of Zealand should suddenly be revealed.
+
+For some time our curiosity was not gratified: nothing was to be seen
+but the smooth green shores of the Scheldt, wide as an arm of the sea,
+dotted with banks of sand, over which flew flocks of screaming
+sea-gulls, while the pure sky did not seem to be that of Holland.
+
+We were sailing between the island of South Beveland and the strip of
+land forming the left bank of the Scheldt, which is called Flanders of
+the States, or Flemish Zealand.
+
+The history of this piece of land is very curious. To a foreigner the
+entrance of Holland is like the first page of a great epic entitled,
+The Struggle with the Sea. In the Middle Ages it was nothing but a
+wide gulf with a few small islands. At the beginning of the sixteenth
+century this gulf was no longer in existence; four hundred years of
+patient labor had changed it into a fertile plain, defended by
+embankments, traversed by canals, populated by villages, and known as
+Flemish Zealand. When the war of independence broke out the
+inhabitants of Flemish Zealand, opened their dykes rather than yield
+their land to the Spanish armies: the sea rushed in, again forming the
+gulf of the Middle Ages, and destroying in one day the work of four
+centuries. When the war of independence was ended they began to drain
+it, and after three hundred years Flemish Zealand once more saw the
+light, and was restored to the continent like a child raised from the
+dead. Thus in Holland lands rise, sink, and reappear, like the realms
+of the Arabian Nights at the touch of a magic wand. Flemish Zealand,
+which is divided from Belgian Flanders by the double barrier of
+politics and religion, and from Holland by the Scheldt, preserves the
+customs, the beliefs, and the exact impress of the sixteenth century.
+The traditions of the war with Spain are still as real and living as
+the events of our own times. The soil is fertile, the inhabitants
+enjoy great prosperity, their manners are severe; they have schools
+and printing-presses, and live peacefully on their fragment of the
+earth which appeared but yesterday, to disappear again on that day
+when the sea shall demand it for a third burial. One of my
+fellow-travellers, a Belgian lady, who gave me this information, drew
+my attention to the fact that the inhabitants of Flemish Zealand were
+still Catholics when they inundated their land, although they had
+already rebelled against the Spanish dominion, and consequently it
+occurred, strangely enough, that the province went down Catholic and
+came up Protestant.
+
+Greatly to my surprise, the boat, instead of continuing down the
+Scheldt, and so making the circuit of the island of South Beveland,
+entered the island, when it reached a certain point, passing through a
+narrow canal that crosses or rather cuts the island apart, and so
+joins the two branches of the river that encircles it. This was the
+first Dutch canal through which I had passed: it was a new experience.
+The canal is bordered on either side by a dyke which hides the
+country. The ship glided on stealthily, as if it had taken some hidden
+road in order to spring out on some one unawares. There was not a
+single boat in the canal nor a living soul on the dykes, and the
+silence and solitude strengthened the impression that our course had
+the hidden air of a piratical incursion. On leaving the canal we
+entered the eastern branch of the Scheldt.
+
+We were now in the heart of Zealand. On the right was the island of
+Tholen; on the left, the island of North Beveland; behind, South
+Beveland; in front, Schouven. Excepting the island of Walcheren, we
+could now see all the principal islands of the mysterious archipelago.
+
+But the mystery consists in this--the islands are not seen, they must
+be imagined. To the right and left of the wide river, before and
+behind the ship, nothing was to be seen but the straight line of the
+embankments, like a green band on a level with the water, and beyond
+this streak, here and there, were tips of trees and of steeples, and
+the red ridges of roofs that seemed to be peeping over to see us pass.
+Not one hill, not one rise in the ground, not one house, could be
+discovered anywhere: all was hidden, all seemed immersed in water; it
+seemed that the islands were on the point of sinking into the river,
+and we glanced stealthily at each other to make sure we were still
+there. It seemed like going through a country during a flood, and it
+was an agreeable thought that we were in a ship. Every now and then
+the vessel stopped and some passengers for Zealand got into a boat and
+went ashore. Although I was eager to visit the province, I
+nevertheless regarded them with a feeling of compassion, imagining
+that those unreal islands were only monster whales about to dive into
+the water at the approach of the boats.
+
+The captain of our ship, a Hollander, stopped near me to examine a
+small map of Zealand which he held in his hand. I immediately seized
+the opportunity and overwhelmed him with questions. Fortunately, I had
+hit upon one of the few Dutchmen who, like us Italians, love the sound
+of their own voices.
+
+"Here in Zealand, even more than in other provinces," said he, as
+seriously as if he were a master giving a lesson, "the dykes are a
+question of life and death. At high tide all Zealand is below
+sea-level. For every dyke that were broken, an island would
+disappear. The worst of it is, that here the dykes have to resist not
+only the direct shock of the waves, but another power which is even
+more dangerous. The rivers fling themselves toward the sea,--the sea
+casts itself against the rivers, and in this continual struggle
+undercurrents are formed which wash the foundations of the
+embankments, until they suddenly give way like a wall that is
+undermined. The Zealanders must be continually on their guard. When a
+dyke is in danger, they make another one farther inland, and await the
+assault of the water behind it. Thus they gain time, and either
+rebuild the first embankment or continue to recede from fortress to
+fortress until the current changes and they are saved."
+
+"Is it not possible," I asked, introducing the element of poetry,
+"that some day Zealand may no longer exist?"
+
+"On the contrary," he replied, to my sorrow: "the day may come in
+which Zealand will no longer be an archipelago, but terra firma. The
+Scheldt and the Meuse continually bring down mud, which is deposited
+in the arms of the sea, and, rising little by little, enlarges the
+islands, thus enclosing the towns and villages that were ports on the
+coast. Axel, Goes, Veer, Arnemuyden, and Middelburg were maritime
+towns, and are now inland cities. Hence the day will surely come in
+which the waters of the rivers will no longer pass between the
+islands of Zealand, and a network of railways will extend over the
+whole country, which will be joined to the continent, as has already
+happened in the island of South Beveland. Zealand grows in its
+struggle with the sea. The sea may gain the victory in other parts of
+Holland, but here it will be worsted. Are you familiar with the arms
+of Zealand: a lion in the act of swimming, above which is written,
+'_Luctor et emergo_'?"
+
+After these words he remained silent for some moments, while a passing
+glance of pride enlivened his face: then he continued with his former
+gravity:
+
+"_Emergo_; but he did not always emerge. All the islands of Zealand,
+one after the other, have slept under the waters for longer or shorter
+periods of time. Three centuries ago the island of Schouwen was
+inundated by the sea, when all the inhabitants and cattle were drowned
+and it was reduced to a desert. The island of North Beveland was
+completely submerged shortly after, and for several years nothing was
+to be seen but the tips of the church-steeples peeping out of the
+water. The island of South Beveland shared the same fate toward the
+middle of the fourteenth century,--the island of Tholen suffered in
+the year 1825 of our century,--the island of Walcheren in 1808, and in
+the capital of Middelburg, although it is several miles distant from
+the coast, the water was up to the roofs."
+
+As I listened to these stories of the water, of inundations and
+submerged districts, it seemed strange to me that I myself was not
+drowned, I asked the captain what sort of people lived in those
+invisible countries, with water underfoot and overhead.
+
+"Farmers and shepherds," he answered. "We call Zealand a group of
+forts defended by a garrison of farmers and shepherds. Zealand is the
+richest agricultural province in the Netherlands. The alluvial soil of
+these islands is a marvel of fertility. Few countries can boast such
+wheat, colza, flax, and madder as it produces. Its people raise
+prodigious cattle and colossal horses, which are even larger than
+those of the Flemish breed. The people are strong and handsome; they
+preserve their ancient customs, and live contentedly in prosperity and
+peace. Zealand is a hidden paradise."
+
+While the captain was speaking the ship entered the Keeten Canal,
+which divides the island of Tholen from the island of Schouwen, and is
+famous for the ford across which the Spanish made their way in 1575,
+just as the eastern side of the Scheldt is famous for the passage they
+forced in 1572. All Zealand is full of memories of that war. Because
+of its intimate connection with William of Orange, the hereditary lord
+of a great part of the land in the islands, and by reason of the
+impediments of every kind that it could oppose to invaders, this
+little archipelago of sand, half buried in the sea, became the
+theatre of war and heresy, and the duke of Alva longed to possess it.
+Consequently terrible struggles raged on its shores, signalised by all
+the horrors of battles by land and sea. The soldiers forded the canals
+by night in a dense throng, the water up to their throats, menaced by
+the tide, beaten by the rain, with volleys of musketry pouring down
+the banks, their horses and artillery swallowed in the mud, the
+wounded swept away by the current or buried alive in the quagmires.
+The air resounded with German, Spanish, Italian, and Flemish voices.
+Torches illuminated the great arquebuses, the pompous plumes, the
+strange, blanched faces. The battles seemed to be fantastic funerals.
+They were, in fact, the funerals of the great Spanish monarchy, which
+was slowly drowned in Dutch waters, smothered with mud and curses. One
+who is weak enough to feel an excessive tenderness for Spain need only
+go to Holland if he wishes to do penance for this sin. Never,
+perchance, have there been two nations which have had better reasons
+than these to hate each other with all their strength, or which tried
+with greater fury to establish those reasons. I remember, to mention
+one alone of a thousand contrasts, how it impressed me to hear Philip
+II. spoken of in terms so different from those used in the Pyrenees a
+few months before. In Spain his lowest title was _the great king_: in
+Holland they called him a _cowardly tyrant_.
+
+The ship passed between the island of Schouwen and the little island
+of St. Philipsland, and a few moments later entered the wide branch of
+the Meuse called Krammer, which divides the island of Overflakkee from
+the continent. We seemed to be sailing through a chain of large lakes.
+The distant banks presented the same appearance as those of the
+Scheldt. Dykes stretched as far as the eye could see, and behind the
+dykes appeared the tops of trees, the tips of steeples, and the roofs
+of houses, which were hidden from view, all lending the landscape an
+air of mystery and solitude. Only on some projection of the banks
+which formed a gap in the immense bulwarks of the island peeped forth,
+as it were, a sketch of a Dutch landscape--a painted cottage, a
+windmill, a boat--which seemed to reveal a secret created to arouse
+the curiosity of travellers, and to delude it directly it was aroused.
+
+Suddenly, on approaching the prow of the ship, where were the
+third-class passengers, I made a most agreeable discovery. Here was a
+group of peasants, men and women, dressed in the costume of Zealand--I
+do not remember of which island, for the costume differs in each, like
+the dialect, which is a mixture of Dutch and Flemish, if one may so
+speak of two languages that are almost identical. The men were all
+dressed alike. They wore round felt hats trimmed with wide embroidered
+ribbons; their jackets were of dark cloth, close fitting, and so short
+as hardly to cover their hips, and left open to show a sort of
+waistcoat striped with red, yellow, and green, which was closed over
+the chest by a row of silver buttons attached to one another like the
+links of a chain. Their costume was completed by a pair of short
+breeches of the same color as the jacket, tied round the waist by a
+band ornamented by a large stud of chiselled silver,--a red cravat,
+and woollen stockings reaching to the knee. In short, below the waist
+their dress was that of a priest, and above it, that of a harlequin.
+One of them had coins for buttons, and this is not an unusual
+practice. The women wore very high straw hats in the form of a broken
+cone, which looked like overturned buckets, bound round with long blue
+ribbons fluttering in the wind; their dresses were dark-colored, open
+at the throat, revealing white embroidered chemisettes; their arms
+were bare to the elbow; and two enormous gold earrings of the most
+eccentric shape projected almost over their cheeks. Although in my
+voyage I tried to imitate Victor Hugo in admiring everything as a
+savage, I could not possibly persuade myself that this was a beautiful
+style of dress. But I was prepared for incongruities of this sort. I
+knew that we go to Holland to see novelty rather than beauty, and good
+things rather than new ones, so I was predisposed to observe rather
+than to be enthusiastic. If that first impression was not very
+pleasant to my artistic taste, I consoled myself by the thought that
+doubtless all those peasants could read and write, and that possibly
+on the previous evening they had learned by heart a poem of their
+great poet, Jacob Catz, and that they were probably on their way to
+some agricultural convention of which the programme was in their
+pockets, where with arguments drawn from their modest experience they
+would confute the propositions of some scientific farmer from Goes or
+Middelburg. Ludovico Guicciardini, a Florentine nobleman, the author
+of an excellent work on the Netherlands printed in Antwerp in the
+sixteenth century, says that there was hardly a man or woman in
+Zealand who did not speak French or Spanish, and that a great many
+spoke Italian. This statement, which was perhaps an exaggeration in
+his day, would now be a fable, but it is certain that amongst the
+rural inhabitants of Zealand there exists an extraordinary
+intellectual culture, far superior to that of the peasants of France,
+Belgium, Germany, and many other provinces of Holland.
+
+The ship rounded the island of Philipsland, and we found ourselves
+outside of Zealand.
+
+Thus this province, mysterious before we entered it, seemed doubly so when
+we had quitted it. We had traversed it and had not seen it, and we left it
+with our curiosity ungratified. The only thing we had perceived was that
+Zealand is a country hidden from view. But one is deceived who thinks it
+is mysterious for the sole reason that it is invisible--everything in
+Zealand is a mystery. First of all,--How was it formed? Was it a group of
+tiny alluvial islands, uninhabited and separated only by canals, which, as
+some believe, met and formed larger islands? Or was it, as others think,
+terra firma when the Scheldt emptied itself into the Meuse? But, even
+leaving its origin out of the question, in what other country in the world
+do things happen as they happen in Zealand? In what other country do the
+fishermen catch in their nets a siren whose husband, after vain prayers to
+have her restored, in vengeance throws up a handful of sand, prophesying
+that it will bury the gates of the town--and lo his prophecy is fulfilled?
+In what other country do the souls of those lost at sea come as they come
+to Walcheren, and awaken the fishermen with the demand that they be
+conducted to the coasts of England? In what other country do the
+sea-storms fling, as they do on the banks of the island of Schouwen,
+carcasses borne from the farthest north--monsters half men, half boats;
+mummies bound in the floating trunks of trees, of which an example is
+still to be seen at the guildhall of Zierikzee? In what country, as at
+Wemeldingen, does a man fall head foremost into a canal, where, remaining
+under water an hour, he sees his dead wife and children, who call to him
+from Paradise, and is then drawn out of the water alive, whereupon he
+relates this miracle to Victor Hugo, who believes it and comments on it,
+concluding that the soul may leave the body for some time and then return
+to it? Where, as near Domburg, at low water is it possible to draw up
+ancient temples and statues of unknown deities? In what other place does
+the sword of a Spanish captain, Mondragone, serve as a lightning-conductor,
+as at Wemeldingen? In what other country are unfaithful women made to walk
+naked through the streets of the town with two stones hung round the neck
+and a cylinder of iron on the head, as in the island of Schouwen? Now,
+really, this last marvel is no longer seen, but the stones still exist,
+and any one can see them in the guildhall at Brauwershaven.
+
+Our ship now entered that part of the southern branch of the Meuse
+called Volkerak. The scene was just the same--dykes upon dykes, the
+tips of houses and church-steeples, a few boats here and there. One
+thing only was changed, the sky. I then saw for the first time the
+Dutch sky as it usually appears, and witnessed one of those battles of
+light peculiar to the Netherlands--battles which the great Dutch
+landscape-artists have painted with insuperable power. Previously the
+sky had been serene. It was a beautiful summer day: the waters were
+blue, the banks emerald green, the air warm, with not a breath of wind
+stirring. Suddenly a thick cloud hid the sun, and in less time than it
+takes to tell it everything was as different as if the season, the
+hour, and the latitude had all been changed in a moment. The waters
+became dark, the green of the banks grew dull, the horizon was hidden
+under a gray veil; everything seemed shrouded in a twilight which made
+all things lose their outline. An evil wind arose, chilling us to the
+bone. It seemed to be December; we felt the chill of winter and that
+restlessness which accompanies every sudden menace on the part of
+nature. All round the horizon small leaden-colored clouds began to
+collect, scudding rapidly along, as though searching impatiently for a
+direction and a shape. Then the waters began to ripple, and became
+streaked with rapid luminous reflections, with long stripes of green,
+violet, white, ochre, black. Finally this irritation of nature ended
+in a violent downpour, which confused sky, water, and earth in one
+gray mass, broken only by a lighter tone caused by the far-off banks,
+and by some sailing ships, which came into view here and there like
+upright shadows on the waters of the river.
+
+"Now we are really in Holland," said the captain of the ship,
+approaching a group of passengers who were contemplating the
+spectacle. "Such sudden changes of scene," he continued, "are never
+seen anywhere else."
+
+Then, in answer to a question from one of us, he ran on:
+
+"Holland has a meteorology quite her own. The winter is long, the
+summer short, the spring is only the end of the winter, but
+nevertheless, you see, every now and then, even during the summer, we
+have a touch of winter. We always say that in Holland the four seasons
+may be seen in one day. Our sky is the most changeable in the world.
+This is the reason why we are always talking of the weather, for the
+atmosphere is the most variable spectacle we have. If we wish to see
+something that will entertain us, we must look upward. But it is a
+dull climate. The sea sends us rain on three sides: the winds break
+loose over the country even on the finest days; the ground exhales
+vapors that darken the horizon; for several months the air has no
+transparency. You should see the winter. There are days when you would
+say it would never be fine again: the darkness seems to come from
+above like the light; the north-east wind brings us the icy air from
+the North Pole, and lashes the sea with such fury and roaring that it
+seems as though it would destroy the coasts." Here he turned to me and
+said, smiling, "You are better off in Italy." Then he grew serious and
+added, "However, every country has its good and bad side."
+
+The boat left the Volkerak, passed in front of the fortress of
+Willemstadt, built in 1583 by the Prince of Orange, and entered
+Hollandsdiep, a wide branch of the Meuse which separates South Holland
+from North Brabant. All that we saw from the ship was a wide expanse
+of water, two dark stripes to the right and left, and a gray sky. A
+French lady, breaking the general silence, exclaimed with a yawn,
+
+"How beautiful is Holland!"
+
+All of us laughed excepting the Dutch passengers.
+
+"Ah, captain," began a little old Belgian, one of those pillars of the
+coffee-house who are always thrusting their politics in the faces of
+their fellows, "there is a good and a bad side to every country, and
+we Belgians and Dutchmen ought to have been persuaded of this truth,
+and then we should have been indulgent toward each other and have
+lived in harmony. When one thinks that we are now a nation of nine
+millions of inhabitants,--we with our industries and you with your
+commerce, with two such capitals as Amsterdam and Brussels, and two
+commercial towns like Antwerp and Rotterdam, we should count for
+something in this world, eh, captain?"
+
+The captain did not answer. Another Dutchman said:
+
+"Yes, with a religious war twelve months in the year."
+
+The little old Belgian, somewhat put out, now addressed his remarks to
+me in a low tone: "It is a fact, sir. It was stupid, especially on our
+part. You will see Holland. Amsterdam is certainly not Brussels; it is
+as flat and wearisome a country as can well be; but as to prosperity
+it is far beyond us. Assure yourself that they spend a florin, which
+is two and a half francs, where we spend a franc. You will see it in
+your hotel bills. They are twice as rich as we are. It was all the
+fault of William the First, who wished to make a Dutch Belgium and has
+pushed us to extremes. You know how it happened"--and so on.
+
+In Hollandsdiep we began to see big barges, small-fishing-boats, and
+some large ships that had come from Hellevoetsluis, an important
+maritime port on the right bank of the Haringvliet, a branch of the
+Meuse, near its mouth, where nearly every vessel from India stops. The
+rain ceased. The sky, gradually, unwillingly, became serene, and on a
+sudden the waters and the banks were clothed once more in fresh
+glowing colors: it was summer again.
+
+In a little while the vessel reached the village of Moerdyk, where one
+of the largest bridges in the world is to be seen.
+
+It is an iron structure a mile and a half long, over which passes the
+railway to Dordrecht and Rotterdam. From a distance it looks like
+fourteen enormous edifices put in line across the river: each one of
+the fourteen high arches supporting the tracks is in truth a huge
+edifice. In passing over it, as I did a few months later on my return
+to Holland, I saw nothing but sky and water, so wide is the river at
+this point, and I felt almost afraid the bridge might suddenly come to
+an end, and plunge the train into the water.
+
+[Illustration: Dordrecht--Canal with Cathedral in the Distance.]
+
+The boat turned to the left, passing in front of the bridge, and
+entered a very narrow branch of the Meuse called Dordsche Kil, which
+had dykes on either side, and hence looked more like a canal than a
+river. It was already the seventh turn we had made since we crossed
+the frontier.
+
+Passing down the Dordsche Kil, we began to see signs of the proximity
+of a large town. There were long rows of trees on the banks, bushes,
+cottages, canals to the right and left, and much moving of boats and
+barges. The passengers became more animated, and here and there were
+heard exclamations of "Dordrecht! we shall see Dordrecht." All seemed
+preparing themselves for some extraordinary scene.
+
+The spectacle was not long delayed, and was extraordinary indeed.
+
+The boat turned for the eighth time, to the right, and entered the
+Oude Maas or Old Meuse.
+
+In a few moments the first houses of the suburbs around Dordrecht came
+into view. It was a sudden apparition of Holland, a gratification of
+our curiosity immediate and complete, a revelation of all the
+mysteries which were tormenting our brains: we seemed to be in a new
+world.
+
+Immense windmills with revolving arms were to be seen on every side;
+houses of a thousand extraordinary shapes were dotted along the banks:
+some were like villas, others like pavilions, kiosks, cottages,
+chapels, theatres,--their roofs red, their walls black, blue, pink,
+and gray, their doors and windows encircled with white borders like
+drifts of snow. Canals little and big were leading in every direction;
+in front of the houses and along the canals were groups and rows of
+trees; ships glided among the cottages and boats were moored before
+the doors; sails shone in the streets--masts, pennons, and the arms of
+windmills projected in confusion above the trees and roofs. Bridges,
+stairways, gardens on the water, a thousand corners, little docks,
+creeks, openings, crossways on the canals, hiding-places for the
+boats, men, women, and children passing each other on the ways from
+the river to the bank, from the canals to their houses, from the
+bridges to the barges,--all these made the scene one of motion and
+variety. Everywhere was water,--color, new forms, childish figures,
+little details, all glossy and fresh,--an ingenuous display of
+prettiness--a mixture of the primitive and the theatrical, of grace
+and absurdity, which was partly European, partly Chinese, partly
+belonging to no land,--and over all a delightful air of peace and
+innocence.
+
+So Dordrecht flashed upon me for the first time, the oldest and at the
+same time the freshest and brightest town of Holland, the queen of
+Dutch commerce in the Middle Ages--the mother of painters and
+scholars. Honored in 1572 by the first meeting within its walls of the
+deputies of the United Provinces, it was also at different times the
+seat of memorable synods, and was particularly famous for that
+meeting of the protestant theologians in 1618, the Ecumenical Council
+of the Reformation, which decided the terrible religious dispute
+between Arminians and Gomarists, established the form of national
+worship, and gave rise to that series of disturbances and persecutions
+which ended with the unfortunate murder of Barneveldt and the
+sanguinary triumph of Maurice of Orange. Dordrecht, because of its
+easy communication with the sea, with Belgium, and with the interior
+of Holland, is still one of the most flourishing commercial towns of
+the United Provinces. To Dordrecht come the immense supplies of wood
+which are brought down the Rhine from the Black Forest and
+Switzerland--the Rhine wines, the lime, the cement and the stone; in
+its little port there is a continual movement of snowy sails and of
+smoking steamers, while little flags bring greetings from Arnhem,
+Bois-le-Duc, Nimeguen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and from all their
+mysterious sisters in Zealand.
+
+The boat stopped for a few minutes at Dordrecht, and I unexpectedly
+observed near by a number of fresh little cottages which were purely
+Dutch, and which aroused in me the greatest desire to land and make
+their acquaintance. But I conquered my curiosity by the thought that
+at Rotterdam I should see many such sights. The boat started, turned
+to the left (it was the ninth turning), and entered a narrow branch
+of the Meuse called De Noord, one of the numerous threads of that
+inextricable network of the waters which covers Southern Holland.
+
+The captain approached me as I was looking for him to explain the
+position of Dordrecht on the map, for it seemed to me very singular.
+In fact, it is singular. Dordrecht is situated at the extremity of a
+piece of ground separated from the continent, and forming in the midst
+of the land an island crossed and recrossed by numerous streams, some
+of which are natural, some the work of man, rivers made half by man,
+half by nature--a bit of Holland encircled and imprisoned by the
+waters, like a battalion overcome by an army. It is bounded on the
+four sides by the river Merwede, the ancient Mosa, the Dordsche Kil,
+and the archipelago of Bies-Bosch, and is crossed by the New Merwede,
+a large artificial water-course. The imprisonment of this piece of
+land on which Dordrecht lies is an episode in one of the great battles
+fought by Holland with the waters. The archipelago of Bies-Bosch did
+not exist before the fifteenth century. In its place there was a
+beautiful plain covered with populous villages. During the night of
+the 18th of November, 1431, the waters of the Waal and the Meuse broke
+the dykes, destroyed more than seventy villages, drowned almost a
+hundred thousand souls, and broke up the plain into a thousand
+islands, leaving in the midst of this ruin one upright tower called
+Merwede House, the ruins of which are still visible. Thus was
+Dordrecht separated from the continent, and the archipelago of
+Bies-Bosch made its appearance, which, as though to show its right of
+existence, provides hay, reeds, and rushes to a little village which
+hangs like a swallow's nest on one of the neighboring dykes. But this
+is not all that is remarkable in the history of Dordrecht. Tradition
+relates, many believe, and some uphold, that at the time of this
+remarkable inundation Dordrecht--yes, the whole town of Dordrecht,
+with its houses, mills, and canals--made a short journey, like an army
+moving camp; that is to say, it was transported from one place to
+another with its foundations intact: in consequence whereof the
+inhabitants of the neighboring villages, coming to the town after the
+catastrophe, found nothing where it had been. One can imagine their
+consternation. This prodigy is explained by the fact that Dordrecht is
+founded on a stratum of clay, which had slipped on to the mass of turf
+which forms the basis of the soil. Such is the story as I heard it.
+
+Before the vessel left the Noord Canal the hope of seeing my first
+Dutch sunset was disappointed by another sudden change in the weather.
+The sky was obscured, the waters became livid, and the horizon
+disappeared behind a thick veil of mist.
+
+The ship entered the Meuse, and turned for the tenth time, to the
+left. At this point the Meuse is very wide, as it carries away and
+imprisons the waters of the Waal, the largest branch of the Rhine, and
+the waters of the Leck and Yssel also empty themselves into it. Its
+banks are flanked on either side by long rows of trees, and are dotted
+with houses, workshops, manufactories, and arsenals, which grow
+thicker as Rotterdam is approached.
+
+However little acquainted one may be with the physical history of
+Holland, the first time one sees the Meuse and thinks of its memorable
+overflowings, of the thousand calamities and innumerable victims of
+that capricious and terrible river, one regards it with a sort of
+uneasy curiosity, much as one looks at a famous brigand. The eye rests
+on the dykes with a feeling almost of satisfaction and gratitude, as
+on the brigand when he is safely handcuffed and in the hands of the
+police.
+
+While my eyes were roving in search of Rotterdam, a Dutch passenger
+told how, when the Meuse is frozen, the currents, coming unexpectedly
+from warmer regions, strike the ice that covers the river, break it,
+upheave enormous blocks with a terrific crash, and hurl them against
+the dykes, piling them in immense heaps which choke the course of the
+river and make it overflow. Then begins a strange battle. The Dutch
+answer the threats of the Meuse with cannonade. The artillery is
+called out, volleys of grape-shot break the towers and barricades of
+ice which oppose the current, into a storm of splinters and briny
+hail. "We Hollanders," concluded the passenger, "are the only people
+who have to take up arms against the rivers."
+
+When we came in sight of Rotterdam it was growing dark and
+drizzling. Through the thick mist I could barely see a great confusion
+of ships, houses, windmills, towers, trees, and moving figures on
+dykes and bridges. There were lights everywhere. It was a great city
+different in appearance from any I had seen before, but fog and
+darkness soon hid it from my view. By the time I had taken leave of my
+fellow-travellers and had gathered my luggage together, it was night.
+"So much the better," I said getting into a cab. "I shall see for the
+first time a Dutch city by night; this must indeed be a novel
+spectacle." In fact, Bismarck, when at Rotterdam, wrote to his wife
+that at night he saw "phantoms on the roofs."
+
+
+
+
+ROTTERDAM.
+
+
+One cannot learn much about Rotterdam by entering it at night. The cab
+passed directly over a bridge that gave out a hollow sound, and while
+I believed myself to be--and, in fact, was--in the city, to my
+surprise I saw on either side a row of ships which were soon lost in
+the darkness. When we had crossed the bridge we drove along streets
+brightly lighted and full of people, and reached another bridge, to
+find ourselves between other rows of ships. So we went on for some
+time, from bridge to street, from street to bridge. To increase the
+confusion, there was everywhere an illumination such as I had never
+seen before. There were lamps at the corners of the streets, lanterns
+on the ships, beacons on the bridges, lights in the windows, and
+smaller lights under the houses,--all of which were reflected by the
+water. Suddenly the cab stopped in the midst of a crowd of people. I
+put my head out of the window, and saw a bridge suspended in mid-air.
+I asked what was the matter, and some one answered that a ship was
+passing. In a moment we were again on our way, and I had a peep at a
+tangle of canals crossing and recrossing each other, and of bridges
+that seemed to form a large square full of masts and studded with
+lights. Then, at last, we turned a corner and arrived at the hotel.
+
+The first thing I did on entering my room was to examine it to see if
+it sustained the great fame of Dutch cleanliness. It did indeed; and
+this was the more to be admired in a hotel, almost always occupied by
+a profane race, which has no reverence for what might be called in
+Holland the worship of cleanliness. The linen was white as snow, the
+windows were transparent as air, the furniture shone like crystal, the
+walls were so clean that one could not have found a spot with a
+microscope. Besides this, there was a basket for waste paper, a little
+tablet on which to strike matches, a slab for cigar-ashes, a box for
+cigar-stumps, a spittoon, a boot-jack, in short, there was absolutely
+no excuse for soiling anything.
+
+When I had surveyed my room, I spread the map of Rotterdam on the
+table, and began to make my plans for the morrow.
+
+It is a singular fact that the large towns of Holland have remarkably
+regular forms, although they were built on unstable land and with
+great difficulty. Amsterdam is a semicircle, the Hague is a square,
+Rotterdam an equilateral triangle. The base of the triangle is an
+immense dyke, protecting the town from the Meuse, and known as the
+Boompjes, which in Dutch means little trees,--the name being derived
+from a row of elms that were planted when the embankment was built,
+and are now grown to a great size. Another large dyke, dividing the
+city into two almost equal parts, forms a second bulwark against the
+inundations of the river, extending from the middle of the left side
+of the triangle to the opposite angle. The part of Rotterdam which
+lies between the two dykes consists of large canals, islands, and
+bridges: this is the modern town; the other part, lying beyond the
+second dyke, is the old town. Two large canals extend along the other
+two sides of the city up to the vertex, where they join and meet a
+river called the Rotte, which name, prefixed to the word dam, meaning
+dyke, gives Rotterdam.
+
+When I had thus performed my duty as a conscientious traveller, and
+had observed a thousand precautions against defiling, even with a
+breath, the spotless purity of that jewel of a room, I entered my
+first Dutch bed with the timidity of a country bumpkin.
+
+Dutch beds--I am speaking of those to be found in the hotels--are
+usually short and wide, with an enormous eider-down pillow which would
+bury the head of a cyclops. In order to omit nothing, I must add that
+the light is generally a copper candlestick as large as a plate, which
+might hold a torch, but contains instead a short candle as thin as the
+little finger of a Spanish lady.
+
+In the morning I dressed in haste, and ran rapidly down stairs.
+
+What streets, what houses, what a town, what a mixture of novelties
+for a foreigner,--a scene how different from any to be witnessed
+elsewhere in Europe!
+
+First of all, I saw Hoog-Straat, a long straight roadway running along
+the inner dyke of the city.
+
+Most of the houses are built of unplastered brick, ranging in color
+through all the shades of red from black to pink. They are only wide
+enough to give room for two windows, and are but two stories in
+height. The front walls overtop and conceal the roofs, running up and
+terminating in blunted triangles surmounted by gables. Some of them
+have pointed façades, some are elevated in two curves, and resemble a
+long neck without a head; others are indented step-fashion, like the
+houses children build with blocks; others look like conical pavilions;
+others like country churches; others, again, like puppet-shows. These
+gables are generally outlined with white lines and ornamented in
+execrable taste; many have coarse arabesques painted in relief on
+plaster. The windows, and the doors too, are bordered with broad white
+lines; there are other white lines between the different stories of
+the houses; the spaces between the house-and shop-doors are filled in
+with white woodwork; so all along the street white and dark red are
+the only colors to be seen. From a distance all the houses produce an
+effect of black trimmed with strips of linen, and present an
+appearance partly festal, partly funereal, leaving one in doubt
+whether they enliven or depress. At first sight I felt inclined to
+laugh: it seemed impossible that these houses were not playthings and
+that serious people could live inside them. I should have said that
+after the fête for which they had been constructed they must disappear
+like paper frames built for a display of fireworks.
+
+While I was vaguely regarding the street I saw a house which amazed
+me. I thought I must be mistaken: I looked at it more closely,--looked
+at the houses near it, compared them with the first house and then
+with each other, and even then I believed that it was an optical
+illusion. I turned hastily down a side street, and still I seemed to
+see the same thing. At last I was persuaded that the fault was not
+with my eyes, but with the entire city.
+
+All Rotterdam is like a city that has reeled and rocked in an
+earthquake, and has still remained standing, though apparently on the
+verge of ruin.
+
+All the houses--the exceptions in each street are so few they can be
+counted on one's fingers--are inclined more or less, and the greater
+number lean so much that the roof of one projects half a meter beyond
+that of the next house if it happens to be straight or but slightly
+inclined. The strangest part of it all is, that adjoining houses lean
+in different directions; one will lean forward as if it were going to
+topple over, another backward, some to the right, others to the left.
+In some places, where six or seven neighboring houses all lean
+forward, those in the middle being most inclined, they form a curve,
+like a railing that is bent by the pressure of a crowd. In some places
+two houses which stand close together bend toward each other, as if
+for mutual support. In certain streets for some distance all the
+houses lean sideways, like trees which the wind has blown one against
+the other; then again, they all lean in the opposite direction, like
+another row of trees bent by a contrary wind. In some places there is
+a regularity in the inclination, which makes the effect less
+noticeable. On certain crossways and in some of the smaller streets
+there is an indescribable confusion, a real architectural riot, a
+dance of houses, a disorder that seems animated. There are houses that
+appear to fall forward, overcome by sleep; others that throw
+themselves backward as if in fright; some lean toward each other till
+their roofs almost touch, as if they were confiding secrets; some reel
+against each other as though tipsy; a few lean backward between others
+that lean forward, like malefactors being dragged away by policemen.
+Rows of houses seem to be bowing to church-steeples; other groups are
+paying attention to one house in their centre, and seem to be plotting
+against some palace. I will soon let you into the secret of all this.
+
+[Illustration: In Rotterdam.]
+
+But it is neither the shape of the houses nor their inclination that
+seemed to me the most curious thing about them.
+
+One must observe them carefully, one by one, from top to bottom, and
+in their diversity they are as interesting as a picture.
+
+In some of the houses, in the middle of the gable, at the top of the
+façade, a crooked beam projects, fitted with a pulley and a piece of
+cord to raise and lower buckets or baskets. In others, a stag's,
+sheep's, or goat's head looks down from a little round window. Under
+this head there is a line of whitewashed stones or a wooden beam which
+cuts the façade in two. Below the beam there are two large windows,
+shaded by awnings like canopies, under which hang little green
+curtains, over the upper panes of the window. Under the green curtain
+are two white curtains, draped back to reveal a swinging bird-cage or
+a hanging basket full of flowers. Below this flower-basket screening
+the lower window-panes there is a frame with a very fine wire netting,
+which prevents pedestrians from looking into the rooms. Behind the
+wire netting, in the divisions between the netting and the framework
+of the window, there are tables ornamented with china, glass, flowers,
+statuettes and other trifles. On the stone sills of windows which open
+into the street there is a row of little flower-pots. In the middle or
+at one side of the window-sill there is a curved iron hook which
+supports two movable mirrors joined like the backs of a book,
+surmounted by a third movable glass, so arranged that from within the
+house one can see everything that happens in the street without one's
+self being seen. In some houses a lantern projects between the
+windows. Below the windows is the house-door or shop-door. If it be a
+shop-door, there will be carved above it either a negro's head with
+the mouth wide open or the smirking face of a Turk. Sometimes the sign
+is an elephant, a goose, a horse's head, a bull, a serpent, a
+half-moon, a windmill, and sometimes an outstretched arm holding some
+article that is for sale in the shop. If it be a house-door--in which
+case it is always kept closed--it bears a brass plate on which is
+written the name of the tenant, another plate with an opening for
+letters, and a third plate on the wall holding the bell-handle. The
+plates, nails, and locks are all kept shining like gold. Before the
+door there is frequently a little wooden bridge--for in many houses
+the ground floor is made lower than the street--and in front of the
+bridge are two small stone pillars surmounted by two balls; below
+these stand other pillars united by iron chains made of large links in
+the shape of crosses, stars, and polygons. In the space between the
+street and the house are pots of flowers. On the window-seats of the
+basement, hidden in the hollow, are more flowers and curtains. In the
+less frequented streets there are bird-cages on either side of the
+windows, boxes full of growing plants, clothes and linen hung out to
+dry. Indeed, innumerable articles of varied colors dangle and swing
+about, so that it all seems like a great fair.
+
+But without quitting the old town one need only walk toward its
+outskirts in order to see novel sights at every step.
+
+In passing through certain of the straight, narrow streets one
+suddenly sees before him, as it were, a curtain that has fallen and
+cut off the view. It is immediately withdrawn, and one perceives that
+it is the sail of a ship passing down one of the canals. At the foot
+of other streets a network of ropes seems to be stretched between the
+two end houses to stop the passage. This is the rigging of a ship that
+is anchored at one of the docks. On other streets there are
+drawbridges surmounted by long parallel boards, presenting a fantastic
+appearance, as though they were gigantic swings for the amusement of
+the light-hearted people living in these peculiar houses. Other
+streets have at the foot windmills as high as a steeple and black as
+an ancient tower, turning and twisting their arms like large wheels
+revolving over the roofs of the neighboring houses. Everywhere, in
+short, among the houses, over the roofs, in the midst of the distant
+trees, we see the masts of ships, pennons, sails, and what not, to
+remind us that we are surrounded by water, and that the city is built
+in the very middle of the port.
+
+In the mean time, the shops have opened and the streets have become
+animated.
+
+There is a great stir of people, who are busy, but not hurried: this
+absence of hurry distinguishes the streets of Rotterdam from those of
+certain parts of London, which, from the color of the houses and the
+serious faces of the citizens, remind many travellers of the Dutch
+city. Faces white and pale--faces the color of Parmesan cheese--faces
+encircled by hair flaxen, golden, red, and yellowish--large shaven
+faces with beards below the chin--eyes so light that one has to look
+closely to see the pupil--sturdy women, plump, pink-cheeked, and
+placid, wearing white caps and earrings shaped like corkscrews,--such
+are the first things one observes in the crowd.
+
+But my curiosity for the present was not aroused by the people. I
+crossed Hoog-Straat and found myself in new Rotterdam.
+
+One cannot decide whether it is a city or a harbor, whether there is
+more land than water, or whether the ships are more numerous than the
+houses.
+
+The town is divided by long, wide canals into many islands, which are
+united by drawbridges, turning bridges, and stone bridges. From both
+sides of each canal extend two streets, with rows of trees on the side
+next to the water and lines of houses on the opposite side. Each of
+these canals forms a port where the water is deep enough to float the
+largest vessels, and every one of them is full of shipping throughout
+its length, a narrow space being kept clear in the middle which serves
+as a thoroughfare for the vessels. It seems like a great fleet
+imprisoned in a town.
+
+I arrived at the hour of greatest activity, and took my stand on the
+highest bridge of the principal crossway.
+
+Thence I could see four canals, four forests of ships, flanked on
+either side by eight rows of trees.
+
+The streets were encumbered with people and merchandise. Droves of
+cattle passed over the bridges, which were being raised and swung to
+let the ships pass. The moment they closed or lowered again fresh
+crowds of people, carriages, and carts passed over them. Ships as
+fresh and shining as the models in a museum passed in and out of the
+canals, carrying on their decks the wives and children of the sailors,
+while smaller boats glided rapidly from ship to ship. Customers
+thronged the shops. Servants were washing the walls and windows. This
+busy scene with all its movement was made yet more cheerful by its
+reflection in the water,--by the green of the trees, the red of the
+houses, by the high windmills, whose black tops and white wings were
+outlined against the blue sky, and still more by an air of repose and
+simplicity never seen in any other northern town.
+
+I examined a Dutch ship attentively.
+
+Almost all of the vessels which are crowded in the canals of Rotterdam
+sail only on the Rhine and in Holland. They have only one mast, and
+are broad and strongly built. They are painted in various colors like
+toy boats. The planks of the hull are generally of a bright grass
+green, ornamented at the edge by a white or bright-red stripe, or by
+several stripes which look like broad bands of different colored
+ribbons. The poop is usually gilded. The decks and the masts are
+varnished and polished like the daintiest drawing-room floor. The
+hatches, the buckets, the barrels, the sailyards and the small planks
+are all painted red, and striped with white or blue. The cabin in
+which the families of the sailors live is also colored like a Chinese
+joss-house; its windows are scrupulously clean, and are hung with
+white embroidered curtains tied with pink ribbons. In all their spare
+moments the sailors, the women, and the children are washing,
+brushing, and scrubbing everything with the greatest care; and when
+their vessel makes its exit from the port, all bright and pompous like
+a triumphal car, they stand proudly erect on the poop and search for a
+mute compliment in the eyes of the people who are gathered along the
+canal.
+
+Passing from canal to canal, from bridge to bridge, I arrived at the
+dyke of the Boompjes, in front of the Meuse, where is centred the
+whole life of this great commercial town. To the left extends a long
+line of gay little steamers, which leave every hour of the day for
+Dordrecht, Arnhem, Gouda, Schiedam, Briel, and Zealand. They are
+continually filling the air with the lively sound of their bells and
+with clouds of white smoke. To the right are the larger vessels that
+run between the different European ports, and among them are to be
+seen the beautiful three-masted ships that sail to and from the East
+Indies, with their names, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Samarang, written on
+them in letters of gold, bringing to the imagination those far-off
+ports and savage nations like the echo of far-off voices. In front,
+the Meuse is crowded by numbers of boats and barges, while its
+opposite bank is covered with a forest of beech trees, windmills, and
+workshop chimneys. Above this scene is a restless sky, with flashes of
+light mingling with ominous darkness, with scudding clouds and
+changing forms, which seemed to be trying to reproduce the busy
+activity of the earth.
+
+Rotterdam, with the exception of Amsterdam, is the most important
+commercial city in Holland. It was a flourishing commercial town as
+early as the thirteenth century. Ludovico Guicciardini, in his work on
+the Netherlands which I have already mentioned, tells, in proof of the
+riches of the town, that in the sixteenth century within a year it
+rebuilt nine hundred houses which had been destroyed by fire.
+Bentivoglio, in his history of the war of Flanders, calls it "the
+greatest and the most important commercial town that Holland
+possesses." But its greatest prosperity dates only from 1830; that is
+to say, after the separation of Holland from Belgium, which brought to
+Rotterdam all that prosperity of which it deprived her rival, Antwerp.
+Her situation is most advantageous. By means of the Meuse she
+communicates with the sea, and this river can carry the largest
+merchantmen into her ports in a few hours; through the same river she
+communicates with the Rhine, which brings her whole forests from the
+mountains of Switzerland and Bavaria--an immense quantity of timber,
+which in Holland is changed into ships, dykes, and villages. More than
+eighty splendid ships come and go between Rotterdam and India in the
+space of nine months. From every port merchandise pours in with such
+abundance that it has to be divided among the neighboring towns.
+Meanwhile, Rotterdam increases in size: the citizens are now
+constructing vast new store-houses, and are now working on a huge
+bridge which will span the Meuse and cross the entire town, thus
+extending the railway, which now stops on the left bank of the river,
+as far as the gate of Delft, where it will join the railway of the
+Hague.
+
+In short, Rotterdam has a more brilliant future than Amsterdam, and
+for a long time has been feared as a rival by her elder sister. She
+does not possess the great riches of the capital, but she is more
+industrious in using what wealth she has; she risks, dares, and
+undertakes, after the manner of a young and adventurous city.
+Amsterdam, like a wealthy merchant who has grown cautious after a life
+of daring speculations, has begun to doze and to rest on her laurels.
+To briefly characterize the three Dutch cities, it may be said that
+one makes a fortune at Rotterdam, one consolidates it in Amsterdam,
+and one spends it at the Hague.
+
+One understands from this why Rotterdam is rather looked down upon by
+the other two cities, and is regarded as a _parvenu_. But there is yet
+another reason for this: Rotterdam is a merchant city pure and simple,
+and is exclusively occupied with her own affairs. She has but a small
+aristocracy, which is neither wealthy nor proud. Amsterdam, on the
+contrary, holds the flower of the old merchant princes. Amsterdam has
+great picture-galleries,--she fosters the arts and literature; she
+unites, in short, distinction and wealth. Notwithstanding their
+peculiar advantages, these sister cities are mutually jealous; they
+antagonize and fret each other: what one does the other must do; what
+the government grants to one, the other insists upon having. At the
+present moment (_in 1874_), they are opening to the sea two canals
+which may not prove serviceable; but that is of no consequence: the
+government, like an indulgent father, must satisfy both his elder and
+his younger daughter.
+
+After I had seen the port, I went along the Boompjes dyke, on which
+stands an uninterrupted line of large new houses built in the Parisian
+and London style--houses which the inhabitants greatly admire, but
+which the stranger regards with disappointment or neglects altogether;
+I turned back, re-entered the city, and went from canal to canal, from
+bridge to bridge, until I reached the angle formed by the union of
+Hoog-Straat with one of the two long canals which enclose the town
+toward the east.
+
+This is the poorest part of the town.
+
+I went down the first street I came to, and took several turns in that
+quarter to observe how the lower classes of the Dutch live. The streets
+were extremely narrow, and the houses were smaller and more crooked than
+those in any other part of the city; one could reach many of the roofs
+with one's hand. The windows were little more than a span from the ground;
+the doors were so low that one was obliged to stoop to enter them. But
+nevertheless there was not the least sign of poverty. Even there the
+windows were provided with looking-glasses--spies, as the Dutch call
+them; on the window-sills there were pots of flowers protected by green
+railings; there were white curtains,--the doors were painted green or
+blue, and stood wide open, so that one could see the bedrooms, the
+kitchens, all the recesses of the houses. The rooms were like little
+boxes; everything was heaped up as in an old-clothes shop, but the copper
+vessels, the stoves, the furniture, were all as clean and bright as those
+in a gentleman's house. As I passed along these streets, I did not see a
+bit of dirt anywhere,--I met with no bad smells, nor did I see a rag, or
+a hand extended for alms; one breathes cleanliness and well-being, and
+thinks with shame of the squalid quarters in which the lower classes swarm
+in our cities, and not in ours only, for Paris too has its Rue Mouffetard.
+
+Turning back to my hotel, I passed through the square of the great new
+market. It is placed in the centre of the city, and is not less
+strange than all that surrounds it.
+
+It is an open square suspended over the water, being at the same time
+a square and a bridge. The bridge is very wide and unites the
+principal dyke--the Hoog-Straat--with a section of the town surrounded
+by canals. This aërial square is enclosed on three sides by venerable
+buildings, between which runs a street long, narrow, and dark,
+entirely filled by a canal, and reminding one of a highway in Venice.
+On the fourth side is a sort of dock formed by the widest canal in the
+city, which leads directly to the Meuse. In this square, surrounded by
+carts and stalls, in the midst of heaps of vegetables, oranges and
+earthenware, encircled by a crowd of hucksters and peddlers, enclosed
+by a railing covered with matting and rags, stands the statue of
+Desiderius Erasmus, the first literary celebrity of Rotterdam.
+
+This Gerrit Gerritz--for, like all the great writers of his time, he
+assumed the Latin name--this Gerrit Gerritz belonged by his education,
+by his literary attainments, and by his convictions to the circle of
+the Italian humanists and literati. An elegant, learned, and
+indefatigable writer on literature and science, he filled all Europe
+with his fame between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; he was
+overwhelmed with favor by the popes, sought after and fêted by
+princes. Of his innumerable works, all of which were written in Latin,
+the "Praise of Folly," dedicated to Sir Thomas More, is still read.
+The bronze statue, erected in 1622, represents Erasmus dressed in a
+fur cloak and cap. The figure is slightly bent forward as if he were
+walking, and he holds in his hand a large open book, from which he is
+reading. There is a double inscription on the pedestal in Latin and
+Dutch, which calls him _vir sæculi sui primarius et civis omnium
+præstantissimus_. Notwithstanding this pompous eulogy, poor Erasmus,
+stood in the centre of the market-place like a municipal guard,
+excites our compassion. There is not, I believe, on the face of the
+earth another statue of a scholar that is so neglected by those who
+pass it, so despised by those who surround it, and so pitied by those
+who look at it. However, who knows but that Erasmus, subtle professor
+that he was and will ever be, is contented with his corner, if indeed,
+as tradition tells, it be not far from his house? In a little street
+near the square, in the wall of a small house which is now used as a
+tavern, there is to be seen in a niche a bronze statuette of the great
+writer, and under it runs the inscription: _Hæc est parva domus magnus
+qua natus Erasmus_. Eight out of ten of the inhabitants of Rotterdam
+have probably never seen nor read it.
+
+In an angle of the same square is a small house called "The House of
+Fear," where upon the wall is a picture whose subject I have
+forgotten. According to the tradition it is called "The House of
+Fear," because the most prominent people of the city took shelter in
+it when Rotterdam was sacked by the Spaniards, and were imprisoned in
+it three days without food. This is not the only record of the
+Spaniards to be found in Rotterdam. Many buildings, erected during the
+time of their dominion suggest the style of architecture then
+fashionable in Spain, and many still bear Spanish inscriptions. In the
+cities of Holland inscriptions on the houses are very common. The
+buildings, like old wine, glory in their antiquity and declare the
+date of their construction in large letters on the façades.
+
+In the market square I had every opportunity of observing the
+earrings of the women, which deserve to be minutely described.
+
+At Rotterdam, I saw only the earrings which are worn in South Holland,
+but even in this province alone the variety is very great. However,
+they are all alike in this respect,--instead of hanging from the ears,
+they are attached to a gold, silver, or gilded copper semicircle,
+which girds the head like a half diadem, its extremities resting on
+the temples. The commonest earrings are in the form of a spiral with
+five or six circles; they are often very wide, and are attached to the
+two ends of the semicircle. They project in front of the face like the
+frames of a pair of spectacles. Many of the women wear another pair of
+ordinary earrings attached to the spirals. These are very large and
+reach almost to the bosom, dangling in front of the cheeks like the
+head-gear of Italian oxen. Some women wear golden circles which gird
+the forehead also, and are chased and ornamented in relief with
+leaves, studs, and buttons. They nearly all dress their hair smooth
+and tight, and wear white caps embroidered and trimmed with lace.
+These fit the head closely like a night-cap, and cover the neck and
+shoulders, descending in the form of a veil, which is also embroidered
+and trimmed with lace. These flowing veils, resembling those of the
+Arabs, and the peculiar and enormous earrings, give these women an
+appearance partly regal and partly barbarous. If they were not so fair
+as they are, one would take them for women of some savage land who
+had still preserved the ornaments of their native dress. I am not
+surprised that some travellers, seeing these earrings for the first
+time, have thought that they were at once an ornament and an
+instrument, and have asked their use. One might suppose that they are
+made thus for another purpose than that of beautifying the
+wearer--that they may serve as a defence to female modesty. For if any
+impertinent person should attempt to salute a cheek so guarded, he
+would encounter these obstacles and be kept at bay some distance from
+the coveted object. These earrings, which are worn chiefly by the
+peasant-women, are nearly all made of gold, and because of the size of
+the spirals and of the other accessories they cost a large sum. But I
+saw signs of even greater riches amongst the Dutch peasantry during my
+country rambles.
+
+Near the market square stands the cathedral, which was founded toward
+the end of the fifteenth century at the time of the decadence of
+Gothic architecture. It was then a Catholic church consecrated to St.
+Lawrence; now it is the first Protestant church in the city.
+Protestantism, with religious vandalism, entered the ancient church
+with a pickaxe and a whitewash brush, and with bigoted fanaticism
+broke, scraped, rasped, plastered, and destroyed all that was
+beautiful and splendid, and reduced it to a bare, white, cold edifice,
+such as ought to have been devoted to the Goddess of _Ennui_ in the
+time of the _False and Lying Gods_. In the cathedral there is an
+immense organ with nearly five thousand pipes, which gives, besides
+other sounds, the effect of the echo. There are also the tombs of a
+few admirals, decorated with long epitaphs in Dutch and Latin. Besides
+these I saw nothing but a great many benches, some boys with their
+hats on, a group of women who were chattering loudly, and an old man
+with a cigar in his mouth. This was the first Protestant church I had
+entered, and I must confess I felt a disagreeable sensation, partly of
+sadness, partly of scandal. I compared the dismantled appearance of
+this church with the magnificent cathedrals of Italy and Spain, where
+a soft and mysterious light shines from the walls, and where one meets
+the loving looks of angels and saints through the clouds of incense
+directing one's gaze toward heaven; where one sees so many pictures of
+innocence that calm one, so many images of pain that help one to
+suffer, that inspire one with resignation, peace, and the sweetness of
+pardon; where the poor, without food or shelter, spurned from the rich
+man's gate, may pray amid marble and gold, as if in a palace,--where,
+surrounded by a pomp and splendor that do not humiliate, but rather
+honor and comfort their misery, they are not despised;--those
+cathedrals, finally, where as children we knelt beside our mothers,
+and felt for the first time a sweet assurance that we should some day
+live afresh in those deep azure spaces that we saw painted in the
+dome suspended above us. Comparing this church with those cathedrals,
+I perceived that I was more of a Catholic than I had believed myself
+to be, and I felt the truth of those words of Castelar: "Well, yes, I
+am a free-thinker, but if some day I were to return to a religion, I
+would return to the splendid one of my fathers, and not to this
+squalid and nude doctrine that saddens my eyes and my heart."
+
+[Illustration: Interior of the Church of St. Lawrence, Rotterdam.]
+
+From the top of the tower one gets a bird's-eye view of the whole city
+of Rotterdam with its steep little red roofs, its wide canals, its
+ships standing out against the houses, and all around the city a
+boundless plain of vivid green traversed by canals, fringed with
+trees, dotted with windmills and villages hidden in masses of verdure
+and showing only the points of their steeples. At that moment the sky
+was clear, and it was possible to see the gleaming waters of the Meuse
+from Bois-le-Duc almost to its mouth. I distinguished the steeples of
+Dordrecht, Leyden, Delft, the Hague, and Gouda; but nowhere, either
+near or far off, was there a hill, a rise in the ground, or a curve to
+break the straight even line of the horizon. It was like a sea, green
+and motionless, on which the steeples were the masts of anchored
+ships. The eye wandered over that vast plain with a sense of repose,
+and for the first time I experienced that indefinable feeling which
+the Dutch landscape inspires. It is a feeling neither of sadness, of
+pleasure, nor of weariness, yet it embraces them all, and holds one
+for a long time motionless, without knowing at first what one is
+looking at or of what one is thinking. I was suddenly aroused by
+strange music; at first I could not tell whence it came. Bells were
+ringing a lively chime with silvery notes, now breaking slowly on the
+ear, as if they could scarcely detach themselves from each other; now
+blending in groups, in strange flourishes; now trilling, and swelling
+sonorously. The music was merry and fantastic, although of a somewhat
+primitive character, it is true, like the many-colored town over which
+it poured its notes like a flight of birds; indeed, it seemed to
+harmonize so well with the character of the city that it appeared to
+be its natural voice, an echo of the quaint life of the people,
+reminding me of the sea, the solitude, and the cottages, and at the
+same time it amused me and touched my heart. All at once the music
+stopped and the hour struck. At the same moment other steeples flung
+on the air other chimes, of which only the highest notes reached me,
+and when their chimes were ended they likewise struck the hour. This
+aërial concert, as I was told when its mechanism was explained to me,
+is repeated at every hour in the day and night by all the steeples of
+Holland, and the chimes are national airs, psalms, Italian and German
+melodies. Thus in Holland the hour sings, as though to draw the mind
+from contemplating the flight of time, and it sings of country, of
+religion, and of love, with a harmony surpassing all the sounds of
+earth.
+
+Now, to continue in order my story of what I saw and did, I must
+conduct my readers to a coffee-house and beg them to sit beside me at
+my first Dutch dinner.
+
+The Dutch are great eaters. Their greatest pleasure, as Cardinal
+Bentivoglio has said, is to be at a feast or at some repast. But they
+are not epicures; they are voracious: they prefer quantity to quality.
+Even in ancient times they were famous among their neighbors, not only
+for the roughness of their habits, but for the simplicity of their
+diet. They were called eaters of milk and cheese. They usually eat
+five times a day. When they rise they take tea, coffee, milk, bread,
+cheese, butter; shortly before noon comes a good breakfast; before
+dinner they partake of some light nourishment, such as a glass of wine
+and biscuits; then follows a heavy dinner; and late in the evening, to
+use their own words, some trifle, so as not to go to bed with an empty
+stomach. They eat in company on many occasions. I do not mean on the
+occasions of christenings or marriages, as in other countries, but,
+for example, at funerals. It is the custom that the friends and
+relatives who have accompanied the funeral procession shall go home
+with the family of the deceased, where they are then invited to eat
+and drink, and they generally do great honor to their hosts. If there
+were no other witnesses, the Dutch paintings are there to testify to
+the great part eating has always played in the life of this people.
+Besides the infinite number of domestic subjects, in which we might
+say that dishes and bottles are the protagonists, nearly all the large
+pictures representing historical personages, burgomasters, and
+national guard, show them seated at table in the act of eating,
+carving, or pouring out wine. Even their hero, William the Silent, the
+incarnation of New Holland, shared this national love of the table. He
+had the first cook of his time, who was so great an artist that the
+German princes sent beginners to perfect themselves at his school, and
+Philip II., in one of those periods of apparent reconciliation with
+his mortal enemy, begged for him as a present.
+
+But, as I said, the principal characteristic of the Dutch kitchen is
+abundance, not delicacy. The French, who are _bon-vivants_, find much
+to criticise. I remember a writer of certain _Mémoires sur la
+Hollande_ who inveighs with lyrical fervor against the Dutch cuisine,
+saying, "What style of eating is this? They mix soup and beer, meat
+and comfits, and devour quantities of meat without bread." Other
+writers of books about Holland have spoken of their dinners in that
+country as if they were domestic misfortunes. It is superfluous to say
+that all these statements are exaggerations. Even a fastidious palate
+can in a very short time accustom itself to the Dutch style of
+cooking. The substantial part of the dinner is always a dish of meat,
+with which four or five side dishes of salt meat and vegetables are
+served. These every one mixes according to his taste and eats with the
+principal dish. The meats are excellent, the vegetables, which are
+cooked in a thousand different ways, are even better. Those which they
+cook in an especially worthy manner are potatoes and cabbages, and
+their way of making omelets is admirable. I do not speak of game,
+fish, milk-foods, and butter, because their praises need not be
+repeated, and I am silent for fear of being too enthusiastic about
+that celebrated cheese into which, when once one has plunged one's
+knife, one continues with a sort of increasing fury, thrusting and
+gashing and abandoning one's self to every style of slashing and
+gouging until the rind is empty, and desire still hovers over the
+ruins.
+
+A stranger who dines for the first time in a Dutch restaurant sees a
+number of strange things. In the first place, the plates are very
+large and heavy, in proportion to the national appetite; in many
+places the napkins are of very thin white paper, folded at three
+corners, and ornamented with a printed border of flowers, with a
+little landscape in the corner, and the name of the restaurant, or
+_Bon appetit_, printed on them in large blue letters. The stranger, to
+be sure of having something he can eat, orders roast beef, and they
+bring him half a dozen great slices as large as a cabbage leaf; or a
+steak, and they bring him a lump of very rare meat which would suffice
+for a family; or fish, and they set before him an animal as long as
+the table; and each of these dishes is accompanied by a mountain of
+mashed potatoes and a pot of strong mustard. They give him a slice of
+bread a little larger than a dollar and as thin as a wafer. This is
+not pleasant for us Italians, who eat bread like beggars, so that in a
+Dutch restaurant, to the great surprise of the waiters, we are obliged
+to ask for more bread every moment. On any one of these three dishes
+and a glass of Bavarian or Amsterdam beer a man may venture to say he
+has dined. Any one who has a lean pocket-book need not dream of wine
+in Holland, for it is frightfully dear; but, as the people's purses
+there are generally well filled, nearly all the Dutch, from the middle
+class up, drink wine, and there are few other countries where there is
+so great an abundance and variety of foreign wines, particularly of
+those from French and Rhenish vineyards.
+
+Those who like liqueurs after dinner are well served in Holland. There
+is no need to mention that the Dutch liqueurs are famous the world
+over. The most famous of them all is "Schiedam," an extract of
+juniper-berries that takes its name from the little town of Schiedam,
+only a few miles from Rotterdam, where there are more than two hundred
+distilleries. To give an idea of the quantity made, it is sufficient
+to say that thirty thousand pigs are fed annually on the dregs of the
+distilled material. The first time one tastes this renowned Schiedam
+he swears he will never take another drop of it if he lives to be a
+hundred years old; but, as the French proverb says, "Who has drunk
+will drink again," and one begins to try it with a great deal of
+sugar,--then with a little less,--then with none at all, until,
+_horribile dictu_! under the excuse of the damp and the fog one tosses
+down two small glasses with the freedom of a sailor. Next on the list
+comes Curaçoa, a fine feminine liqueur, not nearly so strong as
+Schiedam, but much stronger than that nauseating sweetened stuff that
+is sold in other countries under the recommendation of its name. After
+Curaçoa there are many others liqueurs, of every gradation of strength
+and flavor, with which an expert winebibber can indulge in every style
+of intoxication, slight, heavy, noisy, or stupid, and whereby he can
+dispose his brain to see the world in the manner most pleasing to his
+humor, much as one would do with an optical instrument by changing the
+color of the lens.
+
+The first time one dines in Holland a curious surprise awaits one when
+the bill is paid. I had eaten a dinner which would have been scanty
+for a Batavian, but was ample for an Italian, and, knowing how very
+dear everything is in Holland, I was waiting for one of those bills to
+which Théophile Gautier says the only reasonable answer is a
+pistol-shot. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when the waiter
+said I was to pay _forty sous_, and, as all kinds of money circulate
+in the large Dutch cities, I put on the table forty sous in silver
+francs, and waited to give my friend time to correct me if he had made
+a mistake. But he looked at the money without giving any sign of
+correcting himself, and said with the greatest gravity, "Forty sous
+more." Springing from my chair, I demanded an explanation. The
+explanation, alas! was simple. The monetary unit in Holland is the
+florin, which is equal to two francs four centimes in our money, so
+that the Dutch centime and sou are worth more than double the Italian
+centime and sou; hence the mistake and its correction.
+
+Rotterdam at night presents to the stranger an unexpected appearance.
+In other northern towns at a certain hour the life is gathered within
+doors; in Rotterdam at the corresponding hour it overflows into the
+street. A dense crowd passes through the Hoog-Straat until late at
+night. The shops are open, for then the servants make their purchases
+and the coffee-houses are crowded. The Dutch coffee-houses are of a
+peculiar shape. They usually consist of one long saloon, divided in
+the middle by a green curtain, which is drawn at night, like the
+curtain of a theatre, hiding all the back part of the room. This part
+only is lighted. The front part, separated from the street by a large
+window, remains in the dark, so that from the outside one can see
+only dim forms and the glowing ends of cigars, which look like
+fire-flies, and among these shadowy forms appears the uncertain
+profile of some woman, to whom light would be unwelcome.
+
+After the coffee-houses, the tobacco-shops attract the attention, not
+only in Rotterdam, but in all other Dutch cities. There is one at
+almost every step, and they are beyond comparison the finest in
+Europe, not excepting even the great Havana tobacco-stores in Madrid.
+The cigars are kept in wooden boxes, on each of which is a printed
+portrait of the king or queen or of some illustrious Dutch citizen.
+These boxes are arranged in the high shop-windows in a thousand
+architectural styles,--in towers, steeples, temples, winding
+staircases, beginning on the floor and reaching almost to the ceiling.
+In these shops, which are resplendent with lights like the stores of
+Paris, one may find cigars of every shape and flavor. The courteous
+tobacconist puts one's purchase into a special tissue-paper envelope
+after he has cut off the end of one of the cigars with a machine made
+for the purpose.
+
+The Dutch shops are brilliantly illuminated, and, although in
+themselves they do not differ materially from stores of other large
+European cities, they present at night a very unusual appearance,
+because of the contrast between the ground floor and the upper part of
+the house. Below, all is glass, light, color, and splendor; above,
+the gloomy façades with their steep sharp lines, steps, and curves.
+The upper part of the house is plain, dark, and silent--in a word,
+ancient Holland; the ground floor is the new life--fashion, luxury,
+and elegance. Moreover, the houses are all very narrow, so the shops
+occupy the whole ground floor, and are generally so close together
+that they touch each other. Consequently at night, in streets like
+Hoog-Straat, one sees very little wall below the second floor. The
+houses seem to rest on glass, and in the distance the windows become
+blended into two long flaming stripes like gleaming hedges, flooding
+the streets with light, so that one could find a pin in them.
+
+As one walks along the streets of Rotterdam in the evening, one sees
+that it is a city overflowing with life and in the process of
+expansion--a city, so to speak, in the flush of youth, in the time of
+growth, which, from year to year, outgrows its streets and houses, as
+a boy outgrows his clothes. Its one hundred and fourteen thousand
+inhabitants will be two hundred thousand at no distant time. The
+smaller streets swarm with children; indeed, they are filled to
+overflowing with them, so that it gladdens one's eyes and heart. An
+air of happiness breathes through the streets of Rotterdam. The white
+and ruddy faces of the servants, whose spotless caps are popping out
+everywhere, the serene faces of the tradespeople, who slowly sip their
+great mugs of beer, the peasants with their large golden earrings,
+the cleanliness, the flowers in the windows, the quiet hard-working
+crowd,--all give to Rotterdam an appearance of health and peaceful
+content which brings the _Te beata_ to our lips, not with a cry of
+enthusiasm, but with a smile of sympathy.
+
+Re-entering the hotel, I saw an entire French family in a corridor
+gazing in admiration at the nails on a door which shone like so many
+silver buttons.
+
+In the morning, as soon as I arose, I went to my window, which was on
+the second floor, and on looking at the roofs of the opposite houses,
+I confessed with surprise that Bismarck was excusable for believing he
+saw phantoms on the roofs at Rotterdam. Out of the chimney-pots of all
+the ancient houses rise curved or straight tubes, one above the other,
+crossing and recrossing like open arms, or forks, or immense horns, in
+such impossible positions that it seems as though they must understand
+each other and be speaking a mysterious language from house to house,
+and that at night they must move about with some purpose.
+
+I walked down Hoog-Straat. It was Sunday and few shops were open. The
+Dutch told me that some years ago even those few would have been
+closed: the observance of the Sabbath, which used to be very strict,
+is becoming slack. I saw the signs of holiday chiefly in the people's
+clothes, in the dress of the men particularly. The men, especially
+those of the lower classes (and this I observed in other towns also),
+have a decided taste for black clothes, which they wear proudly on
+Sundays--black cravats, black breeches, and certain black over-coats
+that reach almost to their knees. This costume, together with their
+leisurely gait and solemn faces, gives them the air of village syndics
+going to assist at an official _Te Deum_.
+
+But what most surprised me was to see at that hour almost every one I
+met, gentry and peasantry, men and boys, with cigars in their mouths.
+This unfortunate habit of "_dreaming awake_," as Émile Girardin called
+it when he made war on smokers, occupies such a large part of the life
+of the Dutch people that it is necessary to say a few words about it.
+
+The Dutch probably smoke more than any other northern nation. The
+humidity of the climate makes it almost a necessity, and the cheapness of
+tobacco puts it in everybody's power to satisfy this desire. To show how
+inveterate is this habit, it will suffice to say that the boatmen of the
+_trekschuit_ (the stage-coach of the canals) measure distance by smoke.
+From here to such and such a town they say it is so many pipes, not so
+many miles. When you enter a house, the host, after the usual greetings,
+gives you a cigar; when you leave he gives you another, sometimes he
+fills your pocket. In the streets one sees men lighting fresh cigars with
+the stumps they have just smoked, with a hurried air, without stopping
+for a moment, as if it were equally disagreeable to them to lose a
+moment of time and a mouthful of smoke. A great many men go to bed with
+their cigars in their mouths, light them if they awake in the night, and
+relight them in the morning before leaving their beds. "The Dutchman is a
+living alembic," writes Diderot; and it does really seem as though
+smoking is to him one of the necessary functions of life. Many say that
+much smoking clouds the brain. But, notwithstanding, if there is a people
+whose intelligence is clear and precise in the highest degree, that
+people is the Dutch. Moreover, smoking is no excuse for idleness among
+the Hollanders,--they do not smoke "to dream awake." Every one does his
+work while puffing white clouds of smoke from his mouth as if he were the
+chimney of a factory, and, instead of the cigar being a distraction, it
+is a stimulus and a help to labor. "Smoke is our second breath," said a
+Dutchman to me, and another defined the cigar as "the sixth finger of our
+hand."
+
+Apropos of tobacco, I must tell of the life and death of a famous
+Dutch smoker, but I am rather afraid my Dutch friends who told me the
+story will shrug their shoulders, for they lamented that strangers who
+write on Holland pass over important things which do honor to the
+country, and mention only trifles such as this. However, this is such
+a remarkable trifle that I cannot resist the temptation of putting it
+down.
+
+Once upon a time there was a wealthy gentleman who lived in the
+suburbs of Rotterdam. His name was Van Klaës, but he was nicknamed
+Papa Big Pipe, for he was a fat old fellow and a great smoker. He was
+a man of simple habits and kindly heart, who, as the story runs, had
+made a great fortune in India by honest trade. On his return from
+India he built himself a beautiful mansion near Rotterdam, and in this
+home he collected and arranged in order every imaginable kind of pipe.
+There were pipes of every country and of every period, from those used
+by ancient barbarians to smoke hemp, to the splendid meerschaum and
+amber pipes ornamented with carved figures and bands of gold like
+those seen in the finest stores of Paris. The museum was open to
+visitors, to each of whom, after he had aired his knowledge on the
+subject of pipe-collecting, Mr Van Klaës gave a pouch filled with
+tobacco and cigars, and a catalogue of the museum in a velvet cover.
+
+Every day Mr Van Klaës smoked a hundred and fifty grammes of tobacco,
+and he died at the ripe old age of ninety-eight years; consequently,
+if we assume that he began to smoke when he was eighteen years old, he
+consumed in the course of his life four thousand three hundred and
+eighty-three kilogrammes. If this quantity of tobacco could be laid
+down in a continuous black line, it would extend twenty French
+leagues. But, in spite of all this, Mr Van Klaës showed that in death
+he was a far greater smoker than he had been in life. Tradition has
+preserved all the particulars of his end. He was approaching his
+ninety-eighth birthday when it was suddenly borne in upon him that the
+end of his life was at hand. He summoned his notary, who was also a
+notable smoker, and, "Notary," said he with no unnecessary words,
+"fill my pipe and yours; I am going to die." The notary filled and
+lighted the pipes, and Mr Van Klaës dictated that will which has
+become celebrated all over Holland.
+
+[Illustration: On the Meuse, near Rotterdam.]
+
+After he had bequeathed the greater part of his fortune to relatives,
+friends, and charities, he added the following clauses:
+
+"I wish every smoker in the kingdom to be invited to my funeral in
+every way possible, by letter, circular, and advertisement. Every
+smoker who takes advantage of the invitation shall receive as a
+present ten pounds of tobacco, and two pipes on which shall be
+engraved my name, my crest, and the date of my death. The poor of the
+neighborhood who accompany my bier shall receive every year on the
+anniversary of my death a large package of tobacco. I make the
+condition that all those who assist at my funeral, if they wish to
+partake of the benefits of my will, must smoke without interruption
+during the entire ceremony. My body shall be placed in a coffin lined
+throughout with the wood of my old Havana cigar-boxes. At the foot of
+the coffin shall be placed a box of the French tobacco called
+_caporal_ and a package of our old Dutch tobacco. At my side place my
+favorite pipe and a box of matches, ... for one never knows what may
+happen. When the bier rests in the vault, all the persons in the
+funeral procession are requested to cast upon it the ashes of their
+pipes as they pass it on their departure from the grounds."
+
+The last wishes of Mr Van Klaës were faithfully fulfilled; the funeral
+went off splendidly, veiled in a thick cloud of smoke. The cook of the
+deceased, Gertrude by name, to whom in a codicil her master had left a
+considerable fortune on condition that she should overcome her
+aversion to tobacco, walked in the funeral procession with a cigarette
+in her mouth. The poor blessed the memory of the charitable gentleman,
+and all the country resounded with his praises as it now rings with
+his fame.
+
+As I walked along one of the canals I saw under different conditions
+one of those sudden changes in the weather such as I had witnessed on
+the previous day. In a moment the sun disappeared, the infinite
+variety of cheerful colors was obscured, and a chilling wind began to
+blow. Then the subdued gayety which existed a few moments before gave
+place everywhere to a strange trepidation. The leaves of the trees
+rustled, the flags on the ships fluttered, the boats moored to the
+palisades tossed to and fro; the waters were troubled, a thousand
+articles suspended from the houses dangled about,--the arms of the
+windmills spun rapidly around; it seemed as though a shiver of winter
+passed through everything, and that the city was apprehensive of a
+mysterious danger. In a few moments the sun shone out, and with it
+returned color, peace, and cheerfulness. This scene made me reflect
+that Holland is not really as sombre a country as many believe; it is
+rather very sombre one moment, and very cheerful the next, according
+to the weather. In everything it is a country of contrasts. Beneath a
+most capricious sky lives the least capricious people in the world,
+and yet this orderly and methodical nation possesses the tipsiest,
+most disordered architecture that eye can see.
+
+Before entering the museum at Rotterdam, I think it will be opportune
+to make some observations on Dutch painting, naturally not for those
+"who know," understand, but for those who have forgotten.
+
+Dutch art possesses one quality that renders it particularly attractive
+to us Italians: it is that branch of the world's art which differs most
+from the Italian school,--it is the antithesis, or, to use a phrase that
+enraged Leopardi, "the opposite pole in art." The Italian and the Dutch
+are the two most original schools of painting, or, as some say, the only
+two schools that can honestly lay claim to originality. The others are
+only daughters or younger sisters, which bear a certain resemblance to
+their elders. So Holland even in its art offers us that which we most
+desire in travel and description--novelty.
+
+Dutch art was born with the independence and freedom of Holland. So
+long as the northern and southern provinces of the Netherlands were
+united under Spanish dominion and the Catholic faith, they had only
+one school of painting. The Dutch artists painted like the Belgians;
+they studied in Belgium, Germany, and Italy. Heemskerk imitated
+Michelangelo; Bloemaert copied Correggio; De Moor followed Titian; to
+mention a few instances. They were pedantic disciples who united with
+all the affectations of the Italian style a certain German coarseness,
+and the outcome was a bastard style inferior to the earlier
+schools--childish, stiff, and crude in color, with no sense of light
+and shade. But, at any rate, it was not a slavish imitation; it was a
+faint prelude to real Dutch art.
+
+With the war of independence came liberty, reform, and art. The
+artistic and religious traditions fell together. The nude, the nymphs,
+the madonnas, the saints, allegory, mythology, the ideal,--the whole
+ancient edifice was in ruins. The new life which animated Holland was
+revealed and developed in a new way. The little country, which had
+suddenly become so glorious and formidable, felt that it must tell its
+greatness. Its faculties, which had been strengthened and stimulated
+in the grand enterprise of creating a native land, a real world,--now
+that this enterprise was achieved, expanded, and created an imaginary
+world. The conditions of the people were favorable to a revival of
+art. They had overcome the supreme perils which threatened them:
+security, prosperity, a splendid future, were theirs: their heroes had
+done their part; the time had come for artists. After so many
+sacrifices and disasters Holland came forth victorious from the
+strife, turned her face upon her people, and smiled, and that smile
+was Art.
+
+We could picture to ourselves what this art was even if no example of
+it remained. A peaceable, industrious, practical people, who, to use
+the words of a great German poet, were continually brought back to
+dull realities by the conditions of a vulgar bourgeois life; who
+cultivated their reason at the expense of their imagination, living in
+consequence on manifest ideas rather than beautiful images; who fled
+from the abstract, whose thoughts never rose beyond nature, with which
+they waged continual warfare--a people that saw only what exists, that
+enjoyed only what it possessed, whose happiness consisted in wealthy
+ease and an honest indulgence of the senses, although without violent
+passions or inordinate desires;--such a people would naturally be
+phlegmatic in their art,--they would love a style that pleased but did
+not arouse them, that spoke to the senses rather than to the
+imagination--a school of art placid, precise, full of repose, and
+thoroughly material like their life--an art, in a word, realistic and
+self-satisfied, in which they could see themselves reflected as they
+were and as they were content to remain.
+
+The first Dutch artists began by depicting that which was continually
+before their eyes--the home. The long winters, the stubborn rains, the
+humidity, the continual changes in the climate, compel the Hollander
+to spend a great part of the year and of the day in the house. He
+loves his little home, his nutshell, much more than we love our
+houses, because it is much more necessary to him, and he lives in it
+much more; he provides it with every comfort, caresses it, adorns it;
+he delights in looking at the falling snow and drenching rain from its
+tight windows, and in being able to say, "Let the storms rage--I am
+safe and warm." In his little nest, beside his good wife and
+surrounded by his children, he passes the long evenings of autumn and
+winter, eating much, drinking much, smoking much, and amusing himself
+with honest mirth after the fatigues of the day. Dutch artists paint
+these little houses and this home-life in little pictures adapted in
+size to the little walls they must adorn; bedrooms which make one
+drowsy; kitchens with tables ready spread; the fresh, kindly faces of
+mothers of families; men basking in the warmth of the hearth; and, as
+they are conscientious realists who omit nothing, they add blinking
+cats, gaping dogs, scratching hens, brooms, vegetables, crockery, and
+plucked chickens. This life is painted in every class of society and
+under every circumstance; evening-parties, dances, orgies, games,
+holidays, all are represented, and thus Ter Borch, Metsu, Netscher,
+Dou, Mieris, Steen, Brouwer, and Ostade became famous.
+
+From home-life they turned to the country. The hostile climate gave
+them a very short time in which to admire nature, and for this reason
+the Dutch artists admire it only the more and salute the spring with
+greater joy. The fleeting smiles of the heavens are strongly impressed
+on their imagination. The country is not beautiful, but it is doubly
+dear to them because it has been wrested from the sea and from the
+hands of strangers. They painted it with affection, making their
+landscapes simple, ingenuous, and full of an intimacy with nature that
+neither the Italian nor the Belgian landscapes of this time possess.
+Their country, flat and monotonous, presented to their appreciative
+eyes a marvellous variety. They noted every change in the sky, and
+revealed the water in its every appearance, its reflection, its grace
+and freshness, and its power of diffusing light and color everywhere.
+There are no mountains, so they put the downs in the background of
+their pictures; and, lacking forests, they saw and expressed the
+mysteries of a forest in a group of trees, and animated all with noble
+animals and sails. The subjects of their pictures are poor indeed--a
+windmill, a canal, a gray sky--but how much they suggest! Some of
+them, not content with their native land, came to Italy in search of
+hills, bright skies, and great ruins, and became a circle of choice
+artists, such as Both, Swanevelt, Pijnacker, Breenbergh, Van Laer, and
+Asselin; but the palm remains with the true Dutch landscape
+painters--with Wynants, the painter of morning; Van der Neer, the
+painter of night; Ruysdael, the painter of melancholy; Hobbema, the
+painter of windmills, cottages, and kitchen-gardens; and with others
+who contented themselves with expressing the charm of the modest
+scenes of their native land.
+
+Side by side with landscape painting arose another branch of art,
+which was peculiar to Holland--the painting of animals. Cattle are the
+riches of the country, and the splendid breed of Holland is unequalled
+in Europe for its beauty and fecundity. The Dutch, who owe so much to
+their cattle, treat them, so to speak, as a part of the population;
+they love them, wash them, comb them, dress them. They are to be seen
+everywhere; they are reflected in the canals, and the country is
+beautified with their innumerable black and white spots dotting the
+wide meadows, giving every place an air of peace and repose, and
+inspiring one with a feeling of Arcadian sweetness and patriarchal
+serenity. The Dutch artists studied the differences and the habits of
+these animals; they divined, one may say, their thoughts and feelings,
+and enlivened the quiet beauty of the landscapes with their figures.
+Rubens, Snyders, Paul de Vos, and many other Belgian artists had
+painted animals with wonderful ability, but they are surpassed by the
+Dutch painters, Van de Velde, Berchem, Karel du Jardin, and Paul
+Potter, the prince of animal painters, whose famous "Bull" in the
+gallery at the Hague deserves to be hung in the Louvre opposite
+Raphael's "Transfiguration."
+
+The Dutch have become pre-eminent in another branch of art
+also--marine painting. The ocean, their enemy, their power, and their
+glory, overhanging their land, ever threatening and alarming them,
+enters into their life by a thousand channels and in a thousand forms.
+That turbulent North Sea, full of dark color, illuminated by sunsets
+of infinite gloom, and ever lashing its desolate banks, naturally
+dominated the imagination of the Dutch artists. They passed long hours
+on the shore contemplating the terrible beauties of the sea; they
+ventured from the land to study its tempests; they bought ships and
+sailed with their families, observing and painting; they followed
+their fleets to war and joined in the naval battles. Thus a school of
+marine artists arose, boasting such men as William Van de Velde the
+father and William the son, Bakhuisen, Dubbels, and Stork.
+
+Another school of painting naturally arose in Holland as the
+expression of the character of the people and of republican customs. A
+nation that without greatness had done so many great things, as
+Michelet says, required an heroic style of painting, if it may be so
+called, destined to illustrate its men and achievements. But simply
+because the nation was without greatness, or, to speak more
+accurately, without the outward form of greatness--because it was
+modest, and inclined to consider all alike equal in face of the
+fatherland, because all had done their duty, yet each abhorred that
+adulation and apotheosis which glorify in one person the virtues and
+triumphs the mass,--this style of painting was needed, not to extol a
+few eminent men or extraordinary events, but to represent all classes
+of citizens by occurrences of the most ordinary and peaceful moments
+of bourgeois life. Hence those large pictures representing groups of
+five, ten, or even thirty persons, gunners, syndics, officials,
+professors, magistrates, men of affairs, seated or standing round
+tables, feasting or arguing, all life-size and faithful portraits,
+with serious open countenances, from which shines the quiet expression
+of a tranquil conscience, from which one divines, rather than sees,
+the nobility of lives devoted to their country, the spirit of that
+laborious and dauntless epoch, the manly virtues of that rare
+generation. All this is relieved by the beautiful costumes of the
+Renaissance, which so admirably combined grace with dignity,--those
+ruffs, jerkins, black cloaks, silken scarfs, ribbons, arms, and
+banners. Van der Helst, Hals, Govert, Flink, and Bol were masters in
+this style of art.
+
+To leave the consideration of the different branches of painting, and
+to inquire into the particular methods which the Dutch artists adopted
+and the means they employed to accomplish their results, one chief
+feature at once presents itself as the distinctive trait of Dutch
+painting--the light.
+
+The light, because of the peculiar conditions under which it manifests
+itself in Holland, has naturally given rise to a peculiar style of
+painting. A pale light, undulating with marvellous changes, playing
+through an atmosphere heavy with vapor, a misty veil which is
+repeatedly and abruptly penetrated, a continual struggle between
+sunshine and shadow,--these were the phenomena that necessarily
+attracted the attention of artists. They began by observing and
+reproducing all this restlessness of the sky, this struggle which
+animates the nature of Holland with a varied and fantastic life, and
+by the act of reproducing it the struggle passed into their minds, and
+then, instead of imitating, they created. Then they themselves made
+the two elements contend; they increased the darkness to startle and
+disperse it with every manner of luminous effects and flashes of
+light; sunbeams stole through the gloom and then gradually died away;
+the reflections of twilight and the mellow light of lamps were
+delicately blended into mysterious shadows, which were animated with
+confused forms which one seems to see and yet cannot distinguish. So
+under their hands the light presents a thousand fancies, contrasts,
+enigmas, and effects of shine and shade as unexpected as they are
+curious. Prominent in this field, among many others, were Gherard Dou,
+the painter of the famous picture of the four candles, and Rembrandt,
+the great wonder-working superhuman enlightener.
+
+Another of the most striking characteristics of Dutch painting is
+naturally color. It is generally recognized that in a country where
+there are no distant mountains, no undulating views, no prominent
+features to strike the eye--in short, no general forms that lend
+themselves to design--the artist is strongly influenced by color. This
+is especially true in the case of Holland, where the uncertain light
+and the vague shadows which continually veil the air soften and
+obscure the outlines of objects until the eye neglects the form it
+cannot comprehend, and fixes itself on color as the chief quality that
+nature possesses. But there are yet other reasons for this: a country
+as flat, monotonous, and gray as Holland is has need of color, just as
+a southern country has need of shadow. The Dutch artists have only
+followed the dominant taste of the people, who paint their houses,
+their boats, their palisades, the fences of the fields, and in some
+places the very trunks of the trees, in the brightest colors; who
+dress themselves as of yore in clothes of the gayest hues; who love
+tulips and hyacinths to distraction. Hence all the Dutch painters were
+great colorists, Rembrandt being the first.
+
+Realism, favored by the calm and sluggish nature of the Dutch, which
+enables their artists to restrain their impetuosity, and further aided by
+the Dutch character, which aims at exactness and refuses to do things by
+halves, gave to the paintings of the Hollanders another distinctive
+trait--finish. This they carried to the last possible degree of
+perfection. Critics say truthfully that in Dutch paintings one may
+discover the first quality of the nation--patience. Everything is
+portrayed with the minuteness of a daguerreotype: the furniture with all
+the graining of the wood, the leaf with all its veins, a thread in a bit
+of cloth, the patch with all the stitches showing, the animal with every
+hair distinct, the face with all its wrinkles,--everything is finished
+with such microscopic precision that it seems to be the work of a fairy's
+brush, for surely a painter would lose his sight and reason in such a
+task. After all, this is a defect rather than a virtue, because painting
+ought to reproduce not what exists, but rather what the eye sees, and the
+eye does not see every detail. However, the defect is brought to such a
+degree of excellence that it is to be admired rather than censured, and
+one does not even dare to wish that it should not be there. In this
+respect, Dou, Mieris, Potter, Van der Helst, and indeed all the Dutch
+painters in greater or less degree, were famous as prodigies of patience.
+
+On the other hand, realism, which imparts to Dutch painting such an
+original character and such admirable qualities, is, notwithstanding,
+the root of its most serious defects. The Dutch painters, solicitous
+to copy only material truth, give to their figures the expression of
+merely physical sentiments. Sorrow, love, enthusiasm, and the thousand
+subtle emotions that are nameless, or that take different names from
+the different causes that give them birth, are rarely or never
+expressed. For them the heart does not beat, the eye does not overflow
+with tears, nor does the mouth tremble. In their pictures a whole part
+of the life is lacking, and that the most powerful and noble part, the
+human soul. Nay more, by so faithfully copying everything, the ugly
+especially, they end in exaggerating even that. They convert defects
+into deformities, portraits into caricatures; they slander the
+national type; they give every human figure an ungraceful and
+ludicrous appearance. To have a setting for figures they are obliged
+to select trivial subjects; hence the excessive number of canvases
+depicting taverns and drunken men with grotesque, stupefied faces, in
+sprawling attitudes; low women and old men who are despicably
+ridiculous; scenes in which we seem to hear the low yells and obscene
+words. On looking at these pictures one would say that Holland is
+inhabited by the most deformed and ill-mannered nation in the world.
+Some painters permit themselves even greater license. Steen, Potter,
+Brouwer, and the great Rembrandt himself often pandered to a low and
+depraved taste, and Torrentius sent forth such shameless pictures
+that the provinces of Holland collect and burn them. But, overlooking
+these excesses, there is scarcely anything to be found in a Dutch
+gallery which elevates the soul, which awakens in the mind high and
+noble sentiments. One enjoys, one admires, one laughs, and sometimes
+one is silent before some landscapes, but on leaving one feels that
+one has not felt a real pleasure--that something was lacking. There
+comes a longing to look upon a beautiful face or to read inspired
+poetry, and sometimes, unconsciously, one catches one's self
+murmuring, "O Raphael!"
+
+In conclusion, we must note two great merits in this school--its
+variety and its value as an expression, as a mirror, of the country.
+If Rembrandt and his followers are excepted, almost all the other
+painters are quite different from each other. Perhaps no other school
+presents such a number of original masters. The realism of the Dutch
+painters arose from their common love for nature, but each of them has
+shown in his work a different manifestation of a love all his own;
+each has given the individual impression that he has received from
+nature. They all set out from the same point--the worship of material
+truth, but they each arrived at a different goal. Their realism
+impelled them to copy everything, and the consequence is that the
+Dutch school has succeeded in representing Holland much more
+faithfully than any other school has illustrated any other country.
+It has been said that if every other visible testimony to the
+existence of Holland in the seventeenth century--its great
+century--excepting the work of its artists were to disappear,
+everything would be found again in the pictures--the towns, the
+country, the ports, the fleets, the markets, the shops, the dress, the
+utensils, the arms, the linen, the merchandise, the pottery, the food,
+the amusements, the habits, the religion, and the superstitions. The
+good and the bad qualities of the nation are all alike represented,
+and this, which is a merit in the literature of a country, is no less
+a merit in its art.
+
+But there is one great void in Dutch painting, for which the peaceful
+and modest character of the people is not a sufficient reason. This
+school of painting, which is so essentially national, has, with the
+exception of some great naval battles, passed over all of the grand
+exploits of the war of independence, among which the sieges of Leyden
+and Haarlem would have been sufficient to inspire a legion of artists.
+Of this war, almost a century in duration, filled with strange and
+terrible events, there is not a single memorable painting. This
+school, so varied and so conscientious in reproducing its country and
+its life, has not represented one scene of that great tragedy, as
+William the Silent prophetically called it, which aroused in the
+Hollanders such diverse emotions of fear and grief, rage, joy, and
+national pride.
+
+[Illustration: The Steiger, Rotterdam.]
+
+The splendor of Holland's art faded with its political greatness.
+Nearly all the great painters were born during the first thirty years
+of the seventeenth or during the last years of the sixteenth century;
+none of them were living after the first ten years of the eighteenth
+century, and no others appeared to take their places. Holland had
+exhausted its productiveness. Already toward the end of the
+seventeenth century the sentiment of patriotism had commenced to
+weaken, taste had become depraved, the painters lost their inspiration
+with the decline of the moral energies of the country. In the
+eighteenth century the artists, as though surfeited with nature,
+returned to mythology, classicism, and conventionality; their
+imagination was weakened, their style was impoverished, and every
+spark of their former genius was extinguished. Dutch Art showed the
+world the marvellous flowers of Van Huysum, the last great lover of
+nature, then folded her weary hands and the flowers fell on his tomb.
+
+The present gallery at Rotterdam contains but a small number of
+paintings, among which there are very few works of the best artists
+and none of the _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the Dutch School. Three hundred
+paintings and thirteen hundred drawings were destroyed by fire in
+1864, and most of the works that are now there were bequeathed to the
+city of Rotterdam by Jacob Otto Boymans. Hence the gallery is a place
+to see examples of some particular artist, rather than to study Dutch
+painting.
+
+In one of the first rooms are some sketches of naval battles, signed
+by William van de Velde, who is considered the greatest marine painter
+of his time. He was the son of William the elder, who was also a
+marine painter. Both father and son were fortunate enough to live at
+the time of the great naval wars between Holland, England, and France,
+and were able to see the battles with their own eyes. The States of
+Holland placed a frigate at the disposal of Van de Velde the elder;
+his son accompanied him. Both made their sketches in the midst of the
+battle-smoke, sometimes advancing so far among the fighting ships that
+the admirals were obliged to order them to withdraw. The younger Van
+de Velde surpassed his father. He painted small pictures--for the most
+part a gray sky, a calm sea, and some sails--but so naturally are they
+done that when one looks at them one seems to smell the salt air of
+the sea, and mistakes the frame for a window. This Van de Velde
+belongs to that group of Dutch painters who loved the water with a
+sort of madness, and who painted, one may say, on the water. Of these
+was Bakhuisen, a marine painter who had a great vogue in his day, whom
+Peter the Great chose as his master during his visit to Amsterdam.
+This Bakhuisen, it is said, used to risk himself in a small boat in
+the midst of a storm at sea that he might be able to observe more
+closely the movements of the waves, and he often placed his own life
+and the lives of his boatmen in such danger that the men, caring more
+for their skins than for his paintings, sometimes took him back to
+land against his will. John Griffier did more. He bought a little ship
+in London, furnished it like a house, installed his wife and children
+in it, and sailed about on his own responsibility in search of
+subjects. A storm dashed his vessel to pieces against a sandbank and
+destroyed all he possessed; he and his family were saved by a miracle,
+and settled in Rotterdam. But he soon grew weary of a life on land,
+bought a shattered boat and put to sea again; he nearly lost his life
+a second time near Dordrecht, but still continued his voyages.
+
+The Rotterdam gallery affords very few examples of marine paintings,
+but landscape painting is worthily represented by two pictures by
+Ruysdael, the greatest of the Dutch painters of rural scenes. These
+two paintings represent his favorite subjects--leafy, solitary spots,
+which, like all his works, inspire a subtle feeling of melancholy. The
+great power of this artist is sentiment. He is eminent in the Dutch
+school for a gentleness of soul and a singular superiority of
+education. It has been most truly said of him that he used landscape
+as an expression of his suffering, his weariness, his fancies, and
+that he contemplated his country with a bitter sadness, as if it were
+a place of torment, and that he created the woods to hide his gloom in
+their shade. The soft light of Holland is the image of his soul; none
+felt more exquisitely than he its melancholy sweetness, none
+represented more feelingly than he, with a ray of languid light, the
+smile of a suffering fellow-creature. Because of the exceptional
+delicacy of his nature he was not appreciated by his fellow-citizens
+until long after his death.
+
+Beside a painting by Ruysdael hangs a picture of flowers by a female
+artist, Rachel Ruysch, the wife of a famous portrait-painter, who was
+born toward the close of the sixteenth century, and died, brush in
+hand, in the eightieth year of her age, after she had shown to her
+husband and to the world that a sensible woman can passionately
+cultivate the fine arts and yet find time to rear and educate ten
+children.
+
+And as I have spoken of the wife of a painter, I simply mention that
+it is possible to write an entertaining book on the wives of Dutch
+artists, both because of the variety of their adventures and the
+important part they play in the history of art. The faces of a number
+are known already, because many artists painted their wives'
+portraits, as well as their own and those of their children, their
+cats, and their hens. Biographers speak of most of them, confirming or
+contradicting reports which have been circulated in regard to their
+conduct. Some have hazarded the opinion that the larger number of them
+were a serious drawback to their husbands. It seems to me there is
+something to be said on the other side. As for Rembrandt, it is known
+that the happiest part of his life was the time between his first
+marriage and the death of his wife, who was the daughter of a
+burgomaster of Leeuwarden, and to whom posterity owes a debt of
+gratitude. It is also known that Van der Helst at an advanced age
+married a beautiful girl, for whom there is nothing but praise, and
+posterity should be grateful to her for having brightened the old age
+of a great artist. It is true that we cannot speak of all in the same
+terms. Of the two wives of Steen, for example, the first was a
+featherhead, who allowed the tavern at Delft that he had inherited
+from his father to go to ruin; and the second, from all accounts, was
+unfaithful. Heemskerk's second wife was so dishonest that her husband
+was obliged to go about excusing her peculations. De Hondecoeter's
+wife was an eccentric and troublesome woman, who forced her husband to
+pass his evenings in a tavern in order to rid himself of her company.
+The wife of Berghem was so intolerably avaricious that if she found
+him dozing over his brushes she awoke him roughly to make him work and
+earn money, and the poor man was obliged to resort to subterfuges to
+purchase engravings when he was paid for his pictures. On the other
+hand, one could never end reciting the misdeeds of the husbands. The
+artist Griffier compelled his wife to travel about the world in a
+boat; Veen begged his wife's permission to spend four months in Rome,
+and stayed there four years. Karel du Jardin married a rich old woman
+to pay his debts, and deserted her when she had paid them. Molyn,
+another artist, had his wife assassinated that he might marry a
+Genoese. I doubt whether poor Paul Potter, as the story runs, was
+betrayed by the wife whom he blindly loved; and who knows whether
+Huysum, the great flower-painter, who was consumed by jealousy in the
+midst of riches and glory for a wife who was neither young nor
+beautiful, had real grounds for his doubts, or whether he was not
+induced by the reports of his envious rivals to believe what was
+untrue? In conclusion, I must mention with due honor the three wives
+of Eglon Van der Neer, who crowned him with twenty-five children--a
+family which, however, did not keep him from painting a large number
+of pictures in every style, from making several voyages, and from
+cultivating tulips.
+
+There are several small paintings by Albert Cuyp in the Rotterdam
+gallery, a landscape, horses, fowls, and fruit--that Albert Cuyp who
+holds a unique place in Dutch art, who in the course of a prolonged
+life painted portraits, landscapes, animals, flowers, winter pieces,
+moonlight scenes, marine subjects, figures, and in each style left an
+imprint of originality. But nevertheless, like most of the Dutch
+painters of his time, he was so unfortunate that until 1750, more than
+fifty years after his death, his paintings sold for a hundred francs,
+whereas they now would bring a hundred thousand francs--not in
+Holland, but in England, where most of his works are owned.
+
+Heemskerk's "Christ at the Sepulchre" would not be worth mentioning
+if it were not an excuse for introducing the artist, who was one of
+the most curious creatures that ever walked the face of the earth. Van
+Veen--such is his real name--was born in the village of Heemskerk at
+the end of the fifteenth century, and flourished at the period of
+Italian imitation. He was the son of a peasant, and, although he had
+an inclination toward art, he was intended for a peasant. He became a
+painter by chance, like many other Dutch artists. His father had a
+furious temper, and the son was very much afraid of him. One day poor
+Van Veen dropped the milk-jug; his father flew at him, but he ran out
+of the house and spent the night somewhere else. The next morning his
+mother found him, and, thinking it would be unsafe for him to face the
+paternal anger, she gave him a small quantity of linen, a little
+money, and commended him to the care of God. The lad went to Haarlem,
+and, obtaining an entrance to the studio of a famous artist, he
+studied, succeeded, and then went to Rome to perfect himself. He did
+not become a great artist, for the imitation of the Italian school
+spoiled him: his treatment of the nude was stiff and his style full of
+mannerisms, but he painted a great deal and was well paid, and did not
+regret his early life. But herein consisted his peculiarity: he was,
+as his biographers assert, a man incredibly, morbidly and ridiculously
+timid. When he knew that the arquebusiers were to pass he climbed the
+roofs and steeples, and trembled with fear when he saw their arms in
+the street. If any one thinks this an idle story, there is a fact
+which serves to prove it true: he was in the town of Haarlem when the
+Spaniards besieged it, and the magistrates, who knew his weakness,
+permitted him to flee from the city before they began to fight,
+doubtless foreseeing that otherwise he would have died of fright. He
+took advantage of the permission and fled to Amsterdam, leaving his
+fellow-citizens in the lurch.
+
+Other Dutch painters--for we are speaking of the men, not of their
+pictures--like Heemskerk, owed their choice of a profession to
+accident. Everdingen, of the first order of landscape-painters, owed
+his choice to a tempest which wrecked his ship on the shore of Norway,
+where he remained, was inspired by the grand natural scenery and
+created an original style of landscape art. Cornelisz Vroom also owed
+his fortune to a shipwreck: he was on his way to Spain with some
+religious pictures; when the vessel was wrecked near the coast of
+Portugal, the poor artist saved himself with others on an uninhabited
+island, where they remained two days without food. They considered
+themselves as good as lost, when they were unexpectedly relieved by
+some monks from a monastery on the coast, whither the sea had borne
+the hulk of the vessel with the pictures, which were unharmed. These
+the monks considered admirable. Thus was Cornelisz sheltered,
+welcomed, and stimulated to paint, and the profound emotions
+occasioned by the wreck gave his genius such a new and powerful
+impulse that he became a real artist. Another, Hans Fredeman, the
+famous trick painter who painted some columns on the frame of a
+drawing-room door so cleverly that Charles V. turned round to look as
+soon as he had entered, and thought that the walls had suddenly closed
+behind him by enchantment,--this Hans Fredeman, who painted palisades
+that made people turn back, doors which people attempted to open, owed
+his fortune to a book on architecture by Vitruvius which he obtained
+by chance from a carpenter.
+
+There is a good little picture by Steen which represents a doctor
+pretending to operate on a man who imagines himself to be sick: an old
+woman is holding a basin, the invalid is shrieking desperately, and a
+few curious neighbors, convulsed with laughter, look on from a window.
+
+When one says that this picture makes one break into an irresistible
+peal of laughter, one has said all that is necessary. After Rembrandt,
+Steen is the most original figure-painter of the Dutch school; he is
+one of those few artists whom, when once known, whether they are or
+are not congenial to our taste, we must perforce admire as great
+painters, and even if we consider them worthy of only secondary
+honors, it matters not, they remain indelibly impressed on our minds.
+After one has seen Steen's pictures it is impossible to see a
+drunkard, a buffoon, a cripple, a dwarf, a deformed face, a ridiculous
+smirk, a grotesque attitude, without remembering one of his figures.
+All the degrees of stupidity and of drunkenness, all the grossness and
+mawkishness of orgies, the frenzy of the lowest pleasures, the
+cynicism of the vulgarest vice, the buffoonery of the wildest rabble,
+all the most brutal emotions, the basest aspects of tavern and
+alehouse life, have been painted by him with the brutality and
+insolence of an unscrupulous man, and with such a sense of the comic,
+such an impetuosity, such an intoxication of inspiration, one might
+say that words cannot express the effect produced. Writers have
+devoted many volumes to him, and have advanced many different opinions
+about him. His warmest admirers have attributed to him a moral
+purpose--that of making debauchery hateful by painting it as he did in
+repulsive colors, for the same reason that the Spartans showed drunken
+Helots to their sons. Others see in his paintings only the spontaneous
+and thoughtless expression of the spirit and taste of the artist, whom
+they represent as a vulgar debauchee. However this may be, there is no
+doubt that in the effects produced Steen's painting may be considered
+a satire on vice, and in this he is superior to almost all the Dutch
+painters, who restricted themselves to an external realism. Hence he
+was called the Dutch Hogarth, the jovial philosopher, the keenest
+observer of the habits of his countrymen, and one among his admirers
+has said that if Steen had been born at Rome instead of at Leyden, and
+had Michelangelo instead of Van Goyen been his master, he would have
+been one of the greatest painters in the world. Another finds some
+kind of analogy between him and Raphael. The technical qualities of
+his paintings are much less admired, his work has not the finish nor
+the strength of the other artists, such as Ostade, Mieris, and Dou.
+But, even taking into consideration its satirical character, one must
+say that Steen has often exceeded his purpose if he really had a
+purpose. The fury with which he pursued the burlesque often got the
+better of his feeling for reality; his figures, instead of being
+merely ridiculous, became monstrous and hardly human, often resembling
+beasts rather than men, and he has exaggerated these figures until
+sometimes he awakens, a feeling of nausea instead of mirth, and a
+sense of indignation that nature should be so outraged. The effect he
+produces is generally a laugh,--a loud, irresistible laugh, which
+bursts from one even when alone and calls the people away from the
+neighboring pictures. It is impossible to carry further than Steen did
+the art of flattening noses, twisting mouths, shortening necks, making
+wrinkles, rendering faces stupid, putting on humps, and making his
+puppets seem as if they were roaring with laughter, vomiting, reeling,
+or falling. By the leer of a half-closed eye he expressed idiocy and
+sensuality; by a sneer or a gesture he revealed the brutality of a
+man. He makes one smell the odor of a pipe, hear the coarse laughter,
+guess at the stupid or foul discourses--to understand, in a word,
+tavern-life and the dregs of the people; and I maintain that it is
+impossible to carry this art to a higher point than that to which
+Steen has carried it.
+
+His life has been and still is a vexed question. Volumes have been
+written to prove that he was a drunkard, and volumes to prove that he
+was a sober man; and, as is always the case, both sides exaggerate. He
+kept an alehouse at Delft, but it did not pay; then he set up a tavern
+and things went worse. It is said that he was its most assiduous
+frequenter, that he would drink up all the wine, and that when the
+cellar was empty he would take down the sign, close the door, and
+begin to paint furiously, and when he had sold his pictures he would
+buy more wine and begin life again. It is even said that he paid for
+everything with his pictures, and that consequently all his paintings
+were to be found in wine-merchants' houses. It is really difficult to
+explain how he could have painted such a large number of admirable
+works if he was always intoxicated, but it is no less difficult to
+understand why he had a taste for such subjects if he led a steady,
+sober life. It is certain that, especially during the last years of
+his life, he committed every sort of extravagance. He at first
+studied under the famous landscape painter Van Goyen, but genius
+worked in him more powerfully than study; he divined the rules of his
+art, and if it sometimes seems that he has painted too black, as some
+of his critics have said, it was the fault of an extra bottle of wine
+at dinner.
+
+Steen is not the only Dutch painter who, whether deservedly or not,
+won a reputation for drunkenness. At one time nearly all the artists
+passed the greater part of their day in the taverns, where they became
+famously drunk, fell to fighting, and whence they came out bruised and
+bleeding. In a poem upon painting by Karel van Mander, who was the
+first to write the history of the painters of the Netherlands, there
+occurs a passage directed against drunkenness and the habit of
+fighting, part of which runs as follows: "Be sober and live so that
+the unhappy proverb 'As debauched as a painter' may become 'As
+temperate as an artist.'" To mention a few among the most famous
+artists, Mieris was a notable winebibber, Van Goyen a drunkard, Franz
+Hals, the master of Brouwer, a winesack, Brouwer an incorrigible
+tippler; William Cornelis, and Hondecoeter were on the best terms with
+the bottle. Many of the humbler painters are said to have died
+intoxicated. Even in death the history of the Dutch painters presents
+a thousand incongruities. The great Rembrandt expired in misery almost
+without the knowledge of any; Hobbema died in the poor quarter of
+Amsterdam; Steen died in poverty; Brouwer died at a hospital; Andrew
+Both and Henry Verschuringh were drowned; Adrian Bloemaert met his
+death in a duel; Karel Fabritius was killed by the explosion of a
+powder-magazine; Johann Schotel died, brush in hand, of a stroke of
+apoplexy; Potter died of consumption; Lucas of Leyden was poisoned.
+So, what with shameful deaths, debauchery, and jealousy, one may say
+that a great part of the Dutch painters have had an unhappy fate.
+
+In the gallery at Rotterdam there is a beautiful head by Rembrandt; a
+scene of brigands by Wouverman, a great painter of horses and battles;
+a landscape by Van Goyen, the painter of dead shores and leaden skies;
+a marine painting by Bakhuisen, the painter of storms; a painting by
+Berghem, the painter of smiling landscapes; one by Everdingen, the
+painter of waterfalls and forests; and other paintings belonging to
+the Italian and Flemish schools.
+
+On leaving the museum I met a company of soldiers, the first Dutch
+soldiers I had seen. Their uniform was dark colored, without any showy
+ornaments, and they were all fair from first to last, and wore their
+hair long, and almost all of them had a peaceful, happy look, which
+seemed in strange contrast with the arms they bore. Rotterdam, a city
+of more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, has a garrison of three
+hundred soldiers! And it is said that Rotterdam has the name of being
+the most turbulent and unruly city in Holland! In fact, some time ago
+there was a popular demonstration against the municipality, which had
+no consequences but a few broken windows. But in a country like this,
+which runs by clockwork, it must have seemed, and did truly seem, a
+great event; the cavalry was sent from the Hague, the country was in
+commotion. One must not think, however, that this people is all sugar;
+the citizens of Rotterdam confess that "the holy rabble," as Carducci
+calls it, is stoutly licentious, as is the case in other towns of
+worse reputation; the lack of police is rather an incentive to license
+than a proof, as some might think, of public discipline.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rotterdam, as I have already said, is a city neither artistic nor
+literary; on the contrary, it is one of the few Dutch cities that have
+not given birth to some great painter--an unproductiveness shared by
+the whole of Zealand. Erasmus, however, is not its only man of
+letters. In a little park that extends to the right of the town on the
+bank of the Meuse there is a marble statue raised by the inhabitants
+of Rotterdam to honor the poet Tollens, who was born at the end of
+last century and died a few years ago. This Tollens, whom some dare to
+call the Béranger of Holland, was (and in this alone he resembles
+Béranger) one of the most popular poets of the country--one of those
+poets of which there were so many in Holland, simple, moral, and fall
+of common sense, having, in fact, more good sense than inspiration;
+who treated poetry as if it were a business; who never wrote anything
+that could displease their prudent relatives and judicious friends;
+who sang of their good God and their good king, and expressed the
+tranquil and practical character of the people, always taking care to
+say things that were exact rather than great, and, above all,
+cultivating poetry in old age, and like prudent fathers of families
+not stealing a moment from the pursuit of their business. Like many
+other Dutch poets (who, however, had more genius and different
+natures), he had another profession besides that of an author. Vondel,
+for instance, was a hatmaker; Hooft was the governor of Muyden; Van
+Lennep was a fiscal lawyer; Gravenswaert was a state counsellor;
+Bogaers, an advocate; Beets, a shepherd; so Tollens also, besides
+being a man of letters, was an apothecary at Rotterdam, and passed
+every day, even in his old age, in his drug-store. He had a family and
+loved his children tenderly--so at least one would conclude from the
+different pieces of poetry he wrote on the appearance of their first,
+second, and third teeth. He wrote ballads and odes on familiar and
+patriotic subjects. Among these is the national hymn of Holland, a
+mediocre production which the people sing about the streets and the
+boys chant at school. There is a little poem, perhaps the best of his
+works, on the expedition which the Dutch sent to the Polar Sea
+toward the end of the sixteenth century. The people learn his poetry
+by heart, adore him, and prefer him as their most faithful interpreter
+and most affectionate friend. But, for all this, Tollens is not
+considered in Holland as a first-class poet, many do not even rank him
+in the second class, while not a few disdainfully refuse to give him
+the sacred laurels.
+
+[Illustration: Statue of Tollens.]
+
+After all, if Rotterdam is not a centre of literature and art, she has
+as compensation an extraordinary number of philanthropic institutions,
+splendid clubs, and all the comforts and diversions of a city of
+wealth and refinement.
+
+The observations that I have had occasion to make on the character and
+life of the inhabitants will be more to the purpose at the Hague. I
+will only mention that in Rotterdam, as in other Dutch cities, no one,
+in speaking of their country's affairs, showed the least national
+vanity. The expressions, "Isn't it beautiful?" "What do you think of
+that?"--which one hears every moment in other countries, are never
+heard in Holland, even when the inhabitants are speaking of things
+that are universally admired. Every time that I told a citizen of
+Rotterdam that I liked the town he made a gesture of surprise. In
+speaking of their commerce and institutions they never let a vain
+expression escape them, nor even a boastful or complacent word. They
+always speak of what they are going to do, and never of what they have
+done. One of the first questions put to me when I named my country
+was, "What about its finances?" As to their own country, I observed
+that they know all that it is useful to know, and very little that it
+is simply a pleasure to know. A hundred things, a hundred parts of the
+city, which I had observed when I had been twenty-four hours at
+Rotterdam, many of the citizens had never seen; which proves that they
+are not in the habit of rambling about and looking at everything.
+
+When I took my leave my acquaintances filled my pockets with cigars,
+counselled me to eat good nourishing dinners, and gave me advice on
+the subject of economical travelling. They parted from me quietly.
+There was no clamorous "What a pity you are going!" "Write soon!"
+"Come back quickly!" "Don't forget us!" which rang in my ears on
+leaving Spain. Here there was nothing but a hearty shake of the hand,
+a look, and a simple good-bye.
+
+On the morning when I left Rotterdam I saw in the streets through
+which I passed to get to the Delft railway-station a novel spectacle,
+purely Dutch--the cleaning of the houses, which takes place twice a
+week in the early morning hours. All the servants in the city, dressed
+in flowered lilac-colored wrappers, white caps, white aprons, white
+stockings, and white wooden shoes, and with their sleeves turned up,
+were busily washing the doors, the walls, and the windows. Some sat
+courageously on the window-sills while they washed the panes of the
+windows with sponges, turning their backs to the street with half
+their bodies outside; others were kneeling on the pavement cleaning
+the stones with rough cloths; others were standing in the middle of
+the street armed with syringes, squirts, and pumps, with long rubber
+tubes, like those used for watering gardens, and were sending against
+the second-floor windows streams of water which were pouring down
+again into the street; others were mopping the windows with sponges
+and rags tied to the tops of long bamboo canes; others were burnishing
+the door-knobs, rings, and door-plates; some were cleaning the
+staircases, some the furniture, which they had carried out of the
+houses. The pavements were blocked with buckets and pitchers, with
+jugs, watering-pots, and benches; water ran down the walls and down
+the street; jets of water were gushing out everywhere. It is a curious
+thing that while labor in Holland is so slow and easy in all its
+forms, this work presented an appearance altogether different. All
+those girls with glowing faces were bustling indoors and hurrying out
+again, rushing up stairs and down, tucking up their sleeves hastily,
+assuming bold acrobatic attitudes and undergoing dangerous
+contortions. They took no notice of those who passed by except when
+with jealous eyes it was necessary to keep the profane race away from
+the pavement and walls. In short, it was a furious rivalry of
+cleanliness, a sort of general ablution of the city, which had about
+it something childish and festive, and which made one fancy that it
+was some rite of an eccentric religion which ordered its followers to
+cleanse the town from a mysterious infection sent by malicious
+spirits.
+
+
+
+
+DELFT.
+
+
+On my way from Rotterdam to Delft I saw for the first time the plains
+of Holland.
+
+The country is perfectly flat--a succession of green and flower-decked
+meadows, broken by long rows of willows and clumps of alders and
+poplars. Here and there appear the tops of steeples, the turning arms
+of windmills, straggling herds of large black and white cattle, and an
+occasional shepherd; then, for miles, only solitude. There is nothing
+to attract the eye, there is neither hill nor valley. From time to
+time the sail of a ship is seen in the distance, but as the vessel is
+moving on an invisible canal, it seems to be gliding over the grass of
+the meadows as it is hidden for a moment behind the trees and then
+reappears. The wan light lends a gentle, melancholy influence to the
+landscape, while a mist almost imperceptible makes all things appear
+distant. There is a sense of silence to the eye, a peace of outline
+and color, a repose in everything, so that the vision grows dim and
+the imagination sleeps.
+
+Not far from Rotterdam the town of Schiedam comes into view,
+surrounded by very high windmills, which give it the appearance of a
+fortress crowned with turrets; and far away can be seen the towers of
+the village of Vlaardingen, one of the principal stations of the
+herring-fisheries.
+
+Between Schiedam and Delft I observed the windmills with great
+attention. Dutch windmills do not at all resemble the decrepit mills I
+had seen in the previous year at La Mancha, which seemed to be
+extending their thin arms to implore the aid of heaven and earth. The
+Dutch mills are large, strong, and vigorous, and Don Quixote would
+certainly have hesitated before running atilt at them. Some are built
+of stone or bricks, and are round or octagonal like mediæval towers;
+others are of wood, and look like boxes stuck on the summits of
+pyramids. Most of them are thatched. About midway between the roof and
+the ground they are encircled by a wooden platform. Their windows are
+hung with white curtains, their doors are painted green, and on each
+door is written the use which it serves. Besides drawing water, the
+windmills do a little of everything: they grind grain, pound rags,
+crumble lime, crush stones, saw wood, press olives, and pulverize
+tobacco. A windmill is as valuable as a farm, and it takes a
+considerable fortune to build one and provide it with colza, grain,
+flour, and oil to keep it working, and to sell its products.
+Consequently, in many places the riches of a proprietor are measured
+by the number of mills he owns; an inheritance is counted by mills,
+and they say of a girl that she has so many windmills as dowry, or,
+even better, so many steam-mills; and fortune-hunters, who are to be
+found everywhere, sue for the maiden's hand to marry the mill. These
+countless winged towers scattered through the country give the
+landscape a singular appearance; they animate the solitude. At night
+in the midst of the trees they have a fantastic appearance, and look
+like fabulous birds gazing at the sky. By day in the distance they
+look like enormous pieces of fireworks; they turn, stop, curb and
+slacken their speed, break the silence by their dull and monotonous
+tick-tack, and when by chance they catch fire--which not infrequently
+happens, especially in the case of flour-mills--they form a wheel of
+flame, a furious rain of burning meal, a whirlwind of smoke, a tumult,
+a dreadful magnificent brilliance that gives one the idea of an
+infernal vision.
+
+[Illustration: Near the Arsenal, Delft]
+
+In the railway-carriage, although it was full of people, I had no
+opportunity of speaking or of hearing a word spoken. The passengers
+were all middle-aged men with serious faces, who looked at each other
+in silence, puffing out great clouds of smoke at regular intervals as
+if they were measuring time by their cigars. When we arrived at Delft
+I greeted them as I passed out, and some of them responded by a slight
+movement of the lips.
+
+"Delft," says Lodovico Guicciardini, "is named after a ditch, or
+rather the canal of water which leads from the Meuse, since in the
+vulgar tongue a ditch is generally called _delft_. It is distant two
+leagues from Rotterdam, and is a town truly great and most beautiful
+in every part, having goodly and noble edifices and wide streets,
+which are lively withal. It was founded by Godfrey, surnamed the
+Hunchback, duke of Lorraine, he who for the space of four years
+occupied the country of Holland."
+
+Delft is the city of disaster. Toward the middle of the sixteenth
+century it was almost entirely destroyed by fire; in 1654 the
+explosion of a powder-magazine shattered more than two hundred houses;
+and in 1742 another catastrophe of the same kind occurred. Besides
+these calamities, William the Silent was assassinated there in the
+year 1584. Moreover, there followed the decline and almost the
+extinction of that industry which once was the glory and riches of the
+city, the manufacture of Delft ware. In this art at first the Dutch
+artisans imitated the shapes and designs of Chinese and Japanese
+china, and finally succeeded in doing admirable work by uniting the
+Dutch and Asiatic styles. Dutch pottery became famous throughout
+Northern Europe, and it is nowadays as much sought after by lovers of
+this art as the best Italian products.
+
+At present Delft is not an industrial or commercial city, and its
+twenty-two thousand inhabitants live in profound peace. But it is one
+of the prettiest and most characteristic towns of Holland. The wide
+streets are traversed by canals shaded by double rows of trees. On
+either side are red, purple, and pink cottages with white pointing,
+which seem content in their cleanliness. At every crossway two or
+three corresponding bridges of stone or of wood, with white railings,
+meet each other; the only thing to be seen is some barge lying
+motionless and apparently enjoying the delight of idleness; there are
+few people stirring, the doors are closed, and all is still.
+
+I took my way toward the new church, looking around to see if I could
+discover any of the famous storks' nests, but there were none visible.
+The tradition of the storks of Delft is still alive, and no traveller
+writes about this city without mentioning it. Guicciardini calls it "a
+memorable fact of such a nature that peradventure there is no record
+of a like event in ancient or modern times." The circumstance took
+place during the great fire which destroyed nearly the whole city.
+There were in Delft a countless number of storks' nests. It must be
+remembered that the stork is the favorite bird of Holland, the bird of
+good augury, like the swallow. Storks are much in demand, as they make
+war on toads and rats, and the peasants plant perches surmounted by
+large wooden disks to attract them to build their nests there. In some
+towns they are to be seen walking through the streets. Well, at Delft
+there were innumerable nests. When the fire began, on the 3d of May,
+the young storks were well grown, but they could not yet fly. When
+they saw the fire approaching, the parent storks tried to carry their
+little ones into a place of safety, but they were too heavy, and after
+every sort of desperate effort the poor birds, worn and terrified, had
+to abandon the attempt. They might yet have saved themselves by
+leaving the young to their fate, as human beings generally do under
+similar circumstances. But, instead, they remained on their nests,
+pressing their little ones round them, and shielding them with their
+wings, as though to delay their destruction for at least a moment.
+Thus they awaited their death, and were found lifeless in this
+attitude of love and devotion. Who knows whether during the horrible
+terror and panic of the fire the example of that sacrifice, the
+voluntary martyrdom of those poor mothers, may not have given courage
+to some weaker soul about to abandon those who had need of him?
+
+In the great square, where stands the new church, I again saw some shops
+like those I had seen in Rotterdam, in which all the articles which can
+be strung together are hung up either outside the door or in the room, so
+forming wreaths, festoons, and curtains--of shoes, for example, or of
+earthen pots, watering-cans, baskets, and buckets--which dangle from the
+ceiling to the ground, and sometimes almost hide the floor. The shop
+signs are like those at Rotterdam--a bottle of beer hanging from a nail,
+a paint-brush, a box, a broom, and the customary huge heads with
+wide-open mouths.
+
+The new church, founded toward the end of the fourteenth century, is
+to Holland what Westminster Abbey is to England. It is a large
+edifice, sombre without and bare within--a prison rather than a house
+of God. The tombs are at the end, behind the enclosure of the benches.
+
+I had scarcely entered before I saw the splendid mausoleum of William the
+Silent, but the sexton stopped me before the very simple tomb of Hugh
+Grotius, the _prodigium Europæ_, as the epitaph calls him, the great
+jurisconsult of the seventeenth century--that Grotius who wrote Latin
+verses at the age of nine, who composed Greek odes at eleven, who at
+fourteen indited philosophical theses, who three years later accompanied
+the illustrious Barneveldt in his embassy to Paris, where Henry IV.
+presented him to his court, saying, "Behold the miracle of Holland!" that
+Grotius who at eighteen years of age was illustrious as a poet, as a
+theologian, as a commentator, as an astronomer, who had written a poem on
+the town of Ostend which Casaubon translated into Greek measures and
+Malesherbes into French verse; that Grotius who when hardly twenty-four
+years old occupied the post of advocate-general of Holland and Zealand,
+and composed a celebrated treatise on the _Freedom of the Seas_; who at
+thirty years of age was an honorary councillor of Rotterdam. Afterward,
+when, as a partisan of Barneveldt, he was persecuted, condemned to
+perpetual imprisonment, and shut up in the castle of Löwestein, he wrote
+his treatise on the _Rights of Peace and War_, which for a long time was
+the code of all the publicists of Europe. He was rescued in a marvellous
+way by his wife, who managed to be carried into the prison inside a chest
+supposed to be full of books, and sent back the chest with her husband
+inside, while she remained in prison in his place. He was then sheltered
+by Louis XIII., was appointed ambassador to France by Christina of
+Sweden, and finally returned in triumph to his native land, and died at
+Rostock crowned with glory and a venerable old age.
+
+The mausoleum of William the Silent is in the middle of the church. It
+is a little temple of black and white marble, heavy with ornament and
+supported by slender columns, in the midst of which rise four statues
+representing Liberty, Prudence, Justice, and Religion. Above the
+sarcophagus is a recumbent statue of the prince in white marble, and
+at his feet the effigy of the little dog that saved his life at
+Mechlin by barking one night, when he was sleeping under a tent, just
+as two Spaniards were advancing stealthily to kill him. At the foot of
+this statue rises a beautiful bronze figure, a Victory, with outspread
+wings, resting lightly on her left foot. At the opposite side of the
+little temple is another bronze statue representing William seated. He
+is clad in armor, with his head uncovered and his helmet at his
+feet. An inscription in Latin tells that this monument was consecrated
+by the States of Holland "to the eternal memory of that William of
+Nassau whom Philip II., the terror of Europe, feared, yet whom he
+could neither subdue nor overthrow, but whom he killed by execrable
+fraud." William's children are laid by his side, and all the princes
+of his dynasty are buried in the crypt under his tomb.
+
+[Illustration: Monument to Admiral Van Tromp, Delft.]
+
+Before this monument even the most frivolous and careless visitor
+remains silent and thoughtful.
+
+It is well to recall the tremendous struggle of which the hero lies in
+that tomb.
+
+On one side was Philip II., on the other William of Orange. Philip
+II., shut up in the dull solitude of the Escurial, lived in the midst
+of an empire which included Spain, North and South Italy, Belgium, and
+Holland, and, in Africa, Oran, Tunis, the archipelagoes of the Cape
+Verde and Canary Islands; in Asia the Philippine Islands; and the
+Antilles, Mexico, and Peru in America. He was the husband of the queen
+of England, the nephew of the emperor of Germany, who obeyed him as if
+he were a vassal; he was the lord, one may say, of all Europe, for the
+neighboring states were all weakened by political and religious
+disorders; he had at his command the best disciplined soldiers in
+Europe, the greatest generals of the age, American gold, Flemish
+industries, Italian science, an army of spies scattered through all
+the courts--men chosen from all countries fanatically devoted to him,
+conscious or unconscious tools of his will. He was the most sagacious,
+most mysterious prince of his age; he had everything that enchains,
+corrupts, alarms, and attracts the world--arms, riches, glory, genius,
+religion. While every one else was bowing low before this formidable
+man, William of Orange stood erect.
+
+This man, without a kingdom and without an army, was nevertheless more
+powerful than the king. Like him, he had been a disciple of Charles
+V., and had learned the art of elevating thrones and hurling them
+down; like him, he was cunning and inscrutable, and yet he divined the
+future with keener intellectual vision than Philip. Like his enemy, he
+had the power of reading men's souls, but he also had the ability to
+win their hearts. He had a good cause to uphold, but he was acquainted
+with all the artifices that are used to maintain bad causes. Philip
+II., who spied into every one's affairs, was spied on in his turn and
+had his purposes divined by William. The designs of the great king
+were discovered and thwarted before they were put into execution;
+mysterious hands ransacked his drawers and pockets and investigated
+his secret papers. William in Holland read the mind of Philip in the
+Escurial; he anticipated, hindered, and embroiled all his plots; he
+dug the ground from beneath his feet, provoked him, and then escaped,
+only to return before his eyes like a phantom which he saw and could
+not seize, which he seized and could not destroy. At last William
+died, but even when dead the victory was his, and the enemy who
+survived was defeated. Holland remained for a short time without a
+head, but the Spanish monarchy had received such a blow that it was
+not able to rise again.
+
+In this wonderful struggle the figure of the Great King gradually
+dwindles until it entirely disappears, while that of William of Orange
+becomes greater and greater by slow degrees until it grows to be the
+most glorious figure of his age. From the day when, as a hostage to
+the king of France, he discovered Philip's design of establishing the
+Inquisition in the Netherlands he devoted himself to defend the
+liberty of his country, and throughout his life he never wavered for a
+moment on the road he had entered. The advantages of his noble birth,
+a regal fortune, peace, and the splendid life which by habit and
+nature were dear to him, all these he sacrificed to the cause; he was
+reduced to poverty and exiled, yet in both poverty and exile he
+constantly refused the offers of pardon and of favor that were made
+from many sides and in many ways by the enemy who hated and feared
+him. Surrounded by assassins, made the target of the most atrocious
+calumnies, accused of cowardice before the enemy, and charged with the
+assassination of a wife whom he adored, sometimes regarded with
+distrust, slandered, and attacked by the very people he was
+defending,--he bore it all patiently and in silence. He did not swerve
+from the straight course to the goal, facing infinite perils with
+quiet courage. He did not bend before his people nor did he flatter
+them; he did not permit himself to be led away by the passions of his
+country; it was he who always guided; he was always at the head,
+always the first. All gathered around him; he was the mind, the
+conscience, and the strength of the revolution, the hearth that burned
+and kept the warmth of life in his fatherland. Great by reason alike
+of his audacity and prudence, he continued upright in a time full of
+perjury and treachery; he remained gentle in the midst of violent men;
+his hands were spotless when all the courts of Europe were stained
+with blood. With an army collected at random, with feeble or uncertain
+allies, checked by internal discords between Lutherans and Calvinists,
+nobles and commoners, magistrates and the people, with no great
+general to aid him, he was obliged to combat the municipal spirit of
+the provinces, which would none of his authority and escaped from his
+control; yet he triumphed in a conflict which seemed beyond human
+strength. He wore out the Duke of Alva, Requesens, Don John of
+Austria, and Alexander Farnese. He overthrew the conspiracies of those
+foreign princes who wished to help his country in order to subdue it.
+He gained friends and obtained aid from every part of Europe, and,
+after achieving one of the noblest revolutions in history, he founded
+a free state in spite of an empire which was the terror of the
+universe.
+
+This man, who in the eyes of the world was so terrible and so great,
+was an affectionate husband and father, a pleasant friend and
+companion, who loved merry social gatherings and banquets, and was an
+elegant and polite host. He was a man of learning, and spoke, besides
+his native language, French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Italian, and
+conversed in a scholarly manner on all subjects. Although called the
+Silent (rather because he kept to himself the secret discovered at the
+French court than from a habit of silence), he was one of the most
+eloquent men of his time. His manners were simple and his dress plain;
+he loved his people and was beloved by them. He walked about the
+streets of the cities bareheaded and alone, and chatted with workmen
+and fishermen, who offered him drink out of their glasses; he listened
+to their discourses, settled their quarrels, entered their homes to
+restore domestic concord. Every one called him "Father William," and,
+in fact, he was the father rather than a son of his country. The
+feeling of admiration and gratitude which still lives for him in the
+hearts of the Hollanders has all the intimacy and tenderness of filial
+affection; his reverend name is still in every mouth; his greatness,
+stripped of every ornament and veil, remains entire, spotless, and
+steadfast like his work.
+
+After seeing the tomb of the Prince of Orange I went to look upon the
+place where he was assassinated.
+
+In 1580, Philip II. published an edict in which he promised a reward
+of twenty-five thousand golden pieces and a title of nobility to the
+man who would assassinate the Prince of Orange. This infamous edict,
+which stimulated covetousness and fanaticism, caused crowds of
+assassins to gather from every side, who surrounded William under
+false names and with concealed weapons, awaiting their opportunity. A
+young man from Biscay, Jaureguy by name, a fervent Catholic, who had
+been promised the glory of martyrdom by a Dominican friar, made the
+first attempt. He prepared himself by prayer and fasting, went to
+Mass, took the communion, covered himself with sacred relics, entered
+the palace, and, drawing near to the prince in the attitude of one
+presenting a petition, fired a pistol at his head. The ball passed
+through the jaw, but the wound was not mortal. The Prince of Orange
+recovered. The assassin was slain in the act by sword and halberd
+thrusts, then quartered on the public square, and the parts were hung
+up on one of the gates of Antwerp, where they remained until the Duke
+of Parma took possession of the town, when the Jesuits collected them
+and presented them as relics to the faithful.
+
+Shortly after this another plot against the life of the Prince was
+discovered. A French nobleman, an Italian, and a Walloon, who had
+followed him for some time with the intention of murdering him, were
+suspected and arrested. One of them killed himself in prison with a
+knife, another was strangled in France, and the third escaped, after
+he had confessed that the movements of all three had been directed by
+the Duke of Parma.
+
+Meanwhile Philip's agents were overrunning the country instigating
+rogues to perpetrate this deed with promises of treasures in reward,
+while priests and monks were instigating fanatics to the same end by
+the assurance of help and reward from Heaven. Other assassins made the
+attempt. A Spaniard was discovered, arrested, and quartered at
+Antwerp; a rich trader called Hans Jansen was put to death at
+Flushing. Many offered their services to Prince Alexander Farnese and
+were encouraged by gifts of money. The Prince of Orange, who knew all
+this, felt a vague presentiment of his approaching death, and spoke of
+it to his intimate friends, but he refused to take any precautions to
+protect his life, and replied to all who gave him such counsel, "It is
+useless: God has numbered my years. Let it be according to His will.
+If there is any wretch who does not fear death, my life is in his
+power, however I may guard it."
+
+Eight attempts were made upon his life before an assassin fired the
+fatal shot.
+
+When the deed was at last committed, in 1584, four scoundrels, an
+Englishman, a Scotchman, a Frenchman, and a man of Lorraine, unknown
+to each other, were all awaiting at Delft their opportunity to
+assassinate him.
+
+Besides these, there was a young conspirator, twenty-seven years of
+age, from Franche-Comté, a Catholic, who passed himself off as a
+Protestant, Guyon by name, the son of a certain Peter Guyon who was
+executed at Besançon for embracing Calvinism. This Guyon, whose real
+name was Balthazar Gerard, was believed to be a fugitive from the
+persecutions of the Catholics. He led an austere life and took part in
+all the services of the Evangelical Church, and in a short time
+acquired a reputation for especial piety. Saying that he had come to
+Delft to beg for the honor of serving the Prince of Orange, he was
+recommended and introduced by a Protestant clergyman: he inspired the
+Prince with confidence, and was sent by him to accompany Herr Van
+Schonewalle, the envoy of the States of Holland to the court of
+France. In a short time he returned to Delft, bringing to William the
+tidings of the death of the Duke of Anjou, and presented himself at
+the convent of St. Agatha, where the Prince was staying with his
+court. It was the second Sunday in July. William received him in his
+chamber, being in bed. They were alone. Balthazar Gerard was probably
+tempted to assassinate him at that moment, but he was unarmed and
+restrained himself. Disguising his impatience, he quietly answered all
+the questions he was asked. William gave him some money, told him to
+prepare to return to Paris, and ordered him to come back the next day
+to get his letters and passport. With the money he received from the
+Prince, Gerard bought two pistols from a soldier, who killed himself
+when he knew to what end they had been used, and the next day, the
+10th of July, he again presented himself at the convent of St. Agatha.
+William, accompanied by several ladies and gentlemen of his family,
+was descending the staircase to dine in a room on the ground floor. On
+his arm was the Princess of Orange, his fourth wife, that gentle and
+unfortunate Louisa de Coligny, who had seen her father, the admiral,
+and her husband, Seigneur de Teligny, killed at her feet on the eve of
+St. Bartholomew. Balthazar stepped forward, stopped the Prince, and
+asked him to sign his passport. The Prince told him to return later,
+and entered the dining-room. No shade of suspicion had passed through
+his mind. Louisa de Coligny, however, grown cautious and suspicious by
+her misfortunes, became anxious. That pale man, wrapped in a long
+mantle, had a sinister look; his voice sounded unnatural and his face
+was convulsed. During dinner she confided her suspicions to William,
+and asked him who that man was "who had the wickedest face she had
+ever seen." The Prince smiled, told her it was Guyon, reassured her,
+and was as gay as ever during the dinner. When he had finished he
+quietly left the room to go up stairs to his apartments. Gerard was
+waiting for him at a dark turning near the staircase, hidden in the
+shadow of a door. As soon as he saw the Prince approaching he
+advanced, and leaped upon him just as he was placing his foot on the
+second step. He fired his pistol, which was loaded with three bullets,
+straight at the Prince's breast, and fled. William staggered and fell
+into the arms of an equerry. All crowded round. "I am wounded," said
+William in a feeble voice.... "God have mercy on me and on my poor
+people!" He was all covered with blood. His sister, Catherine of
+Schwartzburg, asked, "Dost thou commend thy soul to Jesus Christ?" He
+answered, in a whisper, "I do." It was his last word. They placed him
+on one of the steps and spoke to him, but he was no longer conscious.
+They then bore him into a room near by, where he died.
+
+Gerard had crossed the stables, had fled from the convent, and reached
+the ramparts of the town, from which he hoped to leap into the moat
+and swim across to the opposite bank, where a horse ready saddled was
+awaiting him. But in his flight he let fall his hat and a pistol. A
+servant and a halberdier in the Prince's service, seeing these traces,
+rushed after him. Just as he was in the act of jumping he stumbled,
+and his two pursuers overtook and seized him. "Infernal traitor!" they
+cried. "I am no traitor," he answered calmly; "I am a faithful servant
+of my master."--"Of what master?" they asked. "Of my lord and
+master the King of Spain," answered Gerard. By this time other
+halberdiers and pages had come up. They dragged him into the town,
+beating him with their fists and with the hilts of their swords. The
+wretch, thinking from the words of the crowd that the Prince was not
+dead, exclaimed with an evil composure, "Cursed be the hand whose blow
+has failed!"
+
+[Illustration: Stairway where William, the Silent, was Assassinated,
+in the Prinsenhof, Delft.]
+
+This deplorable peace of mind did not desert him for a moment. When
+brought before the judges, during the long examination in the cell
+where he was thrown laden with chains, he still maintained the same
+remarkable tranquillity. He bore the torments to which he was
+condemned without letting a cry escape him. Between the various
+tortures to which he was subjected, while the officers were resting,
+he conversed quietly and in a modest manner. While they were
+lacerating him every now and then he raised his bloody head from the
+rack and said, "Ecce homo." Several times he thanked the judges for
+the nourishment he had received, and wrote his confessions with his
+own hand.
+
+He was born at Villefranche in the department of Burgundy, and studied
+law with a solicitor at Dôle, and it was there that he for the first
+time manifested his wish to kill William. Planting a dagger in a door,
+he said, "Thus would I thrust a sword into the breast of the Prince of
+Orange!" Three years later, hearing of the proclamation of Philip II.,
+he went to Luxembourg, intending to assassinate the Prince, but was
+stopped by the false report of his death which had been spread after
+Jaurequy's attempted assassination. Soon after, learning that William
+still lived, he renewed his design, and went to Mechlin to seek
+counsel from the Jesuits, who encouraged him, promising him a martyr's
+crown if he lost his life in the enterprise. He then went to Tournay,
+and presented himself to Alexander Farnese, who confirmed the promises
+of King Philip. He was approved and encouraged by the confidence of
+the Prince and by the priests; he fortified himself by reading the
+Bible, by fasting and prayer, and then, full of religious exaltation,
+dreaming of angels and of Paradise, he left for Delft, and completed
+his "duty as a good Catholic and faithful subject."
+
+He repeated his confessions several times to the judges, without one
+word of remorse or penitence. On the contrary, he boasted of his
+crime, and said he was a new David, who had overthrown a new Goliath;
+he declared that if he had not already killed the Prince of Orange, he
+should still wish to do the deed. His courage, his calmness, his
+contempt of life, his profound belief that he had accomplished a holy
+mission and would die a glorious death, dismayed his judges; they
+thought he must be possessed by the devil. They made inquiries, they
+questioned him, but he always gave the same answer that his
+conversation was with God alone.
+
+He was sentenced on the 14th of July. His punishment has been called a
+crime against the memory of the great man whose death it was intended
+to avenge--a sentence to turn faint any one who had not superhuman
+strength.
+
+The assassin was condemned to have his hand enclosed and seared in a
+tube of red-hot iron, to have his arms, legs, and thighs torn to
+pieces with burning pincers, his bowels to be quartered, his heart to
+be torn out and thrown into his face, his head to be dissevered from
+his trunk and placed on a pike, his body to be cut in four pieces, and
+every piece to be hung on a gibbet over one of the principal gates of
+the city.
+
+On hearing the enumeration of these horrible tortures the miserable
+wretch did not flinch; he showed no sign of terror, sorrow, or
+surprise. He opened his coat, bared his breast, and, fixing his
+dauntless eyes on his judges, he repeated with a steady voice his
+customary words, "Ecce homo!"
+
+Was this man only a fanatic, as many believed, or a monster of
+wickedness, as others held, or was he both of these inspired by a
+boundless ambition?
+
+On the next day the sentence was carried into effect. The preparations
+for the execution were made before his eyes; he regarded them with
+indifference. The executioner's assistant began by pounding into
+pieces the pistol with which he had perpetrated the crime. At the
+first blow the head of the hammer fell off and struck another
+assistant on the ear. The crowd laughed, and Gerard laughed too. When
+he mounted the gallows his body was already horrible to behold. He was
+silent while his hand crackled and smoked in the red-hot tube; during
+the time when the red-hot tongs were tearing his flesh he uttered no
+cry; when the knife penetrated into his entrails he bowed his head,
+murmured a few incomprehensible words, and expired.
+
+The death of the Prince of Orange filled the country with
+consternation. His body lay in state for a month, and the people
+gathered round his last bed kneeling and weeping. The funeral was
+worthy of a king: there were present the States General of the United
+Provinces, the Council of State, and the Estates of Holland, the
+magistrates, the clergy, and the princes of the house of Nassau.
+Twelve noblemen bore the bier, four great nobles held the cords of the
+pall, and the Prince's horse followed splendidly caparisoned and led
+by his equerry. In the midst of the train of counts and barons there
+was seen a young man, eighteen years of age, who was destined to
+inherit the glorious legacy of the dead, to humble the Spanish arms,
+and to compel Spain to sue for a truce and to recognize the
+independence of the Netherlands. That young man was Maurice of Orange,
+the son of William, on whom the Estates of Holland a short time after
+the death of his father conferred the dignity of Stadtholder, and to
+whom they afterward entrusted the supreme command of the land and
+naval forces.
+
+While Holland was mourning the death of the Prince of Orange, the
+Catholic priesthood in all the cities under Spanish rule were
+rejoicing over the assassination and extolling the assassin. The
+Jesuits exalted him as a martyr, the University of Louvain published
+his defence, the canons of Bois-le-Duc chanted a Te Deum. After a few
+years the King of Spain bestowed on Gerard's family a title and the
+confiscated property of the Prince of Orange in Burgundy.
+
+The house where William was murdered is still standing: it is a
+dark-looking building with arched windows and a narrow door, and forms
+part of the cloister of an old cathedral consecrated to St. Agatha. It
+still bears the name of Prinsenhof, although it is now used for
+artillery barracks. I got permission to enter from the officer on
+guard. A corporal who understood a little French accompanied me. We
+crossed a courtyard full of soldiers, and arrived at the memorable
+place. I saw the staircase the Prince was mounting when he was
+attacked, the dark corner where Gerard hid himself, the door of the
+room where the unfortunate William dined for the last time, and the
+mark of the bullets on the wall in a little whitewashed space which
+bears a Dutch inscription reminding one that here died the father of
+his country. The corporal showed me where the assassin had fled. While
+I was looking round, with that pensive curiosity that one feels in
+places where great crimes have been committed, soldiers were
+ascending and descending; they stopped to look at me, and then went
+away singing and whistling; some near me were humming; others were
+laughing loudly in the courtyard. All this youthful gayety was in
+sharp and moving contrast to the sad gravity of those memories, and
+seemed like a festival of children in the room where died a
+grandparent whose memory we cherish.
+
+Opposite the barracks is the oldest church in Delft. It contains the
+tomb of the famous Admiral Tromp, the veteran of the Dutch navy, who
+saw thirty-two naval battles, and in 1652, at the battle of the Downs,
+defeated the English fleet commanded by Blake. He re-entered his
+country with a broom tied to the masthead of the admiral's ship to
+indicate that he had swept the English off the seas. Here also is the
+tomb of Peter Heyn, who from a simple fisherman rose to be a great
+admiral, and took that memorable netful of Spanish ships that had
+under their hatches more than eleven million florins; also the tomb of
+Leeuwenhoek, the father of the science of the infinitely small--who,
+with the "divining-glass," as Parini says, "saw primitive man swimming
+in the genital wave." The church has a high steeple surmounted by four
+conical turrets. It is inclined like the Tower of Pisa, because the
+ground has sunk beneath it. Gerard was imprisoned in one of the cells
+of this tower on the night of the assassination.
+
+[Illustration: Refectory of the Convent of St. Agatha, Delft.]
+
+At Rotterdam I had been given a letter to a citizen of Delft asking
+him to show me his house. The letter read: "He desires to penetrate
+into the mysteries of an old Dutch house; lift for a moment the
+curtain of the sanctuary." The house was not hard to find, and as soon
+as I saw it I said to myself, "That is the house for me!"
+
+It was a red cottage, one story in height, with a long peaked gable,
+situated at the end of a street which stretched out into the country.
+It stood almost on the edge of a canal, leaning a little forward, as
+if it wished to see its reflection in the water. A pretty linden tree
+grew in front which spread over the window like a great fan, and a
+drawbridge lay before the door. Then there were the white curtains,
+the green doors, the flowers, the looking-glasses--in fact, it was a
+perfect little model of a Dutch house.
+
+The road was deserted. Before I knocked at the door I waited a little
+while, looking at it and thinking. That house made me understand
+Holland better than all the books I had read. It was at the same time
+the expression and the reason of the domestic love, of the modest
+desires, and the independent nature of the Dutch people. In our
+country there is no such thing as the true house: there are only
+divisions in barracks, abstract habitations, which are not ours, but
+in which we live hidden, but not alone, hearing a thousand noises made
+by people who are strangers to us, who disturb our sorrows with the
+echo of their joys and interrupt our joys with the echo of their
+sorrows. The real home is in Holland--a house of one's own, quite
+separate from others, modest, circumspect, and, by reason of its
+retirement, unknown to mysteries and intrigues. When the inhabitants
+of the house are merry, everything is bright; when they are sad, all
+is serious. In these houses, with their canals and drawbridges, every
+modest citizen feels something of the solitary dignity of a feudal
+lord, and might imagine himself the commander of a fortress or the
+captain of a ship; and indeed, as he looks from his windows, as from
+those of an anchored vessel, he sees a boundless level plain, which
+inspires him with just such sentiments of freedom and solemnity as are
+awakened by the sea. The trees that surround his house like a green
+girdle allow only a delicate broken light to enter it; boats freighted
+with merchandise glide noiselessly past his door; he does not hear the
+trampling of horses or the cracking of whips, or songs or street-cries;
+all the activities of the life that surrounds him are silent and gentle:
+all breathes of peace and sweetness, and the steeple of the church hard
+by tells the hour with a flood of harmony as full of repose and constancy
+as are his affections and his work.
+
+I knocked at the door, and the master of the house opened it. He read
+the letter which I gave him, regarded me critically, and bade me
+enter. It is almost always thus. At the first meeting the Dutch are
+apt to be suspicious. We open our arms to any one who brings us a
+letter of introduction as if he were our most intimate friend, and
+very often do nothing for him afterward. The Dutch, on the contrary,
+receive you coldly--so coldly, indeed, that sometimes you feel
+mortified--but afterward they do a thousand things for you with the
+best will in the world, and without the least appearance of doing you
+a kindness.
+
+Within, the house was in perfect harmony with its outside appearance;
+it seemed to be the inside of a ship. A circular wooden staircase,
+shining like polished ebony, led to the upper rooms. There were mats
+and carpets on the stairs, in front of the doors, and on the floors.
+The rooms were as small as cells, the furniture was as clean as
+possible, the door-plates, the knobs, the nails, the brass and the
+other metal ornaments were as bright as if they had just left the
+hands of the burnisher. Everywhere there was a profusion of porcelain
+vases, of cups, lamps, mirrors, small pictures, bureaus, cupboards,
+knicknacks, and small objects of every shape and for every use. All
+were marvellously clean, and bespoke the thousand little wants that
+the love of a sedentary life creates--the careful foresight, the
+continual care, the taste for little things, the love of order, the
+economy of space; in short, it was the abode of a quiet, domestic
+woman.
+
+The goddess of this temple, who could not or did not dare speak
+French, was hidden in some inmost recess which I did not succeed in
+discovering.
+
+We went down stairs to see the kitchen; it was one gleam of
+brightness. When I returned home I described it, in my mother's
+presence, to the servant who prided herself on her cleanliness, and
+she was annihilated. The walls were as white as snow; the saucepans
+reflected everything like so many looking-glasses; the top of the
+chimney-piece was ornamented by a sort of muslin curtain like the
+curtains of a bed, bearing no trace of smoke; the wall below the
+chimney was covered with square majolica tiles which were as clean as
+though the fire had never been lighted; the andirons, shovel, and
+tongs, the chain of the spit, all seemed to be of burnished steel. A
+lady dressed for a ball could have gone round the room and into all
+the corners and touched everything without getting a speck of dirt on
+her spotless attire.
+
+At this moment the maid was cleaning the room, and my host spoke of
+this as follows: "To have an idea of what cleanliness means with us,"
+he said, "one ought to watch the work of these women for an hour. Here
+they scrub, wash, and brush a house as if it were a person. A house is
+not cleaned; it has its toilette made. The girls blow between the
+bricks, they rummage in the corners with their nails and with pins,
+and clean so minutely that they tire their eyes no less than their
+arms. Really it is a national passion. These girls, who are generally
+so phlegmatic, change their character on cleaning day and become
+frantic. That day we are no longer masters of our houses. They invade
+our rooms, turn us out, sprinkle us, turn everything topsy-turvy; for
+them it is a gala day; they are like bacchantes of cleanliness; the
+madness grows as they wash." I asked him to what he attributed this
+species of mania for which Holland is famous. He gave me the same
+reasons that many others had given; the atmosphere of their country,
+which greatly injures wood and metals, the damp, the small size of the
+houses and the number of things they contain, which naturally makes it
+difficult to keep them clean, the superabundance of water, which helps
+the work, a something that the eye seems to require, until cleanliness
+ends by appearing beautiful, and, lastly, the emulation that
+everywhere leads to excess. "But," he added, "this is not the cleanest
+part of Holland; the excess, the delirium of cleanliness, is to be
+seen in the northern provinces."
+
+We went out for a walk about the town. It was not yet noon; servants
+were to be seen everywhere dressed just like those in Rotterdam. It is
+a singular thing, all the servant-maids in Holland, from Rotterdam to
+Groningen, from Haarlem to Nimeguen, are dressed in the same
+color--light mauve, flowered or dotted with stars or crosses--and
+while engaged in cleaning they all wear a sort of invalid's cap and a
+pair of enormous white wooden shoes. At first I thought that they
+formed a national association requiring uniformity in dress. They are
+generally very young, because older women cannot bear the fatigue they
+have to endure; they are fair and round, with prodigious posterior
+curves (an observation of Diderot); in the strict sense of the word
+they are not at all pretty, but their pink and white complexions are
+marvellous, and they look the picture of health, and one feels that it
+would be delightful to press one's cheek to theirs. Their rounded
+forms and fine coloring are enhanced by their plain style of dress,
+especially in the morning, when they have their sleeves turned up and
+necks bare, revealing flesh as fair as a cherub's.
+
+Suddenly I remembered a note I had made in my book before starting for
+Holland, and I stopped and asked my companion this question: "Are the
+Dutch servants the eternal torment of their mistresses?"
+
+Here I must make a short digression. It is well known that ladies of a
+certain age, good mothers and good housekeepers, whose social position
+does not allow them to leave their servants to themselves--who, for
+instance, have only one servant, who has to be both cook and lady's
+maid,--it is well known that such ladies often talk for hours on this
+subject. The conversations are always the same--of insupportable
+defects, insolence that they have had to endure, impertinent answers,
+dishonesty in buying the things needed for the kitchen, of waste,
+untruthfulness, immense pretensions, of discharges, of the annoyance
+of searching for new servants, and other such calamities; the refrain
+always being that the honest and faithful servants, who became
+attached to the family and grew old in the same service, have ceased
+to exist; now one is obliged to change them continually, and there is
+no way of getting back to the old order. Is this true or false? Is it
+a result of the liberty and equality of classes, making service harder
+to bear and the servants more independent? Is it an effect of the
+relaxation of manners and of public discipline, which has made itself
+felt even in the kitchen? However it may be, the fact remains that at
+home I heard this subject so much discussed that one day, before I
+left for Spain, I said to my mother, "If anything in Madrid can
+console me in being so far from my family, it will be that I shall
+hear no more of this odious subject." On my arrival at Madrid I went
+into a hostelry, and the first thing the landlady said was that she
+had changed her maids three times in a month, and was driven to
+desperation: she did not know which saint to pray to: and so long as I
+remained there the same lamentation continued. On my return home I
+told my family about it; they all laughed, and my mother concluded
+that there must be the same trouble in every country. "No," said I,
+"in the northern countries it must be different."--"You will see that
+I am right," my mother answered. I went to Paris, and of the first
+housekeeper with whom I became acquainted I asked the question, "Are
+the servants here the everlasting torment of their mistresses, as they
+are in Italy and Spain?"--"_Ah! mon cher monsieur_," she answered,
+clasping her hands and looking above her, "_ne me parlez pas de ça!_"
+Then followed a long story of quarrels, and discharging of servants,
+and of trials which mistresses have to endure. I wrote the news to my
+mother, and she answered, "We shall see in London."
+
+I went to London, and on the ship which was bearing me to Antwerp I
+entered into conversation with an English lady. After we had exchanged
+a few words, and I had explained the reason of my curiosity, I asked
+the usual question. She turned away her head, put her hand to her
+forehead, and then replied, emphasizing each word, "They are the
+_flagellum Dei_!"
+
+I wrote home in despair, suggesting however, that I still trusted in
+Holland, which was a peaceful country, where the houses were so tidy
+and clean and the home-life so sweet. My mother answered that she
+thought we might possibly make an exception of Holland. But we were
+both rather doubtful. My curiosity was aroused, and she was expecting
+the news from me; for this reason, therefore, I put the question to my
+courteous guide at Delft. It may be imagined with what impatience I
+awaited his reply.
+
+"Sir," answered the Dutchman after a moment's reflection, "I can only
+give you this reply: in Holland we have a proverb which says that the
+maids are the cross of our lives."
+
+I was completely discouraged.
+
+"First of all," he continued, "the annoyance of living in a large
+house is, that we are obliged to keep two servants, one for the
+kitchen and one for cleaning, since it is almost impossible, with the
+mania they have of washing the very air, that one servant can do both
+things. Then they have an unquenchable thirst for liberty: they insist
+on staying out till ten in the evening and on having an entire holiday
+every now and then. Moreover, their sweethearts must be allowed in the
+house, or they come to fetch them; we must let them dance in the
+streets, and they are up to all sorts of mischief during the Kirmess
+festival. Moreover, when they are discharged we are obliged to wait
+until they choose to go, and sometimes they delay for months. Add to
+this account, wages amounting to ninety or a hundred florins a year,
+as well as the payment of a certain percentage on all the bills the
+master pays, tips from all invited guests, and all sorts of especial
+presents of dress-goods and money from the master, and, above all and
+always, patience, patience, patience!"
+
+I had heard enough to speak with authority to my mother, and I turned
+the conversation to a less distressing subject.
+
+On passing a side street I observed a lady approach a door, read a
+piece of paper attached to it, make a gesture of distress, and pass
+on. A moment later another woman who was passing, also paused, read
+it, and went on. I asked my companion for an explanation, and he told
+me of a very curious Dutch custom. On that piece of paper was written
+the notice that a certain sick person was worse. In many towns of
+Holland, when any one is ill, the family posts such a bulletin on the
+door every day, so that friends and acquaintances are not obliged to
+enter the house to learn the news. This form of announcement is
+adopted on other occasions also. In some towns they announce the birth
+of a child by tying to the door a ball covered with red silk and lace,
+for which the Dutch word signifies a proof of birth. If the child is a
+girl, a piece of white paper is attached; if twins are born, the lace
+is double, and for some days after the appearance of the symbol a
+notice is posted to the effect that the mother and child are well and
+have passed a good night, or the contrary if it is otherwise. At one
+time, when there was the announcement of a birth on a door the
+creditors of the family were not allowed to knock for nine days; but I
+believe this custom has died out, although it must have had the
+beneficent virtue of promoting an increase in the population.
+
+[Illustration: Old Delft.]
+
+In that short walk through the streets of Delft I met some gloomy
+figures like those I had noticed at Rotterdam, without being able to
+determine whether they were priests, magistrates, or gravediggers, for
+in their dress and appearance they bore a certain resemblance to
+all three. They wore three-cornered hats, with long black veils which
+reached to the waist, swallow-tailed black coats, short black
+breeches, black stockings, black cloaks, buckled shoes, and white
+cravats and gloves, and they held in their hands sheets of paper
+bordered with black. My companion explained to me that they were
+called _aanspreckers_, an untranslatable Dutch word, and that their
+duty was to bear the information of deaths to the relatives and
+friends of the defunct and to make the announcement through the
+streets. Their dress differs in some particulars in the various
+provinces and also according to the religious faith of the deceased.
+In some towns they wear immense hats _à la_ Don Basilio. They are
+generally very neat, and are sometimes dressed with a care that
+contrasts strangely with their business as messengers of death, or, as
+a traveller defines them, living funeral letters.
+
+We noticed one of these men who had stopped in front of a house, and
+my companion drew my attention to the fact that the shutters were
+partly closed, and observed that there must be some one dead there. I
+asked who it was. "I do not know," he replied, "but, to judge from the
+shutters, it cannot be any near relative to the master of the house."
+As this method of arguing seemed rather strange to me, he explained
+that in Holland when any one dies in a family they shut the windows
+and one, two, or three of the divisions of the folding shutters
+accordingly as the relationship is near or distant. Each section of
+shutter denotes a degree of relationship. For a father or mother they
+close all but one, for a cousin they close one only, for a brother
+two, and so on. It appears that the custom is very old, and it still
+continues, because in that country no custom is discontinued for
+caprice; nothing is changed unless the alteration becomes a matter of
+serious importance, and unless the Hollanders have been more than
+persuaded that such a change is for the better.
+
+I should like to have seen at Delft the house where was the tavern of
+the artist Steen, where he probably passed those famous debauches
+which have given rise to so many questions among his biographers. But
+my host told me that nothing was known about it. However, apropos of
+painters, he gave me the pleasing information that I was in the part
+of Holland, bounded by Delft, the Hague, the sea, the town of Alkmaar,
+the Gulf of Amsterdam, and the ancient Lake of Haarlem, which might be
+called the fatherland of Dutch painting, both because the greatest
+painters were born there, and because it presented such singularly
+picturesque effects that the artists loved and studied it devotedly. I
+was therefore in the bosom of Holland, and when I left Delft, I was
+going into its very heart.
+
+Before leaving I again glanced hastily over the military arsenal,
+which occupies a large building, and which originally served as a
+warehouse to the East India Company. It is in communication with an
+artillery workshop and a great powder-magazine outside of the town. At
+Delft there still remains the great polytechnic school for engineers,
+the real military academy of Holland, for from it come forth the
+officers of the army that defends the country from the sea, and these
+young warriors of the dykes and locks, about three hundred in number,
+are they who give life to the peaceful town of Grotius.
+
+As I was stepping into the vessel which was to bear me to the Hague,
+my Dutch friend described the last of those students' festivals at
+Delft which are celebrated once in five years. It was one of those
+pageants peculiar to Holland, a sort of historical masquerade like a
+reflection of the magnificence of the past, serving to remind the
+people of the traditions, the personages, and illustrious events of
+earlier times. A great cavalcade represented the entrance into
+Arnheim, in 1492, of Charles of Egmont, Duke of Gelderland, Count of
+Zutphen. He belonged to that family of Egmont which in the person of
+the noble and unfortunate Count Lamoral gave the first great martyr of
+Dutch liberty to the axe of the Duke of Alva. Two hundred students on
+richly caparisoned horses, clothed in armor, decorated with mantles
+embroidered with coats of arms, with waving plumes and large swords
+proudly brandished, formed the retinue of the Duke of Gelderland. Then
+came halberdiers, archers, and foot-soldiers dressed in the pompous
+fashion of the fifteenth century; bands played, the city blazed with
+lights, and through its streets flowed an immense crowd, which had
+come from every part of Holland to enjoy this splendid vision of a
+distant age.
+
+
+
+
+THE HAGUE.
+
+
+The boat that was to carry me to the Hague was moored near a bridge,
+in a little basin formed by the canal which leads from Delft to the
+Hague, and shaded by trees on the bank like a garden lake.
+
+The boats that carry passengers from town to town are called in Dutch
+_trekschuiten_. The _trekschuit_ is the traditional boat, as
+emblematic of Holland as is the gondola of Venice. Esquiros defined it
+as "the genius of ancient Holland floating on the waters;" and, in
+fact, any one who has not travelled in a _trekschuit_ is not
+acquainted with Dutch life under its most original and poetic aspect.
+
+It is a large boat, almost entirely covered with a cabin shaped like a
+stage-coach and divided into two compartments--the division near the
+prow being for second-class passengers, and that near the poop for
+first-class. An iron pole with a ring at the end is fastened to the
+prow, through which a long rope is passed; this is tied at one end
+near the rudder and at the other end is fastened a tow-horse, which is
+ridden by a boatman. The windows of the cabin have white curtains; the
+walls and doors are painted. In the compartment for first-class
+passengers there are cushioned seats, a little table with books, a
+cupboard, a mirror; everything is neat and bright. In putting down my
+valise I allowed some ashes from my cigar to fall under the table; a
+minute later, when I returned, these had disappeared.
+
+I was the only passenger, and did not have to wait long; the boatman
+made a sign, the tow-boy mounted his horse, and the _trekschuit_ began
+to glide gently down the canal.
+
+It was about an hour past noon and the sun was shining brightly, but
+the boat passed along in the shade. The canal is bordered by two rows
+of linden trees, elms, willows, and high hedges on either side, which
+hide the country. It seemed as though we were sailing across a forest.
+At every curve we saw green enclosed views in the distance, with
+windmills here and there on the bank. The water was covered with a
+carpet of aquatic plants, and in some parts strewn with white flowers,
+with iris, water-lilies, and the water-lentil. The high green hedge
+bordering the canal was broken here and there, allowing a glimpse, as
+if through a window, of the far-off horizon of the champaign; then the
+walls would close again in an instant.
+
+Every now and then we encountered a bridge. It was pleasant to see the
+rapidity with which the man on horseback and another man, who was always
+on guard, handled the cords to let the _trekschuit_ pass, and how the two
+conductors made room for each other when two _trekschuiten_ met, the
+one passing his rope under that of the other without speaking a word,
+without greeting each other even with a smile, as if gravity and silence
+were obligatory. All along the way the only sound to be heard was the
+whirring of the arms of the windmills.
+
+[Illustration: On the Canal, near Delft.]
+
+We met barges laden with vegetables, peat, stones, and barrels, and
+drawn with a long tow-rope by men, who were sometimes aided by large
+dogs with cords round their necks. Some were towed by a man, a woman,
+and a boy, one behind the other, with the rope tied to a sort of girth
+made of leather or linen. All three would be leaning forward so far
+that it was hard to understand how they managed to keep their feet,
+even with the help of the rope. Other boats were towed by old women
+alone. On many, a woman with a child at her breast would be seen at
+the rudder; other children were grouped around, and one might see a
+cat sitting on a sack, a dog, a hen, pots of flowers, and bird-cages.
+On some women sat knitting stockings and rocking the cradle at the
+same time; on others they were cooking; sometimes all the members of
+the family, excepting the one who was towing, were eating in a group.
+The look of peace that beams from the faces of those people and the
+tranquil appearance of those aquatic houses, of those animals which in
+a certain measure have become amphibious, the serenity of that
+floating life, the air of security and freedom of those wandering and
+solitary families,--these are not to be described. Thus in Holland
+live thousands of families who have no other houses but their boats. A
+man marries, and the wedded couple buy a boat, make it their home, and
+carry merchandise from one market to another. Their children are born
+on the canals; they are bred and grow up on the water; the barge holds
+their house-hold goods, their small savings, their domestic memories,
+their affections, their past, and all their present happiness and
+hopes for the future. They work, save, and after many years buy a
+larger boat, and sell their old house to a poorer family or give it to
+their eldest son, who from some other boat takes a wife, at whom he
+has glanced for the first time in an encounter on the canal. Thus from
+barge to barge, from canal to canal, life passes silently and
+peacefully, like the wandering boat which shelters it and the slow
+water that accompanies it.
+
+For some time I saw only small peasants' houses on the banks; then I
+began to see villas, pavilions, and cottages half hidden among the
+trees, and in the shadiest corners fair-haired ladies dressed in
+white, seated book in hand, or some fat gentleman enveloped in a cloud
+of smoke with the contented air of a wealthy merchant. All of these
+little villas are painted rose-color or azure; they have varnished
+tile roofs, terraces supported by columns, little yards in front or
+around them, with tidy flower-beds and neatly-kept paths; miniature
+gardens, clean, closely trimmed, and well tended. Some houses stand
+on the brink of the canal with their foundations in the water,
+allowing one to see the flowers, the vases, and the thousand shining
+trifles in the rooms. Nearly all have an inscription on the door which
+is the aphorism of domestic happiness, the formula of the philosophy
+of the master, as--"Contentment is Riches;" "Pleasure and Repose;"
+"Friendship and Society;" "My Desires are Satisfied;" "Without
+Weariness;" "Tranquil and Content;" "Here we Enjoy the Pleasures of
+Horticulture." Now and then a fine black-and-white cow, lying on the
+bank on a level with the water, would raise her head quietly and look
+toward the boat. We met flocks of ducks, which paddled off to let us
+pass. Here and there, to the right and left, there were little canals
+almost covered by two high hedges, with branches intertwining overhead
+which formed a green archway, under which the little boats of the
+peasants darted and disappeared in the shadows. From time to time, in
+the midst of all this verdure, a group of houses would suddenly come
+into view, a neat many-colored little village, with its looking-glasses
+and its tulips at the windows, and without a sign of life. This profound
+silence would be broken by a merry chime from an unseen steeple. It was a
+pastoral paradise, a landscape of idyllic beauty breathing freshness and
+mystery--a Chinese Arcadia, with quaint corners, little surprises, and
+innocent artifices of prettiness, all which seemed like so many low
+voices of invisible beings murmuring, "We are content."
+
+At a certain point the canal divides into two branches, of which one
+hides itself amongst the trees and leads to Leyden, and the other
+turns to the left and leads to the Hague. After we passed this point
+the _trekschuit_ began to stop, first at a house, then at a
+garden-gate, to receive parcels, letters, and verbal messages to be
+carried to the Hague.
+
+An old gentleman came on board from a villa and took a seat near me.
+He spoke French, and we entered into conversation. He had been in
+Italy, knew some words of Italian, and had read "I Promessi Sposi." He
+asked me for particulars in regard to the death of Alessandro Manzoni.
+After ten minutes I adored him. He gave me an account of the
+_trekschuit_. To appreciate the poetry of this national boat it is
+necessary to take long journeys in company with some Dutch people.
+Then they all live just as if they were at home; the women work, the
+men smoke on the roof; they dine all together, and after dinner they
+loiter about on the deck to see the sun set; the conversation grows
+very intimate, and the company becomes a family. Night comes on. The
+_trekschuit_ passes like a shadow through villages steeped in silence,
+glides along the canals bathed in the silver light of the moon, hides
+itself in the thickets, reappears in the open country, grazes the
+lonely houses from which beams the light of the peasant's lamp, and
+meets the boats of fishermen, which dart past like phantoms. In that
+profound peace, lulled by the slow and equal motion of the boat, men
+and women fall asleep side by side, and the boat leaves nothing in its
+wake save the confused murmur of the water and the sound of the
+sleepers' breathing.
+
+As we went on our way gardens and villas became more frequent. My
+travelling companion showed me a distant steeple, and pointed out the
+village of Ryswick, where in 1697 was signed the celebrated treaty of
+peace between France, England, Spain, Germany, and Holland. The castle
+of the Prince of Orange, where the treaty was signed, is no longer
+standing. An obelisk has been erected on its site.
+
+Suddenly the _trekschuit_ emerged from the trees, and I saw before me
+an extended plain, a large woodland, and a city crowned with towers
+and windmills.
+
+It was the Hague.
+
+The boatman asked me to pay my fare, and received the money in a
+leather bag. The driver urged on the horse, and in a few minutes we
+were in town. After a quarter of an hour I found myself in a spotless
+room in the Hôtel du Maréchal de Turenne. Who knows? It may have been
+the very room in which the celebrated Marshal slept as a young man
+when he was in the service of the house of Orange.
+
+The Hague--in Dutch 'SGravenhage or 'SHage--the political capital, the
+Washington of Holland, whose New York is Amsterdam--is a city that is
+partly Dutch and partly French. It has wide streets without canals,
+vast wooded squares, grand houses, splendid hotels, and a population
+composed in great part of wealthy citizens, nobles, public officers,
+men of letters, and artists; in a word, a much more refined populace
+than that of any of the other cities of Holland.
+
+What most impressed me in my first walk round the city were the new
+quarters where dwells the flower of the moneyed aristocracy. In no
+other city, not even in the Faubourg St. Germain in Paris, had I ever
+felt myself such a poor devil as in those streets. They are wide and
+straight, with small palaces on either side: these are artistic in
+design and harmonious in coloring, with large windows without blinds,
+through which one can see the carpets, vases of flowers, and the
+sumptuous furniture of the rooms on the ground floor. All the doors
+were closed, and not a shop was to be seen, not an advertisement on
+the walls, not a stain nor a straw could be found, if one had a
+hundred eyes. When I passed through the streets there was a profound
+silence. Now and then an aristocratic carriage rolled past me almost
+noiselessly over the brick pavement, or I saw some stiff lackey
+standing at a door, or the fair head of some lady behind a curtain. As
+I walked close to the windows, I could see out of the corner of my
+eye my shabby travelling-clothes reflected clearly in the large panes
+of glass, and I repented not having brought my gloves, and felt a
+certain sense of humiliation because I was not at least a knight by
+birth. It seemed to me that now and then I could hear soft voices
+saying, "Who is that beggar?"
+
+The most noteworthy part of the old town is the Binnenhof, a group of
+old buildings in different styles of architecture, which overlook two
+wide squares on two sides and a large pool on the third side. In the
+midst of this group of palaces, towers, and monumental doors, of a
+gloomy mediæval appearance, is a spacious courtyard which may be
+entered by three bridges and three doors. In one of those buildings
+the Stadtholders lived. It is now the Second Chamber of the States
+General; opposite to it are located the First Chamber, the rooms of
+the Ministry, and the other offices of public administration. The
+Minister of the Interior has his office in a little, low, black,
+gloomy tower which leans slightly toward the water of the pool.
+
+The Binnenhof, the Buitenhof (a square extending to the west), and the
+Plaats (another square on the other side of the pool, which is reached
+by passing under an old door that once formed part of a prison) were
+the scenes of the most bloody events in the history of Holland.
+
+In the Binnenhof the venerable Van Olden Barneveldt was beheaded. He
+was the second founder of the republic, the most illustrious victim of
+the long struggle between the patrician burghers and the Stadtholders,
+between the republican and monarchical principles, which so terribly
+afflicted Holland. The scaffold was erected in front of the building
+where sat the States General. Opposite was the tower from which, they
+say, Maurice of Orange, unseen, assisted at the execution of his
+enemy. In the prison between the two squares was tortured Cornelius de
+Witt, who was unjustly accused of plotting against the life of the
+Prince of Orange. The furious populace dragged Cornelius and John de
+Witt, the Grand Pensionary, into the Plaats all wounded and bleeding,
+and there they were spit upon, kicked, and slaughtered with pike and
+pistol, and afterward their corpses were mutilated and defiled. In the
+same square Adelaide de Poelgeest, the mistress of Albert, Count of
+Holland, was stabbed on the 22d of September in the year 1392, and the
+stone on which she expired is still shown.
+
+These sad memories and those heavy low doors, that irregular group of
+dark buildings, which at night, when the moon lights up the stagnant
+pool, have the appearance of an enormous inaccessible castle standing
+in the midst of the joyous and cultured city,--arouse a feeling of
+awful sadness. At night the courtyard is lighted only by an occasional
+lamp; the few people who pass through it quicken their pace as if
+they are afraid. There is no sound of steps to be heard, no lighted
+windows to be seen; one enters it with a vague restlessness, and
+leaves it almost with pleasure.
+
+With the exception of the Binnenhof, the Hague has no important
+monuments ancient or modern. There are several mediocre statues of the
+Princes of Orange, a vast, naked cathedral, and a royal palace of
+modest proportions. On many of the public buildings storks are carved,
+the stork being the heraldic animal of the city. Many of these birds
+walk about freely in the fish-market--they are kept at the expense of
+the municipality, like the bears of Berne and the eagles of Geneva.
+
+The greatest ornament of the Hague is its forest, which is one of the
+wonders of Holland and one of the most magnificent parks in the world.
+
+It is composed of alders, oaks, and the largest beech trees to be
+found in Europe. It is more than a French league in circumference, and
+is situated to the east of the city, only a few steps from the last
+houses. It is a really delightful oasis in the midst of the depressing
+Dutch plains. When one has entered the wood and passed beyond the
+fringe of pavilions, little Swiss cottages, and summer houses dotted
+about among the first trees, one seems to have lost one's self in a
+lonely interminable forest. The trees are as thick as a canebrake, the
+avenues are lost in the dusk; there are lakes and canals almost
+hidden by the verdure of the banks; rustic bridges, the crossways of
+unfrequented bridle-paths, shady recesses; and over all a cool,
+refreshing shade in which one seems to breathe the air of virginal
+nature and to be far removed from the turmoil of the world.
+
+They say that this wood, like that of the town of Haarlem, is the
+remnant of an immense forest which in olden times covered almost the
+whole of the coast of Holland, and the Dutch respect it as a monument
+of their national history. Indeed, in the history of Holland there are
+many references to it, proving that at all times it was preserved with
+a most jealous care. Even the Spanish generals respected this national
+worship and shielded the sacred wood from the hands of the soldiers.
+On more than one occasion of serious financial distress, when the
+government was disposed to decree the destruction of the forest for
+the purpose of selling the wood, the citizens exorcised the danger by
+a voluntary offering. This beloved forest is connected with a thousand
+memories--records of terrible hurricanes, of the amours of princes, of
+celebrated fêtes, of romantic adventures. Some of the trees bear the
+names of kings and emperors, others of German electors; one beech tree
+is said to have been planted by the grand pensionary and poet Jacob
+Catz, three others by the Countess of Holland, Jacqueline of Bavaria,
+and they still point out the place where she used to rest after her
+walks. Voltaire also left a record of some sort of gallant
+adventure which he had with the daughter of a hair-dresser.
+
+[Illustration: The Binnenhof, The Hague.]
+
+In the centre of the forest, where the underbrush seems determined to
+conquer everything and springs up, piling itself into heaps, climbing the
+trees, creeping across the paths, extending over the water, restraining
+one's steps and hiding the view on every side, as if it wished to conceal
+the shrine of some forgotten sylvan divinity,--at this spot is hidden a
+small royal palace, called the House-in-the-Wood, a sort of _Casa del
+Labrador_ of the Villa Aranjuez. It was erected in 1647 by Princess Amalia
+of Solms, in honor of her husband, Frederick Henry, the Stadtholder.
+
+When I went to visit this palace, while my eyes were busy searching
+for the visitors' door, I saw a lady with a noble and benevolent face
+come out and get into her carriage. I took her for some English
+traveller who had brought her visit to a close. As the carriage passed
+near me, I raised my hat; the lady bowed her head and disappeared.
+
+A moment later one of the ladies in waiting at the palace told me that
+this "traveller" was no one less than Her Majesty the Queen of
+Holland.
+
+I felt my blood flow faster. The word _queen_, independently of the
+person to whom it referred, has always had this effect on me, although
+I cannot explain the reason of it. Perhaps because it reminds me of
+certain bright, confused visions of my youth. The romantic imagination
+of a boy of fifteen is sometimes content to tread the ground, and
+sometimes it climbs with eager audacity to a giddy height. It dreams
+of supernatural beauty, of intoxicating perfumes, of consuming love,
+and imagines that all these are comprised in the mysterious and
+inaccessible creatures that fortune has placed at the summit of the
+social scale. And among the thousand strange, foolish, and impossible
+fancies that enter his mind he dreams of scaling towering walls in the
+dark with youthful agility, of passing formidable gates and deep
+ditches, of opening mysterious doors, threading interminable corridors
+amidst people overcome with sleep, of stepping silently through
+immense saloons, of ascending aërial staircases, mounting the stones
+of a tower at the risk of his life, reaching an immense height over
+the tall trees of moonlit gardens, and at last of arriving, fainting
+and bleeding, beneath a balcony, and hearing a superhuman voice speak
+in accents of deep pity, of answering with equal tenderness, of
+bursting into tears and invoking God, of leaning his forehead on the
+marble and covering with desperate kisses a foot flashing with gems,
+of abandoning his face in the perfumed silks, and of feeling his
+reason flee and life desert him in an embrace more than human.
+
+In this palace, called the House-in-the-Wood, besides other remarkable
+things, is an octagonal room, the walls of which from floor to ceiling
+are covered with paintings by the most celebrated artists of the
+school of Rubens, among which is a huge allegorical painting by
+Jordaens which represents the apotheosis of Frederick Henry. There is
+a room filled with valuable presents from the Emperor of Japan, the
+Viceroy of Egypt, and the East India Company; and an elegant little
+room decorated with designs in chiaroscuro, which even when closely
+examined are taken for bas-reliefs. These are the work of Jacob de
+Wit, a painter who at the beginning of the last century won great fame
+in this art of delusion. The other rooms are small, and handsome
+without display; they are full of the treasures of a refined taste, as
+becomes the great and modest house of Orange.
+
+The custom of allowing strangers to enter the palace the moment after
+the queen came out seemed strange to me, but it did not surprise me
+when I learned of other customs and other popular traits, and in a
+word the character of the royal family of Holland.
+
+In Holland the sovereign is considered as a stadtholder rather than as
+a king. He has in him, as a certain Spanish republican said of the
+Duke of Aosta, the least quantity possible in a king. The sentiment of
+the Dutch nation toward their royal family is not so much a feeling of
+devotion to the family of the monarch as affection for the house of
+Orange, which has shared its triumphs and taken part in its
+misfortunes--which has lived its life for three centuries. At bottom,
+the country is republican, and its monarchy is a sort of crowned
+presidency void of regal pomp. The king makes speeches at the banquets
+and at the public festivals as the ministers do with us, and he enjoys
+the fame of an orator because his speeches are extemporary: his voice
+is very powerful, and his eloquence has a martial ring, which arouses
+great enthusiasm among the people. The crown prince, William of
+Orange, studied at the University of Leyden, passed the public
+examinations, and took his degree as a lawyer; Prince Alexander, the
+second son, is now studying at the same university. He is a member of
+the Students' Club, and invites his professors and fellow-students to
+dinner. At the Hague, Prince William enters the cafés, converses with
+his neighbors, and walks about the streets with his young gentlemen
+friends. In the wood the queen will seat herself on a bench beside any
+poor old woman, nor can one say she does this, like other princes, to
+acquire popularity; for that the house of Orange can neither gain nor
+lose, since there is not in the nation (although it is republican by
+nature and tradition) the least sign of a faction that desires a
+republic or even pronounces its name. On the other hand, the people,
+who love and venerate their king, who at the festivals celebrated in
+his honor will remove the horses and themselves draw his carriage, who
+insist on every one wearing an orange-colored cockade in homage to the
+name of Orange,--in ordinary times do not occupy themselves at all
+about his affairs and family. At the Hague I had some trouble to learn
+what grade the crown prince holds in the army. One of the first
+librarians in the town, to whom I put my question, was astonished at
+my curiosity, which to him seemed childish, and he told me that
+probably I could not have found a hundred people in the Hague who
+would have been able to answer my question.
+
+The seat of the court is at the Hague, but the king passes a large
+part of the summer in one of his castles in Gelderland, and every year
+spends some days in Amsterdam. The people say there is a law which
+obliges the king to spend ten days during the year at Amsterdam, and
+the municipality of that town are obliged to pay his expenses during
+those ten days. After midnight of the tenth day even a match that he
+may strike to light his cigar is at his own expense.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On returning from the royal villa at the Hague I found the wood
+enlivened by the Sunday promenade--music, carriages, a crowd of
+ladies, restaurants full of people, and swarms of children everywhere.
+
+Then for the first time I saw the fair sex of Holland. Beauty is a
+rare flower in Holland, as in all other countries; notwithstanding, in
+a walk of a hundred steps in the wood at the Hague I saw many more
+beautiful women than I had seen in all the pictures in the Dutch
+galleries. These ladies do not possess the statuesque beauty of the
+Romans, the splendid color of the English, nor the vivacity of the
+Andalusians; but there is about them a refinement, a delightful
+innocence and grace, a tranquil beauty, a pleasing countenance; they
+have, as a French writer has rightly said, the attraction of the
+valerian flower which ornaments their gardens. They are plump, and
+tall rather than short, they have regular features, and smooth
+brilliant complexions of a beautiful white and delicate pink--colors
+which seem to have been suffused by the breath of an angel; they have
+high cheek-bones; their eyes are light blue, sometimes very light, and
+sometimes of a glassy appearance, which gives them a vague, wandering
+look. It is said that their teeth are not good, but this I could not
+confirm, as they seldom laugh. They walk more heavily than the French
+and not so stiffly as the English; they dress in the Parisian mode,
+and the ladies at the Hague display better taste than those at
+Amsterdam, although they do not dress so richly: they all display
+their masses of fair hair with considerable pride.
+
+I was astonished to see girls who appeared to be fully grown, who in
+our country would have had the airs and attire of women, still dressed
+like children, with short skirts and white pantalettes. In Holland,
+where life is easy and impatience an unknown experience, the girls are
+in no hurry to leave off the ways and appearance of childhood, and, on
+the other hand, they seem naturally to enter at a comparatively late
+age that period of life when, as Alessandro Manzoni says in his
+ever-admirable way, it seems as though a mysterious power enters the
+soul, which soothes, adorns, and invigorates all its inclinations and
+thoughts. Here a girl very rarely marries before her twentieth year. I
+need not speak of the children of the Deccan, who, it is said, are
+married at eight years of age, but in Holland the Italian and Spanish
+girls, who marry at fourteen or fifteen, are regarded as unaccountable
+persons. There, girls of fifteen years are going to school with their
+hair down their backs, and nobody thinks of looking at them. I heard a
+young man of the Hague spoken of with horror by his friends because he
+was enamoured of a maiden of this age, for to their minds she was
+considered as an infant.
+
+Another thing one notices instantly in every Dutch city, excepting
+Amsterdam, is the absence of that lower stratum of society known as
+the demi-monde. There is nothing in dress or manner to indicate the
+existence of such a class. "Beware," said some freethinking Dutchmen
+to me; "you are in a Protestant country, and there is a great deal of
+hypocrisy." This may be true, but the sore that can be hidden cannot
+be very large. Equivocal society does not exist among the Hollanders;
+there is no shadow of it in their life nor any hint of it in their
+literature; the very language rebels against translating any of those
+numberless expressions which constitute the dubious, flashy, easy
+speech of that class of society in the countries where it is found. On
+the other hand, neither fathers nor mothers close their eyes to the
+conduct of their unmarried sons, even if they be grown men; family
+discipline makes no exception of long beards; and this strict
+discipline is aided by their phlegmatic nature, their habits of
+economy, and their respect for public opinion.
+
+It would be a presumption more ridiculous than impertinent to speak of
+the character and life of Dutch women with an air of experience, when
+I have been only a few months in Holland; so I must content myself
+with letting my Dutch friends speak for themselves.
+
+Many writers have treated Dutch women discourteously. One calls them
+apathetic housekeepers; another, who shall be nameless, carried
+impertinence so far as to say that, like the men, they are in the
+habit of choosing their lovers from among the servant class, and that
+their aspirations are necessarily low. But these are judgments
+dictated by the rage of some rejected suitors. Daniel Stern (Comtesse
+d'Agoult), who as a woman speaks with particular authority on this
+subject, says the women of Holland are noble, loyal, active, and
+chaste. A few authors venture to doubt their much-talked-of calmness
+in affection. "They are still waters," wrote Esquiros, and all know
+what is said of still waters. Heine said they were frozen volcanoes,
+and that when they thaw--But, of all the opinions I have read, the
+most remarkable seems to me that of Saint Evremont--namely, that Dutch
+women are not lively enough to disturb the repose of the men, that
+some of them are certainly amiable, and that prudence or the coldness
+of their nature stands them in stead of virtue.
+
+One day, in a group of young men at the Hague, I quoted this opinion
+of Saint Evremont, and bluntly demanded: "Is it true?" They smiled,
+looked at each other, and one answered, "It is:" another, "I think
+so;" and a third, "It may be." In short, they all admitted its truth.
+On another occasion I collected evidence proving that matters stand
+just as they were at the time of the French writer. A group of people
+were discussing an odd character. "Yet," said one, "that little man
+who seems so quiet in his manner is a great ladies' man." "Does he
+disturb the repose of families?" I asked. They all began to laugh, and
+one answered: "What! Disturb the repose of families in Holland? It
+would be one of the twelve labors of Hercules."--"We Hollanders," a
+friend once said to me, "do not take the ladies by storm; we cannot do
+so, because we have no school of this art. Nothing is so false in
+Holland as the famous definition, matrimony is like a besieged
+fortress; those who are outside wish to enter, while those who are
+inside wish they were out. Here those who are inside are very happy,
+and those who are outside do not think of entering." Another said to
+me, "The Dutch woman does not marry the man; she espouses matrimony."
+This, which is true of the Hague, an elegant city to which there comes
+a great influx of French civilization, is even truer of the other
+towns, where the ancient customs have been more strictly adhered to.
+Yet gallant travellers write that the Hollanders are a sleepy people,
+and that their domestic happiness is "_un bonheur un peu gros_." The
+woman who seldom goes out, who dances little and laughs less, who
+occupies herself only with her children, her husband, and her flowers,
+who reads her books on theology, and surveys the street with the
+looking-glass, so that she need not show herself at the window, how
+much more poetical is she than--But pardon me, Andalusia! I was about
+to say something rather hard on you.
+
+Hitherto, some readers may think that I have been pretending to know
+the Dutch language. I hasten to say that I do not know it, and to
+excuse my ignorance. A people like the Dutch, serious and taciturn,
+richer in hidden qualities than in brilliant showy ones--a people who
+are, if I may so express myself, self-contained rather than
+superficial, who do much and talk little, who do not pass for more
+than they are worth--may be studied without a knowledge of their
+language. On the other hand, the French language is generally known in
+Holland. In the large cities there is scarcely an educated person who
+does not speak French correctly, scarcely a shopman who cannot make
+himself understood in good or bad French, and there is scarcely a boy
+who is not acquainted with ten or twenty words which suffice to help a
+stranger out of a dilemma. This diffusion of a language so different
+from that of the country is the more to be admired when one reflects
+that it is not the only foreign language generally spoken in Holland.
+English and German are almost as widely known as French. The study of
+these three languages is obligatory in the secondary schools. Cultured
+people, like those who in Italy think it a necessity to know French,
+in Holland generally read English, German, and French with equal
+facility. The Dutch have an especial talent for learning languages,
+and an incredible courage in speaking them. We Italians before we
+attempt to speak a foreign language require to know enough about it to
+avoid making great mistakes; we blush when we do make them; we avoid
+the opportunities of speaking until we are sure of speaking well
+enough to be complimented, and in this way we continue to lengthen the
+period of our philological novitiate. In Holland one often meets
+people who speak French with great effort, with a vocabulary of
+perhaps a hundred words and twenty sentences; but notwithstanding they
+talk, hold long conversations, and do not seem to be at all worried
+about what one may think of their blunders and their audacity.
+Waiters, porters, and boys, when asked if they know French, answer
+with the greatest assurance, "_Oui_" or "_Un peu_," and they try in a
+thousand ways to make themselves understood, laughing themselves
+sometimes at the eccentric contortion of their speech, and ending
+every answer with "_S'il vous plait_" or a "_Pardon, monsieur_;" which
+are often said so prettily and yet are so out of place that they make
+one laugh even against one's will. It is considered such a common
+thing to know French that when any one is obliged to answer that he
+doesn't speak French, he hesitates, ashamed, and if he is interrogated
+in the street he will pretend to be busy and hurry on.
+
+As for the Dutch language, it is a mystery to those who do not know
+German, and even when one knows German and can read Dutch books with a
+little study, one cannot understand Dutch when it is spoken. If I were
+asked to say what impression it makes on those who do not understand
+it, I should say that it seems like German spoken by people with a
+hair in their throats. This effect is produced by the frequent
+repetition of a guttural aspirate which is like the sound of the
+Spanish _jota_. Even the Dutch themselves do not consider their
+language euphonious. I was often asked, playfully, "What impression
+does it make on you?" as if they understood that the impression could
+not be altogether agreeable. Yet some one has written a book proving
+that Adam and Eve spoke Dutch in the Garden of Eden. But, although the
+Dutch speak so many foreign languages, they hold to their own, and
+grow indignant when any ignorant stranger shows that he believes Dutch
+to be a German dialect, this being, in truth, a theory held by many
+who only know the language by name. It is almost superfluous to repeat
+the history of the language.
+
+The first inhabitants of the country spoke Teutonic in its different
+dialects. These dialects were blended and formed the ancient speech of
+the Netherlands, which in the Middle Ages, like the other European
+languages, passed through the different Germanic, Norman, and French
+phases, and ended in the present Dutch language, in which there is
+still a foundation of the primitive idiom and the evidence of a slight
+Latin influence. Certainly, there is a striking similarity between
+Dutch and German, and, above all, there are a number of root-words
+common to the two; but there is, however, a great difference in the
+grammar, that of the Dutch being much simpler in construction, and the
+pronunciation also is very different. This very likeness is the reason
+that the Dutch generally do not speak German so well as they speak
+English or French; perhaps the difficulty may be caused by the
+ambiguity of words, or because it costs them so little effort to
+understand the language and to speak it for their own use that they
+stop there, as we often do with French, which we speak at ten years of
+age and have forgotten at forty.
+
+Now it is time to go and visit the art gallery, which is the greatest
+ornament of the Hague.
+
+On entering we find ourselves at once before the most celebrated of
+all painted animals, Paul Potter's "Bull"--that immortal bull which,
+as has been said, was honored at the Louvre, when the mania arose of
+classifying these pictures in a sort of hierarchy of celebrity, by
+being placed near the "Transfiguration" of Raphael, the "St Peter the
+Martyr" of Titian, and the "Communion of St. Jerome" by Domenichino;
+that bull for which England would pay a million francs, and Holland
+would not sell for double that sum; the bull on which more pages have
+been written than the strokes of the artist on the canvas, and about
+which critics still write and dispute as if it were a real living
+creation of a new animal instead of a picture.
+
+The subject of the picture is very simple--a life-size bull, standing
+with his head turned toward the spectator, a cow lying on the ground,
+some sheep, a shepherd, and a distant landscape.
+
+[Illustration: Paul Potter's Bull.]
+
+The supreme merit of this bull may be expressed in one word: it is
+alive. The serious wondering eye, which gives the impression of
+vigorous vitality and savage pride, is painted with such truth that at
+the first sight one feels inclined to dodge to the right or left, as
+one does in a country road when one meets such animals. His moist
+black nostrils seem to be smoking, and to be drawing in the air with a
+prolonged breath. His hide is painted with all its folds and
+wrinkles; one can see where the animal has rubbed himself against the
+trees and the ground; the hairs look as though they are stuck on the
+canvas. The other animals are equally fine: the head of the cow, the
+fleece of the sheep, the flies, the grass, the leaves and fibres of
+the plants, the moss,--everything is rendered with extraordinary
+fidelity. Although the infinite care the artist must have taken is
+apparent, the fatigue and patience of the copy do not appear; it seems
+almost an inspired, impetuous work, in which the painter, impelled by
+a thirst for truth, has not felt a moment of hesitation or weariness.
+Infinite criticisms were made on this "incredible stroke of audacity
+by a young man of twenty-four." The large size of the canvas was
+censured, the commonplace nature of the subject, the poverty of the
+light effects, for the light is equally diffused and everything is
+placed in relief without the contrast of shadow,--the stiffness of the
+legs of the bull, the crude coloring of the plants and animals in the
+background; the mediocrity of the shepherd's figure. But, for all
+this, Paul Potter's bull was crowned with glory as one of the noblest
+examples of art, and Europe considers it as the greatest work of the
+prince of animal-painters. An illustrious critic very rightly said
+that "Paul Potter with his bull has written the true idyl of Holland."
+
+Herein is the great merit of the Dutch animal-painters, and of Potter
+above all, that they have not only depicted animals, but have revealed,
+and told in the poetry of color, the delicate, attentive, almost maternal
+love with which this Dutch agricultural people cherish their cattle.
+Potter's animals interpret the poetry of rural life. By them he has
+expressed the silence and the peace of the meadows, the pleasure of
+solitude, the sweetness of repose, and the satisfaction of patient toil.
+One might almost say that he had succeeded in making himself understood by
+them, and that they must have put themselves in positions to be copied. He
+has given them the variety and attractiveness of human beings. The
+sadness, the quiet content which follows the satisfaction of physical
+needs, the sensations of health and strength, of love and gratitude toward
+mankind, all the glimmerings of intelligence and the stirrings of
+affection, all the variety of nature--all these he has understood and
+expressed with loving fidelity, and he has further succeeded in
+communicating to us the feelings by which he was animated. As we look at
+his pictures a strange primitive instinct of a rural life is gradually
+roused in us--an innocent desire to milk, to shear, to drive these gentle
+patient animals that delight the eye and heart. In this art Paul Potter is
+unsurpassed. Berghem is more refined, but Potter is more natural; Van de
+Velde is more graceful, but Potter is more vigorous; Du Jardin is more
+amiable, but Potter is more profound.
+
+And to think that the architect who afterward became his father-in-law
+would not at first give him his daughter, because he was only a
+painter of animals! and if we may believe tradition his celebrated
+bull served as a sign to a butcher's shop and sold for twelve hundred
+and sixty francs.
+
+Another masterpiece in the Hague Gallery is a small painting by Gerard
+Dou, the painter of the celebrated "Dropsical Woman," which hangs in the
+Louvre between pictures by Raphael and Murillo. He is one of the greatest
+painters of the home-life of the Dutch, and the most patient of the
+patient artists of his country. The picture simply represents a woman
+seated near a window, with a cradle by her side; but in this humble scene
+there is such a sweet and holy air of domestic peace, a repose so
+profound, a love so harmonious, that the most obstinate bachelor on earth
+could not look on it without feeling an irresistible desire to be the one
+for whom the wife is waiting in that quiet, clean room, or at least to
+enter it secretly for a moment, even though he remain hidden in the
+shadow, if so he might breathe the perfume of the innocent happiness of
+this sanctuary. This picture, like all the works of Dou, is painted with
+that wonderful finish which he carries almost to excess, which was
+certainly carried to excess by Slingelandt, who worked three years
+continuously in painting the Meerman family. This style afterward
+degenerated into that smooth, affected, painful mannerism where the
+figures are like ivory, the skies enamel, and the fields velvet, of which
+Van der Werff is the best known representative. Among other things to be
+seen in this picture by Dou is a broom-handle, the size of a pen-holder,
+on which they say the artist worked assiduously for three days. This does
+not seem strange when we reflect that every minute filament, the grain,
+the knots, spots, dents, and finger-marks are all reproduced. Anecdotes
+of his superhuman patience are recounted which are scarcely credible. It
+is said he was five days in copying the hand of a Madam Spirings whose
+portrait he painted. Who knows how long he was painting her head? The
+unhappy creatures who wished to be painted by him were driven to madness.
+It is believed that he ground his colors himself, and made his own
+brushes, and that he kept everything hermetically closed, so that no
+particle of dust could reach his work. When he entered his studio he
+opened the door slowly, sat down with great deliberation, and then
+remained motionless until the least sign of agitation produced by the
+exercise had ceased. Then he began to paint, using concave glasses to
+reduce the objects in size. This continual effort ended by injuring his
+sight, so that he was obliged to work with spectacles. Nevertheless, his
+coloring never became weakened or less vigorous, and his pictures are
+equally strong whether one looks at them near by or far off. They have
+been very justly compared to natural scenes reduced in photographs. Dou
+was one of the many disciples of Rembrandt who divided the inheritance of
+his genius. From his master he learned finish and the art of imitating
+light, especially the effects of candle-light and of lamps. Indeed, as we
+shall see in the Amsterdam Gallery, he equalled Rembrandt in these
+respects. He possessed the rare merit among the painters of his school in
+that he took no pleasure in painting ugliness and trivial subjects.
+
+In the gallery at the Hague home-life is represented by Dou, by
+Adriaen van Ostade, by Steen, and by Van Mieris the elder.
+
+Van Ostade--called the Rembrandt of home-life, because he imitated the
+great master in his powerful effects of chiaroscuro, of delicate
+shading, of transparency in shadows, of rich coloring--is represented
+by two small pictures which depict the inside and outside of a rustic
+house. Both are full of poetry, notwithstanding the triviality of the
+subjects which he has chosen in common with other painters of his
+school. But he has this peculiarity, that the remarkably ugly girls in
+his pictures are taken from his own family, which, according to
+tradition, was a group of little monstrosities, whom he held up to the
+ridicule of the world. Thus nearly all the Dutch painters chose to
+paint the least handsome of the women whom they saw, as if they had
+agreed to throw discredit on the feminine type of their country.
+Rembrandt's "Susanna," to cite a subject which of all others required
+beauty, is an ugly Dutch servant, and the women painted by Steen,
+Brouwer, and others are not worth mentioning. And yet, as we have
+seen, models of noble and gracious beauty were not wanting among them.
+
+There are three fine paintings by Frans van Mieris the elder, the
+first disciple of Dou, and as finished and minute a painter as his
+master. He together with Metsu and Terburg, two artists eminent for
+finish and coloring, belonged to that group of painters of home-life
+who chose their subjects from the higher classes of society. One of
+these canvases portrays the artist with his wife.
+
+Among other paintings, Steen is represented by his favorite subject, a
+doctor feeling the pulse of a lovesick girl in the presence of her
+duenna. It is an admirable study of expression, of piquant, roguish
+smiles. The doctor's face seems to say, "I think I understand;" the
+invalid's, "Something more than your prescriptions are needed;" the
+duenna's, "I know what she wants." Other pictures of home-life by
+Schaleken, Tilborch, Netscher, William van Mieris represent kitchens,
+shops, dinners, and the families of the artists.
+
+Landscape and marine painting are represented by beautiful gems from
+the hands of Ruysdael, Berghem, Van de Velde, Van der Neer, Bakhuisen,
+and Everdingen. There are also a large number of works by Philips
+Wouverman, the painter of horses and battle-pieces.
+
+There are two pictures by Van Huysum, the great flower-painter, who
+was born at a time when Holland was possessed with a mad love of
+flowers and cultivated the most beautiful flowers in Europe. He
+celebrated this passion with his brush and created it afresh in his
+pictures. No one else has so marvellously rendered the infinite
+shades, the freshness, the transparency, the softness, the grace, the
+modesty, the languor, the thousand hidden beauties, all the
+appearances of the noble and delicate life of the pearl of vegetation,
+of the darling of nature, the flower. The Hollanders brought to him
+all the miracles of their gardens that he might copy them; kings asked
+him for flowers; his pictures were sold for sums that in those days
+were fabulous. Jealous of his wife and his art, he worked alone,
+unseen by his fellow-artists, lest they should discover the secret of
+his coloring. Thus he lived and died, glorious and melancholy, in the
+midst of petals and fragrance.
+
+But the greatest work in the gallery is the celebrated "Lesson in
+Anatomy" by Rembrandt.
+
+This picture was inspired by a feeling of gratitude to Doctor Tulp,
+Professor of Anatomy at Amsterdam, who protected Rembrandt in his
+youth. Rembrandt portrays Tulp and his pupils grouped round a table on
+which is stretched a naked corpse, whose arm has been dissected by the
+anatomist's knife. The professor, who wears his hat, stands pointing
+out the muscles of the arm with his scissors, and explaining them to
+his pupils. Some of the scholars are seated, others stand, others lean
+over the body. The light coming from left to right illuminates their
+faces and a part of the dead man, leaving their garments, the table,
+and the walls of the room in obscurity. The figures are life-size.
+
+It is difficult to describe the effect produced by this picture. The
+first sensation is a feeling of horror and disgust of the corpse. Its
+forehead is in shadow, its open eyes are turned upward, its mouth half
+shut as if in amazement; the chest is swollen, its legs and feet are
+rigid, the flesh is livid and looks as if it would be cold to the
+touch. In great contrast to this stiffened corpse are the living
+attitudes of the students, the youthful faces, the bright eyes, intent
+and full of thought, revealing, in different degrees, eagerness to
+learn, the joy of comprehension, curiosity, astonishment, the effort
+of the intellect, the activity of the mind. The face of the master is
+calm, his eye is serene, and his lips seem smiling with the
+satisfaction of intimate knowledge of his subject. The whole group is
+surrounded by an air of gravity, mystery, and scientific solemnity
+which imposes reverence and silence. The contrast between the light
+and shade is as marvellous as that between death and life. Everything
+is painted with infinite pains; it is possible to count the little
+folds of the ruff, the wrinkles in the face, the hairs of the beard.
+It is said that the foreshortening of the corpse is incorrect, and
+that in some places the finish degenerates into hardness, but
+universal approval places the "Lesson in Anatomy" among the greatest
+works of art in the world.
+
+Rembrandt was only twenty-six years old when he painted this picture,
+which consequently has the mark of his early work. The impetuosity,
+audacity, and unequalled assurance of his genius, which shine forth in
+his maturer works, are not yet seen, but his immense power of painting
+light, his marvellous chiaroscuro, his fascinating magic of contrast,
+the most original features of his genius, are all to be found here.
+
+However little we may know about art, and however much we may have
+resolved not to sin by excess of enthusiasm, when we come face to face
+with Rembrandt van Rijn, we cannot help opening the flood-gates of
+language, as the Spanish say. Rembrandt exerts an especial fascination.
+Fra Angelico is a saint, Michelangelo is a giant, Raphael is an angel,
+Titian a prince, Rembrandt is a spectre. What else can this miller's son
+be called? Born in a windmill, he arose unexpectedly without a master,
+without example, without any instruction from the schools, to become a
+universal painter, who depicted life in every aspect, who painted figures,
+landscapes, sea-pieces, animals, saints, patriarchs, heroes, monks, riches
+and poverty, deformity, decrepitude, the ghetto, taverns, hospitals, and
+death; who in short, reviewed heaven and earth, and enveloped everything
+in a light so mysterious that it seems to have issued from his brain. His
+work is at the same time grand and minute. He is at once an idealist and a
+realist, a painter and an engraver, who transforms everything and conceals
+nothing--who changes men into phantoms, the most ordinary scenes of life
+into mysterious apparitions; I had almost said who changes this world into
+another that does not seem to be and yet is the same. Whence has he drawn
+that undefinable light, those flashes of electric rays, those reflections
+of unknown stars that like an enigma fill us with wonder? What did this
+dreamer, this visionary, see in the dark? What is the secret that
+tormented his soul? What did this painter of the air mean to tell us in
+this eternal conflict of light and shadow? It is said that the contrasts
+of light and shade corresponded in him to moods of thought. And truly it
+seems that as Schiller, before beginning a work, felt within himself an
+indistinct harmony of sounds which were a prelude to his inspiration, so
+also Rembrandt, when about to paint a picture, beheld a vision of rays and
+shadows which had some meaning to him before he animated them with his
+figures. In his paintings there is a life, a dramatic action, quite
+distinct from that of human figures. Flashes of brilliant light break
+across a sombre surface like cries of joy; the frightened darkness flies
+away, leaving here and there a melancholy twilight, trembling reflections
+that seem to be lamenting, profound obscurity gloomy and threatening,
+flashes of dancing sunlight, ambiguous shadows, shadows uncertain and
+transparent, questionings and sighs, words of a supernatural language like
+music heard but not understood, which remains in the memory like a dream.
+Into this atmosphere he plunged his figures, some of them enveloped by the
+garish light of a theatrical apotheosis, others veiled like ghosts, others
+revealed by a single ray of light darting across their faces. Whether they
+be clothed with pomp or in rags, they all are alike strange and fantastic.
+The outlines are not clear; the figures are loaded with powerful colors,
+and are painted with such bold strokes of the brush that they stand out in
+sculpturesque relief, while over all is an expression of impetuosity and
+of inspiration, that proud, capricious, profound imprint of genius that
+knows neither restraint nor fear.
+
+After all, every one likes to give his opinion: but who knows, if
+Rembrandt could read all the pages that have been written to explain
+the secret meanings of his art, whether he would not burst out
+laughing? Such is the fate of men of genius: every one holds that he
+has understood them better than his neighbor, and restores them in his
+own way. They are like a beautiful theme given by God which men
+distort into a thousand different meanings--a canvas upon which the
+imagination of man paints and embroiders after its own manner.
+
+I left the Hague Gallery with one desire ungratified: I had not found
+in it any picture by Jerom Bosch, a painter born at Bois-le-Duc in the
+fifteenth century. This madcap of mischief, this scarecrow of bigots,
+this artistic sorcerer, had made my flesh creep first in the gallery
+at Madrid with a work representing a horrible army of living skeletons
+scattered about an immense space, in conflict with a motley crowd of
+desperate and confused men and women, whom they were dragging into an
+abyss where Death awaited them. Only from the diseased imagination of
+a man alarmed by the terrors of damnation could such an extravagant
+conception have issued. When you look at it, however long it may be
+since you were afraid of phantoms, you feel a confused reawakening
+dread. Such were the subjects of all his pictures--the tortures of the
+accursed, spectres, fiery chasms, dragons, uncanny birds, loathsome
+monsters, diabolical kitchens, sinister landscapes. One of these
+frightful pictures was found in the cell where Philip II. died; others
+are scattered throughout Spain and Italy. Who was this chimerical
+painter? How did he live? What strange mania tormented him? No one
+knows; he passed over the earth wrapped in a cloud, and disappeared
+like an infernal vision.
+
+On the first floor of the museum there is a "Royal Cabinet of
+Curiosities," which contains some very precious historical relics,
+besides a great number of different objects from China, Japan, and the
+Dutch colonies. Amongst other things there is the sword of that Ruyter
+who began life as a rope-maker at Vlissingen, and became the greatest
+admiral of Holland; Admiral Tromp's cuirass perforated by bullets; a
+chair from the prison of the venerated Barneveldt; a box containing a
+lock of hair from the head of that Van Speyk who in 1831, on the
+Schelde, blew up his vessel to preserve the honor of the Dutch flag.
+Here, too, is the complete suit of clothes worn by William the Silent
+when he was assassinated at Delft--the blood-stained shirt, the jacket
+made of buffalo skin pierced by bullets, the wide trousers, the large
+felt hat; and in the same glass case are also preserved the bullets
+and pistols of the assassin and the original copy of his
+death-warrant.
+
+This modest, almost rough dress, that was worn at the zenith of his
+power and glory by William, the head of the Republic of the
+Netherlands, is a noble testimony to the patriarchal simplicity of
+Dutch manners. There is perhaps no other modern nation, equally
+prosperous, that has been less given to vanity and pomp. It is related
+that when the Earl of Leicester, who was commissioned by Queen
+Elizabeth, arrived in Holland, and when Spinola came to sue for peace
+in the name of the King of Spain, their magnificence was considered
+almost infamous. It is further said that the Spanish ambassadors who
+came to the Hague in 1608 to negotiate the famous truce saw some
+deputies of the Dutch States seated in a field, meanly clad and
+breakfasting on a little bread and cheese which they had carried in
+their saddle-bags. The Grand Pensionary, John De Witt, the adversary
+of Louis XIV., kept only one servant. Admiral Ruyter lived at
+Amsterdam in the house of a poor man and swept out his own bedroom.
+
+Another very curious object in the museum is a cabinet which opens in
+front like a book-case, representing in all its most minute details
+the inside of a luxurious Amsterdam house at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century. The Czar, Peter the Great, during his stay in
+Amsterdam, commissioned a rich citizen of that town to make for him
+this toy house, in order that he might take it back to Russia as a
+souvenir of Holland. The rich citizen, whose name was Brandt, executed
+the order like an honest Dutchman, slowly and well. The best
+cabinet-makers in Holland made the furniture, the cleverest
+silversmiths the plate, the most accurate printers printed the tiny
+books, the finest miniature-painters painted the pictures; the linen
+was prepared in Flanders, the hangings were made at Utrecht. After
+twenty-five years of work all the rooms were ready. In the nuptial
+chamber everything was prepared for the confinement of the young
+mistress; in the dining-room stood a microscopic tea service on a
+table which was the size of a crown; the picture-gallery, which was
+seen through a magnifying glass, was complete; in the kitchen was
+everything needful to prepare a savory dinner for a group of
+Liliputians; there was a library, and a cabinet of Chinese objects,
+bird-cages full of birds, prayer-books, carpets, linen for a whole
+family trimmed with lace and fine embroidery: there were lacking only
+a married couple, a lady's maid, and a cook rather smaller than
+ordinary marionettes. But there was one drawback: the house cost a
+hundred and twenty thousand francs, and the Czar, who as all know, was
+an economical man, refused it, and Brandt, to shame the imperial
+avarice, presented it to the Museum of the Hague.
+
+In the streets of the Hague, from the first day, I had met women
+dressed in such a peculiar manner that I had followed them to observe
+every particular of their costume. At first sight I thought that they
+must belong to some religious order or that they were hermits,
+pilgrims, or women of some nomadic tribes which were passing through
+Holland. They wore immense straw hats lined with flowered calico,
+short chocolate-colored monk's cloaks made of serge and lined with red
+cloth; their petticoats were also of serge, short and puffed out as
+though they wore crinolines; they wore black stockings and white
+wooden shoes. In the morning they might be seen going to market
+bearing on their heads baskets full of fish or driving carts drawn by
+dogs. They usually went alone or in pairs, without any men. They
+walked in a peculiar manner, taking long strides, with a certain air
+of despondency, like those who are accustomed to walking on the sand;
+there was a sadness in their expression and appearance which
+harmonized with the monastic austerity of their attire.
+
+I asked a Dutchman who they were, and the only answer he gave me was,
+"Go to Scheveningen."
+
+Scheveningen is a village two miles from the Hague, and connected with
+it by a straight road bordered along its whole length by several rows
+of beautiful elms, which form a perfect shade. On either side of the
+road, beyond the elms, there are small villas, pavilions, and cottages
+with roofs that look like the kiosks of the gardens, and with façades
+of a thousand fantastic shapes, all bearing the usual inscriptions
+inviting to repose and pleasure. This road is the favorite promenade
+of the citizens of the Hague on Sunday evenings, but on the other days
+of the week it is almost always deserted. One meets only a few women
+from Scheveningen, and now and then a carriage or the coaches that
+come and go between the town and the village. As one walks along it
+seems as though the road must lead to some royal palace surrounded by
+a large garden or a wide park. The luxuriant vegetation, the shadow
+and silence, call to mind the forests of Andalusia and Granada. One no
+longer remembers Scheveningen and forgets that he is in Holland.
+
+[Illustration: On the Road to Scheveningen.]
+
+When the end of the road is reached the change of scene is so
+sudden that it seems unreal. The vegetation, the shade, the likeness
+to Granada,--all have disappeared, and one stands in the midst of
+dunes, sand, and desert; one feels the salt wind blow and hears its
+dull confused sound. From the summit of one of the dunes one may see
+the North Sea.
+
+One who has seen only the Mediterranean is impressed by a new and
+profound feeling at sight of that sea and shore. The beach is formed
+of very fine, light-colored sand, over which the outermost edges of
+the waves flow up and down like a carpet which is being continually
+folded and unfolded. This sandy sea-shore extends to the foot of the
+first dunes, which are steep, broken, corroded mounds deformed by the
+eternal beating of the waves. Such is the Dutch coast from the mouth
+of the Meuse to the Helder. There are no mollusks, no star-fish, no
+shells or crabs; there is not a single bush or blade of grass. Nothing
+is seen but sand, waste, and solitude.
+
+The sea is no less mournful than the coast. It corresponds closely to
+one's ideas of the North Sea, formed by reading about the superstitious
+terrors of the ancients, who believed it to be driven by eternal winds and
+peopled by gigantic monsters. Near the shore its color is yellowish,
+farther out a pale green, and still farther out a dreary blue. The horizon
+is usually veiled by the mist, which often descends even to the shore and
+hides all the waters with its thick curtain, which is raised to show only
+the waves that come to die on the sand and some shadowy fisherman's boat
+close to land. The sky is almost always gray, overcast with great clouds
+which throw dense changeable shadows on the waters: in places these are as
+black as night, and bring to mind images of tempests and horrible
+shipwrecks; in other parts the sky is lighted up by patches and wavy
+streaks of bright light, which seem like motionless lightning or an
+illumination from mysterious stars. The ceaseless waves gnaw the shore in
+wild fury, with a prolonged roar which seems like a cry of defiance or the
+wailing of an infinite crowd. Sea, sky, and earth regard each other
+gloomily, as though they were three implacable enemies. As one
+contemplates this scene some great convulsion of nature seems imminent.
+
+The village of Scheveningen is situated on the dunes, which ward off
+the sea, and hide it so entirely that from the shore nothing is to be
+seen but the cone-shaped church-steeple rising like an obelisk in the
+midst of the sand. The village is divided into two parts, one of which
+is composed of elegant houses representing every kind of Dutch shapes
+and colors, and built for the use of strangers, with "to let" posted
+on them in various languages. The other part, in which the natives
+live, consists of black cottages, little streets, and retreats which
+foreigners never think of entering.
+
+The population of Scheveningen, which numbers only a few thousands, is
+almost entirely composed of fishermen, the greater number of whom are
+very poor. The village is still one of the principal stations of the
+herring fishery, where are cured those celebrated fish to which
+Holland owes her riches and power. But the profits of this industry go
+to the captains of the fishing vessels, and the men of Scheveningen,
+who are employed as sailors, hardly earn a livelihood. On the beach,
+in front of the village, many of those wide staunch boats with a
+single mast and a large square sail may always be seen ranged in line
+on the sand one beside the other, like the Greek galleys on the coast
+of Troy: thus they are safe from the gusts of wind. The flotilla,
+accompanied by a steam sloop, starts early in June, directing its
+course toward the Scottish coast. The first herrings taken are at once
+sent to Holland, and conveyed in a cart ornamented with flags to the
+king, who in exchange for this present gives five hundred florins.
+These boats make catches of other fish as well, which are in part sold
+at auction on the sea-shore, and in part are given to the Scheveningen
+fishermen, who send their wives to sell them at the Hague market.
+
+Scheveningen, like all the other villages of the coast, Katwijk,
+Vlaardingen, Maassluis, is a village that has lost its former
+prosperity in consequence of the decline of the herring fishery,
+owing, as every one knows, to the competition of England and the
+disastrous wars. But poverty, instead of weakening the character of
+this small population, beyond doubt the most original and poetical in
+Holland, has strengthened it. The inhabitants of Scheveningen in
+appearance, character, and habits seem like a foreign tribe in
+comparison with the people of their own country. They dwell but two
+miles from a large city, and yet preserve the manners of a primitive
+people that has always lived in isolation. As they were centuries ago,
+so are they now. No one leaves their village, and no one who is not a
+native ever enters it: they intermarry, they speak a language of their
+own, they all dress in the same style and in the same colors, as did
+their fathers' fathers. At the time of the fishing only the women and
+children remain in the village; the men all go to sea. They carry
+their Bibles with them on their departure. On board they neither drink
+nor swear nor laugh. When the stormy seas toss their little boats on
+the crests of the waves, they close all the apertures and await death
+with resignation. At the same moment their wives are singing psalms,
+shut in their cottages rocked by the wind and beaten by the rain.
+Those little dwellings, which have witnessed so many mortal griefs,
+which have heard the sobs of so many widows, which have seen the
+sacred joys of happy return and the disconsolate departure of many
+husbands, with their cleanliness, their white curtains, with the
+clothes and shirts of the sailors hanging at the windows,--tell of the
+free and dignified poverty of their inmates. No vagabonds nor fallen
+women come out of these homes; no inhabitant of Scheveningen has ever
+deserted the sea, and none of her daughters has ever refused the hand
+of a sailor. Both men and women show by their carriage and the
+expression of their faces a serious dignity that commands respect.
+They greet you without bending their heads, and look you in the face
+as much as to say, "We have no need of any one."
+
+In this little village there are two schools, and it is a curious
+sight to see a swarm of fair-haired children with slates under their
+arms and pencils in their hands disperse at certain hours among these
+poverty-stricken streets.
+
+Scheveningen is not only a village famous for the originality of its
+inhabitants which all foreigners visit and all artists paint. There
+are, besides, two great bathing establishments, where English,
+Russians, Germans, and Danes meet in the summer. The flower of the
+Northern aristocracy, princes and ministers, indeed half the Almanach
+de Gotha, come here; then there are balls, fantastic illuminations,
+and fireworks on the sea. The two establishments are placed on the
+dunes, and at all hours of the day certain carriages which look like
+gypsy caravans, drawn by strong horses, are driven from the shore into
+the sea, where they turn round. Whereupon ladies step out from them
+and bathe in the water, letting their fair hair blow about in the
+wind. At night the band plays, the visitors walk out, and the beach
+is enlivened by an elegant, festive, ever-changing crowd, in which
+every language is heard and the beauty of every country is
+represented. A few steps distant from this gayety the misanthrope can
+find solitude and seclusion on the dunes, where the music faintly
+strikes his ear like a far-off echo, and the houses of the fishermen
+show him their lights, directing his thoughts to domestic life and
+peace.
+
+The first time I went to Scheveningen I took a walk on those dunes
+which have been so often painted by artists, the only heights on the
+immense Dutch plain that intercept the view--rebellious children of
+the sea, whose progress they oppose, being at the same time the
+prisoners and the guardsmen of Holland. There are three tiers of these
+dunes, forming a triple bulwark against the ocean: the outer is the
+most barren, the centre the highest, and the inner the most
+cultivated. The medium height of these mountains of sand is not
+greater than fifteen metres, and all together they do not extend into
+the land for more than a French league. But as there are no higher
+elevations near or remote, they produce the false impression of a vast
+mountainous region. The eye sees valleys, gorges, precipices, views
+that appear distant and are close at hand--the tops of neighboring
+dunes on which we imagine a man ought to appear as large as a child,
+and on which instead he seems a giant. Viewed from a height, this
+region looks like a yellow sea, tempestuous yet motionless. The
+dreariness of this desert is increased by a wild vegetation, which
+seems like the mourning of the dead and abandoned nature--thin,
+fragile grass, flowers with almost transparent petals, juniper,
+sweet-broom, rosemary, through which every now and then skips a
+rabbit. Neither house, tree, nor human being is to be seen for miles.
+Now and then ravens, curlews, and sea-gulls fly past. Their cries and
+the rustling of the shrubs in the wind are the only sounds that break
+the silence of the solitude. When the sky is black the dead color of
+the earth assumes a sinister hue, like the fantastic light in which
+objects appear when seen through colored glass. It is then, when
+standing alone in the midst of the dunes, that one feels a sense
+almost of fear, as if one were in an unknown country hopelessly
+separated from any inhabited land, and one looks anxiously at the
+misty horizon for the shadow of a building to reassure him.
+
+In the whole of my walk I met but one or two peasants. The Dutch
+peasants usually speak to the people they meet on the road--a rare
+thing in a Northern country. Some pull off their caps at the side with
+a curious gesture, as if they did it for a joke. Usually they say
+"Good-morning" or "Good-evening" without looking at the person they
+are greeting. If they meet two people, they say, "Good-evening to you
+both," or if more than two, "Good-evening to you all." On a pathway in
+the middle of the first dunes I saw several of those poor fishermen
+who spend the whole day up to their waists in water, picking up the
+shells that are used to make a peculiar cement or to spread over
+garden-paths instead of sand. It must cost them at least half an hour
+of hard labor to take off the enormous leather boots that they wear to
+go into the sea; this would give an excuse to an Italian sailor for
+swearing by all the saints. But these men, on the contrary, perform
+the task with a composure that makes one sleepy, without giving way to
+any movement of impatience, nor would they raise their heads until
+they had finished even if a cannon were to be fired off.
+
+On the dunes, near a stone obelisk recording the return of William of
+Orange from England after the fall of the French dominion, I saw for
+the first time one of those sunsets which awaken in us Italians a
+feeling of wonder no less than that awakened in people from the North
+by the sunsets at Naples and Rome. The sun, because of the refraction
+of light by the mists which always fill the air in Holland, is greatly
+magnified, and diffuses through the clouds and on the sea a veiled and
+tremulous splendor like the reflection of a great fire. It seemed as
+if another sun had unexpectedly appeared on the horizon, and was
+setting, never again to show itself on earth. A child might well have
+believed the words of a poet who said, "In Holland the sun dies," and
+the most cold-blooded man must have allowed a farewell to escape his
+lips.
+
+As I have spoken of my walk to Scheveningen, I will mention two other
+pleasant excursions that I made from the Hague last winter.
+
+The first was to the village of Naaldwijk, and from this village to
+the sea-coast, where they were opening the new Rotterdam canal. At
+Naaldwijk, thanks to the politeness of an inspector of schools who was
+with me, I gratified my desire to see an elementary school, and I will
+state at once that my great expectations were more than realized. The
+house, built expressly for the school, was a separate building one
+story in height. We first went into a little vestibule, where there
+were a number of wooden shoes, which the inspector told me belonged to
+the pupils, who place them there on their entrance into school and put
+them on again when they go out. In school the boys wear only stockings
+which are very thick, consequently their feet do not suffer from cold,
+especially as the rooms are as hot as if they were a minister's
+cabinet. On our entrance the pupils stood up and the master advanced
+toward the inspector. Even that poor village master spoke French, and
+so we were able to enter into conversation. There were in the school
+about forty pupils, both boys and girls, who sat on opposite sides of
+the room; all were fair and fat, with plump, good-natured faces; they
+had the precocious air of little men and women, which I could not
+observe without laughing. The building was divided into five rooms,
+each separated from the other by a large glass partition, which
+enclosed all the space like a wall, so that if a master were absent
+from one class the teacher of the next class could overlook the pupils
+of his colleague without leaving his post. All the rooms are large and
+have high windows which reach from the floor to the ceiling, so that
+it is almost as light inside as it is outside. The benches, walls,
+floors, windows, and stoves were as clean as if they had been in a
+ball-room. Having a lively recollection of certain unpleasant places
+in the schools I attended as a boy, I asked to see the closets, and
+found them such as few of the best hotels can boast. Afterward on the
+school-room walls I saw a great many things that I remember to have
+wished for when I sat at the desks, such as small pictures of
+landscapes or figures, to which the master referred in his stories and
+instruction, so that they should be stamped the better on the memory;
+representations of common objects and animals; geographical maps
+purposely made with large names and painted in bright colors;
+proverbs, grammatical rules, and precepts very plainly printed. Only
+one thing seemed to me lacking--personal cleanliness.
+
+I will not repeat what many have written and some Dutchmen affirm,
+that in Holland cleanliness of the skin is generally neglected--that
+the women are dirty, and that the legs of the tables are cleaner than
+those of the citizens. But it is certain the cleanliness of inanimate
+objects is infinitely greater than personal cleanliness, and the
+deficiency in the last respect is made more apparent by excellence in
+the first. In an Italian school perhaps those boys might have seemed
+clean, but, comparing them with the marvellous purity of their
+surroundings, and reflecting that they were the children of the very
+women who take half a day to wash the doors and shutters, they seemed
+to me, and in fact were, rather dirty. In some schools in Switzerland
+there are lavatories where the boys are obliged to wash upon entering
+and leaving the school. I should have been pleased to see such
+lavatories in the Dutch schools too; then all would have been perfect.
+
+I said "that poor master," but I found out afterward that he had a salary
+of more than two thousand two hundred francs and an apartment in a nice
+house in the village. In Holland the masters of elementary schools--the
+principals, that is, for there are assistant masters--never receive less
+than eight hundred francs a year. This the minimum that the commune can
+legally give. No commune keeps to this sum, and some masters have the same
+salaries as our university professors. It is true that it costs more to
+live in Holland than in Italy, but it is also true that the salaries which
+seem large to us are there considered small, and yet they propose to
+increase them. It must also be considered that, owing to the difference of
+national character, the Dutch masters are not obliged to expend as much of
+their breath, their patience, and good-humor as are our Italian masters,
+which is a consideration if it be true that health counts for something.
+
+From Naaldwijk we went toward the coast. On the road my courteous
+companion explained to me clearly the point which the question of
+instruction has reached in Holland. In Latin countries persons when
+questioned by a stranger answer him with a view toward airing their
+knowledge and showing their conversational powers. In Holland they try
+rather to make you understand the subject, and if you do not comprehend
+directly, they impress it upon you until it is fixed in your mind as
+clearly and as well as it is in their own.
+
+The question of instruction, in Holland as in most countries, is a
+religious question, which in its turn is the most serious, indeed the only
+great, question that now agitates the country.
+
+Of the three and a half millions of inhabitants in Holland, a third, as I
+have remarked, are Catholics, about a hundred thousand are Jews, and the
+rest are Protestants. The Catholics, who chiefly inhabit the southern
+provinces of Limbourg and Brabant, are not divided politically as they
+are in other countries, but form one solid clerical legion,--Papists,
+Ultramontanists, the most faithful legion of Rome, as the Dutch
+themselves say--who buy the very straw that the pontiff is supposed to
+sleep on, and who thunder Italy from the pulpit and the press. This
+Catholic party, which would have no great strength of itself, gains a
+certain advantage from the fact that the Protestants are divided into a
+great many religious sects. There are orthodox Calvinists; Protestants
+who believe in the revelation, but do not accept certain doctrines of the
+Church; others who deny the divinity of Christ, without, however,
+separating themselves from the Protestant Church; others, again, who
+believe in God, but do not believe in any Church; others--and amongst
+these are many of the cleverest men--who openly profess atheism. In
+consequence of this state of things, the Catholic party has a natural
+ally in the Calvinists, who as fervent believers and inflexible
+conservers of the religion of their fathers, are much less widely
+separated from the Catholics than from a large party of those of their
+own co-religionists. These form, in a certain sense, the clerical wing of
+Protestantism. Hence in the Netherlands there are Catholics and
+Calvinists on one side, and on the other a liberal party, while between
+the two there hovers a vacillating legion that does not allow either side
+to gain an absolute supremacy. The chief point of contention between the
+extreme sections is the question of primary instruction, and this reduces
+itself, on the part of the Catholics and Calvinists, to insistence that
+so-called mixed schools, in which no special religious instruction is
+given (so that Catholics and Protestants of all doctrines may support
+them), shall be superseded by others in which dogmatic instruction is to
+be given, and that these shall be also supported by the commune under the
+direction of the state. It is easy to foresee the grave consequences that
+such a division in the popular educational system would produce--the
+germs of discord and religious animosity that would be sown, the trouble
+that would in time arise from separating young people into groups
+professing different faiths. Up to the present time the principle of
+mixed schools has prevailed, but the victories of the Liberals have been
+costly. The Catholics and the Calvinists successively obtained various
+concessions, and are prepared to obtain yet others. The Catholic party
+is, in a word, more powerful than the Calvinist party: the one, united
+and aggressive, gains ground day by day, and it is not unlikely that it
+will succeed in gaining a victory which, though not lasting, will provoke
+a violent reaction in the country. Things have come to such a pass that
+in that very Holland which fought for eighty years against Catholic
+despotism there are now serious reasons to fear the outbreak of a
+religious war.
+
+[Illustration: Fisherman's Children, Scheveningen.]
+
+Notwithstanding this state of things, which to the present time has
+prevented the institution of obligatory instruction demanded by the
+Liberals, and keeps a great number of Catholic children away from the
+schools, the education of the lower classes in Holland is in a
+condition that any European state might envy. In proportion, Holland
+contains less people who do not know their alphabet than does
+Prussia. "Of all Europe," as a Dutch writer has said with just pride,
+although he judges his country severely on other points, "Holland is
+the land where all such knowledge as is indispensable to civilized man
+is most widely diffused." I was once greatly surprised, on asking a
+Dutchman if there were any women-servants who could not read, to hear
+myself answered, "Well, yes. I remember twenty years ago that my
+mother had a servant who did not know her alphabet, and we thought it
+a very strange thing." It is a great satisfaction to a stranger who
+does not know the language to be sure that if he shows a name on his
+guide-book to the first street-urchin he meets, the boy will
+understand it and will try to direct him by gestures.
+
+Talking of Catholics and Calvinists, we arrived at the dunes, and,
+although we were near the coast, we could not see the ocean. "Holland
+is a strange country," I said to my friend, "in which everything plays
+at hide and seek. The façades hide the roofs, the trees hide the
+houses, the city hides the ships, the banks hide the canals, the mist
+hides the fields, the dunes hide the sea." "And some day," answered my
+friend, "the sea will hide everything and all will be ended."
+
+We crossed the downs and advanced toward the coast, where the
+preparatory works for the opening of the Rotterdam Canal were in
+progress.
+
+Two dykes, one more than a thousand two hundred meters in length, the
+other more than two thousand meters long, separated from each other by
+the space of a kilometer, project into the sea at right angles to the
+coast. These two dykes, which are built to protect vessels entering
+the canal, are formed by several rows of enormous palisades made of
+huge blocks of granite, of fagots, stones, and earth; they are as wide
+as ten men drawn up in a line. The ocean, which continually washes
+against them, and at high tide overflows them in many parts, has
+covered everything,--stones, beams, and fagots, with a stratum of
+shells as black as ebony, which from a distance seems like a velvet
+coverlet, giving to these two gigantic bulwarks a severe and
+magnificent appearance, as if they were a warlike banner unfolded by
+Holland to celebrate her victory over the waves. At that moment the
+tide was coming in, and the battle round the extreme end of the dykes
+was at its height. With what rage did the livid waves avenge
+themselves for the scorn of those two huge horns of granite that
+Holland has plunged into the bosom of her enemy! The palisades and the
+rock foundations were lashed, gnawed, and buffeted on every side;
+disdainful waters dashed over them and spat upon them with a drizzling
+rain that hid them like a cloud of dust; then again the waves would
+flow back like furious writhing serpents. Even the sections far from
+the struggle were sprinkled by unexpected showers of spray, the
+advance guard of that endless army, and meanwhile the water kept
+rising and advancing, forcing the foremost workmen to retire step by
+step.
+
+On the longest dyke, not very far from shore, they were planting some
+piles. Workmen with great labor were raising blocks of granite by
+means of derricks, and others, in groups of ten or fifteen, were
+removing old beams to make room for new ones. It was glorious to see
+the fury of the waves lashing the sides of the dyke, and the impassive
+calm of the workmen, who seemed almost to despise the sea. It crossed
+my mind that they must be saying in their hearts, as the sailor said
+to the monster of the Comprachicos in Victor Hugo's romance: "Roar on,
+old fellow!" A wind which chilled us to the bone blew the long, fair
+curls of the good Dutchmen into their eyes, and every now and then
+threw the spray at their feet or on their clothes--vain provocations
+to which they did not deign to reply even by a frown.
+
+I saw a pile driven into the dyke. It was the trunk of a great tree
+pointed at one end and supported by two parallel beams, between which
+a steam-engine drove an enormous iron hammer up and down. The pile had
+to be driven through several very thick strata of fagots and stones;
+yet at every blow from the heavy hammer it sunk into the ground,
+breaking, tearing, and splintering, while it entered the dyke more
+than a hand's length, as if it were merely a mud hole. Nevertheless,
+what with adjusting and driving the pile, the operation lasted almost
+an hour. I thought of the thousands that had been driven, of the
+thousands still to be driven, of the interminable dykes that defend
+Holland, of the infinite number that have been overturned and rebuilt
+and for the first time my mind conceived the grandeur of the
+undertaking, and a feeling of dismay crept over me as I stood
+motionless and speechless.
+
+Meanwhile, the waters had risen almost to the level of the dyke, with
+a sound of panting and breathlessness like tired-out voices that
+seemed to murmur secrets of distant seas and unknown shores; the wind
+blew colder, it was growing dark, and I felt a restless desire to
+withdraw from those front bastions into the interior of the fortress.
+I pulled the coat-tail of my companion, who had been standing for an
+hour on a boulder, and we returned to the shore and drank a glass of
+delicious Schiedam at one of those shops which are called in Dutch
+"Come and ask," where they sell wines, salt meats, cigars, shoes,
+butter, clothes, biscuits--in fact, a little of everything. Then we
+started on the road back to the Hague.
+
+My next excursion was the most adventurous that I made in Holland. A
+very dear friend of mine who lived at the Hague invited me to go and
+dine with him at the house of one of his relatives who had shown a
+courteous desire to make my acquaintance. I asked where his relative
+lived; and he answered, "Far from the Hague." I asked in what
+direction, but he would not tell me; he told me to meet him at the
+railway-station the next day, and left me. On the next morning we met
+at the station: my friend bought tickets for Leyden. When we arrived
+at Leyden we alighted, but, instead of entering the town, we took a
+road across country. I besought my companion to reveal the secret to
+me. He answered that he could not do so, and as I knew that when a
+Dutchman does not mean to tell you anything, no power on earth will
+make him do it, I resigned myself. It was a disagreeable day in
+February; there was no snow, but a strong cold wind was blowing which
+soon made our faces purple. As it was Sunday, the country was
+deserted. We went on and on, passing windmills, canals, meadows,
+houses half hidden by trees, with very high roofs of stubble mixed
+with moss. Finally we arrived at a village. The Dutch villages are
+closed by a palisade: we passed through the gate, but not a living
+soul was to be seen; the doors were shut, the window curtains were
+drawn, and not a voice, nor a footstep, nor a breath was heard. We
+crossed the village, and paused in front of a church which was all
+covered with ivy like a summer-house; looking through an aperture in
+the door, we saw a Protestant clergyman with a white cravat preaching
+to some peasants whose faces were striped with gold, green, and
+purple, the reflection of the stained-glass windows. We passed
+through a clean street paved with bricks, and saw stakes put for the
+storks' nests, posts planted by the peasants for the cows to rub
+against, fences painted sky blue, small houses with many-colored tiles
+forming letters and words, ponds full of boats, bridges, kiosks for
+unknown uses, little churches with great gilded cocks on the top of
+their steeples; and not a living soul near or far: still we went on.
+The sky cleared a little, then darkened again; here the sunshine
+gleamed on a canal, there it made a house sparkle or gilded a distant
+steeple. Then again it hid itself, reappeared, and so on with a
+thousand coquetries, while on the horizon there appeared oblique lines
+denoting rain. We began to meet countrywomen with circles of gold
+round their heads, on which veils were fastened, the whole surmounted
+by hats; these were trimmed with bunches of flowers and wide
+fluttering ribbons. We also met some country carriages of the antique
+Louis XV. style, with a gilded box ornamented with carved work and
+mirrors, peasants with thick black clothes and large wooden shoes,
+children with stockings of every color in the rainbow. We arrived at
+another village, which was clean, shining, and brightly colored, with
+its streets paved with bricks and its windows adorned with curtains
+and flowers. Here we took a carriage and went on our way. A fine icy
+rain which penetrated to our bones began to fall as soon as we
+started. Muffled up in the wet frozen covers, we reached the bank of
+a large canal. A man came out of a cottage, led the horse on to a
+barge, and landed us safe and sound on the opposite bank. The carriage
+turned down a wide street, and we found ourselves on the bed of the
+ancient Sea of Haarlem. Our horse trotted along where the fish once
+swam through the water; our coachman smoked where at one time the
+smoke of naval battles had rolled; we saw glimpses of canals, of
+villages, of cultivated fields, of a new world of which only thirty
+years ago there had not been a trace. After we had driven about a mile
+the rain stopped, and it began to snow as I had never seen it snow
+before: it was a real whirlwind of heavy, thick snow, which the strong
+wind blew into our faces. We unfolded the waterproof covering, opened
+our umbrellas, tucked ourselves in, and bundled ourselves up, but the
+wind broke through all our defences and the snow sifted over us,
+enveloping us in white and covering our heads and feet with ice. After
+a long turn we left the lake; the snow ceased, we arrived at another
+village of toy houses, where we left our carriage and proceeded on
+foot. We went on and on, seeing bridges, windmills, closed cottages,
+lonely streets, wide meadows, but no human beings. We crossed another
+branch of the Rhine, and arrived at another village barricaded and
+silent; we continued on our way, occasionally seeing some face looking
+at us from behind the windows. We then left the village and found
+ourselves opposite the dunes. The sky looked threatening, and I became
+alarmed.
+
+"Where are we going?" I demanded of my friend.
+
+"Where fortune takes us," he replied.
+
+We proceeded through the dunes, along narrow, winding, sandy roads,
+seeing no sign of habitation anywhere; we went up hill and down dale;
+the wind drove the sand into our faces; at every step our feet sank in
+it, and the country grew more and more desolate, gloomy, and foreboding.
+
+"But who is your relative?" I said to my companion. "Where does he
+live? what is his business? There is some witchcraft about this; he
+cannot be a man like other men: tell me where you are leading me."
+
+My friend did not answer: he stopped and stared in front of him. I
+stared too, and far away saw something that looked like a house, alone
+in the midst of the desert, almost hidden by a rise in the ground. We
+hastened on; the house seemed to appear and disappear like a shadow.
+Round about we saw stakes which looked like gibbets. My friend tried
+to persuade me that they were only stakes for storks' nests. We were
+about a hundred feet away from the house. Along a wall we saw a wooden
+pipe which seemed bathed in blood, but my friend assured me it was
+only red paint. It was a little house enclosed by a paling; the doors
+and windows were shut.
+
+"Don't go in," I said. "There is yet time. There is something uncanny
+in that house; take care what you are doing. Look up; I have never
+seen such a black sky."
+
+My friend did not hear me; he pressed on courageously, and I followed.
+Instead of going toward the door, he took a short cut. Behind us we heard
+a ferocious barking of dogs. We broke into a run, crossed a thicket of
+underbrush, jumped over a low wall, and knocked at a little door.
+
+"There is yet time!" I exclaimed.
+
+"It is too late," answered my friend.
+
+The door opened, but nobody was to be seen. We mounted a winding
+staircase and entered a room. Oh pleasant surprise! The hermit, the
+sorcerer, was a merry, courteous young man, and the diabolical house
+was a villa full of comfort and warmth, sparkling with light, the
+dwelling of a sybarite--a real fairy palace to which our host retired
+some months in the year to study and to make experiments on the
+fertilization of the dunes. How delightful it was to look at the cold
+desert without through a window draped with curtains and decorated
+with flower-pots! We went into the dining-room and sat down at a table
+glittering with silver and glass, in the midst of which, surrounded by
+gilded and blazoned bottles, was a hot dinner fit for a prince. The
+snow was beating against the windows, the sea was moaning, the wind
+blew furiously round the house, which seemed like a ship in a terrible
+storm. We drank to the fertilization of the dunes, to the victors of
+Achen, to the prosperity of the colonies, to the memory of Nino Bixio,
+to the elves. Nevertheless, I was still a little uneasy. Our host when
+he needed the servant touched a hidden spring; to tell the coachman to
+get the carriage ready he spoke some words into a hole in the wall;
+and these tricks did not please me.
+
+"Tell me," I said, "tell me that this house really exists; promise me
+that it is not all a joke and that it will not disappear, leaving
+nothing but a hole in the ground and a smell of sulphur in the air.
+Assure me that you say your prayers every evening."
+
+I cannot describe the laughter, the merriment, the absurd speeches that
+succeeded each other until the middle of the night, accompanied by the
+clinking of glasses and the roaring of the tempest. At last the moment of
+departure arrived: we went down and were rolled away in a roomy carriage
+which dashed rapidly across the desert. The ground was covered with snow,
+the dunes were outlined in white on the dark sky, the carriage glided
+noiselessly in the midst of strange indistinct forms, which succeeded each
+other rapidly in the light of the lantern and seemed to melt into each
+other. In that vast solitude a dead silence reigned which robbed us of
+speech. After a time we began to see dwellings and arrived at a village.
+We crossed two or three deserted streets, with snow-covered houses on
+either side, with a few lighted windows showing human shadows. At last we
+came to a railway-station, and reached the Hague in a few minutes,
+although we had been deluded to think we had taken a long journey and
+crossed an imaginary country. Must I tell the truth? If I were asked to
+swear at the moment I am writing that the house in the midst of the dunes
+was a reality, I should request ten minutes for reflection. It is true
+that the master was polite enough to come and bid me good-bye at the
+station the day I left the Hague, and that when I saw him clearly by
+daylight he did not seem to have anything strange about him; but we all
+know the various forms, the simulations, the thousand arts which a certain
+gentleman and his servants assume.
+
+At last I saw a Dutch winter, not as I had hoped to see it on leaving
+Italy, for it was very mild; but still Holland was presented to me as
+we are in the habit of picturing it to ourselves in the south of
+Europe.
+
+Early in the morning the first thing that attracts the eye in the
+silent white streets is the print of innumerable wooden shoes left in
+the snow by the boys on their way to school, and so large are the
+wooden shoes that they look like the tracks of elephants. These
+footsteps generally go in a straight line, showing that the boys take
+the shortest cut to school, and, like steady, zealous Dutchmen, do not
+play and lose time on the road. One can see long rows of children
+wrapped up in large scarfs, with their heads half hidden between their
+shoulders--little bundles arm in arm, walking two by two, or three by
+three, or pressed together in groups like a bunch of asparagus, out of
+which peep only the tips of their noses and the ends of books. When
+the boys have disappeared the streets are deserted for a short time,
+for the Dutch do not rise early, especially in the winter. One can
+walk some distance without meeting any one or hearing any sound. The
+snow seems whiter surrounding those rose-colored houses, which have
+all their projections outlined with a pure white line, and the wooden
+heads outside of the shops wear white cotton wigs; the chains of the
+railings look like ermine; everything presents a strange appearance.
+When it freezes and the sun shines, the façades seem covered with
+silver sparks, the ice heaped upon the banks of the canals shines with
+all the colors of the rainbow, and the trees glitter with thousands of
+little pearls, like the plants in the enchanted gardens of the Arabian
+Nights. It is then that it is beautiful to walk in the forest at the
+Hague at sunset, treading on the hardened snow, which crackles under
+one's feet like powdered marble, in the avenues of large, white,
+leafless beech trees, which look like one gigantic crystallization,
+and cast blue and violet shadows, dotted with myriads of points which
+glisten like diamonds in the paths dyed pink by the setting sun. But
+nothing compares with the sight of the Dutch country seen from the
+top of a steeple at morning after a heavy fall of snow. Beneath the
+gray and lowering sky one looks over that vast white plain, from
+which, roads, houses, and canals have disappeared, and nothing is seen
+but elevations and depressions, which, like the folds of a sheet, give
+a vague idea of the forms of hidden houses. The boundless white is
+unstained save by the clouds of smoke that rise almost timidly from
+the distant dwellings, as if to assure the spectator that beneath the
+desert of snow human hearts are still beating.
+
+It is impossible to speak of the winter in Holland without mentioning
+what constitutes the originality and the attraction of winter life in
+that country--the skating.
+
+Skating in Holland is not only a recreation; it is the ordinary means
+of transportation. To cite a well-known example, all know the value of
+it to the Dutch in the memorable defence of Haarlem. When there is a
+hard frost the canals are transformed into streets, and sabots tipped
+with iron take the place of boats. The peasants skate to market, the
+workmen to their work, the small tradespeople to their business;
+entire families skate from the country to the town with their bags and
+baskets on their shoulders or drive in sledges. Skating to them is as
+habitual and easy as walking, and they skim along so rapidly that one
+can scarcely follow them with the eye. In past years bets were
+commonly made between the best Dutch skaters that they would skate
+down the canals on either side of the railway as fast as the train
+could go; and usually the skaters not only kept abreast of the engine,
+but even beat it. There are people who skate from the Hague to
+Amsterdam and back again on the same day; university students leave
+Utrecht in the morning, dine at Amsterdam, and return home before the
+evening; and a bet has been made and won several times of going from
+Amsterdam to Leyden in little more than an hour. Persons who have been
+drawn by sticks held by skaters have told me that the speed with which
+they skim over the ice is enough to turn one giddy; but this rapidity
+is not the only remarkable thing about it: another point very much to
+be admired is the security with which they traverse great distances.
+Peasants will go from one town to another at night. Young men go from
+Rotterdam to Gouda, where they buy very long clay pipes, and return to
+Rotterdam carrying them unbroken in their hands. Sometimes as one is
+walking along a canal one sees a figure flit by like an arrow, to
+disappear immediately in the distance. It is a peasant-girl carrying
+milk to a house in the city.
+
+There are sledges of every size and shape, some pushed by skaters,
+others drawn by horses, others propelled by means of two iron-tipped
+sticks which are worked by the person seated in the sledge. One sees
+carts and carriages taken off of their wheels and mounted on two
+boards, on which they glide with the same rapidity as the other sleds.
+On holiday occasions the boats from Scheveningen have been seen to
+glide over the snow through the streets of the Hague. Sometimes ships
+in full sail are seen skimming over the ice of the large rivers, going
+so fast that the faces of the few who dare to make this experiment are
+terribly cut by the wind.
+
+The most beautiful fêtes in Holland are given on the ice. When the
+Meuse is frozen, Rotterdam becomes a place of reunions and amusements.
+The snow is brushed away until the ice is made as clean as a crystal
+floor; restaurants, coffee-houses, pavilions, and benches for
+spectators are set up, and at night all is illuminated. During the day
+a swarm of skaters of every age, sex, and class crowds the river. In
+other towns, especially in Friesland, which is the classical land of
+the art, there are clubs of men-and women-skaters who institute public
+races for prizes. Stakes and flags are set up all along the canals,
+railings and stands are raised; immense crowds come from the villages
+and the country-side. Bands play; the élite of the town are present.
+The skaters present themselves dressed in a peculiar costume, the
+women wearing pantaloons. There are races for men and races for women;
+then both men and women race together. The names of the winners are
+enrolled in the annals of the art and remain famous for many years.
+
+In Holland there are two different schools of skating, the so-called
+Dutch school and the Frieslander school, each of which uses a peculiar
+kind of skate. The Frieslander school, which is the older, aims only
+at speed; the Dutch school cultivates grace as well. The Frieslanders
+are stiff in their motions; they throw their bodies forward, and hold
+themselves very straight, looking as though they were starched, and
+keeping their eyes fixed on the goal. The Dutch skate with a zigzag
+movement, swaying from left to right and from right to left with an
+undulating motion of the body. The Frieslander is an arrow, the
+Dutchman a rocket.
+
+The women prefer the Dutch school. The ladies of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and
+the Hague are, in fact, the most fascinating skaters in the Netherlands.
+They begin to skate as children, continue as girls and wives, reaching the
+height of beauty and the summit of art at the same time, while their
+skates strike out sparks from the ice which kindle many fires. It is only
+on the ice that Dutch women appear light-heeled. Some attain a marvellous
+perfection. Those who have seen them say that it is impossible to imagine
+the grace of movement, the bows, the glides, the thousand pretty delicate
+arts that are displayed. They fly and return like swallows and
+butterflies, and in this exercise they grow animated and their placid
+beauty is transformed. But all are not so skilled: many dare not show
+themselves in public, for those who would be considered prodigies with us
+are scarcely noticed there, to such perfection has the art been carried.
+The men, too, perform all kinds of tricks and feats, some writing words of
+love and fantastic figures in their twirls, others making rapid
+pirouettes, then gliding backward on one leg for a long distance; others
+twist about, making numbers of dizzy turns in a small space, sometimes
+bending down, then leaning to one side, then skating upright or crouching
+like india-rubber figures moved by a secret spring.
+
+The first day that the canals and small docks are covered with ice
+strong enough to bear the skaters is a day of rejoicing in the Dutch
+towns. Skaters who have made the experiment at break of day spread the
+news abroad; the papers announce it; groups of boys about the streets
+burst into shouts of delight; men and women-servants ask permission to
+go out with the determined air of people who have decided to rebel if
+refused; old ladies forget their age and ailments and hurry off to the
+canal to emulate their friends and daughters. At the Hague the basin,
+which is in the middle of the city, near to the Binnenhof, is invaded
+by a mingling crowd of people, who interlace, knock against each
+other, and form a confused giddy mass. The flower of the aristocracy
+skates on a pond in the middle of the wood, and there in the snow may
+be seen a winding and whirling maze of officers, ladies, deputies,
+students, old men, and boys, among whom the crown prince is sometimes
+to be seen. Thousands of spectators crowd around the scene, music
+enlivens the festival, and the enormous disk of the Dutch sun at
+sunset sends its dazzling salutation through the gigantic beech trees.
+
+When the snow is packed hard the turn of the sleigh comes. Every
+family has a sleigh, and at the hour the world goes out walking they
+appear by hundreds. They fly past in long rows two or three abreast.
+Some are shaped like shells, others like swans, dragons, boats, or
+chariots. All are gilded and painted in various colors; the horses
+which draw them are covered with handsome furs and magnificent
+trappings, their heads ornamented with plumes and tassels, and their
+harness studded with glittering buttons. In the sleighs sit ladies
+clothed in sable, beaver, and blue fox. The horses toss their heads,
+enveloped in a cloud of steam which rises from them, while their manes
+are covered with ice-drops. The sleighs dart along, the snow flying
+about them like silver foam. The splendid uncurbed procession passes
+and disappears like a silent whirlwind over a field of lilies and
+jessamine. At night, when the torches are lit, thousands of small
+flames follow each other and flit about the silent town, casting lurid
+flashes of light on the ice and snow, the whole scene appearing to the
+imagination like a great diabolical battle over which the spectre of
+Philip II. presides from the top of the Binnenhof Tower.
+
+[Illustration: Main Drive in the Bosch, The Hague.]
+
+But, alas! everything changes, even the winter, and with it the art of
+skating and the use of sleighs. For many years the severe winters of
+Holland have been followed by such mild ones that not only the large
+rivers, but even the small canals in the towns, do not freeze. In
+consequence the skaters who have been so long out of practice do not
+risk giving public exhibitions when the occasion presents itself; and
+so, little by little, their number becomes smaller, and the women
+especially are forgetting the art. Last winter they hardly skated at
+all, and this winter (1873) there has not been a race, and not even a
+sleigh has been seen. Let us hope that this deplorable state of
+affairs will not last, and that winter will return to caress Holland
+with its icy bear's paw, and that the fine art of skating will once
+more arise with its mantle of snow and its crown of icicles. Let me
+announce meanwhile the publication of a work called "Skating," upon
+which a Dutch legislator has been employed for many years--a work that
+will be the history, the epic, and code of this art, from which all
+European skaters, male and female, will be able to draw instruction
+and inspiration.
+
+While I remained at the Hague I frequented the principal club in the
+town, composed of more than two thousand members. It is located in a
+palace near the Binnenhof, and there it was that I made my observations
+upon the Dutch character.
+
+The library, the dining-room, and the card-room, the large drawing-room
+for conversation, and the reading-room were as full as they could be from
+four o'clock in the afternoon until midnight. Here one met artists,
+professors, merchants, deputies, clerks, and officers. The greater number
+come to drink a small glass of gin before dinner, and return later to take
+another comforting sip of their favorite liquor. Nearly all converse, and
+yet one hears only a light murmur, so that if one's eyes were shut one
+would say that about half of the actual number was present. One can go
+round the rooms many times without seeing a gesture of excitement or
+hearing a loud voice: at a distance of ten steps from the groups one would
+not know that any one was speaking, except by the movement of his lips.
+One sees many corpulent gentlemen with broad, clean-shaven faces and
+bearded throats, who talk without raising their eyes from the table or
+lifting their hands from their glasses. It is very rare to see among these
+heavy faces a lively, piquant physiognomy like that of Erasmus, which many
+consider the true Dutch type, though I am not of their opinion.
+
+The friend who opened the door of the club to me presented me to several
+of its habitués. The difference between the Dutch and the Italian
+character is especially evident in introductions. On one occasion I
+noticed that the person to whom I was introduced scarcely bowed his head,
+and then remained silent some moments. I thought my reverend face had not
+pleased him, and felt an echo of cordial dislike in my heart. In a little
+while the person who had introduced me went away, leaving me tête-à-tête
+with my enemy. "Now," thought I, "I will burst before I will speak, a word
+to him." But my neighbor, after some minutes of silence, said to me with
+the greatest gravity, "I hope, if you have no other engagement to-day, you
+will do me the honor of dining with me." I fell from the clouds. We then
+dined together, and my Amphytrion placidly filled the table with bottles
+of Bordeaux and champagne, and did not let me depart until I had promised
+to dine with him again. Others, when I would ask information about various
+things, would hardly answer me, as if they were trying to show me that I
+was troublesome, so that I would say to myself, "How contemptible they
+are!" But the next day they would send me all the details neatly and
+clearly written out, and minute in a higher degree than I desired. One
+evening I asked a gentleman to point out to me something in that ocean of
+figures that goes by the name of _Guide to European Railways_. For some
+moments he did not answer, and I felt mortified. Then he took the book,
+put on his spectacles, turned over the leaves, read, took notes; added and
+subtracted for half an hour, and when he had finished he gave me the
+written answer, putting his spectacles back into their case without
+speaking a word.
+
+Many of those with whom I passed the evening used to go home at ten
+o'clock to work, and to return to the club at half-past eleven, after
+which they would remain until one o'clock. When they had said, "I must
+go," there was no possibility of changing their minds. As the clock
+struck ten they left the door; at half-past eleven they stepped over
+the threshold. It is not surprising that with this chronometrical
+precision they find time to do so many things, without doing anything
+in haste; even those who do not depend on their studies for their
+livelihood have read entire libraries. There is no English, German, or
+French book, however unimportant, with which they are unacquainted.
+French literature especially they have at their fingers' ends. And
+what is said of literature can be said with more reason of politics.
+Holland is one of the European countries in which the greatest number
+of foreign papers are to be found, particularly those that deal
+principally with national affairs. The country is small and peaceful,
+and the news of the day is soon exhausted; consequently it frequently
+happens that after ten minutes the conversation has passed beyond the
+Rhine and deals with Europe. I remember the astonishment with which I
+heard the fall of the ministry of Scialoia and other Italian matters
+discussed as if they were domestic affairs.
+
+One of my first cares was to sound the religious sentiment of the people,
+and here I found, to my surprise, great confusion. As a learned Dutchman
+most justly wrote a short time ago, "Ideas subversive of every religious
+dogma have made much way in this land." It is quite a mistake, however, to
+believe that where faith decreases indifference enters. Such men as
+appeared to Pascal monstrous creatures--men who live without giving any
+thought to religion, of whom there are numbers in our country--do not
+exist in Holland. The religious question, which in Italy is merely a
+question, in Holland is a battle in which all brandish their arms. In
+every class of society, men and women, young and old, occupy themselves
+with theology and read or listen to the disputes of the doctors, besides
+devouring a prodigious number of polemical writings on religion. This
+tendency of the country is shown even in Parliament, where the deputies
+often confute their opponents with biblical quotations read in Hebrew, or
+translated and commentated, the discussion degenerating into very
+disquisitions on theology. All these conflicts, however, take place in the
+mind rather than in the heart; they are devoid of passion, and one proof
+of this is that Holland, which of all the countries in Europe is divided
+into most sects, is also the country in which these sects live in the
+greatest harmony and where there is the greatest degree of tolerance. If
+this were not the case, the Catholic party would not have made such
+strides as it has made, protected from the first by the Liberals against
+the only intolerant party in the country, the orthodox Calvinists.
+
+I did not make the acquaintance of any Calvinists, and I was sorry on
+that account. I never believed all that is recounted of their extreme
+rigour; for example, that there are among them certain ladies who hide
+the legs of the tables with covers, for fear that they might suggest
+to the minds of visitors the legs of the mistress of the house. But
+there is no doubt that they live with extreme austerity. Many of them
+never enter a theatre, a ball-room, or a concert-hall. There are
+families who on the Sabbath content themselves with eating a little
+cold meat, so that the cook may rest on that day. Every morning in
+many houses the master reads from the Bible in the presence of the
+family and servants, and they all pray together. But, nevertheless,
+this sect of orthodox Calvinists, whose followers are almost all
+amongst the aristocracy and the peasantry, does not exert a great
+influence in the country. This is proved by the fact that in
+Parliament the Calvinists are inferior in numbers to the Catholic
+party and can do nothing without them.
+
+I have mentioned the theatre. At the Hague, as in the other large
+Dutch cities, there are no large theatres nor great performances. They
+generally produce German operas sung by foreign singers, and French
+comedies and operettas. Concerts are the great attraction. In this
+Holland is faithful to its traditions, for, as is well known, Dutch
+musicians were sought after in all the Christian courts as early as
+the sixteenth century. It has also been said that the Dutch have great
+ability in singing in chorus. In fact, the pleasure of singing
+together must be great if it is in proportion to the aversion they
+have to singing alone, for I do not ever remember hearing any one sing
+a tune at any hour or in any part of a Dutch town, excepting street
+urchins, who were singing in derision at drunken men, and drunkards
+are seldom seen excepting on public holidays.
+
+I have spoken of the French operettas and comedies. At the Hague not only
+the plays are French, but public life as well. Rotterdam has an English
+imprint, Amsterdam is German, and the Hague Parisian. So it may truthfully
+be said that the citizens of the large Dutch towns unite and temper the
+good qualities and the defects of the three great neighboring nations. At
+the Hague in many families of the best society they speak French
+altogether; in others they affect French expressions, as is done in some
+of the northern towns of Italy. Addresses on letters are generally written
+in French, and there is a small branch of society, as is frequently the
+case in small countries, that professes a certain contempt for the
+national language, literature, and art, and courts an adopted country
+beyond the Meuse and the Rhine. The sympathies, however, are divided. The
+elegant class inclines toward France, the learned class toward Germany,
+and the mercantile class toward England. The zeal for France grew cold
+after the Commune. Against Germany a secret animosity has arisen,
+generated by the fear that in her acquisitive tastes she might turn toward
+Holland. This feeling still ferments, though it is tempered by community
+of interest against clerical Catholicism.
+
+When it is said that the Hague is partly a French city, it must be
+understood that this relates to its appearance only; at bottom the
+Dutch characteristics predominate. Although it is a rich, elegant, and
+gay city, it is not a city of riot and dissipation, full of duels and
+scandals. The life is more varied and lively than that found in other
+Dutch towns, but not less peaceful. The duels that take place in the
+Hague in ten years may be counted on the five fingers of one's hand,
+and the aggressor in the few that take place is usually an officer.
+Notwithstanding, to show how powerful in Holland is this "ferocious
+prejudice that honor dwells on the point of the sword," I recall a
+discussion between several Dutchmen which was raised by a question of
+mine. When I asked whether public opinion in Holland was hostile to
+duels, they answered all together, "Exceedingly hostile." But when I
+wanted to know whether a young man in good society who did not accept
+a challenge would be universally praised, and would still be treated
+and respected as before--whether, in short, he would be supported by
+public opinion so that he would not repent his conduct--then they all
+began discussing. Some weakly answered, "Yes;" others resolutely,
+"No." But the general opinion was on the negative side. Hence I
+concluded that although there are few duels in Holland, this does not
+arise, as I thought, from a universal and absolute contempt for the
+"ferocious prejudice," but rather from the rarity of the cases in
+which two citizens allow themselves to be carried by passion to the
+point of having recourse to arms; which is a result of nature rather
+than of education. In public controversies and private discussions,
+however violent, personal insults are very rare, and in parliamentary
+battles, which are sometimes very vigorous, the deputies are often
+exceedingly impertinent, but they always speak calmly and without
+clamor. But this impertinence consists in the fact rather than in the
+word, and wounds in silence.
+
+In the conversations at the club I was astonished at first to note
+that no one spoke for the pleasure of speaking. When any one opened
+his mouth it was to ask a question or to tell a piece of news or to
+make an observation. That art of making a period of every idea, a
+story of every fact, a question of every trifle, in which Italians,
+French, and Spaniards are masters, is here totally unknown. Dutch
+conversation is not an exchange of sounds, but a commerce of facts,
+and nobody makes the least effort to appear learned, eloquent, or
+witty. In all the time I was at the Hague I remember hearing only one
+witticism, and that from a deputy, who speaking to me of the alliance
+of the ancient Batavians with the Romans, said, "We have always been
+the friends of constituted authority." Yet the Dutch language lends
+itself to puns: in proof of this there is the incident of a pretty
+foreign lady who asked a young boatman of the _trekschuit_ for a
+cushion, and not pronouncing the word well, instead of cushion said
+kiss, which in Dutch sounds almost the same; and she scarcely had time
+to explain the mistake, for the boatman had already wiped his mouth
+with the back of his hand. I had read that the Dutch are avaricious
+and selfish, and that they have a habit of boring people with long
+accounts of their ailments, but as I studied the Dutch character I
+came to see that these charges are untrue. On the contrary, they laugh
+at the Germans for their complaining disposition. To sustain the
+charge of avarice somebody has brought forward the very incredible
+statement that during a naval battle with the English the officers of
+the Dutch fleet boarded the vessels of the enemy, who had used all
+their ammunition, sold them balls and powder at exorbitant prices,
+after which they continued the battle. But to contradict this
+accusation there is the fact of their comfortable life, of their rich
+houses, of the large sums of money spent in books and pictures, and
+still more of the widespread works of charity, in which the Dutch
+people certainly stand first in Europe. These philanthropic works are
+not official nor do they receive any impulse from the government; they
+are spontaneous and voluntary, and are carried on by large and
+powerful societies that have founded innumerable institutes--schools,
+prizes, libraries, popular reunions--helping and anticipating the
+government in the duty of public instruction,--whose branches extend
+from the large cities to the humblest villages, embracing every
+religious sect, every age, every profession, and every need; in short,
+a beneficence which does not leave in Holland a poor person without a
+roof or a workman without work. All writers who have studied Holland
+agree in saying that there probably is not another state in Europe
+where, in proportion to the population, a larger amount is given in
+charity by the wealthy classes to those who are in want.
+
+It must not, however, be imagined that the Dutch people have no
+defects. They certainly have them, if one may consider as defects the
+lack of those qualities which ought to be the splendor and nobility of
+their virtues. In their firmness we might find some obstinacy, in
+their honesty a certain sordidness; we might hold that their coldness
+shows the absence of that spontaneity of feeling without which it
+seems impossible that there can be affection, generosity, and true
+greatness of soul. But the better one knows them, the more one
+hesitates to pronounce these judgments, and the more one feels for
+them a growing respect and sympathy on leaving Holland. Voltaire was
+able to speak the famous words: "Adieu, canaux, canards, canaille;"
+but when he had to judge Holland seriously, he remembered that he had
+not found in its capital "an idle person, a poor, dissipated, or
+insolent man," and that he had everywhere seen "industry and modesty."
+Louis Napoleon proclaimed that in no other European country is there
+found so much innate good sense, justice, and reason as there is in
+Holland; Descartes gave the Hollanders the greatest praise a
+philosopher can give to a people when he said that in no country does
+one enjoy greater liberty than in Holland; Charles V. pronounced upon
+them the highest eulogy possible to a sovereign when he said that they
+were "excellent subjects, but the worst of slaves." An Englishman
+wrote that the Dutch inspire an esteem that never becomes affection.
+Perhaps he did not esteem them highly enough.
+
+I do not conceal the fact that one of my reasons for liking them was
+the discovery that Italy is much better known in Holland than I should
+have dared to hope. Not only did our revolution find a favorable echo
+there, as was natural in a independent nation free and hostile to the
+pope, but the Italian leaders and the events of recent times are as
+familiarly known as those of France and Germany. The best newspapers
+have Italian correspondents and furnish the public with the minutest
+details of our affairs. In many places portraits of our most
+illustrious citizens are seen. Acquaintance with our literature is no
+less extended than knowledge of our politics. Putting aside the fact
+that the Italian language was sung in the halls of the ancient counts
+of Holland, that in the golden age of Dutch literature it was greatly
+honored by men of letters, and that several of the most illustrious
+poets of that period wrote Italian verses or imitated our pastoral
+poetry,--the Italian language is considerably studied nowadays, and
+one frequently meets those who speak it, and it is common to see our
+books on ladies' tables. The "Divina Commedia," which came into vogue
+especially after 1830, has been twice translated into rhymed triplets.
+One version is the work of a certain Hacke van Mijnden, who devoted
+all his life to the study of Dante. "Gerusalemme Liberata" has been
+translated in verse by a Protestant clergyman called Ten Kate, and
+there was another version, unpublished and now lost, by Maria
+Tesseeschade, the great poetess of the seventeenth century, the
+intimate friend of the great Dutch poet Vondel, who advised and helped
+her in the translation. Of the "Pastor Fido" there are at least five
+translations by different hands. Of "Aminta" there are several
+translations, and, to make a leap, at least four of "Mie Prigioni,"
+besides a very fine translation of the "Promessi Sposi," a novel that
+few Dutch people have not read either in their own language, in
+French, or in Italian. To cite another interesting fact, there is a
+poem entitled "Florence," written for the last centenary of Dante by
+one of the best Dutch poets of our day.
+
+It is now in place to say something about Dutch literature.
+
+Holland presents a singular disproportion between the expansive force
+of its political, scientific, and commercial life and that of its
+literary life. While the work of the Dutch in every other field
+extends beyond the frontier of the land, its literature is confined
+within its own borders. It is especially strange that, although
+Holland possesses a most abundant literature, it has not, as other
+little states, produced one book that has become European, unless we
+class among literary works the writings of Spinoza, the only great
+philosopher of his country, or consider as Dutch literature the
+forgotten Latin treatises of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Yet if there be a
+country which by its nature and history suggests subjects to inspire
+the mind to the production of such poetical works as appeal to the
+imagination of all nations, that country is Holland. The marvellous
+transformations of the land, the terrible inundations, the fabulous
+maritime expeditions,--these ought to have given birth to a poem
+powerful and original even when stripped of its native form. Why did
+not this occur? The nature of the Dutch genius may be adduced as a
+reason, which, aiming at utility in everything, wished to turn
+literature also to a practical end. Another tendency, the opposite of
+this, though, perhaps derived from it, is that of soaring high above
+human nature to avoid treading on the ground with the mass; a
+weariness of genius which gave to judgment the ascendency over the
+imagination; an innate love of all that was precise and finished,
+which resulted in a prolixity in which grand ideas were diluted; the
+spirit of the religious sects, which enchained within a narrow circle
+talents created to survey a vast horizon. But neither these nor other
+reasons can keep one from wondering that there should not be one
+writer of Dutch literature who worthily represents to the world the
+greatness of his country--a name to be placed between Rembrandt and
+Spinoza.
+
+However, it would be a mistake to overlook at least the three
+principal figures of Dutch literature, two of whom belong to the
+seventeenth and one to the nineteenth century--three original poets
+who differ widely from each other, but represent in themselves Dutch
+poetry in its entirety: Vondel, Catz, and Bilderdijk.
+
+[Illustration: The Vyver, The Hague.]
+
+Vondel, the greatest poet Holland has produced, was born in 1587 at
+Cologne, where his father, a hatmaker, had taken refuge, having fled
+from Antwerp to escape from the Spanish persecutions. While still a
+child the future poet returned to his country on a barrow, together
+with his father and mother, who followed him on foot, praying and
+reciting verses from the Bible. His studies began at Amsterdam. At
+fifteen years of age he was already renowned as a poet, but his
+celebrated works date from 1620. At the age of thirty he knew only his
+own language, but later he learned French and Latin, and applied
+himself with ardor to the study of the classics; at fifty he gave
+himself up to Greek. His first tragedy (for he was chiefly a
+dramatist), entitled "The Destruction of Jerusalem," was not very
+successful. The second, "Palamades," in which was delineated the
+piteous and terrible tale of Olden Barneveldt, a victim of Maurice of
+Orange, caused a criminal action to be brought against the author. He
+fled, and remained in concealment until the unexpectedly mild sentence
+was given which condemned him to a fine of three hundred florins. In
+1627 he travelled in Denmark and Sweden, where he was received with
+great honors by Gustavus Adolphus. Eleven years later he opened the
+theatre at Amsterdam with a drama on a national theme, "Gilbert of
+Amstel," which is still performed once a year in his memory. The last
+years of his life were very unhappy. His dissipated son reduced him to
+poverty, and the poor old man, tired of study and broken down with
+sorrow, was obliged to beg for a miserable employment at the city
+pawnbroker's. A few years before his death he embraced the Catholic
+faith, and, seized with fresh inspiration, composed the tragedy of
+"The Virgin" and one of his best poems entitled "The Mysteries of
+the Altar." He died at a great age, and was buried in a church at
+Amsterdam, where a century afterward a monument was erected in his
+honor. Besides tragedies he wrote martial songs to his country, to
+illustrious Dutch sailors, and to Prince Frederick Henry. But his
+chief glory was the drama. An admirer of Greek tragedy, he preserved
+the unities, the chorus, the supernatural, substituting Providence for
+Destiny, and demons and angels (the good and evil spirits of
+Christianity) for the angry and propitious gods. He drew nearly all
+his subjects from the Bible. His finest work is the tragedy of
+"Lucifer," which, notwithstanding the almost insuperable difficulties
+of stage setting, was represented twice at the theatre in Amsterdam,
+after which it was interdicted by the Protestant clergy. The subject
+of the drama is the rebellion of Lucifer, and the characters are the
+good and bad angels. In this as in his other plays there abound
+fantastic descriptions full of splendid imagery, passages of powerful
+eloquence, fine choruses, vigorous thought, solemn phrases, rich and
+sonorous verse, while here and there are gleams and flashes of genius.
+On the other hand, his work is pervaded by a mysticism which is
+sometimes obscure and austere, by a discord between Christian ideas
+and pagan forms. The lyrical element predominates over the dramatic,
+good taste is often offended, and, above all, the thought and feeling,
+though aiming at the sublime, rise too high above this earth, and
+elude the comprehension of the human heart and mind. Nevertheless,
+historical precedence, originality, ardent patriotism, and a noble and
+patient life have made Vondel a great and venerated name in his
+country, where he is regarded as the personification of national
+genius, and is placed in the enthusiasm of affection next to the first
+poets of other lands.
+
+Vondel is the greatest, Jacob Catz is the truest, personification of Dutch
+genius. He is not only the most popular poet of his nation, but his
+popularity is such that it may be affirmed that there is no other writer
+of any land, not excluding even Cervantes in Spain and Manzoni in Italy,
+who is more generally known and more constantly read, while at the same
+time there is perhaps no other poet in the world whose popularity is more
+necessarily limited to the boundaries of his own country. Jacob Catz was
+born in 1577 of a noble family in Brouwershaven, a town of Zealand. He
+studied law, became pensionary of Middelburg, went as ambassador to
+England, was Grand Pensionary of Holland, and, while he performed the
+duties of these offices with zeal and rectitude, he devotedly cultivated
+poetry. In the evening, after he had transacted affairs of state with the
+deputies of the provinces, he would retire to his home to write verses. At
+seventy-five years of age he asked to be released from further service,
+and when the stadtholder told him with appreciative words that his
+request had been granted, he fell on his knees in the presence of the
+Assembly of the States and thanked God, who had always protected him
+during the course of his long and exacting political life. A few days
+later he retired to one of his villas, where he enjoyed a peaceful and
+honorable old age, studying and writing up to the year 1660, when he died,
+in the eighty-first year of his life, mourned by all Holland. His poems
+fill several large volumes, and consist of fables, madrigals, stories from
+history and mythology, abounding in descriptions, quotations, sentences,
+and precepts. His work is pervaded with goodness, honesty, and sweetness,
+and he writes with frank simplicity and delicate humor. His volume is the
+book of national wisdom, the second Bible of the Dutch nation--a manual
+which teaches how to live honestly and in peace. He has a word for
+all--for boys as well as old men, for merchants as well as princes, for
+mistresses as well as for maids, for the rich as well as for the poor. He
+teaches how to spend, to save, to do housework, to govern a family, and to
+educate children. He is at the same time a friend, a father, a spiritual
+director, a master, an economist, a doctor, and a lawyer. He loves modest
+nature, the gardens, the meadows; he adores his wife, does his work, and
+is satisfied with himself and with other people, and would like every one
+to be as contented as he is. His poems are to be found beside the Bible
+in every Dutch house. There is not a peasant's cottage where the head of
+the family does not read some of his verses every evening. In days of
+sadness and doubt all look for comfort and find it in their old poet. He
+is the intimate fireside friend, the faithful companion of the invalid;
+his is the first book over which the faces of affianced lovers bend; his
+verses are the first that children lisp and the last that grand-sires
+repeat. No poet is so loved as he. Every Dutchman smiles when he hears his
+name spoken, and no foreigner who has been in Holland can help naming it
+with a feeling of sympathy and respect.
+
+The last of the three, Bilderdijk, was born in 1756 and died in 1831: his
+was one of the most marvellous intellects that have ever appeared in this
+world. He was a poet, historian, philologist, astronomer, chemist, doctor,
+theologian, antiquary, jurisconsult, designer, engraver--a restless,
+unsettled, capricious man, whose life was nothing but an investigation, a
+transformation, a perpetual battle with his vast genius. As a young man,
+when he was already famous as a poet, he abandoned the Muse and entered
+politics; he emigrated with the stadtholder to England, and gave lessons
+in London to earn a livelihood. He tired of England and went to Germany;
+bored by German romanticism, he returned to Holland, where Louis Bonaparte
+overwhelmed him with favors. When Louis left the throne, Napoleon the
+Great deprived the favorite of his pension, and he was reduced to
+poverty. Finally he obtained a small pension from the government, and
+continued studying, writing, and struggling to the last day of his life.
+His works embrace more than thirty volumes of science, art, and
+literature. He tried every style, and succeeded in all excepting the
+dramatic. He enlarged historical criticism by writing one of the finest
+national histories his country possesses. He wrote a poem, "The Primitive
+World," an abstruse, gloomy composition which is very much admired in
+Holland. He dealt with every possible question, confounding luminous
+truths with the strangest paradoxes. He even raised the national
+literature, which had fallen into decadence, and left a phalanx of chosen
+disciples who followed in his steps in politics, art, and philosophy.
+Holland regards him not only with enthusiasm, but with fanaticism, and
+there is no doubt that after Vondel he is the greatest poet of his
+country. But he was possessed by a religious frenzy, a blind hatred of new
+ideas, which caused him to make poetry an instrument of sects: he
+introduces theology into everything, and consequently he could not attain
+to that free serene region beyond which genius cannot obtain enduring
+victories and universal fame.
+
+Round these three poets, who represent the three vices of Dutch
+literature--of losing themselves in the clouds, of creeping on the ground,
+of entangling themselves in the meshes of mysticism--are grouped a number
+of epic, comic, satiric, and lyric poets, most of whom flourished in the
+seventeenth and a few in the eighteenth century. Many of them are renowned
+in Holland, but none possesses sufficient originality to attract the
+attention of the passing stranger.
+
+The present condition deserves a rapid glance. Criticism by stripping
+from Dutch history the veil of poetry with which the patriotism of
+writers had clothed it, has placed it on the wider and more productive
+plain of justice. Philological studies are held in high honor in
+Holland, and almost all the sciences are represented by men of
+European fame. These are facts of which no scholar is ignorant, and a
+bare mention of them is sufficient.
+
+In pure literature the most flourishing style is the novel. Holland
+has had its national novelist, its Walter Scott, in Van Lennep, who
+died a few years ago, a writer of historical romances which were
+received with enthusiasm by all classes of society. He was an
+effective painter of customs, a learned, witty writer, and a master of
+the art of dialogue and description, but, unfortunately, often prolix.
+He used old artifices, adopted forced solutions, and often was not
+sufficiently reticent. In his last book, "The Adventures of Nicoletta
+Zevenster," while admirably describing Dutch society at the beginning
+of this century, he had the unheard-of audacity to describe an
+improper house at the Hague. All Holland was in an uproar. His book
+was discussed, criticised, condemned, praised to the skies, and the
+battle still continues. Other historical novels were written by a
+certain Schimmel, a worthy rival of Van Lennep, and by a Madame
+Rosboon Toussaint, an accomplished author of deep study and real
+talent. Nevertheless, historical romance may be considered dead even
+in Holland. The modern novels of social life and the story meet with
+better fortune. Most prominent in this field is Beets, a Protestant
+clergyman and a poet, the author of a celebrated book entitled "The
+Dark Chamber." Koetsweldt is another of this class, and there are also
+some young men of great gifts who have been prevented from rising to
+any height by haste, the demon that persecutes the literature of
+to-day.
+
+Holland has still another kind of romance which is its own. It might
+be called Indian romance, since it describes the habits and life of
+the people of the colonies. Of late years several novels have been
+published in this style, which have been received in the country with
+great applause and have been translated into several languages. Among
+these is the "Beau Monde of Batavia," by Professor Ten Brink, a
+learned, and brilliant writer, of whom I should like to be able to
+speak at length to attest in some degree my gratitude and admiration.
+But _apropos_ of Indian romances, it is pleasant to notice how in
+Holland at every step one hears and sees something that reminds one
+of the colonies, as if a ray of the Indian sun penetrated the Dutch
+winter and colored the life. The ships which bring a breath of wind
+from those distant lands to the home ports, the birds, the flowers,
+the countless objects, like sounds mingled with faint music, call up
+in the mind images of another nature and another race. In the cities
+of Holland, among the thousands of white faces, one often meets men
+whose visages are bronzed by the sun, who have been born or have lived
+for many years in the colonies--merchants who speak with unusual
+vivacity of dark women, bananas, palm forests, and of lakes shaded by
+vines and orchids; young men who are bold enough to risk their lives
+amid the savages of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra; men of science
+and men of letters; officers who speak of the tribes which worship
+fish, of ambassadors who carry the heads of the vanquished dangling
+from their girdles, of bull and tiger fights, of the frenzy of
+opium-eaters, of the multitudes baptized with pomp, of a thousand
+strange and wonderful incidents which produce a singular effect when
+related by the phlegmatic people of this peaceful country.
+
+Poetry, after it lost Da Costa, a disciple of Bilderdijk, a religious
+poet and enthusiast, and Genestet, a satirical poet who died very
+young, had few champions in the last generation, and these are now
+silent or sing with enfeebled voice. The stage is in a worse
+condition. The untrained, ranting Dutch actors usually appear only in
+French or German dramas, comedies which are badly translated, and the
+best society does not go to see them. Writers of great talent, like
+Hofdijk, Schimmel, and Van Lennep, wrote comedies which were admirable
+in many ways, but they never became popular enough to hold the stage.
+Tragedy is in no better condition than comedy and the drama.
+
+From what I have said it would appear that there is not at present any
+great literary movement in Holland; but on the contrary, there is
+great literary activity. The number of books published is incredible,
+and it is marvellous with what avidity they are read. Every town,
+every religious sect, every society, has its review or newspaper.
+Besides this, there is a multitude of foreign books: English novels
+are in the hands of all; French works of eight, ten, and twenty
+volumes are translated into the national language. This is the more
+remarkable in a country where all cultivated people can read the
+originals, and it proves how customary it is not only to read, but to
+buy, although books are a great deal more expensive in Holland than
+elsewhere. But this superabundance of publications and this thirst for
+reading are precisely those elements which are injuring literature.
+Writers, in order to satisfy the impatient curiosity of the public,
+write in too great haste, and the mania for foreign literature
+smothers and corrupts the national genius. Nevertheless, Dutch
+literature has still a just claim to the esteem of the country: it
+has declined, but has not become perverted; it has preserved its
+innocence and freshness; what is lacking in imagination, originality,
+and brilliancy is compensated by wisdom, by the severe respect for
+good manners and good taste, by loving solicitude for the poorer
+classes, by the effective energy with which it advances charity and
+civil education. The literatures of other lands are great plants
+adorned with fragrant flowers; Dutch literature is a little tree laden
+with fruit.
+
+On the morning when I left the Hague, after my second visit to the
+city, some of my good friends accompanied me to the railway-station.
+It was raining. When we were in the waiting-room, before the train
+started, I thanked my kind hosts for the courteous reception they had
+given me, and, knowing that perhaps I should never see them again, I
+could not help expressing my gratitude in sad and affectionate words,
+to which they listened in silence. Only one interrupted me by advising
+me to guard against the damp.
+
+"I hope at least some of you will come to Italy," I continued, "if
+only to give me the opportunity of showing my gratitude. Do promise me
+this, so that I may feel a little consoled at my departure. I will not
+leave if some one does not say he will come to Italy."
+
+They looked into each other's faces, and one answered laconically,
+"Perhaps." Another advised me not to change French gold in the shops.
+At that moment the last bell rang.
+
+"Well, then, good-bye," I said in an agitated voice, pressing their
+hands. "Farewell: I shall never forget the glorious days passed at the
+Hague; I shall always recall your names as the dearest remembrance of
+my journey. Think of me sometimes."
+
+"Good-bye," they all answered in the same tone, as if they were expecting
+to see me the next day. I leaped into the railway-carriage stricken at
+heart, and looked out of the window until the train started, and saw them
+all standing there, motionless, silent with impassive faces, their eyes
+fixed on mine. I waved a last farewell, and they responded with a slight
+bend of the head, and then disappeared from my sight for ever. Whenever I
+think of them I see them just as they were when I left them, in the same
+attitude, with their serious faces and fixed eyes, and the affection that
+I feel for them has in it something of austerity and sadness like their
+native sky on the day when I last beheld them.
+
+
+THE END OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Holland, v. 1 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Holland, v. 1 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Holland, v. 1 (of 2)
+
+Author: Edmondo de Amicis
+
+Translator: Helen Zimmern
+
+Release Date: January 13, 2009 [EBook #27799]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOLLAND, V. 1 (OF 2) ***
+
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+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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+</pre>
+
+
+<h2 class="top3">HOLLAND.<br /><br /><br /></h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="498"
+alt="cover" title="cover" />
+<br />
+<span class="caption">Front Cover</span>
+</div>
+
+<h1 class="top4"></h1>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/illus01.jpg" width="500" height="742"
+alt="A Dutch Windmill." title="A Dutch Windmill." />
+</div>
+
+<h1 class="top3">HOLLAND.<br /><br /><br /></h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+<h2>EDMONDO DE AMICIS,</h2>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Author of "Spain," "Morocco," etc.</span></h4>
+
+<h4 class="top4">TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRTEENTH EDITION OF THE ITALIAN BY</h4>
+<h2>HELEN ZIMMERN.</h2>
+
+<h2 class="top3">ILLUSTRATED.</h2>
+
+<h2 class="top4">IN TWO VOLUMES.<br /><br /></h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">Vol. I.</span></h2>
+
+<h3 class="top4">PHILADELPHIA</h3>
+<h3>HENRY T. COATES &amp; CO.</h3>
+
+<p class="top4"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1894, by</span></h4>
+<h4>PORTER &amp; COATES.</h4>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+<h4 class="top4">TO</h4>
+<h3>PIETRO GROLIER.<br /></h3>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="top4">CONTENTS.</h2>
+<hr />
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" summary="Table of Contents with Hyperlinks">
+<tr><td colspan="2" class='td3'><span class="smfnt">PAGE</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td2'><a href="#HOLLAND"><span class="smcap">Holland</span></a></td>
+    <td class='td3'>9</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td2'><a href="#ZEALAND"><span class="smcap">Zealand</span></a></td>
+    <td class='td3'>29</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td2'><a href="#ROTTERDAM"><span class="smcap">Rotterdam</span></a></td>
+    <td class='td3'>57</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td2'><a href="#DELFT"><span class="smcap">Delft</span></a></td>
+    <td class='td3'>131</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td2'><a href="#THE_HAGUE"><span class="smcap">The Hague</span></a></td>
+    <td class='td3'>171</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="top4">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<h3>VOLUME I.</h3>
+<hr/>
+<h4>Photographs taken expressly for this edition of "Holland" by Dr.
+    <span class="smcap">Charles L. Mitchell</span>, Philadelphia.</h4>
+
+<h4>Photogravures by <span class="smcap">A. W. Elson &amp; Co.</span>, Boston.</h4>
+<hr/>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td colspan="2" class='td5'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>A Dutch Windmill</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_1"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Dutch Fishing-boats</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_26pic">26</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Dordrecht&mdash;Canal with Cathedral in the Distance</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_48pic">48</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>In Rotterdam</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_64pic">64</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Interior of the Church of St. Lawrence</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_80pic">80</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>On the Meuse, near Rotterdam</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_94pic">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>The Steiger, Rotterdam</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_110pic">110</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>The Statue of Tollens</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_126pic">126</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Near the Arsenal, Delft</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_134pic">134</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Monument of Admiral Van Tromp</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_140pic">140</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Stairway where William the Silent was Assassinated in the Prinsenhof, Delft</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_150pic">150</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Refectory of the Convent of St. Agatha, Delft</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_156pic">156</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Old Delft</td><td class='td5'><a href="#Page_166pic">166</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>On the Canal near Delft</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_174pic">174</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>The Binnenhof, The Hague</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_184pic">184</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Paul Potter's Bull</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_198pic">198</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>On the Road to Scheveningen</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_214pic">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>Fisherman's Children, Scheveningen</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_228pic">228</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>The Main Drive in the Bosch, The Hague</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_246pic">246</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='td4'>The Vyver, The Hague</td>
+    <td class='td5'><a href="#Page_262pic">262</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="HOLLAND" id="HOLLAND"></a>HOLLAND.</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">ONE who looks for the first time at a large map of Holland must be
+amazed to think that a country so made can exist. At first sight, it
+is impossible to say whether land or water predominates, and whether
+Holland belongs to the continent or to the sea. Its jagged and narrow
+coast-line, its deep bays and wide rivers, which seem to have lost the
+outer semblance of rivers and to be carrying fresh seas to the sea;
+and that sea itself, as if transformed to a river, penetrating far
+into the land, and breaking it up into archipelagoes; the lakes and
+vast marshes, the canals crossing each other everywhere,&mdash;all leave an
+impression that a country so broken up must disintegrate and
+disappear. It would be pronounced a fit home for only beavers and
+seals, and surely its inhabitants, although of a race so bold as to
+dwell there, ought never to lie down in peace.</p>
+
+<p>When I first looked at a large map of Holland these thoughts crowded
+into my mind, and I felt a great desire to know something about the
+formation of this singular country; and as what I learned impelled me
+to make a book, I write it now in the hope that I may lead others to
+read it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Those who do not know a country usually ask travellers, "What sort of
+place is it?"</p>
+
+<p>Many have told briefly what kind of country Holland is.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon said: "It is an alluvium of French rivers, the Rhine, the
+Scheldt, and the Meuse," and under this pretext he annexed it to the
+Empire. One writer defined it as a sort of transition between the
+earth and the sea. Another calls it "an immense surface of earth
+floating on the water." Others speak of it as an annex of the old
+continent, the China of Europe, the end of the earth and the beginning
+of the ocean&mdash;a huge raft of mud and sand; and Philip II. called it
+"the country nearest hell."</p>
+
+<p>But on one point they were all agreed, and expressed themselves in the
+same words: Holland is a conquest of man over the sea; it is an
+artificial country; the Dutch made it; it exists because the Dutch
+preserve it, and would disappear if they were to abandon it.</p>
+
+<p>To understand these words we must picture to ourselves Holland as it
+was when the first German tribes, wandering in search of a country,
+came to inhabit it.</p>
+
+<p>Holland was then almost uninhabitable. It was composed of lakes, vast
+and stormy as seas, flowing into each other; marshes and morasses,
+thickets and brushwood; of huge forests, overrun by herds of wild
+horses; vast stretches of pines, oaks, and alder trees,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> in which,
+tradition tells us, you could traverse leagues passing from trunk to
+trunk without ever putting your foot to the ground. The deep bays
+carried the northern storms into the very heart of the country. Once a
+year certain provinces disappeared under the sea, becoming muddy
+plains which were neither earth nor water, on which one could neither
+walk nor sail. The large rivers, for lack of sufficient incline to
+drain them into the sea, strayed here and there, as if uncertain which
+road to take, and then fell asleep in vast pools amongst the
+coast-sands. It was a dreary country, swept by strong winds, scourged
+by continual rain, and enveloped in a perpetual fog, through which
+nothing was heard save the moaning of the waves, the roaring of wild
+beasts and the screeching of sea-fowl. The first people who had the
+courage to pitch their tents in it were obliged to erect with their
+own hands, hillocks of earth as a protection from the inundations of
+the rivers and the invasions of the ocean, and they were obliged to
+live on these heights like shipwrecked-men on lonely islands,
+descending, when the waters withdrew, to seek nourishment by fishing,
+hunting, and collecting the eggs which the sea-fowl had laid on the
+sands. Cæsar, when he passed by, gave the first name to this people.
+The other Latin historians spoke with mingled pity and respect of
+these intrepid barbarians who lived on "a floating country," exposed
+to the inclemency of an unfeeling sky and to the fury of the
+mysterious North
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+Sea. Imagination can picture the Roman soldiers from
+the heights of the utmost wave-washed citadels of the empire,
+contemplating with sadness and wonder the wandering tribes of that
+desolate country, and regarding them as a race accursed of Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Now, when we reflect that such a region has become one of the richest,
+most fertile, and best-governed countries in the world, we understand
+how justly Holland is called the conquest of man.</p>
+
+<p>But it should be added that it is a continuous conquest.</p>
+
+<p>To explain this fact,&mdash;to show how the existence of Holland,
+notwithstanding the great works of defence built by its inhabitants,
+still requires an incessant struggle fraught with perils,&mdash;it is
+sufficient to glance rapidly at the greatest changes of its physical
+history, beginning at the time when its people had reduced it to a
+habitable country.</p>
+
+<p>Tradition tells of a great inundation of Friesland in the sixth
+century. From that period catastrophes are recorded in every gulf, in
+every island, one may say, in almost every town, of Holland. It is
+reckoned that through thirteen centuries one great inundation, besides
+smaller ones, has taken place every seven years, and, since the
+country is an extended plain, these inundations were very deluges.
+Toward the end of the thirteenth century the sea destroyed part of a
+very fertile peninsula near the mouth of the Ems and laid waste more
+than thirty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>
+villages. In the same century a series of marine
+inundations opened an immense gap in Northern Holland and formed the
+Gulf of the Zuyder Zee, killing about eighty thousand people. In 1421
+a storm caused the Meuse to overflow, and in one night buried in its
+waters seventy-two villages and one hundred thousand inhabitants. In
+1532 the sea broke the embankments of Zealand, destroyed a hundred
+villages, and buried for ever a vast tract of the country. In 1570 a
+tempest produced another inundation in Zealand and in the province of
+Utrecht; Amsterdam was inundated, and in Friesland twenty thousand
+people were drowned. Other great floods occurred in the seventeenth
+century; two terrible ones at the beginning and at the end of the
+eighteenth; one in 1825, which laid waste Northern Holland, Friesland,
+Over-Yssel, and Gelderland; another in 1855, when the Rhine,
+overflowing, flooded Gelderland and the province of Utrecht and
+submerged a large part of North Brabant. Besides these great
+catastrophes, there occurred in the different centuries innumerable
+others which would have been famous in other countries, but were
+scarcely noticed in Holland&mdash;such as the inundation of the large Lake
+of Haarlem caused by an invasion of the sea. Flourishing towns of the
+Zuyder Zee Gulf disappeared under water; the islands of Zealand were
+repeatedly covered by the sea and then again left dry; the villages on
+the coast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+from Helder to the mouths of the Meuse were frequently
+submerged and ruined; and in each of these inundations there was an
+immense loss of life of both man and beast. It is clear that miracles
+of courage, constancy, and industry must have been wrought by the
+Dutch people, first in creating, and then in preserving, such a
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy against which the Dutch had to defend their country was
+threefold&mdash;the sea, the rivers, and the lakes. The Dutch drained the
+lakes, drove back the sea, and imprisoned the rivers.</p>
+
+<p>To drain the lakes they called the air to their aid. The lakes and
+marshes were surrounded with dykes, the dykes with canals and an army
+of windmills; these, putting the suction-pumps in motion, poured the
+waters into the canals, which conducted them into the rivers and to
+the sea. Thus vast areas of ground which were buried under water saw
+the light, and were transformed, as if by enchantment, into fertile
+plains covered with villages and traversed by roads and canals. In the
+seventeenth century, in less than forty years, twenty-six lakes were
+emptied. In Northern Holland alone at the beginning of this century
+more than six thousand hectares of land were delivered from the
+waters, in Southern Holland, before 1844, twenty-nine thousand
+hectares, and in the whole of Holland, from 1500 to 1858, three
+hundred and fifty-five thousand hectares. By the use of steam pumps
+instead of windmills, the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+great undertaking of draining the Lake of
+Haarlem was completed in thirty-nine months. This lake, which
+threatened the towns of Haarlem, Amsterdam, and Leyden with raging
+storms, was forty-four kilometers in circumference. At present the
+Hollanders are contemplating the prodigious enterprise of draining the
+Gulf of the Zuyder Zee, which covers a space of more than seven
+hundred square kilometers.</p>
+
+<p>The rivers, another internal enemy of Holland, did not cost less
+fatigue or fewer sacrifices. Some, like the Rhine, which loses itself
+in the sand before reaching the ocean, had to be channelled and
+protected from the tide at their mouths by immense locks; others, like
+the Meuse, were flanked by large dykes, like those raised to force
+back the sea; others were turned from their channels. The wandering
+waters were gathered together, the course of the rivers was regulated,
+the streams were divided with rigorous precision, and sent in
+different directions to maintain the equilibrium of the enormous
+liquid mass,&mdash;for the smallest deviation might cause the submersion of
+whole provinces. In this manner all of the rivers, which originally
+wandered unrestrained, swamping and devastating the whole country,
+have been reduced to streams and have become the servants of man.</p>
+
+<p>But the fiercest struggle of all was the battle with the ocean.
+Holland, as a whole, lies lower than the sea-level; consequently,
+wherever the coast is
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
+not defended by downs it had to be protected by
+embankments. If these huge bulwarks of earth, wood, and granite were
+not standing like monuments to witness to the courage and perseverance
+of the Dutch, it would be impossible to believe that the hand of man,
+even in the course of many centuries, could have completed such an
+immense work. In Zealand alone the dykes extend over an area of four
+hundred kilometers. The western coast of the island of Walcheren is
+protected by a dyke, the cost of whose construction and preservation
+put out at interest would, it is calculated, have amounted to a sum
+great enough to have paid for the building of the dyke of solid
+copper. Round the town of Helder, at the northern extremity of
+Northern Holland, there is a dyke made of blocks of Norwegian granite
+which is ten kilometers long and stretches sixty meters into the sea.
+The province of Friesland, which is eighty-eight kilometers long, is
+protected by three rows of enormous palisades sustained by blocks of
+Norwegian and German granite. Amsterdam, all the towns on the coast of
+the Zuyder Zee, and all the islands which have been formed by
+fragments of the land that has disappeared, forming a sort of circle
+between Friesland and Northern Holland, are protected by dykes. From
+the mouths of the Ems to the mouths of the Scheldt, Holland is an
+impenetrable fort, in whose immense bastions the mills are the towers,
+the locks the gates, the islands the advanced forts; of which, like a
+real fortress, it shows to its enemy, the sea, only the tips of its
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+steeples and the roofs of its buildings, as though in derision or in
+challenge.</p>
+
+<p>In truth, Holland is a fortress, and the Dutch live as though they
+were in a fort&mdash;always in arms against the sea. A host of engineers,
+dependent on the minister of the interior, is scattered throughout the
+land, disciplined like an army. These men are continually on the
+alert, watching over the waters of the interior, anticipating the
+rupture of the dykes, ordering and directing the works of defence. The
+expenses of this warfare are distributed: one part is paid by the
+state, the other by the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the
+general imposts, a special tax on the dykes in proportion to the
+extent of his property and to its proximity to the waters. Any
+accidental breach, any carelessness, may cause a flood: the danger is
+ever present. The sentinels are at their posts on the ramparts, and at
+the first attack of the sea, give the war-cry, whereupon Holland sends
+out arms, materials, and money. And even when great battles are not in
+progress, a slow, noiseless struggle is ever going on. Innumerable
+windmills, even in the drained lakes, are continually working to
+exhaust the rain-water and the water that oozes from the earth, and to
+pump it into the canals. Every day the locks of the gulfs and rivers
+shut their gigantic doors in face of the high tide, which attempts to
+launch its billows into the heart of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+country. Work is continually
+going on to reinforce any weakened dykes, to fortify the downs by
+cultivation, to throw up fresh embankments where the downs are
+low&mdash;works towering like immense spears brandished in the midst of the
+sea, ready to break the first onset of the waves. The sea thunders
+eternally at the doors of the rivers, ceaselessly lashes their banks,
+roars forth its eternal menace, raises the crests of its billows
+curious to behold the contested ground, heaps banks of sand before the
+doors to destroy the commerce of the cities it wishes to possess;
+wastes, rasps, and undermines the coasts, and, unable to overthrow the
+ramparts, against which its impotent waves break in angry foam, it
+casts ships laden with corpses at the feet of the rebellious country
+to testify to its fury and its strength.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst this great struggle continues Holland is becoming transformed. A
+map of the country as it was eight centuries ago would not at first sight
+be recognized. The land is changed, the men are changed. The sea in some
+parts has driven back the coast; it has taken portions of the land from
+the continent, has abandoned and again retaken it; has reunited some of
+the islands to the continent by chains of sand, as in Zealand; has
+detached the borders of the continent and formed of them new islands, such
+as Wieringen; has withdrawn from some provinces, and has converted
+maritime cities into inland towns, as at Leeuwarden; it has changed vast
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>
+ plains into archipelagoes of a hundred isles, such
+as the Bies-Bosch; it has separated the city from the land, as at
+Dordrecht. New gulfs two leagues wide have been formed, such as the
+Gulf of Dollart; two provinces have been separated by a new
+sea&mdash;namely, North Holland and Friesland. Inundations have caused the
+level of the ground to be raised in some places, lowered in others;
+unfruitful soil has been fertilized by the sediment of the overflown
+rivers; fertile ground has been changed into deserts of sand. The
+transformations of the waters have given rise to a transformation of
+labor. Islands have been joined to the continent, as was the island of
+Ameland; whole provinces are being reduced to islands, as is the case
+with North Holland, which will be separated from South Holland by the
+new canal of Amsterdam; lakes as large as provinces have been made to
+disappear, like the Lake of Beemster. By the removal of the thick mud,
+land has been converted into lakes, and these lakes are again
+transformed into meadows. So the country changes, ordering and
+altering its aspect in accordance with the violence of the waters and
+the needs of man. As one glances over the latest map, he may be sure
+that in a few years, it will be useless, because at the moment he is
+studying it, there exist bays which will disappear little by little,
+tracts of land which are on the point of detaching themselves from the
+continent, and large canals which will open and carry life into
+uninhabited regions.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But Hollanders did more than defend themselves from the water; they
+became its masters. The water was their scourge; it became their
+defence. If a foreign army invades their territory, they open the
+dykes and loose the sea and the rivers, as they loosed them on the
+Romans, the Spanish, and the army of Louis XIV., and then defend the
+inland towns with their fleets. Water was their poverty; they have
+made it riches. The whole country is covered with a network of canals,
+which irrigate the land and are at the same time the highways of the
+people. The towns communicate with the sea by means of the canals;
+canals lead from town to town, binding the towns to the villages, and
+uniting the villages themselves, as they lie with their homesteads
+scattered over the plain. Smaller canals surround the farms, the
+meadows, and the kitchen-gardens, taking the place of walls and
+hedges; every house is a little port. Ships, barges, boats, and rafts
+sail through the villages, wind round the houses, and thread the
+country in all directions, just as carts and carriages do in other
+places.</p>
+
+<p>And here, too, Holland has accomplished many gigantic works, such as the
+William Canal in North Brabant, which, more than eighty kilometers long and
+thirty meters wide, crosses the whole of Northern Holland and unites
+Amsterdam to the North Sea: the new canal, the largest in Europe, which will
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
+join Amsterdam to the ocean, across the downs, and another, equally large,
+which will unite the town of Rotterdam to the sea. The canals are the veins
+of Holland, and the water is its blood.</p>
+
+<p>But, aside from the canals, the draining of the lakes, and the works
+of defence, as one passes rapidly through Holland he sees on every
+side indications of marvellous labor. The ground,&mdash;in other countries
+the gift of nature,&mdash;is here the result of industry. Holland acquired
+the greater part of its riches through commerce, but the earth had to
+yield its fruits before commerce could exist; and there was no
+earth&mdash;it had to be created. There were banks of sand, broken here and
+there by layers of peat, and downs which the wind blew about and
+scattered over the country; large expanses of muddy land, destined, as
+it seemed, to eternal barrenness. Iron and coal, the first elements of
+industry, were lacking; there was no wood, for the forests had already
+been destroyed by storms before agriculture began; there was neither
+stone nor metal. Nature, as a Dutch poet has said, had denied all its
+gifts to Holland, and the Dutch were obliged to do everything in spite
+of her. They began by fertilizing the sand. In some places they made
+the ground fruitful by placing on it layers of soil brought from a
+distance, just as a garden is formed; they spread the rubble from the
+downs over the sodden meadows; they mixed bits of the peat
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> taken from
+the water with the earth that was too sandy; they dug up clay to give
+a fresh fertility to the surface of the ground; they strove to till
+the downs; and thus, by a thousand varied efforts, as they continually
+warded off the threatening waters, they succeeded in cultivating
+Holland as highly as other countries more favored by Nature. The
+Holland of sands and marshes, which the ancients considered barely
+habitable, now sends abroad, year by year, agricultural products to
+the value of a hundred million francs, possesses about a million three
+hundred thousand head of cattle, and may be rated in proportion to its
+size among the most populous countries in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it is obvious that in a country so extraordinary the inhabitants must
+be very different from those of other lands. Indeed, few peoples have been
+more influenced by the nature of the country they inhabit, than the Dutch.
+Their genius is in perfect harmony with the physical character of Holland.
+When one contemplates the memorials of the great warfare which this nation
+has waged with the sea, one understands that its characteristics must be
+steadfastness and patience, conjoined with calm and determined courage. The
+glorious struggle, and the knowledge that they owe everything to
+themselves, must have infused and strengthened in them a lofty sense of
+their own dignity and an indomitable spirit
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+of liberty and independence. The necessity for a
+continual struggle, for incessant work, and for continual sacrifices
+to protect their very existence, confronts them perpetually with
+realities, and must have helped to make them an extremely practical
+and economical nation. Good sense necessarily became their most
+prominent quality; economy was perforce one of their principal
+virtues. This nation was obliged to excel in useful works, to be sober
+in its enjoyments, simple even in its greatness, and successful in all
+things that are to be attained by tenacity of purpose and by activity
+springing from reflection and precision. It had to be wise rather than
+heroic, conservative rather than creative; to give no great architects
+to the edifice of modern thought, but many able workmen, a legion of
+patient and useful laborers. By virtue of these qualities of prudence,
+phlegmatic activity, and conservatism the Dutch are ever advancing,
+although step by step. They acquire slowly, but lose none of their
+acquisitions;&mdash;they are loth to quit ancient usages, and, although
+three great nations are in close proximity to them, they retain their
+originality as if isolated. They have retained it through different
+forms of government, through foreign invasions, through the political
+and religious wars of which Holland was the theatre&mdash;in spite of the
+immense crowd of foreigners from every country who have taken refuge
+in their land, and have lived there at all times. They are, in short,
+of all the northern
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+nations, that one which has retained its ancient
+typical character as it advanced on the road toward civilization. One
+recalling the conformation of this country, with its three and a half
+millions of inhabitants, can easily understand that although fused
+into a solid political union, and although recognizable amongst the
+other northern nations by certain traits peculiar to the inhabitants
+of all its provinces, it must nevertheless present a great variety.
+Such, indeed, is the case. Between Zealand and Holland proper, between
+Holland and Friesland, between Friesland and Gelderland, between
+Groningen and Brabant, although they are closely bound together by
+local and historical ties, there is a difference as great as that
+existing between the most distant provinces of Italy and France. They
+differ in language, in costume and in character, in race and in
+religion. The communal <i>régime</i> has impressed on this nation an
+indelible stamp, because nowhere else has it so conformed to the
+nature of things. The interests of the country are divided into
+various groups, of whose organization the hydraulic system is an
+example. Hence association and mutual help against the common enemy,
+the sea, but freedom of action in local institutions. The monarchical
+<i>régime</i> has not extinguished the ancient municipal spirit, which
+frustrated the efforts of all those great states that tried to absorb
+Holland. The great rivers and deep gulfs serve both as commercial
+roads which constitute a national bond
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
+between the various
+provinces, and as barriers which defend their ancient traditions and
+provincial customs. In this land, which is apparently so uniform, one
+may say that everything save the aspect of nature changes at every
+step&mdash;changes suddenly, too, as does nature itself, to the eye of one
+who crosses the frontier of this state for the first time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_26pic" id="Page_26pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus02.jpg" width="500" height="443"
+alt="Dutch Fishing Boats." title="Dutch Fishing Boats." />
+</div>
+
+<p>But, however wonderful the physical history of Holland may be, its
+political history is even more marvellous. This little country,
+invaded first by different tribes of the Germanic race, subdued by the
+Romans and by the Franks, devastated by the Danes and by the Normans,
+and wasted for centuries by terrible civil wars,&mdash;this little nation
+of fishermen and merchants preserved its civil freedom and liberty of
+conscience by a war of eighty years' duration against the formidable
+monarchy of Philip II., and founded a republic which became the ark of
+salvation for the freedom of all peoples, the adopted home of the
+sciences, the exchange of Europe, the station of the world's commerce;
+a republic which extends its dominion to Java, Sumatra, Hindostan,
+Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of Good Hope, the
+West Indies, and New York; a republic that conquered England on the
+sea, that resisted the united armies of Charles II. and of Louis XIV.,
+that treated on terms of equality with the greatest nations, and for a
+time was one of the three powers that ruled the destinies of Europe.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is no longer the grand Holland of the eighteenth century, but it is
+still, next to England, the greatest colonizing state of the world. It
+has exchanged its former grandeur for a quiet prosperity; commerce has
+been limited, agriculture has increased; the republican government has
+lost its form rather than its substance, for a family of patriotic
+princes, dear to the people, govern peaceably in the midst of the
+ancient and the newer liberties. In Holland are to be found riches
+without ostentation, freedom without insolence, taxes without poverty.
+The country goes on its way without panics, without
+insurrections,&mdash;preserving, with its fundamental good sense, in its
+traditions, customs, and freedom, the imprint of its noble origin. It
+is perhaps amongst all European countries that nation in which there
+is the best public instruction and the least corruption. Alone, at the
+extremity of the continent, occupied with its waters and its colonies,
+it enjoys the fruits of its labors in peace without comment, and can
+proudly say that no nation in the world has purchased freedom of faith
+and liberty of government with greater sacrifices.</p>
+
+<p>Such were the thoughts that stimulated my curiosity one fine summer
+morning at Antwerp, as I was stepping into a ship that was to take me
+from the Scheldt to Zealand, the most mysterious province of the
+Netherlands.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+<h2><a name="ZEALAND" id="ZEALAND"></a>ZEALAND.</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">IF a teacher of geography had stopped me at some street-corner, before
+I had decided to visit Holland, and abruptly asked me, "Where is
+Zealand?" I should have had nothing to say; and I believe I am not
+mistaken in the supposition that a great number of my fellow-citizens,
+if asked the same question, would find it difficult to answer. Zealand
+is somewhat mysterious even to the Dutch themselves; very few of them
+have seen it, and of those few the greater part have only passed
+through it by boat; hence it is mentioned only on rare occasions, and
+then as if it were a far-off country. From the few words I heard
+spoken by my fellow-voyagers, I learned that they had never been to
+the province; so we were all equally curious, and the ship had not
+weighed anchor ere we entered into conversation, and were exciting
+each other's curiosity by questions which none of us could answer.</p>
+
+<p>The ship started at sunrise, and for a time we enjoyed the view of the
+spire of Antwerp Cathedral, wrought of Mechlin lace, as the enamoured
+Napoleon said of it.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After a short stop at the fort of Lillo and the village of Doel, we
+left Belgium and entered Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>In passing the frontier of a country for the first time, although we
+know that the scene will not change suddenly, we always look round
+curiously as if we expect it to do so. In fact, all the passengers
+leaned over the rail of the boat, that they might be present when the
+apparition of Zealand should suddenly be revealed.</p>
+
+<p>For some time our curiosity was not gratified: nothing was to be seen
+but the smooth green shores of the Scheldt, wide as an arm of the sea,
+dotted with banks of sand, over which flew flocks of screaming
+sea-gulls, while the pure sky did not seem to be that of Holland.</p>
+
+<p>We were sailing between the island of South Beveland and the strip of
+land forming the left bank of the Scheldt, which is called Flanders of
+the States, or Flemish Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>The history of this piece of land is very curious. To a foreigner the
+entrance of Holland is like the first page of a great epic entitled,
+The Struggle with the Sea. In the Middle Ages it was nothing but a
+wide gulf with a few small islands. At the beginning of the sixteenth
+century this gulf was no longer in existence; four hundred years of
+patient labor had changed it into a fertile plain, defended by
+embankments, traversed by canals, populated by villages, and known as
+Flemish Zealand. When the war of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
+independence broke out the
+inhabitants of Flemish Zealand, opened their dykes rather than yield
+their land to the Spanish armies: the sea rushed in, again forming the
+gulf of the Middle Ages, and destroying in one day the work of four
+centuries. When the war of independence was ended they began to drain
+it, and after three hundred years Flemish Zealand once more saw the
+light, and was restored to the continent like a child raised from the
+dead. Thus in Holland lands rise, sink, and reappear, like the realms
+of the Arabian Nights at the touch of a magic wand. Flemish Zealand,
+which is divided from Belgian Flanders by the double barrier of
+politics and religion, and from Holland by the Scheldt, preserves the
+customs, the beliefs, and the exact impress of the sixteenth century.
+The traditions of the war with Spain are still as real and living as
+the events of our own times. The soil is fertile, the inhabitants
+enjoy great prosperity, their manners are severe; they have schools
+and printing-presses, and live peacefully on their fragment of the
+earth which appeared but yesterday, to disappear again on that day
+when the sea shall demand it for a third burial. One of my
+fellow-travellers, a Belgian lady, who gave me this information, drew
+my attention to the fact that the inhabitants of Flemish Zealand were
+still Catholics when they inundated their land, although they had
+already rebelled against the Spanish dominion, and consequently it
+occurred,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
+strangely enough, that the province went down Catholic and
+came up Protestant.</p>
+
+<p>Greatly to my surprise, the boat, instead of continuing down the
+Scheldt, and so making the circuit of the island of South Beveland,
+entered the island, when it reached a certain point, passing through a
+narrow canal that crosses or rather cuts the island apart, and so
+joins the two branches of the river that encircles it. This was the
+first Dutch canal through which I had passed: it was a new experience.
+The canal is bordered on either side by a dyke which hides the
+country. The ship glided on stealthily, as if it had taken some hidden
+road in order to spring out on some one unawares. There was not a
+single boat in the canal nor a living soul on the dykes, and the
+silence and solitude strengthened the impression that our course had
+the hidden air of a piratical incursion. On leaving the canal we
+entered the eastern branch of the Scheldt.</p>
+
+<p>We were now in the heart of Zealand. On the right was the island of
+Tholen; on the left, the island of North Beveland; behind, South
+Beveland; in front, Schouven. Excepting the island of Walcheren, we
+could now see all the principal islands of the mysterious archipelago.</p>
+
+<p>But the mystery consists in this&mdash;the islands are not seen, they must
+be imagined. To the right and left of the wide river, before and
+behind the ship, nothing was to be seen but the straight line of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
+embankments, like a green band on a level with the water, and beyond
+this streak, here and there, were tips of trees and of steeples, and
+the red ridges of roofs that seemed to be peeping over to see us pass.
+Not one hill, not one rise in the ground, not one house, could be
+discovered anywhere: all was hidden, all seemed immersed in water; it
+seemed that the islands were on the point of sinking into the river,
+and we glanced stealthily at each other to make sure we were still
+there. It seemed like going through a country during a flood, and it
+was an agreeable thought that we were in a ship. Every now and then
+the vessel stopped and some passengers for Zealand got into a boat and
+went ashore. Although I was eager to visit the province, I
+nevertheless regarded them with a feeling of compassion, imagining
+that those unreal islands were only monster whales about to dive into
+the water at the approach of the boats.</p>
+
+<p>The captain of our ship, a Hollander, stopped near me to examine a
+small map of Zealand which he held in his hand. I immediately seized
+the opportunity and overwhelmed him with questions. Fortunately, I had
+hit upon one of the few Dutchmen who, like us Italians, love the sound
+of their own voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Here in Zealand, even more than in other provinces," said he, as
+seriously as if he were a master giving a lesson, "the dykes are a
+question of life and death. At high tide all Zealand is below
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>
+sea-level. For every dyke that were broken, an island would
+disappear. The worst of it is, that here the dykes have to resist not
+only the direct shock of the waves, but another power which is even
+more dangerous. The rivers fling themselves toward the sea,&mdash;the sea
+casts itself against the rivers, and in this continual struggle
+undercurrents are formed which wash the foundations of the
+embankments, until they suddenly give way like a wall that is
+undermined. The Zealanders must be continually on their guard. When a
+dyke is in danger, they make another one farther inland, and await the
+assault of the water behind it. Thus they gain time, and either
+rebuild the first embankment or continue to recede from fortress to
+fortress until the current changes and they are saved."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it not possible," I asked, introducing the element of poetry,
+"that some day Zealand may no longer exist?"</p>
+
+<p>"On the contrary," he replied, to my sorrow: "the day may come in
+which Zealand will no longer be an archipelago, but terra firma. The
+Scheldt and the Meuse continually bring down mud, which is deposited
+in the arms of the sea, and, rising little by little, enlarges the
+islands, thus enclosing the towns and villages that were ports on the
+coast. Axel, Goes, Veer, Arnemuyden, and Middelburg were maritime
+towns, and are now inland cities. Hence the day will surely come in
+which the waters
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+of the rivers will no longer pass between the
+islands of Zealand, and a network of railways will extend over the
+whole country, which will be joined to the continent, as has already
+happened in the island of South Beveland. Zealand grows in its
+struggle with the sea. The sea may gain the victory in other parts of
+Holland, but here it will be worsted. Are you familiar with the arms
+of Zealand: a lion in the act of swimming, above which is written,
+'<i>Luctor et emergo</i>'?"</p>
+
+<p>After these words he remained silent for some moments, while a passing
+glance of pride enlivened his face: then he continued with his former
+gravity:</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Emergo</i>; but he did not always emerge. All the islands of Zealand,
+one after the other, have slept under the waters for longer or shorter
+periods of time. Three centuries ago the island of Schouwen was
+inundated by the sea, when all the inhabitants and cattle were drowned
+and it was reduced to a desert. The island of North Beveland was
+completely submerged shortly after, and for several years nothing was
+to be seen but the tips of the church-steeples peeping out of the
+water. The island of South Beveland shared the same fate toward the
+middle of the fourteenth century,&mdash;the island of Tholen suffered in
+the year 1825 of our century,&mdash;the island of Walcheren in 1808, and in
+the capital of Middelburg, although it is several miles distant from
+the coast, the water was up to the roofs."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As I listened to these stories of the water, of inundations and
+submerged districts, it seemed strange to me that I myself was not
+drowned, I asked the captain what sort of people lived in those
+invisible countries, with water underfoot and overhead.</p>
+
+<p>"Farmers and shepherds," he answered. "We call Zealand a group of
+forts defended by a garrison of farmers and shepherds. Zealand is the
+richest agricultural province in the Netherlands. The alluvial soil of
+these islands is a marvel of fertility. Few countries can boast such
+wheat, colza, flax, and madder as it produces. Its people raise
+prodigious cattle and colossal horses, which are even larger than
+those of the Flemish breed. The people are strong and handsome; they
+preserve their ancient customs, and live contentedly in prosperity and
+peace. Zealand is a hidden paradise."</p>
+
+<p>While the captain was speaking the ship entered the Keeten Canal,
+which divides the island of Tholen from the island of Schouwen, and is
+famous for the ford across which the Spanish made their way in 1575,
+just as the eastern side of the Scheldt is famous for the passage they
+forced in 1572. All Zealand is full of memories of that war. Because
+of its intimate connection with William of Orange, the hereditary lord
+of a great part of the land in the islands, and by reason of the
+impediments of every kind that it could oppose to invaders, this
+little archipelago of sand, half buried in the sea, became
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+the theatre of war and heresy, and the duke of Alva longed to possess it.
+Consequently terrible struggles raged on its shores, signalised by all the
+horrors of battles by land and sea. The soldiers forded the canals by night
+in a dense throng, the water up to their throats, menaced by the tide,
+beaten by the rain, with volleys of musketry pouring down the banks, their
+horses and artillery swallowed in the mud, the wounded swept away by the
+current or buried alive in the quagmires. The air resounded with German,
+Spanish, Italian, and Flemish voices. Torches illuminated the great
+arquebuses, the pompous plumes, the strange, blanched faces. The battles
+seemed to be fantastic funerals. They were, in fact, the funerals of the
+great Spanish monarchy, which was slowly drowned in Dutch waters, smothered
+with mud and curses. One who is weak enough to feel an excessive tenderness
+for Spain need only go to Holland if he wishes to do penance for this sin.
+Never, perchance, have there been two nations which have had better reasons
+than these to hate each other with all their strength, or which tried with
+greater fury to establish those reasons. I remember, to mention one alone
+of a thousand contrasts, how it impressed me to hear Philip II. spoken of
+in terms so different from those used in the Pyrenees a few months before.
+In Spain his lowest title was <i>the great king</i>: in Holland they called him
+a <i>cowardly tyrant</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The ship passed between the island of Schouwen
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+and the little island
+of St. Philipsland, and a few moments later entered the wide branch of
+the Meuse called Krammer, which divides the island of Overflakkee from
+the continent. We seemed to be sailing through a chain of large lakes.
+The distant banks presented the same appearance as those of the
+Scheldt. Dykes stretched as far as the eye could see, and behind the
+dykes appeared the tops of trees, the tips of steeples, and the roofs
+of houses, which were hidden from view, all lending the landscape an
+air of mystery and solitude. Only on some projection of the banks
+which formed a gap in the immense bulwarks of the island peeped forth,
+as it were, a sketch of a Dutch landscape&mdash;a painted cottage, a
+windmill, a boat&mdash;which seemed to reveal a secret created to arouse
+the curiosity of travellers, and to delude it directly it was aroused.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, on approaching the prow of the ship, where were the
+third-class passengers, I made a most agreeable discovery. Here was a
+group of peasants, men and women, dressed in the costume of Zealand&mdash;I
+do not remember of which island, for the costume differs in each, like
+the dialect, which is a mixture of Dutch and Flemish, if one may so
+speak of two languages that are almost identical. The men were all
+dressed alike. They wore round felt hats trimmed with wide embroidered
+ribbons; their jackets were of dark cloth, close fitting, and so short
+as hardly to cover their hips, and left open to show
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
+a sort of
+waistcoat striped with red, yellow, and green, which was closed over
+the chest by a row of silver buttons attached to one another like the
+links of a chain. Their costume was completed by a pair of short
+breeches of the same color as the jacket, tied round the waist by a
+band ornamented by a large stud of chiselled silver,&mdash;a red cravat,
+and woollen stockings reaching to the knee. In short, below the waist
+their dress was that of a priest, and above it, that of a harlequin.
+One of them had coins for buttons, and this is not an unusual
+practice. The women wore very high straw hats in the form of a broken
+cone, which looked like overturned buckets, bound round with long blue
+ribbons fluttering in the wind; their dresses were dark-colored, open
+at the throat, revealing white embroidered chemisettes; their arms
+were bare to the elbow; and two enormous gold earrings of the most
+eccentric shape projected almost over their cheeks. Although in my
+voyage I tried to imitate Victor Hugo in admiring everything as a
+savage, I could not possibly persuade myself that this was a beautiful
+style of dress. But I was prepared for incongruities of this sort. I
+knew that we go to Holland to see novelty rather than beauty, and good
+things rather than new ones, so I was predisposed to observe rather
+than to be enthusiastic. If that first impression was not very
+pleasant to my artistic taste, I consoled myself by the thought that
+doubtless all those peasants could
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+read and write, and that possibly
+on the previous evening they had learned by heart a poem of their
+great poet, Jacob Catz, and that they were probably on their way to
+some agricultural convention of which the programme was in their
+pockets, where with arguments drawn from their modest experience they
+would confute the propositions of some scientific farmer from Goes or
+Middelburg. Ludovico Guicciardini, a Florentine nobleman, the author
+of an excellent work on the Netherlands printed in Antwerp in the
+sixteenth century, says that there was hardly a man or woman in
+Zealand who did not speak French or Spanish, and that a great many
+spoke Italian. This statement, which was perhaps an exaggeration in
+his day, would now be a fable, but it is certain that amongst the
+rural inhabitants of Zealand there exists an extraordinary
+intellectual culture, far superior to that of the peasants of France,
+Belgium, Germany, and many other provinces of Holland.</p>
+
+<p>The ship rounded the island of Philipsland, and we found ourselves
+outside of Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>Thus this province, mysterious before we entered it, seemed doubly so
+when we had quitted it. We had traversed it and had not seen it, and
+we left it with our curiosity ungratified. The only thing we had
+perceived was that Zealand is a country hidden from view. But one is
+deceived who thinks it is mysterious for the sole reason that it is
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
+invisible&mdash;everything in Zealand is a mystery. First of all,&mdash;How was
+it formed? Was it a group of tiny alluvial islands, uninhabited and
+separated only by canals, which, as some believe, met and formed
+larger islands? Or was it, as others think, terra firma when the
+Scheldt emptied itself into the Meuse? But, even leaving its origin
+out of the question, in what other country in the world do things
+happen as they happen in Zealand? In what other country do the
+fishermen catch in their nets a siren whose husband, after vain
+prayers to have her restored, in vengeance throws up a handful of
+sand, prophesying that it will bury the gates of the town&mdash;and lo his
+prophecy is fulfilled? In what other country do the souls of those
+lost at sea come as they come to Walcheren, and awaken the fishermen
+with the demand that they be conducted to the coasts of England? In
+what other country do the sea-storms fling, as they do on the banks of
+the island of Schouwen, carcasses borne from the farthest
+north&mdash;monsters half men, half boats; mummies bound in the floating
+trunks of trees, of which an example is still to be seen at the
+guildhall of Zierikzee? In what country, as at Wemeldingen, does a man
+fall head foremost into a canal, where, remaining under water an hour,
+he sees his dead wife and children, who call to him from Paradise, and
+is then drawn out of the water alive, whereupon he relates this
+miracle to Victor Hugo,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+who believes it and comments on it,
+concluding that the soul may leave the body for some time and then
+return to it? Where, as near Domburg, at low water is it possible to
+draw up ancient temples and statues of unknown deities? In what other
+place does the sword of a Spanish captain, Mondragone, serve as a
+lightning-conductor, as at Wemeldingen? In what other country are
+unfaithful women made to walk naked through the streets of the town
+with two stones hung round the neck and a cylinder of iron on the
+head, as in the island of Schouwen? Now, really, this last marvel is
+no longer seen, but the stones still exist, and any one can see them
+in the guildhall at Brauwershaven.</p>
+
+<p>Our ship now entered that part of the southern branch of the Meuse
+called Volkerak. The scene was just the same&mdash;dykes upon dykes, the
+tips of houses and church-steeples, a few boats here and there. One
+thing only was changed, the sky. I then saw for the first time the
+Dutch sky as it usually appears, and witnessed one of those battles of
+light peculiar to the Netherlands&mdash;battles which the great Dutch
+landscape-artists have painted with insuperable power. Previously the
+sky had been serene. It was a beautiful summer day: the waters were
+blue, the banks emerald green, the air warm, with not a breath of wind
+stirring. Suddenly a thick cloud hid the sun, and in less time than it
+takes to tell it everything was as different as if the season, the
+hour, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>
+the latitude had all been changed in a moment. The waters
+became dark, the green of the banks grew dull, the horizon was hidden
+under a gray veil; everything seemed shrouded in a twilight which made
+all things lose their outline. An evil wind arose, chilling us to the
+bone. It seemed to be December; we felt the chill of winter and that
+restlessness which accompanies every sudden menace on the part of
+nature. All round the horizon small leaden-colored clouds began to
+collect, scudding rapidly along, as though searching impatiently for a
+direction and a shape. Then the waters began to ripple, and became
+streaked with rapid luminous reflections, with long stripes of green,
+violet, white, ochre, black. Finally this irritation of nature ended
+in a violent downpour, which confused sky, water, and earth in one
+gray mass, broken only by a lighter tone caused by the far-off banks,
+and by some sailing ships, which came into view here and there like
+upright shadows on the waters of the river.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we are really in Holland," said the captain of the ship,
+approaching a group of passengers who were contemplating the
+spectacle. "Such sudden changes of scene," he continued, "are never
+seen anywhere else."</p>
+
+<p>Then, in answer to a question from one of us, he ran on:</p>
+
+<p>"Holland has a meteorology quite her own. The winter is long, the
+summer short, the spring is only
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+the end of the winter, but
+nevertheless, you see, every now and then, even during the summer, we
+have a touch of winter. We always say that in Holland the four seasons
+may be seen in one day. Our sky is the most changeable in the world.
+This is the reason why we are always talking of the weather, for the
+atmosphere is the most variable spectacle we have. If we wish to see
+something that will entertain us, we must look upward. But it is a
+dull climate. The sea sends us rain on three sides: the winds break
+loose over the country even on the finest days; the ground exhales
+vapors that darken the horizon; for several months the air has no
+transparency. You should see the winter. There are days when you would
+say it would never be fine again: the darkness seems to come from
+above like the light; the north-east wind brings us the icy air from
+the North Pole, and lashes the sea with such fury and roaring that it
+seems as though it would destroy the coasts." Here he turned to me and
+said, smiling, "You are better off in Italy." Then he grew serious and
+added, "However, every country has its good and bad side."</p>
+
+<p>The boat left the Volkerak, passed in front of the fortress of
+Willemstadt, built in 1583 by the Prince of Orange, and entered
+Hollandsdiep, a wide branch of the Meuse which separates South Holland
+from North Brabant. All that we saw from the ship was a wide expanse
+of water, two dark stripes to the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
+right and left, and a gray sky. A
+French lady, breaking the general silence, exclaimed with a yawn,</p>
+
+<p>"How beautiful is Holland!"</p>
+
+<p>All of us laughed excepting the Dutch passengers.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, captain," began a little old Belgian, one of those pillars of the
+coffee-house who are always thrusting their politics in the faces of
+their fellows, "there is a good and a bad side to every country, and
+we Belgians and Dutchmen ought to have been persuaded of this truth,
+and then we should have been indulgent toward each other and have
+lived in harmony. When one thinks that we are now a nation of nine
+millions of inhabitants,&mdash;we with our industries and you with your
+commerce, with two such capitals as Amsterdam and Brussels, and two
+commercial towns like Antwerp and Rotterdam, we should count for
+something in this world, eh, captain?"</p>
+
+<p>The captain did not answer. Another Dutchman said:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, with a religious war twelve months in the year."</p>
+
+<p>The little old Belgian, somewhat put out, now addressed his remarks to
+me in a low tone: "It is a fact, sir. It was stupid, especially on our
+part. You will see Holland. Amsterdam is certainly not Brussels; it is
+as flat and wearisome a country as can well be; but as to prosperity
+it is far beyond us. Assure yourself that they spend a florin, which
+is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
+two and a half francs, where we spend a franc. You will see it in
+your hotel bills. They are twice as rich as we are. It was all the
+fault of William the First, who wished to make a Dutch Belgium and has
+pushed us to extremes. You know how it happened"&mdash;and so on.</p>
+
+<p>In Hollandsdiep we began to see big barges, small-fishing-boats, and
+some large ships that had come from Hellevoetsluis, an important
+maritime port on the right bank of the Haringvliet, a branch of the
+Meuse, near its mouth, where nearly every vessel from India stops. The
+rain ceased. The sky, gradually, unwillingly, became serene, and on a
+sudden the waters and the banks were clothed once more in fresh
+glowing colors: it was summer again.</p>
+
+<p>In a little while the vessel reached the village of Moerdyk, where one
+of the largest bridges in the world is to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>It is an iron structure a mile and a half long, over which passes the
+railway to Dordrecht and Rotterdam. From a distance it looks like
+fourteen enormous edifices put in line across the river: each one of
+the fourteen high arches supporting the tracks is in truth a huge
+edifice. In passing over it, as I did a few months later on my return
+to Holland, I saw nothing but sky and water, so wide is the river at
+this point, and I felt almost afraid the bridge might suddenly come to
+an end, and plunge the train into the water. </p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_48pic" id="Page_48pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus03.jpg" width="500" height="414"
+alt="Dordrecht&mdash;Canal with Cathedral in the Distance."
+title="Dordrecht&mdash;Canal with Cathedral in the Distance." />
+</div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The boat turned to the left, passing in front of the bridge, and
+entered a very narrow branch of the Meuse called Dordsche Kil, which
+had dykes on either side, and hence looked more like a canal than a
+river. It was already the seventh turn we had made since we crossed
+the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Passing down the Dordsche Kil, we began to see signs of the proximity
+of a large town. There were long rows of trees on the banks, bushes,
+cottages, canals to the right and left, and much moving of boats and
+barges. The passengers became more animated, and here and there were
+heard exclamations of "Dordrecht! we shall see Dordrecht." All seemed
+preparing themselves for some extraordinary scene.</p>
+
+<p>The spectacle was not long delayed, and was extraordinary indeed.</p>
+
+<p>The boat turned for the eighth time, to the right, and entered the
+Oude Maas or Old Meuse.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the first houses of the suburbs around Dordrecht came
+into view. It was a sudden apparition of Holland, a gratification of
+our curiosity immediate and complete, a revelation of all the
+mysteries which were tormenting our brains: we seemed to be in a new
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Immense windmills with revolving arms were to be seen on every side;
+houses of a thousand extraordinary shapes were dotted along the banks:
+some were like villas, others like pavilions, kiosks, cottages,
+chapels, theatres,&mdash;their roofs red, their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+ walls black, blue, pink,
+and gray, their doors and windows encircled with white borders like
+drifts of snow. Canals little and big were leading in every direction;
+in front of the houses and along the canals were groups and rows of
+trees; ships glided among the cottages and boats were moored before
+the doors; sails shone in the streets&mdash;masts, pennons, and the arms of
+windmills projected in confusion above the trees and roofs. Bridges,
+stairways, gardens on the water, a thousand corners, little docks,
+creeks, openings, crossways on the canals, hiding-places for the
+boats, men, women, and children passing each other on the ways from
+the river to the bank, from the canals to their houses, from the
+bridges to the barges, -all these made the scene one of motion and
+variety. Everywhere was water,&mdash;color, new forms, childish figures,
+little details, all glossy and fresh,&mdash;an ingenuous display of
+prettiness&mdash;a mixture of the primitive and the theatrical, of grace
+and absurdity, which was partly European, partly Chinese, partly
+belonging to no land,&mdash;and over all a delightful air of peace and
+innocence.</p>
+
+<p>So Dordrecht flashed upon me for the first time, the oldest and at the
+same time the freshest and brightest town of Holland, the queen of
+Dutch commerce in the Middle Ages&mdash;the mother of painters and
+scholars. Honored in 1572 by the first meeting within its walls of the
+deputies of the United Provinces, it was also at different times the
+seat of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+ memorable synods, and was particularly famous for that
+meeting of the protestant theologians in 1618, the Ecumenical Council
+of the Reformation, which decided the terrible religious dispute
+between Arminians and Gomarists, established the form of national
+worship, and gave rise to that series of disturbances and persecutions
+which ended with the unfortunate murder of Barneveldt and the
+sanguinary triumph of Maurice of Orange. Dordrecht, because of its
+easy communication with the sea, with Belgium, and with the interior
+of Holland, is still one of the most flourishing commercial towns of
+the United Provinces. To Dordrecht come the immense supplies of wood
+which are brought down the Rhine from the Black Forest and
+Switzerland&mdash;the Rhine wines, the lime, the cement and the stone; in
+its little port there is a continual movement of snowy sails and of
+smoking steamers, while little flags bring greetings from Arnhem,
+Bois-le-Duc, Nimeguen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and from all their
+mysterious sisters in Zealand.</p>
+
+<p>The boat stopped for a few minutes at Dordrecht, and I unexpectedly
+observed near by a number of fresh little cottages which were purely
+Dutch, and which aroused in me the greatest desire to land and make
+their acquaintance. But I conquered my curiosity by the thought that
+at Rotterdam I should see many such sights. The boat started, turned
+to the left (it was the ninth turning), and entered a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+narrow branch
+of the Meuse called De Noord, one of the numerous threads of that
+inextricable network of the waters which covers Southern Holland.</p>
+
+<p>The captain approached me as I was looking for him to explain the
+position of Dordrecht on the map, for it seemed to me very singular.
+In fact, it is singular. Dordrecht is situated at the extremity of a
+piece of ground separated from the continent, and forming in the midst
+of the land an island crossed and recrossed by numerous streams, some
+of which are natural, some the work of man, rivers made half by man,
+half by nature&mdash;a bit of Holland encircled and imprisoned by the
+waters, like a battalion overcome by an army. It is bounded on the
+four sides by the river Merwede, the ancient Mosa, the Dordsche Kil,
+and the archipelago of Bies-Bosch, and is crossed by the New Merwede,
+a large artificial water-course. The imprisonment of this piece of
+land on which Dordrecht lies is an episode in one of the great battles
+fought by Holland with the waters. The archipelago of Bies-Bosch did
+not exist before the fifteenth century. In its place there was a
+beautiful plain covered with populous villages. During the night of
+the 18th of November, 1431, the waters of the Waal and the Meuse broke
+the dykes, destroyed more than seventy villages, drowned almost a
+hundred thousand souls, and broke up the plain into a thousand
+islands, leaving in the midst of this ruin one upright tower
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> called
+Merwede House, the ruins of which are still visible. Thus was
+Dordrecht separated from the continent, and the archipelago of
+Bies-Bosch made its appearance, which, as though to show its right of
+existence, provides hay, reeds, and rushes to a little village which
+hangs like a swallow's nest on one of the neighboring dykes. But this
+is not all that is remarkable in the history of Dordrecht. Tradition
+relates, many believe, and some uphold, that at the time of this
+remarkable inundation Dordrecht&mdash;yes, the whole town of Dordrecht,
+with its houses, mills, and canals&mdash;made a short journey, like an army
+moving camp; that is to say, it was transported from one place to
+another with its foundations intact: in consequence whereof the
+inhabitants of the neighboring villages, coming to the town after the
+catastrophe, found nothing where it had been. One can imagine their
+consternation. This prodigy is explained by the fact that Dordrecht is
+founded on a stratum of clay, which had slipped on to the mass of turf
+which forms the basis of the soil. Such is the story as I heard it.</p>
+
+<p>Before the vessel left the Noord Canal the hope of seeing my first
+Dutch sunset was disappointed by another sudden change in the weather.
+The sky was obscured, the waters became livid, and the horizon
+disappeared behind a thick veil of mist.</p>
+
+<p>The ship entered the Meuse, and turned for the tenth time, to the
+left. At this point the Meuse is
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>
+very wide, as it carries away and
+imprisons the waters of the Waal, the largest branch of the Rhine, and
+the waters of the Leck and Yssel also empty themselves into it. Its
+banks are flanked on either side by long rows of trees, and are dotted
+with houses, workshops, manufactories, and arsenals, which grow
+thicker as Rotterdam is approached.</p>
+
+<p>However little acquainted one may be with the physical history of
+Holland, the first time one sees the Meuse and thinks of its memorable
+overflowings, of the thousand calamities and innumerable victims of
+that capricious and terrible river, one regards it with a sort of
+uneasy curiosity, much as one looks at a famous brigand. The eye rests
+on the dykes with a feeling almost of satisfaction and gratitude, as
+on the brigand when he is safely handcuffed and in the hands of the
+police.</p>
+
+<p>While my eyes were roving in search of Rotterdam, a Dutch passenger
+told how, when the Meuse is frozen, the currents, coming unexpectedly
+from warmer regions, strike the ice that covers the river, break it,
+upheave enormous blocks with a terrific crash, and hurl them against
+the dykes, piling them in immense heaps which choke the course of the
+river and make it overflow. Then begins a strange battle. The Dutch
+answer the threats of the Meuse with cannonade. The artillery is
+called out, volleys of grape-shot break the towers and barricades of
+ice which oppose the current, into a storm of splinters
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
+and briny
+hail. "We Hollanders," concluded the passenger, "are the only people
+who have to take up arms against the rivers."</p>
+
+<p>When we came in sight of Rotterdam it was growing dark and drizzling.
+Through the thick mist I could barely see a great confusion of ships,
+houses, windmills, towers, trees, and moving figures on dykes and
+bridges. There were lights everywhere. It was a great city different
+in appearance from any I had seen before, but fog and darkness soon
+hid it from my view. By the time I had taken leave of my
+fellow-travellers and had gathered my luggage together, it was night.
+"So much the better," I said getting into a cab. "I shall see for the
+first time a Dutch city by night; this must indeed be a novel
+spectacle." In fact, Bismarck, when at Rotterdam, wrote to his wife
+that at night he saw "phantoms on the roofs."
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+<h2><a name="ROTTERDAM" id="ROTTERDAM"></a>ROTTERDAM.</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">ONE cannot learn much about Rotterdam by entering it at night. The cab
+passed directly over a bridge that gave out a hollow sound, and while
+I believed myself to be&mdash;and, in fact, was&mdash;in the city, to my
+surprise I saw on either side a row of ships which were soon lost in
+the darkness. When we had crossed the bridge we drove along streets
+brightly lighted and full of people, and reached another bridge, to
+find ourselves between other rows of ships. So we went on for some
+time, from bridge to street, from street to bridge. To increase the
+confusion, there was everywhere an illumination such as I had never
+seen before. There were lamps at the corners of the streets, lanterns
+on the ships, beacons on the bridges, lights in the windows, and
+smaller lights under the houses,&mdash;all of which were reflected by the
+water. Suddenly the cab stopped in the midst of a crowd of people. I
+put my head out of the window, and saw a bridge suspended in mid-air.
+I asked what was the matter, and some one answered that a ship was
+passing. In a moment we were again on our way, and I had a peep at a
+tangle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+canals crossing and recrossing each other, and of bridges
+that seemed to form a large square full of masts and studded with
+lights. Then, at last, we turned a corner and arrived at the hotel.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing I did on entering my room was to examine it to see if
+it sustained the great fame of Dutch cleanliness. It did indeed; and
+this was the more to be admired in a hotel, almost always occupied by
+a profane race, which has no reverence for what might be called in
+Holland the worship of cleanliness. The linen was white as snow, the
+windows were transparent as air, the furniture shone like crystal, the
+walls were so clean that one could not have found a spot with a
+microscope. Besides this, there was a basket for waste paper, a little
+tablet on which to strike matches, a slab for cigar-ashes, a box for
+cigar-stumps, a spittoon, a boot-jack, in short, there was absolutely
+no excuse for soiling anything.</p>
+
+<p>When I had surveyed my room, I spread the map of Rotterdam on the
+table, and began to make my plans for the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>It is a singular fact that the large towns of Holland have remarkably
+regular forms, although they were built on unstable land and with
+great difficulty. Amsterdam is a semicircle, the Hague is a square,
+Rotterdam an equilateral triangle. The base of the triangle is an
+immense dyke, protecting the town from the Meuse, and known
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> as the
+Boompjes, which in Dutch means little trees,&mdash;the name being derived
+from a row of elms that were planted when the embankment was built,
+and are now grown to a great size. Another large dyke, dividing the
+city into two almost equal parts, forms a second bulwark against the
+inundations of the river, extending from the middle of the left side
+of the triangle to the opposite angle. The part of Rotterdam which
+lies between the two dykes consists of large canals, islands, and
+bridges: this is the modern town; the other part, lying beyond the
+second dyke, is the old town. Two large canals extend along the other
+two sides of the city up to the vertex, where they join and meet a
+river called the Rotte, which name, prefixed to the word dam, meaning
+dyke, gives Rotterdam.</p>
+
+<p>When I had thus performed my duty as a conscientious traveller, and
+had observed a thousand precautions against defiling, even with a
+breath, the spotless purity of that jewel of a room, I entered my
+first Dutch bed with the timidity of a country bumpkin.</p>
+
+<p>Dutch beds&mdash;I am speaking of those to be found in the hotels&mdash;are
+usually short and wide, with an enormous eider-down pillow which would
+bury the head of a cyclops. In order to omit nothing, I must add that
+the light is generally a copper candlestick as large as a plate, which
+might hold a torch, but contains instead a short candle as thin as the
+little finger of a Spanish lady.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In the morning I dressed in haste, and ran rapidly down stairs.</p>
+
+<p>What streets, what houses, what a town, what a mixture of novelties
+for a foreigner,&mdash;a scene how different from any to be witnessed
+elsewhere in Europe!</p>
+
+<p>First of all, I saw Hoog-Straat, a long straight roadway running along
+the inner dyke of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the houses are built of unplastered brick, ranging in color
+through all the shades of red from black to pink. They are only wide
+enough to give room for two windows, and are but two stories in
+height. The front walls overtop and conceal the roofs, running up and
+terminating in blunted triangles surmounted by gables. Some of them
+have pointed façades, some are elevated in two curves, and resemble a
+long neck without a head; others are indented step-fashion, like the
+houses children build with blocks; others look like conical pavilions;
+others like country churches; others, again, like puppet-shows. These
+gables are generally outlined with white lines and ornamented in
+execrable taste; many have coarse arabesques painted in relief on
+plaster. The windows, and the doors too, are bordered with broad white
+lines; there are other white lines between the different stories of
+the houses; the spaces between the house-and shop-doors are filled in
+with white woodwork; so all along the street white and dark red are
+the only colors to be seen. From a distance all
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>
+the houses produce an
+effect of black trimmed with strips of linen, and present an
+appearance partly festal, partly funereal, leaving one in doubt
+whether they enliven or depress. At first sight I felt inclined to
+laugh: it seemed impossible that these houses were not playthings and
+that serious people could live inside them. I should have said that
+after the fête for which they had been constructed they must disappear
+like paper frames built for a display of fireworks.</p>
+
+<p>While I was vaguely regarding the street I saw a house which amazed
+me. I thought I must be mistaken: I looked at it more closely,&mdash;looked
+at the houses near it, compared them with the first house and then
+with each other, and even then I believed that it was an optical
+illusion. I turned hastily down a side street, and still I seemed to
+see the same thing. At last I was persuaded that the fault was not
+with my eyes, but with the entire city.</p>
+
+<p>All Rotterdam is like a city that has reeled and rocked in an
+earthquake, and has still remained standing, though apparently on the
+verge of ruin.</p>
+
+<p>All the houses&mdash;the exceptions in each street are so few they can be
+counted on one's fingers&mdash;are inclined more or less, and the greater
+number lean so much that the roof of one projects half a meter beyond
+that of the next house if it happens to be straight or but slightly
+inclined. The strangest part of it all is, that adjoining houses lean
+in different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>
+directions; one will lean forward as if it were going to
+topple over, another backward, some to the right, others to the left.
+In some places, where six or seven neighboring houses all lean
+forward, those in the middle being most inclined, they form a curve,
+like a railing that is bent by the pressure of a crowd. In some places
+two houses which stand close together bend toward each other, as if
+for mutual support. In certain streets for some distance all the
+houses lean sideways, like trees which the wind has blown one against
+the other; then again, they all lean in the opposite direction, like
+another row of trees bent by a contrary wind. In some places there is
+a regularity in the inclination, which makes the effect less
+noticeable. On certain crossways and in some of the smaller streets
+there is an indescribable confusion, a real architectural riot, a
+dance of houses, a disorder that seems animated. There are houses that
+appear to fall forward, overcome by sleep; others that throw
+themselves backward as if in fright; some lean toward each other till
+their roofs almost touch, as if they were confiding secrets; some reel
+against each other as though tipsy; a few lean backward between others
+that lean forward, like malefactors being dragged away by policemen.
+Rows of houses seem to be bowing to church-steeples; other groups are
+paying attention to one house in their centre, and seem to be plotting
+against some palace. I will soon let you into the secret of all this.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_64pic" id="Page_64pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus04.jpg" width="500" height="406"
+alt="In Rotterdam" title="In Rotterdam" />
+</div><p> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But it is neither the shape of the houses nor their inclination that
+seemed to me the most curious thing about them.</p>
+
+<p>One must observe them carefully, one by one, from top to bottom, and
+in their diversity they are as interesting as a picture.</p>
+
+<p>In some of the houses, in the middle of the gable, at the top of the
+façade, a crooked beam projects, fitted with a pulley and a piece of
+cord to raise and lower buckets or baskets. In others, a stag's,
+sheep's, or goat's head looks down from a little round window. Under
+this head there is a line of whitewashed stones or a wooden beam which
+cuts the façade in two. Below the beam there are two large windows,
+shaded by awnings like canopies, under which hang little green
+curtains, over the upper panes of the window. Under the green curtain
+are two white curtains, draped back to reveal a swinging bird-cage or
+a hanging basket full of flowers. Below this flower-basket screening
+the lower window-panes there is a frame with a very fine wire netting,
+which prevents pedestrians from looking into the rooms. Behind the
+wire netting, in the divisions between the netting and the framework
+of the window, there are tables ornamented with china, glass, flowers,
+statuettes and other trifles. On the stone sills of windows which open
+into the street there is a row of little flower-pots. In the middle or
+at one side of the window-sill there is a curved iron hook which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
+supports two movable mirrors joined like the backs of a book,
+surmounted by a third movable glass, so arranged that from within the
+house one can see everything that happens in the street without one's
+self being seen. In some houses a lantern projects between the
+windows. Below the windows is the house-door or shop-door. If it be a
+shop-door, there will be carved above it either a negro's head with
+the mouth wide open or the smirking face of a Turk. Sometimes the sign
+is an elephant, a goose, a horse's head, a bull, a serpent, a
+half-moon, a windmill, and sometimes an outstretched arm holding some
+article that is for sale in the shop. If it be a house-door&mdash;in which
+case it is always kept closed&mdash;it bears a brass plate on which is
+written the name of the tenant, another plate with an opening for
+letters, and a third plate on the wall holding the bell-handle. The
+plates, nails, and locks are all kept shining like gold. Before the
+door there is frequently a little wooden bridge&mdash;for in many houses
+the ground floor is made lower than the street&mdash;and in front of the
+bridge are two small stone pillars surmounted by two balls; below
+these stand other pillars united by iron chains made of large links in
+the shape of crosses, stars, and polygons. In the space between the
+street and the house are pots of flowers. On the window-seats of the
+basement, hidden in the hollow, are more flowers and curtains. In the
+less frequented streets there are bird-cages
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
+on either side of the
+windows, boxes full of growing plants, clothes and linen hung out to
+dry. Indeed, innumerable articles of varied colors dangle and swing
+about, so that it all seems like a great fair.</p>
+
+<p>But without quitting the old town one need only walk toward its
+outskirts in order to see novel sights at every step.</p>
+
+<p>In passing through certain of the straight, narrow streets one
+suddenly sees before him, as it were, a curtain that has fallen and
+cut off the view. It is immediately withdrawn, and one perceives that
+it is the sail of a ship passing down one of the canals. At the foot
+of other streets a network of ropes seems to be stretched between the
+two end houses to stop the passage. This is the rigging of a ship that
+is anchored at one of the docks. On other streets there are
+drawbridges surmounted by long parallel boards, presenting a fantastic
+appearance, as though they were gigantic swings for the amusement of
+the light-hearted people living in these peculiar houses. Other
+streets have at the foot windmills as high as a steeple and black as
+an ancient tower, turning and twisting their arms like large wheels
+revolving over the roofs of the neighboring houses. Everywhere, in
+short, among the houses, over the roofs, in the midst of the distant
+trees, we see the masts of ships, pennons, sails, and what not, to
+remind us that we
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+are surrounded by water, and that the city is built
+in the very middle of the port.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, the shops have opened and the streets have become
+animated.</p>
+
+<p>There is a great stir of people, who are busy, but not hurried: this
+absence of hurry distinguishes the streets of Rotterdam from those of
+certain parts of London, which, from the color of the houses and the
+serious faces of the citizens, remind many travellers of the Dutch
+city. Faces white and pale&mdash;faces the color of Parmesan cheese&mdash;faces
+encircled by hair flaxen, golden, red, and yellowish&mdash;large shaven
+faces with beards below the chin&mdash;eyes so light that one has to look
+closely to see the pupil&mdash;sturdy women, plump, pink-cheeked, and
+placid, wearing white caps and earrings shaped like corkscrews,&mdash;such
+are the first things one observes in the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>But my curiosity for the present was not aroused by the people. I
+crossed Hoog-Straat and found myself in new Rotterdam.</p>
+
+<p>One cannot decide whether it is a city or a harbor, whether there is
+more land than water, or whether the ships are more numerous than the
+houses.</p>
+
+<p>The town is divided by long, wide canals into many islands, which are
+united by drawbridges, turning bridges, and stone bridges. From both
+sides of each canal extend two streets, with rows of trees on the side
+next to the water and lines of houses on
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
+the opposite side. Each of
+these canals forms a port where the water is deep enough to float the
+largest vessels, and every one of them is full of shipping throughout
+its length, a narrow space being kept clear in the middle which serves
+as a thoroughfare for the vessels. It seems like a great fleet
+imprisoned in a town.</p>
+
+<p>I arrived at the hour of greatest activity, and took my stand on the
+highest bridge of the principal crossway.</p>
+
+<p>Thence I could see four canals, four forests of ships, flanked on
+either side by eight rows of trees.</p>
+
+<p>The streets were encumbered with people and merchandise. Droves of
+cattle passed over the bridges, which were being raised and swung to
+let the ships pass. The moment they closed or lowered again fresh
+crowds of people, carriages, and carts passed over them. Ships as
+fresh and shining as the models in a museum passed in and out of the
+canals, carrying on their decks the wives and children of the sailors,
+while smaller boats glided rapidly from ship to ship. Customers
+thronged the shops. Servants were washing the walls and windows. This
+busy scene with all its movement was made yet more cheerful by its
+reflection in the water,&mdash;by the green of the trees, the red of the
+houses, by the high windmills, whose black tops and white wings were
+outlined against the blue sky, and still more by an air of repose and
+simplicity never seen in any other northern town.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I examined a Dutch ship attentively.</p>
+
+<p>Almost all of the vessels which are crowded in the canals of Rotterdam
+sail only on the Rhine and in Holland. They have only one mast, and
+are broad and strongly built. They are painted in various colors like
+toy boats. The planks of the hull are generally of a bright grass
+green, ornamented at the edge by a white or bright-red stripe, or by
+several stripes which look like broad bands of different colored
+ribbons. The poop is usually gilded. The decks and the masts are
+varnished and polished like the daintiest drawing-room floor. The
+hatches, the buckets, the barrels, the sailyards and the small planks
+are all painted red, and striped with white or blue. The cabin in
+which the families of the sailors live is also colored like a Chinese
+joss-house; its windows are scrupulously clean, and are hung with
+white embroidered curtains tied with pink ribbons. In all their spare
+moments the sailors, the women, and the children are washing,
+brushing, and scrubbing everything with the greatest care; and when
+their vessel makes its exit from the port, all bright and pompous like
+a triumphal car, they stand proudly erect on the poop and search for a
+mute compliment in the eyes of the people who are gathered along the
+canal.</p>
+
+<p>Passing from canal to canal, from bridge to bridge, I arrived at the
+dyke of the Boompjes, in front of the Meuse, where is centred the
+whole life of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+this great commercial town. To the left extends a long
+line of gay little steamers, which leave every hour of the day for
+Dordrecht, Arnhem, Gouda, Schiedam, Briel, and Zealand. They are
+continually filling the air with the lively sound of their bells and
+with clouds of white smoke. To the right are the larger vessels that
+run between the different European ports, and among them are to be
+seen the beautiful three-masted ships that sail to and from the East
+Indies, with their names, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Samarang, written on
+them in letters of gold, bringing to the imagination those far-off
+ports and savage nations like the echo of far-off voices. In front,
+the Meuse is crowded by numbers of boats and barges, while its
+opposite bank is covered with a forest of beech trees, windmills, and
+workshop chimneys. Above this scene is a restless sky, with flashes of
+light mingling with ominous darkness, with scudding clouds and
+changing forms, which seemed to be trying to reproduce the busy
+activity of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Rotterdam, with the exception of Amsterdam, is the most important
+commercial city in Holland. It was a flourishing commercial town as
+early as the thirteenth century. Ludovico Guicciardini, in his work on
+the Netherlands which I have already mentioned, tells, in proof of the
+riches of the town, that in the sixteenth century within a year it
+rebuilt nine hundred houses which had been destroyed by fire.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
+Bentivoglio, in his history of the war of Flanders, calls it "the
+greatest and the most important commercial town that Holland
+possesses." But its greatest prosperity dates only from 1830; that is
+to say, after the separation of Holland from Belgium, which brought to
+Rotterdam all that prosperity of which it deprived her rival, Antwerp.
+Her situation is most advantageous. By means of the Meuse she
+communicates with the sea, and this river can carry the largest
+merchantmen into her ports in a few hours; through the same river she
+communicates with the Rhine, which brings her whole forests from the
+mountains of Switzerland and Bavaria&mdash;an immense quantity of timber,
+which in Holland is changed into ships, dykes, and villages. More than
+eighty splendid ships come and go between Rotterdam and India in the
+space of nine months. From every port merchandise pours in with such
+abundance that it has to be divided among the neighboring towns.
+Meanwhile, Rotterdam increases in size: the citizens are now
+constructing vast new store-houses, and are now working on a huge
+bridge which will span the Meuse and cross the entire town, thus
+extending the railway, which now stops on the left bank of the river,
+as far as the gate of Delft, where it will join the railway of the
+Hague.</p>
+
+<p>In short, Rotterdam has a more brilliant future than Amsterdam, and
+for a long time has been feared
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
+ as a rival by her elder sister. She
+does not possess the great riches of the capital, but she is more
+industrious in using what wealth she has; she risks, dares, and
+undertakes, after the manner of a young and adventurous city.
+Amsterdam, like a wealthy merchant who has grown cautious after a life
+of daring speculations, has begun to doze and to rest on her laurels.
+To briefly characterize the three Dutch cities, it may be said that
+one makes a fortune at Rotterdam, one consolidates it in Amsterdam,
+and one spends it at the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>One understands from this why Rotterdam is rather looked down upon by
+the other two cities, and is regarded as a <i>parvenu</i>. But there is yet
+another reason for this: Rotterdam is a merchant city pure and simple,
+and is exclusively occupied with her own affairs. She has but a small
+aristocracy, which is neither wealthy nor proud. Amsterdam, on the
+contrary, holds the flower of the old merchant princes. Amsterdam has
+great picture-galleries,&mdash;she fosters the arts and literature; she
+unites, in short, distinction and wealth. Notwithstanding their
+peculiar advantages, these sister cities are mutually jealous; they
+antagonize and fret each other: what one does the other must do; what
+the government grants to one, the other insists upon having. At the
+present moment (<i>in 1874</i>), they are opening to the sea two canals
+which may not prove serviceable; but that is of no consequence: the
+government, like an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+indulgent father, must satisfy both his elder and
+his younger daughter.</p>
+
+<p>After I had seen the port, I went along the Boompjes dyke, on which
+stands an uninterrupted line of large new houses built in the Parisian
+and London style&mdash;houses which the inhabitants greatly admire, but
+which the stranger regards with disappointment or neglects altogether;
+I turned back, re-entered the city, and went from canal to canal, from
+bridge to bridge, until I reached the angle formed by the union of
+Hoog-Straat with one of the two long canals which enclose the town
+toward the east.</p>
+
+<p>This is the poorest part of the town.</p>
+
+<p>I went down the first street I came to, and took several turns in that
+quarter to observe how the lower classes of the Dutch live. The
+streets were extremely narrow, and the houses were smaller and more
+crooked than those in any other part of the city; one could reach many
+of the roofs with one's hand. The windows were little more than a span
+from the ground; the doors were so low that one was obliged to stoop
+to enter them. But nevertheless there was not the least sign of
+poverty. Even there the windows were provided with
+looking-glasses&mdash;spies, as the Dutch call them; on the window-sills
+there were pots of flowers protected by green railings; there were
+white curtains,&mdash;the doors were painted green or blue, and stood wide
+open, so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+that one could see the bedrooms, the kitchens, all the
+recesses of the houses. The rooms were like little boxes; everything
+was heaped up as in an old-clothes shop, but the copper vessels, the
+stoves, the furniture, were all as clean and bright as those in a
+gentleman's house. As I passed along these streets, I did not see a
+bit of dirt anywhere,&mdash;I met with no bad smells, nor did I see a rag,
+or a hand extended for alms; one breathes cleanliness and well-being,
+and thinks with shame of the squalid quarters in which the lower
+classes swarm in our cities, and not in ours only, for Paris too has
+its Rue Mouffetard.</p>
+
+<p>Turning back to my hotel, I passed through the square of the great new
+market. It is placed in the centre of the city, and is not less
+strange than all that surrounds it.</p>
+
+<p>It is an open square suspended over the water, being at the same time
+a square and a bridge. The bridge is very wide and unites the
+principal dyke&mdash;the Hoog-Straat&mdash;with a section of the town surrounded
+by canals. This aërial square is enclosed on three sides by venerable
+buildings, between which runs a street long, narrow, and dark,
+entirely filled by a canal, and reminding one of a highway in Venice.
+On the fourth side is a sort of dock formed by the widest canal in the
+city, which leads directly to the Meuse. In this square, surrounded by
+carts and stalls, in the midst of heaps of vegetables, oranges and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
+earthenware, encircled by a crowd of hucksters and peddlers, enclosed
+by a railing covered with matting and rags, stands the statue of
+Desiderius Erasmus, the first literary celebrity of Rotterdam.</p>
+
+<p>This Gerrit Gerritz&mdash;for, like all the great writers of his time, he
+assumed the Latin name&mdash;this Gerrit Gerritz belonged by his education,
+by his literary attainments, and by his convictions to the circle of
+the Italian humanists and literati. An elegant, learned, and
+indefatigable writer on literature and science, he filled all Europe
+with his fame between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; he was
+overwhelmed with favor by the popes, sought after and fêted by
+princes. Of his innumerable works, all of which were written in Latin,
+the "Praise of Folly," dedicated to Sir Thomas More, is still read.
+The bronze statue, erected in 1622, represents Erasmus dressed in a
+fur cloak and cap. The figure is slightly bent forward as if he were
+walking, and he holds in his hand a large open book, from which he is
+reading. There is a double inscription on the pedestal in Latin and
+Dutch, which calls him <i>vir sæculi sui primarius et civis omnium
+præstantissimus</i>. Notwithstanding this pompous eulogy, poor
+Erasmus, stood in the centre of the market-place like a municipal
+guard, excites our compassion. There is not, I believe, on the face of
+the earth another statue of a scholar that is so neglected by those
+who pass it, so despised by those who surround it, and so pitied by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
+those who look at it. However, who knows but that Erasmus, subtle
+professor that he was and will ever be, is contented with his corner,
+if indeed, as tradition tells, it be not far from his house? In a
+little street near the square, in the wall of a small house which is
+now used as a tavern, there is to be seen in a niche a bronze
+statuette of the great writer, and under it runs the inscription: <i>Hæc
+est parva domus magnus qua natus Erasmus</i>. Eight out of ten of the
+inhabitants of Rotterdam have probably never seen nor read it.</p>
+
+<p>In an angle of the same square is a small house called "The House of
+Fear," where upon the wall is a picture whose subject I have
+forgotten. According to the tradition it is called "The House of
+Fear," because the most prominent people of the city took shelter in
+it when Rotterdam was sacked by the Spaniards, and were imprisoned in
+it three days without food. This is not the only record of the
+Spaniards to be found in Rotterdam. Many buildings, erected during the
+time of their dominion suggest the style of architecture then
+fashionable in Spain, and many still bear Spanish inscriptions. In the
+cities of Holland inscriptions on the houses are very common. The
+buildings, like old wine, glory in their antiquity and declare the
+date of their construction in large letters on the façades.</p>
+
+<p>In the market square I had every opportunity of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
+ observing the
+earrings of the women, which deserve to be minutely described.</p>
+
+<p>At Rotterdam, I saw only the earrings which are worn in South Holland,
+but even in this province alone the variety is very great. However,
+they are all alike in this respect,&mdash;instead of hanging from the ears,
+they are attached to a gold, silver, or gilded copper semicircle,
+which girds the head like a half diadem, its extremities resting on
+the temples. The commonest earrings are in the form of a spiral with
+five or six circles; they are often very wide, and are attached to the
+two ends of the semicircle. They project in front of the face like the
+frames of a pair of spectacles. Many of the women wear another pair of
+ordinary earrings attached to the spirals. These are very large and
+reach almost to the bosom, dangling in front of the cheeks like the
+head-gear of Italian oxen. Some women wear golden circles which gird
+the forehead also, and are chased and ornamented in relief with
+leaves, studs, and buttons. They nearly all dress their hair smooth
+and tight, and wear white caps embroidered and trimmed with lace.
+These fit the head closely like a night-cap, and cover the neck and
+shoulders, descending in the form of a veil, which is also embroidered
+and trimmed with lace. These flowing veils, resembling those of the
+Arabs, and the peculiar and enormous earrings, give these women an
+appearance partly regal and partly barbarous. If they were not so fair
+as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
+are, one would take them for women of some savage land who
+had still preserved the ornaments of their native dress. I am not
+surprised that some travellers, seeing these earrings for the first
+time, have thought that they were at once an ornament and an
+instrument, and have asked their use. One might suppose that they are
+made thus for another purpose than that of beautifying the
+wearer&mdash;that they may serve as a defence to female modesty. For if any
+impertinent person should attempt to salute a cheek so guarded, he
+would encounter these obstacles and be kept at bay some distance from
+the coveted object. These earrings, which are worn chiefly by the
+peasant-women, are nearly all made of gold, and because of the size of
+the spirals and of the other accessories they cost a large sum. But I
+saw signs of even greater riches amongst the Dutch peasantry during my
+country rambles.</p>
+
+<p>Near the market square stands the cathedral, which was founded toward
+the end of the fifteenth century at the time of the decadence of
+Gothic architecture. It was then a Catholic church consecrated to St.
+Lawrence; now it is the first Protestant church in the city.
+Protestantism, with religious vandalism, entered the ancient church
+with a pickaxe and a whitewash brush, and with bigoted fanaticism
+broke, scraped, rasped, plastered, and destroyed all that was
+beautiful and splendid, and reduced it to a bare, white, cold edifice,
+such as ought to have been devoted to the Goddess of <i>Ennui</i> in the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
+time of the <i>False and Lying Gods</i>. In the cathedral there is an
+immense organ with nearly five thousand pipes, which gives, besides
+other sounds, the effect of the echo. There are also the tombs of a
+few admirals, decorated with long epitaphs in Dutch and Latin. Besides
+these I saw nothing but a great many benches, some boys with their
+hats on, a group of women who were chattering loudly, and an old man
+with a cigar in his mouth. This was the first Protestant church I had
+entered, and I must confess I felt a disagreeable sensation, partly of
+sadness, partly of scandal. I compared the dismantled appearance of
+this church with the magnificent cathedrals of Italy and Spain, where
+a soft and mysterious light shines from the walls, and where one meets
+the loving looks of angels and saints through the clouds of incense
+directing one's gaze toward heaven; where one sees so many pictures of
+innocence that calm one, so many images of pain that help one to
+suffer, that inspire one with resignation, peace, and the sweetness of
+pardon; where the poor, without food or shelter, spurned from the rich
+man's gate, may pray amid marble and gold, as if in a palace,&mdash;where,
+surrounded by a pomp and splendor that do not humiliate, but rather
+honor and comfort their misery, they are not despised;&mdash;those
+cathedrals, finally, where as children we knelt beside our mothers,
+and felt for the first time a sweet assurance that we should some day
+live afresh in those deep
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>
+azure spaces that we saw painted in the
+dome suspended above us. Comparing this church with those cathedrals,
+I perceived that I was more of a Catholic than I had believed myself
+to be, and I felt the truth of those words of Castelar: "Well, yes, I
+am a free-thinker, but if some day I were to return to a religion, I
+would return to the splendid one of my fathers, and not to this
+squalid and nude doctrine that saddens my eyes and my heart."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_80pic" id="Page_80pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus05.jpg" width="500" height="652"
+alt="Interior of the Church of St. Lawrence, Rotterdam."
+title="Interior of the Church of St. Lawrence, Rotterdam." />
+</div>
+
+<p>From the top of the tower one gets a bird's-eye view of the whole city
+of Rotterdam with its steep little red roofs, its wide canals, its
+ships standing out against the houses, and all around the city a
+boundless plain of vivid green traversed by canals, fringed with
+trees, dotted with windmills and villages hidden in masses of verdure
+and showing only the points of their steeples. At that moment the sky
+was clear, and it was possible to see the gleaming waters of the Meuse
+from Bois-le-Duc almost to its mouth. I distinguished the steeples of
+Dordrecht, Leyden, Delft, the Hague, and Gouda; but nowhere, either
+near or far off, was there a hill, a rise in the ground, or a curve to
+break the straight even line of the horizon. It was like a sea, green
+and motionless, on which the steeples were the masts of anchored
+ships. The eye wandered over that vast plain with a sense of repose,
+and for the first time I experienced that indefinable feeling which
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+Dutch landscape inspires. It is a feeling neither of sadness, of
+pleasure, nor of weariness, yet it embraces them all, and holds one
+for a long time motionless, without knowing at first what one is
+looking at or of what one is thinking. I was suddenly aroused by
+strange music; at first I could not tell whence it came. Bells were
+ringing a lively chime with silvery notes, now breaking slowly on the
+ear, as if they could scarcely detach themselves from each other; now
+blending in groups, in strange flourishes; now trilling, and swelling
+sonorously. The music was merry and fantastic, although of a somewhat
+primitive character, it is true, like the many-colored town over which
+it poured its notes like a flight of birds; indeed, it seemed to
+harmonize so well with the character of the city that it appeared to
+be its natural voice, an echo of the quaint life of the people,
+reminding me of the sea, the solitude, and the cottages, and at the
+same time it amused me and touched my heart. All at once the music
+stopped and the hour struck. At the same moment other steeples flung
+on the air other chimes, of which only the highest notes reached me,
+and when their chimes were ended they likewise struck the hour. This
+aërial concert, as I was told when its mechanism was explained to me,
+is repeated at every hour in the day and night by all the steeples of
+Holland, and the chimes are national airs, psalms, Italian and German
+melodies. Thus in Holland the hour sings, as though to draw the mind
+from contemplating the flight of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
+time, and it sings of country, of
+religion, and of love, with a harmony surpassing all the sounds of
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now, to continue in order my story of what I saw and did, I must
+conduct my readers to a coffee-house and beg them to sit beside me at
+my first Dutch dinner.</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch are great eaters. Their greatest pleasure, as Cardinal
+Bentivoglio has said, is to be at a feast or at some repast. But they
+are not epicures; they are voracious: they prefer quantity to quality.
+Even in ancient times they were famous among their neighbors, not only
+for the roughness of their habits, but for the simplicity of their
+diet. They were called eaters of milk and cheese. They usually eat
+five times a day. When they rise they take tea, coffee, milk, bread,
+cheese, butter; shortly before noon comes a good breakfast; before
+dinner they partake of some light nourishment, such as a glass of wine
+and biscuits; then follows a heavy dinner; and late in the evening, to
+use their own words, some trifle, so as not to go to bed with an empty
+stomach. They eat in company on many occasions. I do not mean on the
+occasions of christenings or marriages, as in other countries, but,
+for example, at funerals. It is the custom that the friends and
+relatives who have accompanied the funeral procession shall go home
+with the family of the deceased, where they are then invited to eat
+and drink, and they generally do great honor to their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
+hosts. If there
+were no other witnesses, the Dutch paintings are there to testify to
+the great part eating has always played in the life of this people.
+Besides the infinite number of domestic subjects, in which we might
+say that dishes and bottles are the protagonists, nearly all the large
+pictures representing historical personages, burgomasters, and
+national guard, show them seated at table in the act of eating,
+carving, or pouring out wine. Even their hero, William the Silent, the
+incarnation of New Holland, shared this national love of the table. He
+had the first cook of his time, who was so great an artist that the
+German princes sent beginners to perfect themselves at his school, and
+Philip II., in one of those periods of apparent reconciliation with
+his mortal enemy, begged for him as a present.</p>
+
+<p>But, as I said, the principal characteristic of the Dutch kitchen is
+abundance, not delicacy. The French, who are <i>bon-vivants</i>, find much
+to criticise. I remember a writer of certain <i>Mémoires sur la
+Hollande</i> who inveighs with lyrical fervor against the Dutch cuisine,
+saying, "What style of eating is this? They mix soup and beer, meat
+and comfits, and devour quantities of meat without bread." Other
+writers of books about Holland have spoken of their dinners in that
+country as if they were domestic misfortunes. It is superfluous to say
+that all these statements are exaggerations. Even a fastidious palate
+can in a very short time accustom itself
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
+ to the Dutch style of
+cooking. The substantial part of the dinner is always a dish of meat,
+with which four or five side dishes of salt meat and vegetables are
+served. These every one mixes according to his taste and eats with the
+principal dish. The meats are excellent, the vegetables, which are
+cooked in a thousand different ways, are even better. Those which they
+cook in an especially worthy manner are potatoes and cabbages, and
+their way of making omelets is admirable. I do not speak of game,
+fish, milk-foods, and butter, because their praises need not be
+repeated, and I am silent for fear of being too enthusiastic about
+that celebrated cheese into which, when once one has plunged one's
+knife, one continues with a sort of increasing fury, thrusting and
+gashing and abandoning one's self to every style of slashing and
+gouging until the rind is empty, and desire still hovers over the
+ruins.</p>
+
+<p>A stranger who dines for the first time in a Dutch restaurant sees a
+number of strange things. In the first place, the plates are very
+large and heavy, in proportion to the national appetite; in many
+places the napkins are of very thin white paper, folded at three
+corners, and ornamented with a printed border of flowers, with a
+little landscape in the corner, and the name of the restaurant, or
+<i>Bon appetit</i>, printed on them in large blue letters. The stranger, to
+be sure of having something he can eat, orders roast beef, and they
+bring him half a dozen great slices as large as a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
+ cabbage leaf; or a
+steak, and they bring him a lump of very rare meat which would suffice
+for a family; or fish, and they set before him an animal as long as
+the table; and each of these dishes is accompanied by a mountain of
+mashed potatoes and a pot of strong mustard. They give him a slice of
+bread a little larger than a dollar and as thin as a wafer. This is
+not pleasant for us Italians, who eat bread like beggars, so that in a
+Dutch restaurant, to the great surprise of the waiters, we are obliged
+to ask for more bread every moment. On any one of these three dishes
+and a glass of Bavarian or Amsterdam beer a man may venture to say he
+has dined. Any one who has a lean pocket-book need not dream of wine
+in Holland, for it is frightfully dear; but, as the people's purses
+there are generally well filled, nearly all the Dutch, from the middle
+class up, drink wine, and there are few other countries where there is
+so great an abundance and variety of foreign wines, particularly of
+those from French and Rhenish vineyards.</p>
+
+<p>Those who like liqueurs after dinner are well served in Holland. There
+is no need to mention that the Dutch liqueurs are famous the world
+over. The most famous of them all is "Schiedam," an extract of
+juniper-berries that takes its name from the little town of Schiedam,
+only a few miles from Rotterdam, where there are more than two hundred
+distilleries. To give an idea of the quantity made, it is sufficient
+to say that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+ thirty thousand pigs are fed annually on the dregs of the
+distilled material. The first time one tastes this renowned Schiedam
+he swears he will never take another drop of it if he lives to be a
+hundred years old; but, as the French proverb says, "Who has drunk
+will drink again," and one begins to try it with a great deal of
+sugar,&mdash;then with a little less,&mdash;then with none at all, until,
+<i>horribile dictu</i>! under the excuse of the damp and the fog one tosses
+down two small glasses with the freedom of a sailor. Next on the list
+comes Curaçoa, a fine feminine liqueur, not nearly so strong as
+Schiedam, but much stronger than that nauseating sweetened stuff that
+is sold in other countries under the recommendation of its name. After
+Curaçoa there are many others liqueurs, of every gradation of strength
+and flavor, with which an expert winebibber can indulge in every style
+of intoxication, slight, heavy, noisy, or stupid, and whereby he can
+dispose his brain to see the world in the manner most pleasing to his
+humor, much as one would do with an optical instrument by changing the
+color of the lens.</p>
+
+<p>The first time one dines in Holland a curious surprise awaits one when
+the bill is paid. I had eaten a dinner which would have been scanty
+for a Batavian, but was ample for an Italian, and, knowing how very
+dear everything is in Holland, I was waiting for one of those bills to
+which Théophile Gautier says the only reasonable answer is a
+pistol-shot. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when the waiter
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span
+>said I was to pay <i>forty sous</i>, and, as all kinds of money circulate
+in the large Dutch cities, I put on the table forty sous in silver
+francs, and waited to give my friend time to correct me if he had made
+a mistake. But he looked at the money without giving any sign of
+correcting himself, and said with the greatest gravity, "Forty sous
+more." Springing from my chair, I demanded an explanation. The
+explanation, alas! was simple. The monetary unit in Holland is the
+florin, which is equal to two francs four centimes in our money, so
+that the Dutch centime and sou are worth more than double the Italian
+centime and sou; hence the mistake and its correction.</p>
+
+<p>Rotterdam at night presents to the stranger an unexpected appearance.
+In other northern towns at a certain hour the life is gathered within
+doors; in Rotterdam at the corresponding hour it overflows into the
+street. A dense crowd passes through the Hoog-Straat until late at
+night. The shops are open, for then the servants make their purchases
+and the coffee-houses are crowded. The Dutch coffee-houses are of a
+peculiar shape. They usually consist of one long saloon, divided in
+the middle by a green curtain, which is drawn at night, like the
+curtain of a theatre, hiding all the back part of the room. This part
+only is lighted. The front part, separated from the street by a large
+window, remains in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
+dark, so that from the outside one can see
+only dim forms and the glowing ends of cigars, which look like
+fire-flies, and among these shadowy forms appears the uncertain
+profile of some woman, to whom light would be unwelcome.</p>
+
+<p>After the coffee-houses, the tobacco-shops attract the attention, not
+only in Rotterdam, but in all other Dutch cities. There is one at
+almost every step, and they are beyond comparison the finest in
+Europe, not excepting even the great Havana tobacco-stores in Madrid.
+The cigars are kept in wooden boxes, on each of which is a printed
+portrait of the king or queen or of some illustrious Dutch citizen.
+These boxes are arranged in the high shop-windows in a thousand
+architectural styles,&mdash;in towers, steeples, temples, winding
+staircases, beginning on the floor and reaching almost to the ceiling.
+In these shops, which are resplendent with lights like the stores of
+Paris, one may find cigars of every shape and flavor. The courteous
+tobacconist puts one's purchase into a special tissue-paper envelope
+after he has cut off the end of one of the cigars with a machine made
+for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch shops are brilliantly illuminated, and, although in
+themselves they do not differ materially from stores of other large
+European cities, they present at night a very unusual appearance,
+because of the contrast between the ground floor and the upper part of
+the house. Below, all is glass, light, color,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+and splendor; above,
+the gloomy façades with their steep sharp lines, steps, and curves.
+The upper part of the house is plain, dark, and silent&mdash;in a word,
+ancient Holland; the ground floor is the new life&mdash;fashion, luxury,
+and elegance. Moreover, the houses are all very narrow, so the shops
+occupy the whole ground floor, and are generally so close together
+that they touch each other. Consequently at night, in streets like
+Hoog-Straat, one sees very little wall below the second floor. The
+houses seem to rest on glass, and in the distance the windows become
+blended into two long flaming stripes like gleaming hedges, flooding
+the streets with light, so that one could find a pin in them.</p>
+
+<p>As one walks along the streets of Rotterdam in the evening, one sees
+that it is a city overflowing with life and in the process of
+expansion&mdash;a city, so to speak, in the flush of youth, in the time of
+growth, which, from year to year, outgrows its streets and houses, as
+a boy outgrows his clothes. Its one hundred and fourteen thousand
+inhabitants will be two hundred thousand at no distant time. The
+smaller streets swarm with children; indeed, they are filled to
+overflowing with them, so that it gladdens one's eyes and heart. An
+air of happiness breathes through the streets of Rotterdam. The white
+and ruddy faces of the servants, whose spotless caps are popping out
+everywhere, the serene faces of the tradespeople, who slowly sip their
+great mugs of beer, the peasants with their large golden
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+ earrings,
+the cleanliness, the flowers in the windows, the quiet hard-working
+crowd,&mdash;all give to Rotterdam an appearance of health and peaceful
+content which brings the <i>Te beata</i> to our lips, not with a cry of
+enthusiasm, but with a smile of sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>Re-entering the hotel, I saw an entire French family in a corridor
+gazing in admiration at the nails on a door which shone like so many
+silver buttons.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning, as soon as I arose, I went to my window, which was on
+the second floor, and on looking at the roofs of the opposite houses,
+I confessed with surprise that Bismarck was excusable for believing he
+saw phantoms on the roofs at Rotterdam. Out of the chimney-pots of all
+the ancient houses rise curved or straight tubes, one above the other,
+crossing and recrossing like open arms, or forks, or immense horns, in
+such impossible positions that it seems as though they must understand
+each other and be speaking a mysterious language from house to house,
+and that at night they must move about with some purpose.</p>
+
+<p>I walked down Hoog-Straat. It was Sunday and few shops were open. The
+Dutch told me that some years ago even those few would have been
+closed: the observance of the Sabbath, which used to be very strict,
+is becoming slack. I saw the signs of holiday chiefly in the people's
+clothes, in the dress of the men particularly. The men, especially
+those of the lower classes (and this I observed in other towns also),
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>
+have a decided taste for black clothes, which they wear proudly on
+Sundays&mdash;black cravats, black breeches, and certain black over-coats
+that reach almost to their knees. This costume, together with their
+leisurely gait and solemn faces, gives them the air of village syndics
+going to assist at an official <i>Te Deum</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But what most surprised me was to see at that hour almost every one I
+met, gentry and peasantry, men and boys, with cigars in their mouths.
+This unfortunate habit of "<i>dreaming awake</i>," as Émile Girardin called
+it when he made war on smokers, occupies such a large part of the life
+of the Dutch people that it is necessary to say a few words about it.</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch probably smoke more than any other northern nation. The
+humidity of the climate makes it almost a necessity, and the cheapness
+of tobacco puts it in everybody's power to satisfy this desire. To
+show how inveterate is this habit, it will suffice to say that the
+boatmen of the <i>trekschuit</i> (the stage-coach of the canals) measure
+distance by smoke. From here to such and such a town they say it is so
+many pipes, not so many miles. When you enter a house, the host, after
+the usual greetings, gives you a cigar; when you leave he gives you
+another, sometimes he fills your pocket. In the streets one sees men
+lighting fresh cigars with the stumps they have just smoked, with a
+hurried air, without stopping for a moment, as if it were equally
+disagreeable to them to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+ lose a moment of time and a mouthful of
+smoke. A great many men go to bed with their cigars in their mouths,
+light them if they awake in the night, and relight them in the morning
+before leaving their beds. "The Dutchman is a living alembic," writes
+Diderot; and it does really seem as though smoking is to him one of
+the necessary functions of life. Many say that much smoking clouds the
+brain. But, notwithstanding, if there is a people whose intelligence
+is clear and precise in the highest degree, that people is the Dutch.
+Moreover, smoking is no excuse for idleness among the
+Hollanders,&mdash;they do not smoke "to dream awake." Every one does his
+work while puffing white clouds of smoke from his mouth as if he were
+the chimney of a factory, and, instead of the cigar being a
+distraction, it is a stimulus and a help to labor. "Smoke is our
+second breath," said a Dutchman to me, and another defined the cigar
+as "the sixth finger of our hand."</p>
+
+<p>Apropos of tobacco, I must tell of the life and death of a famous
+Dutch smoker, but I am rather afraid my Dutch friends who told me the
+story will shrug their shoulders, for they lamented that strangers who
+write on Holland pass over important things which do honor to the
+country, and mention only trifles such as this. However, this is such
+a remarkable trifle that I cannot resist the temptation of putting it
+down.</p>
+
+<p>Once upon a time there was a wealthy gentle
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+man who lived in the
+suburbs of Rotterdam. His name was Van Klaës, but he was nicknamed
+Papa Big Pipe, for he was a fat old fellow and a great smoker. He was
+a man of simple habits and kindly heart, who, as the story runs, had
+made a great fortune in India by honest trade. On his return from
+India he built himself a beautiful mansion near Rotterdam, and in this
+home he collected and arranged in order every imaginable kind of pipe.
+There were pipes of every country and of every period, from those used
+by ancient barbarians to smoke hemp, to the splendid meerschaum and
+amber pipes ornamented with carved figures and bands of gold like
+those seen in the finest stores of Paris. The museum was open to
+visitors, to each of whom, after he had aired his knowledge on the
+subject of pipe-collecting, Mr Van Klaës gave a pouch filled with
+tobacco and cigars, and a catalogue of the museum in a velvet cover.</p>
+
+<p>Every day Mr Van Klaës smoked a hundred and fifty grammes of tobacco,
+and he died at the ripe old age of ninety-eight years; consequently,
+if we assume that he began to smoke when he was eighteen years old, he
+consumed in the course of his life four thousand three hundred and
+eighty-three kilogrammes. If this quantity of tobacco could be laid
+down in a continuous black line, it would extend twenty French
+leagues. But, in spite of all this, Mr Van Klaës showed that in death
+he was a far greater
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+smoker than he had been in life. Tradition has
+preserved all the particulars of his end. He was approaching his
+ninety-eighth birthday when it was suddenly borne in upon him that the
+end of his life was at hand. He summoned his notary, who was also a
+notable smoker, and, "Notary," said he with no unnecessary words,
+"fill my pipe and yours; I am going to die." The notary filled and
+lighted the pipes, and Mr Van Klaës dictated that will which has
+become celebrated all over Holland.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_94pic" id="Page_94pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus06.jpg" width="500" height="363"
+alt="On the Meuse, near Rotterdam." title="On the Meuse, near Rotterdam." />
+</div>
+
+<p>After he had bequeathed the greater part of his fortune to relatives,
+friends, and charities, he added the following clauses:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish every smoker in the kingdom to be invited to my funeral in
+every way possible, by letter, circular, and advertisement. Every
+smoker who takes advantage of the invitation shall receive as a
+present ten pounds of tobacco, and two pipes on which shall be
+engraved my name, my crest, and the date of my death. The poor of the
+neighborhood who accompany my bier shall receive every year on the
+anniversary of my death a large package of tobacco. I make the
+condition that all those who assist at my funeral, if they wish to
+partake of the benefits of my will, must smoke without interruption
+during the entire ceremony. My body shall be placed in a coffin lined
+throughout with the wood of my old Havana cigar-boxes. At the foot of
+the coffin shall be placed a box of the French
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> tobacco called
+<i>caporal</i> and a package of our old Dutch tobacco. At my side place my
+favorite pipe and a box of matches, ... for one never knows what may
+happen. When the bier rests in the vault, all the persons in the
+funeral procession are requested to cast upon it the ashes of their
+pipes as they pass it on their departure from the grounds."</p>
+
+<p>The last wishes of Mr Van Klaës were faithfully fulfilled; the funeral
+went off splendidly, veiled in a thick cloud of smoke. The cook of the
+deceased, Gertrude by name, to whom in a codicil her master had left a
+considerable fortune on condition that she should overcome her
+aversion to tobacco, walked in the funeral procession with a cigarette
+in her mouth. The poor blessed the memory of the charitable gentleman,
+and all the country resounded with his praises as it now rings with
+his fame.</p>
+
+<p>As I walked along one of the canals I saw under different conditions
+one of those sudden changes in the weather such as I had witnessed on
+the previous day. In a moment the sun disappeared, the infinite
+variety of cheerful colors was obscured, and a chilling wind began to
+blow. Then the subdued gayety which existed a few moments before gave
+place everywhere to a strange trepidation. The leaves of the trees
+rustled, the flags on the ships fluttered, the boats moored to the
+palisades tossed to and fro; the waters were troubled, a thousand
+articles suspended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+ from the houses dangled about,&mdash;the arms of the
+windmills spun rapidly around; it seemed as though a shiver of winter
+passed through everything, and that the city was apprehensive of a
+mysterious danger. In a few moments the sun shone out, and with it
+returned color, peace, and cheerfulness. This scene made me reflect
+that Holland is not really as sombre a country as many believe; it is
+rather very sombre one moment, and very cheerful the next, according
+to the weather. In everything it is a country of contrasts. Beneath a
+most capricious sky lives the least capricious people in the world,
+and yet this orderly and methodical nation possesses the tipsiest,
+most disordered architecture that eye can see.</p>
+
+<p>Before entering the museum at Rotterdam, I think it will be opportune
+to make some observations on Dutch painting, naturally not for those
+"who know," understand, but for those who have forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Dutch art possesses one quality that renders it particularly
+attractive to us Italians: it is that branch of the world's art which
+differs most from the Italian school,&mdash;it is the antithesis, or, to
+use a phrase that enraged Leopardi, "the opposite pole in art." The
+Italian and the Dutch are the two most original schools of painting,
+or, as some say, the only two schools that can honestly lay claim to
+originality. The others are only daughters or younger sisters, which
+bear a certain resemblance to their elders. So
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
+ Holland even in its
+art offers us that which we most desire in travel and
+description&mdash;novelty.</p>
+
+<p>Dutch art was born with the independence and freedom of Holland. So
+long as the northern and southern provinces of the Netherlands were
+united under Spanish dominion and the Catholic faith, they had only
+one school of painting. The Dutch artists painted like the Belgians;
+they studied in Belgium, Germany, and Italy. Heemskerk imitated
+Michelangelo; Bloemaert copied Correggio; De Moor followed Titian; to
+mention a few instances. They were pedantic disciples who united with
+all the affectations of the Italian style a certain German coarseness,
+and the outcome was a bastard style inferior to the earlier
+schools&mdash;childish, stiff, and crude in color, with no sense of light
+and shade. But, at any rate, it was not a slavish imitation; it was a
+faint prelude to real Dutch art.</p>
+
+<p>With the war of independence came liberty, reform, and art. The
+artistic and religious traditions fell together. The nude, the nymphs,
+the madonnas, the saints, allegory, mythology, the ideal,&mdash;the whole
+ancient edifice was in ruins. The new life which animated Holland was
+revealed and developed in a new way. The little country, which had
+suddenly become so glorious and formidable, felt that it must tell its
+greatness. Its faculties, which had been strengthened and stimulated
+in the grand enterprise of creating a native land, a real world,&mdash;now
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
+ this enterprise was achieved, expanded, and created an imaginary
+world. The conditions of the people were favorable to a revival of
+art. They had overcome the supreme perils which threatened them:
+security, prosperity, a splendid future, were theirs: their heroes had
+done their part; the time had come for artists. After so many
+sacrifices and disasters Holland came forth victorious from the
+strife, turned her face upon her people, and smiled, and that smile
+was Art.</p>
+
+<p>We could picture to ourselves what this art was even if no example of
+it remained. A peaceable, industrious, practical people, who, to use
+the words of a great German poet, were continually brought back to
+dull realities by the conditions of a vulgar bourgeois life; who
+cultivated their reason at the expense of their imagination, living in
+consequence on manifest ideas rather than beautiful images; who fled
+from the abstract, whose thoughts never rose beyond nature, with which
+they waged continual warfare&mdash;a people that saw only what exists, that
+enjoyed only what it possessed, whose happiness consisted in wealthy
+ease and an honest indulgence of the senses, although without violent
+passions or inordinate desires;&mdash;such a people would naturally be
+phlegmatic in their art,&mdash;they would love a style that pleased but did
+not arouse them, that spoke to the senses rather than to the
+imagination&mdash;a school of art placid, precise, full of repose, and
+thoroughly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+ material like their life&mdash;an art, in a word, realistic and
+self-satisfied, in which they could see themselves reflected as they
+were and as they were content to remain.</p>
+
+<p>The first Dutch artists began by depicting that which was continually
+before their eyes&mdash;the home. The long winters, the stubborn rains, the
+humidity, the continual changes in the climate, compel the Hollander
+to spend a great part of the year and of the day in the house. He
+loves his little home, his nutshell, much more than we love our
+houses, because it is much more necessary to him, and he lives in it
+much more; he provides it with every comfort, caresses it, adorns it;
+he delights in looking at the falling snow and drenching rain from its
+tight windows, and in being able to say, "Let the storms rage&mdash;I am
+safe and warm." In his little nest, beside his good wife and
+surrounded by his children, he passes the long evenings of autumn and
+winter, eating much, drinking much, smoking much, and amusing himself
+with honest mirth after the fatigues of the day. Dutch artists paint
+these little houses and this home-life in little pictures adapted in
+size to the little walls they must adorn; bedrooms which make one
+drowsy; kitchens with tables ready spread; the fresh, kindly faces of
+mothers of families; men basking in the warmth of the hearth; and, as
+they are conscientious realists who omit nothing, they add blinking
+cats, gaping dogs, scratching hens, brooms, vegetables, crockery, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
+plucked chickens. This life is painted in every class of society and
+under every circumstance; evening-parties, dances, orgies, games,
+holidays, all are represented, and thus Ter Borch, Metsu, Netscher,
+Dou, Mieris, Steen, Brouwer, and Ostade became famous.</p>
+
+<p>From home-life they turned to the country. The hostile climate gave
+them a very short time in which to admire nature, and for this reason
+the Dutch artists admire it only the more and salute the spring with
+greater joy. The fleeting smiles of the heavens are strongly impressed
+on their imagination. The country is not beautiful, but it is doubly
+dear to them because it has been wrested from the sea and from the
+hands of strangers. They painted it with affection, making their
+landscapes simple, ingenuous, and full of an intimacy with nature that
+neither the Italian nor the Belgian landscapes of this time possess.
+Their country, flat and monotonous, presented to their appreciative
+eyes a marvellous variety. They noted every change in the sky, and
+revealed the water in its every appearance, its reflection, its grace
+and freshness, and its power of diffusing light and color everywhere.
+There are no mountains, so they put the downs in the background of
+their pictures; and, lacking forests, they saw and expressed the
+mysteries of a forest in a group of trees, and animated all with noble
+animals and sails. The subjects of their pictures are poor indeed&mdash;a
+windmill, a canal, a gray sky&mdash;but how much they suggest! Some of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
+them, not content with their native land, came to Italy in search of
+hills, bright skies, and great ruins, and became a circle of choice
+artists, such as Both, Swanevelt, Pijnacker, Breenbergh, Van Laer, and
+Asselin; but the palm remains with the true Dutch landscape
+painters&mdash;with Wynants, the painter of morning; Van der Neer, the
+painter of night; Ruysdael, the painter of melancholy; Hobbema, the
+painter of windmills, cottages, and kitchen-gardens; and with others
+who contented themselves with expressing the charm of the modest
+scenes of their native land.</p>
+
+<p>Side by side with landscape painting arose another branch of art,
+which was peculiar to Holland&mdash;the painting of animals. Cattle are the
+riches of the country, and the splendid breed of Holland is unequalled
+in Europe for its beauty and fecundity. The Dutch, who owe so much to
+their cattle, treat them, so to speak, as a part of the population;
+they love them, wash them, comb them, dress them. They are to be seen
+everywhere; they are reflected in the canals, and the country is
+beautified with their innumerable black and white spots dotting the
+wide meadows, giving every place an air of peace and repose, and
+inspiring one with a feeling of Arcadian sweetness and patriarchal
+serenity. The Dutch artists studied the differences and the habits of
+these animals; they divined, one may say, their thoughts and feelings,
+and enlivened the quiet beauty of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
+ the landscapes with their figures.
+Rubens, Snyders, Paul de Vos, and many other Belgian artists had
+painted animals with wonderful ability, but they are surpassed by the
+Dutch painters, Van de Velde, Berchem, Karel du Jardin, and Paul
+Potter, the prince of animal painters, whose famous "Bull" in the
+gallery at the Hague deserves to be hung in the Louvre opposite
+Raphael's "Transfiguration."</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch have become pre-eminent in another branch of art
+also&mdash;marine painting. The ocean, their enemy, their power, and their
+glory, overhanging their land, ever threatening and alarming them,
+enters into their life by a thousand channels and in a thousand forms.
+That turbulent North Sea, full of dark color, illuminated by sunsets
+of infinite gloom, and ever lashing its desolate banks, naturally
+dominated the imagination of the Dutch artists. They passed long hours
+on the shore contemplating the terrible beauties of the sea; they
+ventured from the land to study its tempests; they bought ships and
+sailed with their families, observing and painting; they followed
+their fleets to war and joined in the naval battles. Thus a school of
+marine artists arose, boasting such men as William Van de Velde the
+father and William the son, Bakhuisen, Dubbels, and Stork.</p>
+
+<p>Another school of painting naturally arose in Holland as the
+expression of the character of the people and of republican customs. A
+nation that without greatness had done so many great things, as
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>
+Michelet says, required an heroic style of painting, if it may be so
+called, destined to illustrate its men and achievements. But simply
+because the nation was without greatness, or, to speak more
+accurately, without the outward form of greatness&mdash;because it was
+modest, and inclined to consider all alike equal in face of the
+fatherland, because all had done their duty, yet each abhorred that
+adulation and apotheosis which glorify in one person the virtues and
+triumphs the mass,&mdash;this style of painting was needed, not to extol a
+few eminent men or extraordinary events, but to represent all classes
+of citizens by occurrences of the most ordinary and peaceful moments
+of bourgeois life. Hence those large pictures representing groups of
+five, ten, or even thirty persons, gunners, syndics, officials,
+professors, magistrates, men of affairs, seated or standing round
+tables, feasting or arguing, all life-size and faithful portraits,
+with serious open countenances, from which shines the quiet expression
+of a tranquil conscience, from which one divines, rather than sees,
+the nobility of lives devoted to their country, the spirit of that
+laborious and dauntless epoch, the manly virtues of that rare
+generation. All this is relieved by the beautiful costumes of the
+Renaissance, which so admirably combined grace with dignity,&mdash;those
+ruffs, jerkins, black cloaks, silken scarfs, ribbons, arms, and
+banners. Van der Helst, Hals, Govert, Flink, and Bol were masters in
+this style of art.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To leave the consideration of the different branches of painting, and
+to inquire into the particular methods which the Dutch artists adopted
+and the means they employed to accomplish their results, one chief
+feature at once presents itself as the distinctive trait of Dutch
+painting&mdash;the light.</p>
+
+<p>The light, because of the peculiar conditions under which it manifests
+itself in Holland, has naturally given rise to a peculiar style of
+painting. A pale light, undulating with marvellous changes, playing
+through an atmosphere heavy with vapor, a misty veil which is
+repeatedly and abruptly penetrated, a continual struggle between
+sunshine and shadow,&mdash;these were the phenomena that necessarily
+attracted the attention of artists. They began by observing and
+reproducing all this restlessness of the sky, this struggle which
+animates the nature of Holland with a varied and fantastic life, and
+by the act of reproducing it the struggle passed into their minds, and
+then, instead of imitating, they created. Then they themselves made
+the two elements contend; they increased the darkness to startle and
+disperse it with every manner of luminous effects and flashes of
+light; sunbeams stole through the gloom and then gradually died away;
+the reflections of twilight and the mellow light of lamps were
+delicately blended into mysterious shadows, which were animated with
+confused forms which one seems to see and yet cannot distinguish. So
+under their hands the light presents a thousand
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
+ fancies, contrasts,
+enigmas, and effects of shine and shade as unexpected as they are
+curious. Prominent in this field, among many others, were Gherard Dou,
+the painter of the famous picture of the four candles, and Rembrandt,
+the great wonder-working superhuman enlightener.</p>
+
+<p>Another of the most striking characteristics of Dutch painting is
+naturally color. It is generally recognized that in a country where
+there are no distant mountains, no undulating views, no prominent
+features to strike the eye&mdash;in short, no general forms that lend
+themselves to design&mdash;the artist is strongly influenced by color. This
+is especially true in the case of Holland, where the uncertain light
+and the vague shadows which continually veil the air soften and
+obscure the outlines of objects until the eye neglects the form it
+cannot comprehend, and fixes itself on color as the chief quality that
+nature possesses. But there are yet other reasons for this: a country
+as flat, monotonous, and gray as Holland is has need of color, just as
+a southern country has need of shadow. The Dutch artists have only
+followed the dominant taste of the people, who paint their houses,
+their boats, their palisades, the fences of the fields, and in some
+places the very trunks of the trees, in the brightest colors; who
+dress themselves as of yore in clothes of the gayest hues; who love
+tulips and hyacinths to distraction. Hence all the Dutch painters were
+great colorists, Rembrandt being the first.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Realism, favored by the calm and sluggish nature of the Dutch, which
+enables their artists to restrain their impetuosity, and further aided
+by the Dutch character, which aims at exactness and refuses to do
+things by halves, gave to the paintings of the Hollanders another
+distinctive trait&mdash;finish. This they carried to the last possible
+degree of perfection. Critics say truthfully that in Dutch paintings
+one may discover the first quality of the nation&mdash;patience. Everything
+is portrayed with the minuteness of a daguerreotype: the furniture
+with all the graining of the wood, the leaf with all its veins, a
+thread in a bit of cloth, the patch with all the stitches showing, the
+animal with every hair distinct, the face with all its
+wrinkles,&mdash;everything is finished with such microscopic precision that
+it seems to be the work of a fairy's brush, for surely a painter would
+lose his sight and reason in such a task. After all, this is a defect
+rather than a virtue, because painting ought to reproduce not what
+exists, but rather what the eye sees, and the eye does not see every
+detail. However, the defect is brought to such a degree of excellence
+that it is to be admired rather than censured, and one does not even
+dare to wish that it should not be there. In this respect, Dou,
+Mieris, Potter, Van der Helst, and indeed all the Dutch painters in
+greater or less degree, were famous as prodigies of patience.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, realism, which imparts to Dutch painting such an
+original character and such admirable qualities, is, notwithstanding,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+the root of its most serious defects. The Dutch painters, solicitous
+to copy only material truth, give to their figures the expression of
+merely physical sentiments. Sorrow, love, enthusiasm, and the thousand
+subtle emotions that are nameless, or that take different names from
+the different causes that give them birth, are rarely or never
+expressed. For them the heart does not beat, the eye does not overflow
+with tears, nor does the mouth tremble. In their pictures a whole part
+of the life is lacking, and that the most powerful and noble part, the
+human soul. Nay more, by so faithfully copying everything, the ugly
+especially, they end in exaggerating even that. They convert defects
+into deformities, portraits into caricatures; they slander the
+national type; they give every human figure an ungraceful and
+ludicrous appearance. To have a setting for figures they are obliged
+to select trivial subjects; hence the excessive number of canvases
+depicting taverns and drunken men with grotesque, stupefied faces, in
+sprawling attitudes; low women and old men who are despicably
+ridiculous; scenes in which we seem to hear the low yells and obscene
+words. On looking at these pictures one would say that Holland is
+inhabited by the most deformed and ill-mannered nation in the world.
+Some painters permit themselves even greater license. Steen, Potter,
+Brouwer, and the great Rembrandt himself often pandered to a low and
+depraved taste, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
+ Torrentius sent forth such shameless pictures
+that the provinces of Holland collect and burn them. But, overlooking
+these excesses, there is scarcely anything to be found in a Dutch
+gallery which elevates the soul, which awakens in the mind high and
+noble sentiments. One enjoys, one admires, one laughs, and sometimes
+one is silent before some landscapes, but on leaving one feels that
+one has not felt a real pleasure&mdash;that something was lacking. There
+comes a longing to look upon a beautiful face or to read inspired
+poetry, and sometimes, unconsciously, one catches one's self
+murmuring, "O Raphael!"</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, we must note two great merits in this school&mdash;its
+variety and its value as an expression, as a mirror, of the country.
+If Rembrandt and his followers are excepted, almost all the other
+painters are quite different from each other. Perhaps no other school
+presents such a number of original masters. The realism of the Dutch
+painters arose from their common love for nature, but each of them has
+shown in his work a different manifestation of a love all his own;
+each has given the individual impression that he has received from
+nature. They all set out from the same point&mdash;the worship of material
+truth, but they each arrived at a different goal. Their realism
+impelled them to copy everything, and the consequence is that the
+Dutch school has succeeded in representing Holland much more
+faithfully than any other school has illustrated any other country.
+It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+ has been said that if every other visible testimony to the
+existence of Holland in the seventeenth century&mdash;its great
+century&mdash;excepting the work of its artists were to disappear,
+everything would be found again in the pictures&mdash;the towns, the
+country, the ports, the fleets, the markets, the shops, the dress, the
+utensils, the arms, the linen, the merchandise, the pottery, the food,
+the amusements, the habits, the religion, and the superstitions. The
+good and the bad qualities of the nation are all alike represented,
+and this, which is a merit in the literature of a country, is no less
+a merit in its art.</p>
+
+<p>But there is one great void in Dutch painting, for which the peaceful
+and modest character of the people is not a sufficient reason. This
+school of painting, which is so essentially national, has, with the
+exception of some great naval battles, passed over all of the grand
+exploits of the war of independence, among which the sieges of Leyden
+and Haarlem would have been sufficient to inspire a legion of artists.
+Of this war, almost a century in duration, filled with strange and
+terrible events, there is not a single memorable painting. This
+school, so varied and so conscientious in reproducing its country and
+its life, has not represented one scene of that great tragedy, as
+William the Silent prophetically called it, which aroused in the
+Hollanders such diverse emotions of fear and grief, rage, joy, and
+national pride.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_110pic" id="Page_110pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus07.jpg" width="500" height="750"
+alt="The Steiger, Rotterdam." title="The Steiger, Rotterdam." />
+</div>
+
+<p>The splendor of Holland's art faded with its political greatness.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
+Nearly all the great painters were born during the first thirty years
+of the seventeenth or during the last years of the sixteenth century;
+none of them were living after the first ten years of the eighteenth
+century, and no others appeared to take their places. Holland had
+exhausted its productiveness. Already toward the end of the
+seventeenth century the sentiment of patriotism had commenced to
+weaken, taste had become depraved, the painters lost their inspiration
+with the decline of the moral energies of the country. In the
+eighteenth century the artists, as though surfeited with nature,
+returned to mythology, classicism, and conventionality; their
+imagination was weakened, their style was impoverished, and every
+spark of their former genius was extinguished. Dutch Art showed the
+world the marvellous flowers of Van Huysum, the last great lover of
+nature, then folded her weary hands and the flowers fell on his tomb.</p>
+
+<p>The present gallery at Rotterdam contains but a small number of
+paintings, among which there are very few works of the best artists
+and none of the <i>chefs d'&oelig;uvre</i> of the Dutch School. Three hundred
+paintings and thirteen hundred drawings were destroyed by fire in
+1864, and most of the works that are now there were bequeathed to the
+city of Rotterdam by Jacob Otto Boymans. Hence the gallery is a place
+to see examples of some particular artist, rather than to study Dutch
+painting.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In one of the first rooms are some sketches of naval battles, signed
+by William van de Velde, who is considered the greatest marine painter
+of his time. He was the son of William the elder, who was also a
+marine painter. Both father and son were fortunate enough to live at
+the time of the great naval wars between Holland, England, and France,
+and were able to see the battles with their own eyes. The States of
+Holland placed a frigate at the disposal of Van de Velde the elder;
+his son accompanied him. Both made their sketches in the midst of the
+battle-smoke, sometimes advancing so far among the fighting ships that
+the admirals were obliged to order them to withdraw. The younger Van
+de Velde surpassed his father. He painted small pictures&mdash;for the most
+part a gray sky, a calm sea, and some sails&mdash;but so naturally are they
+done that when one looks at them one seems to smell the salt air of
+the sea, and mistakes the frame for a window. This Van de Velde
+belongs to that group of Dutch painters who loved the water with a
+sort of madness, and who painted, one may say, on the water. Of these
+was Bakhuisen, a marine painter who had a great vogue in his day, whom
+Peter the Great chose as his master during his visit to Amsterdam.
+This Bakhuisen, it is said, used to risk himself in a small boat in
+the midst of a storm at sea that he might be able to observe more
+closely the movements of the waves, and he often placed his own life
+and the lives of his boatmen in such danger
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+ that the men, caring more
+for their skins than for his paintings, sometimes took him back to
+land against his will. John Griffier did more. He bought a little ship
+in London, furnished it like a house, installed his wife and children
+in it, and sailed about on his own responsibility in search of
+subjects. A storm dashed his vessel to pieces against a sandbank and
+destroyed all he possessed; he and his family were saved by a miracle,
+and settled in Rotterdam. But he soon grew weary of a life on land,
+bought a shattered boat and put to sea again; he nearly lost his life
+a second time near Dordrecht, but still continued his voyages.</p>
+
+<p>The Rotterdam gallery affords very few examples of marine paintings,
+but landscape painting is worthily represented by two pictures by
+Ruysdael, the greatest of the Dutch painters of rural scenes. These
+two paintings represent his favorite subjects&mdash;leafy, solitary spots,
+which, like all his works, inspire a subtle feeling of melancholy. The
+great power of this artist is sentiment. He is eminent in the Dutch
+school for a gentleness of soul and a singular superiority of
+education. It has been most truly said of him that he used landscape
+as an expression of his suffering, his weariness, his fancies, and
+that he contemplated his country with a bitter sadness, as if it were
+a place of torment, and that he created the woods to hide his gloom in
+their shade. The soft light of Holland is the image of his soul;
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> none
+felt more exquisitely than he its melancholy sweetness, none
+represented more feelingly than he, with a ray of languid light, the
+smile of a suffering fellow-creature. Because of the exceptional
+delicacy of his nature he was not appreciated by his fellow-citizens
+until long after his death.</p>
+
+<p>Beside a painting by Ruysdael hangs a picture of flowers by a female
+artist, Rachel Ruysch, the wife of a famous portrait-painter, who was
+born toward the close of the sixteenth century, and died, brush in
+hand, in the eightieth year of her age, after she had shown to her
+husband and to the world that a sensible woman can passionately
+cultivate the fine arts and yet find time to rear and educate ten
+children.</p>
+
+<p>And as I have spoken of the wife of a painter, I simply mention that
+it is possible to write an entertaining book on the wives of Dutch
+artists, both because of the variety of their adventures and the
+important part they play in the history of art. The faces of a number
+are known already, because many artists painted their wives'
+portraits, as well as their own and those of their children, their
+cats, and their hens. Biographers speak of most of them, confirming or
+contradicting reports which have been circulated in regard to their
+conduct. Some have hazarded the opinion that the larger number of them
+were a serious drawback to their husbands. It seems to me there is
+something to be said on the other side. As for Rembrandt, it is known
+that the happiest part of his life
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
+ was the time between his first
+marriage and the death of his wife, who was the daughter of a
+burgomaster of Leeuwarden, and to whom posterity owes a debt of
+gratitude. It is also known that Van der Helst at an advanced age
+married a beautiful girl, for whom there is nothing but praise, and
+posterity should be grateful to her for having brightened the old age
+of a great artist. It is true that we cannot speak of all in the same
+terms. Of the two wives of Steen, for example, the first was a
+featherhead, who allowed the tavern at Delft that he had inherited
+from his father to go to ruin; and the second, from all accounts, was
+unfaithful. Heemskerk's second wife was so dishonest that her husband
+was obliged to go about excusing her peculations. De Hondecoeter's
+wife was an eccentric and troublesome woman, who forced her husband to
+pass his evenings in a tavern in order to rid himself of her company.
+The wife of Berghem was so intolerably avaricious that if she found
+him dozing over his brushes she awoke him roughly to make him work and
+earn money, and the poor man was obliged to resort to subterfuges to
+purchase engravings when he was paid for his pictures. On the other
+hand, one could never end reciting the misdeeds of the husbands. The
+artist Griffier compelled his wife to travel about the world in a
+boat; Veen begged his wife's permission to spend four months in Rome,
+and stayed there four years. Karel du Jardin married a rich old woman
+to pay his debts, and deserted her
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
+ when she had paid them. Molyn,
+another artist, had his wife assassinated that he might marry a
+Genoese. I doubt whether poor Paul Potter, as the story runs, was
+betrayed by the wife whom he blindly loved; and who knows whether
+Huysum, the great flower-painter, who was consumed by jealousy in the
+midst of riches and glory for a wife who was neither young nor
+beautiful, had real grounds for his doubts, or whether he was not
+induced by the reports of his envious rivals to believe what was
+untrue? In conclusion, I must mention with due honor the three wives
+of Eglon Van der Neer, who crowned him with twenty-five children&mdash;a
+family which, however, did not keep him from painting a large number
+of pictures in every style, from making several voyages, and from
+cultivating tulips.</p>
+
+<p>There are several small paintings by Albert Cuyp in the Rotterdam
+gallery, a landscape, horses, fowls, and fruit&mdash;that Albert Cuyp who
+holds a unique place in Dutch art, who in the course of a prolonged
+life painted portraits, landscapes, animals, flowers, winter pieces,
+moonlight scenes, marine subjects, figures, and in each style left an
+imprint of originality. But nevertheless, like most of the Dutch
+painters of his time, he was so unfortunate that until 1750, more than
+fifty years after his death, his paintings sold for a hundred francs,
+whereas they now would bring a hundred thousand francs&mdash;not in
+Holland, but in England, where most of his works are owned.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Heemskerk's "Christ at the Sepulchre" would not be worth mentioning if
+it were not an excuse for introducing the artist, who was one of the
+most curious creatures that ever walked the face of the earth. Van
+Veen&mdash;such is his real name&mdash;was born in the village of Heemskerk at
+the end of the fifteenth century, and flourished at the period of
+Italian imitation. He was the son of a peasant, and, although he had
+an inclination toward art, he was intended for a peasant. He became a
+painter by chance, like many other Dutch artists. His father had a
+furious temper, and the son was very much afraid of him. One day poor
+Van Veen dropped the milk-jug; his father flew at him, but he ran out
+of the house and spent the night somewhere else. The next morning his
+mother found him, and, thinking it would be unsafe for him to face the
+paternal anger, she gave him a small quantity of linen, a little
+money, and commended him to the care of God. The lad went to Haarlem,
+and, obtaining an entrance to the studio of a famous artist, he
+studied, succeeded, and then went to Rome to perfect himself. He did
+not become a great artist, for the imitation of the Italian school
+spoiled him: his treatment of the nude was stiff and his style full of
+mannerisms, but he painted a great deal and was well paid, and did not
+regret his early life. But herein consisted his peculiarity: he was,
+as his biographers assert, a man incredibly, morbidly and ridiculously
+timid. When he knew that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>
+ the arquebusiers were to pass he climbed the
+roofs and steeples, and trembled with fear when he saw their arms in
+the street. If any one thinks this an idle story, there is a fact
+which serves to prove it true: he was in the town of Haarlem when the
+Spaniards besieged it, and the magistrates, who knew his weakness,
+permitted him to flee from the city before they began to fight,
+doubtless foreseeing that otherwise he would have died of fright. He
+took advantage of the permission and fled to Amsterdam, leaving his
+fellow-citizens in the lurch.</p>
+
+<p>Other Dutch painters&mdash;for we are speaking of the men, not of their
+pictures&mdash;like Heemskerk, owed their choice of a profession to
+accident. Everdingen, of the first order of landscape-painters, owed
+his choice to a tempest which wrecked his ship on the shore of Norway,
+where he remained, was inspired by the grand natural scenery and
+created an original style of landscape art. Cornelisz Vroom also owed
+his fortune to a shipwreck: he was on his way to Spain with some
+religious pictures; when the vessel was wrecked near the coast of
+Portugal, the poor artist saved himself with others on an uninhabited
+island, where they remained two days without food. They considered
+themselves as good as lost, when they were unexpectedly relieved by
+some monks from a monastery on the coast, whither the sea had borne
+the hulk of the vessel with the pictures, which were unharmed. These
+the monks considered admirable.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+ Thus was Cornelisz sheltered,
+welcomed, and stimulated to paint, and the profound emotions
+occasioned by the wreck gave his genius such a new and powerful
+impulse that he became a real artist. Another, Hans Fredeman, the
+famous trick painter who painted some columns on the frame of a
+drawing-room door so cleverly that Charles V. turned round to look as
+soon as he had entered, and thought that the walls had suddenly closed
+behind him by enchantment,&mdash;this Hans Fredeman, who painted palisades
+that made people turn back, doors which people attempted to open, owed
+his fortune to a book on architecture by Vitruvius which he obtained
+by chance from a carpenter.</p>
+
+<p>There is a good little picture by Steen which represents a doctor
+pretending to operate on a man who imagines himself to be sick: an old
+woman is holding a basin, the invalid is shrieking desperately, and a
+few curious neighbors, convulsed with laughter, look on from a window.</p>
+
+<p>When one says that this picture makes one break into an irresistible
+peal of laughter, one has said all that is necessary. After Rembrandt,
+Steen is the most original figure-painter of the Dutch school; he is
+one of those few artists whom, when once known, whether they are or
+are not congenial to our taste, we must perforce admire as great
+painters, and even if we consider them worthy of only secondary
+honors, it matters not, they remain indelibly impressed on
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
+ our minds.
+After one has seen Steen's pictures it is impossible to see a
+drunkard, a buffoon, a cripple, a dwarf, a deformed face, a ridiculous
+smirk, a grotesque attitude, without remembering one of his figures.
+All the degrees of stupidity and of drunkenness, all the grossness and
+mawkishness of orgies, the frenzy of the lowest pleasures, the
+cynicism of the vulgarest vice, the buffoonery of the wildest rabble,
+all the most brutal emotions, the basest aspects of tavern and
+alehouse life, have been painted by him with the brutality and
+insolence of an unscrupulous man, and with such a sense of the comic,
+such an impetuosity, such an intoxication of inspiration, one might
+say that words cannot express the effect produced. Writers have
+devoted many volumes to him, and have advanced many different opinions
+about him. His warmest admirers have attributed to him a moral
+purpose&mdash;that of making debauchery hateful by painting it as he did in
+repulsive colors, for the same reason that the Spartans showed drunken
+Helots to their sons. Others see in his paintings only the spontaneous
+and thoughtless expression of the spirit and taste of the artist, whom
+they represent as a vulgar debauchee. However this may be, there is no
+doubt that in the effects produced Steen's painting may be considered
+a satire on vice, and in this he is superior to almost all the Dutch
+painters, who restricted themselves to an external realism. Hence he
+was called the Dutch Hogarth, the jovial philosopher, the keenest
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+observer of the habits of his countrymen, and one among his admirers
+has said that if Steen had been born at Rome instead of at Leyden, and
+had Michelangelo instead of Van Goyen been his master, he would have
+been one of the greatest painters in the world. Another finds some
+kind of analogy between him and Raphael. The technical qualities of
+his paintings are much less admired, his work has not the finish nor
+the strength of the other artists, such as Ostade, Mieris, and Dou.
+But, even taking into consideration its satirical character, one must
+say that Steen has often exceeded his purpose if he really had a
+purpose. The fury with which he pursued the burlesque often got the
+better of his feeling for reality; his figures, instead of being
+merely ridiculous, became monstrous and hardly human, often resembling
+beasts rather than men, and he has exaggerated these figures until
+sometimes he awakens, a feeling of nausea instead of mirth, and a
+sense of indignation that nature should be so outraged. The effect he
+produces is generally a laugh,&mdash;a loud, irresistible laugh, which
+bursts from one even when alone and calls the people away from the
+neighboring pictures. It is impossible to carry further than Steen did
+the art of flattening noses, twisting mouths, shortening necks, making
+wrinkles, rendering faces stupid, putting on humps, and making his
+puppets seem as if they were roaring with laughter, vomiting, reeling,
+or falling. By the leer of a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+ half-closed eye he expressed idiocy and
+sensuality; by a sneer or a gesture he revealed the brutality of a
+man. He makes one smell the odor of a pipe, hear the coarse laughter,
+guess at the stupid or foul discourses&mdash;to understand, in a word,
+tavern-life and the dregs of the people; and I maintain that it is
+impossible to carry this art to a higher point than that to which
+Steen has carried it.</p>
+
+<p>His life has been and still is a vexed question. Volumes have been
+written to prove that he was a drunkard, and volumes to prove that he
+was a sober man; and, as is always the case, both sides exaggerate. He
+kept an alehouse at Delft, but it did not pay; then he set up a tavern
+and things went worse. It is said that he was its most assiduous
+frequenter, that he would drink up all the wine, and that when the
+cellar was empty he would take down the sign, close the door, and
+begin to paint furiously, and when he had sold his pictures he would
+buy more wine and begin life again. It is even said that he paid for
+everything with his pictures, and that consequently all his paintings
+were to be found in wine-merchants' houses. It is really difficult to
+explain how he could have painted such a large number of admirable
+works if he was always intoxicated, but it is no less difficult to
+understand why he had a taste for such subjects if he led a steady,
+sober life. It is certain that, especially during the last years of
+his life, he committed every sort of extravagance. He at first
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>
+studied under the famous landscape painter Van Goyen, but genius
+worked in him more powerfully than study; he divined the rules of his
+art, and if it sometimes seems that he has painted too black, as some
+of his critics have said, it was the fault of an extra bottle of wine
+at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Steen is not the only Dutch painter who, whether deservedly or not,
+won a reputation for drunkenness. At one time nearly all the artists
+passed the greater part of their day in the taverns, where they became
+famously drunk, fell to fighting, and whence they came out bruised and
+bleeding. In a poem upon painting by Karel van Mander, who was the
+first to write the history of the painters of the Netherlands, there
+occurs a passage directed against drunkenness and the habit of
+fighting, part of which runs as follows: "Be sober and live so that
+the unhappy proverb 'As debauched as a painter' may become 'As
+temperate as an artist.'" To mention a few among the most famous
+artists, Mieris was a notable winebibber, Van Goyen a drunkard, Franz
+Hals, the master of Brouwer, a winesack, Brouwer an incorrigible
+tippler; William Cornelis, and Hondecoeter were on the best terms with
+the bottle. Many of the humbler painters are said to have died
+intoxicated. Even in death the history of the Dutch painters presents
+a thousand incongruities. The great Rembrandt expired in misery almost
+without the knowledge of any; Hobbema died in the poor quarter of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
+Amsterdam; Steen died in poverty; Brouwer died at a hospital; Andrew
+Both and Henry Verschuringh were drowned; Adrian Bloemaert met his
+death in a duel; Karel Fabritius was killed by the explosion of a
+powder-magazine; Johann Schotel died, brush in hand, of a stroke of
+apoplexy; Potter died of consumption; Lucas of Leyden was poisoned.
+So, what with shameful deaths, debauchery, and jealousy, one may say
+that a great part of the Dutch painters have had an unhappy fate.</p>
+
+<p>In the gallery at Rotterdam there is a beautiful head by Rembrandt; a
+scene of brigands by Wouverman, a great painter of horses and battles;
+a landscape by Van Goyen, the painter of dead shores and leaden skies;
+a marine painting by Bakhuisen, the painter of storms; a painting by
+Berghem, the painter of smiling landscapes; one by Everdingen, the
+painter of waterfalls and forests; and other paintings belonging to
+the Italian and Flemish schools.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving the museum I met a company of soldiers, the first Dutch
+soldiers I had seen. Their uniform was dark colored, without any showy
+ornaments, and they were all fair from first to last, and wore their
+hair long, and almost all of them had a peaceful, happy look, which
+seemed in strange contrast with the arms they bore. Rotterdam, a city
+of more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, has a garrison of three
+hundred soldiers! And it is said that Rotterdam has the name of being
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
+the most turbulent and unruly city in Holland! In fact, some time ago
+there was a popular demonstration against the municipality, which had
+no consequences but a few broken windows. But in a country like this,
+which runs by clockwork, it must have seemed, and did truly seem, a
+great event; the cavalry was sent from the Hague, the country was in
+commotion. One must not think, however, that this people is all sugar;
+the citizens of Rotterdam confess that "the holy rabble," as Carducci
+calls it, is stoutly licentious, as is the case in other towns of
+worse reputation; the lack of police is rather an incentive to license
+than a proof, as some might think, of public discipline.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>Rotterdam, as I have already said, is a city neither artistic nor
+literary; on the contrary, it is one of the few Dutch cities that have
+not given birth to some great painter&mdash;an unproductiveness shared by
+the whole of Zealand. Erasmus, however, is not its only man of
+letters. In a little park that extends to the right of the town on the
+bank of the Meuse there is a marble statue raised by the inhabitants
+of Rotterdam to honor the poet Tollens, who was born at the end of
+last century and died a few years ago. This Tollens, whom some dare to
+call the Béranger of Holland, was (and in this alone he resembles
+Béranger) one of the most popular poets of the country&mdash;one of those
+poets of which there were so many in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+ Holland, simple, moral, and fall
+of common sense, having, in fact, more good sense than inspiration;
+who treated poetry as if it were a business; who never wrote anything
+that could displease their prudent relatives and judicious friends;
+who sang of their good God and their good king, and expressed the
+tranquil and practical character of the people, always taking care to
+say things that were exact rather than great, and, above all,
+cultivating poetry in old age, and like prudent fathers of families
+not stealing a moment from the pursuit of their business. Like many
+other Dutch poets (who, however, had more genius and different
+natures), he had another profession besides that of an author. Vondel,
+for instance, was a hatmaker; Hooft was the governor of Muyden; Van
+Lennep was a fiscal lawyer; Gravenswaert was a state counsellor;
+Bogaers, an advocate; Beets, a shepherd; so Tollens also, besides
+being a man of letters, was an apothecary at Rotterdam, and passed
+every day, even in his old age, in his drug-store. He had a family and
+loved his children tenderly&mdash;so at least one would conclude from the
+different pieces of poetry he wrote on the appearance of their first,
+second, and third teeth. He wrote ballads and odes on familiar and
+patriotic subjects. Among these is the national hymn of Holland, a
+mediocre production which the people sing about the streets and the
+boys chant at school. There is a little poem, perhaps the best of his
+works, on the expedition which the Dutch
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>
+sent to the Polar Sea
+toward the end of the sixteenth century. The people learn his poetry
+by heart, adore him, and prefer him as their most faithful interpreter
+and most affectionate friend. But, for all this, Tollens is not
+considered in Holland as a first-class poet, many do not even rank him
+in the second class, while not a few disdainfully refuse to give him
+the sacred laurels.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_126pic" id="Page_126pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus08.jpg" width="500" height="733"
+alt="Statue of Tollens." title="Statue of Tollens." />
+</div>
+
+<p>After all, if Rotterdam is not a centre of literature and art, she has
+as compensation an extraordinary number of philanthropic institutions,
+splendid clubs, and all the comforts and diversions of a city of
+wealth and refinement.</p>
+
+<p>The observations that I have had occasion to make on the character and
+life of the inhabitants will be more to the purpose at the Hague. I
+will only mention that in Rotterdam, as in other Dutch cities, no one,
+in speaking of their country's affairs, showed the least national
+vanity. The expressions, "Isn't it beautiful?" "What do you think of
+that?"&mdash;which one hears every moment in other countries, are never
+heard in Holland, even when the inhabitants are speaking of things
+that are universally admired. Every time that I told a citizen of
+Rotterdam that I liked the town he made a gesture of surprise. In
+speaking of their commerce and institutions they never let a vain
+expression escape them, nor even a boastful or complacent word. They
+always speak of what they are going to do, and never of what they have
+done. One of the first
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
+ questions put to me when I named my country
+was, "What about its finances?" As to their own country, I observed
+that they know all that it is useful to know, and very little that it
+is simply a pleasure to know. A hundred things, a hundred parts of the
+city, which I had observed when I had been twenty-four hours at
+Rotterdam, many of the citizens had never seen; which proves that they
+are not in the habit of rambling about and looking at everything.</p>
+
+<p>When I took my leave my acquaintances filled my pockets with cigars,
+counselled me to eat good nourishing dinners, and gave me advice on
+the subject of economical travelling. They parted from me quietly.
+There was no clamorous "What a pity you are going!" "Write soon!"
+"Come back quickly!" "Don't forget us!" which rang in my ears on
+leaving Spain. Here there was nothing but a hearty shake of the hand,
+a look, and a simple good-bye.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning when I left Rotterdam I saw in the streets through
+which I passed to get to the Delft railway-station a novel spectacle,
+purely Dutch&mdash;the cleaning of the houses, which takes place twice a
+week in the early morning hours. All the servants in the city, dressed
+in flowered lilac-colored wrappers, white caps, white aprons, white
+stockings, and white wooden shoes, and with their sleeves turned up,
+were busily washing the doors, the walls, and the windows. Some sat
+courageously on the window-sills while they washed the panes of the
+windows with sponges,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
+turning their backs to the street with half
+their bodies outside; others were kneeling on the pavement cleaning
+the stones with rough cloths; others were standing in the middle of
+the street armed with syringes, squirts, and pumps, with long rubber
+tubes, like those used for watering gardens, and were sending against
+the second-floor windows streams of water which were pouring down
+again into the street; others were mopping the windows with sponges
+and rags tied to the tops of long bamboo canes; others were burnishing
+the door-knobs, rings, and door-plates; some were cleaning the
+staircases, some the furniture, which they had carried out of the
+houses. The pavements were blocked with buckets and pitchers, with
+jugs, watering-pots, and benches; water ran down the walls and down
+the street; jets of water were gushing out everywhere. It is a curious
+thing that while labor in Holland is so slow and easy in all its
+forms, this work presented an appearance altogether different. All
+those girls with glowing faces were bustling indoors and hurrying out
+again, rushing up stairs and down, tucking up their sleeves hastily,
+assuming bold acrobatic attitudes and undergoing dangerous
+contortions. They took no notice of those who passed by except when
+with jealous eyes it was necessary to keep the profane race away from
+the pavement and walls. In short, it was a furious rivalry of
+cleanliness, a sort of general ablution of the city, which had about
+it something childish and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+ festive, and which made one fancy that it
+was some rite of an eccentric religion which ordered its followers to
+cleanse the town from a mysterious infection sent by malicious
+spirits.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+<h2><a name="DELFT" id="DELFT"></a>DELFT.</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">ON my way from Rotterdam to Delft I saw for the first time the plains
+of Holland.</p>
+
+<p>The country is perfectly flat&mdash;a succession of green and flower-decked
+meadows, broken by long rows of willows and clumps of alders and
+poplars. Here and there appear the tops of steeples, the turning arms
+of windmills, straggling herds of large black and white cattle, and an
+occasional shepherd; then, for miles, only solitude. There is nothing
+to attract the eye, there is neither hill nor valley. From time to
+time the sail of a ship is seen in the distance, but as the vessel is
+moving on an invisible canal, it seems to be gliding over the grass of
+the meadows as it is hidden for a moment behind the trees and then
+reappears. The wan light lends a gentle, melancholy influence to the
+landscape, while a mist almost imperceptible makes all things appear
+distant. There is a sense of silence to the eye, a peace of outline
+and color, a repose in everything, so that the vision grows dim and
+the imagination sleeps.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from Rotterdam the town of Schiedam comes into view,
+surrounded by very high windmills,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
+which give it the appearance of a
+fortress crowned with turrets; and far away can be seen the towers of
+the village of Vlaardingen, one of the principal stations of the
+herring-fisheries.</p>
+
+<p>Between Schiedam and Delft I observed the windmills with great
+attention. Dutch windmills do not at all resemble the decrepit mills I
+had seen in the previous year at La Mancha, which seemed to be
+extending their thin arms to implore the aid of heaven and earth. The
+Dutch mills are large, strong, and vigorous, and Don Quixote would
+certainly have hesitated before running atilt at them. Some are built
+of stone or bricks, and are round or octagonal like mediæval towers;
+others are of wood, and look like boxes stuck on the summits of
+pyramids. Most of them are thatched. About midway between the roof and
+the ground they are encircled by a wooden platform. Their windows are
+hung with white curtains, their doors are painted green, and on each
+door is written the use which it serves. Besides drawing water, the
+windmills do a little of everything: they grind grain, pound rags,
+crumble lime, crush stones, saw wood, press olives, and pulverize
+tobacco. A windmill is as valuable as a farm, and it takes a
+considerable fortune to build one and provide it with colza, grain,
+flour, and oil to keep it working, and to sell its products.
+Consequently, in many places the riches of a proprietor are measured
+by the number of mills he owns; an inheritance is counted by mills,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>
+and they say of a girl that she has so many windmills as dowry, or,
+even better, so many steam-mills; and fortune-hunters, who are to be
+found everywhere, sue for the maiden's hand to marry the mill. These
+countless winged towers scattered through the country give the
+landscape a singular appearance; they animate the solitude. At night
+in the midst of the trees they have a fantastic appearance, and look
+like fabulous birds gazing at the sky. By day in the distance they
+look like enormous pieces of fireworks; they turn, stop, curb and
+slacken their speed, break the silence by their dull and monotonous
+tick-tack, and when by chance they catch fire&mdash;which not infrequently
+happens, especially in the case of flour-mills&mdash;they form a wheel of
+flame, a furious rain of burning meal, a whirlwind of smoke, a tumult,
+a dreadful magnificent brilliance that gives one the idea of an
+infernal vision.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_134pic" id="Page_134pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus09.jpg" width="500" height="413"
+alt="Near the Arsenal, Delft" title="Near the Arsenal, Delft" />
+</div>
+
+<p>In the railway-carriage, although it was full of people, I had no
+opportunity of speaking or of hearing a word spoken. The passengers
+were all middle-aged men with serious faces, who looked at each other
+in silence, puffing out great clouds of smoke at regular intervals as
+if they were measuring time by their cigars. When we arrived at Delft
+I greeted them as I passed out, and some of them responded by a slight
+movement of the lips.</p>
+
+<p>"Delft," says Lodovico Guicciardini, "is named after a ditch, or
+rather the canal of water which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+ leads from the Meuse, since in the
+vulgar tongue a ditch is generally called <i>delft</i>. It is distant two
+leagues from Rotterdam, and is a town truly great and most beautiful
+in every part, having goodly and noble edifices and wide streets,
+which are lively withal. It was founded by Godfrey, surnamed the
+Hunchback, duke of Lorraine, he who for the space of four years
+occupied the country of Holland."</p>
+
+<p>Delft is the city of disaster. Toward the middle of the sixteenth
+century it was almost entirely destroyed by fire; in 1654 the
+explosion of a powder-magazine shattered more than two hundred houses;
+and in 1742 another catastrophe of the same kind occurred. Besides
+these calamities, William the Silent was assassinated there in the
+year 1584. Moreover, there followed the decline and almost the
+extinction of that industry which once was the glory and riches of the
+city, the manufacture of Delft ware. In this art at first the Dutch
+artisans imitated the shapes and designs of Chinese and Japanese
+china, and finally succeeded in doing admirable work by uniting the
+Dutch and Asiatic styles. Dutch pottery became famous throughout
+Northern Europe, and it is nowadays as much sought after by lovers of
+this art as the best Italian products.</p>
+
+<p>At present Delft is not an industrial or commercial city, and its
+twenty-two thousand inhabitants live in profound peace. But it is one
+of the prettiest and most characteristic towns of Holland. The wide
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
+streets are traversed by canals shaded by double rows of trees. On
+either side are red, purple, and pink cottages with white pointing,
+which seem content in their cleanliness. At every crossway two or
+three corresponding bridges of stone or of wood, with white railings,
+meet each other; the only thing to be seen is some barge lying
+motionless and apparently enjoying the delight of idleness; there are
+few people stirring, the doors are closed, and all is still.</p>
+
+<p>I took my way toward the new church, looking around to see if I could
+discover any of the famous storks' nests, but there were none visible.
+The tradition of the storks of Delft is still alive, and no traveller
+writes about this city without mentioning it. Guicciardini calls it "a
+memorable fact of such a nature that peradventure there is no record
+of a like event in ancient or modern times." The circumstance took
+place during the great fire which destroyed nearly the whole city.
+There were in Delft a countless number of storks' nests. It must be
+remembered that the stork is the favorite bird of Holland, the bird of
+good augury, like the swallow. Storks are much in demand, as they make
+war on toads and rats, and the peasants plant perches surmounted by
+large wooden disks to attract them to build their nests there. In some
+towns they are to be seen walking through the streets. Well, at Delft
+there were innumerable nests. When the fire began,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
+ on the 3d of May,
+the young storks were well grown, but they could not yet fly. When
+they saw the fire approaching, the parent storks tried to carry their
+little ones into a place of safety, but they were too heavy, and after
+every sort of desperate effort the poor birds, worn and terrified, had
+to abandon the attempt. They might yet have saved themselves by
+leaving the young to their fate, as human beings generally do under
+similar circumstances. But, instead, they remained on their nests,
+pressing their little ones round them, and shielding them with their
+wings, as though to delay their destruction for at least a moment.
+Thus they awaited their death, and were found lifeless in this
+attitude of love and devotion. Who knows whether during the horrible
+terror and panic of the fire the example of that sacrifice, the
+voluntary martyrdom of those poor mothers, may not have given courage
+to some weaker soul about to abandon those who had need of him?</p>
+
+<p>In the great square, where stands the new church, I again saw some
+shops like those I had seen in Rotterdam, in which all the articles
+which can be strung together are hung up either outside the door or in
+the room, so forming wreaths, festoons, and curtains&mdash;of shoes, for
+example, or of earthen pots, watering-cans, baskets, and
+buckets&mdash;which dangle from the ceiling to the ground, and sometimes
+almost hide the floor. The shop signs are like those at Rotterdam&mdash;a
+bottle of beer hanging from a nail, a paint-brush, a box, a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
+ broom,
+and the customary huge heads with wide-open mouths.</p>
+
+<p>The new church, founded toward the end of the fourteenth century, is
+to Holland what Westminster Abbey is to England. It is a large
+edifice, sombre without and bare within&mdash;a prison rather than a house
+of God. The tombs are at the end, behind the enclosure of the benches.</p>
+
+<p>I had scarcely entered before I saw the splendid mausoleum of William
+the Silent, but the sexton stopped me before the very simple tomb of
+Hugh Grotius, the <i>prodigium Europæ</i>, as the epitaph calls him, the
+great jurisconsult of the seventeenth century&mdash;that Grotius who wrote
+Latin verses at the age of nine, who composed Greek odes at eleven,
+who at fourteen indited philosophical theses, who three years later
+accompanied the illustrious Barneveldt in his embassy to Paris, where
+Henry IV. presented him to his court, saying, "Behold the miracle of
+Holland!" that Grotius who at eighteen years of age was illustrious as
+a poet, as a theologian, as a commentator, as an astronomer, who had
+written a poem on the town of Ostend which Casaubon translated into
+Greek measures and Malesherbes into French verse; that Grotius who
+when hardly twenty-four years old occupied the post of
+advocate-general of Holland and Zealand, and composed a celebrated
+treatise on the <i>Freedom of the Seas</i>; who at thirty years of age was
+an honorary councillor of Rotterdam. Afterward,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
+ when, as a partisan
+of Barneveldt, he was persecuted, condemned to perpetual imprisonment,
+and shut up in the castle of Löwestein, he wrote his treatise on the
+<i>Rights of Peace and War</i>, which for a long time was the code of all
+the publicists of Europe. He was rescued in a marvellous way by his
+wife, who managed to be carried into the prison inside a chest
+supposed to be full of books, and sent back the chest with her husband
+inside, while she remained in prison in his place. He was then
+sheltered by Louis XIII., was appointed ambassador to France by
+Christina of Sweden, and finally returned in triumph to his native
+land, and died at Rostock crowned with glory and a venerable old age.</p>
+
+<p>The mausoleum of William the Silent is in the middle of the church. It
+is a little temple of black and white marble, heavy with ornament and
+supported by slender columns, in the midst of which rise four statues
+representing Liberty, Prudence, Justice, and Religion. Above the
+sarcophagus is a recumbent statue of the prince in white marble, and
+at his feet the effigy of the little dog that saved his life at
+Mechlin by barking one night, when he was sleeping under a tent, just
+as two Spaniards were advancing stealthily to kill him. At the foot of
+this statue rises a beautiful bronze figure, a Victory, with outspread
+wings, resting lightly on her left foot. At the opposite side of the
+little temple is another bronze statue representing William seated. He
+is clad in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
+armor, with his head uncovered and his helmet at his
+feet. An inscription in Latin tells that this monument was consecrated
+by the States of Holland "to the eternal memory of that William of
+Nassau whom Philip II., the terror of Europe, feared, yet whom he
+could neither subdue nor overthrow, but whom he killed by execrable
+fraud." William's children are laid by his side, and all the princes
+of his dynasty are buried in the crypt under his tomb.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_140pic" id="Page_140pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus10.jpg" width="500" height="771"
+alt="Monument to Admiral Van Tromp, Delft." title="Monument to Admiral Van Tromp, Delft." />
+</div>
+
+<p>Before this monument even the most frivolous and careless visitor
+remains silent and thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>It is well to recall the tremendous struggle of which the hero lies in
+that tomb.</p>
+
+<p>On one side was Philip II., on the other William of Orange. Philip
+II., shut up in the dull solitude of the Escurial, lived in the midst
+of an empire which included Spain, North and South Italy, Belgium, and
+Holland, and, in Africa, Oran, Tunis, the archipelagoes of the Cape
+Verde and Canary Islands; in Asia the Philippine Islands; and the
+Antilles, Mexico, and Peru in America. He was the husband of the queen
+of England, the nephew of the emperor of Germany, who obeyed him as if
+he were a vassal; he was the lord, one may say, of all Europe, for the
+neighboring states were all weakened by political and religious
+disorders; he had at his command the best disciplined soldiers in
+Europe, the greatest generals of the age, American gold, Flemish
+industries, Italian science, an army of spies scattered through all
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
+ courts&mdash;men chosen from all countries fanatically devoted to him,
+conscious or unconscious tools of his will. He was the most sagacious,
+most mysterious prince of his age; he had everything that enchains,
+corrupts, alarms, and attracts the world&mdash;arms, riches, glory, genius,
+religion. While every one else was bowing low before this formidable
+man, William of Orange stood erect.</p>
+
+<p>This man, without a kingdom and without an army, was nevertheless more
+powerful than the king. Like him, he had been a disciple of Charles
+V., and had learned the art of elevating thrones and hurling them
+down; like him, he was cunning and inscrutable, and yet he divined the
+future with keener intellectual vision than Philip. Like his enemy, he
+had the power of reading men's souls, but he also had the ability to
+win their hearts. He had a good cause to uphold, but he was acquainted
+with all the artifices that are used to maintain bad causes. Philip
+II., who spied into every one's affairs, was spied on in his turn and
+had his purposes divined by William. The designs of the great king
+were discovered and thwarted before they were put into execution;
+mysterious hands ransacked his drawers and pockets and investigated
+his secret papers. William in Holland read the mind of Philip in the
+Escurial; he anticipated, hindered, and embroiled all his plots; he
+dug the ground from beneath his feet, provoked him, and then escaped,
+only to return before his eyes like a phantom which he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
+ saw and could
+not seize, which he seized and could not destroy. At last William
+died, but even when dead the victory was his, and the enemy who
+survived was defeated. Holland remained for a short time without a
+head, but the Spanish monarchy had received such a blow that it was
+not able to rise again.</p>
+
+<p>In this wonderful struggle the figure of the Great King gradually
+dwindles until it entirely disappears, while that of William of Orange
+becomes greater and greater by slow degrees until it grows to be the
+most glorious figure of his age. From the day when, as a hostage to
+the king of France, he discovered Philip's design of establishing the
+Inquisition in the Netherlands he devoted himself to defend the
+liberty of his country, and throughout his life he never wavered for a
+moment on the road he had entered. The advantages of his noble birth,
+a regal fortune, peace, and the splendid life which by habit and
+nature were dear to him, all these he sacrificed to the cause; he was
+reduced to poverty and exiled, yet in both poverty and exile he
+constantly refused the offers of pardon and of favor that were made
+from many sides and in many ways by the enemy who hated and feared
+him. Surrounded by assassins, made the target of the most atrocious
+calumnies, accused of cowardice before the enemy, and charged with the
+assassination of a wife whom he adored, sometimes regarded with
+distrust, slandered, and attacked by the very people he was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+defending,&mdash;he bore it all patiently and in silence. He did not swerve
+from the straight course to the goal, facing infinite perils with
+quiet courage. He did not bend before his people nor did he flatter
+them; he did not permit himself to be led away by the passions of his
+country; it was he who always guided; he was always at the head,
+always the first. All gathered around him; he was the mind, the
+conscience, and the strength of the revolution, the hearth that burned
+and kept the warmth of life in his fatherland. Great by reason alike
+of his audacity and prudence, he continued upright in a time full of
+perjury and treachery; he remained gentle in the midst of violent men;
+his hands were spotless when all the courts of Europe were stained
+with blood. With an army collected at random, with feeble or uncertain
+allies, checked by internal discords between Lutherans and Calvinists,
+nobles and commoners, magistrates and the people, with no great
+general to aid him, he was obliged to combat the municipal spirit of
+the provinces, which would none of his authority and escaped from his
+control; yet he triumphed in a conflict which seemed beyond human
+strength. He wore out the Duke of Alva, Requesens, Don John of
+Austria, and Alexander Farnese. He overthrew the conspiracies of those
+foreign princes who wished to help his country in order to subdue it.
+He gained friends and obtained aid from every part of Europe, and,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
+after achieving one of the noblest revolutions in history, he founded
+a free state in spite of an empire which was the terror of the
+universe.</p>
+
+<p>This man, who in the eyes of the world was so terrible and so great,
+was an affectionate husband and father, a pleasant friend and
+companion, who loved merry social gatherings and banquets, and was an
+elegant and polite host. He was a man of learning, and spoke, besides
+his native language, French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Italian, and
+conversed in a scholarly manner on all subjects. Although called the
+Silent (rather because he kept to himself the secret discovered at the
+French court than from a habit of silence), he was one of the most
+eloquent men of his time. His manners were simple and his dress plain;
+he loved his people and was beloved by them. He walked about the
+streets of the cities bareheaded and alone, and chatted with workmen
+and fishermen, who offered him drink out of their glasses; he listened
+to their discourses, settled their quarrels, entered their homes to
+restore domestic concord. Every one called him "Father William," and,
+in fact, he was the father rather than a son of his country. The
+feeling of admiration and gratitude which still lives for him in the
+hearts of the Hollanders has all the intimacy and tenderness of filial
+affection; his reverend name is still in every mouth; his greatness,
+stripped of every ornament and veil, remains entire, spotless, and
+steadfast like his work.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After seeing the tomb of the Prince of Orange I went to look upon the
+place where he was assassinated.</p>
+
+<p>In 1580, Philip II. published an edict in which he promised a reward
+of twenty-five thousand golden pieces and a title of nobility to the
+man who would assassinate the Prince of Orange. This infamous edict,
+which stimulated covetousness and fanaticism, caused crowds of
+assassins to gather from every side, who surrounded William under
+false names and with concealed weapons, awaiting their opportunity. A
+young man from Biscay, Jaureguy by name, a fervent Catholic, who had
+been promised the glory of martyrdom by a Dominican friar, made the
+first attempt. He prepared himself by prayer and fasting, went to
+Mass, took the communion, covered himself with sacred relics, entered
+the palace, and, drawing near to the prince in the attitude of one
+presenting a petition, fired a pistol at his head. The ball passed
+through the jaw, but the wound was not mortal. The Prince of Orange
+recovered. The assassin was slain in the act by sword and halberd
+thrusts, then quartered on the public square, and the parts were hung
+up on one of the gates of Antwerp, where they remained until the Duke
+of Parma took possession of the town, when the Jesuits collected them
+and presented them as relics to the faithful.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after this another plot against the life of the Prince was
+discovered. A French nobleman, an Italian, and a Walloon, who had
+followed him for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+ some time with the intention of murdering him, were
+suspected and arrested. One of them killed himself in prison with a
+knife, another was strangled in France, and the third escaped, after
+he had confessed that the movements of all three had been directed by
+the Duke of Parma.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Philip's agents were overrunning the country instigating
+rogues to perpetrate this deed with promises of treasures in reward,
+while priests and monks were instigating fanatics to the same end by
+the assurance of help and reward from Heaven. Other assassins made the
+attempt. A Spaniard was discovered, arrested, and quartered at
+Antwerp; a rich trader called Hans Jansen was put to death at
+Flushing. Many offered their services to Prince Alexander Farnese and
+were encouraged by gifts of money. The Prince of Orange, who knew all
+this, felt a vague presentiment of his approaching death, and spoke of
+it to his intimate friends, but he refused to take any precautions to
+protect his life, and replied to all who gave him such counsel, "It is
+useless: God has numbered my years. Let it be according to His will.
+If there is any wretch who does not fear death, my life is in his
+power, however I may guard it."</p>
+
+<p>Eight attempts were made upon his life before an assassin fired the
+fatal shot.</p>
+
+<p>When the deed was at last committed, in 1584, four scoundrels, an
+Englishman, a Scotchman, a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>
+ Frenchman, and a man of Lorraine, unknown
+to each other, were all awaiting at Delft their opportunity to
+assassinate him.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these, there was a young conspirator, twenty-seven years of
+age, from Franche-Comté, a Catholic, who passed himself off as a
+Protestant, Guyon by name, the son of a certain Peter Guyon who was
+executed at Besançon for embracing Calvinism. This Guyon, whose real
+name was Balthazar Gerard, was believed to be a fugitive from the
+persecutions of the Catholics. He led an austere life and took part in
+all the services of the Evangelical Church, and in a short time
+acquired a reputation for especial piety. Saying that he had come to
+Delft to beg for the honor of serving the Prince of Orange, he was
+recommended and introduced by a Protestant clergyman: he inspired the
+Prince with confidence, and was sent by him to accompany Herr Van
+Schonewalle, the envoy of the States of Holland to the court of
+France. In a short time he returned to Delft, bringing to William the
+tidings of the death of the Duke of Anjou, and presented himself at
+the convent of St. Agatha, where the Prince was staying with his
+court. It was the second Sunday in July. William received him in his
+chamber, being in bed. They were alone. Balthazar Gerard was probably
+tempted to assassinate him at that moment, but he was unarmed and
+restrained himself. Disguising his impatience, he quietly answered all
+the questions he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
+ was asked. William gave him some money, told him to
+prepare to return to Paris, and ordered him to come back the next day
+to get his letters and passport. With the money he received from the
+Prince, Gerard bought two pistols from a soldier, who killed himself
+when he knew to what end they had been used, and the next day, the
+10th of July, he again presented himself at the convent of St. Agatha.
+William, accompanied by several ladies and gentlemen of his family,
+was descending the staircase to dine in a room on the ground floor. On
+his arm was the Princess of Orange, his fourth wife, that gentle and
+unfortunate Louisa de Coligny, who had seen her father, the admiral,
+and her husband, Seigneur de Teligny, killed at her feet on the eve of
+St. Bartholomew. Balthazar stepped forward, stopped the Prince, and
+asked him to sign his passport. The Prince told him to return later,
+and entered the dining-room. No shade of suspicion had passed through
+his mind. Louisa de Coligny, however, grown cautious and suspicious by
+her misfortunes, became anxious. That pale man, wrapped in a long
+mantle, had a sinister look; his voice sounded unnatural and his face
+was convulsed. During dinner she confided her suspicions to William,
+and asked him who that man was "who had the wickedest face she had
+ever seen." The Prince smiled, told her it was Guyon, reassured her,
+and was as gay as ever during the dinner. When he had finished he
+quietly left the room to go
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+ up stairs to his apartments. Gerard was
+waiting for him at a dark turning near the staircase, hidden in the
+shadow of a door. As soon as he saw the Prince approaching he
+advanced, and leaped upon him just as he was placing his foot on the
+second step. He fired his pistol, which was loaded with three bullets,
+straight at the Prince's breast, and fled. William staggered and fell
+into the arms of an equerry. All crowded round. "I am wounded," said
+William in a feeble voice.... "God have mercy on me and on my poor
+people!" He was all covered with blood. His sister, Catherine of
+Schwartzburg, asked, "Dost thou commend thy soul to Jesus Christ?" He
+answered, in a whisper, "I do." It was his last word. They placed him
+on one of the steps and spoke to him, but he was no longer conscious.
+They then bore him into a room near by, where he died.</p>
+
+<p>Gerard had crossed the stables, had fled from the convent, and reached
+the ramparts of the town, from which he hoped to leap into the moat
+and swim across to the opposite bank, where a horse ready saddled was
+awaiting him. But in his flight he let fall his hat and a pistol. A
+servant and a halberdier in the Prince's service, seeing these traces,
+rushed after him. Just as he was in the act of jumping he stumbled,
+and his two pursuers overtook and seized him. "Infernal traitor!" they
+cried. "I am no traitor," he answered calmly; "I am a faithful servant
+of my master."&mdash;"Of what master?" they asked. "Of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+my lord and
+master the King of Spain," answered Gerard. By this time other
+halberdiers and pages had come up. They dragged him into the town,
+beating him with their fists and with the hilts of their swords. The
+wretch, thinking from the words of the crowd that the Prince was not
+dead, exclaimed with an evil composure, "Cursed be the hand whose blow
+has failed!"</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_150pic" id="Page_150pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus11.jpg" width="500" height="795"
+alt="Stairway where William, the Silent, was Assassinated,
+in the Prinsenhof, Delft."
+title="Stairway where William, the Silent, was Assassinated,
+in the Prinsenhof, Delft." />
+</div>
+
+<p>This deplorable peace of mind did not desert him for a moment. When
+brought before the judges, during the long examination in the cell
+where he was thrown laden with chains, he still maintained the same
+remarkable tranquillity. He bore the torments to which he was
+condemned without letting a cry escape him. Between the various
+tortures to which he was subjected, while the officers were resting,
+he conversed quietly and in a modest manner. While they were
+lacerating him every now and then he raised his bloody head from the
+rack and said, "Ecce homo." Several times he thanked the judges for
+the nourishment he had received, and wrote his confessions with his
+own hand.</p>
+
+<p>He was born at Villefranche in the department of Burgundy, and studied
+law with a solicitor at Dôle, and it was there that he for the first
+time manifested his wish to kill William. Planting a dagger in a door,
+he said, "Thus would I thrust a sword into the breast of the Prince of
+Orange!" Three years later, hearing of the proclamation of Philip II.,
+he went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
+ to Luxembourg, intending to assassinate the Prince, but was
+stopped by the false report of his death which had been spread after
+Jaurequy's attempted assassination. Soon after, learning that William
+still lived, he renewed his design, and went to Mechlin to seek
+counsel from the Jesuits, who encouraged him, promising him a martyr's
+crown if he lost his life in the enterprise. He then went to Tournay,
+and presented himself to Alexander Farnese, who confirmed the promises
+of King Philip. He was approved and encouraged by the confidence of
+the Prince and by the priests; he fortified himself by reading the
+Bible, by fasting and prayer, and then, full of religious exaltation,
+dreaming of angels and of Paradise, he left for Delft, and completed
+his "duty as a good Catholic and faithful subject."</p>
+
+<p>He repeated his confessions several times to the judges, without one
+word of remorse or penitence. On the contrary, he boasted of his
+crime, and said he was a new David, who had overthrown a new Goliath;
+he declared that if he had not already killed the Prince of Orange, he
+should still wish to do the deed. His courage, his calmness, his
+contempt of life, his profound belief that he had accomplished a holy
+mission and would die a glorious death, dismayed his judges; they
+thought he must be possessed by the devil. They made inquiries, they
+questioned him, but he always gave the same answer that his
+conversation was with God alone.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was sentenced on the 14th of July. His punishment has been called a
+crime against the memory of the great man whose death it was intended
+to avenge&mdash;a sentence to turn faint any one who had not superhuman
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>The assassin was condemned to have his hand enclosed and seared in a
+tube of red-hot iron, to have his arms, legs, and thighs torn to
+pieces with burning pincers, his bowels to be quartered, his heart to
+be torn out and thrown into his face, his head to be dissevered from
+his trunk and placed on a pike, his body to be cut in four pieces, and
+every piece to be hung on a gibbet over one of the principal gates of
+the city.</p>
+
+<p>On hearing the enumeration of these horrible tortures the miserable
+wretch did not flinch; he showed no sign of terror, sorrow, or
+surprise. He opened his coat, bared his breast, and, fixing his
+dauntless eyes on his judges, he repeated with a steady voice his
+customary words, "Ecce homo!"</p>
+
+<p>Was this man only a fanatic, as many believed, or a monster of
+wickedness, as others held, or was he both of these inspired by a
+boundless ambition?</p>
+
+<p>On the next day the sentence was carried into effect. The preparations
+for the execution were made before his eyes; he regarded them with
+indifference. The executioner's assistant began by pounding into
+pieces the pistol with which he had perpetrated the crime. At the
+first blow the head of the hammer fell off and struck another
+assistant on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+ ear. The crowd laughed, and Gerard laughed too. When
+he mounted the gallows his body was already horrible to behold. He was
+silent while his hand crackled and smoked in the red-hot tube; during
+the time when the red-hot tongs were tearing his flesh he uttered no
+cry; when the knife penetrated into his entrails he bowed his head,
+murmured a few incomprehensible words, and expired.</p>
+
+<p>The death of the Prince of Orange filled the country with
+consternation. His body lay in state for a month, and the people
+gathered round his last bed kneeling and weeping. The funeral was
+worthy of a king: there were present the States General of the United
+Provinces, the Council of State, and the Estates of Holland, the
+magistrates, the clergy, and the princes of the house of Nassau.
+Twelve noblemen bore the bier, four great nobles held the cords of the
+pall, and the Prince's horse followed splendidly caparisoned and led
+by his equerry. In the midst of the train of counts and barons there
+was seen a young man, eighteen years of age, who was destined to
+inherit the glorious legacy of the dead, to humble the Spanish arms,
+and to compel Spain to sue for a truce and to recognize the
+independence of the Netherlands. That young man was Maurice of Orange,
+the son of William, on whom the Estates of Holland a short time after
+the death of his father conferred the dignity of Stadtholder, and to
+whom they afterward entrusted the supreme command of the land and
+naval forces.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>While Holland was mourning the death of the Prince of Orange, the
+Catholic priesthood in all the cities under Spanish rule were
+rejoicing over the assassination and extolling the assassin. The
+Jesuits exalted him as a martyr, the University of Louvain published
+his defence, the canons of Bois-le-Duc chanted a Te Deum. After a few
+years the King of Spain bestowed on Gerard's family a title and the
+confiscated property of the Prince of Orange in Burgundy.</p>
+
+<p>The house where William was murdered is still standing: it is a
+dark-looking building with arched windows and a narrow door, and forms
+part of the cloister of an old cathedral consecrated to St. Agatha. It
+still bears the name of Prinsenhof, although it is now used for
+artillery barracks. I got permission to enter from the officer on
+guard. A corporal who understood a little French accompanied me. We
+crossed a courtyard full of soldiers, and arrived at the memorable
+place. I saw the staircase the Prince was mounting when he was
+attacked, the dark corner where Gerard hid himself, the door of the
+room where the unfortunate William dined for the last time, and the
+mark of the bullets on the wall in a little whitewashed space which
+bears a Dutch inscription reminding one that here died the father of
+his country. The corporal showed me where the assassin had fled. While
+I was looking round, with that pensive curiosity that one feels in
+places where great
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>
+ crimes have been committed, soldiers were
+ascending and descending; they stopped to look at me, and then went
+away singing and whistling; some near me were humming; others were
+laughing loudly in the courtyard. All this youthful gayety was in
+sharp and moving contrast to the sad gravity of those memories, and
+seemed like a festival of children in the room where died a
+grandparent whose memory we cherish.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite the barracks is the oldest church in Delft. It contains the
+tomb of the famous Admiral Tromp, the veteran of the Dutch navy, who
+saw thirty-two naval battles, and in 1652, at the battle of the Downs,
+defeated the English fleet commanded by Blake. He re-entered his
+country with a broom tied to the masthead of the admiral's ship to
+indicate that he had swept the English off the seas. Here also is the
+tomb of Peter Heyn, who from a simple fisherman rose to be a great
+admiral, and took that memorable netful of Spanish ships that had
+under their hatches more than eleven million florins; also the tomb of
+Leeuwenhoek, the father of the science of the infinitely small&mdash;who,
+with the "divining-glass," as Parini says, "saw primitive man swimming
+in the genital wave." The church has a high steeple surmounted by four
+conical turrets. It is inclined like the Tower of Pisa, because the
+ground has sunk beneath it. Gerard was imprisoned in one of the cells
+of this tower on the night of the assassination. </p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_156pic" id="Page_156pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus12.jpg" width="500" height="408"
+alt="Refectory of the Convent of St. Agatha, Delft."
+title="Refectory of the Convent of St. Agatha, Delft." />
+</div><p> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At Rotterdam I had been given a letter to a citizen of Delft asking
+him to show me his house. The letter read: "He desires to penetrate
+into the mysteries of an old Dutch house; lift for a moment the
+curtain of the sanctuary." The house was not hard to find, and as soon
+as I saw it I said to myself, "That is the house for me!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a red cottage, one story in height, with a long peaked gable,
+situated at the end of a street which stretched out into the country.
+It stood almost on the edge of a canal, leaning a little forward, as
+if it wished to see its reflection in the water. A pretty linden tree
+grew in front which spread over the window like a great fan, and a
+drawbridge lay before the door. Then there were the white curtains,
+the green doors, the flowers, the looking-glasses&mdash;in fact, it was a
+perfect little model of a Dutch house.</p>
+
+<p>The road was deserted. Before I knocked at the door I waited a little
+while, looking at it and thinking. That house made me understand
+Holland better than all the books I had read. It was at the same time
+the expression and the reason of the domestic love, of the modest
+desires, and the independent nature of the Dutch people. In our
+country there is no such thing as the true house: there are only
+divisions in barracks, abstract habitations, which are not ours, but
+in which we live hidden, but not alone, hearing a thousand noises made
+by people who are strangers to us, who disturb our sorrows with the
+echo of their joys and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+ interrupt our joys with the echo of their
+sorrows. The real home is in Holland&mdash;a house of one's own, quite
+separate from others, modest, circumspect, and, by reason of its
+retirement, unknown to mysteries and intrigues. When the inhabitants
+of the house are merry, everything is bright; when they are sad, all
+is serious. In these houses, with their canals and drawbridges, every
+modest citizen feels something of the solitary dignity of a feudal
+lord, and might imagine himself the commander of a fortress or the
+captain of a ship; and indeed, as he looks from his windows, as from
+those of an anchored vessel, he sees a boundless level plain, which
+inspires him with just such sentiments of freedom and solemnity as are
+awakened by the sea. The trees that surround his house like a green
+girdle allow only a delicate broken light to enter it; boats freighted
+with merchandise glide noiselessly past his door; he does not hear the
+trampling of horses or the cracking of whips, or songs or
+street-cries; all the activities of the life that surrounds him are
+silent and gentle: all breathes of peace and sweetness, and the
+steeple of the church hard by tells the hour with a flood of harmony
+as full of repose and constancy as are his affections and his work.</p>
+
+<p>I knocked at the door, and the master of the house opened it. He read
+the letter which I gave him, regarded me critically, and bade me
+enter. It is almost always thus. At the first meeting the Dutch
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> are
+apt to be suspicious. We open our arms to any one who brings us a
+letter of introduction as if he were our most intimate friend, and
+very often do nothing for him afterward. The Dutch, on the contrary,
+receive you coldly&mdash;so coldly, indeed, that sometimes you feel
+mortified&mdash;but afterward they do a thousand things for you with the
+best will in the world, and without the least appearance of doing you
+a kindness.</p>
+
+<p>Within, the house was in perfect harmony with its outside appearance;
+it seemed to be the inside of a ship. A circular wooden staircase,
+shining like polished ebony, led to the upper rooms. There were mats
+and carpets on the stairs, in front of the doors, and on the floors.
+The rooms were as small as cells, the furniture was as clean as
+possible, the door-plates, the knobs, the nails, the brass and the
+other metal ornaments were as bright as if they had just left the
+hands of the burnisher. Everywhere there was a profusion of porcelain
+vases, of cups, lamps, mirrors, small pictures, bureaus, cupboards,
+knicknacks, and small objects of every shape and for every use. All
+were marvellously clean, and bespoke the thousand little wants that
+the love of a sedentary life creates&mdash;the careful foresight, the
+continual care, the taste for little things, the love of order, the
+economy of space; in short, it was the abode of a quiet, domestic
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>The goddess of this temple, who could not or did
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+ not dare speak
+French, was hidden in some inmost recess which I did not succeed in
+discovering.</p>
+
+<p>We went down stairs to see the kitchen; it was one gleam of
+brightness. When I returned home I described it, in my mother's
+presence, to the servant who prided herself on her cleanliness, and
+she was annihilated. The walls were as white as snow; the saucepans
+reflected everything like so many looking-glasses; the top of the
+chimney-piece was ornamented by a sort of muslin curtain like the
+curtains of a bed, bearing no trace of smoke; the wall below the
+chimney was covered with square majolica tiles which were as clean as
+though the fire had never been lighted; the andirons, shovel, and
+tongs, the chain of the spit, all seemed to be of burnished steel. A
+lady dressed for a ball could have gone round the room and into all
+the corners and touched everything without getting a speck of dirt on
+her spotless attire.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the maid was cleaning the room, and my host spoke of
+this as follows: "To have an idea of what cleanliness means with us,"
+he said, "one ought to watch the work of these women for an hour. Here
+they scrub, wash, and brush a house as if it were a person. A house is
+not cleaned; it has its toilette made. The girls blow between the
+bricks, they rummage in the corners with their nails and with pins,
+and clean so minutely that they tire their eyes no less than their
+arms. Really it is a national passion. These girls, who are generally
+so phlegmatic, change
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>
+ their character on cleaning day and become
+frantic. That day we are no longer masters of our houses. They invade
+our rooms, turn us out, sprinkle us, turn everything topsy-turvy; for
+them it is a gala day; they are like bacchantes of cleanliness; the
+madness grows as they wash." I asked him to what he attributed this
+species of mania for which Holland is famous. He gave me the same
+reasons that many others had given; the atmosphere of their country,
+which greatly injures wood and metals, the damp, the small size of the
+houses and the number of things they contain, which naturally makes it
+difficult to keep them clean, the superabundance of water, which helps
+the work, a something that the eye seems to require, until cleanliness
+ends by appearing beautiful, and, lastly, the emulation that
+everywhere leads to excess. "But," he added, "this is not the cleanest
+part of Holland; the excess, the delirium of cleanliness, is to be
+seen in the northern provinces."</p>
+
+<p>We went out for a walk about the town. It was not yet noon; servants
+were to be seen everywhere dressed just like those in Rotterdam. It is
+a singular thing, all the servant-maids in Holland, from Rotterdam to
+Groningen, from Haarlem to Nimeguen, are dressed in the same
+color&mdash;light mauve, flowered or dotted with stars or crosses&mdash;and
+while engaged in cleaning they all wear a sort of invalid's cap and a
+pair of enormous white wooden shoes. At first I thought that they
+formed a national association requiring uniformity in dress. They are
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
+generally very young, because older women cannot bear the fatigue they
+have to endure; they are fair and round, with prodigious posterior
+curves (an observation of Diderot); in the strict sense of the word
+they are not at all pretty, but their pink and white complexions are
+marvellous, and they look the picture of health, and one feels that it
+would be delightful to press one's cheek to theirs. Their rounded
+forms and fine coloring are enhanced by their plain style of dress,
+especially in the morning, when they have their sleeves turned up and
+necks bare, revealing flesh as fair as a cherub's.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly I remembered a note I had made in my book before starting for
+Holland, and I stopped and asked my companion this question: "Are the
+Dutch servants the eternal torment of their mistresses?"</p>
+
+<p>Here I must make a short digression. It is well known that ladies of a
+certain age, good mothers and good housekeepers, whose social position
+does not allow them to leave their servants to themselves&mdash;who, for
+instance, have only one servant, who has to be both cook and lady's
+maid,&mdash;it is well known that such ladies often talk for hours on this
+subject. The conversations are always the same&mdash;of insupportable
+defects, insolence that they have had to endure, impertinent answers,
+dishonesty in buying the things needed for the kitchen, of waste,
+untruthfulness, immense pretensions, of discharges, of the annoyance
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+of searching for new servants, and other such calamities; the refrain
+always being that the honest and faithful servants, who became
+attached to the family and grew old in the same service, have ceased
+to exist; now one is obliged to change them continually, and there is
+no way of getting back to the old order. Is this true or false? Is it
+a result of the liberty and equality of classes, making service harder
+to bear and the servants more independent? Is it an effect of the
+relaxation of manners and of public discipline, which has made itself
+felt even in the kitchen? However it may be, the fact remains that at
+home I heard this subject so much discussed that one day, before I
+left for Spain, I said to my mother, "If anything in Madrid can
+console me in being so far from my family, it will be that I shall
+hear no more of this odious subject." On my arrival at Madrid I went
+into a hostelry, and the first thing the landlady said was that she
+had changed her maids three times in a month, and was driven to
+desperation: she did not know which saint to pray to: and so long as I
+remained there the same lamentation continued. On my return home I
+told my family about it; they all laughed, and my mother concluded
+that there must be the same trouble in every country. "No," said I,
+"in the northern countries it must be different."&mdash;"You will see that
+I am right," my mother answered. I went to Paris, and of the first
+housekeeper with whom I became acquainted I asked
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
+ the question, "Are
+the servants here the everlasting torment of their mistresses, as they
+are in Italy and Spain?"&mdash;"<i>Ah! mon cher monsieur</i>," she answered,
+clasping her hands and looking above her, "<i>ne me parlez pas de ça!</i>"
+Then followed a long story of quarrels, and discharging of servants,
+and of trials which mistresses have to endure. I wrote the news to my
+mother, and she answered, "We shall see in London."</p>
+
+<p>I went to London, and on the ship which was bearing me to Antwerp I
+entered into conversation with an English lady. After we had exchanged
+a few words, and I had explained the reason of my curiosity, I asked
+the usual question. She turned away her head, put her hand to her
+forehead, and then replied, emphasizing each word, "They are the
+<i>flagellum Dei</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>I wrote home in despair, suggesting however, that I still trusted in
+Holland, which was a peaceful country, where the houses were so tidy
+and clean and the home-life so sweet. My mother answered that she
+thought we might possibly make an exception of Holland. But we were
+both rather doubtful. My curiosity was aroused, and she was expecting
+the news from me; for this reason, therefore, I put the question to my
+courteous guide at Delft. It may be imagined with what impatience I
+awaited his reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir," answered the Dutchman after a moment's reflection, "I can only
+give you this reply: in Holland we have a proverb which says that the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
+maids are the cross of our lives."</p>
+
+<p>I was completely discouraged.</p>
+
+<p>"First of all," he continued, "the annoyance of living in a large
+house is, that we are obliged to keep two servants, one for the
+kitchen and one for cleaning, since it is almost impossible, with the
+mania they have of washing the very air, that one servant can do both
+things. Then they have an unquenchable thirst for liberty: they insist
+on staying out till ten in the evening and on having an entire holiday
+every now and then. Moreover, their sweethearts must be allowed in the
+house, or they come to fetch them; we must let them dance in the
+streets, and they are up to all sorts of mischief during the Kirmess
+festival. Moreover, when they are discharged we are obliged to wait
+until they choose to go, and sometimes they delay for months. Add to
+this account, wages amounting to ninety or a hundred florins a year,
+as well as the payment of a certain percentage on all the bills the
+master pays, tips from all invited guests, and all sorts of especial
+presents of dress-goods and money from the master, and, above all and
+always, patience, patience, patience!"</p>
+
+<p>I had heard enough to speak with authority to my mother, and I turned
+the conversation to a less distressing subject.</p>
+
+<p>On passing a side street I observed a lady approach a door, read a
+piece of paper attached to it, make a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>
+ gesture of distress, and pass
+on. A moment later another woman who was passing, also paused, read
+it, and went on. I asked my companion for an explanation, and he told
+me of a very curious Dutch custom. On that piece of paper was written
+the notice that a certain sick person was worse. In many towns of
+Holland, when any one is ill, the family posts such a bulletin on the
+door every day, so that friends and acquaintances are not obliged to
+enter the house to learn the news. This form of announcement is
+adopted on other occasions also. In some towns they announce the birth
+of a child by tying to the door a ball covered with red silk and lace,
+for which the Dutch word signifies a proof of birth. If the child is a
+girl, a piece of white paper is attached; if twins are born, the lace
+is double, and for some days after the appearance of the symbol a
+notice is posted to the effect that the mother and child are well and
+have passed a good night, or the contrary if it is otherwise. At one
+time, when there was the announcement of a birth on a door the
+creditors of the family were not allowed to knock for nine days; but I
+believe this custom has died out, although it must have had the
+beneficent virtue of promoting an increase in the population.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_166pic" id="Page_166pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus13.jpg" width="500" height="439"
+alt="Old Delft." title="Old Delft." />
+</div>
+
+<p>In that short walk through the streets of Delft I met some gloomy
+figures like those I had noticed at Rotterdam, without being able to
+determine whether they were priests, magistrates, or gravediggers, for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>
+in their dress and appearance they bore a certain resemblance to
+all three. They wore three-cornered hats, with long black veils which
+reached to the waist, swallow-tailed black coats, short black
+breeches, black stockings, black cloaks, buckled shoes, and white
+cravats and gloves, and they held in their hands sheets of paper
+bordered with black. My companion explained to me that they were
+called <i>aanspreckers</i>, an untranslatable Dutch word, and that their
+duty was to bear the information of deaths to the relatives and
+friends of the defunct and to make the announcement through the
+streets. Their dress differs in some particulars in the various
+provinces and also according to the religious faith of the deceased.
+In some towns they wear immense hats <i>à la</i> Don Basilio. They are
+generally very neat, and are sometimes dressed with a care that
+contrasts strangely with their business as messengers of death, or, as
+a traveller defines them, living funeral letters.</p>
+
+<p>We noticed one of these men who had stopped in front of a house, and
+my companion drew my attention to the fact that the shutters were
+partly closed, and observed that there must be some one dead there. I
+asked who it was. "I do not know," he replied, "but, to judge from the
+shutters, it cannot be any near relative to the master of the house."
+As this method of arguing seemed rather strange to me, he explained
+that in Holland when any one dies in a family they shut the windows
+and one, two, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>
+ three of the divisions of the folding shutters
+accordingly as the relationship is near or distant. Each section of
+shutter denotes a degree of relationship. For a father or mother they
+close all but one, for a cousin they close one only, for a brother
+two, and so on. It appears that the custom is very old, and it still
+continues, because in that country no custom is discontinued for
+caprice; nothing is changed unless the alteration becomes a matter of
+serious importance, and unless the Hollanders have been more than
+persuaded that such a change is for the better.</p>
+
+<p>I should like to have seen at Delft the house where was the tavern of
+the artist Steen, where he probably passed those famous debauches
+which have given rise to so many questions among his biographers. But
+my host told me that nothing was known about it. However, apropos of
+painters, he gave me the pleasing information that I was in the part
+of Holland, bounded by Delft, the Hague, the sea, the town of Alkmaar,
+the Gulf of Amsterdam, and the ancient Lake of Haarlem, which might be
+called the fatherland of Dutch painting, both because the greatest
+painters were born there, and because it presented such singularly
+picturesque effects that the artists loved and studied it devotedly. I
+was therefore in the bosom of Holland, and when I left Delft, I was
+going into its very heart.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving I again glanced hastily over the military arsenal,
+which occupies a large building, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+ which originally served as a
+warehouse to the East India Company. It is in communication with an
+artillery workshop and a great powder-magazine outside of the town. At
+Delft there still remains the great polytechnic school for engineers,
+the real military academy of Holland, for from it come forth the
+officers of the army that defends the country from the sea, and these
+young warriors of the dykes and locks, about three hundred in number,
+are they who give life to the peaceful town of Grotius.</p>
+
+<p>As I was stepping into the vessel which was to bear me to the Hague,
+my Dutch friend described the last of those students' festivals at
+Delft which are celebrated once in five years. It was one of those
+pageants peculiar to Holland, a sort of historical masquerade like a
+reflection of the magnificence of the past, serving to remind the
+people of the traditions, the personages, and illustrious events of
+earlier times. A great cavalcade represented the entrance into
+Arnheim, in 1492, of Charles of Egmont, Duke of Gelderland, Count of
+Zutphen. He belonged to that family of Egmont which in the person of
+the noble and unfortunate Count Lamoral gave the first great martyr of
+Dutch liberty to the axe of the Duke of Alva. Two hundred students on
+richly caparisoned horses, clothed in armor, decorated with mantles
+embroidered with coats of arms, with waving plumes and large swords
+proudly brandished, formed the retinue of the Duke of Gelderland. Then
+came
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>
+ halberdiers, archers, and foot-soldiers dressed in the pompous
+fashion of the fifteenth century; bands played, the city blazed with
+lights, and through its streets flowed an immense crowd, which had
+come from every part of Holland to enjoy this splendid vision of a
+distant age.
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>
+</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+<h2><a name="THE_HAGUE" id="THE_HAGUE"></a>THE HAGUE.</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">THE boat that was to carry me to the Hague was moored near a bridge,
+in a little basin formed by the canal which leads from Delft to the
+Hague, and shaded by trees on the bank like a garden lake.</p>
+
+<p>The boats that carry passengers from town to town are called in Dutch
+<i>trekschuiten</i>. The <i>trekschuit</i> is the traditional boat, as
+emblematic of Holland as is the gondola of Venice. Esquiros defined it
+as "the genius of ancient Holland floating on the waters;" and, in
+fact, any one who has not travelled in a <i>trekschuit</i> is not
+acquainted with Dutch life under its most original and poetic aspect.</p>
+
+<p>It is a large boat, almost entirely covered with a cabin shaped like a
+stage-coach and divided into two compartments&mdash;the division near the
+prow being for second-class passengers, and that near the poop for
+first-class. An iron pole with a ring at the end is fastened to the
+prow, through which a long rope is passed; this is tied at one end
+near the rudder and at the other end is fastened a tow-horse, which is
+ridden by a boatman. The windows of the cabin have white curtains; the
+walls and doors are painted. In
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+ the compartment for first-class
+passengers there are cushioned seats, a little table with books, a
+cupboard, a mirror; everything is neat and bright. In putting down my
+valise I allowed some ashes from my cigar to fall under the table; a
+minute later, when I returned, these had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>I was the only passenger, and did not have to wait long; the boatman
+made a sign, the tow-boy mounted his horse, and the <i>trekschuit</i> began
+to glide gently down the canal.</p>
+
+<p>It was about an hour past noon and the sun was shining brightly, but
+the boat passed along in the shade. The canal is bordered by two rows
+of linden trees, elms, willows, and high hedges on either side, which
+hide the country. It seemed as though we were sailing across a forest.
+At every curve we saw green enclosed views in the distance, with
+windmills here and there on the bank. The water was covered with a
+carpet of aquatic plants, and in some parts strewn with white flowers,
+with iris, water-lilies, and the water-lentil. The high green hedge
+bordering the canal was broken here and there, allowing a glimpse, as
+if through a window, of the far-off horizon of the champaign; then the
+walls would close again in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Every now and then we encountered a bridge. It was pleasant to see the
+rapidity with which the man on horseback and another man, who was
+always on guard, handled the cords to let the <i>trekschuit</i> pass, and
+how the two conductors made room for each other
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>
+when two
+<i>trekschuiten</i> met, the one passing his rope under that of the other
+without speaking a word, without greeting each other even with a
+smile, as if gravity and silence were obligatory. All along the way
+the only sound to be heard was the whirring of the arms of the
+windmills.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_174pic" id="Page_174pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus14.jpg" width="500" height="411"
+alt="On the Canal, near Delft."
+title="On the Canal, near Delft." />
+</div>
+
+<p>We met barges laden with vegetables, peat, stones, and barrels, and
+drawn with a long tow-rope by men, who were sometimes aided by large
+dogs with cords round their necks. Some were towed by a man, a woman,
+and a boy, one behind the other, with the rope tied to a sort of girth
+made of leather or linen. All three would be leaning forward so far
+that it was hard to understand how they managed to keep their feet,
+even with the help of the rope. Other boats were towed by old women
+alone. On many, a woman with a child at her breast would be seen at
+the rudder; other children were grouped around, and one might see a
+cat sitting on a sack, a dog, a hen, pots of flowers, and bird-cages.
+On some women sat knitting stockings and rocking the cradle at the
+same time; on others they were cooking; sometimes all the members of
+the family, excepting the one who was towing, were eating in a group.
+The look of peace that beams from the faces of those people and the
+tranquil appearance of those aquatic houses, of those animals which in
+a certain measure have become amphibious, the serenity of that
+floating life, the air of security and freedom of those wandering and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>
+solitary families,&mdash;these are not to be described. Thus in Holland
+live thousands of families who have no other houses but their boats. A
+man marries, and the wedded couple buy a boat, make it their home, and
+carry merchandise from one market to another. Their children are born
+on the canals; they are bred and grow up on the water; the barge holds
+their house-hold goods, their small savings, their domestic memories,
+their affections, their past, and all their present happiness and
+hopes for the future. They work, save, and after many years buy a
+larger boat, and sell their old house to a poorer family or give it to
+their eldest son, who from some other boat takes a wife, at whom he
+has glanced for the first time in an encounter on the canal. Thus from
+barge to barge, from canal to canal, life passes silently and
+peacefully, like the wandering boat which shelters it and the slow
+water that accompanies it.</p>
+
+<p>For some time I saw only small peasants' houses on the banks; then I
+began to see villas, pavilions, and cottages half hidden among the
+trees, and in the shadiest corners fair-haired ladies dressed in
+white, seated book in hand, or some fat gentleman enveloped in a cloud
+of smoke with the contented air of a wealthy merchant. All of these
+little villas are painted rose-color or azure; they have varnished
+tile roofs, terraces supported by columns, little yards in front or
+around them, with tidy flower-beds and neatly-kept paths; miniature
+gardens,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+ clean, closely trimmed, and well tended. Some houses stand
+on the brink of the canal with their foundations in the water,
+allowing one to see the flowers, the vases, and the thousand shining
+trifles in the rooms. Nearly all have an inscription on the door which
+is the aphorism of domestic happiness, the formula of the philosophy
+of the master, as&mdash;"Contentment is Riches;" "Pleasure and Repose;"
+"Friendship and Society;" "My Desires are Satisfied;" "Without
+Weariness;" "Tranquil and Content;" "Here we Enjoy the Pleasures of
+Horticulture." Now and then a fine black-and-white cow, lying on the
+bank on a level with the water, would raise her head quietly and look
+toward the boat. We met flocks of ducks, which paddled off to let us
+pass. Here and there, to the right and left, there were little canals
+almost covered by two high hedges, with branches intertwining overhead
+which formed a green archway, under which the little boats of the
+peasants darted and disappeared in the shadows. From time to time, in
+the midst of all this verdure, a group of houses would suddenly come
+into view, a neat many-colored little village, with its
+looking-glasses and its tulips at the windows, and without a sign of
+life. This profound silence would be broken by a merry chime from an
+unseen steeple. It was a pastoral paradise, a landscape of idyllic
+beauty breathing freshness and mystery&mdash;a Chinese Arcadia, with quaint
+corners, little surprises, and innocent artifices
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>
+ of prettiness, all
+which seemed like so many low voices of invisible beings murmuring,
+"We are content."</p>
+
+<p>At a certain point the canal divides into two branches, of which one
+hides itself amongst the trees and leads to Leyden, and the other
+turns to the left and leads to the Hague. After we passed this point
+the <i>trekschuit</i> began to stop, first at a house, then at a
+garden-gate, to receive parcels, letters, and verbal messages to be
+carried to the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>An old gentleman came on board from a villa and took a seat near me.
+He spoke French, and we entered into conversation. He had been in
+Italy, knew some words of Italian, and had read "I Promessi Sposi." He
+asked me for particulars in regard to the death of Alessandro Manzoni.
+After ten minutes I adored him. He gave me an account of the
+<i>trekschuit</i>. To appreciate the poetry of this national boat it is
+necessary to take long journeys in company with some Dutch people.
+Then they all live just as if they were at home; the women work, the
+men smoke on the roof; they dine all together, and after dinner they
+loiter about on the deck to see the sun set; the conversation grows
+very intimate, and the company becomes a family. Night comes on. The
+<i>trekschuit</i> passes like a shadow through villages steeped in silence,
+glides along the canals bathed in the silver light of the moon, hides
+itself in the thickets, reappears in the open country, grazes
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>
+the lonely houses from which beams the light of the peasant's lamp, and
+meets the boats of fishermen, which dart past like phantoms. In that
+profound peace, lulled by the slow and equal motion of the boat, men and
+women fall asleep side by side, and the boat leaves nothing in its wake
+save the confused murmur of the water and the sound of the sleepers'
+breathing.</p>
+
+<p>As we went on our way gardens and villas became more frequent. My
+travelling companion showed me a distant steeple, and pointed out the
+village of Ryswick, where in 1697 was signed the celebrated treaty of
+peace between France, England, Spain, Germany, and Holland. The castle
+of the Prince of Orange, where the treaty was signed, is no longer
+standing. An obelisk has been erected on its site.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the <i>trekschuit</i> emerged from the trees, and I saw before me
+an extended plain, a large woodland, and a city crowned with towers
+and windmills.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>The boatman asked me to pay my fare, and received the money in a
+leather bag. The driver urged on the horse, and in a few minutes we
+were in town. After a quarter of an hour I found myself in a spotless
+room in the Hôtel du Maréchal de Turenne. Who knows? It may have been
+the very room in which the celebrated Marshal slept as a young man
+when he was in the service of the house of Orange.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The Hague&mdash;in Dutch 'SGravenhage or 'SHage&mdash;the political capital, the
+Washington of Holland, whose New York is Amsterdam&mdash;is a city that is
+partly Dutch and partly French. It has wide streets without canals,
+vast wooded squares, grand houses, splendid hotels, and a population
+composed in great part of wealthy citizens, nobles, public officers,
+men of letters, and artists; in a word, a much more refined populace
+than that of any of the other cities of Holland.</p>
+
+<p>What most impressed me in my first walk round the city were the new
+quarters where dwells the flower of the moneyed aristocracy. In no
+other city, not even in the Faubourg St. Germain in Paris, had I ever
+felt myself such a poor devil as in those streets. They are wide and
+straight, with small palaces on either side: these are artistic in
+design and harmonious in coloring, with large windows without blinds,
+through which one can see the carpets, vases of flowers, and the
+sumptuous furniture of the rooms on the ground floor. All the doors
+were closed, and not a shop was to be seen, not an advertisement on
+the walls, not a stain nor a straw could be found, if one had a
+hundred eyes. When I passed through the streets there was a profound
+silence. Now and then an aristocratic carriage rolled past me almost
+noiselessly over the brick pavement, or I saw some stiff lackey
+standing at a door, or the fair head of some lady behind a curtain. As
+I walked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>
+ close to the windows, I could see out of the corner of my
+eye my shabby travelling-clothes reflected clearly in the large panes
+of glass, and I repented not having brought my gloves, and felt a
+certain sense of humiliation because I was not at least a knight by
+birth. It seemed to me that now and then I could hear soft voices
+saying, "Who is that beggar?"</p>
+
+<p>The most noteworthy part of the old town is the Binnenhof, a group of
+old buildings in different styles of architecture, which overlook two
+wide squares on two sides and a large pool on the third side. In the
+midst of this group of palaces, towers, and monumental doors, of a
+gloomy mediæval appearance, is a spacious courtyard which may be
+entered by three bridges and three doors. In one of those buildings
+the Stadtholders lived. It is now the Second Chamber of the States
+General; opposite to it are located the First Chamber, the rooms of
+the Ministry, and the other offices of public administration. The
+Minister of the Interior has his office in a little, low, black,
+gloomy tower which leans slightly toward the water of the pool.</p>
+
+<p>The Binnenhof, the Buitenhof (a square extending to the west), and the
+Plaats (another square on the other side of the pool, which is reached
+by passing under an old door that once formed part of a prison) were
+the scenes of the most bloody events in the history of Holland.</p>
+
+<p>In the Binnenhof the venerable Van Olden Barneveldt was beheaded. He
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>
+was the second founder of the republic, the most illustrious victim of
+the long struggle between the patrician burghers and the Stadtholders,
+between the republican and monarchical principles, which so terribly
+afflicted Holland. The scaffold was erected in front of the building
+where sat the States General. Opposite was the tower from which, they
+say, Maurice of Orange, unseen, assisted at the execution of his
+enemy. In the prison between the two squares was tortured Cornelius de
+Witt, who was unjustly accused of plotting against the life of the
+Prince of Orange. The furious populace dragged Cornelius and John de
+Witt, the Grand Pensionary, into the Plaats all wounded and bleeding,
+and there they were spit upon, kicked, and slaughtered with pike and
+pistol, and afterward their corpses were mutilated and defiled. In the
+same square Adelaide de Poelgeest, the mistress of Albert, Count of
+Holland, was stabbed on the 22d of September in the year 1392, and the
+stone on which she expired is still shown.</p>
+
+<p>These sad memories and those heavy low doors, that irregular group of
+dark buildings, which at night, when the moon lights up the stagnant
+pool, have the appearance of an enormous inaccessible castle standing
+in the midst of the joyous and cultured city,&mdash;arouse a feeling of
+awful sadness. At night the courtyard is lighted only by an occasional
+lamp; the few people who pass through it quicken
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+ their pace as if
+they are afraid. There is no sound of steps to be heard, no lighted
+windows to be seen; one enters it with a vague restlessness, and
+leaves it almost with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of the Binnenhof, the Hague has no important
+monuments ancient or modern. There are several mediocre statues of the
+Princes of Orange, a vast, naked cathedral, and a royal palace of
+modest proportions. On many of the public buildings storks are carved,
+the stork being the heraldic animal of the city. Many of these birds
+walk about freely in the fish-market&mdash;they are kept at the expense of
+the municipality, like the bears of Berne and the eagles of Geneva.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest ornament of the Hague is its forest, which is one of the
+wonders of Holland and one of the most magnificent parks in the world.</p>
+
+<p>It is composed of alders, oaks, and the largest beech trees to be
+found in Europe. It is more than a French league in circumference, and
+is situated to the east of the city, only a few steps from the last
+houses. It is a really delightful oasis in the midst of the depressing
+Dutch plains. When one has entered the wood and passed beyond the
+fringe of pavilions, little Swiss cottages, and summer houses dotted
+about among the first trees, one seems to have lost one's self in a
+lonely interminable forest. The trees are as thick as a canebrake, the
+avenues are lost in the dusk; there are lakes and canals almost
+hidden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>
+ by the verdure of the banks; rustic bridges, the crossways of
+unfrequented bridle-paths, shady recesses; and over all a cool,
+refreshing shade in which one seems to breathe the air of virginal
+nature and to be far removed from the turmoil of the world.</p>
+
+<p>They say that this wood, like that of the town of Haarlem, is the
+remnant of an immense forest which in olden times covered almost the
+whole of the coast of Holland, and the Dutch respect it as a monument
+of their national history. Indeed, in the history of Holland there are
+many references to it, proving that at all times it was preserved with
+a most jealous care. Even the Spanish generals respected this national
+worship and shielded the sacred wood from the hands of the soldiers.
+On more than one occasion of serious financial distress, when the
+government was disposed to decree the destruction of the forest for
+the purpose of selling the wood, the citizens exorcised the danger by
+a voluntary offering. This beloved forest is connected with a thousand
+memories&mdash;records of terrible hurricanes, of the amours of princes, of
+celebrated fêtes, of romantic adventures. Some of the trees bear the
+names of kings and emperors, others of German electors; one beech tree
+is said to have been planted by the grand pensionary and poet Jacob
+Catz, three others by the Countess of Holland, Jacqueline of Bavaria,
+and they still point out the place where she used to rest after her
+walks. Voltaire also left a record of some sort of gallant
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>
+adventure which he had with the daughter of a hair-dresser.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_184pic" id="Page_184pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus15.jpg" width="500" height="732"
+alt="The Binnenhof, The Hague." title="The Binnenhof, The Hague." />
+</div>
+
+<p>In the centre of the forest, where the underbrush seems determined to
+conquer everything and springs up, piling itself into heaps, climbing
+the trees, creeping across the paths, extending over the water,
+restraining one's steps and hiding the view on every side, as if it
+wished to conceal the shrine of some forgotten sylvan divinity,&mdash;at
+this spot is hidden a small royal palace, called the
+House-in-the-Wood, a sort of <i>Casa del Labrador</i> of the Villa
+Aranjuez. It was erected in 1647 by Princess Amalia of Solms, in honor
+of her husband, Frederick Henry, the Stadtholder.</p>
+
+<p>When I went to visit this palace, while my eyes were busy searching
+for the visitors' door, I saw a lady with a noble and benevolent face
+come out and get into her carriage. I took her for some English
+traveller who had brought her visit to a close. As the carriage passed
+near me, I raised my hat; the lady bowed her head and disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later one of the ladies in waiting at the palace told me that
+this "traveller" was no one less than Her Majesty the Queen of
+Holland.</p>
+
+<p>I felt my blood flow faster. The word <i>queen</i>, independently of the
+person to whom it referred, has always had this effect on me, although
+I cannot explain the reason of it. Perhaps because it reminds me of
+certain bright, confused visions of my youth. The romantic imagination
+of a boy of fifteen is sometimes content to tread the ground, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>
+sometimes it climbs with eager audacity to a giddy height. It dreams
+of supernatural beauty, of intoxicating perfumes, of consuming love,
+and imagines that all these are comprised in the mysterious and
+inaccessible creatures that fortune has placed at the summit of the
+social scale. And among the thousand strange, foolish, and impossible
+fancies that enter his mind he dreams of scaling towering walls in the
+dark with youthful agility, of passing formidable gates and deep
+ditches, of opening mysterious doors, threading interminable corridors
+amidst people overcome with sleep, of stepping silently through
+immense saloons, of ascending aërial staircases, mounting the stones
+of a tower at the risk of his life, reaching an immense height over
+the tall trees of moonlit gardens, and at last of arriving, fainting
+and bleeding, beneath a balcony, and hearing a superhuman voice speak
+in accents of deep pity, of answering with equal tenderness, of
+bursting into tears and invoking God, of leaning his forehead on the
+marble and covering with desperate kisses a foot flashing with gems,
+of abandoning his face in the perfumed silks, and of feeling his
+reason flee and life desert him in an embrace more than human.</p>
+
+<p>In this palace, called the House-in-the-Wood, besides other remarkable
+things, is an octagonal room, the walls of which from floor to ceiling
+are covered with paintings by the most celebrated artists of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>
+school of Rubens, among which is a huge allegorical painting by
+Jordaens which represents the apotheosis of Frederick Henry. There is
+a room filled with valuable presents from the Emperor of Japan, the
+Viceroy of Egypt, and the East India Company; and an elegant little
+room decorated with designs in chiaroscuro, which even when closely
+examined are taken for bas-reliefs. These are the work of Jacob de
+Wit, a painter who at the beginning of the last century won great fame
+in this art of delusion. The other rooms are small, and handsome
+without display; they are full of the treasures of a refined taste, as
+becomes the great and modest house of Orange.</p>
+
+<p>The custom of allowing strangers to enter the palace the moment after
+the queen came out seemed strange to me, but it did not surprise me
+when I learned of other customs and other popular traits, and in a
+word the character of the royal family of Holland.</p>
+
+<p>In Holland the sovereign is considered as a stadtholder rather than as
+a king. He has in him, as a certain Spanish republican said of the
+Duke of Aosta, the least quantity possible in a king. The sentiment of
+the Dutch nation toward their royal family is not so much a feeling of
+devotion to the family of the monarch as affection for the house of
+Orange, which has shared its triumphs and taken part in its
+misfortunes&mdash;which has lived its life for three centuries. At bottom,
+the country is republican, and its monarchy
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+ is a sort of crowned
+presidency void of regal pomp. The king makes speeches at the banquets
+and at the public festivals as the ministers do with us, and he enjoys
+the fame of an orator because his speeches are extemporary: his voice
+is very powerful, and his eloquence has a martial ring, which arouses
+great enthusiasm among the people. The crown prince, William of
+Orange, studied at the University of Leyden, passed the public
+examinations, and took his degree as a lawyer; Prince Alexander, the
+second son, is now studying at the same university. He is a member of
+the Students' Club, and invites his professors and fellow-students to
+dinner. At the Hague, Prince William enters the cafés, converses with
+his neighbors, and walks about the streets with his young gentlemen
+friends. In the wood the queen will seat herself on a bench beside any
+poor old woman, nor can one say she does this, like other princes, to
+acquire popularity; for that the house of Orange can neither gain nor
+lose, since there is not in the nation (although it is republican by
+nature and tradition) the least sign of a faction that desires a
+republic or even pronounces its name. On the other hand, the people,
+who love and venerate their king, who at the festivals celebrated in
+his honor will remove the horses and themselves draw his carriage, who
+insist on every one wearing an orange-colored cockade in homage to the
+name of Orange,&mdash;in ordinary times do not occupy themselves
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>
+ at all
+about his affairs and family. At the Hague I had some trouble to learn
+what grade the crown prince holds in the army. One of the first
+librarians in the town, to whom I put my question, was astonished at
+my curiosity, which to him seemed childish, and he told me that
+probably I could not have found a hundred people in the Hague who
+would have been able to answer my question.</p>
+
+<p>The seat of the court is at the Hague, but the king passes a large
+part of the summer in one of his castles in Gelderland, and every year
+spends some days in Amsterdam. The people say there is a law which
+obliges the king to spend ten days during the year at Amsterdam, and
+the municipality of that town are obliged to pay his expenses during
+those ten days. After midnight of the tenth day even a match that he
+may strike to light his cigar is at his own expense.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<p>On returning from the royal villa at the Hague I found the wood
+enlivened by the Sunday promenade&mdash;music, carriages, a crowd of
+ladies, restaurants full of people, and swarms of children everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>Then for the first time I saw the fair sex of Holland. Beauty is a
+rare flower in Holland, as in all other countries; notwithstanding, in
+a walk of a hundred steps in the wood at the Hague I saw many more
+beautiful women than I had seen in all the pictures in the Dutch
+galleries. These ladies do not possess the statuesque beauty of the
+Romans, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+ splendid color of the English, nor the vivacity of the
+Andalusians; but there is about them a refinement, a delightful
+innocence and grace, a tranquil beauty, a pleasing countenance; they
+have, as a French writer has rightly said, the attraction of the
+valerian flower which ornaments their gardens. They are plump, and
+tall rather than short, they have regular features, and smooth
+brilliant complexions of a beautiful white and delicate pink&mdash;colors
+which seem to have been suffused by the breath of an angel; they have
+high cheek-bones; their eyes are light blue, sometimes very light, and
+sometimes of a glassy appearance, which gives them a vague, wandering
+look. It is said that their teeth are not good, but this I could not
+confirm, as they seldom laugh. They walk more heavily than the French
+and not so stiffly as the English; they dress in the Parisian mode,
+and the ladies at the Hague display better taste than those at
+Amsterdam, although they do not dress so richly: they all display
+their masses of fair hair with considerable pride.</p>
+
+<p>I was astonished to see girls who appeared to be fully grown, who in
+our country would have had the airs and attire of women, still dressed
+like children, with short skirts and white pantalettes. In Holland,
+where life is easy and impatience an unknown experience, the girls are
+in no hurry to leave off the ways and appearance of childhood, and, on
+the other hand, they seem naturally to enter at a comparatively late
+age<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>
+ that period of life when, as Alessandro Manzoni says in his
+ever-admirable way, it seems as though a mysterious power enters the
+soul, which soothes, adorns, and invigorates all its inclinations and
+thoughts. Here a girl very rarely marries before her twentieth year. I
+need not speak of the children of the Deccan, who, it is said, are
+married at eight years of age, but in Holland the Italian and Spanish
+girls, who marry at fourteen or fifteen, are regarded as unaccountable
+persons. There, girls of fifteen years are going to school with their
+hair down their backs, and nobody thinks of looking at them. I heard a
+young man of the Hague spoken of with horror by his friends because he
+was enamoured of a maiden of this age, for to their minds she was
+considered as an infant.</p>
+
+<p>Another thing one notices instantly in every Dutch city, excepting
+Amsterdam, is the absence of that lower stratum of society known as
+the demi-monde. There is nothing in dress or manner to indicate the
+existence of such a class. "Beware," said some freethinking Dutchmen
+to me; "you are in a Protestant country, and there is a great deal of
+hypocrisy." This may be true, but the sore that can be hidden cannot
+be very large. Equivocal society does not exist among the Hollanders;
+there is no shadow of it in their life nor any hint of it in their
+literature; the very language rebels against translating any of those
+numberless expressions which constitute the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span
+> dubious, flashy, easy
+speech of that class of society in the countries where it is found. On
+the other hand, neither fathers nor mothers close their eyes to the
+conduct of their unmarried sons, even if they be grown men; family
+discipline makes no exception of long beards; and this strict
+discipline is aided by their phlegmatic nature, their habits of
+economy, and their respect for public opinion.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a presumption more ridiculous than impertinent to speak of
+the character and life of Dutch women with an air of experience, when
+I have been only a few months in Holland; so I must content myself
+with letting my Dutch friends speak for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Many writers have treated Dutch women discourteously. One calls them
+apathetic housekeepers; another, who shall be nameless, carried
+impertinence so far as to say that, like the men, they are in the
+habit of choosing their lovers from among the servant class, and that
+their aspirations are necessarily low. But these are judgments
+dictated by the rage of some rejected suitors. Daniel Stern (Comtesse
+d'Agoult), who as a woman speaks with particular authority on this
+subject, says the women of Holland are noble, loyal, active, and
+chaste. A few authors venture to doubt their much-talked-of calmness
+in affection. "They are still waters," wrote Esquiros, and all know
+what is said of still waters. Heine said they were frozen volcanoes,
+and that when they
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>
+ thaw&mdash;But, of all the opinions I have read, the
+most remarkable seems to me that of Saint Evremont&mdash;namely, that Dutch
+women are not lively enough to disturb the repose of the men, that
+some of them are certainly amiable, and that prudence or the coldness
+of their nature stands them in stead of virtue.</p>
+
+<p>One day, in a group of young men at the Hague, I quoted this opinion
+of Saint Evremont, and bluntly demanded: "Is it true?" They smiled,
+looked at each other, and one answered, "It is:" another, "I think
+so;" and a third, "It may be." In short, they all admitted its truth.
+On another occasion I collected evidence proving that matters stand
+just as they were at the time of the French writer. A group of people
+were discussing an odd character. "Yet," said one, "that little man
+who seems so quiet in his manner is a great ladies' man." "Does he
+disturb the repose of families?" I asked. They all began to laugh, and
+one answered: "What! Disturb the repose of families in Holland? It
+would be one of the twelve labors of Hercules."&mdash;"We Hollanders," a
+friend once said to me, "do not take the ladies by storm; we cannot do
+so, because we have no school of this art. Nothing is so false in
+Holland as the famous definition, matrimony is like a besieged
+fortress; those who are outside wish to enter, while those who are
+inside wish they were out. Here those who are inside are very happy,
+and those who are outside do not think of entering." Another
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> said to
+me, "The Dutch woman does not marry the man; she espouses matrimony."
+This, which is true of the Hague, an elegant city to which there comes
+a great influx of French civilization, is even truer of the other
+towns, where the ancient customs have been more strictly adhered to.
+Yet gallant travellers write that the Hollanders are a sleepy people,
+and that their domestic happiness is "<i>un bonheur un peu gros</i>." The
+woman who seldom goes out, who dances little and laughs less, who
+occupies herself only with her children, her husband, and her flowers,
+who reads her books on theology, and surveys the street with the
+looking-glass, so that she need not show herself at the window, how
+much more poetical is she than&mdash;But pardon me, Andalusia! I was about
+to say something rather hard on you.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto, some readers may think that I have been pretending to know
+the Dutch language. I hasten to say that I do not know it, and to
+excuse my ignorance. A people like the Dutch, serious and taciturn,
+richer in hidden qualities than in brilliant showy ones&mdash;a people who
+are, if I may so express myself, self-contained rather than
+superficial, who do much and talk little, who do not pass for more
+than they are worth&mdash;may be studied without a knowledge of their
+language. On the other hand, the French language is generally known in
+Holland. In the large cities there is scarcely an educated person who
+does not speak French correctly, scarcely a shopman who
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> cannot make
+himself understood in good or bad French, and there is scarcely a boy
+who is not acquainted with ten or twenty words which suffice to help a
+stranger out of a dilemma. This diffusion of a language so different
+from that of the country is the more to be admired when one reflects
+that it is not the only foreign language generally spoken in Holland.
+English and German are almost as widely known as French. The study of
+these three languages is obligatory in the secondary schools. Cultured
+people, like those who in Italy think it a necessity to know French,
+in Holland generally read English, German, and French with equal
+facility. The Dutch have an especial talent for learning languages,
+and an incredible courage in speaking them. We Italians before we
+attempt to speak a foreign language require to know enough about it to
+avoid making great mistakes; we blush when we do make them; we avoid
+the opportunities of speaking until we are sure of speaking well
+enough to be complimented, and in this way we continue to lengthen the
+period of our philological novitiate. In Holland one often meets
+people who speak French with great effort, with a vocabulary of
+perhaps a hundred words and twenty sentences; but notwithstanding they
+talk, hold long conversations, and do not seem to be at all worried
+about what one may think of their blunders and their audacity.
+Waiters, porters, and boys, when asked if they know French, answer
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>
+with the greatest assurance, "<i>Oui</i>" or "<i>Un peu</i>," and they try in a
+thousand ways to make themselves understood, laughing themselves
+sometimes at the eccentric contortion of their speech, and ending
+every answer with "<i>S'il vous plait</i>" or a "<i>Pardon, monsieur</i>;" which
+are often said so prettily and yet are so out of place that they make
+one laugh even against one's will. It is considered such a common
+thing to know French that when any one is obliged to answer that he
+doesn't speak French, he hesitates, ashamed, and if he is interrogated
+in the street he will pretend to be busy and hurry on.</p>
+
+<p>As for the Dutch language, it is a mystery to those who do not know
+German, and even when one knows German and can read Dutch books with a
+little study, one cannot understand Dutch when it is spoken. If I were
+asked to say what impression it makes on those who do not understand
+it, I should say that it seems like German spoken by people with a
+hair in their throats. This effect is produced by the frequent
+repetition of a guttural aspirate which is like the sound of the
+Spanish <i>jota</i>. Even the Dutch themselves do not consider their
+language euphonious. I was often asked, playfully, "What impression
+does it make on you?" as if they understood that the impression could
+not be altogether agreeable. Yet some one has written a book proving
+that Adam and Eve spoke Dutch in the Garden of Eden. But, although the
+Dutch speak so many foreign languages,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+ they hold to their own, and
+grow indignant when any ignorant stranger shows that he believes Dutch
+to be a German dialect, this being, in truth, a theory held by many
+who only know the language by name. It is almost superfluous to repeat
+the history of the language.</p>
+
+<p>The first inhabitants of the country spoke Teutonic in its different
+dialects. These dialects were blended and formed the ancient speech of
+the Netherlands, which in the Middle Ages, like the other European
+languages, passed through the different Germanic, Norman, and French
+phases, and ended in the present Dutch language, in which there is
+still a foundation of the primitive idiom and the evidence of a slight
+Latin influence. Certainly, there is a striking similarity between
+Dutch and German, and, above all, there are a number of root-words
+common to the two; but there is, however, a great difference in the
+grammar, that of the Dutch being much simpler in construction, and the
+pronunciation also is very different. This very likeness is the reason
+that the Dutch generally do not speak German so well as they speak
+English or French; perhaps the difficulty may be caused by the
+ambiguity of words, or because it costs them so little effort to
+understand the language and to speak it for their own use that they
+stop there, as we often do with French, which we speak at ten years of
+age and have forgotten at forty.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now it is time to go and visit the art gallery, which is the greatest
+ornament of the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>On entering we find ourselves at once before the most celebrated of
+all painted animals, Paul Potter's "Bull"&mdash;that immortal bull which,
+as has been said, was honored at the Louvre, when the mania arose of
+classifying these pictures in a sort of hierarchy of celebrity, by
+being placed near the "Transfiguration" of Raphael, the "St Peter the
+Martyr" of Titian, and the "Communion of St. Jerome" by Domenichino;
+that bull for which England would pay a million francs, and Holland
+would not sell for double that sum; the bull on which more pages have
+been written than the strokes of the artist on the canvas, and about
+which critics still write and dispute as if it were a real living
+creation of a new animal instead of a picture.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of the picture is very simple&mdash;a life-size bull, standing
+with his head turned toward the spectator, a cow lying on the ground,
+some sheep, a shepherd, and a distant landscape.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_198pic" id="Page_198pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus16.jpg" width="500" height="399"
+alt="Paul Potter&#39;s Bull." title="Paul Potter&#39;s Bull." />
+</div>
+
+<p>The supreme merit of this bull may be expressed in one word: it is
+alive. The serious wondering eye, which gives the impression of
+vigorous vitality and savage pride, is painted with such truth that at
+the first sight one feels inclined to dodge to the right or left, as
+one does in a country road when one meets such animals. His moist
+black nostrils seem to be smoking, and to be drawing in the air with a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+prolonged breath. His hide is painted with all its folds and
+wrinkles; one can see where the animal has rubbed himself against the
+trees and the ground; the hairs look as though they are stuck on the
+canvas. The other animals are equally fine: the head of the cow, the
+fleece of the sheep, the flies, the grass, the leaves and fibres of
+the plants, the moss,&mdash;everything is rendered with extraordinary
+fidelity. Although the infinite care the artist must have taken is
+apparent, the fatigue and patience of the copy do not appear; it seems
+almost an inspired, impetuous work, in which the painter, impelled by
+a thirst for truth, has not felt a moment of hesitation or weariness.
+Infinite criticisms were made on this "incredible stroke of audacity
+by a young man of twenty-four." The large size of the canvas was
+censured, the commonplace nature of the subject, the poverty of the
+light effects, for the light is equally diffused and everything is
+placed in relief without the contrast of shadow,&mdash;the stiffness of the
+legs of the bull, the crude coloring of the plants and animals in the
+background; the mediocrity of the shepherd's figure. But, for all
+this, Paul Potter's bull was crowned with glory as one of the noblest
+examples of art, and Europe considers it as the greatest work of the
+prince of animal-painters. An illustrious critic very rightly said
+that "Paul Potter with his bull has written the true idyl of Holland."</p>
+
+<p>Herein is the great merit of the Dutch animal-painters, and of Potter
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>
+above all, that they have not only depicted animals, but have
+revealed, and told in the poetry of color, the delicate, attentive,
+almost maternal love with which this Dutch agricultural people cherish
+their cattle. Potter's animals interpret the poetry of rural life. By
+them he has expressed the silence and the peace of the meadows, the
+pleasure of solitude, the sweetness of repose, and the satisfaction of
+patient toil. One might almost say that he had succeeded in making
+himself understood by them, and that they must have put themselves in
+positions to be copied. He has given them the variety and
+attractiveness of human beings. The sadness, the quiet content which
+follows the satisfaction of physical needs, the sensations of health
+and strength, of love and gratitude toward mankind, all the
+glimmerings of intelligence and the stirrings of affection, all the
+variety of nature&mdash;all these he has understood and expressed with
+loving fidelity, and he has further succeeded in communicating to us
+the feelings by which he was animated. As we look at his pictures a
+strange primitive instinct of a rural life is gradually roused in
+us&mdash;an innocent desire to milk, to shear, to drive these gentle
+patient animals that delight the eye and heart. In this art Paul
+Potter is unsurpassed. Berghem is more refined, but Potter is more
+natural; Van de Velde is more graceful, but Potter is more vigorous;
+Du Jardin is more amiable, but Potter is more profound.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And to think that the architect who afterward became his father-in-law
+would not at first give him his daughter, because he was only a
+painter of animals! and if we may believe tradition his celebrated
+bull served as a sign to a butcher's shop and sold for twelve hundred
+and sixty francs.</p>
+
+<p>Another masterpiece in the Hague Gallery is a small painting by Gerard
+Dou, the painter of the celebrated "Dropsical Woman," which hangs in
+the Louvre between pictures by Raphael and Murillo. He is one of the
+greatest painters of the home-life of the Dutch, and the most patient
+of the patient artists of his country. The picture simply represents a
+woman seated near a window, with a cradle by her side; but in this
+humble scene there is such a sweet and holy air of domestic peace, a
+repose so profound, a love so harmonious, that the most obstinate
+bachelor on earth could not look on it without feeling an irresistible
+desire to be the one for whom the wife is waiting in that quiet, clean
+room, or at least to enter it secretly for a moment, even though he
+remain hidden in the shadow, if so he might breathe the perfume of the
+innocent happiness of this sanctuary. This picture, like all the works
+of Dou, is painted with that wonderful finish which he carries almost
+to excess, which was certainly carried to excess by Slingelandt, who
+worked three years continuously in painting the Meerman family. This
+style afterward degenerated into that smooth, affected, painful
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+mannerism where the figures are like ivory, the skies enamel, and the
+fields velvet, of which Van der Werff is the best known
+representative. Among other things to be seen in this picture by Dou
+is a broom-handle, the size of a pen-holder, on which they say the
+artist worked assiduously for three days. This does not seem strange
+when we reflect that every minute filament, the grain, the knots,
+spots, dents, and finger-marks are all reproduced. Anecdotes of his
+superhuman patience are recounted which are scarcely credible. It is
+said he was five days in copying the hand of a Madam Spirings whose
+portrait he painted. Who knows how long he was painting her head? The
+unhappy creatures who wished to be painted by him were driven to
+madness. It is believed that he ground his colors himself, and made
+his own brushes, and that he kept everything hermetically closed, so
+that no particle of dust could reach his work. When he entered his
+studio he opened the door slowly, sat down with great deliberation,
+and then remained motionless until the least sign of agitation
+produced by the exercise had ceased. Then he began to paint, using
+concave glasses to reduce the objects in size. This continual effort
+ended by injuring his sight, so that he was obliged to work with
+spectacles. Nevertheless, his coloring never became weakened or less
+vigorous, and his pictures are equally strong whether one looks at
+them near by or far off. They have been very justly compared to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>
+natural scenes reduced in photographs. Dou was one of the many
+disciples of Rembrandt who divided the inheritance of his genius. From
+his master he learned finish and the art of imitating light,
+especially the effects of candle-light and of lamps. Indeed, as we
+shall see in the Amsterdam Gallery, he equalled Rembrandt in these
+respects. He possessed the rare merit among the painters of his school
+in that he took no pleasure in painting ugliness and trivial subjects.</p>
+
+<p>In the gallery at the Hague home-life is represented by Dou, by
+Adriaen van Ostade, by Steen, and by Van Mieris the elder.</p>
+
+<p>Van Ostade&mdash;called the Rembrandt of home-life, because he imitated the
+great master in his powerful effects of chiaroscuro, of delicate
+shading, of transparency in shadows, of rich coloring&mdash;is represented
+by two small pictures which depict the inside and outside of a rustic
+house. Both are full of poetry, notwithstanding the triviality of the
+subjects which he has chosen in common with other painters of his
+school. But he has this peculiarity, that the remarkably ugly girls in
+his pictures are taken from his own family, which, according to
+tradition, was a group of little monstrosities, whom he held up to the
+ridicule of the world. Thus nearly all the Dutch painters chose to
+paint the least handsome of the women whom they saw, as if they had
+agreed to throw discredit on the feminine type of their country.
+Rembrandt's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>
+ "Susanna," to cite a subject which of all others required
+beauty, is an ugly Dutch servant, and the women painted by Steen,
+Brouwer, and others are not worth mentioning. And yet, as we have
+seen, models of noble and gracious beauty were not wanting among them.</p>
+
+<p>There are three fine paintings by Frans van Mieris the elder, the
+first disciple of Dou, and as finished and minute a painter as his
+master. He together with Metsu and Terburg, two artists eminent for
+finish and coloring, belonged to that group of painters of home-life
+who chose their subjects from the higher classes of society. One of
+these canvases portrays the artist with his wife.</p>
+
+<p>Among other paintings, Steen is represented by his favorite subject, a
+doctor feeling the pulse of a lovesick girl in the presence of her
+duenna. It is an admirable study of expression, of piquant, roguish
+smiles. The doctor's face seems to say, "I think I understand;" the
+invalid's, "Something more than your prescriptions are needed;" the
+duenna's, "I know what she wants." Other pictures of home-life by
+Schaleken, Tilborch, Netscher, William van Mieris represent kitchens,
+shops, dinners, and the families of the artists.</p>
+
+<p>Landscape and marine painting are represented by beautiful gems from
+the hands of Ruysdael, Berghem, Van de Velde, Van der Neer, Bakhuisen,
+and Everdingen. There are also a large number of works by
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> Philips
+Wouverman, the painter of horses and battle-pieces.</p>
+
+<p>There are two pictures by Van Huysum, the great flower-painter, who
+was born at a time when Holland was possessed with a mad love of
+flowers and cultivated the most beautiful flowers in Europe. He
+celebrated this passion with his brush and created it afresh in his
+pictures. No one else has so marvellously rendered the infinite
+shades, the freshness, the transparency, the softness, the grace, the
+modesty, the languor, the thousand hidden beauties, all the
+appearances of the noble and delicate life of the pearl of vegetation,
+of the darling of nature, the flower. The Hollanders brought to him
+all the miracles of their gardens that he might copy them; kings asked
+him for flowers; his pictures were sold for sums that in those days
+were fabulous. Jealous of his wife and his art, he worked alone,
+unseen by his fellow-artists, lest they should discover the secret of
+his coloring. Thus he lived and died, glorious and melancholy, in the
+midst of petals and fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>But the greatest work in the gallery is the celebrated "Lesson in
+Anatomy" by Rembrandt.</p>
+
+<p>This picture was inspired by a feeling of gratitude to Doctor Tulp,
+Professor of Anatomy at Amsterdam, who protected Rembrandt in his
+youth. Rembrandt portrays Tulp and his pupils grouped round a table on
+which is stretched a naked corpse, whose arm has been dissected by the
+anatomist's knife. The professor, who wears his hat, stands pointing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+out the muscles of the arm with his scissors, and explaining them to
+his pupils. Some of the scholars are seated, others stand, others lean
+over the body. The light coming from left to right illuminates their
+faces and a part of the dead man, leaving their garments, the table,
+and the walls of the room in obscurity. The figures are life-size.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to describe the effect produced by this picture. The
+first sensation is a feeling of horror and disgust of the corpse. Its
+forehead is in shadow, its open eyes are turned upward, its mouth half
+shut as if in amazement; the chest is swollen, its legs and feet are
+rigid, the flesh is livid and looks as if it would be cold to the
+touch. In great contrast to this stiffened corpse are the living
+attitudes of the students, the youthful faces, the bright eyes, intent
+and full of thought, revealing, in different degrees, eagerness to
+learn, the joy of comprehension, curiosity, astonishment, the effort
+of the intellect, the activity of the mind. The face of the master is
+calm, his eye is serene, and his lips seem smiling with the
+satisfaction of intimate knowledge of his subject. The whole group is
+surrounded by an air of gravity, mystery, and scientific solemnity
+which imposes reverence and silence. The contrast between the light
+and shade is as marvellous as that between death and life. Everything
+is painted with infinite pains; it is possible to count the little
+folds of the ruff, the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+ wrinkles in the face, the hairs of the beard.
+It is said that the foreshortening of the corpse is incorrect, and
+that in some places the finish degenerates into hardness, but
+universal approval places the "Lesson in Anatomy" among the greatest
+works of art in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Rembrandt was only twenty-six years old when he painted this picture,
+which consequently has the mark of his early work. The impetuosity,
+audacity, and unequalled assurance of his genius, which shine forth in
+his maturer works, are not yet seen, but his immense power of painting
+light, his marvellous chiaroscuro, his fascinating magic of contrast,
+the most original features of his genius, are all to be found here.</p>
+
+<p>However little we may know about art, and however much we may have
+resolved not to sin by excess of enthusiasm, when we come face to face
+with Rembrandt van Rijn, we cannot help opening the flood-gates of
+language, as the Spanish say. Rembrandt exerts an especial
+fascination. Fra Angelico is a saint, Michelangelo is a giant, Raphael
+is an angel, Titian a prince, Rembrandt is a spectre. What else can
+this miller's son be called? Born in a windmill, he arose unexpectedly
+without a master, without example, without any instruction from the
+schools, to become a universal painter, who depicted life in every
+aspect, who painted figures, landscapes, sea-pieces, animals, saints,
+patriarchs, heroes, monks, riches and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>
+ poverty, deformity,
+decrepitude, the ghetto, taverns, hospitals, and death; who in short,
+reviewed heaven and earth, and enveloped everything in a light so
+mysterious that it seems to have issued from his brain. His work is at
+the same time grand and minute. He is at once an idealist and a
+realist, a painter and an engraver, who transforms everything and
+conceals nothing&mdash;who changes men into phantoms, the most ordinary
+scenes of life into mysterious apparitions; I had almost said who
+changes this world into another that does not seem to be and yet is
+the same. Whence has he drawn that undefinable light, those flashes of
+electric rays, those reflections of unknown stars that like an enigma
+fill us with wonder? What did this dreamer, this visionary, see in the
+dark? What is the secret that tormented his soul? What did this
+painter of the air mean to tell us in this eternal conflict of light
+and shadow? It is said that the contrasts of light and shade
+corresponded in him to moods of thought. And truly it seems that as
+Schiller, before beginning a work, felt within himself an indistinct
+harmony of sounds which were a prelude to his inspiration, so also
+Rembrandt, when about to paint a picture, beheld a vision of rays and
+shadows which had some meaning to him before he animated them with his
+figures. In his paintings there is a life, a dramatic action, quite
+distinct from that of human figures. Flashes of brilliant light break
+across a sombre surface like
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>
+ cries of joy; the frightened darkness
+flies away, leaving here and there a melancholy twilight, trembling
+reflections that seem to be lamenting, profound obscurity gloomy and
+threatening, flashes of dancing sunlight, ambiguous shadows, shadows
+uncertain and transparent, questionings and sighs, words of a
+supernatural language like music heard but not understood, which
+remains in the memory like a dream. Into this atmosphere he plunged
+his figures, some of them enveloped by the garish light of a
+theatrical apotheosis, others veiled like ghosts, others revealed by a
+single ray of light darting across their faces. Whether they be
+clothed with pomp or in rags, they all are alike strange and
+fantastic. The outlines are not clear; the figures are loaded with
+powerful colors, and are painted with such bold strokes of the brush
+that they stand out in sculpturesque relief, while over all is an
+expression of impetuosity and of inspiration, that proud, capricious,
+profound imprint of genius that knows neither restraint nor fear.</p>
+
+<p>After all, every one likes to give his opinion: but who knows, if
+Rembrandt could read all the pages that have been written to explain
+the secret meanings of his art, whether he would not burst out
+laughing? Such is the fate of men of genius: every one holds that he
+has understood them better than his neighbor, and restores them in his
+own way. They are like a beautiful theme given by God which men
+distort into a thousand different meanings&mdash;a canvas upon which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>
+ the imagination of man paints and embroiders after its own manner.</p>
+
+<p>I left the Hague Gallery with one desire ungratified: I had not found
+in it any picture by Jerom Bosch, a painter born at Bois-le-Duc in the
+fifteenth century. This madcap of mischief, this scarecrow of bigots,
+this artistic sorcerer, had made my flesh creep first in the gallery
+at Madrid with a work representing a horrible army of living skeletons
+scattered about an immense space, in conflict with a motley crowd of
+desperate and confused men and women, whom they were dragging into an
+abyss where Death awaited them. Only from the diseased imagination of
+a man alarmed by the terrors of damnation could such an extravagant
+conception have issued. When you look at it, however long it may be
+since you were afraid of phantoms, you feel a confused reawakening
+dread. Such were the subjects of all his pictures&mdash;the tortures of the
+accursed, spectres, fiery chasms, dragons, uncanny birds, loathsome
+monsters, diabolical kitchens, sinister landscapes. One of these
+frightful pictures was found in the cell where Philip II. died; others
+are scattered throughout Spain and Italy. Who was this chimerical
+painter? How did he live? What strange mania tormented him? No one
+knows; he passed over the earth wrapped in a cloud, and disappeared
+like an infernal vision.</p>
+
+<p>On the first floor of the museum there is a "Royal Cabinet of
+Curiosities," which contains some very
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>
+ precious historical relics,
+besides a great number of different objects from China, Japan, and the
+Dutch colonies. Amongst other things there is the sword of that Ruyter
+who began life as a rope-maker at Vlissingen, and became the greatest
+admiral of Holland; Admiral Tromp's cuirass perforated by bullets; a
+chair from the prison of the venerated Barneveldt; a box containing a
+lock of hair from the head of that Van Speyk who in 1831, on the
+Schelde, blew up his vessel to preserve the honor of the Dutch flag.
+Here, too, is the complete suit of clothes worn by William the Silent
+when he was assassinated at Delft&mdash;the blood-stained shirt, the jacket
+made of buffalo skin pierced by bullets, the wide trousers, the large
+felt hat; and in the same glass case are also preserved the bullets
+and pistols of the assassin and the original copy of his
+death-warrant.</p>
+
+<p>This modest, almost rough dress, that was worn at the zenith of his
+power and glory by William, the head of the Republic of the
+Netherlands, is a noble testimony to the patriarchal simplicity of
+Dutch manners. There is perhaps no other modern nation, equally
+prosperous, that has been less given to vanity and pomp. It is related
+that when the Earl of Leicester, who was commissioned by Queen
+Elizabeth, arrived in Holland, and when Spinola came to sue for peace
+in the name of the King of Spain, their magnificence was considered
+almost infamous. It is further said that the Spanish ambassadors who
+came to the Hague in 1608
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+ to negotiate the famous truce saw some
+deputies of the Dutch States seated in a field, meanly clad and
+breakfasting on a little bread and cheese which they had carried in
+their saddle-bags. The Grand Pensionary, John De Witt, the adversary
+of Louis XIV., kept only one servant. Admiral Ruyter lived at
+Amsterdam in the house of a poor man and swept out his own bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>Another very curious object in the museum is a cabinet which opens in
+front like a book-case, representing in all its most minute details
+the inside of a luxurious Amsterdam house at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century. The Czar, Peter the Great, during his stay in
+Amsterdam, commissioned a rich citizen of that town to make for him
+this toy house, in order that he might take it back to Russia as a
+souvenir of Holland. The rich citizen, whose name was Brandt, executed
+the order like an honest Dutchman, slowly and well. The best
+cabinet-makers in Holland made the furniture, the cleverest
+silversmiths the plate, the most accurate printers printed the tiny
+books, the finest miniature-painters painted the pictures; the linen
+was prepared in Flanders, the hangings were made at Utrecht. After
+twenty-five years of work all the rooms were ready. In the nuptial
+chamber everything was prepared for the confinement of the young
+mistress; in the dining-room stood a microscopic tea service on a
+table which was the size of a crown; the picture-gallery, which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>
+ was seen through a magnifying glass, was complete; in the kitchen was
+everything needful to prepare a savory dinner for a group of
+Liliputians; there was a library, and a cabinet of Chinese objects,
+bird-cages full of birds, prayer-books, carpets, linen for a whole
+family trimmed with lace and fine embroidery: there were lacking only
+a married couple, a lady's maid, and a cook rather smaller than
+ordinary marionettes. But there was one drawback: the house cost a
+hundred and twenty thousand francs, and the Czar, who as all know, was
+an economical man, refused it, and Brandt, to shame the imperial
+avarice, presented it to the Museum of the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>In the streets of the Hague, from the first day, I had met women
+dressed in such a peculiar manner that I had followed them to observe
+every particular of their costume. At first sight I thought that they
+must belong to some religious order or that they were hermits,
+pilgrims, or women of some nomadic tribes which were passing through
+Holland. They wore immense straw hats lined with flowered calico,
+short chocolate-colored monk's cloaks made of serge and lined with red
+cloth; their petticoats were also of serge, short and puffed out as
+though they wore crinolines; they wore black stockings and white
+wooden shoes. In the morning they might be seen going to market
+bearing on their heads baskets full of fish or driving carts drawn by
+dogs. They usually went alone or in pairs, without any men.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> They
+walked in a peculiar manner, taking long strides, with a certain air
+of despondency, like those who are accustomed to walking on the sand;
+there was a sadness in their expression and appearance which
+harmonized with the monastic austerity of their attire.</p>
+
+<p>I asked a Dutchman who they were, and the only answer he gave me was,
+"Go to Scheveningen."</p>
+
+<p>Scheveningen is a village two miles from the Hague, and connected with
+it by a straight road bordered along its whole length by several rows
+of beautiful elms, which form a perfect shade. On either side of the
+road, beyond the elms, there are small villas, pavilions, and cottages
+with roofs that look like the kiosks of the gardens, and with façades
+of a thousand fantastic shapes, all bearing the usual inscriptions
+inviting to repose and pleasure. This road is the favorite promenade
+of the citizens of the Hague on Sunday evenings, but on the other days
+of the week it is almost always deserted. One meets only a few women
+from Scheveningen, and now and then a carriage or the coaches that
+come and go between the town and the village. As one walks along it
+seems as though the road must lead to some royal palace surrounded by
+a large garden or a wide park. The luxuriant vegetation, the shadow
+and silence, call to mind the forests of Andalusia and Granada. One no
+longer remembers Scheveningen and forgets that he is in Holland.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_214pic" id="Page_214pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus17.jpg" width="500" height="425"
+alt="On the Road to Scheveningen." title="On the Road to Scheveningen." />
+</div>
+
+<p>When the end of the road is reached the change
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+of scene is so
+sudden that it seems unreal. The vegetation, the shade, the likeness
+to Granada,&mdash;all have disappeared, and one stands in the midst of
+dunes, sand, and desert; one feels the salt wind blow and hears its
+dull confused sound. From the summit of one of the dunes one may see
+the North Sea.</p>
+
+<p>One who has seen only the Mediterranean is impressed by a new and
+profound feeling at sight of that sea and shore. The beach is formed
+of very fine, light-colored sand, over which the outermost edges of
+the waves flow up and down like a carpet which is being continually
+folded and unfolded. This sandy sea-shore extends to the foot of the
+first dunes, which are steep, broken, corroded mounds deformed by the
+eternal beating of the waves. Such is the Dutch coast from the mouth
+of the Meuse to the Helder. There are no mollusks, no star-fish, no
+shells or crabs; there is not a single bush or blade of grass. Nothing
+is seen but sand, waste, and solitude.</p>
+
+<p>The sea is no less mournful than the coast. It corresponds closely to
+one's ideas of the North Sea, formed by reading about the
+superstitious terrors of the ancients, who believed it to be driven by
+eternal winds and peopled by gigantic monsters. Near the shore its
+color is yellowish, farther out a pale green, and still farther out a
+dreary blue. The horizon is usually veiled by the mist, which often
+descends even to the shore and hides all the waters with its thick
+curtain, which is raised to show only the waves that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>
+ come to die on
+the sand and some shadowy fisherman's boat close to land. The sky is
+almost always gray, overcast with great clouds which throw dense
+changeable shadows on the waters: in places these are as black as
+night, and bring to mind images of tempests and horrible shipwrecks;
+in other parts the sky is lighted up by patches and wavy streaks of
+bright light, which seem like motionless lightning or an illumination
+from mysterious stars. The ceaseless waves gnaw the shore in wild
+fury, with a prolonged roar which seems like a cry of defiance or the
+wailing of an infinite crowd. Sea, sky, and earth regard each other
+gloomily, as though they were three implacable enemies. As one
+contemplates this scene some great convulsion of nature seems
+imminent.</p>
+
+<p>The village of Scheveningen is situated on the dunes, which ward off
+the sea, and hide it so entirely that from the shore nothing is to be
+seen but the cone-shaped church-steeple rising like an obelisk in the
+midst of the sand. The village is divided into two parts, one of which
+is composed of elegant houses representing every kind of Dutch shapes
+and colors, and built for the use of strangers, with "to let" posted
+on them in various languages. The other part, in which the natives
+live, consists of black cottages, little streets, and retreats which
+foreigners never think of entering.</p>
+
+<p>The population of Scheveningen, which numbers only a few thousands, is
+almost entirely composed of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+ fishermen, the greater number of whom are
+very poor. The village is still one of the principal stations of the
+herring fishery, where are cured those celebrated fish to which
+Holland owes her riches and power. But the profits of this industry go
+to the captains of the fishing vessels, and the men of Scheveningen,
+who are employed as sailors, hardly earn a livelihood. On the beach,
+in front of the village, many of those wide staunch boats with a
+single mast and a large square sail may always be seen ranged in line
+on the sand one beside the other, like the Greek galleys on the coast
+of Troy: thus they are safe from the gusts of wind. The flotilla,
+accompanied by a steam sloop, starts early in June, directing its
+course toward the Scottish coast. The first herrings taken are at once
+sent to Holland, and conveyed in a cart ornamented with flags to the
+king, who in exchange for this present gives five hundred florins.
+These boats make catches of other fish as well, which are in part sold
+at auction on the sea-shore, and in part are given to the Scheveningen
+fishermen, who send their wives to sell them at the Hague market.</p>
+
+<p>Scheveningen, like all the other villages of the coast, Katwijk,
+Vlaardingen, Maassluis, is a village that has lost its former
+prosperity in consequence of the decline of the herring fishery,
+owing, as every one knows, to the competition of England and the
+disastrous wars. But poverty, instead of weakening the character of
+this small population, beyond doubt
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>
+ the most original and poetical in
+Holland, has strengthened it. The inhabitants of Scheveningen in
+appearance, character, and habits seem like a foreign tribe in
+comparison with the people of their own country. They dwell but two
+miles from a large city, and yet preserve the manners of a primitive
+people that has always lived in isolation. As they were centuries ago,
+so are they now. No one leaves their village, and no one who is not a
+native ever enters it: they intermarry, they speak a language of their
+own, they all dress in the same style and in the same colors, as did
+their fathers' fathers. At the time of the fishing only the women and
+children remain in the village; the men all go to sea. They carry
+their Bibles with them on their departure. On board they neither drink
+nor swear nor laugh. When the stormy seas toss their little boats on
+the crests of the waves, they close all the apertures and await death
+with resignation. At the same moment their wives are singing psalms,
+shut in their cottages rocked by the wind and beaten by the rain.
+Those little dwellings, which have witnessed so many mortal griefs,
+which have heard the sobs of so many widows, which have seen the
+sacred joys of happy return and the disconsolate departure of many
+husbands, with their cleanliness, their white curtains, with the
+clothes and shirts of the sailors hanging at the windows,&mdash;tell of the
+free and dignified poverty of their inmates. No vagabonds nor fallen
+women come out of these
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
+ homes; no inhabitant of Scheveningen has ever
+deserted the sea, and none of her daughters has ever refused the hand
+of a sailor. Both men and women show by their carriage and the
+expression of their faces a serious dignity that commands respect.
+They greet you without bending their heads, and look you in the face
+as much as to say, "We have no need of any one."</p>
+
+<p>In this little village there are two schools, and it is a curious
+sight to see a swarm of fair-haired children with slates under their
+arms and pencils in their hands disperse at certain hours among these
+poverty-stricken streets.</p>
+
+<p>Scheveningen is not only a village famous for the originality of its
+inhabitants which all foreigners visit and all artists paint. There
+are, besides, two great bathing establishments, where English,
+Russians, Germans, and Danes meet in the summer. The flower of the
+Northern aristocracy, princes and ministers, indeed half the Almanach
+de Gotha, come here; then there are balls, fantastic illuminations,
+and fireworks on the sea. The two establishments are placed on the
+dunes, and at all hours of the day certain carriages which look like
+gypsy caravans, drawn by strong horses, are driven from the shore into
+the sea, where they turn round. Whereupon ladies step out from them
+and bathe in the water, letting their fair hair blow about in the
+wind. At night the band plays, the visitors walk out, and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> beach
+is enlivened by an elegant, festive, ever-changing crowd, in which
+every language is heard and the beauty of every country is
+represented. A few steps distant from this gayety the misanthrope can
+find solitude and seclusion on the dunes, where the music faintly
+strikes his ear like a far-off echo, and the houses of the fishermen
+show him their lights, directing his thoughts to domestic life and
+peace.</p>
+
+<p>The first time I went to Scheveningen I took a walk on those dunes
+which have been so often painted by artists, the only heights on the
+immense Dutch plain that intercept the view&mdash;rebellious children of
+the sea, whose progress they oppose, being at the same time the
+prisoners and the guardsmen of Holland. There are three tiers of these
+dunes, forming a triple bulwark against the ocean: the outer is the
+most barren, the centre the highest, and the inner the most
+cultivated. The medium height of these mountains of sand is not
+greater than fifteen metres, and all together they do not extend into
+the land for more than a French league. But as there are no higher
+elevations near or remote, they produce the false impression of a vast
+mountainous region. The eye sees valleys, gorges, precipices, views
+that appear distant and are close at hand&mdash;the tops of neighboring
+dunes on which we imagine a man ought to appear as large as a child,
+and on which instead he seems a giant. Viewed from a height, this
+region looks like a yellow sea, tempestuous yet motionless. The
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>
+dreariness of this desert is increased by a wild vegetation, which
+seems like the mourning of the dead and abandoned nature&mdash;thin,
+fragile grass, flowers with almost transparent petals, juniper,
+sweet-broom, rosemary, through which every now and then skips a
+rabbit. Neither house, tree, nor human being is to be seen for miles.
+Now and then ravens, curlews, and sea-gulls fly past. Their cries and
+the rustling of the shrubs in the wind are the only sounds that break
+the silence of the solitude. When the sky is black the dead color of
+the earth assumes a sinister hue, like the fantastic light in which
+objects appear when seen through colored glass. It is then, when
+standing alone in the midst of the dunes, that one feels a sense
+almost of fear, as if one were in an unknown country hopelessly
+separated from any inhabited land, and one looks anxiously at the
+misty horizon for the shadow of a building to reassure him.</p>
+
+<p>In the whole of my walk I met but one or two peasants. The Dutch
+peasants usually speak to the people they meet on the road&mdash;a rare
+thing in a Northern country. Some pull off their caps at the side with
+a curious gesture, as if they did it for a joke. Usually they say
+"Good-morning" or "Good-evening" without looking at the person they
+are greeting. If they meet two people, they say, "Good-evening to you
+both," or if more than two, "Good-evening to you all." On a pathway in
+the middle of the first dunes I saw several of those poor fishermen
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>
+who spend the whole day up to their waists in water, picking up the
+shells that are used to make a peculiar cement or to spread over
+garden-paths instead of sand. It must cost them at least half an hour
+of hard labor to take off the enormous leather boots that they wear to
+go into the sea; this would give an excuse to an Italian sailor for
+swearing by all the saints. But these men, on the contrary, perform
+the task with a composure that makes one sleepy, without giving way to
+any movement of impatience, nor would they raise their heads until
+they had finished even if a cannon were to be fired off.</p>
+
+<p>On the dunes, near a stone obelisk recording the return of William of
+Orange from England after the fall of the French dominion, I saw for
+the first time one of those sunsets which awaken in us Italians a
+feeling of wonder no less than that awakened in people from the North
+by the sunsets at Naples and Rome. The sun, because of the refraction
+of light by the mists which always fill the air in Holland, is greatly
+magnified, and diffuses through the clouds and on the sea a veiled and
+tremulous splendor like the reflection of a great fire. It seemed as
+if another sun had unexpectedly appeared on the horizon, and was
+setting, never again to show itself on earth. A child might well have
+believed the words of a poet who said, "In Holland the sun dies," and
+the most cold-blooded man must have allowed a farewell to escape his
+lips.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As I have spoken of my walk to Scheveningen, I will mention two other
+pleasant excursions that I made from the Hague last winter.</p>
+
+<p>The first was to the village of Naaldwijk, and from this village to
+the sea-coast, where they were opening the new Rotterdam canal. At
+Naaldwijk, thanks to the politeness of an inspector of schools who was
+with me, I gratified my desire to see an elementary school, and I will
+state at once that my great expectations were more than realized. The
+house, built expressly for the school, was a separate building one
+story in height. We first went into a little vestibule, where there
+were a number of wooden shoes, which the inspector told me belonged to
+the pupils, who place them there on their entrance into school and put
+them on again when they go out. In school the boys wear only stockings
+which are very thick, consequently their feet do not suffer from cold,
+especially as the rooms are as hot as if they were a minister's
+cabinet. On our entrance the pupils stood up and the master advanced
+toward the inspector. Even that poor village master spoke French, and
+so we were able to enter into conversation. There were in the school
+about forty pupils, both boys and girls, who sat on opposite sides of
+the room; all were fair and fat, with plump, good-natured faces; they
+had the precocious air of little men and women, which I could not
+observe without laughing. The building was divided into five rooms,
+each separated from the other
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>
+ by a large glass partition, which
+enclosed all the space like a wall, so that if a master were absent
+from one class the teacher of the next class could overlook the pupils
+of his colleague without leaving his post. All the rooms are large and
+have high windows which reach from the floor to the ceiling, so that
+it is almost as light inside as it is outside. The benches, walls,
+floors, windows, and stoves were as clean as if they had been in a
+ball-room. Having a lively recollection of certain unpleasant places
+in the schools I attended as a boy, I asked to see the closets, and
+found them such as few of the best hotels can boast. Afterward on the
+school-room walls I saw a great many things that I remember to have
+wished for when I sat at the desks, such as small pictures of
+landscapes or figures, to which the master referred in his stories and
+instruction, so that they should be stamped the better on the memory;
+representations of common objects and animals; geographical maps
+purposely made with large names and painted in bright colors;
+proverbs, grammatical rules, and precepts very plainly printed. Only
+one thing seemed to me lacking&mdash;personal cleanliness.</p>
+
+<p>I will not repeat what many have written and some Dutchmen affirm,
+that in Holland cleanliness of the skin is generally neglected&mdash;that
+the women are dirty, and that the legs of the tables are cleaner than
+those of the citizens. But it is certain the cleanliness of inanimate
+objects is infinitely greater than personal
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>
+ cleanliness, and the
+deficiency in the last respect is made more apparent by excellence in
+the first. In an Italian school perhaps those boys might have seemed
+clean, but, comparing them with the marvellous purity of their
+surroundings, and reflecting that they were the children of the very
+women who take half a day to wash the doors and shutters, they seemed
+to me, and in fact were, rather dirty. In some schools in Switzerland
+there are lavatories where the boys are obliged to wash upon entering
+and leaving the school. I should have been pleased to see such
+lavatories in the Dutch schools too; then all would have been perfect.</p>
+
+<p>I said "that poor master," but I found out afterward that he had a
+salary of more than two thousand two hundred francs and an apartment
+in a nice house in the village. In Holland the masters of elementary
+schools&mdash;the principals, that is, for there are assistant
+masters&mdash;never receive less than eight hundred francs a year. This the
+minimum that the commune can legally give. No commune keeps to this
+sum, and some masters have the same salaries as our university
+professors. It is true that it costs more to live in Holland than in
+Italy, but it is also true that the salaries which seem large to us
+are there considered small, and yet they propose to increase them. It
+must also be considered that, owing to the difference of national
+character, the Dutch masters are not obliged to expend as much of
+their breath, their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>
+ patience, and good-humor as are our Italian
+masters, which is a consideration if it be true that health counts for
+something.</p>
+
+<p>From Naaldwijk we went toward the coast. On the road my courteous
+companion explained to me clearly the point which the question of
+instruction has reached in Holland. In Latin countries persons when
+questioned by a stranger answer him with a view toward airing their
+knowledge and showing their conversational powers. In Holland they try
+rather to make you understand the subject, and if you do not
+comprehend directly, they impress it upon you until it is fixed in
+your mind as clearly and as well as it is in their own.</p>
+
+<p>The question of instruction, in Holland as in most countries, is a
+religious question, which in its turn is the most serious, indeed the
+only great, question that now agitates the country.</p>
+
+<p>Of the three and a half millions of inhabitants in Holland, a third,
+as I have remarked, are Catholics, about a hundred thousand are Jews,
+and the rest are Protestants. The Catholics, who chiefly inhabit the
+southern provinces of Limbourg and Brabant, are not divided
+politically as they are in other countries, but form one solid
+clerical legion,&mdash;Papists, Ultramontanists, the most faithful legion
+of Rome, as the Dutch themselves say&mdash;who buy the very straw that the
+pontiff is supposed to sleep on, and who thunder Italy from the pulpit
+and the press. This Catholic
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>
+ party, which would have no great
+strength of itself, gains a certain advantage from the fact that the
+Protestants are divided into a great many religious sects. There are
+orthodox Calvinists; Protestants who believe in the revelation, but do
+not accept certain doctrines of the Church; others who deny the
+divinity of Christ, without, however, separating themselves from the
+Protestant Church; others, again, who believe in God, but do not
+believe in any Church; others&mdash;and amongst these are many of the
+cleverest men&mdash;who openly profess atheism. In consequence of this
+state of things, the Catholic party has a natural ally in the
+Calvinists, who as fervent believers and inflexible conservers of the
+religion of their fathers, are much less widely separated from the
+Catholics than from a large party of those of their own
+co-religionists. These form, in a certain sense, the clerical wing of
+Protestantism. Hence in the Netherlands there are Catholics and
+Calvinists on one side, and on the other a liberal party, while
+between the two there hovers a vacillating legion that does not allow
+either side to gain an absolute supremacy. The chief point of
+contention between the extreme sections is the question of primary
+instruction, and this reduces itself, on the part of the Catholics and
+Calvinists, to insistence that so-called mixed schools, in which no
+special religious instruction is given (so that Catholics and
+Protestants of all doctrines may support them), shall be superseded
+by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>
+ others in which dogmatic instruction is to be given, and that
+these shall be also supported by the commune under the direction of
+the state. It is easy to foresee the grave consequences that such a
+division in the popular educational system would produce&mdash;the germs of
+discord and religious animosity that would be sown, the trouble that
+would in time arise from separating young people into groups
+professing different faiths. Up to the present time the principle of
+mixed schools has prevailed, but the victories of the Liberals have
+been costly. The Catholics and the Calvinists successively obtained
+various concessions, and are prepared to obtain yet others. The
+Catholic party is, in a word, more powerful than the Calvinist party:
+the one, united and aggressive, gains ground day by day, and it is not
+unlikely that it will succeed in gaining a victory which, though not
+lasting, will provoke a violent reaction in the country. Things have
+come to such a pass that in that very Holland which fought for eighty
+years against Catholic despotism there are now serious reasons to fear
+the outbreak of a religious war.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_228pic" id="Page_228pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus18.jpg" width="500" height="630"
+alt="Fisherman&#39;s Children, Scheveningen."
+title="Fisherman&#39;s Children, Scheveningen." />
+</div>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding this state of things, which to the present time has
+prevented the institution of obligatory instruction demanded by the
+Liberals, and keeps a great number of Catholic children away from the
+schools, the education of the lower classes in Holland is in a
+condition that any European state might envy. In proportion, Holland
+contains less people who do
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+not know their alphabet than does
+Prussia. "Of all Europe," as a Dutch writer has said with just pride,
+although he judges his country severely on other points, "Holland is
+the land where all such knowledge as is indispensable to civilized man
+is most widely diffused." I was once greatly surprised, on asking a
+Dutchman if there were any women-servants who could not read, to hear
+myself answered, "Well, yes. I remember twenty years ago that my
+mother had a servant who did not know her alphabet, and we thought it
+a very strange thing." It is a great satisfaction to a stranger who
+does not know the language to be sure that if he shows a name on his
+guide-book to the first street-urchin he meets, the boy will
+understand it and will try to direct him by gestures.</p>
+
+<p>Talking of Catholics and Calvinists, we arrived at the dunes, and,
+although we were near the coast, we could not see the ocean. "Holland
+is a strange country," I said to my friend, "in which everything plays
+at hide and seek. The façades hide the roofs, the trees hide the
+houses, the city hides the ships, the banks hide the canals, the mist
+hides the fields, the dunes hide the sea." "And some day," answered my
+friend, "the sea will hide everything and all will be ended."</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the downs and advanced toward the coast, where the
+preparatory works for the opening of the Rotterdam Canal were in
+progress.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Two dykes, one more than a thousand two hundred meters in length, the
+other more than two thousand meters long, separated from each other by
+the space of a kilometer, project into the sea at right angles to the
+coast. These two dykes, which are built to protect vessels entering
+the canal, are formed by several rows of enormous palisades made of
+huge blocks of granite, of fagots, stones, and earth; they are as wide
+as ten men drawn up in a line. The ocean, which continually washes
+against them, and at high tide overflows them in many parts, has
+covered everything,&mdash;stones, beams, and fagots, with a stratum of
+shells as black as ebony, which from a distance seems like a velvet
+coverlet, giving to these two gigantic bulwarks a severe and
+magnificent appearance, as if they were a warlike banner unfolded by
+Holland to celebrate her victory over the waves. At that moment the
+tide was coming in, and the battle round the extreme end of the dykes
+was at its height. With what rage did the livid waves avenge
+themselves for the scorn of those two huge horns of granite that
+Holland has plunged into the bosom of her enemy! The palisades and the
+rock foundations were lashed, gnawed, and buffeted on every side;
+disdainful waters dashed over them and spat upon them with a drizzling
+rain that hid them like a cloud of dust; then again the waves would
+flow back like furious writhing serpents. Even the sections far from
+the struggle were sprinkled by unexpected showers of spray, the
+advance guard
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
+ of that endless army, and meanwhile the water kept
+rising and advancing, forcing the foremost workmen to retire step by
+step.</p>
+
+<p>On the longest dyke, not very far from shore, they were planting some
+piles. Workmen with great labor were raising blocks of granite by
+means of derricks, and others, in groups of ten or fifteen, were
+removing old beams to make room for new ones. It was glorious to see
+the fury of the waves lashing the sides of the dyke, and the impassive
+calm of the workmen, who seemed almost to despise the sea. It crossed
+my mind that they must be saying in their hearts, as the sailor said
+to the monster of the Comprachicos in Victor Hugo's romance: "Roar on,
+old fellow!" A wind which chilled us to the bone blew the long, fair
+curls of the good Dutchmen into their eyes, and every now and then
+threw the spray at their feet or on their clothes&mdash;vain provocations
+to which they did not deign to reply even by a frown.</p>
+
+<p>I saw a pile driven into the dyke. It was the trunk of a great tree
+pointed at one end and supported by two parallel beams, between which
+a steam-engine drove an enormous iron hammer up and down. The pile had
+to be driven through several very thick strata of fagots and stones;
+yet at every blow from the heavy hammer it sunk into the ground,
+breaking, tearing, and splintering, while it entered the dyke more
+than a hand's length, as if it were merely a mud hole. Nevertheless,
+what with adjusting and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>
+ driving the pile, the operation lasted almost
+an hour. I thought of the thousands that had been driven, of the
+thousands still to be driven, of the interminable dykes that defend
+Holland, of the infinite number that have been overturned and rebuilt
+and for the first time my mind conceived the grandeur of the
+undertaking, and a feeling of dismay crept over me as I stood
+motionless and speechless.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, the waters had risen almost to the level of the dyke, with
+a sound of panting and breathlessness like tired-out voices that
+seemed to murmur secrets of distant seas and unknown shores; the wind
+blew colder, it was growing dark, and I felt a restless desire to
+withdraw from those front bastions into the interior of the fortress.
+I pulled the coat-tail of my companion, who had been standing for an
+hour on a boulder, and we returned to the shore and drank a glass of
+delicious Schiedam at one of those shops which are called in Dutch
+"Come and ask," where they sell wines, salt meats, cigars, shoes,
+butter, clothes, biscuits&mdash;in fact, a little of everything. Then we
+started on the road back to the Hague.</p>
+
+<p>My next excursion was the most adventurous that I made in Holland. A
+very dear friend of mine who lived at the Hague invited me to go and
+dine with him at the house of one of his relatives who had shown a
+courteous desire to make my acquaintance. I asked where his relative
+lived; and he answered, "Far from the Hague." I asked in what
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>
+direction, but he would not tell me; he told me to meet him at the
+railway-station the next day, and left me. On the next morning we met
+at the station: my friend bought tickets for Leyden. When we arrived
+at Leyden we alighted, but, instead of entering the town, we took a
+road across country. I besought my companion to reveal the secret to
+me. He answered that he could not do so, and as I knew that when a
+Dutchman does not mean to tell you anything, no power on earth will
+make him do it, I resigned myself. It was a disagreeable day in
+February; there was no snow, but a strong cold wind was blowing which
+soon made our faces purple. As it was Sunday, the country was
+deserted. We went on and on, passing windmills, canals, meadows,
+houses half hidden by trees, with very high roofs of stubble mixed
+with moss. Finally we arrived at a village. The Dutch villages are
+closed by a palisade: we passed through the gate, but not a living
+soul was to be seen; the doors were shut, the window curtains were
+drawn, and not a voice, nor a footstep, nor a breath was heard. We
+crossed the village, and paused in front of a church which was all
+covered with ivy like a summer-house; looking through an aperture in
+the door, we saw a Protestant clergyman with a white cravat preaching
+to some peasants whose faces were striped with gold, green, and
+purple, the reflection of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>
+ stained-glass windows. We passed
+through a clean street paved with bricks, and saw stakes put for the
+storks' nests, posts planted by the peasants for the cows to rub
+against, fences painted sky blue, small houses with many-colored tiles
+forming letters and words, ponds full of boats, bridges, kiosks for
+unknown uses, little churches with great gilded cocks on the top of
+their steeples; and not a living soul near or far: still we went on.
+The sky cleared a little, then darkened again; here the sunshine
+gleamed on a canal, there it made a house sparkle or gilded a distant
+steeple. Then again it hid itself, reappeared, and so on with a
+thousand coquetries, while on the horizon there appeared oblique lines
+denoting rain. We began to meet countrywomen with circles of gold
+round their heads, on which veils were fastened, the whole surmounted
+by hats; these were trimmed with bunches of flowers and wide
+fluttering ribbons. We also met some country carriages of the antique
+Louis XV. style, with a gilded box ornamented with carved work and
+mirrors, peasants with thick black clothes and large wooden shoes,
+children with stockings of every color in the rainbow. We arrived at
+another village, which was clean, shining, and brightly colored, with
+its streets paved with bricks and its windows adorned with curtains
+and flowers. Here we took a carriage and went on our way. A fine icy
+rain which penetrated to our bones began to fall as soon as we
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>
+started. Muffled up in the wet frozen covers, we reached the bank of
+a large canal. A man came out of a cottage, led the horse on to a
+barge, and landed us safe and sound on the opposite bank. The carriage
+turned down a wide street, and we found ourselves on the bed of the
+ancient Sea of Haarlem. Our horse trotted along where the fish once
+swam through the water; our coachman smoked where at one time the
+smoke of naval battles had rolled; we saw glimpses of canals, of
+villages, of cultivated fields, of a new world of which only thirty
+years ago there had not been a trace. After we had driven about a mile
+the rain stopped, and it began to snow as I had never seen it snow
+before: it was a real whirlwind of heavy, thick snow, which the strong
+wind blew into our faces. We unfolded the waterproof covering, opened
+our umbrellas, tucked ourselves in, and bundled ourselves up, but the
+wind broke through all our defences and the snow sifted over us,
+enveloping us in white and covering our heads and feet with ice. After
+a long turn we left the lake; the snow ceased, we arrived at another
+village of toy houses, where we left our carriage and proceeded on
+foot. We went on and on, seeing bridges, windmills, closed cottages,
+lonely streets, wide meadows, but no human beings. We crossed another
+branch of the Rhine, and arrived at another village barricaded and
+silent; we continued on our way, occasionally seeing some face looking
+at us from behind the windows. We then left the village and found
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
+ourselves opposite the dunes. The sky looked threatening, and I became
+alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>"Where are we going?" I demanded of my friend.</p>
+
+<p>"Where fortune takes us," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>We proceeded through the dunes, along narrow, winding, sandy roads,
+seeing no sign of habitation anywhere; we went up hill and down dale;
+the wind drove the sand into our faces; at every step our feet sank in
+it, and the country grew more and more desolate, gloomy, and
+foreboding.</p>
+
+<p>"But who is your relative?" I said to my companion. "Where does he
+live? what is his business? There is some witchcraft about this; he
+cannot be a man like other men: tell me where you are leading me."</p>
+
+<p>My friend did not answer: he stopped and stared in front of him. I
+stared too, and far away saw something that looked like a house, alone
+in the midst of the desert, almost hidden by a rise in the ground. We
+hastened on; the house seemed to appear and disappear like a shadow.
+Round about we saw stakes which looked like gibbets. My friend tried
+to persuade me that they were only stakes for storks' nests. We were
+about a hundred feet away from the house. Along a wall we saw a wooden
+pipe which seemed bathed in blood, but my friend assured me it was
+only red paint. It was a little house enclosed by a paling; the doors
+and windows were shut.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go in," I said. "There is yet time.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
+ There is something uncanny
+in that house; take care what you are doing. Look up; I have never
+seen such a black sky."</p>
+
+<p>My friend did not hear me; he pressed on courageously, and I followed.
+Instead of going toward the door, he took a short cut. Behind us we
+heard a ferocious barking of dogs. We broke into a run, crossed a
+thicket of underbrush, jumped over a low wall, and knocked at a little
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"There is yet time!" I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is too late," answered my friend.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened, but nobody was to be seen. We mounted a winding
+staircase and entered a room. Oh pleasant surprise! The hermit, the
+sorcerer, was a merry, courteous young man, and the diabolical house
+was a villa full of comfort and warmth, sparkling with light, the
+dwelling of a sybarite&mdash;a real fairy palace to which our host retired
+some months in the year to study and to make experiments on the
+fertilization of the dunes. How delightful it was to look at the cold
+desert without through a window draped with curtains and decorated
+with flower-pots! We went into the dining-room and sat down at a table
+glittering with silver and glass, in the midst of which, surrounded by
+gilded and blazoned bottles, was a hot dinner fit for a prince. The
+snow was beating against the windows, the sea was moaning, the wind
+blew furiously round the house, which seemed like a ship in a terrible
+storm. We drank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+ to the fertilization of the dunes, to the victors of
+Achen, to the prosperity of the colonies, to the memory of Nino Bixio,
+to the elves. Nevertheless, I was still a little uneasy. Our host when
+he needed the servant touched a hidden spring; to tell the coachman to
+get the carriage ready he spoke some words into a hole in the wall;
+and these tricks did not please me.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me," I said, "tell me that this house really exists; promise me
+that it is not all a joke and that it will not disappear, leaving
+nothing but a hole in the ground and a smell of sulphur in the air.
+Assure me that you say your prayers every evening."</p>
+
+<p>I cannot describe the laughter, the merriment, the absurd speeches
+that succeeded each other until the middle of the night, accompanied
+by the clinking of glasses and the roaring of the tempest. At last the
+moment of departure arrived: we went down and were rolled away in a
+roomy carriage which dashed rapidly across the desert. The ground was
+covered with snow, the dunes were outlined in white on the dark sky,
+the carriage glided noiselessly in the midst of strange indistinct
+forms, which succeeded each other rapidly in the light of the lantern
+and seemed to melt into each other. In that vast solitude a dead
+silence reigned which robbed us of speech. After a time we began to
+see dwellings and arrived at a village. We crossed two or three
+deserted streets, with snow-covered houses on either side, with a few
+lighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>
+ windows showing human shadows. At last we came to a
+railway-station, and reached the Hague in a few minutes, although we
+had been deluded to think we had taken a long journey and crossed an
+imaginary country. Must I tell the truth? If I were asked to swear at
+the moment I am writing that the house in the midst of the dunes was a
+reality, I should request ten minutes for reflection. It is true that
+the master was polite enough to come and bid me good-bye at the
+station the day I left the Hague, and that when I saw him clearly by
+daylight he did not seem to have anything strange about him; but we
+all know the various forms, the simulations, the thousand arts which a
+certain gentleman and his servants assume.</p>
+
+<p>At last I saw a Dutch winter, not as I had hoped to see it on leaving
+Italy, for it was very mild; but still Holland was presented to me as
+we are in the habit of picturing it to ourselves in the south of
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning the first thing that attracts the eye in the
+silent white streets is the print of innumerable wooden shoes left in
+the snow by the boys on their way to school, and so large are the
+wooden shoes that they look like the tracks of elephants. These
+footsteps generally go in a straight line, showing that the boys take
+the shortest cut to school, and, like steady, zealous Dutchmen, do not
+play and lose time on the road. One can see long rows of children
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>
+wrapped up in large scarfs, with their heads half hidden between their
+shoulders&mdash;little bundles arm in arm, walking two by two, or three by
+three, or pressed together in groups like a bunch of asparagus, out of
+which peep only the tips of their noses and the ends of books. When
+the boys have disappeared the streets are deserted for a short time,
+for the Dutch do not rise early, especially in the winter. One can
+walk some distance without meeting any one or hearing any sound. The
+snow seems whiter surrounding those rose-colored houses, which have
+all their projections outlined with a pure white line, and the wooden
+heads outside of the shops wear white cotton wigs; the chains of the
+railings look like ermine; everything presents a strange appearance.
+When it freezes and the sun shines, the façades seem covered with
+silver sparks, the ice heaped upon the banks of the canals shines with
+all the colors of the rainbow, and the trees glitter with thousands of
+little pearls, like the plants in the enchanted gardens of the Arabian
+Nights. It is then that it is beautiful to walk in the forest at the
+Hague at sunset, treading on the hardened snow, which crackles under
+one's feet like powdered marble, in the avenues of large, white,
+leafless beech trees, which look like one gigantic crystallization,
+and cast blue and violet shadows, dotted with myriads of points which
+glisten like diamonds in the paths dyed pink by the setting sun. But
+nothing compares with the sight of the Dutch
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+ country seen from the
+top of a steeple at morning after a heavy fall of snow. Beneath the
+gray and lowering sky one looks over that vast white plain, from
+which, roads, houses, and canals have disappeared, and nothing is seen
+but elevations and depressions, which, like the folds of a sheet, give
+a vague idea of the forms of hidden houses. The boundless white is
+unstained save by the clouds of smoke that rise almost timidly from
+the distant dwellings, as if to assure the spectator that beneath the
+desert of snow human hearts are still beating.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to speak of the winter in Holland without mentioning
+what constitutes the originality and the attraction of winter life in
+that country&mdash;the skating.</p>
+
+<p>Skating in Holland is not only a recreation; it is the ordinary means
+of transportation. To cite a well-known example, all know the value of
+it to the Dutch in the memorable defence of Haarlem. When there is a
+hard frost the canals are transformed into streets, and sabots tipped
+with iron take the place of boats. The peasants skate to market, the
+workmen to their work, the small tradespeople to their business;
+entire families skate from the country to the town with their bags and
+baskets on their shoulders or drive in sledges. Skating to them is as
+habitual and easy as walking, and they skim along so rapidly that one
+can scarcely follow them with the eye. In past years bets were
+commonly made between the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+ best Dutch skaters that they would skate
+down the canals on either side of the railway as fast as the train
+could go; and usually the skaters not only kept abreast of the engine,
+but even beat it. There are people who skate from the Hague to
+Amsterdam and back again on the same day; university students leave
+Utrecht in the morning, dine at Amsterdam, and return home before the
+evening; and a bet has been made and won several times of going from
+Amsterdam to Leyden in little more than an hour. Persons who have been
+drawn by sticks held by skaters have told me that the speed with which
+they skim over the ice is enough to turn one giddy; but this rapidity
+is not the only remarkable thing about it: another point very much to
+be admired is the security with which they traverse great distances.
+Peasants will go from one town to another at night. Young men go from
+Rotterdam to Gouda, where they buy very long clay pipes, and return to
+Rotterdam carrying them unbroken in their hands. Sometimes as one is
+walking along a canal one sees a figure flit by like an arrow, to
+disappear immediately in the distance. It is a peasant-girl carrying
+milk to a house in the city.</p>
+
+<p>There are sledges of every size and shape, some pushed by skaters,
+others drawn by horses, others propelled by means of two iron-tipped
+sticks which are worked by the person seated in the sledge. One sees
+carts and carriages taken off of their wheels
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>
+ and mounted on two
+boards, on which they glide with the same rapidity as the other sleds.
+On holiday occasions the boats from Scheveningen have been seen to
+glide over the snow through the streets of the Hague. Sometimes ships
+in full sail are seen skimming over the ice of the large rivers, going
+so fast that the faces of the few who dare to make this experiment are
+terribly cut by the wind.</p>
+
+<p>The most beautiful fêtes in Holland are given on the ice. When the
+Meuse is frozen, Rotterdam becomes a place of reunions and amusements.
+The snow is brushed away until the ice is made as clean as a crystal
+floor; restaurants, coffee-houses, pavilions, and benches for
+spectators are set up, and at night all is illuminated. During the day
+a swarm of skaters of every age, sex, and class crowds the river. In
+other towns, especially in Friesland, which is the classical land of
+the art, there are clubs of men-and women-skaters who institute public
+races for prizes. Stakes and flags are set up all along the canals,
+railings and stands are raised; immense crowds come from the villages
+and the country-side. Bands play; the élite of the town are present.
+The skaters present themselves dressed in a peculiar costume, the
+women wearing pantaloons. There are races for men and races for women;
+then both men and women race together. The names of the winners are
+enrolled in the annals of the art and remain famous for many years.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In Holland there are two different schools of skating, the so-called
+Dutch school and the Frieslander school, each of which uses a peculiar
+kind of skate. The Frieslander school, which is the older, aims only
+at speed; the Dutch school cultivates grace as well. The Frieslanders
+are stiff in their motions; they throw their bodies forward, and hold
+themselves very straight, looking as though they were starched, and
+keeping their eyes fixed on the goal. The Dutch skate with a zigzag
+movement, swaying from left to right and from right to left with an
+undulating motion of the body. The Frieslander is an arrow, the
+Dutchman a rocket.</p>
+
+<p>The women prefer the Dutch school. The ladies of Rotterdam, Amsterdam,
+and the Hague are, in fact, the most fascinating skaters in the
+Netherlands. They begin to skate as children, continue as girls and
+wives, reaching the height of beauty and the summit of art at the same
+time, while their skates strike out sparks from the ice which kindle
+many fires. It is only on the ice that Dutch women appear
+light-heeled. Some attain a marvellous perfection. Those who have seen
+them say that it is impossible to imagine the grace of movement, the
+bows, the glides, the thousand pretty delicate arts that are
+displayed. They fly and return like swallows and butterflies, and in
+this exercise they grow animated and their placid beauty is
+transformed. But all are not so skilled: many dare not show themselves
+in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>
+ public, for those who would be considered prodigies with us are
+scarcely noticed there, to such perfection has the art been carried.
+The men, too, perform all kinds of tricks and feats, some writing
+words of love and fantastic figures in their twirls, others making
+rapid pirouettes, then gliding backward on one leg for a long
+distance; others twist about, making numbers of dizzy turns in a small
+space, sometimes bending down, then leaning to one side, then skating
+upright or crouching like india-rubber figures moved by a secret
+spring.</p>
+
+<p>The first day that the canals and small docks are covered with ice
+strong enough to bear the skaters is a day of rejoicing in the Dutch
+towns. Skaters who have made the experiment at break of day spread the
+news abroad; the papers announce it; groups of boys about the streets
+burst into shouts of delight; men and women-servants ask permission to
+go out with the determined air of people who have decided to rebel if
+refused; old ladies forget their age and ailments and hurry off to the
+canal to emulate their friends and daughters. At the Hague the basin,
+which is in the middle of the city, near to the Binnenhof, is invaded
+by a mingling crowd of people, who interlace, knock against each
+other, and form a confused giddy mass. The flower of the aristocracy
+skates on a pond in the middle of the wood, and there in the snow may
+be seen a winding and whirling maze of officers, ladies, deputies,
+students, old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>
+ men, and boys, among whom the crown prince is sometimes
+to be seen. Thousands of spectators crowd around the scene, music
+enlivens the festival, and the enormous disk of the Dutch sun at
+sunset sends its dazzling salutation through the gigantic beech trees.</p>
+
+<p>When the snow is packed hard the turn of the sleigh comes. Every
+family has a sleigh, and at the hour the world goes out walking they
+appear by hundreds. They fly past in long rows two or three abreast.
+Some are shaped like shells, others like swans, dragons, boats, or
+chariots. All are gilded and painted in various colors; the horses
+which draw them are covered with handsome furs and magnificent
+trappings, their heads ornamented with plumes and tassels, and their
+harness studded with glittering buttons. In the sleighs sit ladies
+clothed in sable, beaver, and blue fox. The horses toss their heads,
+enveloped in a cloud of steam which rises from them, while their manes
+are covered with ice-drops. The sleighs dart along, the snow flying
+about them like silver foam. The splendid uncurbed procession passes
+and disappears like a silent whirlwind over a field of lilies and
+jessamine. At night, when the torches are lit, thousands of small
+flames follow each other and flit about the silent town, casting lurid
+flashes of light on the ice and snow, the whole scene appearing to the
+imagination like a great diabolical battle over which the spectre of
+Philip II. presides from the top of the Binnenhof Tower. </p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_246pic" id="Page_246pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus19.jpg" width="500" height="760"
+alt="Main Drive in the Bosch, The Hague."
+title="Main Drive in the Bosch, The Hague." />
+</div><p>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But, alas! everything changes, even the winter, and with it the art of
+skating and the use of sleighs. For many years the severe winters of
+Holland have been followed by such mild ones that not only the large
+rivers, but even the small canals in the towns, do not freeze. In
+consequence the skaters who have been so long out of practice do not
+risk giving public exhibitions when the occasion presents itself; and
+so, little by little, their number becomes smaller, and the women
+especially are forgetting the art. Last winter they hardly skated at
+all, and this winter (1873) there has not been a race, and not even a
+sleigh has been seen. Let us hope that this deplorable state of
+affairs will not last, and that winter will return to caress Holland
+with its icy bear's paw, and that the fine art of skating will once
+more arise with its mantle of snow and its crown of icicles. Let me
+announce meanwhile the publication of a work called "Skating," upon
+which a Dutch legislator has been employed for many years&mdash;a work that
+will be the history, the epic, and code of this art, from which all
+European skaters, male and female, will be able to draw instruction
+and inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>While I remained at the Hague I frequented the principal club in the
+town, composed of more than two thousand members. It is located in a
+palace near the Binnenhof, and there it was that I made my
+observations upon the Dutch character.</p>
+
+<p>The library, the dining-room, and the card-room,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> the large
+drawing-room for conversation, and the reading-room were as full as
+they could be from four o'clock in the afternoon until midnight. Here
+one met artists, professors, merchants, deputies, clerks, and
+officers. The greater number come to drink a small glass of gin before
+dinner, and return later to take another comforting sip of their
+favorite liquor. Nearly all converse, and yet one hears only a light
+murmur, so that if one's eyes were shut one would say that about half
+of the actual number was present. One can go round the rooms many
+times without seeing a gesture of excitement or hearing a loud voice:
+at a distance of ten steps from the groups one would not know that any
+one was speaking, except by the movement of his lips. One sees many
+corpulent gentlemen with broad, clean-shaven faces and bearded
+throats, who talk without raising their eyes from the table or lifting
+their hands from their glasses. It is very rare to see among these
+heavy faces a lively, piquant physiognomy like that of Erasmus, which
+many consider the true Dutch type, though I am not of their opinion.</p>
+
+<p>The friend who opened the door of the club to me presented me to
+several of its habitués. The difference between the Dutch and the
+Italian character is especially evident in introductions. On one
+occasion I noticed that the person to whom I was introduced scarcely
+bowed his head, and then remained silent some moments. I thought my
+reverend face had not
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>
+ pleased him, and felt an echo of cordial
+dislike in my heart. In a little while the person who had introduced
+me went away, leaving me tête-à-tête with my enemy. "Now," thought I,
+"I will burst before I will speak, a word to him." But my neighbor,
+after some minutes of silence, said to me with the greatest gravity,
+"I hope, if you have no other engagement to-day, you will do me the
+honor of dining with me." I fell from the clouds. We then dined
+together, and my Amphytrion placidly filled the table with bottles of
+Bordeaux and champagne, and did not let me depart until I had promised
+to dine with him again. Others, when I would ask information about
+various things, would hardly answer me, as if they were trying to show
+me that I was troublesome, so that I would say to myself, "How
+contemptible they are!" But the next day they would send me all the
+details neatly and clearly written out, and minute in a higher degree
+than I desired. One evening I asked a gentleman to point out to me
+something in that ocean of figures that goes by the name of <i>Guide to
+European Railways</i>. For some moments he did not answer, and I felt
+mortified. Then he took the book, put on his spectacles, turned over
+the leaves, read, took notes; added and subtracted for half an hour,
+and when he had finished he gave me the written answer, putting his
+spectacles back into their case without speaking a word.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Many of those with whom I passed the evening used to go home at ten
+o'clock to work, and to return to the club at half-past eleven, after
+which they would remain until one o'clock. When they had said, "I must
+go," there was no possibility of changing their minds. As the clock
+struck ten they left the door; at half-past eleven they stepped over
+the threshold. It is not surprising that with this chronometrical
+precision they find time to do so many things, without doing anything
+in haste; even those who do not depend on their studies for their
+livelihood have read entire libraries. There is no English, German, or
+French book, however unimportant, with which they are unacquainted.
+French literature especially they have at their fingers' ends. And
+what is said of literature can be said with more reason of politics.
+Holland is one of the European countries in which the greatest number
+of foreign papers are to be found, particularly those that deal
+principally with national affairs. The country is small and peaceful,
+and the news of the day is soon exhausted; consequently it frequently
+happens that after ten minutes the conversation has passed beyond the
+Rhine and deals with Europe. I remember the astonishment with which I
+heard the fall of the ministry of Scialoia and other Italian matters
+discussed as if they were domestic affairs.</p>
+
+<p>One of my first cares was to sound the religious sentiment of the
+people, and here I found, to my
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>
+ surprise, great confusion. As a
+learned Dutchman most justly wrote a short time ago, "Ideas subversive
+of every religious dogma have made much way in this land." It is quite
+a mistake, however, to believe that where faith decreases indifference
+enters. Such men as appeared to Pascal monstrous creatures&mdash;men who
+live without giving any thought to religion, of whom there are numbers
+in our country&mdash;do not exist in Holland. The religious question, which
+in Italy is merely a question, in Holland is a battle in which all
+brandish their arms. In every class of society, men and women, young
+and old, occupy themselves with theology and read or listen to the
+disputes of the doctors, besides devouring a prodigious number of
+polemical writings on religion. This tendency of the country is shown
+even in Parliament, where the deputies often confute their opponents
+with biblical quotations read in Hebrew, or translated and
+commentated, the discussion degenerating into very disquisitions on
+theology. All these conflicts, however, take place in the mind rather
+than in the heart; they are devoid of passion, and one proof of this
+is that Holland, which of all the countries in Europe is divided into
+most sects, is also the country in which these sects live in the
+greatest harmony and where there is the greatest degree of tolerance.
+If this were not the case, the Catholic party would not have made such
+strides as it has made, protected from the first by the Liberals
+against
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>
+ the only intolerant party in the country, the orthodox
+Calvinists.</p>
+
+<p>I did not make the acquaintance of any Calvinists, and I was sorry on
+that account. I never believed all that is recounted of their extreme
+rigour; for example, that there are among them certain ladies who hide
+the legs of the tables with covers, for fear that they might suggest
+to the minds of visitors the legs of the mistress of the house. But
+there is no doubt that they live with extreme austerity. Many of them
+never enter a theatre, a ball-room, or a concert-hall. There are
+families who on the Sabbath content themselves with eating a little
+cold meat, so that the cook may rest on that day. Every morning in
+many houses the master reads from the Bible in the presence of the
+family and servants, and they all pray together. But, nevertheless,
+this sect of orthodox Calvinists, whose followers are almost all
+amongst the aristocracy and the peasantry, does not exert a great
+influence in the country. This is proved by the fact that in
+Parliament the Calvinists are inferior in numbers to the Catholic
+party and can do nothing without them.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned the theatre. At the Hague, as in the other large
+Dutch cities, there are no large theatres nor great performances. They
+generally produce German operas sung by foreign singers, and French
+comedies and operettas. Concerts are the great attraction. In this
+Holland is faithful to its traditions, for, as is well known, Dutch
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+musicians were sought after in all the Christian courts as early as
+the sixteenth century. It has also been said that the Dutch have great
+ability in singing in chorus. In fact, the pleasure of singing
+together must be great if it is in proportion to the aversion they
+have to singing alone, for I do not ever remember hearing any one sing
+a tune at any hour or in any part of a Dutch town, excepting street
+urchins, who were singing in derision at drunken men, and drunkards
+are seldom seen excepting on public holidays.</p>
+
+<p>I have spoken of the French operettas and comedies. At the Hague not
+only the plays are French, but public life as well. Rotterdam has an
+English imprint, Amsterdam is German, and the Hague Parisian. So it
+may truthfully be said that the citizens of the large Dutch towns
+unite and temper the good qualities and the defects of the three great
+neighboring nations. At the Hague in many families of the best society
+they speak French altogether; in others they affect French
+expressions, as is done in some of the northern towns of Italy.
+Addresses on letters are generally written in French, and there is a
+small branch of society, as is frequently the case in small countries,
+that professes a certain contempt for the national language,
+literature, and art, and courts an adopted country beyond the Meuse
+and the Rhine. The sympathies, however, are divided. The elegant class
+inclines toward France, the learned class toward
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>
+ Germany, and the
+mercantile class toward England. The zeal for France grew cold after
+the Commune. Against Germany a secret animosity has arisen, generated
+by the fear that in her acquisitive tastes she might turn toward
+Holland. This feeling still ferments, though it is tempered by
+community of interest against clerical Catholicism.</p>
+
+<p>When it is said that the Hague is partly a French city, it must be
+understood that this relates to its appearance only; at bottom the
+Dutch characteristics predominate. Although it is a rich, elegant, and
+gay city, it is not a city of riot and dissipation, full of duels and
+scandals. The life is more varied and lively than that found in other
+Dutch towns, but not less peaceful. The duels that take place in the
+Hague in ten years may be counted on the five fingers of one's hand,
+and the aggressor in the few that take place is usually an officer.
+Notwithstanding, to show how powerful in Holland is this "ferocious
+prejudice that honor dwells on the point of the sword," I recall a
+discussion between several Dutchmen which was raised by a question of
+mine. When I asked whether public opinion in Holland was hostile to
+duels, they answered all together, "Exceedingly hostile." But when I
+wanted to know whether a young man in good society who did not accept
+a challenge would be universally praised, and would still be treated
+and respected as before&mdash;whether, in short, he would be supported by
+public opinion so
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>
+ that he would not repent his conduct&mdash;then they all
+began discussing. Some weakly answered, "Yes;" others resolutely,
+"No." But the general opinion was on the negative side. Hence I
+concluded that although there are few duels in Holland, this does not
+arise, as I thought, from a universal and absolute contempt for the
+"ferocious prejudice," but rather from the rarity of the cases in
+which two citizens allow themselves to be carried by passion to the
+point of having recourse to arms; which is a result of nature rather
+than of education. In public controversies and private discussions,
+however violent, personal insults are very rare, and in parliamentary
+battles, which are sometimes very vigorous, the deputies are often
+exceedingly impertinent, but they always speak calmly and without
+clamor. But this impertinence consists in the fact rather than in the
+word, and wounds in silence.</p>
+
+<p>In the conversations at the club I was astonished at first to note
+that no one spoke for the pleasure of speaking. When any one opened
+his mouth it was to ask a question or to tell a piece of news or to
+make an observation. That art of making a period of every idea, a
+story of every fact, a question of every trifle, in which Italians,
+French, and Spaniards are masters, is here totally unknown. Dutch
+conversation is not an exchange of sounds, but a commerce of facts,
+and nobody makes the least effort to appear learned, eloquent, or
+witty. In all the time
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>
+ I was at the Hague I remember hearing only one
+witticism, and that from a deputy, who speaking to me of the alliance
+of the ancient Batavians with the Romans, said, "We have always been
+the friends of constituted authority." Yet the Dutch language lends
+itself to puns: in proof of this there is the incident of a pretty
+foreign lady who asked a young boatman of the <i>trekschuit</i> for a
+cushion, and not pronouncing the word well, instead of cushion said
+kiss, which in Dutch sounds almost the same; and she scarcely had time
+to explain the mistake, for the boatman had already wiped his mouth
+with the back of his hand. I had read that the Dutch are avaricious
+and selfish, and that they have a habit of boring people with long
+accounts of their ailments, but as I studied the Dutch character I
+came to see that these charges are untrue. On the contrary, they laugh
+at the Germans for their complaining disposition. To sustain the
+charge of avarice somebody has brought forward the very incredible
+statement that during a naval battle with the English the officers of
+the Dutch fleet boarded the vessels of the enemy, who had used all
+their ammunition, sold them balls and powder at exorbitant prices,
+after which they continued the battle. But to contradict this
+accusation there is the fact of their comfortable life, of their rich
+houses, of the large sums of money spent in books and pictures, and
+still more of the widespread works of charity, in which the Dutch
+people<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>
+ certainly stand first in Europe. These philanthropic works are
+not official nor do they receive any impulse from the government; they
+are spontaneous and voluntary, and are carried on by large and
+powerful societies that have founded innumerable institutes&mdash;schools,
+prizes, libraries, popular reunions&mdash;helping and anticipating the
+government in the duty of public instruction,&mdash;whose branches extend
+from the large cities to the humblest villages, embracing every
+religious sect, every age, every profession, and every need; in short,
+a beneficence which does not leave in Holland a poor person without a
+roof or a workman without work. All writers who have studied Holland
+agree in saying that there probably is not another state in Europe
+where, in proportion to the population, a larger amount is given in
+charity by the wealthy classes to those who are in want.</p>
+
+<p>It must not, however, be imagined that the Dutch people have no
+defects. They certainly have them, if one may consider as defects the
+lack of those qualities which ought to be the splendor and nobility of
+their virtues. In their firmness we might find some obstinacy, in
+their honesty a certain sordidness; we might hold that their coldness
+shows the absence of that spontaneity of feeling without which it
+seems impossible that there can be affection, generosity, and true
+greatness of soul. But the better one knows them, the more one
+hesitates to pronounce these judgments, and the more one feels for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>
+them a growing respect and sympathy on leaving Holland. Voltaire was
+able to speak the famous words: "Adieu, canaux, canards, canaille;"
+but when he had to judge Holland seriously, he remembered that he had
+not found in its capital "an idle person, a poor, dissipated, or
+insolent man," and that he had everywhere seen "industry and modesty."
+Louis Napoleon proclaimed that in no other European country is there
+found so much innate good sense, justice, and reason as there is in
+Holland; Descartes gave the Hollanders the greatest praise a
+philosopher can give to a people when he said that in no country does
+one enjoy greater liberty than in Holland; Charles V. pronounced upon
+them the highest eulogy possible to a sovereign when he said that they
+were "excellent subjects, but the worst of slaves." An Englishman
+wrote that the Dutch inspire an esteem that never becomes affection.
+Perhaps he did not esteem them highly enough.</p>
+
+<p>I do not conceal the fact that one of my reasons for liking them was
+the discovery that Italy is much better known in Holland than I should
+have dared to hope. Not only did our revolution find a favorable echo
+there, as was natural in a independent nation free and hostile to the
+pope, but the Italian leaders and the events of recent times are as
+familiarly known as those of France and Germany. The best newspapers
+have Italian correspondents and furnish the public with the minutest
+details of our affairs.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+ In many places portraits of our most
+illustrious citizens are seen. Acquaintance with our literature is no
+less extended than knowledge of our politics. Putting aside the fact
+that the Italian language was sung in the halls of the ancient counts
+of Holland, that in the golden age of Dutch literature it was greatly
+honored by men of letters, and that several of the most illustrious
+poets of that period wrote Italian verses or imitated our pastoral
+poetry,&mdash;the Italian language is considerably studied nowadays, and
+one frequently meets those who speak it, and it is common to see our
+books on ladies' tables. The "Divina Commedia," which came into vogue
+especially after 1830, has been twice translated into rhymed triplets.
+One version is the work of a certain Hacke van Mijnden, who devoted
+all his life to the study of Dante. "Gerusalemme Liberata" has been
+translated in verse by a Protestant clergyman called Ten Kate, and
+there was another version, unpublished and now lost, by Maria
+Tesseeschade, the great poetess of the seventeenth century, the
+intimate friend of the great Dutch poet Vondel, who advised and helped
+her in the translation. Of the "Pastor Fido" there are at least five
+translations by different hands. Of "Aminta" there are several
+translations, and, to make a leap, at least four of "Mie Prigioni,"
+besides a very fine translation of the "Promessi Sposi," a novel that
+few Dutch people have not read either in their own language, in
+French, or in Italian.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>
+ To cite another interesting fact, there is a
+poem entitled "Florence," written for the last centenary of Dante by
+one of the best Dutch poets of our day.</p>
+
+<p>It is now in place to say something about Dutch literature.</p>
+
+<p>Holland presents a singular disproportion between the expansive force
+of its political, scientific, and commercial life and that of its
+literary life. While the work of the Dutch in every other field
+extends beyond the frontier of the land, its literature is confined
+within its own borders. It is especially strange that, although
+Holland possesses a most abundant literature, it has not, as other
+little states, produced one book that has become European, unless we
+class among literary works the writings of Spinoza, the only great
+philosopher of his country, or consider as Dutch literature the
+forgotten Latin treatises of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Yet if there be a
+country which by its nature and history suggests subjects to inspire
+the mind to the production of such poetical works as appeal to the
+imagination of all nations, that country is Holland. The marvellous
+transformations of the land, the terrible inundations, the fabulous
+maritime expeditions,&mdash;these ought to have given birth to a poem
+powerful and original even when stripped of its native form. Why did
+not this occur? The nature of the Dutch genius may be adduced as a
+reason, which, aiming at utility in everything, wished to turn
+literature also to a practical end.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>
+ Another tendency, the opposite of
+this, though, perhaps derived from it, is that of soaring high above
+human nature to avoid treading on the ground with the mass; a
+weariness of genius which gave to judgment the ascendency over the
+imagination; an innate love of all that was precise and finished,
+which resulted in a prolixity in which grand ideas were diluted; the
+spirit of the religious sects, which enchained within a narrow circle
+talents created to survey a vast horizon. But neither these nor other
+reasons can keep one from wondering that there should not be one
+writer of Dutch literature who worthily represents to the world the
+greatness of his country&mdash;a name to be placed between Rembrandt and
+Spinoza.</p>
+
+<p>However, it would be a mistake to overlook at least the three
+principal figures of Dutch literature, two of whom belong to the
+seventeenth and one to the nineteenth century&mdash;three original poets
+who differ widely from each other, but represent in themselves Dutch
+poetry in its entirety: Vondel, Catz, and Bilderdijk.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="Page_262pic" id="Page_262pic"></a>
+<img src="images/illus20.jpg" width="500" height="401"
+alt="The Vyver, The Hague." title="The Vyver, The Hague." />
+</div>
+
+<p>Vondel, the greatest poet Holland has produced, was born in 1587 at
+Cologne, where his father, a hatmaker, had taken refuge, having fled
+from Antwerp to escape from the Spanish persecutions. While still a
+child the future poet returned to his country on a barrow, together
+with his father and mother, who followed him on foot, praying and
+reciting verses
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>
+ from the Bible. His studies began at Amsterdam. At
+fifteen years of age he was already renowned as a poet, but his
+celebrated works date from 1620. At the age of thirty he knew only his
+own language, but later he learned French and Latin, and applied
+himself with ardor to the study of the classics; at fifty he gave
+himself up to Greek. His first tragedy (for he was chiefly a
+dramatist), entitled "The Destruction of Jerusalem," was not very
+successful. The second, "Palamades," in which was delineated the
+piteous and terrible tale of Olden Barneveldt, a victim of Maurice of
+Orange, caused a criminal action to be brought against the author. He
+fled, and remained in concealment until the unexpectedly mild sentence
+was given which condemned him to a fine of three hundred florins. In
+1627 he travelled in Denmark and Sweden, where he was received with
+great honors by Gustavus Adolphus. Eleven years later he opened the
+theatre at Amsterdam with a drama on a national theme, "Gilbert of
+Amstel," which is still performed once a year in his memory. The last
+years of his life were very unhappy. His dissipated son reduced him to
+poverty, and the poor old man, tired of study and broken down with
+sorrow, was obliged to beg for a miserable employment at the city
+pawnbroker's. A few years before his death he embraced the Catholic
+faith, and, seized with fresh inspiration, composed the tragedy of
+"The Virgin" and one of his best poems entitled
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>
+"The Mysteries of
+the Altar." He died at a great age, and was buried in a church at
+Amsterdam, where a century afterward a monument was erected in his
+honor. Besides tragedies he wrote martial songs to his country, to
+illustrious Dutch sailors, and to Prince Frederick Henry. But his
+chief glory was the drama. An admirer of Greek tragedy, he preserved
+the unities, the chorus, the supernatural, substituting Providence for
+Destiny, and demons and angels (the good and evil spirits of
+Christianity) for the angry and propitious gods. He drew nearly all
+his subjects from the Bible. His finest work is the tragedy of
+"Lucifer," which, notwithstanding the almost insuperable difficulties
+of stage setting, was represented twice at the theatre in Amsterdam,
+after which it was interdicted by the Protestant clergy. The subject
+of the drama is the rebellion of Lucifer, and the characters are the
+good and bad angels. In this as in his other plays there abound
+fantastic descriptions full of splendid imagery, passages of powerful
+eloquence, fine choruses, vigorous thought, solemn phrases, rich and
+sonorous verse, while here and there are gleams and flashes of genius.
+On the other hand, his work is pervaded by a mysticism which is
+sometimes obscure and austere, by a discord between Christian ideas
+and pagan forms. The lyrical element predominates over the dramatic,
+good taste is often offended, and, above all, the thought and feeling,
+though aiming at the sublime, rise too
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>
+ high above this earth, and
+elude the comprehension of the human heart and mind. Nevertheless,
+historical precedence, originality, ardent patriotism, and a noble and
+patient life have made Vondel a great and venerated name in his
+country, where he is regarded as the personification of national
+genius, and is placed in the enthusiasm of affection next to the first
+poets of other lands.</p>
+
+<p>Vondel is the greatest, Jacob Catz is the truest, personification of
+Dutch genius. He is not only the most popular poet of his nation, but
+his popularity is such that it may be affirmed that there is no other
+writer of any land, not excluding even Cervantes in Spain and Manzoni
+in Italy, who is more generally known and more constantly read, while
+at the same time there is perhaps no other poet in the world whose
+popularity is more necessarily limited to the boundaries of his own
+country. Jacob Catz was born in 1577 of a noble family in
+Brouwershaven, a town of Zealand. He studied law, became pensionary of
+Middelburg, went as ambassador to England, was Grand Pensionary of
+Holland, and, while he performed the duties of these offices with zeal
+and rectitude, he devotedly cultivated poetry. In the evening, after
+he had transacted affairs of state with the deputies of the provinces,
+he would retire to his home to write verses. At seventy-five years of
+age he asked to be released from further service, and when the
+stadtholder told him with appreciative
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>
+ words that his request had
+been granted, he fell on his knees in the presence of the Assembly of
+the States and thanked God, who had always protected him during the
+course of his long and exacting political life. A few days later he
+retired to one of his villas, where he enjoyed a peaceful and
+honorable old age, studying and writing up to the year 1660, when he
+died, in the eighty-first year of his life, mourned by all Holland.
+His poems fill several large volumes, and consist of fables,
+madrigals, stories from history and mythology, abounding in
+descriptions, quotations, sentences, and precepts. His work is
+pervaded with goodness, honesty, and sweetness, and he writes with
+frank simplicity and delicate humor. His volume is the book of
+national wisdom, the second Bible of the Dutch nation&mdash;a manual which
+teaches how to live honestly and in peace. He has a word for all&mdash;for
+boys as well as old men, for merchants as well as princes, for
+mistresses as well as for maids, for the rich as well as for the poor.
+He teaches how to spend, to save, to do housework, to govern a family,
+and to educate children. He is at the same time a friend, a father, a
+spiritual director, a master, an economist, a doctor, and a lawyer. He
+loves modest nature, the gardens, the meadows; he adores his wife,
+does his work, and is satisfied with himself and with other people,
+and would like every one to be as contented as he is. His poems are to
+be found beside the Bible in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>
+ every Dutch house. There is not a
+peasant's cottage where the head of the family does not read some of
+his verses every evening. In days of sadness and doubt all look for
+comfort and find it in their old poet. He is the intimate fireside
+friend, the faithful companion of the invalid; his is the first book
+over which the faces of affianced lovers bend; his verses are the
+first that children lisp and the last that grand-sires repeat. No poet
+is so loved as he. Every Dutchman smiles when he hears his name
+spoken, and no foreigner who has been in Holland can help naming it
+with a feeling of sympathy and respect.</p>
+
+<p>The last of the three, Bilderdijk, was born in 1756 and died in 1831:
+his was one of the most marvellous intellects that have ever appeared
+in this world. He was a poet, historian, philologist, astronomer,
+chemist, doctor, theologian, antiquary, jurisconsult, designer,
+engraver&mdash;a restless, unsettled, capricious man, whose life was
+nothing but an investigation, a transformation, a perpetual battle
+with his vast genius. As a young man, when he was already famous as a
+poet, he abandoned the Muse and entered politics; he emigrated with
+the stadtholder to England, and gave lessons in London to earn a
+livelihood. He tired of England and went to Germany; bored by German
+romanticism, he returned to Holland, where Louis Bonaparte overwhelmed
+him with favors. When Louis left the throne, Napoleon the Great
+deprived the favorite of his pension, and he was reduced to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> poverty.
+Finally he obtained a small pension from the government, and continued
+studying, writing, and struggling to the last day of his life. His
+works embrace more than thirty volumes of science, art, and
+literature. He tried every style, and succeeded in all excepting the
+dramatic. He enlarged historical criticism by writing one of the
+finest national histories his country possesses. He wrote a poem, "The
+Primitive World," an abstruse, gloomy composition which is very much
+admired in Holland. He dealt with every possible question, confounding
+luminous truths with the strangest paradoxes. He even raised the
+national literature, which had fallen into decadence, and left a
+phalanx of chosen disciples who followed in his steps in politics,
+art, and philosophy. Holland regards him not only with enthusiasm, but
+with fanaticism, and there is no doubt that after Vondel he is the
+greatest poet of his country. But he was possessed by a religious
+frenzy, a blind hatred of new ideas, which caused him to make poetry
+an instrument of sects: he introduces theology into everything, and
+consequently he could not attain to that free serene region beyond
+which genius cannot obtain enduring victories and universal fame.</p>
+
+<p>Round these three poets, who represent the three vices of Dutch
+literature&mdash;of losing themselves in the clouds, of creeping on the
+ground, of entangling themselves in the meshes of mysticism&mdash;are
+grouped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>
+ a number of epic, comic, satiric, and lyric poets, most of
+whom flourished in the seventeenth and a few in the eighteenth
+century. Many of them are renowned in Holland, but none possesses
+sufficient originality to attract the attention of the passing
+stranger.</p>
+
+<p>The present condition deserves a rapid glance. Criticism by stripping
+from Dutch history the veil of poetry with which the patriotism of
+writers had clothed it, has placed it on the wider and more productive
+plain of justice. Philological studies are held in high honor in
+Holland, and almost all the sciences are represented by men of
+European fame. These are facts of which no scholar is ignorant, and a
+bare mention of them is sufficient.</p>
+
+<p>In pure literature the most flourishing style is the novel. Holland
+has had its national novelist, its Walter Scott, in Van Lennep, who
+died a few years ago, a writer of historical romances which were
+received with enthusiasm by all classes of society. He was an
+effective painter of customs, a learned, witty writer, and a master of
+the art of dialogue and description, but, unfortunately, often prolix.
+He used old artifices, adopted forced solutions, and often was not
+sufficiently reticent. In his last book, "The Adventures of Nicoletta
+Zevenster," while admirably describing Dutch society at the beginning
+of this century, he had the unheard-of audacity to describe an
+improper house at the Hague. All Holland was in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>
+ an uproar. His book
+was discussed, criticised, condemned, praised to the skies, and the
+battle still continues. Other historical novels were written by a
+certain Schimmel, a worthy rival of Van Lennep, and by a Madame
+Rosboon Toussaint, an accomplished author of deep study and real
+talent. Nevertheless, historical romance may be considered dead even
+in Holland. The modern novels of social life and the story meet with
+better fortune. Most prominent in this field is Beets, a Protestant
+clergyman and a poet, the author of a celebrated book entitled "The
+Dark Chamber." Koetsweldt is another of this class, and there are also
+some young men of great gifts who have been prevented from rising to
+any height by haste, the demon that persecutes the literature of
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Holland has still another kind of romance which is its own. It might
+be called Indian romance, since it describes the habits and life of
+the people of the colonies. Of late years several novels have been
+published in this style, which have been received in the country with
+great applause and have been translated into several languages. Among
+these is the "Beau Monde of Batavia," by Professor Ten Brink, a
+learned, and brilliant writer, of whom I should like to be able to
+speak at length to attest in some degree my gratitude and admiration.
+But <i>apropos</i> of Indian romances, it is pleasant to notice how in
+Holland at every step one hears and sees something that reminds
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> one
+of the colonies, as if a ray of the Indian sun penetrated the Dutch
+winter and colored the life. The ships which bring a breath of wind
+from those distant lands to the home ports, the birds, the flowers,
+the countless objects, like sounds mingled with faint music, call up
+in the mind images of another nature and another race. In the cities
+of Holland, among the thousands of white faces, one often meets men
+whose visages are bronzed by the sun, who have been born or have lived
+for many years in the colonies&mdash;merchants who speak with unusual
+vivacity of dark women, bananas, palm forests, and of lakes shaded by
+vines and orchids; young men who are bold enough to risk their lives
+amid the savages of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra; men of science
+and men of letters; officers who speak of the tribes which worship
+fish, of ambassadors who carry the heads of the vanquished dangling
+from their girdles, of bull and tiger fights, of the frenzy of
+opium-eaters, of the multitudes baptized with pomp, of a thousand
+strange and wonderful incidents which produce a singular effect when
+related by the phlegmatic people of this peaceful country.</p>
+
+<p>Poetry, after it lost Da Costa, a disciple of Bilderdijk, a religious
+poet and enthusiast, and Genestet, a satirical poet who died very
+young, had few champions in the last generation, and these are now
+silent or sing with enfeebled voice. The stage is in a worse
+condition. The untrained, ranting Dutch actors
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>
+ usually appear only in
+French or German dramas, comedies which are badly translated, and the
+best society does not go to see them. Writers of great talent, like
+Hofdijk, Schimmel, and Van Lennep, wrote comedies which were admirable
+in many ways, but they never became popular enough to hold the stage.
+Tragedy is in no better condition than comedy and the drama.</p>
+
+<p>From what I have said it would appear that there is not at present any
+great literary movement in Holland; but on the contrary, there is
+great literary activity. The number of books published is incredible,
+and it is marvellous with what avidity they are read. Every town,
+every religious sect, every society, has its review or newspaper.
+Besides this, there is a multitude of foreign books: English novels
+are in the hands of all; French works of eight, ten, and twenty
+volumes are translated into the national language. This is the more
+remarkable in a country where all cultivated people can read the
+originals, and it proves how customary it is not only to read, but to
+buy, although books are a great deal more expensive in Holland than
+elsewhere. But this superabundance of publications and this thirst for
+reading are precisely those elements which are injuring literature.
+Writers, in order to satisfy the impatient curiosity of the public,
+write in too great haste, and the mania for foreign literature
+smothers and corrupts the national genius. Nevertheless, Dutch
+literature has still a just claim
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>
+ to the esteem of the country: it
+has declined, but has not become perverted; it has preserved its
+innocence and freshness; what is lacking in imagination, originality,
+and brilliancy is compensated by wisdom, by the severe respect for
+good manners and good taste, by loving solicitude for the poorer
+classes, by the effective energy with which it advances charity and
+civil education. The literatures of other lands are great plants
+adorned with fragrant flowers; Dutch literature is a little tree laden
+with fruit.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning when I left the Hague, after my second visit to the
+city, some of my good friends accompanied me to the railway-station.
+It was raining. When we were in the waiting-room, before the train
+started, I thanked my kind hosts for the courteous reception they had
+given me, and, knowing that perhaps I should never see them again, I
+could not help expressing my gratitude in sad and affectionate words,
+to which they listened in silence. Only one interrupted me by advising
+me to guard against the damp.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope at least some of you will come to Italy," I continued, "if
+only to give me the opportunity of showing my gratitude. Do promise me
+this, so that I may feel a little consoled at my departure. I will not
+leave if some one does not say he will come to Italy."</p>
+
+<p>They looked into each other's faces, and one answered laconically,
+"Perhaps." Another advised me
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>
+ not to change French gold in the shops.
+At that moment the last bell rang.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, good-bye," I said in an agitated voice, pressing their
+hands. "Farewell: I shall never forget the glorious days passed at the
+Hague; I shall always recall your names as the dearest remembrance of
+my journey. Think of me sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," they all answered in the same tone, as if they were
+expecting to see me the next day. I leaped into the railway-carriage
+stricken at heart, and looked out of the window until the train
+started, and saw them all standing there, motionless, silent with
+impassive faces, their eyes fixed on mine. I waved a last farewell,
+and they responded with a slight bend of the head, and then
+disappeared from my sight for ever. Whenever I think of them I see
+them just as they were when I left them, in the same attitude, with
+their serious faces and fixed eyes, and the affection that I feel for
+them has in it something of austerity and sadness like their native
+sky on the day when I last beheld them.</p>
+
+<h4>
+<br /><br />
+THE END OF VOLUME I.<br />
+<br />
+</h4>
+<div class="bbox">
+<p class="p2">
+<b>Transcriber's Notes:</b>
+<br />
+The following spelling/typographical errors have been changed.<br />
+</p>
+<ul><li>p19 - changed "defense" to "defence" for consistency with rest of book</li>
+<li>p74 - changed "treschkuit" to "trekschuit"</li>
+<li>p180 - changed "cites" to "cities"</li>
+<li>p194 - changed "tactiturn" to "taciturn"]</li>
+<li>p210 - changed "were" to "where" in 'the cell were (changed to where) Philip II. died;'</li></ul>
+
+<p class="p2">
+Other spelling, grammatical, punctuation and typographic errors have
+been left as in the original book.<br />
+<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Holland, v. 1 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
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@@ -0,0 +1,6432 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Holland, v. 1 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Holland, v. 1 (of 2)
+
+Author: Edmondo de Amicis
+
+Translator: Helen Zimmern
+
+Release Date: January 13, 2009 [EBook #27799]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOLLAND, V. 1 (OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jen Haines and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+The following spelling/typographical errors have been changed.
+
+p19--changed "defense" to "defence" for consistency with rest of book.
+
+p74--changed "treschkuit" to "trekschuit".
+
+p180--changed "cites" to "cities".
+
+p194--changed "tactiturn" to "taciturn".
+
+p210--changed "were" to "where" in 'the cell were (changed to where)
+Philip II. died;'.
+
+Other spelling, grammatical, punctuation and typographic errors have
+been left as in the original book.
+
+
+[Illustration: A Dutch Windmill.]
+
+
+    HOLLAND.
+
+
+    BY
+    EDMONDO DE AMICIS,
+
+    AUTHOR OF "SPAIN," "MOROCCO," ETC.
+
+
+    TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRTEENTH EDITION OF THE ITALIAN BY
+    HELEN ZIMMERN.
+
+
+    ILLUSTRATED.
+
+
+    IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+
+    VOL. I.
+
+
+    PHILADELPHIA
+    HENRY T. COATES & CO.
+
+
+    COPYRIGHT, 1894, BY
+    PORTER & COATES.
+
+
+    TO
+    PIETRO GROLIER.
+
+
+
+
+    CONTENTS.
+
+
+                       PAGE
+    HOLLAND               9
+
+    ZEALAND              29
+
+    ROTTERDAM            57
+
+    DELFT               131
+
+    THE HAGUE           171
+
+
+
+
+    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+    VOLUME I.
+
+    Photographs taken expressly for this edition of "Holland" by
+    Dr. CHARLES L. MITCHELL, Philadelphia.
+
+    Photogravures by A.W. ELSON & CO., Boston.
+
+
+                                                       PAGE
+
+    A DUTCH WINDMILL                          _Frontispiece._
+
+    DUTCH FISHING-BOATS                                  26
+
+    DORDRECHT--CANAL WITH CATHEDRAL IN THE DISTANCE      48
+
+    IN ROTTERDAM                                         64
+
+    INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE               80
+
+    ON THE MEUSE, NEAR ROTTERDAM                         94
+
+    THE STEIGER, ROTTERDAM                              110
+
+    THE STATUE OF TOLLENS                               126
+
+    NEAR THE ARSENAL, DELFT                             134
+
+    MONUMENT OF ADMIRAL VAN TROMP                       140
+
+    STAIRWAY WHERE WILLIAM THE SILENT WAS ASSASSINATED
+    IN THE PRINSENHOF, DELFT                            150
+
+    REFECTORY OF THE CONVENT OF ST. AGATHA, DELFT       156
+
+    OLD DELFT                                           166
+
+    ON THE CANAL NEAR DELFT                             174
+
+    THE BINNENHOF, THE HAGUE                            184
+
+    PAUL POTTER'S BULL                                  198
+
+    ON THE ROAD TO SCHEVENINGEN                         214
+
+    FISHERMAN'S CHILDREN, SCHEVENINGEN                  228
+
+    THE MAIN DRIVE IN THE BOSCH, THE HAGUE              246
+
+    THE VYVER, THE HAGUE                                262
+
+
+
+
+HOLLAND.
+
+
+One who looks for the first time at a large map of Holland must be
+amazed to think that a country so made can exist. At first sight, it
+is impossible to say whether land or water predominates, and whether
+Holland belongs to the continent or to the sea. Its jagged and narrow
+coast-line, its deep bays and wide rivers, which seem to have lost the
+outer semblance of rivers and to be carrying fresh seas to the sea;
+and that sea itself, as if transformed to a river, penetrating far
+into the land, and breaking it up into archipelagoes; the lakes and
+vast marshes, the canals crossing each other everywhere,--all leave an
+impression that a country so broken up must disintegrate and
+disappear. It would be pronounced a fit home for only beavers and
+seals, and surely its inhabitants, although of a race so bold as to
+dwell there, ought never to lie down in peace.
+
+When I first looked at a large map of Holland these thoughts crowded
+into my mind, and I felt a great desire to know something about the
+formation of this singular country; and as what I learned impelled me
+to make a book, I write it now in the hope that I may lead others to
+read it.
+
+Those who do not know a country usually ask travellers, "What sort of
+place is it?"
+
+Many have told briefly what kind of country Holland is.
+
+Napoleon said: "It is an alluvium of French rivers, the Rhine, the
+Scheldt, and the Meuse," and under this pretext he annexed it to the
+Empire. One writer defined it as a sort of transition between the
+earth and the sea. Another calls it "an immense surface of earth
+floating on the water." Others speak of it as an annex of the old
+continent, the China of Europe, the end of the earth and the beginning
+of the ocean--a huge raft of mud and sand; and Philip II. called it
+"the country nearest hell."
+
+But on one point they were all agreed, and expressed themselves in the
+same words: Holland is a conquest of man over the sea; it is an
+artificial country; the Dutch made it; it exists because the Dutch
+preserve it, and would disappear if they were to abandon it.
+
+To understand these words we must picture to ourselves Holland as it
+was when the first German tribes, wandering in search of a country,
+came to inhabit it.
+
+Holland was then almost uninhabitable. It was composed of lakes, vast
+and stormy as seas, flowing into each other; marshes and morasses,
+thickets and brushwood; of huge forests, overrun by herds of wild
+horses; vast stretches of pines, oaks, and alder trees, in which,
+tradition tells us, you could traverse leagues passing from trunk to
+trunk without ever putting your foot to the ground. The deep bays
+carried the northern storms into the very heart of the country. Once a
+year certain provinces disappeared under the sea, becoming muddy
+plains which were neither earth nor water, on which one could neither
+walk nor sail. The large rivers, for lack of sufficient incline to
+drain them into the sea, strayed here and there, as if uncertain which
+road to take, and then fell asleep in vast pools amongst the
+coast-sands. It was a dreary country, swept by strong winds, scourged
+by continual rain, and enveloped in a perpetual fog, through which
+nothing was heard save the moaning of the waves, the roaring of wild
+beasts and the screeching of sea-fowl. The first people who had the
+courage to pitch their tents in it were obliged to erect with their
+own hands, hillocks of earth as a protection from the inundations of
+the rivers and the invasions of the ocean, and they were obliged to
+live on these heights like shipwrecked-men on lonely islands,
+descending, when the waters withdrew, to seek nourishment by fishing,
+hunting, and collecting the eggs which the sea-fowl had laid on the
+sands. Caesar, when he passed by, gave the first name to this people.
+The other Latin historians spoke with mingled pity and respect of
+these intrepid barbarians who lived on "a floating country," exposed
+to the inclemency of an unfeeling sky and to the fury of the
+mysterious North Sea. Imagination can picture the Roman soldiers from
+the heights of the utmost wave-washed citadels of the empire,
+contemplating with sadness and wonder the wandering tribes of that
+desolate country, and regarding them as a race accursed of Heaven.
+
+Now, when we reflect that such a region has become one of the richest,
+most fertile, and best-governed countries in the world, we understand
+how justly Holland is called the conquest of man.
+
+But it should be added that it is a continuous conquest.
+
+To explain this fact,--to show how the existence of Holland,
+notwithstanding the great works of defence built by its inhabitants,
+still requires an incessant struggle fraught with perils,--it is
+sufficient to glance rapidly at the greatest changes of its physical
+history, beginning at the time when its people had reduced it to a
+habitable country.
+
+Tradition tells of a great inundation of Friesland in the sixth
+century. From that period catastrophes are recorded in every gulf, in
+every island, one may say, in almost every town, of Holland. It is
+reckoned that through thirteen centuries one great inundation, besides
+smaller ones, has taken place every seven years, and, since the
+country is an extended plain, these inundations were very deluges.
+Toward the end of the thirteenth century the sea destroyed part of a
+very fertile peninsula near the mouth of the Ems and laid waste more
+than thirty villages. In the same century a series of marine
+inundations opened an immense gap in Northern Holland and formed the
+Gulf of the Zuyder Zee, killing about eighty thousand people. In 1421
+a storm caused the Meuse to overflow, and in one night buried in its
+waters seventy-two villages and one hundred thousand inhabitants. In
+1532 the sea broke the embankments of Zealand, destroyed a hundred
+villages, and buried for ever a vast tract of the country. In 1570 a
+tempest produced another inundation in Zealand and in the province of
+Utrecht; Amsterdam was inundated, and in Friesland twenty thousand
+people were drowned. Other great floods occurred in the seventeenth
+century; two terrible ones at the beginning and at the end of the
+eighteenth; one in 1825, which laid waste Northern Holland, Friesland,
+Over-Yssel, and Gelderland; another in 1855, when the Rhine,
+overflowing, flooded Gelderland and the province of Utrecht and
+submerged a large part of North Brabant. Besides these great
+catastrophes, there occurred in the different centuries innumerable
+others which would have been famous in other countries, but were
+scarcely noticed in Holland--such as the inundation of the large Lake
+of Haarlem caused by an invasion of the sea. Flourishing towns of the
+Zuyder Zee Gulf disappeared under water; the islands of Zealand were
+repeatedly covered by the sea and then again left dry; the villages on
+the coast from Helder to the mouths of the Meuse were frequently
+submerged and ruined; and in each of these inundations there was an
+immense loss of life of both man and beast. It is clear that miracles
+of courage, constancy, and industry must have been wrought by the
+Dutch people, first in creating, and then in preserving, such a
+country.
+
+The enemy against which the Dutch had to defend their country was
+threefold--the sea, the rivers, and the lakes. The Dutch drained the
+lakes, drove back the sea, and imprisoned the rivers.
+
+To drain the lakes they called the air to their aid. The lakes and
+marshes were surrounded with dykes, the dykes with canals and an army
+of windmills; these, putting the suction-pumps in motion, poured the
+waters into the canals, which conducted them into the rivers and to
+the sea. Thus vast areas of ground which were buried under water saw
+the light, and were transformed, as if by enchantment, into fertile
+plains covered with villages and traversed by roads and canals. In the
+seventeenth century, in less than forty years, twenty-six lakes were
+emptied. In Northern Holland alone at the beginning of this century
+more than six thousand hectares of land were delivered from the
+waters, in Southern Holland, before 1844, twenty-nine thousand
+hectares, and in the whole of Holland, from 1500 to 1858, three
+hundred and fifty-five thousand hectares. By the use of steam pumps
+instead of windmills, the great undertaking of draining the Lake of
+Haarlem was completed in thirty-nine months. This lake, which
+threatened the towns of Haarlem, Amsterdam, and Leyden with raging
+storms, was forty-four kilometers in circumference. At present the
+Hollanders are contemplating the prodigious enterprise of draining the
+Gulf of the Zuyder Zee, which covers a space of more than seven
+hundred square kilometers.
+
+The rivers, another internal enemy of Holland, did not cost less
+fatigue or fewer sacrifices. Some, like the Rhine, which loses itself
+in the sand before reaching the ocean, had to be channelled and
+protected from the tide at their mouths by immense locks; others, like
+the Meuse, were flanked by large dykes, like those raised to force
+back the sea; others were turned from their channels. The wandering
+waters were gathered together, the course of the rivers was regulated,
+the streams were divided with rigorous precision, and sent in
+different directions to maintain the equilibrium of the enormous
+liquid mass,--for the smallest deviation might cause the submersion of
+whole provinces. In this manner all of the rivers, which originally
+wandered unrestrained, swamping and devastating the whole country,
+have been reduced to streams and have become the servants of man.
+
+But the fiercest struggle of all was the battle with the ocean.
+Holland, as a whole, lies lower than the sea-level; consequently,
+wherever the coast is not defended by downs it had to be protected by
+embankments. If these huge bulwarks of earth, wood, and granite were
+not standing like monuments to witness to the courage and perseverance
+of the Dutch, it would be impossible to believe that the hand of man,
+even in the course of many centuries, could have completed such an
+immense work. In Zealand alone the dykes extend over an area of four
+hundred kilometers. The western coast of the island of Walcheren is
+protected by a dyke, the cost of whose construction and preservation
+put out at interest would, it is calculated, have amounted to a sum
+great enough to have paid for the building of the dyke of solid
+copper. Round the town of Helder, at the northern extremity of
+Northern Holland, there is a dyke made of blocks of Norwegian granite
+which is ten kilometers long and stretches sixty meters into the sea.
+The province of Friesland, which is eighty-eight kilometers long, is
+protected by three rows of enormous palisades sustained by blocks of
+Norwegian and German granite. Amsterdam, all the towns on the coast of
+the Zuyder Zee, and all the islands which have been formed by
+fragments of the land that has disappeared, forming a sort of circle
+between Friesland and Northern Holland, are protected by dykes. From
+the mouths of the Ems to the mouths of the Scheldt, Holland is an
+impenetrable fort, in whose immense bastions the mills are the towers,
+the locks the gates, the islands the advanced forts; of which, like a
+real fortress, it shows to its enemy, the sea, only the tips of its
+steeples and the roofs of its buildings, as though in derision or in
+challenge.
+
+In truth, Holland is a fortress, and the Dutch live as though they
+were in a fort--always in arms against the sea. A host of engineers,
+dependent on the minister of the interior, is scattered throughout the
+land, disciplined like an army. These men are continually on the
+alert, watching over the waters of the interior, anticipating the
+rupture of the dykes, ordering and directing the works of defence. The
+expenses of this warfare are distributed: one part is paid by the
+state, the other by the provinces; every proprietor pays, besides the
+general imposts, a special tax on the dykes in proportion to the
+extent of his property and to its proximity to the waters. Any
+accidental breach, any carelessness, may cause a flood: the danger is
+ever present. The sentinels are at their posts on the ramparts, and at
+the first attack of the sea, give the war-cry, whereupon Holland sends
+out arms, materials, and money. And even when great battles are not in
+progress, a slow, noiseless struggle is ever going on. Innumerable
+windmills, even in the drained lakes, are continually working to
+exhaust the rain-water and the water that oozes from the earth, and to
+pump it into the canals. Every day the locks of the gulfs and rivers
+shut their gigantic doors in face of the high tide, which attempts to
+launch its billows into the heart of the country. Work is continually
+going on to reinforce any weakened dykes, to fortify the downs by
+cultivation, to throw up fresh embankments where the downs are
+low--works towering like immense spears brandished in the midst of the
+sea, ready to break the first onset of the waves. The sea thunders
+eternally at the doors of the rivers, ceaselessly lashes their banks,
+roars forth its eternal menace, raises the crests of its billows
+curious to behold the contested ground, heaps banks of sand before the
+doors to destroy the commerce of the cities it wishes to possess;
+wastes, rasps, and undermines the coasts, and, unable to overthrow the
+ramparts, against which its impotent waves break in angry foam, it
+casts ships laden with corpses at the feet of the rebellious country
+to testify to its fury and its strength.
+
+Whilst this great struggle continues Holland is becoming transformed.
+A map of the country as it was eight centuries ago would not at first
+sight be recognized. The land is changed, the men are changed. The sea
+in some parts has driven back the coast; it has taken portions of the
+land from the continent, has abandoned and again retaken it; has
+reunited some of the islands to the continent by chains of sand, as in
+Zealand; has detached the borders of the continent and formed of them
+new islands, such as Wieringen; has withdrawn from some provinces, and
+has converted maritime cities into inland towns, as at Leeuwarden; it
+has changed vast plains into archipelagoes of a hundred isles, such
+as the Bies-Bosch; it has separated the city from the land, as at
+Dordrecht. New gulfs two leagues wide have been formed, such as the
+Gulf of Dollart; two provinces have been separated by a new
+sea--namely, North Holland and Friesland. Inundations have caused the
+level of the ground to be raised in some places, lowered in others;
+unfruitful soil has been fertilized by the sediment of the overflown
+rivers; fertile ground has been changed into deserts of sand. The
+transformations of the waters have given rise to a transformation of
+labor. Islands have been joined to the continent, as was the island of
+Ameland; whole provinces are being reduced to islands, as is the case
+with North Holland, which will be separated from South Holland by the
+new canal of Amsterdam; lakes as large as provinces have been made to
+disappear, like the Lake of Beemster. By the removal of the thick mud,
+land has been converted into lakes, and these lakes are again
+transformed into meadows. So the country changes, ordering and
+altering its aspect in accordance with the violence of the waters and
+the needs of man. As one glances over the latest map, he may be sure
+that in a few years, it will be useless, because at the moment he is
+studying it, there exist bays which will disappear little by little,
+tracts of land which are on the point of detaching themselves from the
+continent, and large canals which will open and carry life into
+uninhabited regions.
+
+But Hollanders did more than defend themselves from the water; they
+became its masters. The water was their scourge; it became their
+defence. If a foreign army invades their territory, they open the
+dykes and loose the sea and the rivers, as they loosed them on the
+Romans, the Spanish, and the army of Louis XIV., and then defend the
+inland towns with their fleets. Water was their poverty; they have
+made it riches. The whole country is covered with a network of canals,
+which irrigate the land and are at the same time the highways of the
+people. The towns communicate with the sea by means of the canals;
+canals lead from town to town, binding the towns to the villages, and
+uniting the villages themselves, as they lie with their homesteads
+scattered over the plain. Smaller canals surround the farms, the
+meadows, and the kitchen-gardens, taking the place of walls and
+hedges; every house is a little port. Ships, barges, boats, and rafts
+sail through the villages, wind round the houses, and thread the
+country in all directions, just as carts and carriages do in other
+places.
+
+And here, too, Holland has accomplished many gigantic works, such as
+the William Canal in North Brabant, which, more than eighty kilometers
+long and thirty meters wide, crosses the whole of Northern Holland and
+unites Amsterdam to the North Sea: the new canal, the largest in
+Europe, which will join Amsterdam to the ocean, across the downs, and
+another, equally large, which will unite the town of Rotterdam to the
+sea. The canals are the veins of Holland, and the water is its blood.
+
+But, aside from the canals, the draining of the lakes, and the works
+of defence, as one passes rapidly through Holland he sees on every
+side indications of marvellous labor. The ground,--in other countries
+the gift of nature,--is here the result of industry. Holland acquired
+the greater part of its riches through commerce, but the earth had to
+yield its fruits before commerce could exist; and there was no
+earth--it had to be created. There were banks of sand, broken here and
+there by layers of peat, and downs which the wind blew about and
+scattered over the country; large expanses of muddy land, destined, as
+it seemed, to eternal barrenness. Iron and coal, the first elements of
+industry, were lacking; there was no wood, for the forests had already
+been destroyed by storms before agriculture began; there was neither
+stone nor metal. Nature, as a Dutch poet has said, had denied all its
+gifts to Holland, and the Dutch were obliged to do everything in spite
+of her. They began by fertilizing the sand. In some places they made
+the ground fruitful by placing on it layers of soil brought from a
+distance, just as a garden is formed; they spread the rubble from the
+downs over the sodden meadows; they mixed bits of the peat taken from
+the water with the earth that was too sandy; they dug up clay to give
+a fresh fertility to the surface of the ground; they strove to till
+the downs; and thus, by a thousand varied efforts, as they continually
+warded off the threatening waters, they succeeded in cultivating
+Holland as highly as other countries more favored by Nature. The
+Holland of sands and marshes, which the ancients considered barely
+habitable, now sends abroad, year by year, agricultural products to
+the value of a hundred million francs, possesses about a million three
+hundred thousand head of cattle, and may be rated in proportion to its
+size among the most populous countries in Europe.
+
+Now, it is obvious that in a country so extraordinary the inhabitants
+must be very different from those of other lands. Indeed, few peoples
+have been more influenced by the nature of the country they inhabit,
+than the Dutch. Their genius is in perfect harmony with the physical
+character of Holland. When one contemplates the memorials of the great
+warfare which this nation has waged with the sea, one understands that
+its characteristics must be steadfastness and patience, conjoined with
+calm and determined courage. The glorious struggle, and the knowledge
+that they owe everything to themselves, must have infused and
+strengthened in them a lofty sense of their own dignity and an
+indomitable spirit of liberty and independence. The necessity for a
+continual struggle, for incessant work, and for continual sacrifices
+to protect their very existence, confronts them perpetually with
+realities, and must have helped to make them an extremely practical
+and economical nation. Good sense necessarily became their most
+prominent quality; economy was perforce one of their principal
+virtues. This nation was obliged to excel in useful works, to be sober
+in its enjoyments, simple even in its greatness, and successful in all
+things that are to be attained by tenacity of purpose and by activity
+springing from reflection and precision. It had to be wise rather than
+heroic, conservative rather than creative; to give no great architects
+to the edifice of modern thought, but many able workmen, a legion of
+patient and useful laborers. By virtue of these qualities of prudence,
+phlegmatic activity, and conservatism the Dutch are ever advancing,
+although step by step. They acquire slowly, but lose none of their
+acquisitions;--they are loth to quit ancient usages, and, although
+three great nations are in close proximity to them, they retain their
+originality as if isolated. They have retained it through different
+forms of government, through foreign invasions, through the political
+and religious wars of which Holland was the theatre--in spite of the
+immense crowd of foreigners from every country who have taken refuge
+in their land, and have lived there at all times. They are, in short,
+of all the northern nations, that one which has retained its ancient
+typical character as it advanced on the road toward civilization. One
+recalling the conformation of this country, with its three and a half
+millions of inhabitants, can easily understand that although fused
+into a solid political union, and although recognizable amongst the
+other northern nations by certain traits peculiar to the inhabitants
+of all its provinces, it must nevertheless present a great variety.
+Such, indeed, is the case. Between Zealand and Holland proper, between
+Holland and Friesland, between Friesland and Gelderland, between
+Groningen and Brabant, although they are closely bound together by
+local and historical ties, there is a difference as great as that
+existing between the most distant provinces of Italy and France. They
+differ in language, in costume and in character, in race and in
+religion. The communal _regime_ has impressed on this nation an
+indelible stamp, because nowhere else has it so conformed to the
+nature of things. The interests of the country are divided into
+various groups, of whose organization the hydraulic system is an
+example. Hence association and mutual help against the common enemy,
+the sea, but freedom of action in local institutions. The monarchical
+_regime_ has not extinguished the ancient municipal spirit, which
+frustrated the efforts of all those great states that tried to absorb
+Holland. The great rivers and deep gulfs serve both as commercial
+roads which constitute a national bond between the various
+provinces, and as barriers which defend their ancient traditions and
+provincial customs. In this land, which is apparently so uniform, one
+may say that everything save the aspect of nature changes at every
+step--changes suddenly, too, as does nature itself, to the eye of one
+who crosses the frontier of this state for the first time.
+
+[Illustration: Dutch Fishing Boats.]
+
+But, however wonderful the physical history of Holland may be, its
+political history is even more marvellous. This little country,
+invaded first by different tribes of the Germanic race, subdued by the
+Romans and by the Franks, devastated by the Danes and by the Normans,
+and wasted for centuries by terrible civil wars,--this little nation
+of fishermen and merchants preserved its civil freedom and liberty of
+conscience by a war of eighty years' duration against the formidable
+monarchy of Philip II., and founded a republic which became the ark of
+salvation for the freedom of all peoples, the adopted home of the
+sciences, the exchange of Europe, the station of the world's commerce;
+a republic which extends its dominion to Java, Sumatra, Hindostan,
+Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of Good Hope, the
+West Indies, and New York; a republic that conquered England on the
+sea, that resisted the united armies of Charles II. and of Louis XIV.,
+that treated on terms of equality with the greatest nations, and for a
+time was one of the three powers that ruled the destinies of Europe.
+
+It is no longer the grand Holland of the eighteenth century, but it is
+still, next to England, the greatest colonizing state of the world. It has
+exchanged its former grandeur for a quiet prosperity; commerce has been
+limited, agriculture has increased; the republican government has lost its
+form rather than its substance, for a family of patriotic princes, dear to
+the people, govern peaceably in the midst of the ancient and the newer
+liberties. In Holland are to be found riches without ostentation, freedom
+without insolence, taxes without poverty. The country goes on its way
+without panics, without insurrections,--preserving, with its fundamental
+good sense, in its traditions, customs, and freedom, the imprint of its
+noble origin. It is perhaps amongst all European countries that nation in
+which there is the best public instruction and the least corruption.
+Alone, at the extremity of the continent, occupied with its waters and
+its colonies, it enjoys the fruits of its labors in peace without
+comment, and can proudly say that no nation in the world has purchased
+freedom of faith and liberty of government with greater sacrifices.
+
+Such were the thoughts that stimulated my curiosity one fine summer
+morning at Antwerp, as I was stepping into a ship that was to take me
+from the Scheldt to Zealand, the most mysterious province of the
+Netherlands.
+
+
+
+
+ZEALAND.
+
+
+If a teacher of geography had stopped me at some street-corner, before
+I had decided to visit Holland, and abruptly asked me, "Where is
+Zealand?" I should have had nothing to say; and I believe I am not
+mistaken in the supposition that a great number of my fellow-citizens,
+if asked the same question, would find it difficult to answer. Zealand
+is somewhat mysterious even to the Dutch themselves; very few of them
+have seen it, and of those few the greater part have only passed
+through it by boat; hence it is mentioned only on rare occasions, and
+then as if it were a far-off country. From the few words I heard
+spoken by my fellow-voyagers, I learned that they had never been to
+the province; so we were all equally curious, and the ship had not
+weighed anchor ere we entered into conversation, and were exciting
+each other's curiosity by questions which none of us could answer.
+
+The ship started at sunrise, and for a time we enjoyed the view of the
+spire of Antwerp Cathedral, wrought of Mechlin lace, as the enamoured
+Napoleon said of it.
+
+After a short stop at the fort of Lillo and the village of Doel, we
+left Belgium and entered Zealand.
+
+In passing the frontier of a country for the first time, although we
+know that the scene will not change suddenly, we always look round
+curiously as if we expect it to do so. In fact, all the passengers
+leaned over the rail of the boat, that they might be present when the
+apparition of Zealand should suddenly be revealed.
+
+For some time our curiosity was not gratified: nothing was to be seen
+but the smooth green shores of the Scheldt, wide as an arm of the sea,
+dotted with banks of sand, over which flew flocks of screaming
+sea-gulls, while the pure sky did not seem to be that of Holland.
+
+We were sailing between the island of South Beveland and the strip of
+land forming the left bank of the Scheldt, which is called Flanders of
+the States, or Flemish Zealand.
+
+The history of this piece of land is very curious. To a foreigner the
+entrance of Holland is like the first page of a great epic entitled,
+The Struggle with the Sea. In the Middle Ages it was nothing but a
+wide gulf with a few small islands. At the beginning of the sixteenth
+century this gulf was no longer in existence; four hundred years of
+patient labor had changed it into a fertile plain, defended by
+embankments, traversed by canals, populated by villages, and known as
+Flemish Zealand. When the war of independence broke out the
+inhabitants of Flemish Zealand, opened their dykes rather than yield
+their land to the Spanish armies: the sea rushed in, again forming the
+gulf of the Middle Ages, and destroying in one day the work of four
+centuries. When the war of independence was ended they began to drain
+it, and after three hundred years Flemish Zealand once more saw the
+light, and was restored to the continent like a child raised from the
+dead. Thus in Holland lands rise, sink, and reappear, like the realms
+of the Arabian Nights at the touch of a magic wand. Flemish Zealand,
+which is divided from Belgian Flanders by the double barrier of
+politics and religion, and from Holland by the Scheldt, preserves the
+customs, the beliefs, and the exact impress of the sixteenth century.
+The traditions of the war with Spain are still as real and living as
+the events of our own times. The soil is fertile, the inhabitants
+enjoy great prosperity, their manners are severe; they have schools
+and printing-presses, and live peacefully on their fragment of the
+earth which appeared but yesterday, to disappear again on that day
+when the sea shall demand it for a third burial. One of my
+fellow-travellers, a Belgian lady, who gave me this information, drew
+my attention to the fact that the inhabitants of Flemish Zealand were
+still Catholics when they inundated their land, although they had
+already rebelled against the Spanish dominion, and consequently it
+occurred, strangely enough, that the province went down Catholic and
+came up Protestant.
+
+Greatly to my surprise, the boat, instead of continuing down the
+Scheldt, and so making the circuit of the island of South Beveland,
+entered the island, when it reached a certain point, passing through a
+narrow canal that crosses or rather cuts the island apart, and so
+joins the two branches of the river that encircles it. This was the
+first Dutch canal through which I had passed: it was a new experience.
+The canal is bordered on either side by a dyke which hides the
+country. The ship glided on stealthily, as if it had taken some hidden
+road in order to spring out on some one unawares. There was not a
+single boat in the canal nor a living soul on the dykes, and the
+silence and solitude strengthened the impression that our course had
+the hidden air of a piratical incursion. On leaving the canal we
+entered the eastern branch of the Scheldt.
+
+We were now in the heart of Zealand. On the right was the island of
+Tholen; on the left, the island of North Beveland; behind, South
+Beveland; in front, Schouven. Excepting the island of Walcheren, we
+could now see all the principal islands of the mysterious archipelago.
+
+But the mystery consists in this--the islands are not seen, they must
+be imagined. To the right and left of the wide river, before and
+behind the ship, nothing was to be seen but the straight line of the
+embankments, like a green band on a level with the water, and beyond
+this streak, here and there, were tips of trees and of steeples, and
+the red ridges of roofs that seemed to be peeping over to see us pass.
+Not one hill, not one rise in the ground, not one house, could be
+discovered anywhere: all was hidden, all seemed immersed in water; it
+seemed that the islands were on the point of sinking into the river,
+and we glanced stealthily at each other to make sure we were still
+there. It seemed like going through a country during a flood, and it
+was an agreeable thought that we were in a ship. Every now and then
+the vessel stopped and some passengers for Zealand got into a boat and
+went ashore. Although I was eager to visit the province, I
+nevertheless regarded them with a feeling of compassion, imagining
+that those unreal islands were only monster whales about to dive into
+the water at the approach of the boats.
+
+The captain of our ship, a Hollander, stopped near me to examine a
+small map of Zealand which he held in his hand. I immediately seized
+the opportunity and overwhelmed him with questions. Fortunately, I had
+hit upon one of the few Dutchmen who, like us Italians, love the sound
+of their own voices.
+
+"Here in Zealand, even more than in other provinces," said he, as
+seriously as if he were a master giving a lesson, "the dykes are a
+question of life and death. At high tide all Zealand is below
+sea-level. For every dyke that were broken, an island would
+disappear. The worst of it is, that here the dykes have to resist not
+only the direct shock of the waves, but another power which is even
+more dangerous. The rivers fling themselves toward the sea,--the sea
+casts itself against the rivers, and in this continual struggle
+undercurrents are formed which wash the foundations of the
+embankments, until they suddenly give way like a wall that is
+undermined. The Zealanders must be continually on their guard. When a
+dyke is in danger, they make another one farther inland, and await the
+assault of the water behind it. Thus they gain time, and either
+rebuild the first embankment or continue to recede from fortress to
+fortress until the current changes and they are saved."
+
+"Is it not possible," I asked, introducing the element of poetry,
+"that some day Zealand may no longer exist?"
+
+"On the contrary," he replied, to my sorrow: "the day may come in
+which Zealand will no longer be an archipelago, but terra firma. The
+Scheldt and the Meuse continually bring down mud, which is deposited
+in the arms of the sea, and, rising little by little, enlarges the
+islands, thus enclosing the towns and villages that were ports on the
+coast. Axel, Goes, Veer, Arnemuyden, and Middelburg were maritime
+towns, and are now inland cities. Hence the day will surely come in
+which the waters of the rivers will no longer pass between the
+islands of Zealand, and a network of railways will extend over the
+whole country, which will be joined to the continent, as has already
+happened in the island of South Beveland. Zealand grows in its
+struggle with the sea. The sea may gain the victory in other parts of
+Holland, but here it will be worsted. Are you familiar with the arms
+of Zealand: a lion in the act of swimming, above which is written,
+'_Luctor et emergo_'?"
+
+After these words he remained silent for some moments, while a passing
+glance of pride enlivened his face: then he continued with his former
+gravity:
+
+"_Emergo_; but he did not always emerge. All the islands of Zealand,
+one after the other, have slept under the waters for longer or shorter
+periods of time. Three centuries ago the island of Schouwen was
+inundated by the sea, when all the inhabitants and cattle were drowned
+and it was reduced to a desert. The island of North Beveland was
+completely submerged shortly after, and for several years nothing was
+to be seen but the tips of the church-steeples peeping out of the
+water. The island of South Beveland shared the same fate toward the
+middle of the fourteenth century,--the island of Tholen suffered in
+the year 1825 of our century,--the island of Walcheren in 1808, and in
+the capital of Middelburg, although it is several miles distant from
+the coast, the water was up to the roofs."
+
+As I listened to these stories of the water, of inundations and
+submerged districts, it seemed strange to me that I myself was not
+drowned, I asked the captain what sort of people lived in those
+invisible countries, with water underfoot and overhead.
+
+"Farmers and shepherds," he answered. "We call Zealand a group of
+forts defended by a garrison of farmers and shepherds. Zealand is the
+richest agricultural province in the Netherlands. The alluvial soil of
+these islands is a marvel of fertility. Few countries can boast such
+wheat, colza, flax, and madder as it produces. Its people raise
+prodigious cattle and colossal horses, which are even larger than
+those of the Flemish breed. The people are strong and handsome; they
+preserve their ancient customs, and live contentedly in prosperity and
+peace. Zealand is a hidden paradise."
+
+While the captain was speaking the ship entered the Keeten Canal,
+which divides the island of Tholen from the island of Schouwen, and is
+famous for the ford across which the Spanish made their way in 1575,
+just as the eastern side of the Scheldt is famous for the passage they
+forced in 1572. All Zealand is full of memories of that war. Because
+of its intimate connection with William of Orange, the hereditary lord
+of a great part of the land in the islands, and by reason of the
+impediments of every kind that it could oppose to invaders, this
+little archipelago of sand, half buried in the sea, became the
+theatre of war and heresy, and the duke of Alva longed to possess it.
+Consequently terrible struggles raged on its shores, signalised by all
+the horrors of battles by land and sea. The soldiers forded the canals
+by night in a dense throng, the water up to their throats, menaced by
+the tide, beaten by the rain, with volleys of musketry pouring down
+the banks, their horses and artillery swallowed in the mud, the
+wounded swept away by the current or buried alive in the quagmires.
+The air resounded with German, Spanish, Italian, and Flemish voices.
+Torches illuminated the great arquebuses, the pompous plumes, the
+strange, blanched faces. The battles seemed to be fantastic funerals.
+They were, in fact, the funerals of the great Spanish monarchy, which
+was slowly drowned in Dutch waters, smothered with mud and curses. One
+who is weak enough to feel an excessive tenderness for Spain need only
+go to Holland if he wishes to do penance for this sin. Never,
+perchance, have there been two nations which have had better reasons
+than these to hate each other with all their strength, or which tried
+with greater fury to establish those reasons. I remember, to mention
+one alone of a thousand contrasts, how it impressed me to hear Philip
+II. spoken of in terms so different from those used in the Pyrenees a
+few months before. In Spain his lowest title was _the great king_: in
+Holland they called him a _cowardly tyrant_.
+
+The ship passed between the island of Schouwen and the little island
+of St. Philipsland, and a few moments later entered the wide branch of
+the Meuse called Krammer, which divides the island of Overflakkee from
+the continent. We seemed to be sailing through a chain of large lakes.
+The distant banks presented the same appearance as those of the
+Scheldt. Dykes stretched as far as the eye could see, and behind the
+dykes appeared the tops of trees, the tips of steeples, and the roofs
+of houses, which were hidden from view, all lending the landscape an
+air of mystery and solitude. Only on some projection of the banks
+which formed a gap in the immense bulwarks of the island peeped forth,
+as it were, a sketch of a Dutch landscape--a painted cottage, a
+windmill, a boat--which seemed to reveal a secret created to arouse
+the curiosity of travellers, and to delude it directly it was aroused.
+
+Suddenly, on approaching the prow of the ship, where were the
+third-class passengers, I made a most agreeable discovery. Here was a
+group of peasants, men and women, dressed in the costume of Zealand--I
+do not remember of which island, for the costume differs in each, like
+the dialect, which is a mixture of Dutch and Flemish, if one may so
+speak of two languages that are almost identical. The men were all
+dressed alike. They wore round felt hats trimmed with wide embroidered
+ribbons; their jackets were of dark cloth, close fitting, and so short
+as hardly to cover their hips, and left open to show a sort of
+waistcoat striped with red, yellow, and green, which was closed over
+the chest by a row of silver buttons attached to one another like the
+links of a chain. Their costume was completed by a pair of short
+breeches of the same color as the jacket, tied round the waist by a
+band ornamented by a large stud of chiselled silver,--a red cravat,
+and woollen stockings reaching to the knee. In short, below the waist
+their dress was that of a priest, and above it, that of a harlequin.
+One of them had coins for buttons, and this is not an unusual
+practice. The women wore very high straw hats in the form of a broken
+cone, which looked like overturned buckets, bound round with long blue
+ribbons fluttering in the wind; their dresses were dark-colored, open
+at the throat, revealing white embroidered chemisettes; their arms
+were bare to the elbow; and two enormous gold earrings of the most
+eccentric shape projected almost over their cheeks. Although in my
+voyage I tried to imitate Victor Hugo in admiring everything as a
+savage, I could not possibly persuade myself that this was a beautiful
+style of dress. But I was prepared for incongruities of this sort. I
+knew that we go to Holland to see novelty rather than beauty, and good
+things rather than new ones, so I was predisposed to observe rather
+than to be enthusiastic. If that first impression was not very
+pleasant to my artistic taste, I consoled myself by the thought that
+doubtless all those peasants could read and write, and that possibly
+on the previous evening they had learned by heart a poem of their
+great poet, Jacob Catz, and that they were probably on their way to
+some agricultural convention of which the programme was in their
+pockets, where with arguments drawn from their modest experience they
+would confute the propositions of some scientific farmer from Goes or
+Middelburg. Ludovico Guicciardini, a Florentine nobleman, the author
+of an excellent work on the Netherlands printed in Antwerp in the
+sixteenth century, says that there was hardly a man or woman in
+Zealand who did not speak French or Spanish, and that a great many
+spoke Italian. This statement, which was perhaps an exaggeration in
+his day, would now be a fable, but it is certain that amongst the
+rural inhabitants of Zealand there exists an extraordinary
+intellectual culture, far superior to that of the peasants of France,
+Belgium, Germany, and many other provinces of Holland.
+
+The ship rounded the island of Philipsland, and we found ourselves
+outside of Zealand.
+
+Thus this province, mysterious before we entered it, seemed doubly so when
+we had quitted it. We had traversed it and had not seen it, and we left it
+with our curiosity ungratified. The only thing we had perceived was that
+Zealand is a country hidden from view. But one is deceived who thinks it
+is mysterious for the sole reason that it is invisible--everything in
+Zealand is a mystery. First of all,--How was it formed? Was it a group of
+tiny alluvial islands, uninhabited and separated only by canals, which, as
+some believe, met and formed larger islands? Or was it, as others think,
+terra firma when the Scheldt emptied itself into the Meuse? But, even
+leaving its origin out of the question, in what other country in the world
+do things happen as they happen in Zealand? In what other country do the
+fishermen catch in their nets a siren whose husband, after vain prayers to
+have her restored, in vengeance throws up a handful of sand, prophesying
+that it will bury the gates of the town--and lo his prophecy is fulfilled?
+In what other country do the souls of those lost at sea come as they come
+to Walcheren, and awaken the fishermen with the demand that they be
+conducted to the coasts of England? In what other country do the
+sea-storms fling, as they do on the banks of the island of Schouwen,
+carcasses borne from the farthest north--monsters half men, half boats;
+mummies bound in the floating trunks of trees, of which an example is
+still to be seen at the guildhall of Zierikzee? In what country, as at
+Wemeldingen, does a man fall head foremost into a canal, where, remaining
+under water an hour, he sees his dead wife and children, who call to him
+from Paradise, and is then drawn out of the water alive, whereupon he
+relates this miracle to Victor Hugo, who believes it and comments on it,
+concluding that the soul may leave the body for some time and then return
+to it? Where, as near Domburg, at low water is it possible to draw up
+ancient temples and statues of unknown deities? In what other place does
+the sword of a Spanish captain, Mondragone, serve as a lightning-conductor,
+as at Wemeldingen? In what other country are unfaithful women made to walk
+naked through the streets of the town with two stones hung round the neck
+and a cylinder of iron on the head, as in the island of Schouwen? Now,
+really, this last marvel is no longer seen, but the stones still exist,
+and any one can see them in the guildhall at Brauwershaven.
+
+Our ship now entered that part of the southern branch of the Meuse
+called Volkerak. The scene was just the same--dykes upon dykes, the
+tips of houses and church-steeples, a few boats here and there. One
+thing only was changed, the sky. I then saw for the first time the
+Dutch sky as it usually appears, and witnessed one of those battles of
+light peculiar to the Netherlands--battles which the great Dutch
+landscape-artists have painted with insuperable power. Previously the
+sky had been serene. It was a beautiful summer day: the waters were
+blue, the banks emerald green, the air warm, with not a breath of wind
+stirring. Suddenly a thick cloud hid the sun, and in less time than it
+takes to tell it everything was as different as if the season, the
+hour, and the latitude had all been changed in a moment. The waters
+became dark, the green of the banks grew dull, the horizon was hidden
+under a gray veil; everything seemed shrouded in a twilight which made
+all things lose their outline. An evil wind arose, chilling us to the
+bone. It seemed to be December; we felt the chill of winter and that
+restlessness which accompanies every sudden menace on the part of
+nature. All round the horizon small leaden-colored clouds began to
+collect, scudding rapidly along, as though searching impatiently for a
+direction and a shape. Then the waters began to ripple, and became
+streaked with rapid luminous reflections, with long stripes of green,
+violet, white, ochre, black. Finally this irritation of nature ended
+in a violent downpour, which confused sky, water, and earth in one
+gray mass, broken only by a lighter tone caused by the far-off banks,
+and by some sailing ships, which came into view here and there like
+upright shadows on the waters of the river.
+
+"Now we are really in Holland," said the captain of the ship,
+approaching a group of passengers who were contemplating the
+spectacle. "Such sudden changes of scene," he continued, "are never
+seen anywhere else."
+
+Then, in answer to a question from one of us, he ran on:
+
+"Holland has a meteorology quite her own. The winter is long, the
+summer short, the spring is only the end of the winter, but
+nevertheless, you see, every now and then, even during the summer, we
+have a touch of winter. We always say that in Holland the four seasons
+may be seen in one day. Our sky is the most changeable in the world.
+This is the reason why we are always talking of the weather, for the
+atmosphere is the most variable spectacle we have. If we wish to see
+something that will entertain us, we must look upward. But it is a
+dull climate. The sea sends us rain on three sides: the winds break
+loose over the country even on the finest days; the ground exhales
+vapors that darken the horizon; for several months the air has no
+transparency. You should see the winter. There are days when you would
+say it would never be fine again: the darkness seems to come from
+above like the light; the north-east wind brings us the icy air from
+the North Pole, and lashes the sea with such fury and roaring that it
+seems as though it would destroy the coasts." Here he turned to me and
+said, smiling, "You are better off in Italy." Then he grew serious and
+added, "However, every country has its good and bad side."
+
+The boat left the Volkerak, passed in front of the fortress of
+Willemstadt, built in 1583 by the Prince of Orange, and entered
+Hollandsdiep, a wide branch of the Meuse which separates South Holland
+from North Brabant. All that we saw from the ship was a wide expanse
+of water, two dark stripes to the right and left, and a gray sky. A
+French lady, breaking the general silence, exclaimed with a yawn,
+
+"How beautiful is Holland!"
+
+All of us laughed excepting the Dutch passengers.
+
+"Ah, captain," began a little old Belgian, one of those pillars of the
+coffee-house who are always thrusting their politics in the faces of
+their fellows, "there is a good and a bad side to every country, and
+we Belgians and Dutchmen ought to have been persuaded of this truth,
+and then we should have been indulgent toward each other and have
+lived in harmony. When one thinks that we are now a nation of nine
+millions of inhabitants,--we with our industries and you with your
+commerce, with two such capitals as Amsterdam and Brussels, and two
+commercial towns like Antwerp and Rotterdam, we should count for
+something in this world, eh, captain?"
+
+The captain did not answer. Another Dutchman said:
+
+"Yes, with a religious war twelve months in the year."
+
+The little old Belgian, somewhat put out, now addressed his remarks to
+me in a low tone: "It is a fact, sir. It was stupid, especially on our
+part. You will see Holland. Amsterdam is certainly not Brussels; it is
+as flat and wearisome a country as can well be; but as to prosperity
+it is far beyond us. Assure yourself that they spend a florin, which
+is two and a half francs, where we spend a franc. You will see it in
+your hotel bills. They are twice as rich as we are. It was all the
+fault of William the First, who wished to make a Dutch Belgium and has
+pushed us to extremes. You know how it happened"--and so on.
+
+In Hollandsdiep we began to see big barges, small-fishing-boats, and
+some large ships that had come from Hellevoetsluis, an important
+maritime port on the right bank of the Haringvliet, a branch of the
+Meuse, near its mouth, where nearly every vessel from India stops. The
+rain ceased. The sky, gradually, unwillingly, became serene, and on a
+sudden the waters and the banks were clothed once more in fresh
+glowing colors: it was summer again.
+
+In a little while the vessel reached the village of Moerdyk, where one
+of the largest bridges in the world is to be seen.
+
+It is an iron structure a mile and a half long, over which passes the
+railway to Dordrecht and Rotterdam. From a distance it looks like
+fourteen enormous edifices put in line across the river: each one of
+the fourteen high arches supporting the tracks is in truth a huge
+edifice. In passing over it, as I did a few months later on my return
+to Holland, I saw nothing but sky and water, so wide is the river at
+this point, and I felt almost afraid the bridge might suddenly come to
+an end, and plunge the train into the water.
+
+[Illustration: Dordrecht--Canal with Cathedral in the Distance.]
+
+The boat turned to the left, passing in front of the bridge, and
+entered a very narrow branch of the Meuse called Dordsche Kil, which
+had dykes on either side, and hence looked more like a canal than a
+river. It was already the seventh turn we had made since we crossed
+the frontier.
+
+Passing down the Dordsche Kil, we began to see signs of the proximity
+of a large town. There were long rows of trees on the banks, bushes,
+cottages, canals to the right and left, and much moving of boats and
+barges. The passengers became more animated, and here and there were
+heard exclamations of "Dordrecht! we shall see Dordrecht." All seemed
+preparing themselves for some extraordinary scene.
+
+The spectacle was not long delayed, and was extraordinary indeed.
+
+The boat turned for the eighth time, to the right, and entered the
+Oude Maas or Old Meuse.
+
+In a few moments the first houses of the suburbs around Dordrecht came
+into view. It was a sudden apparition of Holland, a gratification of
+our curiosity immediate and complete, a revelation of all the
+mysteries which were tormenting our brains: we seemed to be in a new
+world.
+
+Immense windmills with revolving arms were to be seen on every side;
+houses of a thousand extraordinary shapes were dotted along the banks:
+some were like villas, others like pavilions, kiosks, cottages,
+chapels, theatres,--their roofs red, their walls black, blue, pink,
+and gray, their doors and windows encircled with white borders like
+drifts of snow. Canals little and big were leading in every direction;
+in front of the houses and along the canals were groups and rows of
+trees; ships glided among the cottages and boats were moored before
+the doors; sails shone in the streets--masts, pennons, and the arms of
+windmills projected in confusion above the trees and roofs. Bridges,
+stairways, gardens on the water, a thousand corners, little docks,
+creeks, openings, crossways on the canals, hiding-places for the
+boats, men, women, and children passing each other on the ways from
+the river to the bank, from the canals to their houses, from the
+bridges to the barges,--all these made the scene one of motion and
+variety. Everywhere was water,--color, new forms, childish figures,
+little details, all glossy and fresh,--an ingenuous display of
+prettiness--a mixture of the primitive and the theatrical, of grace
+and absurdity, which was partly European, partly Chinese, partly
+belonging to no land,--and over all a delightful air of peace and
+innocence.
+
+So Dordrecht flashed upon me for the first time, the oldest and at the
+same time the freshest and brightest town of Holland, the queen of
+Dutch commerce in the Middle Ages--the mother of painters and
+scholars. Honored in 1572 by the first meeting within its walls of the
+deputies of the United Provinces, it was also at different times the
+seat of memorable synods, and was particularly famous for that
+meeting of the protestant theologians in 1618, the Ecumenical Council
+of the Reformation, which decided the terrible religious dispute
+between Arminians and Gomarists, established the form of national
+worship, and gave rise to that series of disturbances and persecutions
+which ended with the unfortunate murder of Barneveldt and the
+sanguinary triumph of Maurice of Orange. Dordrecht, because of its
+easy communication with the sea, with Belgium, and with the interior
+of Holland, is still one of the most flourishing commercial towns of
+the United Provinces. To Dordrecht come the immense supplies of wood
+which are brought down the Rhine from the Black Forest and
+Switzerland--the Rhine wines, the lime, the cement and the stone; in
+its little port there is a continual movement of snowy sails and of
+smoking steamers, while little flags bring greetings from Arnhem,
+Bois-le-Duc, Nimeguen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, and from all their
+mysterious sisters in Zealand.
+
+The boat stopped for a few minutes at Dordrecht, and I unexpectedly
+observed near by a number of fresh little cottages which were purely
+Dutch, and which aroused in me the greatest desire to land and make
+their acquaintance. But I conquered my curiosity by the thought that
+at Rotterdam I should see many such sights. The boat started, turned
+to the left (it was the ninth turning), and entered a narrow branch
+of the Meuse called De Noord, one of the numerous threads of that
+inextricable network of the waters which covers Southern Holland.
+
+The captain approached me as I was looking for him to explain the
+position of Dordrecht on the map, for it seemed to me very singular.
+In fact, it is singular. Dordrecht is situated at the extremity of a
+piece of ground separated from the continent, and forming in the midst
+of the land an island crossed and recrossed by numerous streams, some
+of which are natural, some the work of man, rivers made half by man,
+half by nature--a bit of Holland encircled and imprisoned by the
+waters, like a battalion overcome by an army. It is bounded on the
+four sides by the river Merwede, the ancient Mosa, the Dordsche Kil,
+and the archipelago of Bies-Bosch, and is crossed by the New Merwede,
+a large artificial water-course. The imprisonment of this piece of
+land on which Dordrecht lies is an episode in one of the great battles
+fought by Holland with the waters. The archipelago of Bies-Bosch did
+not exist before the fifteenth century. In its place there was a
+beautiful plain covered with populous villages. During the night of
+the 18th of November, 1431, the waters of the Waal and the Meuse broke
+the dykes, destroyed more than seventy villages, drowned almost a
+hundred thousand souls, and broke up the plain into a thousand
+islands, leaving in the midst of this ruin one upright tower called
+Merwede House, the ruins of which are still visible. Thus was
+Dordrecht separated from the continent, and the archipelago of
+Bies-Bosch made its appearance, which, as though to show its right of
+existence, provides hay, reeds, and rushes to a little village which
+hangs like a swallow's nest on one of the neighboring dykes. But this
+is not all that is remarkable in the history of Dordrecht. Tradition
+relates, many believe, and some uphold, that at the time of this
+remarkable inundation Dordrecht--yes, the whole town of Dordrecht,
+with its houses, mills, and canals--made a short journey, like an army
+moving camp; that is to say, it was transported from one place to
+another with its foundations intact: in consequence whereof the
+inhabitants of the neighboring villages, coming to the town after the
+catastrophe, found nothing where it had been. One can imagine their
+consternation. This prodigy is explained by the fact that Dordrecht is
+founded on a stratum of clay, which had slipped on to the mass of turf
+which forms the basis of the soil. Such is the story as I heard it.
+
+Before the vessel left the Noord Canal the hope of seeing my first
+Dutch sunset was disappointed by another sudden change in the weather.
+The sky was obscured, the waters became livid, and the horizon
+disappeared behind a thick veil of mist.
+
+The ship entered the Meuse, and turned for the tenth time, to the
+left. At this point the Meuse is very wide, as it carries away and
+imprisons the waters of the Waal, the largest branch of the Rhine, and
+the waters of the Leck and Yssel also empty themselves into it. Its
+banks are flanked on either side by long rows of trees, and are dotted
+with houses, workshops, manufactories, and arsenals, which grow
+thicker as Rotterdam is approached.
+
+However little acquainted one may be with the physical history of
+Holland, the first time one sees the Meuse and thinks of its memorable
+overflowings, of the thousand calamities and innumerable victims of
+that capricious and terrible river, one regards it with a sort of
+uneasy curiosity, much as one looks at a famous brigand. The eye rests
+on the dykes with a feeling almost of satisfaction and gratitude, as
+on the brigand when he is safely handcuffed and in the hands of the
+police.
+
+While my eyes were roving in search of Rotterdam, a Dutch passenger
+told how, when the Meuse is frozen, the currents, coming unexpectedly
+from warmer regions, strike the ice that covers the river, break it,
+upheave enormous blocks with a terrific crash, and hurl them against
+the dykes, piling them in immense heaps which choke the course of the
+river and make it overflow. Then begins a strange battle. The Dutch
+answer the threats of the Meuse with cannonade. The artillery is
+called out, volleys of grape-shot break the towers and barricades of
+ice which oppose the current, into a storm of splinters and briny
+hail. "We Hollanders," concluded the passenger, "are the only people
+who have to take up arms against the rivers."
+
+When we came in sight of Rotterdam it was growing dark and
+drizzling. Through the thick mist I could barely see a great confusion
+of ships, houses, windmills, towers, trees, and moving figures on
+dykes and bridges. There were lights everywhere. It was a great city
+different in appearance from any I had seen before, but fog and
+darkness soon hid it from my view. By the time I had taken leave of my
+fellow-travellers and had gathered my luggage together, it was night.
+"So much the better," I said getting into a cab. "I shall see for the
+first time a Dutch city by night; this must indeed be a novel
+spectacle." In fact, Bismarck, when at Rotterdam, wrote to his wife
+that at night he saw "phantoms on the roofs."
+
+
+
+
+ROTTERDAM.
+
+
+One cannot learn much about Rotterdam by entering it at night. The cab
+passed directly over a bridge that gave out a hollow sound, and while
+I believed myself to be--and, in fact, was--in the city, to my
+surprise I saw on either side a row of ships which were soon lost in
+the darkness. When we had crossed the bridge we drove along streets
+brightly lighted and full of people, and reached another bridge, to
+find ourselves between other rows of ships. So we went on for some
+time, from bridge to street, from street to bridge. To increase the
+confusion, there was everywhere an illumination such as I had never
+seen before. There were lamps at the corners of the streets, lanterns
+on the ships, beacons on the bridges, lights in the windows, and
+smaller lights under the houses,--all of which were reflected by the
+water. Suddenly the cab stopped in the midst of a crowd of people. I
+put my head out of the window, and saw a bridge suspended in mid-air.
+I asked what was the matter, and some one answered that a ship was
+passing. In a moment we were again on our way, and I had a peep at a
+tangle of canals crossing and recrossing each other, and of bridges
+that seemed to form a large square full of masts and studded with
+lights. Then, at last, we turned a corner and arrived at the hotel.
+
+The first thing I did on entering my room was to examine it to see if
+it sustained the great fame of Dutch cleanliness. It did indeed; and
+this was the more to be admired in a hotel, almost always occupied by
+a profane race, which has no reverence for what might be called in
+Holland the worship of cleanliness. The linen was white as snow, the
+windows were transparent as air, the furniture shone like crystal, the
+walls were so clean that one could not have found a spot with a
+microscope. Besides this, there was a basket for waste paper, a little
+tablet on which to strike matches, a slab for cigar-ashes, a box for
+cigar-stumps, a spittoon, a boot-jack, in short, there was absolutely
+no excuse for soiling anything.
+
+When I had surveyed my room, I spread the map of Rotterdam on the
+table, and began to make my plans for the morrow.
+
+It is a singular fact that the large towns of Holland have remarkably
+regular forms, although they were built on unstable land and with
+great difficulty. Amsterdam is a semicircle, the Hague is a square,
+Rotterdam an equilateral triangle. The base of the triangle is an
+immense dyke, protecting the town from the Meuse, and known as the
+Boompjes, which in Dutch means little trees,--the name being derived
+from a row of elms that were planted when the embankment was built,
+and are now grown to a great size. Another large dyke, dividing the
+city into two almost equal parts, forms a second bulwark against the
+inundations of the river, extending from the middle of the left side
+of the triangle to the opposite angle. The part of Rotterdam which
+lies between the two dykes consists of large canals, islands, and
+bridges: this is the modern town; the other part, lying beyond the
+second dyke, is the old town. Two large canals extend along the other
+two sides of the city up to the vertex, where they join and meet a
+river called the Rotte, which name, prefixed to the word dam, meaning
+dyke, gives Rotterdam.
+
+When I had thus performed my duty as a conscientious traveller, and
+had observed a thousand precautions against defiling, even with a
+breath, the spotless purity of that jewel of a room, I entered my
+first Dutch bed with the timidity of a country bumpkin.
+
+Dutch beds--I am speaking of those to be found in the hotels--are
+usually short and wide, with an enormous eider-down pillow which would
+bury the head of a cyclops. In order to omit nothing, I must add that
+the light is generally a copper candlestick as large as a plate, which
+might hold a torch, but contains instead a short candle as thin as the
+little finger of a Spanish lady.
+
+In the morning I dressed in haste, and ran rapidly down stairs.
+
+What streets, what houses, what a town, what a mixture of novelties
+for a foreigner,--a scene how different from any to be witnessed
+elsewhere in Europe!
+
+First of all, I saw Hoog-Straat, a long straight roadway running along
+the inner dyke of the city.
+
+Most of the houses are built of unplastered brick, ranging in color
+through all the shades of red from black to pink. They are only wide
+enough to give room for two windows, and are but two stories in
+height. The front walls overtop and conceal the roofs, running up and
+terminating in blunted triangles surmounted by gables. Some of them
+have pointed facades, some are elevated in two curves, and resemble a
+long neck without a head; others are indented step-fashion, like the
+houses children build with blocks; others look like conical pavilions;
+others like country churches; others, again, like puppet-shows. These
+gables are generally outlined with white lines and ornamented in
+execrable taste; many have coarse arabesques painted in relief on
+plaster. The windows, and the doors too, are bordered with broad white
+lines; there are other white lines between the different stories of
+the houses; the spaces between the house-and shop-doors are filled in
+with white woodwork; so all along the street white and dark red are
+the only colors to be seen. From a distance all the houses produce an
+effect of black trimmed with strips of linen, and present an
+appearance partly festal, partly funereal, leaving one in doubt
+whether they enliven or depress. At first sight I felt inclined to
+laugh: it seemed impossible that these houses were not playthings and
+that serious people could live inside them. I should have said that
+after the fete for which they had been constructed they must disappear
+like paper frames built for a display of fireworks.
+
+While I was vaguely regarding the street I saw a house which amazed
+me. I thought I must be mistaken: I looked at it more closely,--looked
+at the houses near it, compared them with the first house and then
+with each other, and even then I believed that it was an optical
+illusion. I turned hastily down a side street, and still I seemed to
+see the same thing. At last I was persuaded that the fault was not
+with my eyes, but with the entire city.
+
+All Rotterdam is like a city that has reeled and rocked in an
+earthquake, and has still remained standing, though apparently on the
+verge of ruin.
+
+All the houses--the exceptions in each street are so few they can be
+counted on one's fingers--are inclined more or less, and the greater
+number lean so much that the roof of one projects half a meter beyond
+that of the next house if it happens to be straight or but slightly
+inclined. The strangest part of it all is, that adjoining houses lean
+in different directions; one will lean forward as if it were going to
+topple over, another backward, some to the right, others to the left.
+In some places, where six or seven neighboring houses all lean
+forward, those in the middle being most inclined, they form a curve,
+like a railing that is bent by the pressure of a crowd. In some places
+two houses which stand close together bend toward each other, as if
+for mutual support. In certain streets for some distance all the
+houses lean sideways, like trees which the wind has blown one against
+the other; then again, they all lean in the opposite direction, like
+another row of trees bent by a contrary wind. In some places there is
+a regularity in the inclination, which makes the effect less
+noticeable. On certain crossways and in some of the smaller streets
+there is an indescribable confusion, a real architectural riot, a
+dance of houses, a disorder that seems animated. There are houses that
+appear to fall forward, overcome by sleep; others that throw
+themselves backward as if in fright; some lean toward each other till
+their roofs almost touch, as if they were confiding secrets; some reel
+against each other as though tipsy; a few lean backward between others
+that lean forward, like malefactors being dragged away by policemen.
+Rows of houses seem to be bowing to church-steeples; other groups are
+paying attention to one house in their centre, and seem to be plotting
+against some palace. I will soon let you into the secret of all this.
+
+[Illustration: In Rotterdam.]
+
+But it is neither the shape of the houses nor their inclination that
+seemed to me the most curious thing about them.
+
+One must observe them carefully, one by one, from top to bottom, and
+in their diversity they are as interesting as a picture.
+
+In some of the houses, in the middle of the gable, at the top of the
+facade, a crooked beam projects, fitted with a pulley and a piece of
+cord to raise and lower buckets or baskets. In others, a stag's,
+sheep's, or goat's head looks down from a little round window. Under
+this head there is a line of whitewashed stones or a wooden beam which
+cuts the facade in two. Below the beam there are two large windows,
+shaded by awnings like canopies, under which hang little green
+curtains, over the upper panes of the window. Under the green curtain
+are two white curtains, draped back to reveal a swinging bird-cage or
+a hanging basket full of flowers. Below this flower-basket screening
+the lower window-panes there is a frame with a very fine wire netting,
+which prevents pedestrians from looking into the rooms. Behind the
+wire netting, in the divisions between the netting and the framework
+of the window, there are tables ornamented with china, glass, flowers,
+statuettes and other trifles. On the stone sills of windows which open
+into the street there is a row of little flower-pots. In the middle or
+at one side of the window-sill there is a curved iron hook which
+supports two movable mirrors joined like the backs of a book,
+surmounted by a third movable glass, so arranged that from within the
+house one can see everything that happens in the street without one's
+self being seen. In some houses a lantern projects between the
+windows. Below the windows is the house-door or shop-door. If it be a
+shop-door, there will be carved above it either a negro's head with
+the mouth wide open or the smirking face of a Turk. Sometimes the sign
+is an elephant, a goose, a horse's head, a bull, a serpent, a
+half-moon, a windmill, and sometimes an outstretched arm holding some
+article that is for sale in the shop. If it be a house-door--in which
+case it is always kept closed--it bears a brass plate on which is
+written the name of the tenant, another plate with an opening for
+letters, and a third plate on the wall holding the bell-handle. The
+plates, nails, and locks are all kept shining like gold. Before the
+door there is frequently a little wooden bridge--for in many houses
+the ground floor is made lower than the street--and in front of the
+bridge are two small stone pillars surmounted by two balls; below
+these stand other pillars united by iron chains made of large links in
+the shape of crosses, stars, and polygons. In the space between the
+street and the house are pots of flowers. On the window-seats of the
+basement, hidden in the hollow, are more flowers and curtains. In the
+less frequented streets there are bird-cages on either side of the
+windows, boxes full of growing plants, clothes and linen hung out to
+dry. Indeed, innumerable articles of varied colors dangle and swing
+about, so that it all seems like a great fair.
+
+But without quitting the old town one need only walk toward its
+outskirts in order to see novel sights at every step.
+
+In passing through certain of the straight, narrow streets one
+suddenly sees before him, as it were, a curtain that has fallen and
+cut off the view. It is immediately withdrawn, and one perceives that
+it is the sail of a ship passing down one of the canals. At the foot
+of other streets a network of ropes seems to be stretched between the
+two end houses to stop the passage. This is the rigging of a ship that
+is anchored at one of the docks. On other streets there are
+drawbridges surmounted by long parallel boards, presenting a fantastic
+appearance, as though they were gigantic swings for the amusement of
+the light-hearted people living in these peculiar houses. Other
+streets have at the foot windmills as high as a steeple and black as
+an ancient tower, turning and twisting their arms like large wheels
+revolving over the roofs of the neighboring houses. Everywhere, in
+short, among the houses, over the roofs, in the midst of the distant
+trees, we see the masts of ships, pennons, sails, and what not, to
+remind us that we are surrounded by water, and that the city is built
+in the very middle of the port.
+
+In the mean time, the shops have opened and the streets have become
+animated.
+
+There is a great stir of people, who are busy, but not hurried: this
+absence of hurry distinguishes the streets of Rotterdam from those of
+certain parts of London, which, from the color of the houses and the
+serious faces of the citizens, remind many travellers of the Dutch
+city. Faces white and pale--faces the color of Parmesan cheese--faces
+encircled by hair flaxen, golden, red, and yellowish--large shaven
+faces with beards below the chin--eyes so light that one has to look
+closely to see the pupil--sturdy women, plump, pink-cheeked, and
+placid, wearing white caps and earrings shaped like corkscrews,--such
+are the first things one observes in the crowd.
+
+But my curiosity for the present was not aroused by the people. I
+crossed Hoog-Straat and found myself in new Rotterdam.
+
+One cannot decide whether it is a city or a harbor, whether there is
+more land than water, or whether the ships are more numerous than the
+houses.
+
+The town is divided by long, wide canals into many islands, which are
+united by drawbridges, turning bridges, and stone bridges. From both
+sides of each canal extend two streets, with rows of trees on the side
+next to the water and lines of houses on the opposite side. Each of
+these canals forms a port where the water is deep enough to float the
+largest vessels, and every one of them is full of shipping throughout
+its length, a narrow space being kept clear in the middle which serves
+as a thoroughfare for the vessels. It seems like a great fleet
+imprisoned in a town.
+
+I arrived at the hour of greatest activity, and took my stand on the
+highest bridge of the principal crossway.
+
+Thence I could see four canals, four forests of ships, flanked on
+either side by eight rows of trees.
+
+The streets were encumbered with people and merchandise. Droves of
+cattle passed over the bridges, which were being raised and swung to
+let the ships pass. The moment they closed or lowered again fresh
+crowds of people, carriages, and carts passed over them. Ships as
+fresh and shining as the models in a museum passed in and out of the
+canals, carrying on their decks the wives and children of the sailors,
+while smaller boats glided rapidly from ship to ship. Customers
+thronged the shops. Servants were washing the walls and windows. This
+busy scene with all its movement was made yet more cheerful by its
+reflection in the water,--by the green of the trees, the red of the
+houses, by the high windmills, whose black tops and white wings were
+outlined against the blue sky, and still more by an air of repose and
+simplicity never seen in any other northern town.
+
+I examined a Dutch ship attentively.
+
+Almost all of the vessels which are crowded in the canals of Rotterdam
+sail only on the Rhine and in Holland. They have only one mast, and
+are broad and strongly built. They are painted in various colors like
+toy boats. The planks of the hull are generally of a bright grass
+green, ornamented at the edge by a white or bright-red stripe, or by
+several stripes which look like broad bands of different colored
+ribbons. The poop is usually gilded. The decks and the masts are
+varnished and polished like the daintiest drawing-room floor. The
+hatches, the buckets, the barrels, the sailyards and the small planks
+are all painted red, and striped with white or blue. The cabin in
+which the families of the sailors live is also colored like a Chinese
+joss-house; its windows are scrupulously clean, and are hung with
+white embroidered curtains tied with pink ribbons. In all their spare
+moments the sailors, the women, and the children are washing,
+brushing, and scrubbing everything with the greatest care; and when
+their vessel makes its exit from the port, all bright and pompous like
+a triumphal car, they stand proudly erect on the poop and search for a
+mute compliment in the eyes of the people who are gathered along the
+canal.
+
+Passing from canal to canal, from bridge to bridge, I arrived at the
+dyke of the Boompjes, in front of the Meuse, where is centred the
+whole life of this great commercial town. To the left extends a long
+line of gay little steamers, which leave every hour of the day for
+Dordrecht, Arnhem, Gouda, Schiedam, Briel, and Zealand. They are
+continually filling the air with the lively sound of their bells and
+with clouds of white smoke. To the right are the larger vessels that
+run between the different European ports, and among them are to be
+seen the beautiful three-masted ships that sail to and from the East
+Indies, with their names, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Samarang, written on
+them in letters of gold, bringing to the imagination those far-off
+ports and savage nations like the echo of far-off voices. In front,
+the Meuse is crowded by numbers of boats and barges, while its
+opposite bank is covered with a forest of beech trees, windmills, and
+workshop chimneys. Above this scene is a restless sky, with flashes of
+light mingling with ominous darkness, with scudding clouds and
+changing forms, which seemed to be trying to reproduce the busy
+activity of the earth.
+
+Rotterdam, with the exception of Amsterdam, is the most important
+commercial city in Holland. It was a flourishing commercial town as
+early as the thirteenth century. Ludovico Guicciardini, in his work on
+the Netherlands which I have already mentioned, tells, in proof of the
+riches of the town, that in the sixteenth century within a year it
+rebuilt nine hundred houses which had been destroyed by fire.
+Bentivoglio, in his history of the war of Flanders, calls it "the
+greatest and the most important commercial town that Holland
+possesses." But its greatest prosperity dates only from 1830; that is
+to say, after the separation of Holland from Belgium, which brought to
+Rotterdam all that prosperity of which it deprived her rival, Antwerp.
+Her situation is most advantageous. By means of the Meuse she
+communicates with the sea, and this river can carry the largest
+merchantmen into her ports in a few hours; through the same river she
+communicates with the Rhine, which brings her whole forests from the
+mountains of Switzerland and Bavaria--an immense quantity of timber,
+which in Holland is changed into ships, dykes, and villages. More than
+eighty splendid ships come and go between Rotterdam and India in the
+space of nine months. From every port merchandise pours in with such
+abundance that it has to be divided among the neighboring towns.
+Meanwhile, Rotterdam increases in size: the citizens are now
+constructing vast new store-houses, and are now working on a huge
+bridge which will span the Meuse and cross the entire town, thus
+extending the railway, which now stops on the left bank of the river,
+as far as the gate of Delft, where it will join the railway of the
+Hague.
+
+In short, Rotterdam has a more brilliant future than Amsterdam, and
+for a long time has been feared as a rival by her elder sister. She
+does not possess the great riches of the capital, but she is more
+industrious in using what wealth she has; she risks, dares, and
+undertakes, after the manner of a young and adventurous city.
+Amsterdam, like a wealthy merchant who has grown cautious after a life
+of daring speculations, has begun to doze and to rest on her laurels.
+To briefly characterize the three Dutch cities, it may be said that
+one makes a fortune at Rotterdam, one consolidates it in Amsterdam,
+and one spends it at the Hague.
+
+One understands from this why Rotterdam is rather looked down upon by
+the other two cities, and is regarded as a _parvenu_. But there is yet
+another reason for this: Rotterdam is a merchant city pure and simple,
+and is exclusively occupied with her own affairs. She has but a small
+aristocracy, which is neither wealthy nor proud. Amsterdam, on the
+contrary, holds the flower of the old merchant princes. Amsterdam has
+great picture-galleries,--she fosters the arts and literature; she
+unites, in short, distinction and wealth. Notwithstanding their
+peculiar advantages, these sister cities are mutually jealous; they
+antagonize and fret each other: what one does the other must do; what
+the government grants to one, the other insists upon having. At the
+present moment (_in 1874_), they are opening to the sea two canals
+which may not prove serviceable; but that is of no consequence: the
+government, like an indulgent father, must satisfy both his elder and
+his younger daughter.
+
+After I had seen the port, I went along the Boompjes dyke, on which
+stands an uninterrupted line of large new houses built in the Parisian
+and London style--houses which the inhabitants greatly admire, but
+which the stranger regards with disappointment or neglects altogether;
+I turned back, re-entered the city, and went from canal to canal, from
+bridge to bridge, until I reached the angle formed by the union of
+Hoog-Straat with one of the two long canals which enclose the town
+toward the east.
+
+This is the poorest part of the town.
+
+I went down the first street I came to, and took several turns in that
+quarter to observe how the lower classes of the Dutch live. The streets
+were extremely narrow, and the houses were smaller and more crooked than
+those in any other part of the city; one could reach many of the roofs
+with one's hand. The windows were little more than a span from the ground;
+the doors were so low that one was obliged to stoop to enter them. But
+nevertheless there was not the least sign of poverty. Even there the
+windows were provided with looking-glasses--spies, as the Dutch call
+them; on the window-sills there were pots of flowers protected by green
+railings; there were white curtains,--the doors were painted green or
+blue, and stood wide open, so that one could see the bedrooms, the
+kitchens, all the recesses of the houses. The rooms were like little
+boxes; everything was heaped up as in an old-clothes shop, but the copper
+vessels, the stoves, the furniture, were all as clean and bright as those
+in a gentleman's house. As I passed along these streets, I did not see a
+bit of dirt anywhere,--I met with no bad smells, nor did I see a rag, or
+a hand extended for alms; one breathes cleanliness and well-being, and
+thinks with shame of the squalid quarters in which the lower classes swarm
+in our cities, and not in ours only, for Paris too has its Rue Mouffetard.
+
+Turning back to my hotel, I passed through the square of the great new
+market. It is placed in the centre of the city, and is not less
+strange than all that surrounds it.
+
+It is an open square suspended over the water, being at the same time
+a square and a bridge. The bridge is very wide and unites the
+principal dyke--the Hoog-Straat--with a section of the town surrounded
+by canals. This aerial square is enclosed on three sides by venerable
+buildings, between which runs a street long, narrow, and dark,
+entirely filled by a canal, and reminding one of a highway in Venice.
+On the fourth side is a sort of dock formed by the widest canal in the
+city, which leads directly to the Meuse. In this square, surrounded by
+carts and stalls, in the midst of heaps of vegetables, oranges and
+earthenware, encircled by a crowd of hucksters and peddlers, enclosed
+by a railing covered with matting and rags, stands the statue of
+Desiderius Erasmus, the first literary celebrity of Rotterdam.
+
+This Gerrit Gerritz--for, like all the great writers of his time, he
+assumed the Latin name--this Gerrit Gerritz belonged by his education,
+by his literary attainments, and by his convictions to the circle of
+the Italian humanists and literati. An elegant, learned, and
+indefatigable writer on literature and science, he filled all Europe
+with his fame between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; he was
+overwhelmed with favor by the popes, sought after and feted by
+princes. Of his innumerable works, all of which were written in Latin,
+the "Praise of Folly," dedicated to Sir Thomas More, is still read.
+The bronze statue, erected in 1622, represents Erasmus dressed in a
+fur cloak and cap. The figure is slightly bent forward as if he were
+walking, and he holds in his hand a large open book, from which he is
+reading. There is a double inscription on the pedestal in Latin and
+Dutch, which calls him _vir saeculi sui primarius et civis omnium
+praestantissimus_. Notwithstanding this pompous eulogy, poor Erasmus,
+stood in the centre of the market-place like a municipal guard,
+excites our compassion. There is not, I believe, on the face of the
+earth another statue of a scholar that is so neglected by those who
+pass it, so despised by those who surround it, and so pitied by those
+who look at it. However, who knows but that Erasmus, subtle professor
+that he was and will ever be, is contented with his corner, if indeed,
+as tradition tells, it be not far from his house? In a little street
+near the square, in the wall of a small house which is now used as a
+tavern, there is to be seen in a niche a bronze statuette of the great
+writer, and under it runs the inscription: _Haec est parva domus magnus
+qua natus Erasmus_. Eight out of ten of the inhabitants of Rotterdam
+have probably never seen nor read it.
+
+In an angle of the same square is a small house called "The House of
+Fear," where upon the wall is a picture whose subject I have
+forgotten. According to the tradition it is called "The House of
+Fear," because the most prominent people of the city took shelter in
+it when Rotterdam was sacked by the Spaniards, and were imprisoned in
+it three days without food. This is not the only record of the
+Spaniards to be found in Rotterdam. Many buildings, erected during the
+time of their dominion suggest the style of architecture then
+fashionable in Spain, and many still bear Spanish inscriptions. In the
+cities of Holland inscriptions on the houses are very common. The
+buildings, like old wine, glory in their antiquity and declare the
+date of their construction in large letters on the facades.
+
+In the market square I had every opportunity of observing the
+earrings of the women, which deserve to be minutely described.
+
+At Rotterdam, I saw only the earrings which are worn in South Holland,
+but even in this province alone the variety is very great. However,
+they are all alike in this respect,--instead of hanging from the ears,
+they are attached to a gold, silver, or gilded copper semicircle,
+which girds the head like a half diadem, its extremities resting on
+the temples. The commonest earrings are in the form of a spiral with
+five or six circles; they are often very wide, and are attached to the
+two ends of the semicircle. They project in front of the face like the
+frames of a pair of spectacles. Many of the women wear another pair of
+ordinary earrings attached to the spirals. These are very large and
+reach almost to the bosom, dangling in front of the cheeks like the
+head-gear of Italian oxen. Some women wear golden circles which gird
+the forehead also, and are chased and ornamented in relief with
+leaves, studs, and buttons. They nearly all dress their hair smooth
+and tight, and wear white caps embroidered and trimmed with lace.
+These fit the head closely like a night-cap, and cover the neck and
+shoulders, descending in the form of a veil, which is also embroidered
+and trimmed with lace. These flowing veils, resembling those of the
+Arabs, and the peculiar and enormous earrings, give these women an
+appearance partly regal and partly barbarous. If they were not so fair
+as they are, one would take them for women of some savage land who
+had still preserved the ornaments of their native dress. I am not
+surprised that some travellers, seeing these earrings for the first
+time, have thought that they were at once an ornament and an
+instrument, and have asked their use. One might suppose that they are
+made thus for another purpose than that of beautifying the
+wearer--that they may serve as a defence to female modesty. For if any
+impertinent person should attempt to salute a cheek so guarded, he
+would encounter these obstacles and be kept at bay some distance from
+the coveted object. These earrings, which are worn chiefly by the
+peasant-women, are nearly all made of gold, and because of the size of
+the spirals and of the other accessories they cost a large sum. But I
+saw signs of even greater riches amongst the Dutch peasantry during my
+country rambles.
+
+Near the market square stands the cathedral, which was founded toward
+the end of the fifteenth century at the time of the decadence of
+Gothic architecture. It was then a Catholic church consecrated to St.
+Lawrence; now it is the first Protestant church in the city.
+Protestantism, with religious vandalism, entered the ancient church
+with a pickaxe and a whitewash brush, and with bigoted fanaticism
+broke, scraped, rasped, plastered, and destroyed all that was
+beautiful and splendid, and reduced it to a bare, white, cold edifice,
+such as ought to have been devoted to the Goddess of _Ennui_ in the
+time of the _False and Lying Gods_. In the cathedral there is an
+immense organ with nearly five thousand pipes, which gives, besides
+other sounds, the effect of the echo. There are also the tombs of a
+few admirals, decorated with long epitaphs in Dutch and Latin. Besides
+these I saw nothing but a great many benches, some boys with their
+hats on, a group of women who were chattering loudly, and an old man
+with a cigar in his mouth. This was the first Protestant church I had
+entered, and I must confess I felt a disagreeable sensation, partly of
+sadness, partly of scandal. I compared the dismantled appearance of
+this church with the magnificent cathedrals of Italy and Spain, where
+a soft and mysterious light shines from the walls, and where one meets
+the loving looks of angels and saints through the clouds of incense
+directing one's gaze toward heaven; where one sees so many pictures of
+innocence that calm one, so many images of pain that help one to
+suffer, that inspire one with resignation, peace, and the sweetness of
+pardon; where the poor, without food or shelter, spurned from the rich
+man's gate, may pray amid marble and gold, as if in a palace,--where,
+surrounded by a pomp and splendor that do not humiliate, but rather
+honor and comfort their misery, they are not despised;--those
+cathedrals, finally, where as children we knelt beside our mothers,
+and felt for the first time a sweet assurance that we should some day
+live afresh in those deep azure spaces that we saw painted in the
+dome suspended above us. Comparing this church with those cathedrals,
+I perceived that I was more of a Catholic than I had believed myself
+to be, and I felt the truth of those words of Castelar: "Well, yes, I
+am a free-thinker, but if some day I were to return to a religion, I
+would return to the splendid one of my fathers, and not to this
+squalid and nude doctrine that saddens my eyes and my heart."
+
+[Illustration: Interior of the Church of St. Lawrence, Rotterdam.]
+
+From the top of the tower one gets a bird's-eye view of the whole city
+of Rotterdam with its steep little red roofs, its wide canals, its
+ships standing out against the houses, and all around the city a
+boundless plain of vivid green traversed by canals, fringed with
+trees, dotted with windmills and villages hidden in masses of verdure
+and showing only the points of their steeples. At that moment the sky
+was clear, and it was possible to see the gleaming waters of the Meuse
+from Bois-le-Duc almost to its mouth. I distinguished the steeples of
+Dordrecht, Leyden, Delft, the Hague, and Gouda; but nowhere, either
+near or far off, was there a hill, a rise in the ground, or a curve to
+break the straight even line of the horizon. It was like a sea, green
+and motionless, on which the steeples were the masts of anchored
+ships. The eye wandered over that vast plain with a sense of repose,
+and for the first time I experienced that indefinable feeling which
+the Dutch landscape inspires. It is a feeling neither of sadness, of
+pleasure, nor of weariness, yet it embraces them all, and holds one
+for a long time motionless, without knowing at first what one is
+looking at or of what one is thinking. I was suddenly aroused by
+strange music; at first I could not tell whence it came. Bells were
+ringing a lively chime with silvery notes, now breaking slowly on the
+ear, as if they could scarcely detach themselves from each other; now
+blending in groups, in strange flourishes; now trilling, and swelling
+sonorously. The music was merry and fantastic, although of a somewhat
+primitive character, it is true, like the many-colored town over which
+it poured its notes like a flight of birds; indeed, it seemed to
+harmonize so well with the character of the city that it appeared to
+be its natural voice, an echo of the quaint life of the people,
+reminding me of the sea, the solitude, and the cottages, and at the
+same time it amused me and touched my heart. All at once the music
+stopped and the hour struck. At the same moment other steeples flung
+on the air other chimes, of which only the highest notes reached me,
+and when their chimes were ended they likewise struck the hour. This
+aerial concert, as I was told when its mechanism was explained to me,
+is repeated at every hour in the day and night by all the steeples of
+Holland, and the chimes are national airs, psalms, Italian and German
+melodies. Thus in Holland the hour sings, as though to draw the mind
+from contemplating the flight of time, and it sings of country, of
+religion, and of love, with a harmony surpassing all the sounds of
+earth.
+
+Now, to continue in order my story of what I saw and did, I must
+conduct my readers to a coffee-house and beg them to sit beside me at
+my first Dutch dinner.
+
+The Dutch are great eaters. Their greatest pleasure, as Cardinal
+Bentivoglio has said, is to be at a feast or at some repast. But they
+are not epicures; they are voracious: they prefer quantity to quality.
+Even in ancient times they were famous among their neighbors, not only
+for the roughness of their habits, but for the simplicity of their
+diet. They were called eaters of milk and cheese. They usually eat
+five times a day. When they rise they take tea, coffee, milk, bread,
+cheese, butter; shortly before noon comes a good breakfast; before
+dinner they partake of some light nourishment, such as a glass of wine
+and biscuits; then follows a heavy dinner; and late in the evening, to
+use their own words, some trifle, so as not to go to bed with an empty
+stomach. They eat in company on many occasions. I do not mean on the
+occasions of christenings or marriages, as in other countries, but,
+for example, at funerals. It is the custom that the friends and
+relatives who have accompanied the funeral procession shall go home
+with the family of the deceased, where they are then invited to eat
+and drink, and they generally do great honor to their hosts. If there
+were no other witnesses, the Dutch paintings are there to testify to
+the great part eating has always played in the life of this people.
+Besides the infinite number of domestic subjects, in which we might
+say that dishes and bottles are the protagonists, nearly all the large
+pictures representing historical personages, burgomasters, and
+national guard, show them seated at table in the act of eating,
+carving, or pouring out wine. Even their hero, William the Silent, the
+incarnation of New Holland, shared this national love of the table. He
+had the first cook of his time, who was so great an artist that the
+German princes sent beginners to perfect themselves at his school, and
+Philip II., in one of those periods of apparent reconciliation with
+his mortal enemy, begged for him as a present.
+
+But, as I said, the principal characteristic of the Dutch kitchen is
+abundance, not delicacy. The French, who are _bon-vivants_, find much
+to criticise. I remember a writer of certain _Memoires sur la
+Hollande_ who inveighs with lyrical fervor against the Dutch cuisine,
+saying, "What style of eating is this? They mix soup and beer, meat
+and comfits, and devour quantities of meat without bread." Other
+writers of books about Holland have spoken of their dinners in that
+country as if they were domestic misfortunes. It is superfluous to say
+that all these statements are exaggerations. Even a fastidious palate
+can in a very short time accustom itself to the Dutch style of
+cooking. The substantial part of the dinner is always a dish of meat,
+with which four or five side dishes of salt meat and vegetables are
+served. These every one mixes according to his taste and eats with the
+principal dish. The meats are excellent, the vegetables, which are
+cooked in a thousand different ways, are even better. Those which they
+cook in an especially worthy manner are potatoes and cabbages, and
+their way of making omelets is admirable. I do not speak of game,
+fish, milk-foods, and butter, because their praises need not be
+repeated, and I am silent for fear of being too enthusiastic about
+that celebrated cheese into which, when once one has plunged one's
+knife, one continues with a sort of increasing fury, thrusting and
+gashing and abandoning one's self to every style of slashing and
+gouging until the rind is empty, and desire still hovers over the
+ruins.
+
+A stranger who dines for the first time in a Dutch restaurant sees a
+number of strange things. In the first place, the plates are very
+large and heavy, in proportion to the national appetite; in many
+places the napkins are of very thin white paper, folded at three
+corners, and ornamented with a printed border of flowers, with a
+little landscape in the corner, and the name of the restaurant, or
+_Bon appetit_, printed on them in large blue letters. The stranger, to
+be sure of having something he can eat, orders roast beef, and they
+bring him half a dozen great slices as large as a cabbage leaf; or a
+steak, and they bring him a lump of very rare meat which would suffice
+for a family; or fish, and they set before him an animal as long as
+the table; and each of these dishes is accompanied by a mountain of
+mashed potatoes and a pot of strong mustard. They give him a slice of
+bread a little larger than a dollar and as thin as a wafer. This is
+not pleasant for us Italians, who eat bread like beggars, so that in a
+Dutch restaurant, to the great surprise of the waiters, we are obliged
+to ask for more bread every moment. On any one of these three dishes
+and a glass of Bavarian or Amsterdam beer a man may venture to say he
+has dined. Any one who has a lean pocket-book need not dream of wine
+in Holland, for it is frightfully dear; but, as the people's purses
+there are generally well filled, nearly all the Dutch, from the middle
+class up, drink wine, and there are few other countries where there is
+so great an abundance and variety of foreign wines, particularly of
+those from French and Rhenish vineyards.
+
+Those who like liqueurs after dinner are well served in Holland. There
+is no need to mention that the Dutch liqueurs are famous the world
+over. The most famous of them all is "Schiedam," an extract of
+juniper-berries that takes its name from the little town of Schiedam,
+only a few miles from Rotterdam, where there are more than two hundred
+distilleries. To give an idea of the quantity made, it is sufficient
+to say that thirty thousand pigs are fed annually on the dregs of the
+distilled material. The first time one tastes this renowned Schiedam
+he swears he will never take another drop of it if he lives to be a
+hundred years old; but, as the French proverb says, "Who has drunk
+will drink again," and one begins to try it with a great deal of
+sugar,--then with a little less,--then with none at all, until,
+_horribile dictu_! under the excuse of the damp and the fog one tosses
+down two small glasses with the freedom of a sailor. Next on the list
+comes Curacoa, a fine feminine liqueur, not nearly so strong as
+Schiedam, but much stronger than that nauseating sweetened stuff that
+is sold in other countries under the recommendation of its name. After
+Curacoa there are many others liqueurs, of every gradation of strength
+and flavor, with which an expert winebibber can indulge in every style
+of intoxication, slight, heavy, noisy, or stupid, and whereby he can
+dispose his brain to see the world in the manner most pleasing to his
+humor, much as one would do with an optical instrument by changing the
+color of the lens.
+
+The first time one dines in Holland a curious surprise awaits one when
+the bill is paid. I had eaten a dinner which would have been scanty
+for a Batavian, but was ample for an Italian, and, knowing how very
+dear everything is in Holland, I was waiting for one of those bills to
+which Theophile Gautier says the only reasonable answer is a
+pistol-shot. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when the waiter
+said I was to pay _forty sous_, and, as all kinds of money circulate
+in the large Dutch cities, I put on the table forty sous in silver
+francs, and waited to give my friend time to correct me if he had made
+a mistake. But he looked at the money without giving any sign of
+correcting himself, and said with the greatest gravity, "Forty sous
+more." Springing from my chair, I demanded an explanation. The
+explanation, alas! was simple. The monetary unit in Holland is the
+florin, which is equal to two francs four centimes in our money, so
+that the Dutch centime and sou are worth more than double the Italian
+centime and sou; hence the mistake and its correction.
+
+Rotterdam at night presents to the stranger an unexpected appearance.
+In other northern towns at a certain hour the life is gathered within
+doors; in Rotterdam at the corresponding hour it overflows into the
+street. A dense crowd passes through the Hoog-Straat until late at
+night. The shops are open, for then the servants make their purchases
+and the coffee-houses are crowded. The Dutch coffee-houses are of a
+peculiar shape. They usually consist of one long saloon, divided in
+the middle by a green curtain, which is drawn at night, like the
+curtain of a theatre, hiding all the back part of the room. This part
+only is lighted. The front part, separated from the street by a large
+window, remains in the dark, so that from the outside one can see
+only dim forms and the glowing ends of cigars, which look like
+fire-flies, and among these shadowy forms appears the uncertain
+profile of some woman, to whom light would be unwelcome.
+
+After the coffee-houses, the tobacco-shops attract the attention, not
+only in Rotterdam, but in all other Dutch cities. There is one at
+almost every step, and they are beyond comparison the finest in
+Europe, not excepting even the great Havana tobacco-stores in Madrid.
+The cigars are kept in wooden boxes, on each of which is a printed
+portrait of the king or queen or of some illustrious Dutch citizen.
+These boxes are arranged in the high shop-windows in a thousand
+architectural styles,--in towers, steeples, temples, winding
+staircases, beginning on the floor and reaching almost to the ceiling.
+In these shops, which are resplendent with lights like the stores of
+Paris, one may find cigars of every shape and flavor. The courteous
+tobacconist puts one's purchase into a special tissue-paper envelope
+after he has cut off the end of one of the cigars with a machine made
+for the purpose.
+
+The Dutch shops are brilliantly illuminated, and, although in
+themselves they do not differ materially from stores of other large
+European cities, they present at night a very unusual appearance,
+because of the contrast between the ground floor and the upper part of
+the house. Below, all is glass, light, color, and splendor; above,
+the gloomy facades with their steep sharp lines, steps, and curves.
+The upper part of the house is plain, dark, and silent--in a word,
+ancient Holland; the ground floor is the new life--fashion, luxury,
+and elegance. Moreover, the houses are all very narrow, so the shops
+occupy the whole ground floor, and are generally so close together
+that they touch each other. Consequently at night, in streets like
+Hoog-Straat, one sees very little wall below the second floor. The
+houses seem to rest on glass, and in the distance the windows become
+blended into two long flaming stripes like gleaming hedges, flooding
+the streets with light, so that one could find a pin in them.
+
+As one walks along the streets of Rotterdam in the evening, one sees
+that it is a city overflowing with life and in the process of
+expansion--a city, so to speak, in the flush of youth, in the time of
+growth, which, from year to year, outgrows its streets and houses, as
+a boy outgrows his clothes. Its one hundred and fourteen thousand
+inhabitants will be two hundred thousand at no distant time. The
+smaller streets swarm with children; indeed, they are filled to
+overflowing with them, so that it gladdens one's eyes and heart. An
+air of happiness breathes through the streets of Rotterdam. The white
+and ruddy faces of the servants, whose spotless caps are popping out
+everywhere, the serene faces of the tradespeople, who slowly sip their
+great mugs of beer, the peasants with their large golden earrings,
+the cleanliness, the flowers in the windows, the quiet hard-working
+crowd,--all give to Rotterdam an appearance of health and peaceful
+content which brings the _Te beata_ to our lips, not with a cry of
+enthusiasm, but with a smile of sympathy.
+
+Re-entering the hotel, I saw an entire French family in a corridor
+gazing in admiration at the nails on a door which shone like so many
+silver buttons.
+
+In the morning, as soon as I arose, I went to my window, which was on
+the second floor, and on looking at the roofs of the opposite houses,
+I confessed with surprise that Bismarck was excusable for believing he
+saw phantoms on the roofs at Rotterdam. Out of the chimney-pots of all
+the ancient houses rise curved or straight tubes, one above the other,
+crossing and recrossing like open arms, or forks, or immense horns, in
+such impossible positions that it seems as though they must understand
+each other and be speaking a mysterious language from house to house,
+and that at night they must move about with some purpose.
+
+I walked down Hoog-Straat. It was Sunday and few shops were open. The
+Dutch told me that some years ago even those few would have been
+closed: the observance of the Sabbath, which used to be very strict,
+is becoming slack. I saw the signs of holiday chiefly in the people's
+clothes, in the dress of the men particularly. The men, especially
+those of the lower classes (and this I observed in other towns also),
+have a decided taste for black clothes, which they wear proudly on
+Sundays--black cravats, black breeches, and certain black over-coats
+that reach almost to their knees. This costume, together with their
+leisurely gait and solemn faces, gives them the air of village syndics
+going to assist at an official _Te Deum_.
+
+But what most surprised me was to see at that hour almost every one I
+met, gentry and peasantry, men and boys, with cigars in their mouths.
+This unfortunate habit of "_dreaming awake_," as Emile Girardin called
+it when he made war on smokers, occupies such a large part of the life
+of the Dutch people that it is necessary to say a few words about it.
+
+The Dutch probably smoke more than any other northern nation. The
+humidity of the climate makes it almost a necessity, and the cheapness of
+tobacco puts it in everybody's power to satisfy this desire. To show how
+inveterate is this habit, it will suffice to say that the boatmen of the
+_trekschuit_ (the stage-coach of the canals) measure distance by smoke.
+From here to such and such a town they say it is so many pipes, not so
+many miles. When you enter a house, the host, after the usual greetings,
+gives you a cigar; when you leave he gives you another, sometimes he
+fills your pocket. In the streets one sees men lighting fresh cigars with
+the stumps they have just smoked, with a hurried air, without stopping
+for a moment, as if it were equally disagreeable to them to lose a
+moment of time and a mouthful of smoke. A great many men go to bed with
+their cigars in their mouths, light them if they awake in the night, and
+relight them in the morning before leaving their beds. "The Dutchman is a
+living alembic," writes Diderot; and it does really seem as though
+smoking is to him one of the necessary functions of life. Many say that
+much smoking clouds the brain. But, notwithstanding, if there is a people
+whose intelligence is clear and precise in the highest degree, that
+people is the Dutch. Moreover, smoking is no excuse for idleness among
+the Hollanders,--they do not smoke "to dream awake." Every one does his
+work while puffing white clouds of smoke from his mouth as if he were the
+chimney of a factory, and, instead of the cigar being a distraction, it
+is a stimulus and a help to labor. "Smoke is our second breath," said a
+Dutchman to me, and another defined the cigar as "the sixth finger of our
+hand."
+
+Apropos of tobacco, I must tell of the life and death of a famous
+Dutch smoker, but I am rather afraid my Dutch friends who told me the
+story will shrug their shoulders, for they lamented that strangers who
+write on Holland pass over important things which do honor to the
+country, and mention only trifles such as this. However, this is such
+a remarkable trifle that I cannot resist the temptation of putting it
+down.
+
+Once upon a time there was a wealthy gentleman who lived in the
+suburbs of Rotterdam. His name was Van Klaes, but he was nicknamed
+Papa Big Pipe, for he was a fat old fellow and a great smoker. He was
+a man of simple habits and kindly heart, who, as the story runs, had
+made a great fortune in India by honest trade. On his return from
+India he built himself a beautiful mansion near Rotterdam, and in this
+home he collected and arranged in order every imaginable kind of pipe.
+There were pipes of every country and of every period, from those used
+by ancient barbarians to smoke hemp, to the splendid meerschaum and
+amber pipes ornamented with carved figures and bands of gold like
+those seen in the finest stores of Paris. The museum was open to
+visitors, to each of whom, after he had aired his knowledge on the
+subject of pipe-collecting, Mr Van Klaes gave a pouch filled with
+tobacco and cigars, and a catalogue of the museum in a velvet cover.
+
+Every day Mr Van Klaes smoked a hundred and fifty grammes of tobacco,
+and he died at the ripe old age of ninety-eight years; consequently,
+if we assume that he began to smoke when he was eighteen years old, he
+consumed in the course of his life four thousand three hundred and
+eighty-three kilogrammes. If this quantity of tobacco could be laid
+down in a continuous black line, it would extend twenty French
+leagues. But, in spite of all this, Mr Van Klaes showed that in death
+he was a far greater smoker than he had been in life. Tradition has
+preserved all the particulars of his end. He was approaching his
+ninety-eighth birthday when it was suddenly borne in upon him that the
+end of his life was at hand. He summoned his notary, who was also a
+notable smoker, and, "Notary," said he with no unnecessary words,
+"fill my pipe and yours; I am going to die." The notary filled and
+lighted the pipes, and Mr Van Klaes dictated that will which has
+become celebrated all over Holland.
+
+[Illustration: On the Meuse, near Rotterdam.]
+
+After he had bequeathed the greater part of his fortune to relatives,
+friends, and charities, he added the following clauses:
+
+"I wish every smoker in the kingdom to be invited to my funeral in
+every way possible, by letter, circular, and advertisement. Every
+smoker who takes advantage of the invitation shall receive as a
+present ten pounds of tobacco, and two pipes on which shall be
+engraved my name, my crest, and the date of my death. The poor of the
+neighborhood who accompany my bier shall receive every year on the
+anniversary of my death a large package of tobacco. I make the
+condition that all those who assist at my funeral, if they wish to
+partake of the benefits of my will, must smoke without interruption
+during the entire ceremony. My body shall be placed in a coffin lined
+throughout with the wood of my old Havana cigar-boxes. At the foot of
+the coffin shall be placed a box of the French tobacco called
+_caporal_ and a package of our old Dutch tobacco. At my side place my
+favorite pipe and a box of matches, ... for one never knows what may
+happen. When the bier rests in the vault, all the persons in the
+funeral procession are requested to cast upon it the ashes of their
+pipes as they pass it on their departure from the grounds."
+
+The last wishes of Mr Van Klaes were faithfully fulfilled; the funeral
+went off splendidly, veiled in a thick cloud of smoke. The cook of the
+deceased, Gertrude by name, to whom in a codicil her master had left a
+considerable fortune on condition that she should overcome her
+aversion to tobacco, walked in the funeral procession with a cigarette
+in her mouth. The poor blessed the memory of the charitable gentleman,
+and all the country resounded with his praises as it now rings with
+his fame.
+
+As I walked along one of the canals I saw under different conditions
+one of those sudden changes in the weather such as I had witnessed on
+the previous day. In a moment the sun disappeared, the infinite
+variety of cheerful colors was obscured, and a chilling wind began to
+blow. Then the subdued gayety which existed a few moments before gave
+place everywhere to a strange trepidation. The leaves of the trees
+rustled, the flags on the ships fluttered, the boats moored to the
+palisades tossed to and fro; the waters were troubled, a thousand
+articles suspended from the houses dangled about,--the arms of the
+windmills spun rapidly around; it seemed as though a shiver of winter
+passed through everything, and that the city was apprehensive of a
+mysterious danger. In a few moments the sun shone out, and with it
+returned color, peace, and cheerfulness. This scene made me reflect
+that Holland is not really as sombre a country as many believe; it is
+rather very sombre one moment, and very cheerful the next, according
+to the weather. In everything it is a country of contrasts. Beneath a
+most capricious sky lives the least capricious people in the world,
+and yet this orderly and methodical nation possesses the tipsiest,
+most disordered architecture that eye can see.
+
+Before entering the museum at Rotterdam, I think it will be opportune
+to make some observations on Dutch painting, naturally not for those
+"who know," understand, but for those who have forgotten.
+
+Dutch art possesses one quality that renders it particularly attractive
+to us Italians: it is that branch of the world's art which differs most
+from the Italian school,--it is the antithesis, or, to use a phrase that
+enraged Leopardi, "the opposite pole in art." The Italian and the Dutch
+are the two most original schools of painting, or, as some say, the only
+two schools that can honestly lay claim to originality. The others are
+only daughters or younger sisters, which bear a certain resemblance to
+their elders. So Holland even in its art offers us that which we most
+desire in travel and description--novelty.
+
+Dutch art was born with the independence and freedom of Holland. So
+long as the northern and southern provinces of the Netherlands were
+united under Spanish dominion and the Catholic faith, they had only
+one school of painting. The Dutch artists painted like the Belgians;
+they studied in Belgium, Germany, and Italy. Heemskerk imitated
+Michelangelo; Bloemaert copied Correggio; De Moor followed Titian; to
+mention a few instances. They were pedantic disciples who united with
+all the affectations of the Italian style a certain German coarseness,
+and the outcome was a bastard style inferior to the earlier
+schools--childish, stiff, and crude in color, with no sense of light
+and shade. But, at any rate, it was not a slavish imitation; it was a
+faint prelude to real Dutch art.
+
+With the war of independence came liberty, reform, and art. The
+artistic and religious traditions fell together. The nude, the nymphs,
+the madonnas, the saints, allegory, mythology, the ideal,--the whole
+ancient edifice was in ruins. The new life which animated Holland was
+revealed and developed in a new way. The little country, which had
+suddenly become so glorious and formidable, felt that it must tell its
+greatness. Its faculties, which had been strengthened and stimulated
+in the grand enterprise of creating a native land, a real world,--now
+that this enterprise was achieved, expanded, and created an imaginary
+world. The conditions of the people were favorable to a revival of
+art. They had overcome the supreme perils which threatened them:
+security, prosperity, a splendid future, were theirs: their heroes had
+done their part; the time had come for artists. After so many
+sacrifices and disasters Holland came forth victorious from the
+strife, turned her face upon her people, and smiled, and that smile
+was Art.
+
+We could picture to ourselves what this art was even if no example of
+it remained. A peaceable, industrious, practical people, who, to use
+the words of a great German poet, were continually brought back to
+dull realities by the conditions of a vulgar bourgeois life; who
+cultivated their reason at the expense of their imagination, living in
+consequence on manifest ideas rather than beautiful images; who fled
+from the abstract, whose thoughts never rose beyond nature, with which
+they waged continual warfare--a people that saw only what exists, that
+enjoyed only what it possessed, whose happiness consisted in wealthy
+ease and an honest indulgence of the senses, although without violent
+passions or inordinate desires;--such a people would naturally be
+phlegmatic in their art,--they would love a style that pleased but did
+not arouse them, that spoke to the senses rather than to the
+imagination--a school of art placid, precise, full of repose, and
+thoroughly material like their life--an art, in a word, realistic and
+self-satisfied, in which they could see themselves reflected as they
+were and as they were content to remain.
+
+The first Dutch artists began by depicting that which was continually
+before their eyes--the home. The long winters, the stubborn rains, the
+humidity, the continual changes in the climate, compel the Hollander
+to spend a great part of the year and of the day in the house. He
+loves his little home, his nutshell, much more than we love our
+houses, because it is much more necessary to him, and he lives in it
+much more; he provides it with every comfort, caresses it, adorns it;
+he delights in looking at the falling snow and drenching rain from its
+tight windows, and in being able to say, "Let the storms rage--I am
+safe and warm." In his little nest, beside his good wife and
+surrounded by his children, he passes the long evenings of autumn and
+winter, eating much, drinking much, smoking much, and amusing himself
+with honest mirth after the fatigues of the day. Dutch artists paint
+these little houses and this home-life in little pictures adapted in
+size to the little walls they must adorn; bedrooms which make one
+drowsy; kitchens with tables ready spread; the fresh, kindly faces of
+mothers of families; men basking in the warmth of the hearth; and, as
+they are conscientious realists who omit nothing, they add blinking
+cats, gaping dogs, scratching hens, brooms, vegetables, crockery, and
+plucked chickens. This life is painted in every class of society and
+under every circumstance; evening-parties, dances, orgies, games,
+holidays, all are represented, and thus Ter Borch, Metsu, Netscher,
+Dou, Mieris, Steen, Brouwer, and Ostade became famous.
+
+From home-life they turned to the country. The hostile climate gave
+them a very short time in which to admire nature, and for this reason
+the Dutch artists admire it only the more and salute the spring with
+greater joy. The fleeting smiles of the heavens are strongly impressed
+on their imagination. The country is not beautiful, but it is doubly
+dear to them because it has been wrested from the sea and from the
+hands of strangers. They painted it with affection, making their
+landscapes simple, ingenuous, and full of an intimacy with nature that
+neither the Italian nor the Belgian landscapes of this time possess.
+Their country, flat and monotonous, presented to their appreciative
+eyes a marvellous variety. They noted every change in the sky, and
+revealed the water in its every appearance, its reflection, its grace
+and freshness, and its power of diffusing light and color everywhere.
+There are no mountains, so they put the downs in the background of
+their pictures; and, lacking forests, they saw and expressed the
+mysteries of a forest in a group of trees, and animated all with noble
+animals and sails. The subjects of their pictures are poor indeed--a
+windmill, a canal, a gray sky--but how much they suggest! Some of
+them, not content with their native land, came to Italy in search of
+hills, bright skies, and great ruins, and became a circle of choice
+artists, such as Both, Swanevelt, Pijnacker, Breenbergh, Van Laer, and
+Asselin; but the palm remains with the true Dutch landscape
+painters--with Wynants, the painter of morning; Van der Neer, the
+painter of night; Ruysdael, the painter of melancholy; Hobbema, the
+painter of windmills, cottages, and kitchen-gardens; and with others
+who contented themselves with expressing the charm of the modest
+scenes of their native land.
+
+Side by side with landscape painting arose another branch of art,
+which was peculiar to Holland--the painting of animals. Cattle are the
+riches of the country, and the splendid breed of Holland is unequalled
+in Europe for its beauty and fecundity. The Dutch, who owe so much to
+their cattle, treat them, so to speak, as a part of the population;
+they love them, wash them, comb them, dress them. They are to be seen
+everywhere; they are reflected in the canals, and the country is
+beautified with their innumerable black and white spots dotting the
+wide meadows, giving every place an air of peace and repose, and
+inspiring one with a feeling of Arcadian sweetness and patriarchal
+serenity. The Dutch artists studied the differences and the habits of
+these animals; they divined, one may say, their thoughts and feelings,
+and enlivened the quiet beauty of the landscapes with their figures.
+Rubens, Snyders, Paul de Vos, and many other Belgian artists had
+painted animals with wonderful ability, but they are surpassed by the
+Dutch painters, Van de Velde, Berchem, Karel du Jardin, and Paul
+Potter, the prince of animal painters, whose famous "Bull" in the
+gallery at the Hague deserves to be hung in the Louvre opposite
+Raphael's "Transfiguration."
+
+The Dutch have become pre-eminent in another branch of art
+also--marine painting. The ocean, their enemy, their power, and their
+glory, overhanging their land, ever threatening and alarming them,
+enters into their life by a thousand channels and in a thousand forms.
+That turbulent North Sea, full of dark color, illuminated by sunsets
+of infinite gloom, and ever lashing its desolate banks, naturally
+dominated the imagination of the Dutch artists. They passed long hours
+on the shore contemplating the terrible beauties of the sea; they
+ventured from the land to study its tempests; they bought ships and
+sailed with their families, observing and painting; they followed
+their fleets to war and joined in the naval battles. Thus a school of
+marine artists arose, boasting such men as William Van de Velde the
+father and William the son, Bakhuisen, Dubbels, and Stork.
+
+Another school of painting naturally arose in Holland as the
+expression of the character of the people and of republican customs. A
+nation that without greatness had done so many great things, as
+Michelet says, required an heroic style of painting, if it may be so
+called, destined to illustrate its men and achievements. But simply
+because the nation was without greatness, or, to speak more
+accurately, without the outward form of greatness--because it was
+modest, and inclined to consider all alike equal in face of the
+fatherland, because all had done their duty, yet each abhorred that
+adulation and apotheosis which glorify in one person the virtues and
+triumphs the mass,--this style of painting was needed, not to extol a
+few eminent men or extraordinary events, but to represent all classes
+of citizens by occurrences of the most ordinary and peaceful moments
+of bourgeois life. Hence those large pictures representing groups of
+five, ten, or even thirty persons, gunners, syndics, officials,
+professors, magistrates, men of affairs, seated or standing round
+tables, feasting or arguing, all life-size and faithful portraits,
+with serious open countenances, from which shines the quiet expression
+of a tranquil conscience, from which one divines, rather than sees,
+the nobility of lives devoted to their country, the spirit of that
+laborious and dauntless epoch, the manly virtues of that rare
+generation. All this is relieved by the beautiful costumes of the
+Renaissance, which so admirably combined grace with dignity,--those
+ruffs, jerkins, black cloaks, silken scarfs, ribbons, arms, and
+banners. Van der Helst, Hals, Govert, Flink, and Bol were masters in
+this style of art.
+
+To leave the consideration of the different branches of painting, and
+to inquire into the particular methods which the Dutch artists adopted
+and the means they employed to accomplish their results, one chief
+feature at once presents itself as the distinctive trait of Dutch
+painting--the light.
+
+The light, because of the peculiar conditions under which it manifests
+itself in Holland, has naturally given rise to a peculiar style of
+painting. A pale light, undulating with marvellous changes, playing
+through an atmosphere heavy with vapor, a misty veil which is
+repeatedly and abruptly penetrated, a continual struggle between
+sunshine and shadow,--these were the phenomena that necessarily
+attracted the attention of artists. They began by observing and
+reproducing all this restlessness of the sky, this struggle which
+animates the nature of Holland with a varied and fantastic life, and
+by the act of reproducing it the struggle passed into their minds, and
+then, instead of imitating, they created. Then they themselves made
+the two elements contend; they increased the darkness to startle and
+disperse it with every manner of luminous effects and flashes of
+light; sunbeams stole through the gloom and then gradually died away;
+the reflections of twilight and the mellow light of lamps were
+delicately blended into mysterious shadows, which were animated with
+confused forms which one seems to see and yet cannot distinguish. So
+under their hands the light presents a thousand fancies, contrasts,
+enigmas, and effects of shine and shade as unexpected as they are
+curious. Prominent in this field, among many others, were Gherard Dou,
+the painter of the famous picture of the four candles, and Rembrandt,
+the great wonder-working superhuman enlightener.
+
+Another of the most striking characteristics of Dutch painting is
+naturally color. It is generally recognized that in a country where
+there are no distant mountains, no undulating views, no prominent
+features to strike the eye--in short, no general forms that lend
+themselves to design--the artist is strongly influenced by color. This
+is especially true in the case of Holland, where the uncertain light
+and the vague shadows which continually veil the air soften and
+obscure the outlines of objects until the eye neglects the form it
+cannot comprehend, and fixes itself on color as the chief quality that
+nature possesses. But there are yet other reasons for this: a country
+as flat, monotonous, and gray as Holland is has need of color, just as
+a southern country has need of shadow. The Dutch artists have only
+followed the dominant taste of the people, who paint their houses,
+their boats, their palisades, the fences of the fields, and in some
+places the very trunks of the trees, in the brightest colors; who
+dress themselves as of yore in clothes of the gayest hues; who love
+tulips and hyacinths to distraction. Hence all the Dutch painters were
+great colorists, Rembrandt being the first.
+
+Realism, favored by the calm and sluggish nature of the Dutch, which
+enables their artists to restrain their impetuosity, and further aided by
+the Dutch character, which aims at exactness and refuses to do things by
+halves, gave to the paintings of the Hollanders another distinctive
+trait--finish. This they carried to the last possible degree of
+perfection. Critics say truthfully that in Dutch paintings one may
+discover the first quality of the nation--patience. Everything is
+portrayed with the minuteness of a daguerreotype: the furniture with all
+the graining of the wood, the leaf with all its veins, a thread in a bit
+of cloth, the patch with all the stitches showing, the animal with every
+hair distinct, the face with all its wrinkles,--everything is finished
+with such microscopic precision that it seems to be the work of a fairy's
+brush, for surely a painter would lose his sight and reason in such a
+task. After all, this is a defect rather than a virtue, because painting
+ought to reproduce not what exists, but rather what the eye sees, and the
+eye does not see every detail. However, the defect is brought to such a
+degree of excellence that it is to be admired rather than censured, and
+one does not even dare to wish that it should not be there. In this
+respect, Dou, Mieris, Potter, Van der Helst, and indeed all the Dutch
+painters in greater or less degree, were famous as prodigies of patience.
+
+On the other hand, realism, which imparts to Dutch painting such an
+original character and such admirable qualities, is, notwithstanding,
+the root of its most serious defects. The Dutch painters, solicitous
+to copy only material truth, give to their figures the expression of
+merely physical sentiments. Sorrow, love, enthusiasm, and the thousand
+subtle emotions that are nameless, or that take different names from
+the different causes that give them birth, are rarely or never
+expressed. For them the heart does not beat, the eye does not overflow
+with tears, nor does the mouth tremble. In their pictures a whole part
+of the life is lacking, and that the most powerful and noble part, the
+human soul. Nay more, by so faithfully copying everything, the ugly
+especially, they end in exaggerating even that. They convert defects
+into deformities, portraits into caricatures; they slander the
+national type; they give every human figure an ungraceful and
+ludicrous appearance. To have a setting for figures they are obliged
+to select trivial subjects; hence the excessive number of canvases
+depicting taverns and drunken men with grotesque, stupefied faces, in
+sprawling attitudes; low women and old men who are despicably
+ridiculous; scenes in which we seem to hear the low yells and obscene
+words. On looking at these pictures one would say that Holland is
+inhabited by the most deformed and ill-mannered nation in the world.
+Some painters permit themselves even greater license. Steen, Potter,
+Brouwer, and the great Rembrandt himself often pandered to a low and
+depraved taste, and Torrentius sent forth such shameless pictures
+that the provinces of Holland collect and burn them. But, overlooking
+these excesses, there is scarcely anything to be found in a Dutch
+gallery which elevates the soul, which awakens in the mind high and
+noble sentiments. One enjoys, one admires, one laughs, and sometimes
+one is silent before some landscapes, but on leaving one feels that
+one has not felt a real pleasure--that something was lacking. There
+comes a longing to look upon a beautiful face or to read inspired
+poetry, and sometimes, unconsciously, one catches one's self
+murmuring, "O Raphael!"
+
+In conclusion, we must note two great merits in this school--its
+variety and its value as an expression, as a mirror, of the country.
+If Rembrandt and his followers are excepted, almost all the other
+painters are quite different from each other. Perhaps no other school
+presents such a number of original masters. The realism of the Dutch
+painters arose from their common love for nature, but each of them has
+shown in his work a different manifestation of a love all his own;
+each has given the individual impression that he has received from
+nature. They all set out from the same point--the worship of material
+truth, but they each arrived at a different goal. Their realism
+impelled them to copy everything, and the consequence is that the
+Dutch school has succeeded in representing Holland much more
+faithfully than any other school has illustrated any other country.
+It has been said that if every other visible testimony to the
+existence of Holland in the seventeenth century--its great
+century--excepting the work of its artists were to disappear,
+everything would be found again in the pictures--the towns, the
+country, the ports, the fleets, the markets, the shops, the dress, the
+utensils, the arms, the linen, the merchandise, the pottery, the food,
+the amusements, the habits, the religion, and the superstitions. The
+good and the bad qualities of the nation are all alike represented,
+and this, which is a merit in the literature of a country, is no less
+a merit in its art.
+
+But there is one great void in Dutch painting, for which the peaceful
+and modest character of the people is not a sufficient reason. This
+school of painting, which is so essentially national, has, with the
+exception of some great naval battles, passed over all of the grand
+exploits of the war of independence, among which the sieges of Leyden
+and Haarlem would have been sufficient to inspire a legion of artists.
+Of this war, almost a century in duration, filled with strange and
+terrible events, there is not a single memorable painting. This
+school, so varied and so conscientious in reproducing its country and
+its life, has not represented one scene of that great tragedy, as
+William the Silent prophetically called it, which aroused in the
+Hollanders such diverse emotions of fear and grief, rage, joy, and
+national pride.
+
+[Illustration: The Steiger, Rotterdam.]
+
+The splendor of Holland's art faded with its political greatness.
+Nearly all the great painters were born during the first thirty years
+of the seventeenth or during the last years of the sixteenth century;
+none of them were living after the first ten years of the eighteenth
+century, and no others appeared to take their places. Holland had
+exhausted its productiveness. Already toward the end of the
+seventeenth century the sentiment of patriotism had commenced to
+weaken, taste had become depraved, the painters lost their inspiration
+with the decline of the moral energies of the country. In the
+eighteenth century the artists, as though surfeited with nature,
+returned to mythology, classicism, and conventionality; their
+imagination was weakened, their style was impoverished, and every
+spark of their former genius was extinguished. Dutch Art showed the
+world the marvellous flowers of Van Huysum, the last great lover of
+nature, then folded her weary hands and the flowers fell on his tomb.
+
+The present gallery at Rotterdam contains but a small number of
+paintings, among which there are very few works of the best artists
+and none of the _chefs d'oeuvre_ of the Dutch School. Three hundred
+paintings and thirteen hundred drawings were destroyed by fire in
+1864, and most of the works that are now there were bequeathed to the
+city of Rotterdam by Jacob Otto Boymans. Hence the gallery is a place
+to see examples of some particular artist, rather than to study Dutch
+painting.
+
+In one of the first rooms are some sketches of naval battles, signed
+by William van de Velde, who is considered the greatest marine painter
+of his time. He was the son of William the elder, who was also a
+marine painter. Both father and son were fortunate enough to live at
+the time of the great naval wars between Holland, England, and France,
+and were able to see the battles with their own eyes. The States of
+Holland placed a frigate at the disposal of Van de Velde the elder;
+his son accompanied him. Both made their sketches in the midst of the
+battle-smoke, sometimes advancing so far among the fighting ships that
+the admirals were obliged to order them to withdraw. The younger Van
+de Velde surpassed his father. He painted small pictures--for the most
+part a gray sky, a calm sea, and some sails--but so naturally are they
+done that when one looks at them one seems to smell the salt air of
+the sea, and mistakes the frame for a window. This Van de Velde
+belongs to that group of Dutch painters who loved the water with a
+sort of madness, and who painted, one may say, on the water. Of these
+was Bakhuisen, a marine painter who had a great vogue in his day, whom
+Peter the Great chose as his master during his visit to Amsterdam.
+This Bakhuisen, it is said, used to risk himself in a small boat in
+the midst of a storm at sea that he might be able to observe more
+closely the movements of the waves, and he often placed his own life
+and the lives of his boatmen in such danger that the men, caring more
+for their skins than for his paintings, sometimes took him back to
+land against his will. John Griffier did more. He bought a little ship
+in London, furnished it like a house, installed his wife and children
+in it, and sailed about on his own responsibility in search of
+subjects. A storm dashed his vessel to pieces against a sandbank and
+destroyed all he possessed; he and his family were saved by a miracle,
+and settled in Rotterdam. But he soon grew weary of a life on land,
+bought a shattered boat and put to sea again; he nearly lost his life
+a second time near Dordrecht, but still continued his voyages.
+
+The Rotterdam gallery affords very few examples of marine paintings,
+but landscape painting is worthily represented by two pictures by
+Ruysdael, the greatest of the Dutch painters of rural scenes. These
+two paintings represent his favorite subjects--leafy, solitary spots,
+which, like all his works, inspire a subtle feeling of melancholy. The
+great power of this artist is sentiment. He is eminent in the Dutch
+school for a gentleness of soul and a singular superiority of
+education. It has been most truly said of him that he used landscape
+as an expression of his suffering, his weariness, his fancies, and
+that he contemplated his country with a bitter sadness, as if it were
+a place of torment, and that he created the woods to hide his gloom in
+their shade. The soft light of Holland is the image of his soul; none
+felt more exquisitely than he its melancholy sweetness, none
+represented more feelingly than he, with a ray of languid light, the
+smile of a suffering fellow-creature. Because of the exceptional
+delicacy of his nature he was not appreciated by his fellow-citizens
+until long after his death.
+
+Beside a painting by Ruysdael hangs a picture of flowers by a female
+artist, Rachel Ruysch, the wife of a famous portrait-painter, who was
+born toward the close of the sixteenth century, and died, brush in
+hand, in the eightieth year of her age, after she had shown to her
+husband and to the world that a sensible woman can passionately
+cultivate the fine arts and yet find time to rear and educate ten
+children.
+
+And as I have spoken of the wife of a painter, I simply mention that
+it is possible to write an entertaining book on the wives of Dutch
+artists, both because of the variety of their adventures and the
+important part they play in the history of art. The faces of a number
+are known already, because many artists painted their wives'
+portraits, as well as their own and those of their children, their
+cats, and their hens. Biographers speak of most of them, confirming or
+contradicting reports which have been circulated in regard to their
+conduct. Some have hazarded the opinion that the larger number of them
+were a serious drawback to their husbands. It seems to me there is
+something to be said on the other side. As for Rembrandt, it is known
+that the happiest part of his life was the time between his first
+marriage and the death of his wife, who was the daughter of a
+burgomaster of Leeuwarden, and to whom posterity owes a debt of
+gratitude. It is also known that Van der Helst at an advanced age
+married a beautiful girl, for whom there is nothing but praise, and
+posterity should be grateful to her for having brightened the old age
+of a great artist. It is true that we cannot speak of all in the same
+terms. Of the two wives of Steen, for example, the first was a
+featherhead, who allowed the tavern at Delft that he had inherited
+from his father to go to ruin; and the second, from all accounts, was
+unfaithful. Heemskerk's second wife was so dishonest that her husband
+was obliged to go about excusing her peculations. De Hondecoeter's
+wife was an eccentric and troublesome woman, who forced her husband to
+pass his evenings in a tavern in order to rid himself of her company.
+The wife of Berghem was so intolerably avaricious that if she found
+him dozing over his brushes she awoke him roughly to make him work and
+earn money, and the poor man was obliged to resort to subterfuges to
+purchase engravings when he was paid for his pictures. On the other
+hand, one could never end reciting the misdeeds of the husbands. The
+artist Griffier compelled his wife to travel about the world in a
+boat; Veen begged his wife's permission to spend four months in Rome,
+and stayed there four years. Karel du Jardin married a rich old woman
+to pay his debts, and deserted her when she had paid them. Molyn,
+another artist, had his wife assassinated that he might marry a
+Genoese. I doubt whether poor Paul Potter, as the story runs, was
+betrayed by the wife whom he blindly loved; and who knows whether
+Huysum, the great flower-painter, who was consumed by jealousy in the
+midst of riches and glory for a wife who was neither young nor
+beautiful, had real grounds for his doubts, or whether he was not
+induced by the reports of his envious rivals to believe what was
+untrue? In conclusion, I must mention with due honor the three wives
+of Eglon Van der Neer, who crowned him with twenty-five children--a
+family which, however, did not keep him from painting a large number
+of pictures in every style, from making several voyages, and from
+cultivating tulips.
+
+There are several small paintings by Albert Cuyp in the Rotterdam
+gallery, a landscape, horses, fowls, and fruit--that Albert Cuyp who
+holds a unique place in Dutch art, who in the course of a prolonged
+life painted portraits, landscapes, animals, flowers, winter pieces,
+moonlight scenes, marine subjects, figures, and in each style left an
+imprint of originality. But nevertheless, like most of the Dutch
+painters of his time, he was so unfortunate that until 1750, more than
+fifty years after his death, his paintings sold for a hundred francs,
+whereas they now would bring a hundred thousand francs--not in
+Holland, but in England, where most of his works are owned.
+
+Heemskerk's "Christ at the Sepulchre" would not be worth mentioning
+if it were not an excuse for introducing the artist, who was one of
+the most curious creatures that ever walked the face of the earth. Van
+Veen--such is his real name--was born in the village of Heemskerk at
+the end of the fifteenth century, and flourished at the period of
+Italian imitation. He was the son of a peasant, and, although he had
+an inclination toward art, he was intended for a peasant. He became a
+painter by chance, like many other Dutch artists. His father had a
+furious temper, and the son was very much afraid of him. One day poor
+Van Veen dropped the milk-jug; his father flew at him, but he ran out
+of the house and spent the night somewhere else. The next morning his
+mother found him, and, thinking it would be unsafe for him to face the
+paternal anger, she gave him a small quantity of linen, a little
+money, and commended him to the care of God. The lad went to Haarlem,
+and, obtaining an entrance to the studio of a famous artist, he
+studied, succeeded, and then went to Rome to perfect himself. He did
+not become a great artist, for the imitation of the Italian school
+spoiled him: his treatment of the nude was stiff and his style full of
+mannerisms, but he painted a great deal and was well paid, and did not
+regret his early life. But herein consisted his peculiarity: he was,
+as his biographers assert, a man incredibly, morbidly and ridiculously
+timid. When he knew that the arquebusiers were to pass he climbed the
+roofs and steeples, and trembled with fear when he saw their arms in
+the street. If any one thinks this an idle story, there is a fact
+which serves to prove it true: he was in the town of Haarlem when the
+Spaniards besieged it, and the magistrates, who knew his weakness,
+permitted him to flee from the city before they began to fight,
+doubtless foreseeing that otherwise he would have died of fright. He
+took advantage of the permission and fled to Amsterdam, leaving his
+fellow-citizens in the lurch.
+
+Other Dutch painters--for we are speaking of the men, not of their
+pictures--like Heemskerk, owed their choice of a profession to
+accident. Everdingen, of the first order of landscape-painters, owed
+his choice to a tempest which wrecked his ship on the shore of Norway,
+where he remained, was inspired by the grand natural scenery and
+created an original style of landscape art. Cornelisz Vroom also owed
+his fortune to a shipwreck: he was on his way to Spain with some
+religious pictures; when the vessel was wrecked near the coast of
+Portugal, the poor artist saved himself with others on an uninhabited
+island, where they remained two days without food. They considered
+themselves as good as lost, when they were unexpectedly relieved by
+some monks from a monastery on the coast, whither the sea had borne
+the hulk of the vessel with the pictures, which were unharmed. These
+the monks considered admirable. Thus was Cornelisz sheltered,
+welcomed, and stimulated to paint, and the profound emotions
+occasioned by the wreck gave his genius such a new and powerful
+impulse that he became a real artist. Another, Hans Fredeman, the
+famous trick painter who painted some columns on the frame of a
+drawing-room door so cleverly that Charles V. turned round to look as
+soon as he had entered, and thought that the walls had suddenly closed
+behind him by enchantment,--this Hans Fredeman, who painted palisades
+that made people turn back, doors which people attempted to open, owed
+his fortune to a book on architecture by Vitruvius which he obtained
+by chance from a carpenter.
+
+There is a good little picture by Steen which represents a doctor
+pretending to operate on a man who imagines himself to be sick: an old
+woman is holding a basin, the invalid is shrieking desperately, and a
+few curious neighbors, convulsed with laughter, look on from a window.
+
+When one says that this picture makes one break into an irresistible
+peal of laughter, one has said all that is necessary. After Rembrandt,
+Steen is the most original figure-painter of the Dutch school; he is
+one of those few artists whom, when once known, whether they are or
+are not congenial to our taste, we must perforce admire as great
+painters, and even if we consider them worthy of only secondary
+honors, it matters not, they remain indelibly impressed on our minds.
+After one has seen Steen's pictures it is impossible to see a
+drunkard, a buffoon, a cripple, a dwarf, a deformed face, a ridiculous
+smirk, a grotesque attitude, without remembering one of his figures.
+All the degrees of stupidity and of drunkenness, all the grossness and
+mawkishness of orgies, the frenzy of the lowest pleasures, the
+cynicism of the vulgarest vice, the buffoonery of the wildest rabble,
+all the most brutal emotions, the basest aspects of tavern and
+alehouse life, have been painted by him with the brutality and
+insolence of an unscrupulous man, and with such a sense of the comic,
+such an impetuosity, such an intoxication of inspiration, one might
+say that words cannot express the effect produced. Writers have
+devoted many volumes to him, and have advanced many different opinions
+about him. His warmest admirers have attributed to him a moral
+purpose--that of making debauchery hateful by painting it as he did in
+repulsive colors, for the same reason that the Spartans showed drunken
+Helots to their sons. Others see in his paintings only the spontaneous
+and thoughtless expression of the spirit and taste of the artist, whom
+they represent as a vulgar debauchee. However this may be, there is no
+doubt that in the effects produced Steen's painting may be considered
+a satire on vice, and in this he is superior to almost all the Dutch
+painters, who restricted themselves to an external realism. Hence he
+was called the Dutch Hogarth, the jovial philosopher, the keenest
+observer of the habits of his countrymen, and one among his admirers
+has said that if Steen had been born at Rome instead of at Leyden, and
+had Michelangelo instead of Van Goyen been his master, he would have
+been one of the greatest painters in the world. Another finds some
+kind of analogy between him and Raphael. The technical qualities of
+his paintings are much less admired, his work has not the finish nor
+the strength of the other artists, such as Ostade, Mieris, and Dou.
+But, even taking into consideration its satirical character, one must
+say that Steen has often exceeded his purpose if he really had a
+purpose. The fury with which he pursued the burlesque often got the
+better of his feeling for reality; his figures, instead of being
+merely ridiculous, became monstrous and hardly human, often resembling
+beasts rather than men, and he has exaggerated these figures until
+sometimes he awakens, a feeling of nausea instead of mirth, and a
+sense of indignation that nature should be so outraged. The effect he
+produces is generally a laugh,--a loud, irresistible laugh, which
+bursts from one even when alone and calls the people away from the
+neighboring pictures. It is impossible to carry further than Steen did
+the art of flattening noses, twisting mouths, shortening necks, making
+wrinkles, rendering faces stupid, putting on humps, and making his
+puppets seem as if they were roaring with laughter, vomiting, reeling,
+or falling. By the leer of a half-closed eye he expressed idiocy and
+sensuality; by a sneer or a gesture he revealed the brutality of a
+man. He makes one smell the odor of a pipe, hear the coarse laughter,
+guess at the stupid or foul discourses--to understand, in a word,
+tavern-life and the dregs of the people; and I maintain that it is
+impossible to carry this art to a higher point than that to which
+Steen has carried it.
+
+His life has been and still is a vexed question. Volumes have been
+written to prove that he was a drunkard, and volumes to prove that he
+was a sober man; and, as is always the case, both sides exaggerate. He
+kept an alehouse at Delft, but it did not pay; then he set up a tavern
+and things went worse. It is said that he was its most assiduous
+frequenter, that he would drink up all the wine, and that when the
+cellar was empty he would take down the sign, close the door, and
+begin to paint furiously, and when he had sold his pictures he would
+buy more wine and begin life again. It is even said that he paid for
+everything with his pictures, and that consequently all his paintings
+were to be found in wine-merchants' houses. It is really difficult to
+explain how he could have painted such a large number of admirable
+works if he was always intoxicated, but it is no less difficult to
+understand why he had a taste for such subjects if he led a steady,
+sober life. It is certain that, especially during the last years of
+his life, he committed every sort of extravagance. He at first
+studied under the famous landscape painter Van Goyen, but genius
+worked in him more powerfully than study; he divined the rules of his
+art, and if it sometimes seems that he has painted too black, as some
+of his critics have said, it was the fault of an extra bottle of wine
+at dinner.
+
+Steen is not the only Dutch painter who, whether deservedly or not,
+won a reputation for drunkenness. At one time nearly all the artists
+passed the greater part of their day in the taverns, where they became
+famously drunk, fell to fighting, and whence they came out bruised and
+bleeding. In a poem upon painting by Karel van Mander, who was the
+first to write the history of the painters of the Netherlands, there
+occurs a passage directed against drunkenness and the habit of
+fighting, part of which runs as follows: "Be sober and live so that
+the unhappy proverb 'As debauched as a painter' may become 'As
+temperate as an artist.'" To mention a few among the most famous
+artists, Mieris was a notable winebibber, Van Goyen a drunkard, Franz
+Hals, the master of Brouwer, a winesack, Brouwer an incorrigible
+tippler; William Cornelis, and Hondecoeter were on the best terms with
+the bottle. Many of the humbler painters are said to have died
+intoxicated. Even in death the history of the Dutch painters presents
+a thousand incongruities. The great Rembrandt expired in misery almost
+without the knowledge of any; Hobbema died in the poor quarter of
+Amsterdam; Steen died in poverty; Brouwer died at a hospital; Andrew
+Both and Henry Verschuringh were drowned; Adrian Bloemaert met his
+death in a duel; Karel Fabritius was killed by the explosion of a
+powder-magazine; Johann Schotel died, brush in hand, of a stroke of
+apoplexy; Potter died of consumption; Lucas of Leyden was poisoned.
+So, what with shameful deaths, debauchery, and jealousy, one may say
+that a great part of the Dutch painters have had an unhappy fate.
+
+In the gallery at Rotterdam there is a beautiful head by Rembrandt; a
+scene of brigands by Wouverman, a great painter of horses and battles;
+a landscape by Van Goyen, the painter of dead shores and leaden skies;
+a marine painting by Bakhuisen, the painter of storms; a painting by
+Berghem, the painter of smiling landscapes; one by Everdingen, the
+painter of waterfalls and forests; and other paintings belonging to
+the Italian and Flemish schools.
+
+On leaving the museum I met a company of soldiers, the first Dutch
+soldiers I had seen. Their uniform was dark colored, without any showy
+ornaments, and they were all fair from first to last, and wore their
+hair long, and almost all of them had a peaceful, happy look, which
+seemed in strange contrast with the arms they bore. Rotterdam, a city
+of more than a hundred thousand inhabitants, has a garrison of three
+hundred soldiers! And it is said that Rotterdam has the name of being
+the most turbulent and unruly city in Holland! In fact, some time ago
+there was a popular demonstration against the municipality, which had
+no consequences but a few broken windows. But in a country like this,
+which runs by clockwork, it must have seemed, and did truly seem, a
+great event; the cavalry was sent from the Hague, the country was in
+commotion. One must not think, however, that this people is all sugar;
+the citizens of Rotterdam confess that "the holy rabble," as Carducci
+calls it, is stoutly licentious, as is the case in other towns of
+worse reputation; the lack of police is rather an incentive to license
+than a proof, as some might think, of public discipline.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Rotterdam, as I have already said, is a city neither artistic nor
+literary; on the contrary, it is one of the few Dutch cities that have
+not given birth to some great painter--an unproductiveness shared by
+the whole of Zealand. Erasmus, however, is not its only man of
+letters. In a little park that extends to the right of the town on the
+bank of the Meuse there is a marble statue raised by the inhabitants
+of Rotterdam to honor the poet Tollens, who was born at the end of
+last century and died a few years ago. This Tollens, whom some dare to
+call the Beranger of Holland, was (and in this alone he resembles
+Beranger) one of the most popular poets of the country--one of those
+poets of which there were so many in Holland, simple, moral, and fall
+of common sense, having, in fact, more good sense than inspiration;
+who treated poetry as if it were a business; who never wrote anything
+that could displease their prudent relatives and judicious friends;
+who sang of their good God and their good king, and expressed the
+tranquil and practical character of the people, always taking care to
+say things that were exact rather than great, and, above all,
+cultivating poetry in old age, and like prudent fathers of families
+not stealing a moment from the pursuit of their business. Like many
+other Dutch poets (who, however, had more genius and different
+natures), he had another profession besides that of an author. Vondel,
+for instance, was a hatmaker; Hooft was the governor of Muyden; Van
+Lennep was a fiscal lawyer; Gravenswaert was a state counsellor;
+Bogaers, an advocate; Beets, a shepherd; so Tollens also, besides
+being a man of letters, was an apothecary at Rotterdam, and passed
+every day, even in his old age, in his drug-store. He had a family and
+loved his children tenderly--so at least one would conclude from the
+different pieces of poetry he wrote on the appearance of their first,
+second, and third teeth. He wrote ballads and odes on familiar and
+patriotic subjects. Among these is the national hymn of Holland, a
+mediocre production which the people sing about the streets and the
+boys chant at school. There is a little poem, perhaps the best of his
+works, on the expedition which the Dutch sent to the Polar Sea
+toward the end of the sixteenth century. The people learn his poetry
+by heart, adore him, and prefer him as their most faithful interpreter
+and most affectionate friend. But, for all this, Tollens is not
+considered in Holland as a first-class poet, many do not even rank him
+in the second class, while not a few disdainfully refuse to give him
+the sacred laurels.
+
+[Illustration: Statue of Tollens.]
+
+After all, if Rotterdam is not a centre of literature and art, she has
+as compensation an extraordinary number of philanthropic institutions,
+splendid clubs, and all the comforts and diversions of a city of
+wealth and refinement.
+
+The observations that I have had occasion to make on the character and
+life of the inhabitants will be more to the purpose at the Hague. I
+will only mention that in Rotterdam, as in other Dutch cities, no one,
+in speaking of their country's affairs, showed the least national
+vanity. The expressions, "Isn't it beautiful?" "What do you think of
+that?"--which one hears every moment in other countries, are never
+heard in Holland, even when the inhabitants are speaking of things
+that are universally admired. Every time that I told a citizen of
+Rotterdam that I liked the town he made a gesture of surprise. In
+speaking of their commerce and institutions they never let a vain
+expression escape them, nor even a boastful or complacent word. They
+always speak of what they are going to do, and never of what they have
+done. One of the first questions put to me when I named my country
+was, "What about its finances?" As to their own country, I observed
+that they know all that it is useful to know, and very little that it
+is simply a pleasure to know. A hundred things, a hundred parts of the
+city, which I had observed when I had been twenty-four hours at
+Rotterdam, many of the citizens had never seen; which proves that they
+are not in the habit of rambling about and looking at everything.
+
+When I took my leave my acquaintances filled my pockets with cigars,
+counselled me to eat good nourishing dinners, and gave me advice on
+the subject of economical travelling. They parted from me quietly.
+There was no clamorous "What a pity you are going!" "Write soon!"
+"Come back quickly!" "Don't forget us!" which rang in my ears on
+leaving Spain. Here there was nothing but a hearty shake of the hand,
+a look, and a simple good-bye.
+
+On the morning when I left Rotterdam I saw in the streets through
+which I passed to get to the Delft railway-station a novel spectacle,
+purely Dutch--the cleaning of the houses, which takes place twice a
+week in the early morning hours. All the servants in the city, dressed
+in flowered lilac-colored wrappers, white caps, white aprons, white
+stockings, and white wooden shoes, and with their sleeves turned up,
+were busily washing the doors, the walls, and the windows. Some sat
+courageously on the window-sills while they washed the panes of the
+windows with sponges, turning their backs to the street with half
+their bodies outside; others were kneeling on the pavement cleaning
+the stones with rough cloths; others were standing in the middle of
+the street armed with syringes, squirts, and pumps, with long rubber
+tubes, like those used for watering gardens, and were sending against
+the second-floor windows streams of water which were pouring down
+again into the street; others were mopping the windows with sponges
+and rags tied to the tops of long bamboo canes; others were burnishing
+the door-knobs, rings, and door-plates; some were cleaning the
+staircases, some the furniture, which they had carried out of the
+houses. The pavements were blocked with buckets and pitchers, with
+jugs, watering-pots, and benches; water ran down the walls and down
+the street; jets of water were gushing out everywhere. It is a curious
+thing that while labor in Holland is so slow and easy in all its
+forms, this work presented an appearance altogether different. All
+those girls with glowing faces were bustling indoors and hurrying out
+again, rushing up stairs and down, tucking up their sleeves hastily,
+assuming bold acrobatic attitudes and undergoing dangerous
+contortions. They took no notice of those who passed by except when
+with jealous eyes it was necessary to keep the profane race away from
+the pavement and walls. In short, it was a furious rivalry of
+cleanliness, a sort of general ablution of the city, which had about
+it something childish and festive, and which made one fancy that it
+was some rite of an eccentric religion which ordered its followers to
+cleanse the town from a mysterious infection sent by malicious
+spirits.
+
+
+
+
+DELFT.
+
+
+On my way from Rotterdam to Delft I saw for the first time the plains
+of Holland.
+
+The country is perfectly flat--a succession of green and flower-decked
+meadows, broken by long rows of willows and clumps of alders and
+poplars. Here and there appear the tops of steeples, the turning arms
+of windmills, straggling herds of large black and white cattle, and an
+occasional shepherd; then, for miles, only solitude. There is nothing
+to attract the eye, there is neither hill nor valley. From time to
+time the sail of a ship is seen in the distance, but as the vessel is
+moving on an invisible canal, it seems to be gliding over the grass of
+the meadows as it is hidden for a moment behind the trees and then
+reappears. The wan light lends a gentle, melancholy influence to the
+landscape, while a mist almost imperceptible makes all things appear
+distant. There is a sense of silence to the eye, a peace of outline
+and color, a repose in everything, so that the vision grows dim and
+the imagination sleeps.
+
+Not far from Rotterdam the town of Schiedam comes into view,
+surrounded by very high windmills, which give it the appearance of a
+fortress crowned with turrets; and far away can be seen the towers of
+the village of Vlaardingen, one of the principal stations of the
+herring-fisheries.
+
+Between Schiedam and Delft I observed the windmills with great
+attention. Dutch windmills do not at all resemble the decrepit mills I
+had seen in the previous year at La Mancha, which seemed to be
+extending their thin arms to implore the aid of heaven and earth. The
+Dutch mills are large, strong, and vigorous, and Don Quixote would
+certainly have hesitated before running atilt at them. Some are built
+of stone or bricks, and are round or octagonal like mediaeval towers;
+others are of wood, and look like boxes stuck on the summits of
+pyramids. Most of them are thatched. About midway between the roof and
+the ground they are encircled by a wooden platform. Their windows are
+hung with white curtains, their doors are painted green, and on each
+door is written the use which it serves. Besides drawing water, the
+windmills do a little of everything: they grind grain, pound rags,
+crumble lime, crush stones, saw wood, press olives, and pulverize
+tobacco. A windmill is as valuable as a farm, and it takes a
+considerable fortune to build one and provide it with colza, grain,
+flour, and oil to keep it working, and to sell its products.
+Consequently, in many places the riches of a proprietor are measured
+by the number of mills he owns; an inheritance is counted by mills,
+and they say of a girl that she has so many windmills as dowry, or,
+even better, so many steam-mills; and fortune-hunters, who are to be
+found everywhere, sue for the maiden's hand to marry the mill. These
+countless winged towers scattered through the country give the
+landscape a singular appearance; they animate the solitude. At night
+in the midst of the trees they have a fantastic appearance, and look
+like fabulous birds gazing at the sky. By day in the distance they
+look like enormous pieces of fireworks; they turn, stop, curb and
+slacken their speed, break the silence by their dull and monotonous
+tick-tack, and when by chance they catch fire--which not infrequently
+happens, especially in the case of flour-mills--they form a wheel of
+flame, a furious rain of burning meal, a whirlwind of smoke, a tumult,
+a dreadful magnificent brilliance that gives one the idea of an
+infernal vision.
+
+[Illustration: Near the Arsenal, Delft]
+
+In the railway-carriage, although it was full of people, I had no
+opportunity of speaking or of hearing a word spoken. The passengers
+were all middle-aged men with serious faces, who looked at each other
+in silence, puffing out great clouds of smoke at regular intervals as
+if they were measuring time by their cigars. When we arrived at Delft
+I greeted them as I passed out, and some of them responded by a slight
+movement of the lips.
+
+"Delft," says Lodovico Guicciardini, "is named after a ditch, or
+rather the canal of water which leads from the Meuse, since in the
+vulgar tongue a ditch is generally called _delft_. It is distant two
+leagues from Rotterdam, and is a town truly great and most beautiful
+in every part, having goodly and noble edifices and wide streets,
+which are lively withal. It was founded by Godfrey, surnamed the
+Hunchback, duke of Lorraine, he who for the space of four years
+occupied the country of Holland."
+
+Delft is the city of disaster. Toward the middle of the sixteenth
+century it was almost entirely destroyed by fire; in 1654 the
+explosion of a powder-magazine shattered more than two hundred houses;
+and in 1742 another catastrophe of the same kind occurred. Besides
+these calamities, William the Silent was assassinated there in the
+year 1584. Moreover, there followed the decline and almost the
+extinction of that industry which once was the glory and riches of the
+city, the manufacture of Delft ware. In this art at first the Dutch
+artisans imitated the shapes and designs of Chinese and Japanese
+china, and finally succeeded in doing admirable work by uniting the
+Dutch and Asiatic styles. Dutch pottery became famous throughout
+Northern Europe, and it is nowadays as much sought after by lovers of
+this art as the best Italian products.
+
+At present Delft is not an industrial or commercial city, and its
+twenty-two thousand inhabitants live in profound peace. But it is one
+of the prettiest and most characteristic towns of Holland. The wide
+streets are traversed by canals shaded by double rows of trees. On
+either side are red, purple, and pink cottages with white pointing,
+which seem content in their cleanliness. At every crossway two or
+three corresponding bridges of stone or of wood, with white railings,
+meet each other; the only thing to be seen is some barge lying
+motionless and apparently enjoying the delight of idleness; there are
+few people stirring, the doors are closed, and all is still.
+
+I took my way toward the new church, looking around to see if I could
+discover any of the famous storks' nests, but there were none visible.
+The tradition of the storks of Delft is still alive, and no traveller
+writes about this city without mentioning it. Guicciardini calls it "a
+memorable fact of such a nature that peradventure there is no record
+of a like event in ancient or modern times." The circumstance took
+place during the great fire which destroyed nearly the whole city.
+There were in Delft a countless number of storks' nests. It must be
+remembered that the stork is the favorite bird of Holland, the bird of
+good augury, like the swallow. Storks are much in demand, as they make
+war on toads and rats, and the peasants plant perches surmounted by
+large wooden disks to attract them to build their nests there. In some
+towns they are to be seen walking through the streets. Well, at Delft
+there were innumerable nests. When the fire began, on the 3d of May,
+the young storks were well grown, but they could not yet fly. When
+they saw the fire approaching, the parent storks tried to carry their
+little ones into a place of safety, but they were too heavy, and after
+every sort of desperate effort the poor birds, worn and terrified, had
+to abandon the attempt. They might yet have saved themselves by
+leaving the young to their fate, as human beings generally do under
+similar circumstances. But, instead, they remained on their nests,
+pressing their little ones round them, and shielding them with their
+wings, as though to delay their destruction for at least a moment.
+Thus they awaited their death, and were found lifeless in this
+attitude of love and devotion. Who knows whether during the horrible
+terror and panic of the fire the example of that sacrifice, the
+voluntary martyrdom of those poor mothers, may not have given courage
+to some weaker soul about to abandon those who had need of him?
+
+In the great square, where stands the new church, I again saw some shops
+like those I had seen in Rotterdam, in which all the articles which can
+be strung together are hung up either outside the door or in the room, so
+forming wreaths, festoons, and curtains--of shoes, for example, or of
+earthen pots, watering-cans, baskets, and buckets--which dangle from the
+ceiling to the ground, and sometimes almost hide the floor. The shop
+signs are like those at Rotterdam--a bottle of beer hanging from a nail,
+a paint-brush, a box, a broom, and the customary huge heads with
+wide-open mouths.
+
+The new church, founded toward the end of the fourteenth century, is
+to Holland what Westminster Abbey is to England. It is a large
+edifice, sombre without and bare within--a prison rather than a house
+of God. The tombs are at the end, behind the enclosure of the benches.
+
+I had scarcely entered before I saw the splendid mausoleum of William the
+Silent, but the sexton stopped me before the very simple tomb of Hugh
+Grotius, the _prodigium Europae_, as the epitaph calls him, the great
+jurisconsult of the seventeenth century--that Grotius who wrote Latin
+verses at the age of nine, who composed Greek odes at eleven, who at
+fourteen indited philosophical theses, who three years later accompanied
+the illustrious Barneveldt in his embassy to Paris, where Henry IV.
+presented him to his court, saying, "Behold the miracle of Holland!" that
+Grotius who at eighteen years of age was illustrious as a poet, as a
+theologian, as a commentator, as an astronomer, who had written a poem on
+the town of Ostend which Casaubon translated into Greek measures and
+Malesherbes into French verse; that Grotius who when hardly twenty-four
+years old occupied the post of advocate-general of Holland and Zealand,
+and composed a celebrated treatise on the _Freedom of the Seas_; who at
+thirty years of age was an honorary councillor of Rotterdam. Afterward,
+when, as a partisan of Barneveldt, he was persecuted, condemned to
+perpetual imprisonment, and shut up in the castle of Loewestein, he wrote
+his treatise on the _Rights of Peace and War_, which for a long time was
+the code of all the publicists of Europe. He was rescued in a marvellous
+way by his wife, who managed to be carried into the prison inside a chest
+supposed to be full of books, and sent back the chest with her husband
+inside, while she remained in prison in his place. He was then sheltered
+by Louis XIII., was appointed ambassador to France by Christina of
+Sweden, and finally returned in triumph to his native land, and died at
+Rostock crowned with glory and a venerable old age.
+
+The mausoleum of William the Silent is in the middle of the church. It
+is a little temple of black and white marble, heavy with ornament and
+supported by slender columns, in the midst of which rise four statues
+representing Liberty, Prudence, Justice, and Religion. Above the
+sarcophagus is a recumbent statue of the prince in white marble, and
+at his feet the effigy of the little dog that saved his life at
+Mechlin by barking one night, when he was sleeping under a tent, just
+as two Spaniards were advancing stealthily to kill him. At the foot of
+this statue rises a beautiful bronze figure, a Victory, with outspread
+wings, resting lightly on her left foot. At the opposite side of the
+little temple is another bronze statue representing William seated. He
+is clad in armor, with his head uncovered and his helmet at his
+feet. An inscription in Latin tells that this monument was consecrated
+by the States of Holland "to the eternal memory of that William of
+Nassau whom Philip II., the terror of Europe, feared, yet whom he
+could neither subdue nor overthrow, but whom he killed by execrable
+fraud." William's children are laid by his side, and all the princes
+of his dynasty are buried in the crypt under his tomb.
+
+[Illustration: Monument to Admiral Van Tromp, Delft.]
+
+Before this monument even the most frivolous and careless visitor
+remains silent and thoughtful.
+
+It is well to recall the tremendous struggle of which the hero lies in
+that tomb.
+
+On one side was Philip II., on the other William of Orange. Philip
+II., shut up in the dull solitude of the Escurial, lived in the midst
+of an empire which included Spain, North and South Italy, Belgium, and
+Holland, and, in Africa, Oran, Tunis, the archipelagoes of the Cape
+Verde and Canary Islands; in Asia the Philippine Islands; and the
+Antilles, Mexico, and Peru in America. He was the husband of the queen
+of England, the nephew of the emperor of Germany, who obeyed him as if
+he were a vassal; he was the lord, one may say, of all Europe, for the
+neighboring states were all weakened by political and religious
+disorders; he had at his command the best disciplined soldiers in
+Europe, the greatest generals of the age, American gold, Flemish
+industries, Italian science, an army of spies scattered through all
+the courts--men chosen from all countries fanatically devoted to him,
+conscious or unconscious tools of his will. He was the most sagacious,
+most mysterious prince of his age; he had everything that enchains,
+corrupts, alarms, and attracts the world--arms, riches, glory, genius,
+religion. While every one else was bowing low before this formidable
+man, William of Orange stood erect.
+
+This man, without a kingdom and without an army, was nevertheless more
+powerful than the king. Like him, he had been a disciple of Charles
+V., and had learned the art of elevating thrones and hurling them
+down; like him, he was cunning and inscrutable, and yet he divined the
+future with keener intellectual vision than Philip. Like his enemy, he
+had the power of reading men's souls, but he also had the ability to
+win their hearts. He had a good cause to uphold, but he was acquainted
+with all the artifices that are used to maintain bad causes. Philip
+II., who spied into every one's affairs, was spied on in his turn and
+had his purposes divined by William. The designs of the great king
+were discovered and thwarted before they were put into execution;
+mysterious hands ransacked his drawers and pockets and investigated
+his secret papers. William in Holland read the mind of Philip in the
+Escurial; he anticipated, hindered, and embroiled all his plots; he
+dug the ground from beneath his feet, provoked him, and then escaped,
+only to return before his eyes like a phantom which he saw and could
+not seize, which he seized and could not destroy. At last William
+died, but even when dead the victory was his, and the enemy who
+survived was defeated. Holland remained for a short time without a
+head, but the Spanish monarchy had received such a blow that it was
+not able to rise again.
+
+In this wonderful struggle the figure of the Great King gradually
+dwindles until it entirely disappears, while that of William of Orange
+becomes greater and greater by slow degrees until it grows to be the
+most glorious figure of his age. From the day when, as a hostage to
+the king of France, he discovered Philip's design of establishing the
+Inquisition in the Netherlands he devoted himself to defend the
+liberty of his country, and throughout his life he never wavered for a
+moment on the road he had entered. The advantages of his noble birth,
+a regal fortune, peace, and the splendid life which by habit and
+nature were dear to him, all these he sacrificed to the cause; he was
+reduced to poverty and exiled, yet in both poverty and exile he
+constantly refused the offers of pardon and of favor that were made
+from many sides and in many ways by the enemy who hated and feared
+him. Surrounded by assassins, made the target of the most atrocious
+calumnies, accused of cowardice before the enemy, and charged with the
+assassination of a wife whom he adored, sometimes regarded with
+distrust, slandered, and attacked by the very people he was
+defending,--he bore it all patiently and in silence. He did not swerve
+from the straight course to the goal, facing infinite perils with
+quiet courage. He did not bend before his people nor did he flatter
+them; he did not permit himself to be led away by the passions of his
+country; it was he who always guided; he was always at the head,
+always the first. All gathered around him; he was the mind, the
+conscience, and the strength of the revolution, the hearth that burned
+and kept the warmth of life in his fatherland. Great by reason alike
+of his audacity and prudence, he continued upright in a time full of
+perjury and treachery; he remained gentle in the midst of violent men;
+his hands were spotless when all the courts of Europe were stained
+with blood. With an army collected at random, with feeble or uncertain
+allies, checked by internal discords between Lutherans and Calvinists,
+nobles and commoners, magistrates and the people, with no great
+general to aid him, he was obliged to combat the municipal spirit of
+the provinces, which would none of his authority and escaped from his
+control; yet he triumphed in a conflict which seemed beyond human
+strength. He wore out the Duke of Alva, Requesens, Don John of
+Austria, and Alexander Farnese. He overthrew the conspiracies of those
+foreign princes who wished to help his country in order to subdue it.
+He gained friends and obtained aid from every part of Europe, and,
+after achieving one of the noblest revolutions in history, he founded
+a free state in spite of an empire which was the terror of the
+universe.
+
+This man, who in the eyes of the world was so terrible and so great,
+was an affectionate husband and father, a pleasant friend and
+companion, who loved merry social gatherings and banquets, and was an
+elegant and polite host. He was a man of learning, and spoke, besides
+his native language, French, German, Spanish, Latin, and Italian, and
+conversed in a scholarly manner on all subjects. Although called the
+Silent (rather because he kept to himself the secret discovered at the
+French court than from a habit of silence), he was one of the most
+eloquent men of his time. His manners were simple and his dress plain;
+he loved his people and was beloved by them. He walked about the
+streets of the cities bareheaded and alone, and chatted with workmen
+and fishermen, who offered him drink out of their glasses; he listened
+to their discourses, settled their quarrels, entered their homes to
+restore domestic concord. Every one called him "Father William," and,
+in fact, he was the father rather than a son of his country. The
+feeling of admiration and gratitude which still lives for him in the
+hearts of the Hollanders has all the intimacy and tenderness of filial
+affection; his reverend name is still in every mouth; his greatness,
+stripped of every ornament and veil, remains entire, spotless, and
+steadfast like his work.
+
+After seeing the tomb of the Prince of Orange I went to look upon the
+place where he was assassinated.
+
+In 1580, Philip II. published an edict in which he promised a reward
+of twenty-five thousand golden pieces and a title of nobility to the
+man who would assassinate the Prince of Orange. This infamous edict,
+which stimulated covetousness and fanaticism, caused crowds of
+assassins to gather from every side, who surrounded William under
+false names and with concealed weapons, awaiting their opportunity. A
+young man from Biscay, Jaureguy by name, a fervent Catholic, who had
+been promised the glory of martyrdom by a Dominican friar, made the
+first attempt. He prepared himself by prayer and fasting, went to
+Mass, took the communion, covered himself with sacred relics, entered
+the palace, and, drawing near to the prince in the attitude of one
+presenting a petition, fired a pistol at his head. The ball passed
+through the jaw, but the wound was not mortal. The Prince of Orange
+recovered. The assassin was slain in the act by sword and halberd
+thrusts, then quartered on the public square, and the parts were hung
+up on one of the gates of Antwerp, where they remained until the Duke
+of Parma took possession of the town, when the Jesuits collected them
+and presented them as relics to the faithful.
+
+Shortly after this another plot against the life of the Prince was
+discovered. A French nobleman, an Italian, and a Walloon, who had
+followed him for some time with the intention of murdering him, were
+suspected and arrested. One of them killed himself in prison with a
+knife, another was strangled in France, and the third escaped, after
+he had confessed that the movements of all three had been directed by
+the Duke of Parma.
+
+Meanwhile Philip's agents were overrunning the country instigating
+rogues to perpetrate this deed with promises of treasures in reward,
+while priests and monks were instigating fanatics to the same end by
+the assurance of help and reward from Heaven. Other assassins made the
+attempt. A Spaniard was discovered, arrested, and quartered at
+Antwerp; a rich trader called Hans Jansen was put to death at
+Flushing. Many offered their services to Prince Alexander Farnese and
+were encouraged by gifts of money. The Prince of Orange, who knew all
+this, felt a vague presentiment of his approaching death, and spoke of
+it to his intimate friends, but he refused to take any precautions to
+protect his life, and replied to all who gave him such counsel, "It is
+useless: God has numbered my years. Let it be according to His will.
+If there is any wretch who does not fear death, my life is in his
+power, however I may guard it."
+
+Eight attempts were made upon his life before an assassin fired the
+fatal shot.
+
+When the deed was at last committed, in 1584, four scoundrels, an
+Englishman, a Scotchman, a Frenchman, and a man of Lorraine, unknown
+to each other, were all awaiting at Delft their opportunity to
+assassinate him.
+
+Besides these, there was a young conspirator, twenty-seven years of
+age, from Franche-Comte, a Catholic, who passed himself off as a
+Protestant, Guyon by name, the son of a certain Peter Guyon who was
+executed at Besancon for embracing Calvinism. This Guyon, whose real
+name was Balthazar Gerard, was believed to be a fugitive from the
+persecutions of the Catholics. He led an austere life and took part in
+all the services of the Evangelical Church, and in a short time
+acquired a reputation for especial piety. Saying that he had come to
+Delft to beg for the honor of serving the Prince of Orange, he was
+recommended and introduced by a Protestant clergyman: he inspired the
+Prince with confidence, and was sent by him to accompany Herr Van
+Schonewalle, the envoy of the States of Holland to the court of
+France. In a short time he returned to Delft, bringing to William the
+tidings of the death of the Duke of Anjou, and presented himself at
+the convent of St. Agatha, where the Prince was staying with his
+court. It was the second Sunday in July. William received him in his
+chamber, being in bed. They were alone. Balthazar Gerard was probably
+tempted to assassinate him at that moment, but he was unarmed and
+restrained himself. Disguising his impatience, he quietly answered all
+the questions he was asked. William gave him some money, told him to
+prepare to return to Paris, and ordered him to come back the next day
+to get his letters and passport. With the money he received from the
+Prince, Gerard bought two pistols from a soldier, who killed himself
+when he knew to what end they had been used, and the next day, the
+10th of July, he again presented himself at the convent of St. Agatha.
+William, accompanied by several ladies and gentlemen of his family,
+was descending the staircase to dine in a room on the ground floor. On
+his arm was the Princess of Orange, his fourth wife, that gentle and
+unfortunate Louisa de Coligny, who had seen her father, the admiral,
+and her husband, Seigneur de Teligny, killed at her feet on the eve of
+St. Bartholomew. Balthazar stepped forward, stopped the Prince, and
+asked him to sign his passport. The Prince told him to return later,
+and entered the dining-room. No shade of suspicion had passed through
+his mind. Louisa de Coligny, however, grown cautious and suspicious by
+her misfortunes, became anxious. That pale man, wrapped in a long
+mantle, had a sinister look; his voice sounded unnatural and his face
+was convulsed. During dinner she confided her suspicions to William,
+and asked him who that man was "who had the wickedest face she had
+ever seen." The Prince smiled, told her it was Guyon, reassured her,
+and was as gay as ever during the dinner. When he had finished he
+quietly left the room to go up stairs to his apartments. Gerard was
+waiting for him at a dark turning near the staircase, hidden in the
+shadow of a door. As soon as he saw the Prince approaching he
+advanced, and leaped upon him just as he was placing his foot on the
+second step. He fired his pistol, which was loaded with three bullets,
+straight at the Prince's breast, and fled. William staggered and fell
+into the arms of an equerry. All crowded round. "I am wounded," said
+William in a feeble voice.... "God have mercy on me and on my poor
+people!" He was all covered with blood. His sister, Catherine of
+Schwartzburg, asked, "Dost thou commend thy soul to Jesus Christ?" He
+answered, in a whisper, "I do." It was his last word. They placed him
+on one of the steps and spoke to him, but he was no longer conscious.
+They then bore him into a room near by, where he died.
+
+Gerard had crossed the stables, had fled from the convent, and reached
+the ramparts of the town, from which he hoped to leap into the moat
+and swim across to the opposite bank, where a horse ready saddled was
+awaiting him. But in his flight he let fall his hat and a pistol. A
+servant and a halberdier in the Prince's service, seeing these traces,
+rushed after him. Just as he was in the act of jumping he stumbled,
+and his two pursuers overtook and seized him. "Infernal traitor!" they
+cried. "I am no traitor," he answered calmly; "I am a faithful servant
+of my master."--"Of what master?" they asked. "Of my lord and
+master the King of Spain," answered Gerard. By this time other
+halberdiers and pages had come up. They dragged him into the town,
+beating him with their fists and with the hilts of their swords. The
+wretch, thinking from the words of the crowd that the Prince was not
+dead, exclaimed with an evil composure, "Cursed be the hand whose blow
+has failed!"
+
+[Illustration: Stairway where William, the Silent, was Assassinated,
+in the Prinsenhof, Delft.]
+
+This deplorable peace of mind did not desert him for a moment. When
+brought before the judges, during the long examination in the cell
+where he was thrown laden with chains, he still maintained the same
+remarkable tranquillity. He bore the torments to which he was
+condemned without letting a cry escape him. Between the various
+tortures to which he was subjected, while the officers were resting,
+he conversed quietly and in a modest manner. While they were
+lacerating him every now and then he raised his bloody head from the
+rack and said, "Ecce homo." Several times he thanked the judges for
+the nourishment he had received, and wrote his confessions with his
+own hand.
+
+He was born at Villefranche in the department of Burgundy, and studied
+law with a solicitor at Dole, and it was there that he for the first
+time manifested his wish to kill William. Planting a dagger in a door,
+he said, "Thus would I thrust a sword into the breast of the Prince of
+Orange!" Three years later, hearing of the proclamation of Philip II.,
+he went to Luxembourg, intending to assassinate the Prince, but was
+stopped by the false report of his death which had been spread after
+Jaurequy's attempted assassination. Soon after, learning that William
+still lived, he renewed his design, and went to Mechlin to seek
+counsel from the Jesuits, who encouraged him, promising him a martyr's
+crown if he lost his life in the enterprise. He then went to Tournay,
+and presented himself to Alexander Farnese, who confirmed the promises
+of King Philip. He was approved and encouraged by the confidence of
+the Prince and by the priests; he fortified himself by reading the
+Bible, by fasting and prayer, and then, full of religious exaltation,
+dreaming of angels and of Paradise, he left for Delft, and completed
+his "duty as a good Catholic and faithful subject."
+
+He repeated his confessions several times to the judges, without one
+word of remorse or penitence. On the contrary, he boasted of his
+crime, and said he was a new David, who had overthrown a new Goliath;
+he declared that if he had not already killed the Prince of Orange, he
+should still wish to do the deed. His courage, his calmness, his
+contempt of life, his profound belief that he had accomplished a holy
+mission and would die a glorious death, dismayed his judges; they
+thought he must be possessed by the devil. They made inquiries, they
+questioned him, but he always gave the same answer that his
+conversation was with God alone.
+
+He was sentenced on the 14th of July. His punishment has been called a
+crime against the memory of the great man whose death it was intended
+to avenge--a sentence to turn faint any one who had not superhuman
+strength.
+
+The assassin was condemned to have his hand enclosed and seared in a
+tube of red-hot iron, to have his arms, legs, and thighs torn to
+pieces with burning pincers, his bowels to be quartered, his heart to
+be torn out and thrown into his face, his head to be dissevered from
+his trunk and placed on a pike, his body to be cut in four pieces, and
+every piece to be hung on a gibbet over one of the principal gates of
+the city.
+
+On hearing the enumeration of these horrible tortures the miserable
+wretch did not flinch; he showed no sign of terror, sorrow, or
+surprise. He opened his coat, bared his breast, and, fixing his
+dauntless eyes on his judges, he repeated with a steady voice his
+customary words, "Ecce homo!"
+
+Was this man only a fanatic, as many believed, or a monster of
+wickedness, as others held, or was he both of these inspired by a
+boundless ambition?
+
+On the next day the sentence was carried into effect. The preparations
+for the execution were made before his eyes; he regarded them with
+indifference. The executioner's assistant began by pounding into
+pieces the pistol with which he had perpetrated the crime. At the
+first blow the head of the hammer fell off and struck another
+assistant on the ear. The crowd laughed, and Gerard laughed too. When
+he mounted the gallows his body was already horrible to behold. He was
+silent while his hand crackled and smoked in the red-hot tube; during
+the time when the red-hot tongs were tearing his flesh he uttered no
+cry; when the knife penetrated into his entrails he bowed his head,
+murmured a few incomprehensible words, and expired.
+
+The death of the Prince of Orange filled the country with
+consternation. His body lay in state for a month, and the people
+gathered round his last bed kneeling and weeping. The funeral was
+worthy of a king: there were present the States General of the United
+Provinces, the Council of State, and the Estates of Holland, the
+magistrates, the clergy, and the princes of the house of Nassau.
+Twelve noblemen bore the bier, four great nobles held the cords of the
+pall, and the Prince's horse followed splendidly caparisoned and led
+by his equerry. In the midst of the train of counts and barons there
+was seen a young man, eighteen years of age, who was destined to
+inherit the glorious legacy of the dead, to humble the Spanish arms,
+and to compel Spain to sue for a truce and to recognize the
+independence of the Netherlands. That young man was Maurice of Orange,
+the son of William, on whom the Estates of Holland a short time after
+the death of his father conferred the dignity of Stadtholder, and to
+whom they afterward entrusted the supreme command of the land and
+naval forces.
+
+While Holland was mourning the death of the Prince of Orange, the
+Catholic priesthood in all the cities under Spanish rule were
+rejoicing over the assassination and extolling the assassin. The
+Jesuits exalted him as a martyr, the University of Louvain published
+his defence, the canons of Bois-le-Duc chanted a Te Deum. After a few
+years the King of Spain bestowed on Gerard's family a title and the
+confiscated property of the Prince of Orange in Burgundy.
+
+The house where William was murdered is still standing: it is a
+dark-looking building with arched windows and a narrow door, and forms
+part of the cloister of an old cathedral consecrated to St. Agatha. It
+still bears the name of Prinsenhof, although it is now used for
+artillery barracks. I got permission to enter from the officer on
+guard. A corporal who understood a little French accompanied me. We
+crossed a courtyard full of soldiers, and arrived at the memorable
+place. I saw the staircase the Prince was mounting when he was
+attacked, the dark corner where Gerard hid himself, the door of the
+room where the unfortunate William dined for the last time, and the
+mark of the bullets on the wall in a little whitewashed space which
+bears a Dutch inscription reminding one that here died the father of
+his country. The corporal showed me where the assassin had fled. While
+I was looking round, with that pensive curiosity that one feels in
+places where great crimes have been committed, soldiers were
+ascending and descending; they stopped to look at me, and then went
+away singing and whistling; some near me were humming; others were
+laughing loudly in the courtyard. All this youthful gayety was in
+sharp and moving contrast to the sad gravity of those memories, and
+seemed like a festival of children in the room where died a
+grandparent whose memory we cherish.
+
+Opposite the barracks is the oldest church in Delft. It contains the
+tomb of the famous Admiral Tromp, the veteran of the Dutch navy, who
+saw thirty-two naval battles, and in 1652, at the battle of the Downs,
+defeated the English fleet commanded by Blake. He re-entered his
+country with a broom tied to the masthead of the admiral's ship to
+indicate that he had swept the English off the seas. Here also is the
+tomb of Peter Heyn, who from a simple fisherman rose to be a great
+admiral, and took that memorable netful of Spanish ships that had
+under their hatches more than eleven million florins; also the tomb of
+Leeuwenhoek, the father of the science of the infinitely small--who,
+with the "divining-glass," as Parini says, "saw primitive man swimming
+in the genital wave." The church has a high steeple surmounted by four
+conical turrets. It is inclined like the Tower of Pisa, because the
+ground has sunk beneath it. Gerard was imprisoned in one of the cells
+of this tower on the night of the assassination.
+
+[Illustration: Refectory of the Convent of St. Agatha, Delft.]
+
+At Rotterdam I had been given a letter to a citizen of Delft asking
+him to show me his house. The letter read: "He desires to penetrate
+into the mysteries of an old Dutch house; lift for a moment the
+curtain of the sanctuary." The house was not hard to find, and as soon
+as I saw it I said to myself, "That is the house for me!"
+
+It was a red cottage, one story in height, with a long peaked gable,
+situated at the end of a street which stretched out into the country.
+It stood almost on the edge of a canal, leaning a little forward, as
+if it wished to see its reflection in the water. A pretty linden tree
+grew in front which spread over the window like a great fan, and a
+drawbridge lay before the door. Then there were the white curtains,
+the green doors, the flowers, the looking-glasses--in fact, it was a
+perfect little model of a Dutch house.
+
+The road was deserted. Before I knocked at the door I waited a little
+while, looking at it and thinking. That house made me understand
+Holland better than all the books I had read. It was at the same time
+the expression and the reason of the domestic love, of the modest
+desires, and the independent nature of the Dutch people. In our
+country there is no such thing as the true house: there are only
+divisions in barracks, abstract habitations, which are not ours, but
+in which we live hidden, but not alone, hearing a thousand noises made
+by people who are strangers to us, who disturb our sorrows with the
+echo of their joys and interrupt our joys with the echo of their
+sorrows. The real home is in Holland--a house of one's own, quite
+separate from others, modest, circumspect, and, by reason of its
+retirement, unknown to mysteries and intrigues. When the inhabitants
+of the house are merry, everything is bright; when they are sad, all
+is serious. In these houses, with their canals and drawbridges, every
+modest citizen feels something of the solitary dignity of a feudal
+lord, and might imagine himself the commander of a fortress or the
+captain of a ship; and indeed, as he looks from his windows, as from
+those of an anchored vessel, he sees a boundless level plain, which
+inspires him with just such sentiments of freedom and solemnity as are
+awakened by the sea. The trees that surround his house like a green
+girdle allow only a delicate broken light to enter it; boats freighted
+with merchandise glide noiselessly past his door; he does not hear the
+trampling of horses or the cracking of whips, or songs or street-cries;
+all the activities of the life that surrounds him are silent and gentle:
+all breathes of peace and sweetness, and the steeple of the church hard
+by tells the hour with a flood of harmony as full of repose and constancy
+as are his affections and his work.
+
+I knocked at the door, and the master of the house opened it. He read
+the letter which I gave him, regarded me critically, and bade me
+enter. It is almost always thus. At the first meeting the Dutch are
+apt to be suspicious. We open our arms to any one who brings us a
+letter of introduction as if he were our most intimate friend, and
+very often do nothing for him afterward. The Dutch, on the contrary,
+receive you coldly--so coldly, indeed, that sometimes you feel
+mortified--but afterward they do a thousand things for you with the
+best will in the world, and without the least appearance of doing you
+a kindness.
+
+Within, the house was in perfect harmony with its outside appearance;
+it seemed to be the inside of a ship. A circular wooden staircase,
+shining like polished ebony, led to the upper rooms. There were mats
+and carpets on the stairs, in front of the doors, and on the floors.
+The rooms were as small as cells, the furniture was as clean as
+possible, the door-plates, the knobs, the nails, the brass and the
+other metal ornaments were as bright as if they had just left the
+hands of the burnisher. Everywhere there was a profusion of porcelain
+vases, of cups, lamps, mirrors, small pictures, bureaus, cupboards,
+knicknacks, and small objects of every shape and for every use. All
+were marvellously clean, and bespoke the thousand little wants that
+the love of a sedentary life creates--the careful foresight, the
+continual care, the taste for little things, the love of order, the
+economy of space; in short, it was the abode of a quiet, domestic
+woman.
+
+The goddess of this temple, who could not or did not dare speak
+French, was hidden in some inmost recess which I did not succeed in
+discovering.
+
+We went down stairs to see the kitchen; it was one gleam of
+brightness. When I returned home I described it, in my mother's
+presence, to the servant who prided herself on her cleanliness, and
+she was annihilated. The walls were as white as snow; the saucepans
+reflected everything like so many looking-glasses; the top of the
+chimney-piece was ornamented by a sort of muslin curtain like the
+curtains of a bed, bearing no trace of smoke; the wall below the
+chimney was covered with square majolica tiles which were as clean as
+though the fire had never been lighted; the andirons, shovel, and
+tongs, the chain of the spit, all seemed to be of burnished steel. A
+lady dressed for a ball could have gone round the room and into all
+the corners and touched everything without getting a speck of dirt on
+her spotless attire.
+
+At this moment the maid was cleaning the room, and my host spoke of
+this as follows: "To have an idea of what cleanliness means with us,"
+he said, "one ought to watch the work of these women for an hour. Here
+they scrub, wash, and brush a house as if it were a person. A house is
+not cleaned; it has its toilette made. The girls blow between the
+bricks, they rummage in the corners with their nails and with pins,
+and clean so minutely that they tire their eyes no less than their
+arms. Really it is a national passion. These girls, who are generally
+so phlegmatic, change their character on cleaning day and become
+frantic. That day we are no longer masters of our houses. They invade
+our rooms, turn us out, sprinkle us, turn everything topsy-turvy; for
+them it is a gala day; they are like bacchantes of cleanliness; the
+madness grows as they wash." I asked him to what he attributed this
+species of mania for which Holland is famous. He gave me the same
+reasons that many others had given; the atmosphere of their country,
+which greatly injures wood and metals, the damp, the small size of the
+houses and the number of things they contain, which naturally makes it
+difficult to keep them clean, the superabundance of water, which helps
+the work, a something that the eye seems to require, until cleanliness
+ends by appearing beautiful, and, lastly, the emulation that
+everywhere leads to excess. "But," he added, "this is not the cleanest
+part of Holland; the excess, the delirium of cleanliness, is to be
+seen in the northern provinces."
+
+We went out for a walk about the town. It was not yet noon; servants
+were to be seen everywhere dressed just like those in Rotterdam. It is
+a singular thing, all the servant-maids in Holland, from Rotterdam to
+Groningen, from Haarlem to Nimeguen, are dressed in the same
+color--light mauve, flowered or dotted with stars or crosses--and
+while engaged in cleaning they all wear a sort of invalid's cap and a
+pair of enormous white wooden shoes. At first I thought that they
+formed a national association requiring uniformity in dress. They are
+generally very young, because older women cannot bear the fatigue they
+have to endure; they are fair and round, with prodigious posterior
+curves (an observation of Diderot); in the strict sense of the word
+they are not at all pretty, but their pink and white complexions are
+marvellous, and they look the picture of health, and one feels that it
+would be delightful to press one's cheek to theirs. Their rounded
+forms and fine coloring are enhanced by their plain style of dress,
+especially in the morning, when they have their sleeves turned up and
+necks bare, revealing flesh as fair as a cherub's.
+
+Suddenly I remembered a note I had made in my book before starting for
+Holland, and I stopped and asked my companion this question: "Are the
+Dutch servants the eternal torment of their mistresses?"
+
+Here I must make a short digression. It is well known that ladies of a
+certain age, good mothers and good housekeepers, whose social position
+does not allow them to leave their servants to themselves--who, for
+instance, have only one servant, who has to be both cook and lady's
+maid,--it is well known that such ladies often talk for hours on this
+subject. The conversations are always the same--of insupportable
+defects, insolence that they have had to endure, impertinent answers,
+dishonesty in buying the things needed for the kitchen, of waste,
+untruthfulness, immense pretensions, of discharges, of the annoyance
+of searching for new servants, and other such calamities; the refrain
+always being that the honest and faithful servants, who became
+attached to the family and grew old in the same service, have ceased
+to exist; now one is obliged to change them continually, and there is
+no way of getting back to the old order. Is this true or false? Is it
+a result of the liberty and equality of classes, making service harder
+to bear and the servants more independent? Is it an effect of the
+relaxation of manners and of public discipline, which has made itself
+felt even in the kitchen? However it may be, the fact remains that at
+home I heard this subject so much discussed that one day, before I
+left for Spain, I said to my mother, "If anything in Madrid can
+console me in being so far from my family, it will be that I shall
+hear no more of this odious subject." On my arrival at Madrid I went
+into a hostelry, and the first thing the landlady said was that she
+had changed her maids three times in a month, and was driven to
+desperation: she did not know which saint to pray to: and so long as I
+remained there the same lamentation continued. On my return home I
+told my family about it; they all laughed, and my mother concluded
+that there must be the same trouble in every country. "No," said I,
+"in the northern countries it must be different."--"You will see that
+I am right," my mother answered. I went to Paris, and of the first
+housekeeper with whom I became acquainted I asked the question, "Are
+the servants here the everlasting torment of their mistresses, as they
+are in Italy and Spain?"--"_Ah! mon cher monsieur_," she answered,
+clasping her hands and looking above her, "_ne me parlez pas de ca!_"
+Then followed a long story of quarrels, and discharging of servants,
+and of trials which mistresses have to endure. I wrote the news to my
+mother, and she answered, "We shall see in London."
+
+I went to London, and on the ship which was bearing me to Antwerp I
+entered into conversation with an English lady. After we had exchanged
+a few words, and I had explained the reason of my curiosity, I asked
+the usual question. She turned away her head, put her hand to her
+forehead, and then replied, emphasizing each word, "They are the
+_flagellum Dei_!"
+
+I wrote home in despair, suggesting however, that I still trusted in
+Holland, which was a peaceful country, where the houses were so tidy
+and clean and the home-life so sweet. My mother answered that she
+thought we might possibly make an exception of Holland. But we were
+both rather doubtful. My curiosity was aroused, and she was expecting
+the news from me; for this reason, therefore, I put the question to my
+courteous guide at Delft. It may be imagined with what impatience I
+awaited his reply.
+
+"Sir," answered the Dutchman after a moment's reflection, "I can only
+give you this reply: in Holland we have a proverb which says that the
+maids are the cross of our lives."
+
+I was completely discouraged.
+
+"First of all," he continued, "the annoyance of living in a large
+house is, that we are obliged to keep two servants, one for the
+kitchen and one for cleaning, since it is almost impossible, with the
+mania they have of washing the very air, that one servant can do both
+things. Then they have an unquenchable thirst for liberty: they insist
+on staying out till ten in the evening and on having an entire holiday
+every now and then. Moreover, their sweethearts must be allowed in the
+house, or they come to fetch them; we must let them dance in the
+streets, and they are up to all sorts of mischief during the Kirmess
+festival. Moreover, when they are discharged we are obliged to wait
+until they choose to go, and sometimes they delay for months. Add to
+this account, wages amounting to ninety or a hundred florins a year,
+as well as the payment of a certain percentage on all the bills the
+master pays, tips from all invited guests, and all sorts of especial
+presents of dress-goods and money from the master, and, above all and
+always, patience, patience, patience!"
+
+I had heard enough to speak with authority to my mother, and I turned
+the conversation to a less distressing subject.
+
+On passing a side street I observed a lady approach a door, read a
+piece of paper attached to it, make a gesture of distress, and pass
+on. A moment later another woman who was passing, also paused, read
+it, and went on. I asked my companion for an explanation, and he told
+me of a very curious Dutch custom. On that piece of paper was written
+the notice that a certain sick person was worse. In many towns of
+Holland, when any one is ill, the family posts such a bulletin on the
+door every day, so that friends and acquaintances are not obliged to
+enter the house to learn the news. This form of announcement is
+adopted on other occasions also. In some towns they announce the birth
+of a child by tying to the door a ball covered with red silk and lace,
+for which the Dutch word signifies a proof of birth. If the child is a
+girl, a piece of white paper is attached; if twins are born, the lace
+is double, and for some days after the appearance of the symbol a
+notice is posted to the effect that the mother and child are well and
+have passed a good night, or the contrary if it is otherwise. At one
+time, when there was the announcement of a birth on a door the
+creditors of the family were not allowed to knock for nine days; but I
+believe this custom has died out, although it must have had the
+beneficent virtue of promoting an increase in the population.
+
+[Illustration: Old Delft.]
+
+In that short walk through the streets of Delft I met some gloomy
+figures like those I had noticed at Rotterdam, without being able to
+determine whether they were priests, magistrates, or gravediggers, for
+in their dress and appearance they bore a certain resemblance to
+all three. They wore three-cornered hats, with long black veils which
+reached to the waist, swallow-tailed black coats, short black
+breeches, black stockings, black cloaks, buckled shoes, and white
+cravats and gloves, and they held in their hands sheets of paper
+bordered with black. My companion explained to me that they were
+called _aanspreckers_, an untranslatable Dutch word, and that their
+duty was to bear the information of deaths to the relatives and
+friends of the defunct and to make the announcement through the
+streets. Their dress differs in some particulars in the various
+provinces and also according to the religious faith of the deceased.
+In some towns they wear immense hats _a la_ Don Basilio. They are
+generally very neat, and are sometimes dressed with a care that
+contrasts strangely with their business as messengers of death, or, as
+a traveller defines them, living funeral letters.
+
+We noticed one of these men who had stopped in front of a house, and
+my companion drew my attention to the fact that the shutters were
+partly closed, and observed that there must be some one dead there. I
+asked who it was. "I do not know," he replied, "but, to judge from the
+shutters, it cannot be any near relative to the master of the house."
+As this method of arguing seemed rather strange to me, he explained
+that in Holland when any one dies in a family they shut the windows
+and one, two, or three of the divisions of the folding shutters
+accordingly as the relationship is near or distant. Each section of
+shutter denotes a degree of relationship. For a father or mother they
+close all but one, for a cousin they close one only, for a brother
+two, and so on. It appears that the custom is very old, and it still
+continues, because in that country no custom is discontinued for
+caprice; nothing is changed unless the alteration becomes a matter of
+serious importance, and unless the Hollanders have been more than
+persuaded that such a change is for the better.
+
+I should like to have seen at Delft the house where was the tavern of
+the artist Steen, where he probably passed those famous debauches
+which have given rise to so many questions among his biographers. But
+my host told me that nothing was known about it. However, apropos of
+painters, he gave me the pleasing information that I was in the part
+of Holland, bounded by Delft, the Hague, the sea, the town of Alkmaar,
+the Gulf of Amsterdam, and the ancient Lake of Haarlem, which might be
+called the fatherland of Dutch painting, both because the greatest
+painters were born there, and because it presented such singularly
+picturesque effects that the artists loved and studied it devotedly. I
+was therefore in the bosom of Holland, and when I left Delft, I was
+going into its very heart.
+
+Before leaving I again glanced hastily over the military arsenal,
+which occupies a large building, and which originally served as a
+warehouse to the East India Company. It is in communication with an
+artillery workshop and a great powder-magazine outside of the town. At
+Delft there still remains the great polytechnic school for engineers,
+the real military academy of Holland, for from it come forth the
+officers of the army that defends the country from the sea, and these
+young warriors of the dykes and locks, about three hundred in number,
+are they who give life to the peaceful town of Grotius.
+
+As I was stepping into the vessel which was to bear me to the Hague,
+my Dutch friend described the last of those students' festivals at
+Delft which are celebrated once in five years. It was one of those
+pageants peculiar to Holland, a sort of historical masquerade like a
+reflection of the magnificence of the past, serving to remind the
+people of the traditions, the personages, and illustrious events of
+earlier times. A great cavalcade represented the entrance into
+Arnheim, in 1492, of Charles of Egmont, Duke of Gelderland, Count of
+Zutphen. He belonged to that family of Egmont which in the person of
+the noble and unfortunate Count Lamoral gave the first great martyr of
+Dutch liberty to the axe of the Duke of Alva. Two hundred students on
+richly caparisoned horses, clothed in armor, decorated with mantles
+embroidered with coats of arms, with waving plumes and large swords
+proudly brandished, formed the retinue of the Duke of Gelderland. Then
+came halberdiers, archers, and foot-soldiers dressed in the pompous
+fashion of the fifteenth century; bands played, the city blazed with
+lights, and through its streets flowed an immense crowd, which had
+come from every part of Holland to enjoy this splendid vision of a
+distant age.
+
+
+
+
+THE HAGUE.
+
+
+The boat that was to carry me to the Hague was moored near a bridge,
+in a little basin formed by the canal which leads from Delft to the
+Hague, and shaded by trees on the bank like a garden lake.
+
+The boats that carry passengers from town to town are called in Dutch
+_trekschuiten_. The _trekschuit_ is the traditional boat, as
+emblematic of Holland as is the gondola of Venice. Esquiros defined it
+as "the genius of ancient Holland floating on the waters;" and, in
+fact, any one who has not travelled in a _trekschuit_ is not
+acquainted with Dutch life under its most original and poetic aspect.
+
+It is a large boat, almost entirely covered with a cabin shaped like a
+stage-coach and divided into two compartments--the division near the
+prow being for second-class passengers, and that near the poop for
+first-class. An iron pole with a ring at the end is fastened to the
+prow, through which a long rope is passed; this is tied at one end
+near the rudder and at the other end is fastened a tow-horse, which is
+ridden by a boatman. The windows of the cabin have white curtains; the
+walls and doors are painted. In the compartment for first-class
+passengers there are cushioned seats, a little table with books, a
+cupboard, a mirror; everything is neat and bright. In putting down my
+valise I allowed some ashes from my cigar to fall under the table; a
+minute later, when I returned, these had disappeared.
+
+I was the only passenger, and did not have to wait long; the boatman
+made a sign, the tow-boy mounted his horse, and the _trekschuit_ began
+to glide gently down the canal.
+
+It was about an hour past noon and the sun was shining brightly, but
+the boat passed along in the shade. The canal is bordered by two rows
+of linden trees, elms, willows, and high hedges on either side, which
+hide the country. It seemed as though we were sailing across a forest.
+At every curve we saw green enclosed views in the distance, with
+windmills here and there on the bank. The water was covered with a
+carpet of aquatic plants, and in some parts strewn with white flowers,
+with iris, water-lilies, and the water-lentil. The high green hedge
+bordering the canal was broken here and there, allowing a glimpse, as
+if through a window, of the far-off horizon of the champaign; then the
+walls would close again in an instant.
+
+Every now and then we encountered a bridge. It was pleasant to see the
+rapidity with which the man on horseback and another man, who was always
+on guard, handled the cords to let the _trekschuit_ pass, and how the two
+conductors made room for each other when two _trekschuiten_ met, the
+one passing his rope under that of the other without speaking a word,
+without greeting each other even with a smile, as if gravity and silence
+were obligatory. All along the way the only sound to be heard was the
+whirring of the arms of the windmills.
+
+[Illustration: On the Canal, near Delft.]
+
+We met barges laden with vegetables, peat, stones, and barrels, and
+drawn with a long tow-rope by men, who were sometimes aided by large
+dogs with cords round their necks. Some were towed by a man, a woman,
+and a boy, one behind the other, with the rope tied to a sort of girth
+made of leather or linen. All three would be leaning forward so far
+that it was hard to understand how they managed to keep their feet,
+even with the help of the rope. Other boats were towed by old women
+alone. On many, a woman with a child at her breast would be seen at
+the rudder; other children were grouped around, and one might see a
+cat sitting on a sack, a dog, a hen, pots of flowers, and bird-cages.
+On some women sat knitting stockings and rocking the cradle at the
+same time; on others they were cooking; sometimes all the members of
+the family, excepting the one who was towing, were eating in a group.
+The look of peace that beams from the faces of those people and the
+tranquil appearance of those aquatic houses, of those animals which in
+a certain measure have become amphibious, the serenity of that
+floating life, the air of security and freedom of those wandering and
+solitary families,--these are not to be described. Thus in Holland
+live thousands of families who have no other houses but their boats. A
+man marries, and the wedded couple buy a boat, make it their home, and
+carry merchandise from one market to another. Their children are born
+on the canals; they are bred and grow up on the water; the barge holds
+their house-hold goods, their small savings, their domestic memories,
+their affections, their past, and all their present happiness and
+hopes for the future. They work, save, and after many years buy a
+larger boat, and sell their old house to a poorer family or give it to
+their eldest son, who from some other boat takes a wife, at whom he
+has glanced for the first time in an encounter on the canal. Thus from
+barge to barge, from canal to canal, life passes silently and
+peacefully, like the wandering boat which shelters it and the slow
+water that accompanies it.
+
+For some time I saw only small peasants' houses on the banks; then I
+began to see villas, pavilions, and cottages half hidden among the
+trees, and in the shadiest corners fair-haired ladies dressed in
+white, seated book in hand, or some fat gentleman enveloped in a cloud
+of smoke with the contented air of a wealthy merchant. All of these
+little villas are painted rose-color or azure; they have varnished
+tile roofs, terraces supported by columns, little yards in front or
+around them, with tidy flower-beds and neatly-kept paths; miniature
+gardens, clean, closely trimmed, and well tended. Some houses stand
+on the brink of the canal with their foundations in the water,
+allowing one to see the flowers, the vases, and the thousand shining
+trifles in the rooms. Nearly all have an inscription on the door which
+is the aphorism of domestic happiness, the formula of the philosophy
+of the master, as--"Contentment is Riches;" "Pleasure and Repose;"
+"Friendship and Society;" "My Desires are Satisfied;" "Without
+Weariness;" "Tranquil and Content;" "Here we Enjoy the Pleasures of
+Horticulture." Now and then a fine black-and-white cow, lying on the
+bank on a level with the water, would raise her head quietly and look
+toward the boat. We met flocks of ducks, which paddled off to let us
+pass. Here and there, to the right and left, there were little canals
+almost covered by two high hedges, with branches intertwining overhead
+which formed a green archway, under which the little boats of the
+peasants darted and disappeared in the shadows. From time to time, in
+the midst of all this verdure, a group of houses would suddenly come
+into view, a neat many-colored little village, with its looking-glasses
+and its tulips at the windows, and without a sign of life. This profound
+silence would be broken by a merry chime from an unseen steeple. It was a
+pastoral paradise, a landscape of idyllic beauty breathing freshness and
+mystery--a Chinese Arcadia, with quaint corners, little surprises, and
+innocent artifices of prettiness, all which seemed like so many low
+voices of invisible beings murmuring, "We are content."
+
+At a certain point the canal divides into two branches, of which one
+hides itself amongst the trees and leads to Leyden, and the other
+turns to the left and leads to the Hague. After we passed this point
+the _trekschuit_ began to stop, first at a house, then at a
+garden-gate, to receive parcels, letters, and verbal messages to be
+carried to the Hague.
+
+An old gentleman came on board from a villa and took a seat near me.
+He spoke French, and we entered into conversation. He had been in
+Italy, knew some words of Italian, and had read "I Promessi Sposi." He
+asked me for particulars in regard to the death of Alessandro Manzoni.
+After ten minutes I adored him. He gave me an account of the
+_trekschuit_. To appreciate the poetry of this national boat it is
+necessary to take long journeys in company with some Dutch people.
+Then they all live just as if they were at home; the women work, the
+men smoke on the roof; they dine all together, and after dinner they
+loiter about on the deck to see the sun set; the conversation grows
+very intimate, and the company becomes a family. Night comes on. The
+_trekschuit_ passes like a shadow through villages steeped in silence,
+glides along the canals bathed in the silver light of the moon, hides
+itself in the thickets, reappears in the open country, grazes the
+lonely houses from which beams the light of the peasant's lamp, and
+meets the boats of fishermen, which dart past like phantoms. In that
+profound peace, lulled by the slow and equal motion of the boat, men
+and women fall asleep side by side, and the boat leaves nothing in its
+wake save the confused murmur of the water and the sound of the
+sleepers' breathing.
+
+As we went on our way gardens and villas became more frequent. My
+travelling companion showed me a distant steeple, and pointed out the
+village of Ryswick, where in 1697 was signed the celebrated treaty of
+peace between France, England, Spain, Germany, and Holland. The castle
+of the Prince of Orange, where the treaty was signed, is no longer
+standing. An obelisk has been erected on its site.
+
+Suddenly the _trekschuit_ emerged from the trees, and I saw before me
+an extended plain, a large woodland, and a city crowned with towers
+and windmills.
+
+It was the Hague.
+
+The boatman asked me to pay my fare, and received the money in a
+leather bag. The driver urged on the horse, and in a few minutes we
+were in town. After a quarter of an hour I found myself in a spotless
+room in the Hotel du Marechal de Turenne. Who knows? It may have been
+the very room in which the celebrated Marshal slept as a young man
+when he was in the service of the house of Orange.
+
+The Hague--in Dutch 'SGravenhage or 'SHage--the political capital, the
+Washington of Holland, whose New York is Amsterdam--is a city that is
+partly Dutch and partly French. It has wide streets without canals,
+vast wooded squares, grand houses, splendid hotels, and a population
+composed in great part of wealthy citizens, nobles, public officers,
+men of letters, and artists; in a word, a much more refined populace
+than that of any of the other cities of Holland.
+
+What most impressed me in my first walk round the city were the new
+quarters where dwells the flower of the moneyed aristocracy. In no
+other city, not even in the Faubourg St. Germain in Paris, had I ever
+felt myself such a poor devil as in those streets. They are wide and
+straight, with small palaces on either side: these are artistic in
+design and harmonious in coloring, with large windows without blinds,
+through which one can see the carpets, vases of flowers, and the
+sumptuous furniture of the rooms on the ground floor. All the doors
+were closed, and not a shop was to be seen, not an advertisement on
+the walls, not a stain nor a straw could be found, if one had a
+hundred eyes. When I passed through the streets there was a profound
+silence. Now and then an aristocratic carriage rolled past me almost
+noiselessly over the brick pavement, or I saw some stiff lackey
+standing at a door, or the fair head of some lady behind a curtain. As
+I walked close to the windows, I could see out of the corner of my
+eye my shabby travelling-clothes reflected clearly in the large panes
+of glass, and I repented not having brought my gloves, and felt a
+certain sense of humiliation because I was not at least a knight by
+birth. It seemed to me that now and then I could hear soft voices
+saying, "Who is that beggar?"
+
+The most noteworthy part of the old town is the Binnenhof, a group of
+old buildings in different styles of architecture, which overlook two
+wide squares on two sides and a large pool on the third side. In the
+midst of this group of palaces, towers, and monumental doors, of a
+gloomy mediaeval appearance, is a spacious courtyard which may be
+entered by three bridges and three doors. In one of those buildings
+the Stadtholders lived. It is now the Second Chamber of the States
+General; opposite to it are located the First Chamber, the rooms of
+the Ministry, and the other offices of public administration. The
+Minister of the Interior has his office in a little, low, black,
+gloomy tower which leans slightly toward the water of the pool.
+
+The Binnenhof, the Buitenhof (a square extending to the west), and the
+Plaats (another square on the other side of the pool, which is reached
+by passing under an old door that once formed part of a prison) were
+the scenes of the most bloody events in the history of Holland.
+
+In the Binnenhof the venerable Van Olden Barneveldt was beheaded. He
+was the second founder of the republic, the most illustrious victim of
+the long struggle between the patrician burghers and the Stadtholders,
+between the republican and monarchical principles, which so terribly
+afflicted Holland. The scaffold was erected in front of the building
+where sat the States General. Opposite was the tower from which, they
+say, Maurice of Orange, unseen, assisted at the execution of his
+enemy. In the prison between the two squares was tortured Cornelius de
+Witt, who was unjustly accused of plotting against the life of the
+Prince of Orange. The furious populace dragged Cornelius and John de
+Witt, the Grand Pensionary, into the Plaats all wounded and bleeding,
+and there they were spit upon, kicked, and slaughtered with pike and
+pistol, and afterward their corpses were mutilated and defiled. In the
+same square Adelaide de Poelgeest, the mistress of Albert, Count of
+Holland, was stabbed on the 22d of September in the year 1392, and the
+stone on which she expired is still shown.
+
+These sad memories and those heavy low doors, that irregular group of
+dark buildings, which at night, when the moon lights up the stagnant
+pool, have the appearance of an enormous inaccessible castle standing
+in the midst of the joyous and cultured city,--arouse a feeling of
+awful sadness. At night the courtyard is lighted only by an occasional
+lamp; the few people who pass through it quicken their pace as if
+they are afraid. There is no sound of steps to be heard, no lighted
+windows to be seen; one enters it with a vague restlessness, and
+leaves it almost with pleasure.
+
+With the exception of the Binnenhof, the Hague has no important
+monuments ancient or modern. There are several mediocre statues of the
+Princes of Orange, a vast, naked cathedral, and a royal palace of
+modest proportions. On many of the public buildings storks are carved,
+the stork being the heraldic animal of the city. Many of these birds
+walk about freely in the fish-market--they are kept at the expense of
+the municipality, like the bears of Berne and the eagles of Geneva.
+
+The greatest ornament of the Hague is its forest, which is one of the
+wonders of Holland and one of the most magnificent parks in the world.
+
+It is composed of alders, oaks, and the largest beech trees to be
+found in Europe. It is more than a French league in circumference, and
+is situated to the east of the city, only a few steps from the last
+houses. It is a really delightful oasis in the midst of the depressing
+Dutch plains. When one has entered the wood and passed beyond the
+fringe of pavilions, little Swiss cottages, and summer houses dotted
+about among the first trees, one seems to have lost one's self in a
+lonely interminable forest. The trees are as thick as a canebrake, the
+avenues are lost in the dusk; there are lakes and canals almost
+hidden by the verdure of the banks; rustic bridges, the crossways of
+unfrequented bridle-paths, shady recesses; and over all a cool,
+refreshing shade in which one seems to breathe the air of virginal
+nature and to be far removed from the turmoil of the world.
+
+They say that this wood, like that of the town of Haarlem, is the
+remnant of an immense forest which in olden times covered almost the
+whole of the coast of Holland, and the Dutch respect it as a monument
+of their national history. Indeed, in the history of Holland there are
+many references to it, proving that at all times it was preserved with
+a most jealous care. Even the Spanish generals respected this national
+worship and shielded the sacred wood from the hands of the soldiers.
+On more than one occasion of serious financial distress, when the
+government was disposed to decree the destruction of the forest for
+the purpose of selling the wood, the citizens exorcised the danger by
+a voluntary offering. This beloved forest is connected with a thousand
+memories--records of terrible hurricanes, of the amours of princes, of
+celebrated fetes, of romantic adventures. Some of the trees bear the
+names of kings and emperors, others of German electors; one beech tree
+is said to have been planted by the grand pensionary and poet Jacob
+Catz, three others by the Countess of Holland, Jacqueline of Bavaria,
+and they still point out the place where she used to rest after her
+walks. Voltaire also left a record of some sort of gallant
+adventure which he had with the daughter of a hair-dresser.
+
+[Illustration: The Binnenhof, The Hague.]
+
+In the centre of the forest, where the underbrush seems determined to
+conquer everything and springs up, piling itself into heaps, climbing the
+trees, creeping across the paths, extending over the water, restraining
+one's steps and hiding the view on every side, as if it wished to conceal
+the shrine of some forgotten sylvan divinity,--at this spot is hidden a
+small royal palace, called the House-in-the-Wood, a sort of _Casa del
+Labrador_ of the Villa Aranjuez. It was erected in 1647 by Princess Amalia
+of Solms, in honor of her husband, Frederick Henry, the Stadtholder.
+
+When I went to visit this palace, while my eyes were busy searching
+for the visitors' door, I saw a lady with a noble and benevolent face
+come out and get into her carriage. I took her for some English
+traveller who had brought her visit to a close. As the carriage passed
+near me, I raised my hat; the lady bowed her head and disappeared.
+
+A moment later one of the ladies in waiting at the palace told me that
+this "traveller" was no one less than Her Majesty the Queen of
+Holland.
+
+I felt my blood flow faster. The word _queen_, independently of the
+person to whom it referred, has always had this effect on me, although
+I cannot explain the reason of it. Perhaps because it reminds me of
+certain bright, confused visions of my youth. The romantic imagination
+of a boy of fifteen is sometimes content to tread the ground, and
+sometimes it climbs with eager audacity to a giddy height. It dreams
+of supernatural beauty, of intoxicating perfumes, of consuming love,
+and imagines that all these are comprised in the mysterious and
+inaccessible creatures that fortune has placed at the summit of the
+social scale. And among the thousand strange, foolish, and impossible
+fancies that enter his mind he dreams of scaling towering walls in the
+dark with youthful agility, of passing formidable gates and deep
+ditches, of opening mysterious doors, threading interminable corridors
+amidst people overcome with sleep, of stepping silently through
+immense saloons, of ascending aerial staircases, mounting the stones
+of a tower at the risk of his life, reaching an immense height over
+the tall trees of moonlit gardens, and at last of arriving, fainting
+and bleeding, beneath a balcony, and hearing a superhuman voice speak
+in accents of deep pity, of answering with equal tenderness, of
+bursting into tears and invoking God, of leaning his forehead on the
+marble and covering with desperate kisses a foot flashing with gems,
+of abandoning his face in the perfumed silks, and of feeling his
+reason flee and life desert him in an embrace more than human.
+
+In this palace, called the House-in-the-Wood, besides other remarkable
+things, is an octagonal room, the walls of which from floor to ceiling
+are covered with paintings by the most celebrated artists of the
+school of Rubens, among which is a huge allegorical painting by
+Jordaens which represents the apotheosis of Frederick Henry. There is
+a room filled with valuable presents from the Emperor of Japan, the
+Viceroy of Egypt, and the East India Company; and an elegant little
+room decorated with designs in chiaroscuro, which even when closely
+examined are taken for bas-reliefs. These are the work of Jacob de
+Wit, a painter who at the beginning of the last century won great fame
+in this art of delusion. The other rooms are small, and handsome
+without display; they are full of the treasures of a refined taste, as
+becomes the great and modest house of Orange.
+
+The custom of allowing strangers to enter the palace the moment after
+the queen came out seemed strange to me, but it did not surprise me
+when I learned of other customs and other popular traits, and in a
+word the character of the royal family of Holland.
+
+In Holland the sovereign is considered as a stadtholder rather than as
+a king. He has in him, as a certain Spanish republican said of the
+Duke of Aosta, the least quantity possible in a king. The sentiment of
+the Dutch nation toward their royal family is not so much a feeling of
+devotion to the family of the monarch as affection for the house of
+Orange, which has shared its triumphs and taken part in its
+misfortunes--which has lived its life for three centuries. At bottom,
+the country is republican, and its monarchy is a sort of crowned
+presidency void of regal pomp. The king makes speeches at the banquets
+and at the public festivals as the ministers do with us, and he enjoys
+the fame of an orator because his speeches are extemporary: his voice
+is very powerful, and his eloquence has a martial ring, which arouses
+great enthusiasm among the people. The crown prince, William of
+Orange, studied at the University of Leyden, passed the public
+examinations, and took his degree as a lawyer; Prince Alexander, the
+second son, is now studying at the same university. He is a member of
+the Students' Club, and invites his professors and fellow-students to
+dinner. At the Hague, Prince William enters the cafes, converses with
+his neighbors, and walks about the streets with his young gentlemen
+friends. In the wood the queen will seat herself on a bench beside any
+poor old woman, nor can one say she does this, like other princes, to
+acquire popularity; for that the house of Orange can neither gain nor
+lose, since there is not in the nation (although it is republican by
+nature and tradition) the least sign of a faction that desires a
+republic or even pronounces its name. On the other hand, the people,
+who love and venerate their king, who at the festivals celebrated in
+his honor will remove the horses and themselves draw his carriage, who
+insist on every one wearing an orange-colored cockade in homage to the
+name of Orange,--in ordinary times do not occupy themselves at all
+about his affairs and family. At the Hague I had some trouble to learn
+what grade the crown prince holds in the army. One of the first
+librarians in the town, to whom I put my question, was astonished at
+my curiosity, which to him seemed childish, and he told me that
+probably I could not have found a hundred people in the Hague who
+would have been able to answer my question.
+
+The seat of the court is at the Hague, but the king passes a large
+part of the summer in one of his castles in Gelderland, and every year
+spends some days in Amsterdam. The people say there is a law which
+obliges the king to spend ten days during the year at Amsterdam, and
+the municipality of that town are obliged to pay his expenses during
+those ten days. After midnight of the tenth day even a match that he
+may strike to light his cigar is at his own expense.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On returning from the royal villa at the Hague I found the wood
+enlivened by the Sunday promenade--music, carriages, a crowd of
+ladies, restaurants full of people, and swarms of children everywhere.
+
+Then for the first time I saw the fair sex of Holland. Beauty is a
+rare flower in Holland, as in all other countries; notwithstanding, in
+a walk of a hundred steps in the wood at the Hague I saw many more
+beautiful women than I had seen in all the pictures in the Dutch
+galleries. These ladies do not possess the statuesque beauty of the
+Romans, the splendid color of the English, nor the vivacity of the
+Andalusians; but there is about them a refinement, a delightful
+innocence and grace, a tranquil beauty, a pleasing countenance; they
+have, as a French writer has rightly said, the attraction of the
+valerian flower which ornaments their gardens. They are plump, and
+tall rather than short, they have regular features, and smooth
+brilliant complexions of a beautiful white and delicate pink--colors
+which seem to have been suffused by the breath of an angel; they have
+high cheek-bones; their eyes are light blue, sometimes very light, and
+sometimes of a glassy appearance, which gives them a vague, wandering
+look. It is said that their teeth are not good, but this I could not
+confirm, as they seldom laugh. They walk more heavily than the French
+and not so stiffly as the English; they dress in the Parisian mode,
+and the ladies at the Hague display better taste than those at
+Amsterdam, although they do not dress so richly: they all display
+their masses of fair hair with considerable pride.
+
+I was astonished to see girls who appeared to be fully grown, who in
+our country would have had the airs and attire of women, still dressed
+like children, with short skirts and white pantalettes. In Holland,
+where life is easy and impatience an unknown experience, the girls are
+in no hurry to leave off the ways and appearance of childhood, and, on
+the other hand, they seem naturally to enter at a comparatively late
+age that period of life when, as Alessandro Manzoni says in his
+ever-admirable way, it seems as though a mysterious power enters the
+soul, which soothes, adorns, and invigorates all its inclinations and
+thoughts. Here a girl very rarely marries before her twentieth year. I
+need not speak of the children of the Deccan, who, it is said, are
+married at eight years of age, but in Holland the Italian and Spanish
+girls, who marry at fourteen or fifteen, are regarded as unaccountable
+persons. There, girls of fifteen years are going to school with their
+hair down their backs, and nobody thinks of looking at them. I heard a
+young man of the Hague spoken of with horror by his friends because he
+was enamoured of a maiden of this age, for to their minds she was
+considered as an infant.
+
+Another thing one notices instantly in every Dutch city, excepting
+Amsterdam, is the absence of that lower stratum of society known as
+the demi-monde. There is nothing in dress or manner to indicate the
+existence of such a class. "Beware," said some freethinking Dutchmen
+to me; "you are in a Protestant country, and there is a great deal of
+hypocrisy." This may be true, but the sore that can be hidden cannot
+be very large. Equivocal society does not exist among the Hollanders;
+there is no shadow of it in their life nor any hint of it in their
+literature; the very language rebels against translating any of those
+numberless expressions which constitute the dubious, flashy, easy
+speech of that class of society in the countries where it is found. On
+the other hand, neither fathers nor mothers close their eyes to the
+conduct of their unmarried sons, even if they be grown men; family
+discipline makes no exception of long beards; and this strict
+discipline is aided by their phlegmatic nature, their habits of
+economy, and their respect for public opinion.
+
+It would be a presumption more ridiculous than impertinent to speak of
+the character and life of Dutch women with an air of experience, when
+I have been only a few months in Holland; so I must content myself
+with letting my Dutch friends speak for themselves.
+
+Many writers have treated Dutch women discourteously. One calls them
+apathetic housekeepers; another, who shall be nameless, carried
+impertinence so far as to say that, like the men, they are in the
+habit of choosing their lovers from among the servant class, and that
+their aspirations are necessarily low. But these are judgments
+dictated by the rage of some rejected suitors. Daniel Stern (Comtesse
+d'Agoult), who as a woman speaks with particular authority on this
+subject, says the women of Holland are noble, loyal, active, and
+chaste. A few authors venture to doubt their much-talked-of calmness
+in affection. "They are still waters," wrote Esquiros, and all know
+what is said of still waters. Heine said they were frozen volcanoes,
+and that when they thaw--But, of all the opinions I have read, the
+most remarkable seems to me that of Saint Evremont--namely, that Dutch
+women are not lively enough to disturb the repose of the men, that
+some of them are certainly amiable, and that prudence or the coldness
+of their nature stands them in stead of virtue.
+
+One day, in a group of young men at the Hague, I quoted this opinion
+of Saint Evremont, and bluntly demanded: "Is it true?" They smiled,
+looked at each other, and one answered, "It is:" another, "I think
+so;" and a third, "It may be." In short, they all admitted its truth.
+On another occasion I collected evidence proving that matters stand
+just as they were at the time of the French writer. A group of people
+were discussing an odd character. "Yet," said one, "that little man
+who seems so quiet in his manner is a great ladies' man." "Does he
+disturb the repose of families?" I asked. They all began to laugh, and
+one answered: "What! Disturb the repose of families in Holland? It
+would be one of the twelve labors of Hercules."--"We Hollanders," a
+friend once said to me, "do not take the ladies by storm; we cannot do
+so, because we have no school of this art. Nothing is so false in
+Holland as the famous definition, matrimony is like a besieged
+fortress; those who are outside wish to enter, while those who are
+inside wish they were out. Here those who are inside are very happy,
+and those who are outside do not think of entering." Another said to
+me, "The Dutch woman does not marry the man; she espouses matrimony."
+This, which is true of the Hague, an elegant city to which there comes
+a great influx of French civilization, is even truer of the other
+towns, where the ancient customs have been more strictly adhered to.
+Yet gallant travellers write that the Hollanders are a sleepy people,
+and that their domestic happiness is "_un bonheur un peu gros_." The
+woman who seldom goes out, who dances little and laughs less, who
+occupies herself only with her children, her husband, and her flowers,
+who reads her books on theology, and surveys the street with the
+looking-glass, so that she need not show herself at the window, how
+much more poetical is she than--But pardon me, Andalusia! I was about
+to say something rather hard on you.
+
+Hitherto, some readers may think that I have been pretending to know
+the Dutch language. I hasten to say that I do not know it, and to
+excuse my ignorance. A people like the Dutch, serious and taciturn,
+richer in hidden qualities than in brilliant showy ones--a people who
+are, if I may so express myself, self-contained rather than
+superficial, who do much and talk little, who do not pass for more
+than they are worth--may be studied without a knowledge of their
+language. On the other hand, the French language is generally known in
+Holland. In the large cities there is scarcely an educated person who
+does not speak French correctly, scarcely a shopman who cannot make
+himself understood in good or bad French, and there is scarcely a boy
+who is not acquainted with ten or twenty words which suffice to help a
+stranger out of a dilemma. This diffusion of a language so different
+from that of the country is the more to be admired when one reflects
+that it is not the only foreign language generally spoken in Holland.
+English and German are almost as widely known as French. The study of
+these three languages is obligatory in the secondary schools. Cultured
+people, like those who in Italy think it a necessity to know French,
+in Holland generally read English, German, and French with equal
+facility. The Dutch have an especial talent for learning languages,
+and an incredible courage in speaking them. We Italians before we
+attempt to speak a foreign language require to know enough about it to
+avoid making great mistakes; we blush when we do make them; we avoid
+the opportunities of speaking until we are sure of speaking well
+enough to be complimented, and in this way we continue to lengthen the
+period of our philological novitiate. In Holland one often meets
+people who speak French with great effort, with a vocabulary of
+perhaps a hundred words and twenty sentences; but notwithstanding they
+talk, hold long conversations, and do not seem to be at all worried
+about what one may think of their blunders and their audacity.
+Waiters, porters, and boys, when asked if they know French, answer
+with the greatest assurance, "_Oui_" or "_Un peu_," and they try in a
+thousand ways to make themselves understood, laughing themselves
+sometimes at the eccentric contortion of their speech, and ending
+every answer with "_S'il vous plait_" or a "_Pardon, monsieur_;" which
+are often said so prettily and yet are so out of place that they make
+one laugh even against one's will. It is considered such a common
+thing to know French that when any one is obliged to answer that he
+doesn't speak French, he hesitates, ashamed, and if he is interrogated
+in the street he will pretend to be busy and hurry on.
+
+As for the Dutch language, it is a mystery to those who do not know
+German, and even when one knows German and can read Dutch books with a
+little study, one cannot understand Dutch when it is spoken. If I were
+asked to say what impression it makes on those who do not understand
+it, I should say that it seems like German spoken by people with a
+hair in their throats. This effect is produced by the frequent
+repetition of a guttural aspirate which is like the sound of the
+Spanish _jota_. Even the Dutch themselves do not consider their
+language euphonious. I was often asked, playfully, "What impression
+does it make on you?" as if they understood that the impression could
+not be altogether agreeable. Yet some one has written a book proving
+that Adam and Eve spoke Dutch in the Garden of Eden. But, although the
+Dutch speak so many foreign languages, they hold to their own, and
+grow indignant when any ignorant stranger shows that he believes Dutch
+to be a German dialect, this being, in truth, a theory held by many
+who only know the language by name. It is almost superfluous to repeat
+the history of the language.
+
+The first inhabitants of the country spoke Teutonic in its different
+dialects. These dialects were blended and formed the ancient speech of
+the Netherlands, which in the Middle Ages, like the other European
+languages, passed through the different Germanic, Norman, and French
+phases, and ended in the present Dutch language, in which there is
+still a foundation of the primitive idiom and the evidence of a slight
+Latin influence. Certainly, there is a striking similarity between
+Dutch and German, and, above all, there are a number of root-words
+common to the two; but there is, however, a great difference in the
+grammar, that of the Dutch being much simpler in construction, and the
+pronunciation also is very different. This very likeness is the reason
+that the Dutch generally do not speak German so well as they speak
+English or French; perhaps the difficulty may be caused by the
+ambiguity of words, or because it costs them so little effort to
+understand the language and to speak it for their own use that they
+stop there, as we often do with French, which we speak at ten years of
+age and have forgotten at forty.
+
+Now it is time to go and visit the art gallery, which is the greatest
+ornament of the Hague.
+
+On entering we find ourselves at once before the most celebrated of
+all painted animals, Paul Potter's "Bull"--that immortal bull which,
+as has been said, was honored at the Louvre, when the mania arose of
+classifying these pictures in a sort of hierarchy of celebrity, by
+being placed near the "Transfiguration" of Raphael, the "St Peter the
+Martyr" of Titian, and the "Communion of St. Jerome" by Domenichino;
+that bull for which England would pay a million francs, and Holland
+would not sell for double that sum; the bull on which more pages have
+been written than the strokes of the artist on the canvas, and about
+which critics still write and dispute as if it were a real living
+creation of a new animal instead of a picture.
+
+The subject of the picture is very simple--a life-size bull, standing
+with his head turned toward the spectator, a cow lying on the ground,
+some sheep, a shepherd, and a distant landscape.
+
+[Illustration: Paul Potter's Bull.]
+
+The supreme merit of this bull may be expressed in one word: it is
+alive. The serious wondering eye, which gives the impression of
+vigorous vitality and savage pride, is painted with such truth that at
+the first sight one feels inclined to dodge to the right or left, as
+one does in a country road when one meets such animals. His moist
+black nostrils seem to be smoking, and to be drawing in the air with a
+prolonged breath. His hide is painted with all its folds and
+wrinkles; one can see where the animal has rubbed himself against the
+trees and the ground; the hairs look as though they are stuck on the
+canvas. The other animals are equally fine: the head of the cow, the
+fleece of the sheep, the flies, the grass, the leaves and fibres of
+the plants, the moss,--everything is rendered with extraordinary
+fidelity. Although the infinite care the artist must have taken is
+apparent, the fatigue and patience of the copy do not appear; it seems
+almost an inspired, impetuous work, in which the painter, impelled by
+a thirst for truth, has not felt a moment of hesitation or weariness.
+Infinite criticisms were made on this "incredible stroke of audacity
+by a young man of twenty-four." The large size of the canvas was
+censured, the commonplace nature of the subject, the poverty of the
+light effects, for the light is equally diffused and everything is
+placed in relief without the contrast of shadow,--the stiffness of the
+legs of the bull, the crude coloring of the plants and animals in the
+background; the mediocrity of the shepherd's figure. But, for all
+this, Paul Potter's bull was crowned with glory as one of the noblest
+examples of art, and Europe considers it as the greatest work of the
+prince of animal-painters. An illustrious critic very rightly said
+that "Paul Potter with his bull has written the true idyl of Holland."
+
+Herein is the great merit of the Dutch animal-painters, and of Potter
+above all, that they have not only depicted animals, but have revealed,
+and told in the poetry of color, the delicate, attentive, almost maternal
+love with which this Dutch agricultural people cherish their cattle.
+Potter's animals interpret the poetry of rural life. By them he has
+expressed the silence and the peace of the meadows, the pleasure of
+solitude, the sweetness of repose, and the satisfaction of patient toil.
+One might almost say that he had succeeded in making himself understood by
+them, and that they must have put themselves in positions to be copied. He
+has given them the variety and attractiveness of human beings. The
+sadness, the quiet content which follows the satisfaction of physical
+needs, the sensations of health and strength, of love and gratitude toward
+mankind, all the glimmerings of intelligence and the stirrings of
+affection, all the variety of nature--all these he has understood and
+expressed with loving fidelity, and he has further succeeded in
+communicating to us the feelings by which he was animated. As we look at
+his pictures a strange primitive instinct of a rural life is gradually
+roused in us--an innocent desire to milk, to shear, to drive these gentle
+patient animals that delight the eye and heart. In this art Paul Potter is
+unsurpassed. Berghem is more refined, but Potter is more natural; Van de
+Velde is more graceful, but Potter is more vigorous; Du Jardin is more
+amiable, but Potter is more profound.
+
+And to think that the architect who afterward became his father-in-law
+would not at first give him his daughter, because he was only a
+painter of animals! and if we may believe tradition his celebrated
+bull served as a sign to a butcher's shop and sold for twelve hundred
+and sixty francs.
+
+Another masterpiece in the Hague Gallery is a small painting by Gerard
+Dou, the painter of the celebrated "Dropsical Woman," which hangs in the
+Louvre between pictures by Raphael and Murillo. He is one of the greatest
+painters of the home-life of the Dutch, and the most patient of the
+patient artists of his country. The picture simply represents a woman
+seated near a window, with a cradle by her side; but in this humble scene
+there is such a sweet and holy air of domestic peace, a repose so
+profound, a love so harmonious, that the most obstinate bachelor on earth
+could not look on it without feeling an irresistible desire to be the one
+for whom the wife is waiting in that quiet, clean room, or at least to
+enter it secretly for a moment, even though he remain hidden in the
+shadow, if so he might breathe the perfume of the innocent happiness of
+this sanctuary. This picture, like all the works of Dou, is painted with
+that wonderful finish which he carries almost to excess, which was
+certainly carried to excess by Slingelandt, who worked three years
+continuously in painting the Meerman family. This style afterward
+degenerated into that smooth, affected, painful mannerism where the
+figures are like ivory, the skies enamel, and the fields velvet, of which
+Van der Werff is the best known representative. Among other things to be
+seen in this picture by Dou is a broom-handle, the size of a pen-holder,
+on which they say the artist worked assiduously for three days. This does
+not seem strange when we reflect that every minute filament, the grain,
+the knots, spots, dents, and finger-marks are all reproduced. Anecdotes
+of his superhuman patience are recounted which are scarcely credible. It
+is said he was five days in copying the hand of a Madam Spirings whose
+portrait he painted. Who knows how long he was painting her head? The
+unhappy creatures who wished to be painted by him were driven to madness.
+It is believed that he ground his colors himself, and made his own
+brushes, and that he kept everything hermetically closed, so that no
+particle of dust could reach his work. When he entered his studio he
+opened the door slowly, sat down with great deliberation, and then
+remained motionless until the least sign of agitation produced by the
+exercise had ceased. Then he began to paint, using concave glasses to
+reduce the objects in size. This continual effort ended by injuring his
+sight, so that he was obliged to work with spectacles. Nevertheless, his
+coloring never became weakened or less vigorous, and his pictures are
+equally strong whether one looks at them near by or far off. They have
+been very justly compared to natural scenes reduced in photographs. Dou
+was one of the many disciples of Rembrandt who divided the inheritance of
+his genius. From his master he learned finish and the art of imitating
+light, especially the effects of candle-light and of lamps. Indeed, as we
+shall see in the Amsterdam Gallery, he equalled Rembrandt in these
+respects. He possessed the rare merit among the painters of his school in
+that he took no pleasure in painting ugliness and trivial subjects.
+
+In the gallery at the Hague home-life is represented by Dou, by
+Adriaen van Ostade, by Steen, and by Van Mieris the elder.
+
+Van Ostade--called the Rembrandt of home-life, because he imitated the
+great master in his powerful effects of chiaroscuro, of delicate
+shading, of transparency in shadows, of rich coloring--is represented
+by two small pictures which depict the inside and outside of a rustic
+house. Both are full of poetry, notwithstanding the triviality of the
+subjects which he has chosen in common with other painters of his
+school. But he has this peculiarity, that the remarkably ugly girls in
+his pictures are taken from his own family, which, according to
+tradition, was a group of little monstrosities, whom he held up to the
+ridicule of the world. Thus nearly all the Dutch painters chose to
+paint the least handsome of the women whom they saw, as if they had
+agreed to throw discredit on the feminine type of their country.
+Rembrandt's "Susanna," to cite a subject which of all others required
+beauty, is an ugly Dutch servant, and the women painted by Steen,
+Brouwer, and others are not worth mentioning. And yet, as we have
+seen, models of noble and gracious beauty were not wanting among them.
+
+There are three fine paintings by Frans van Mieris the elder, the
+first disciple of Dou, and as finished and minute a painter as his
+master. He together with Metsu and Terburg, two artists eminent for
+finish and coloring, belonged to that group of painters of home-life
+who chose their subjects from the higher classes of society. One of
+these canvases portrays the artist with his wife.
+
+Among other paintings, Steen is represented by his favorite subject, a
+doctor feeling the pulse of a lovesick girl in the presence of her
+duenna. It is an admirable study of expression, of piquant, roguish
+smiles. The doctor's face seems to say, "I think I understand;" the
+invalid's, "Something more than your prescriptions are needed;" the
+duenna's, "I know what she wants." Other pictures of home-life by
+Schaleken, Tilborch, Netscher, William van Mieris represent kitchens,
+shops, dinners, and the families of the artists.
+
+Landscape and marine painting are represented by beautiful gems from
+the hands of Ruysdael, Berghem, Van de Velde, Van der Neer, Bakhuisen,
+and Everdingen. There are also a large number of works by Philips
+Wouverman, the painter of horses and battle-pieces.
+
+There are two pictures by Van Huysum, the great flower-painter, who
+was born at a time when Holland was possessed with a mad love of
+flowers and cultivated the most beautiful flowers in Europe. He
+celebrated this passion with his brush and created it afresh in his
+pictures. No one else has so marvellously rendered the infinite
+shades, the freshness, the transparency, the softness, the grace, the
+modesty, the languor, the thousand hidden beauties, all the
+appearances of the noble and delicate life of the pearl of vegetation,
+of the darling of nature, the flower. The Hollanders brought to him
+all the miracles of their gardens that he might copy them; kings asked
+him for flowers; his pictures were sold for sums that in those days
+were fabulous. Jealous of his wife and his art, he worked alone,
+unseen by his fellow-artists, lest they should discover the secret of
+his coloring. Thus he lived and died, glorious and melancholy, in the
+midst of petals and fragrance.
+
+But the greatest work in the gallery is the celebrated "Lesson in
+Anatomy" by Rembrandt.
+
+This picture was inspired by a feeling of gratitude to Doctor Tulp,
+Professor of Anatomy at Amsterdam, who protected Rembrandt in his
+youth. Rembrandt portrays Tulp and his pupils grouped round a table on
+which is stretched a naked corpse, whose arm has been dissected by the
+anatomist's knife. The professor, who wears his hat, stands pointing
+out the muscles of the arm with his scissors, and explaining them to
+his pupils. Some of the scholars are seated, others stand, others lean
+over the body. The light coming from left to right illuminates their
+faces and a part of the dead man, leaving their garments, the table,
+and the walls of the room in obscurity. The figures are life-size.
+
+It is difficult to describe the effect produced by this picture. The
+first sensation is a feeling of horror and disgust of the corpse. Its
+forehead is in shadow, its open eyes are turned upward, its mouth half
+shut as if in amazement; the chest is swollen, its legs and feet are
+rigid, the flesh is livid and looks as if it would be cold to the
+touch. In great contrast to this stiffened corpse are the living
+attitudes of the students, the youthful faces, the bright eyes, intent
+and full of thought, revealing, in different degrees, eagerness to
+learn, the joy of comprehension, curiosity, astonishment, the effort
+of the intellect, the activity of the mind. The face of the master is
+calm, his eye is serene, and his lips seem smiling with the
+satisfaction of intimate knowledge of his subject. The whole group is
+surrounded by an air of gravity, mystery, and scientific solemnity
+which imposes reverence and silence. The contrast between the light
+and shade is as marvellous as that between death and life. Everything
+is painted with infinite pains; it is possible to count the little
+folds of the ruff, the wrinkles in the face, the hairs of the beard.
+It is said that the foreshortening of the corpse is incorrect, and
+that in some places the finish degenerates into hardness, but
+universal approval places the "Lesson in Anatomy" among the greatest
+works of art in the world.
+
+Rembrandt was only twenty-six years old when he painted this picture,
+which consequently has the mark of his early work. The impetuosity,
+audacity, and unequalled assurance of his genius, which shine forth in
+his maturer works, are not yet seen, but his immense power of painting
+light, his marvellous chiaroscuro, his fascinating magic of contrast,
+the most original features of his genius, are all to be found here.
+
+However little we may know about art, and however much we may have
+resolved not to sin by excess of enthusiasm, when we come face to face
+with Rembrandt van Rijn, we cannot help opening the flood-gates of
+language, as the Spanish say. Rembrandt exerts an especial fascination.
+Fra Angelico is a saint, Michelangelo is a giant, Raphael is an angel,
+Titian a prince, Rembrandt is a spectre. What else can this miller's son
+be called? Born in a windmill, he arose unexpectedly without a master,
+without example, without any instruction from the schools, to become a
+universal painter, who depicted life in every aspect, who painted figures,
+landscapes, sea-pieces, animals, saints, patriarchs, heroes, monks, riches
+and poverty, deformity, decrepitude, the ghetto, taverns, hospitals, and
+death; who in short, reviewed heaven and earth, and enveloped everything
+in a light so mysterious that it seems to have issued from his brain. His
+work is at the same time grand and minute. He is at once an idealist and a
+realist, a painter and an engraver, who transforms everything and conceals
+nothing--who changes men into phantoms, the most ordinary scenes of life
+into mysterious apparitions; I had almost said who changes this world into
+another that does not seem to be and yet is the same. Whence has he drawn
+that undefinable light, those flashes of electric rays, those reflections
+of unknown stars that like an enigma fill us with wonder? What did this
+dreamer, this visionary, see in the dark? What is the secret that
+tormented his soul? What did this painter of the air mean to tell us in
+this eternal conflict of light and shadow? It is said that the contrasts
+of light and shade corresponded in him to moods of thought. And truly it
+seems that as Schiller, before beginning a work, felt within himself an
+indistinct harmony of sounds which were a prelude to his inspiration, so
+also Rembrandt, when about to paint a picture, beheld a vision of rays and
+shadows which had some meaning to him before he animated them with his
+figures. In his paintings there is a life, a dramatic action, quite
+distinct from that of human figures. Flashes of brilliant light break
+across a sombre surface like cries of joy; the frightened darkness flies
+away, leaving here and there a melancholy twilight, trembling reflections
+that seem to be lamenting, profound obscurity gloomy and threatening,
+flashes of dancing sunlight, ambiguous shadows, shadows uncertain and
+transparent, questionings and sighs, words of a supernatural language like
+music heard but not understood, which remains in the memory like a dream.
+Into this atmosphere he plunged his figures, some of them enveloped by the
+garish light of a theatrical apotheosis, others veiled like ghosts, others
+revealed by a single ray of light darting across their faces. Whether they
+be clothed with pomp or in rags, they all are alike strange and fantastic.
+The outlines are not clear; the figures are loaded with powerful colors,
+and are painted with such bold strokes of the brush that they stand out in
+sculpturesque relief, while over all is an expression of impetuosity and
+of inspiration, that proud, capricious, profound imprint of genius that
+knows neither restraint nor fear.
+
+After all, every one likes to give his opinion: but who knows, if
+Rembrandt could read all the pages that have been written to explain
+the secret meanings of his art, whether he would not burst out
+laughing? Such is the fate of men of genius: every one holds that he
+has understood them better than his neighbor, and restores them in his
+own way. They are like a beautiful theme given by God which men
+distort into a thousand different meanings--a canvas upon which the
+imagination of man paints and embroiders after its own manner.
+
+I left the Hague Gallery with one desire ungratified: I had not found
+in it any picture by Jerom Bosch, a painter born at Bois-le-Duc in the
+fifteenth century. This madcap of mischief, this scarecrow of bigots,
+this artistic sorcerer, had made my flesh creep first in the gallery
+at Madrid with a work representing a horrible army of living skeletons
+scattered about an immense space, in conflict with a motley crowd of
+desperate and confused men and women, whom they were dragging into an
+abyss where Death awaited them. Only from the diseased imagination of
+a man alarmed by the terrors of damnation could such an extravagant
+conception have issued. When you look at it, however long it may be
+since you were afraid of phantoms, you feel a confused reawakening
+dread. Such were the subjects of all his pictures--the tortures of the
+accursed, spectres, fiery chasms, dragons, uncanny birds, loathsome
+monsters, diabolical kitchens, sinister landscapes. One of these
+frightful pictures was found in the cell where Philip II. died; others
+are scattered throughout Spain and Italy. Who was this chimerical
+painter? How did he live? What strange mania tormented him? No one
+knows; he passed over the earth wrapped in a cloud, and disappeared
+like an infernal vision.
+
+On the first floor of the museum there is a "Royal Cabinet of
+Curiosities," which contains some very precious historical relics,
+besides a great number of different objects from China, Japan, and the
+Dutch colonies. Amongst other things there is the sword of that Ruyter
+who began life as a rope-maker at Vlissingen, and became the greatest
+admiral of Holland; Admiral Tromp's cuirass perforated by bullets; a
+chair from the prison of the venerated Barneveldt; a box containing a
+lock of hair from the head of that Van Speyk who in 1831, on the
+Schelde, blew up his vessel to preserve the honor of the Dutch flag.
+Here, too, is the complete suit of clothes worn by William the Silent
+when he was assassinated at Delft--the blood-stained shirt, the jacket
+made of buffalo skin pierced by bullets, the wide trousers, the large
+felt hat; and in the same glass case are also preserved the bullets
+and pistols of the assassin and the original copy of his
+death-warrant.
+
+This modest, almost rough dress, that was worn at the zenith of his
+power and glory by William, the head of the Republic of the
+Netherlands, is a noble testimony to the patriarchal simplicity of
+Dutch manners. There is perhaps no other modern nation, equally
+prosperous, that has been less given to vanity and pomp. It is related
+that when the Earl of Leicester, who was commissioned by Queen
+Elizabeth, arrived in Holland, and when Spinola came to sue for peace
+in the name of the King of Spain, their magnificence was considered
+almost infamous. It is further said that the Spanish ambassadors who
+came to the Hague in 1608 to negotiate the famous truce saw some
+deputies of the Dutch States seated in a field, meanly clad and
+breakfasting on a little bread and cheese which they had carried in
+their saddle-bags. The Grand Pensionary, John De Witt, the adversary
+of Louis XIV., kept only one servant. Admiral Ruyter lived at
+Amsterdam in the house of a poor man and swept out his own bedroom.
+
+Another very curious object in the museum is a cabinet which opens in
+front like a book-case, representing in all its most minute details
+the inside of a luxurious Amsterdam house at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century. The Czar, Peter the Great, during his stay in
+Amsterdam, commissioned a rich citizen of that town to make for him
+this toy house, in order that he might take it back to Russia as a
+souvenir of Holland. The rich citizen, whose name was Brandt, executed
+the order like an honest Dutchman, slowly and well. The best
+cabinet-makers in Holland made the furniture, the cleverest
+silversmiths the plate, the most accurate printers printed the tiny
+books, the finest miniature-painters painted the pictures; the linen
+was prepared in Flanders, the hangings were made at Utrecht. After
+twenty-five years of work all the rooms were ready. In the nuptial
+chamber everything was prepared for the confinement of the young
+mistress; in the dining-room stood a microscopic tea service on a
+table which was the size of a crown; the picture-gallery, which was
+seen through a magnifying glass, was complete; in the kitchen was
+everything needful to prepare a savory dinner for a group of
+Liliputians; there was a library, and a cabinet of Chinese objects,
+bird-cages full of birds, prayer-books, carpets, linen for a whole
+family trimmed with lace and fine embroidery: there were lacking only
+a married couple, a lady's maid, and a cook rather smaller than
+ordinary marionettes. But there was one drawback: the house cost a
+hundred and twenty thousand francs, and the Czar, who as all know, was
+an economical man, refused it, and Brandt, to shame the imperial
+avarice, presented it to the Museum of the Hague.
+
+In the streets of the Hague, from the first day, I had met women
+dressed in such a peculiar manner that I had followed them to observe
+every particular of their costume. At first sight I thought that they
+must belong to some religious order or that they were hermits,
+pilgrims, or women of some nomadic tribes which were passing through
+Holland. They wore immense straw hats lined with flowered calico,
+short chocolate-colored monk's cloaks made of serge and lined with red
+cloth; their petticoats were also of serge, short and puffed out as
+though they wore crinolines; they wore black stockings and white
+wooden shoes. In the morning they might be seen going to market
+bearing on their heads baskets full of fish or driving carts drawn by
+dogs. They usually went alone or in pairs, without any men. They
+walked in a peculiar manner, taking long strides, with a certain air
+of despondency, like those who are accustomed to walking on the sand;
+there was a sadness in their expression and appearance which
+harmonized with the monastic austerity of their attire.
+
+I asked a Dutchman who they were, and the only answer he gave me was,
+"Go to Scheveningen."
+
+Scheveningen is a village two miles from the Hague, and connected with
+it by a straight road bordered along its whole length by several rows
+of beautiful elms, which form a perfect shade. On either side of the
+road, beyond the elms, there are small villas, pavilions, and cottages
+with roofs that look like the kiosks of the gardens, and with facades
+of a thousand fantastic shapes, all bearing the usual inscriptions
+inviting to repose and pleasure. This road is the favorite promenade
+of the citizens of the Hague on Sunday evenings, but on the other days
+of the week it is almost always deserted. One meets only a few women
+from Scheveningen, and now and then a carriage or the coaches that
+come and go between the town and the village. As one walks along it
+seems as though the road must lead to some royal palace surrounded by
+a large garden or a wide park. The luxuriant vegetation, the shadow
+and silence, call to mind the forests of Andalusia and Granada. One no
+longer remembers Scheveningen and forgets that he is in Holland.
+
+[Illustration: On the Road to Scheveningen.]
+
+When the end of the road is reached the change of scene is so
+sudden that it seems unreal. The vegetation, the shade, the likeness
+to Granada,--all have disappeared, and one stands in the midst of
+dunes, sand, and desert; one feels the salt wind blow and hears its
+dull confused sound. From the summit of one of the dunes one may see
+the North Sea.
+
+One who has seen only the Mediterranean is impressed by a new and
+profound feeling at sight of that sea and shore. The beach is formed
+of very fine, light-colored sand, over which the outermost edges of
+the waves flow up and down like a carpet which is being continually
+folded and unfolded. This sandy sea-shore extends to the foot of the
+first dunes, which are steep, broken, corroded mounds deformed by the
+eternal beating of the waves. Such is the Dutch coast from the mouth
+of the Meuse to the Helder. There are no mollusks, no star-fish, no
+shells or crabs; there is not a single bush or blade of grass. Nothing
+is seen but sand, waste, and solitude.
+
+The sea is no less mournful than the coast. It corresponds closely to
+one's ideas of the North Sea, formed by reading about the superstitious
+terrors of the ancients, who believed it to be driven by eternal winds and
+peopled by gigantic monsters. Near the shore its color is yellowish,
+farther out a pale green, and still farther out a dreary blue. The horizon
+is usually veiled by the mist, which often descends even to the shore and
+hides all the waters with its thick curtain, which is raised to show only
+the waves that come to die on the sand and some shadowy fisherman's boat
+close to land. The sky is almost always gray, overcast with great clouds
+which throw dense changeable shadows on the waters: in places these are as
+black as night, and bring to mind images of tempests and horrible
+shipwrecks; in other parts the sky is lighted up by patches and wavy
+streaks of bright light, which seem like motionless lightning or an
+illumination from mysterious stars. The ceaseless waves gnaw the shore in
+wild fury, with a prolonged roar which seems like a cry of defiance or the
+wailing of an infinite crowd. Sea, sky, and earth regard each other
+gloomily, as though they were three implacable enemies. As one
+contemplates this scene some great convulsion of nature seems imminent.
+
+The village of Scheveningen is situated on the dunes, which ward off
+the sea, and hide it so entirely that from the shore nothing is to be
+seen but the cone-shaped church-steeple rising like an obelisk in the
+midst of the sand. The village is divided into two parts, one of which
+is composed of elegant houses representing every kind of Dutch shapes
+and colors, and built for the use of strangers, with "to let" posted
+on them in various languages. The other part, in which the natives
+live, consists of black cottages, little streets, and retreats which
+foreigners never think of entering.
+
+The population of Scheveningen, which numbers only a few thousands, is
+almost entirely composed of fishermen, the greater number of whom are
+very poor. The village is still one of the principal stations of the
+herring fishery, where are cured those celebrated fish to which
+Holland owes her riches and power. But the profits of this industry go
+to the captains of the fishing vessels, and the men of Scheveningen,
+who are employed as sailors, hardly earn a livelihood. On the beach,
+in front of the village, many of those wide staunch boats with a
+single mast and a large square sail may always be seen ranged in line
+on the sand one beside the other, like the Greek galleys on the coast
+of Troy: thus they are safe from the gusts of wind. The flotilla,
+accompanied by a steam sloop, starts early in June, directing its
+course toward the Scottish coast. The first herrings taken are at once
+sent to Holland, and conveyed in a cart ornamented with flags to the
+king, who in exchange for this present gives five hundred florins.
+These boats make catches of other fish as well, which are in part sold
+at auction on the sea-shore, and in part are given to the Scheveningen
+fishermen, who send their wives to sell them at the Hague market.
+
+Scheveningen, like all the other villages of the coast, Katwijk,
+Vlaardingen, Maassluis, is a village that has lost its former
+prosperity in consequence of the decline of the herring fishery,
+owing, as every one knows, to the competition of England and the
+disastrous wars. But poverty, instead of weakening the character of
+this small population, beyond doubt the most original and poetical in
+Holland, has strengthened it. The inhabitants of Scheveningen in
+appearance, character, and habits seem like a foreign tribe in
+comparison with the people of their own country. They dwell but two
+miles from a large city, and yet preserve the manners of a primitive
+people that has always lived in isolation. As they were centuries ago,
+so are they now. No one leaves their village, and no one who is not a
+native ever enters it: they intermarry, they speak a language of their
+own, they all dress in the same style and in the same colors, as did
+their fathers' fathers. At the time of the fishing only the women and
+children remain in the village; the men all go to sea. They carry
+their Bibles with them on their departure. On board they neither drink
+nor swear nor laugh. When the stormy seas toss their little boats on
+the crests of the waves, they close all the apertures and await death
+with resignation. At the same moment their wives are singing psalms,
+shut in their cottages rocked by the wind and beaten by the rain.
+Those little dwellings, which have witnessed so many mortal griefs,
+which have heard the sobs of so many widows, which have seen the
+sacred joys of happy return and the disconsolate departure of many
+husbands, with their cleanliness, their white curtains, with the
+clothes and shirts of the sailors hanging at the windows,--tell of the
+free and dignified poverty of their inmates. No vagabonds nor fallen
+women come out of these homes; no inhabitant of Scheveningen has ever
+deserted the sea, and none of her daughters has ever refused the hand
+of a sailor. Both men and women show by their carriage and the
+expression of their faces a serious dignity that commands respect.
+They greet you without bending their heads, and look you in the face
+as much as to say, "We have no need of any one."
+
+In this little village there are two schools, and it is a curious
+sight to see a swarm of fair-haired children with slates under their
+arms and pencils in their hands disperse at certain hours among these
+poverty-stricken streets.
+
+Scheveningen is not only a village famous for the originality of its
+inhabitants which all foreigners visit and all artists paint. There
+are, besides, two great bathing establishments, where English,
+Russians, Germans, and Danes meet in the summer. The flower of the
+Northern aristocracy, princes and ministers, indeed half the Almanach
+de Gotha, come here; then there are balls, fantastic illuminations,
+and fireworks on the sea. The two establishments are placed on the
+dunes, and at all hours of the day certain carriages which look like
+gypsy caravans, drawn by strong horses, are driven from the shore into
+the sea, where they turn round. Whereupon ladies step out from them
+and bathe in the water, letting their fair hair blow about in the
+wind. At night the band plays, the visitors walk out, and the beach
+is enlivened by an elegant, festive, ever-changing crowd, in which
+every language is heard and the beauty of every country is
+represented. A few steps distant from this gayety the misanthrope can
+find solitude and seclusion on the dunes, where the music faintly
+strikes his ear like a far-off echo, and the houses of the fishermen
+show him their lights, directing his thoughts to domestic life and
+peace.
+
+The first time I went to Scheveningen I took a walk on those dunes
+which have been so often painted by artists, the only heights on the
+immense Dutch plain that intercept the view--rebellious children of
+the sea, whose progress they oppose, being at the same time the
+prisoners and the guardsmen of Holland. There are three tiers of these
+dunes, forming a triple bulwark against the ocean: the outer is the
+most barren, the centre the highest, and the inner the most
+cultivated. The medium height of these mountains of sand is not
+greater than fifteen metres, and all together they do not extend into
+the land for more than a French league. But as there are no higher
+elevations near or remote, they produce the false impression of a vast
+mountainous region. The eye sees valleys, gorges, precipices, views
+that appear distant and are close at hand--the tops of neighboring
+dunes on which we imagine a man ought to appear as large as a child,
+and on which instead he seems a giant. Viewed from a height, this
+region looks like a yellow sea, tempestuous yet motionless. The
+dreariness of this desert is increased by a wild vegetation, which
+seems like the mourning of the dead and abandoned nature--thin,
+fragile grass, flowers with almost transparent petals, juniper,
+sweet-broom, rosemary, through which every now and then skips a
+rabbit. Neither house, tree, nor human being is to be seen for miles.
+Now and then ravens, curlews, and sea-gulls fly past. Their cries and
+the rustling of the shrubs in the wind are the only sounds that break
+the silence of the solitude. When the sky is black the dead color of
+the earth assumes a sinister hue, like the fantastic light in which
+objects appear when seen through colored glass. It is then, when
+standing alone in the midst of the dunes, that one feels a sense
+almost of fear, as if one were in an unknown country hopelessly
+separated from any inhabited land, and one looks anxiously at the
+misty horizon for the shadow of a building to reassure him.
+
+In the whole of my walk I met but one or two peasants. The Dutch
+peasants usually speak to the people they meet on the road--a rare
+thing in a Northern country. Some pull off their caps at the side with
+a curious gesture, as if they did it for a joke. Usually they say
+"Good-morning" or "Good-evening" without looking at the person they
+are greeting. If they meet two people, they say, "Good-evening to you
+both," or if more than two, "Good-evening to you all." On a pathway in
+the middle of the first dunes I saw several of those poor fishermen
+who spend the whole day up to their waists in water, picking up the
+shells that are used to make a peculiar cement or to spread over
+garden-paths instead of sand. It must cost them at least half an hour
+of hard labor to take off the enormous leather boots that they wear to
+go into the sea; this would give an excuse to an Italian sailor for
+swearing by all the saints. But these men, on the contrary, perform
+the task with a composure that makes one sleepy, without giving way to
+any movement of impatience, nor would they raise their heads until
+they had finished even if a cannon were to be fired off.
+
+On the dunes, near a stone obelisk recording the return of William of
+Orange from England after the fall of the French dominion, I saw for
+the first time one of those sunsets which awaken in us Italians a
+feeling of wonder no less than that awakened in people from the North
+by the sunsets at Naples and Rome. The sun, because of the refraction
+of light by the mists which always fill the air in Holland, is greatly
+magnified, and diffuses through the clouds and on the sea a veiled and
+tremulous splendor like the reflection of a great fire. It seemed as
+if another sun had unexpectedly appeared on the horizon, and was
+setting, never again to show itself on earth. A child might well have
+believed the words of a poet who said, "In Holland the sun dies," and
+the most cold-blooded man must have allowed a farewell to escape his
+lips.
+
+As I have spoken of my walk to Scheveningen, I will mention two other
+pleasant excursions that I made from the Hague last winter.
+
+The first was to the village of Naaldwijk, and from this village to
+the sea-coast, where they were opening the new Rotterdam canal. At
+Naaldwijk, thanks to the politeness of an inspector of schools who was
+with me, I gratified my desire to see an elementary school, and I will
+state at once that my great expectations were more than realized. The
+house, built expressly for the school, was a separate building one
+story in height. We first went into a little vestibule, where there
+were a number of wooden shoes, which the inspector told me belonged to
+the pupils, who place them there on their entrance into school and put
+them on again when they go out. In school the boys wear only stockings
+which are very thick, consequently their feet do not suffer from cold,
+especially as the rooms are as hot as if they were a minister's
+cabinet. On our entrance the pupils stood up and the master advanced
+toward the inspector. Even that poor village master spoke French, and
+so we were able to enter into conversation. There were in the school
+about forty pupils, both boys and girls, who sat on opposite sides of
+the room; all were fair and fat, with plump, good-natured faces; they
+had the precocious air of little men and women, which I could not
+observe without laughing. The building was divided into five rooms,
+each separated from the other by a large glass partition, which
+enclosed all the space like a wall, so that if a master were absent
+from one class the teacher of the next class could overlook the pupils
+of his colleague without leaving his post. All the rooms are large and
+have high windows which reach from the floor to the ceiling, so that
+it is almost as light inside as it is outside. The benches, walls,
+floors, windows, and stoves were as clean as if they had been in a
+ball-room. Having a lively recollection of certain unpleasant places
+in the schools I attended as a boy, I asked to see the closets, and
+found them such as few of the best hotels can boast. Afterward on the
+school-room walls I saw a great many things that I remember to have
+wished for when I sat at the desks, such as small pictures of
+landscapes or figures, to which the master referred in his stories and
+instruction, so that they should be stamped the better on the memory;
+representations of common objects and animals; geographical maps
+purposely made with large names and painted in bright colors;
+proverbs, grammatical rules, and precepts very plainly printed. Only
+one thing seemed to me lacking--personal cleanliness.
+
+I will not repeat what many have written and some Dutchmen affirm,
+that in Holland cleanliness of the skin is generally neglected--that
+the women are dirty, and that the legs of the tables are cleaner than
+those of the citizens. But it is certain the cleanliness of inanimate
+objects is infinitely greater than personal cleanliness, and the
+deficiency in the last respect is made more apparent by excellence in
+the first. In an Italian school perhaps those boys might have seemed
+clean, but, comparing them with the marvellous purity of their
+surroundings, and reflecting that they were the children of the very
+women who take half a day to wash the doors and shutters, they seemed
+to me, and in fact were, rather dirty. In some schools in Switzerland
+there are lavatories where the boys are obliged to wash upon entering
+and leaving the school. I should have been pleased to see such
+lavatories in the Dutch schools too; then all would have been perfect.
+
+I said "that poor master," but I found out afterward that he had a salary
+of more than two thousand two hundred francs and an apartment in a nice
+house in the village. In Holland the masters of elementary schools--the
+principals, that is, for there are assistant masters--never receive less
+than eight hundred francs a year. This the minimum that the commune can
+legally give. No commune keeps to this sum, and some masters have the same
+salaries as our university professors. It is true that it costs more to
+live in Holland than in Italy, but it is also true that the salaries which
+seem large to us are there considered small, and yet they propose to
+increase them. It must also be considered that, owing to the difference of
+national character, the Dutch masters are not obliged to expend as much of
+their breath, their patience, and good-humor as are our Italian masters,
+which is a consideration if it be true that health counts for something.
+
+From Naaldwijk we went toward the coast. On the road my courteous
+companion explained to me clearly the point which the question of
+instruction has reached in Holland. In Latin countries persons when
+questioned by a stranger answer him with a view toward airing their
+knowledge and showing their conversational powers. In Holland they try
+rather to make you understand the subject, and if you do not comprehend
+directly, they impress it upon you until it is fixed in your mind as
+clearly and as well as it is in their own.
+
+The question of instruction, in Holland as in most countries, is a
+religious question, which in its turn is the most serious, indeed the only
+great, question that now agitates the country.
+
+Of the three and a half millions of inhabitants in Holland, a third, as I
+have remarked, are Catholics, about a hundred thousand are Jews, and the
+rest are Protestants. The Catholics, who chiefly inhabit the southern
+provinces of Limbourg and Brabant, are not divided politically as they
+are in other countries, but form one solid clerical legion,--Papists,
+Ultramontanists, the most faithful legion of Rome, as the Dutch
+themselves say--who buy the very straw that the pontiff is supposed to
+sleep on, and who thunder Italy from the pulpit and the press. This
+Catholic party, which would have no great strength of itself, gains a
+certain advantage from the fact that the Protestants are divided into a
+great many religious sects. There are orthodox Calvinists; Protestants
+who believe in the revelation, but do not accept certain doctrines of the
+Church; others who deny the divinity of Christ, without, however,
+separating themselves from the Protestant Church; others, again, who
+believe in God, but do not believe in any Church; others--and amongst
+these are many of the cleverest men--who openly profess atheism. In
+consequence of this state of things, the Catholic party has a natural
+ally in the Calvinists, who as fervent believers and inflexible
+conservers of the religion of their fathers, are much less widely
+separated from the Catholics than from a large party of those of their
+own co-religionists. These form, in a certain sense, the clerical wing of
+Protestantism. Hence in the Netherlands there are Catholics and
+Calvinists on one side, and on the other a liberal party, while between
+the two there hovers a vacillating legion that does not allow either side
+to gain an absolute supremacy. The chief point of contention between the
+extreme sections is the question of primary instruction, and this reduces
+itself, on the part of the Catholics and Calvinists, to insistence that
+so-called mixed schools, in which no special religious instruction is
+given (so that Catholics and Protestants of all doctrines may support
+them), shall be superseded by others in which dogmatic instruction is to
+be given, and that these shall be also supported by the commune under the
+direction of the state. It is easy to foresee the grave consequences that
+such a division in the popular educational system would produce--the
+germs of discord and religious animosity that would be sown, the trouble
+that would in time arise from separating young people into groups
+professing different faiths. Up to the present time the principle of
+mixed schools has prevailed, but the victories of the Liberals have been
+costly. The Catholics and the Calvinists successively obtained various
+concessions, and are prepared to obtain yet others. The Catholic party
+is, in a word, more powerful than the Calvinist party: the one, united
+and aggressive, gains ground day by day, and it is not unlikely that it
+will succeed in gaining a victory which, though not lasting, will provoke
+a violent reaction in the country. Things have come to such a pass that
+in that very Holland which fought for eighty years against Catholic
+despotism there are now serious reasons to fear the outbreak of a
+religious war.
+
+[Illustration: Fisherman's Children, Scheveningen.]
+
+Notwithstanding this state of things, which to the present time has
+prevented the institution of obligatory instruction demanded by the
+Liberals, and keeps a great number of Catholic children away from the
+schools, the education of the lower classes in Holland is in a
+condition that any European state might envy. In proportion, Holland
+contains less people who do not know their alphabet than does
+Prussia. "Of all Europe," as a Dutch writer has said with just pride,
+although he judges his country severely on other points, "Holland is
+the land where all such knowledge as is indispensable to civilized man
+is most widely diffused." I was once greatly surprised, on asking a
+Dutchman if there were any women-servants who could not read, to hear
+myself answered, "Well, yes. I remember twenty years ago that my
+mother had a servant who did not know her alphabet, and we thought it
+a very strange thing." It is a great satisfaction to a stranger who
+does not know the language to be sure that if he shows a name on his
+guide-book to the first street-urchin he meets, the boy will
+understand it and will try to direct him by gestures.
+
+Talking of Catholics and Calvinists, we arrived at the dunes, and,
+although we were near the coast, we could not see the ocean. "Holland
+is a strange country," I said to my friend, "in which everything plays
+at hide and seek. The facades hide the roofs, the trees hide the
+houses, the city hides the ships, the banks hide the canals, the mist
+hides the fields, the dunes hide the sea." "And some day," answered my
+friend, "the sea will hide everything and all will be ended."
+
+We crossed the downs and advanced toward the coast, where the
+preparatory works for the opening of the Rotterdam Canal were in
+progress.
+
+Two dykes, one more than a thousand two hundred meters in length, the
+other more than two thousand meters long, separated from each other by
+the space of a kilometer, project into the sea at right angles to the
+coast. These two dykes, which are built to protect vessels entering
+the canal, are formed by several rows of enormous palisades made of
+huge blocks of granite, of fagots, stones, and earth; they are as wide
+as ten men drawn up in a line. The ocean, which continually washes
+against them, and at high tide overflows them in many parts, has
+covered everything,--stones, beams, and fagots, with a stratum of
+shells as black as ebony, which from a distance seems like a velvet
+coverlet, giving to these two gigantic bulwarks a severe and
+magnificent appearance, as if they were a warlike banner unfolded by
+Holland to celebrate her victory over the waves. At that moment the
+tide was coming in, and the battle round the extreme end of the dykes
+was at its height. With what rage did the livid waves avenge
+themselves for the scorn of those two huge horns of granite that
+Holland has plunged into the bosom of her enemy! The palisades and the
+rock foundations were lashed, gnawed, and buffeted on every side;
+disdainful waters dashed over them and spat upon them with a drizzling
+rain that hid them like a cloud of dust; then again the waves would
+flow back like furious writhing serpents. Even the sections far from
+the struggle were sprinkled by unexpected showers of spray, the
+advance guard of that endless army, and meanwhile the water kept
+rising and advancing, forcing the foremost workmen to retire step by
+step.
+
+On the longest dyke, not very far from shore, they were planting some
+piles. Workmen with great labor were raising blocks of granite by
+means of derricks, and others, in groups of ten or fifteen, were
+removing old beams to make room for new ones. It was glorious to see
+the fury of the waves lashing the sides of the dyke, and the impassive
+calm of the workmen, who seemed almost to despise the sea. It crossed
+my mind that they must be saying in their hearts, as the sailor said
+to the monster of the Comprachicos in Victor Hugo's romance: "Roar on,
+old fellow!" A wind which chilled us to the bone blew the long, fair
+curls of the good Dutchmen into their eyes, and every now and then
+threw the spray at their feet or on their clothes--vain provocations
+to which they did not deign to reply even by a frown.
+
+I saw a pile driven into the dyke. It was the trunk of a great tree
+pointed at one end and supported by two parallel beams, between which
+a steam-engine drove an enormous iron hammer up and down. The pile had
+to be driven through several very thick strata of fagots and stones;
+yet at every blow from the heavy hammer it sunk into the ground,
+breaking, tearing, and splintering, while it entered the dyke more
+than a hand's length, as if it were merely a mud hole. Nevertheless,
+what with adjusting and driving the pile, the operation lasted almost
+an hour. I thought of the thousands that had been driven, of the
+thousands still to be driven, of the interminable dykes that defend
+Holland, of the infinite number that have been overturned and rebuilt
+and for the first time my mind conceived the grandeur of the
+undertaking, and a feeling of dismay crept over me as I stood
+motionless and speechless.
+
+Meanwhile, the waters had risen almost to the level of the dyke, with
+a sound of panting and breathlessness like tired-out voices that
+seemed to murmur secrets of distant seas and unknown shores; the wind
+blew colder, it was growing dark, and I felt a restless desire to
+withdraw from those front bastions into the interior of the fortress.
+I pulled the coat-tail of my companion, who had been standing for an
+hour on a boulder, and we returned to the shore and drank a glass of
+delicious Schiedam at one of those shops which are called in Dutch
+"Come and ask," where they sell wines, salt meats, cigars, shoes,
+butter, clothes, biscuits--in fact, a little of everything. Then we
+started on the road back to the Hague.
+
+My next excursion was the most adventurous that I made in Holland. A
+very dear friend of mine who lived at the Hague invited me to go and
+dine with him at the house of one of his relatives who had shown a
+courteous desire to make my acquaintance. I asked where his relative
+lived; and he answered, "Far from the Hague." I asked in what
+direction, but he would not tell me; he told me to meet him at the
+railway-station the next day, and left me. On the next morning we met
+at the station: my friend bought tickets for Leyden. When we arrived
+at Leyden we alighted, but, instead of entering the town, we took a
+road across country. I besought my companion to reveal the secret to
+me. He answered that he could not do so, and as I knew that when a
+Dutchman does not mean to tell you anything, no power on earth will
+make him do it, I resigned myself. It was a disagreeable day in
+February; there was no snow, but a strong cold wind was blowing which
+soon made our faces purple. As it was Sunday, the country was
+deserted. We went on and on, passing windmills, canals, meadows,
+houses half hidden by trees, with very high roofs of stubble mixed
+with moss. Finally we arrived at a village. The Dutch villages are
+closed by a palisade: we passed through the gate, but not a living
+soul was to be seen; the doors were shut, the window curtains were
+drawn, and not a voice, nor a footstep, nor a breath was heard. We
+crossed the village, and paused in front of a church which was all
+covered with ivy like a summer-house; looking through an aperture in
+the door, we saw a Protestant clergyman with a white cravat preaching
+to some peasants whose faces were striped with gold, green, and
+purple, the reflection of the stained-glass windows. We passed
+through a clean street paved with bricks, and saw stakes put for the
+storks' nests, posts planted by the peasants for the cows to rub
+against, fences painted sky blue, small houses with many-colored tiles
+forming letters and words, ponds full of boats, bridges, kiosks for
+unknown uses, little churches with great gilded cocks on the top of
+their steeples; and not a living soul near or far: still we went on.
+The sky cleared a little, then darkened again; here the sunshine
+gleamed on a canal, there it made a house sparkle or gilded a distant
+steeple. Then again it hid itself, reappeared, and so on with a
+thousand coquetries, while on the horizon there appeared oblique lines
+denoting rain. We began to meet countrywomen with circles of gold
+round their heads, on which veils were fastened, the whole surmounted
+by hats; these were trimmed with bunches of flowers and wide
+fluttering ribbons. We also met some country carriages of the antique
+Louis XV. style, with a gilded box ornamented with carved work and
+mirrors, peasants with thick black clothes and large wooden shoes,
+children with stockings of every color in the rainbow. We arrived at
+another village, which was clean, shining, and brightly colored, with
+its streets paved with bricks and its windows adorned with curtains
+and flowers. Here we took a carriage and went on our way. A fine icy
+rain which penetrated to our bones began to fall as soon as we
+started. Muffled up in the wet frozen covers, we reached the bank of
+a large canal. A man came out of a cottage, led the horse on to a
+barge, and landed us safe and sound on the opposite bank. The carriage
+turned down a wide street, and we found ourselves on the bed of the
+ancient Sea of Haarlem. Our horse trotted along where the fish once
+swam through the water; our coachman smoked where at one time the
+smoke of naval battles had rolled; we saw glimpses of canals, of
+villages, of cultivated fields, of a new world of which only thirty
+years ago there had not been a trace. After we had driven about a mile
+the rain stopped, and it began to snow as I had never seen it snow
+before: it was a real whirlwind of heavy, thick snow, which the strong
+wind blew into our faces. We unfolded the waterproof covering, opened
+our umbrellas, tucked ourselves in, and bundled ourselves up, but the
+wind broke through all our defences and the snow sifted over us,
+enveloping us in white and covering our heads and feet with ice. After
+a long turn we left the lake; the snow ceased, we arrived at another
+village of toy houses, where we left our carriage and proceeded on
+foot. We went on and on, seeing bridges, windmills, closed cottages,
+lonely streets, wide meadows, but no human beings. We crossed another
+branch of the Rhine, and arrived at another village barricaded and
+silent; we continued on our way, occasionally seeing some face looking
+at us from behind the windows. We then left the village and found
+ourselves opposite the dunes. The sky looked threatening, and I became
+alarmed.
+
+"Where are we going?" I demanded of my friend.
+
+"Where fortune takes us," he replied.
+
+We proceeded through the dunes, along narrow, winding, sandy roads,
+seeing no sign of habitation anywhere; we went up hill and down dale;
+the wind drove the sand into our faces; at every step our feet sank in
+it, and the country grew more and more desolate, gloomy, and foreboding.
+
+"But who is your relative?" I said to my companion. "Where does he
+live? what is his business? There is some witchcraft about this; he
+cannot be a man like other men: tell me where you are leading me."
+
+My friend did not answer: he stopped and stared in front of him. I
+stared too, and far away saw something that looked like a house, alone
+in the midst of the desert, almost hidden by a rise in the ground. We
+hastened on; the house seemed to appear and disappear like a shadow.
+Round about we saw stakes which looked like gibbets. My friend tried
+to persuade me that they were only stakes for storks' nests. We were
+about a hundred feet away from the house. Along a wall we saw a wooden
+pipe which seemed bathed in blood, but my friend assured me it was
+only red paint. It was a little house enclosed by a paling; the doors
+and windows were shut.
+
+"Don't go in," I said. "There is yet time. There is something uncanny
+in that house; take care what you are doing. Look up; I have never
+seen such a black sky."
+
+My friend did not hear me; he pressed on courageously, and I followed.
+Instead of going toward the door, he took a short cut. Behind us we heard
+a ferocious barking of dogs. We broke into a run, crossed a thicket of
+underbrush, jumped over a low wall, and knocked at a little door.
+
+"There is yet time!" I exclaimed.
+
+"It is too late," answered my friend.
+
+The door opened, but nobody was to be seen. We mounted a winding
+staircase and entered a room. Oh pleasant surprise! The hermit, the
+sorcerer, was a merry, courteous young man, and the diabolical house
+was a villa full of comfort and warmth, sparkling with light, the
+dwelling of a sybarite--a real fairy palace to which our host retired
+some months in the year to study and to make experiments on the
+fertilization of the dunes. How delightful it was to look at the cold
+desert without through a window draped with curtains and decorated
+with flower-pots! We went into the dining-room and sat down at a table
+glittering with silver and glass, in the midst of which, surrounded by
+gilded and blazoned bottles, was a hot dinner fit for a prince. The
+snow was beating against the windows, the sea was moaning, the wind
+blew furiously round the house, which seemed like a ship in a terrible
+storm. We drank to the fertilization of the dunes, to the victors of
+Achen, to the prosperity of the colonies, to the memory of Nino Bixio,
+to the elves. Nevertheless, I was still a little uneasy. Our host when
+he needed the servant touched a hidden spring; to tell the coachman to
+get the carriage ready he spoke some words into a hole in the wall;
+and these tricks did not please me.
+
+"Tell me," I said, "tell me that this house really exists; promise me
+that it is not all a joke and that it will not disappear, leaving
+nothing but a hole in the ground and a smell of sulphur in the air.
+Assure me that you say your prayers every evening."
+
+I cannot describe the laughter, the merriment, the absurd speeches that
+succeeded each other until the middle of the night, accompanied by the
+clinking of glasses and the roaring of the tempest. At last the moment of
+departure arrived: we went down and were rolled away in a roomy carriage
+which dashed rapidly across the desert. The ground was covered with snow,
+the dunes were outlined in white on the dark sky, the carriage glided
+noiselessly in the midst of strange indistinct forms, which succeeded each
+other rapidly in the light of the lantern and seemed to melt into each
+other. In that vast solitude a dead silence reigned which robbed us of
+speech. After a time we began to see dwellings and arrived at a village.
+We crossed two or three deserted streets, with snow-covered houses on
+either side, with a few lighted windows showing human shadows. At last we
+came to a railway-station, and reached the Hague in a few minutes,
+although we had been deluded to think we had taken a long journey and
+crossed an imaginary country. Must I tell the truth? If I were asked to
+swear at the moment I am writing that the house in the midst of the dunes
+was a reality, I should request ten minutes for reflection. It is true
+that the master was polite enough to come and bid me good-bye at the
+station the day I left the Hague, and that when I saw him clearly by
+daylight he did not seem to have anything strange about him; but we all
+know the various forms, the simulations, the thousand arts which a certain
+gentleman and his servants assume.
+
+At last I saw a Dutch winter, not as I had hoped to see it on leaving
+Italy, for it was very mild; but still Holland was presented to me as
+we are in the habit of picturing it to ourselves in the south of
+Europe.
+
+Early in the morning the first thing that attracts the eye in the
+silent white streets is the print of innumerable wooden shoes left in
+the snow by the boys on their way to school, and so large are the
+wooden shoes that they look like the tracks of elephants. These
+footsteps generally go in a straight line, showing that the boys take
+the shortest cut to school, and, like steady, zealous Dutchmen, do not
+play and lose time on the road. One can see long rows of children
+wrapped up in large scarfs, with their heads half hidden between their
+shoulders--little bundles arm in arm, walking two by two, or three by
+three, or pressed together in groups like a bunch of asparagus, out of
+which peep only the tips of their noses and the ends of books. When
+the boys have disappeared the streets are deserted for a short time,
+for the Dutch do not rise early, especially in the winter. One can
+walk some distance without meeting any one or hearing any sound. The
+snow seems whiter surrounding those rose-colored houses, which have
+all their projections outlined with a pure white line, and the wooden
+heads outside of the shops wear white cotton wigs; the chains of the
+railings look like ermine; everything presents a strange appearance.
+When it freezes and the sun shines, the facades seem covered with
+silver sparks, the ice heaped upon the banks of the canals shines with
+all the colors of the rainbow, and the trees glitter with thousands of
+little pearls, like the plants in the enchanted gardens of the Arabian
+Nights. It is then that it is beautiful to walk in the forest at the
+Hague at sunset, treading on the hardened snow, which crackles under
+one's feet like powdered marble, in the avenues of large, white,
+leafless beech trees, which look like one gigantic crystallization,
+and cast blue and violet shadows, dotted with myriads of points which
+glisten like diamonds in the paths dyed pink by the setting sun. But
+nothing compares with the sight of the Dutch country seen from the
+top of a steeple at morning after a heavy fall of snow. Beneath the
+gray and lowering sky one looks over that vast white plain, from
+which, roads, houses, and canals have disappeared, and nothing is seen
+but elevations and depressions, which, like the folds of a sheet, give
+a vague idea of the forms of hidden houses. The boundless white is
+unstained save by the clouds of smoke that rise almost timidly from
+the distant dwellings, as if to assure the spectator that beneath the
+desert of snow human hearts are still beating.
+
+It is impossible to speak of the winter in Holland without mentioning
+what constitutes the originality and the attraction of winter life in
+that country--the skating.
+
+Skating in Holland is not only a recreation; it is the ordinary means
+of transportation. To cite a well-known example, all know the value of
+it to the Dutch in the memorable defence of Haarlem. When there is a
+hard frost the canals are transformed into streets, and sabots tipped
+with iron take the place of boats. The peasants skate to market, the
+workmen to their work, the small tradespeople to their business;
+entire families skate from the country to the town with their bags and
+baskets on their shoulders or drive in sledges. Skating to them is as
+habitual and easy as walking, and they skim along so rapidly that one
+can scarcely follow them with the eye. In past years bets were
+commonly made between the best Dutch skaters that they would skate
+down the canals on either side of the railway as fast as the train
+could go; and usually the skaters not only kept abreast of the engine,
+but even beat it. There are people who skate from the Hague to
+Amsterdam and back again on the same day; university students leave
+Utrecht in the morning, dine at Amsterdam, and return home before the
+evening; and a bet has been made and won several times of going from
+Amsterdam to Leyden in little more than an hour. Persons who have been
+drawn by sticks held by skaters have told me that the speed with which
+they skim over the ice is enough to turn one giddy; but this rapidity
+is not the only remarkable thing about it: another point very much to
+be admired is the security with which they traverse great distances.
+Peasants will go from one town to another at night. Young men go from
+Rotterdam to Gouda, where they buy very long clay pipes, and return to
+Rotterdam carrying them unbroken in their hands. Sometimes as one is
+walking along a canal one sees a figure flit by like an arrow, to
+disappear immediately in the distance. It is a peasant-girl carrying
+milk to a house in the city.
+
+There are sledges of every size and shape, some pushed by skaters,
+others drawn by horses, others propelled by means of two iron-tipped
+sticks which are worked by the person seated in the sledge. One sees
+carts and carriages taken off of their wheels and mounted on two
+boards, on which they glide with the same rapidity as the other sleds.
+On holiday occasions the boats from Scheveningen have been seen to
+glide over the snow through the streets of the Hague. Sometimes ships
+in full sail are seen skimming over the ice of the large rivers, going
+so fast that the faces of the few who dare to make this experiment are
+terribly cut by the wind.
+
+The most beautiful fetes in Holland are given on the ice. When the
+Meuse is frozen, Rotterdam becomes a place of reunions and amusements.
+The snow is brushed away until the ice is made as clean as a crystal
+floor; restaurants, coffee-houses, pavilions, and benches for
+spectators are set up, and at night all is illuminated. During the day
+a swarm of skaters of every age, sex, and class crowds the river. In
+other towns, especially in Friesland, which is the classical land of
+the art, there are clubs of men-and women-skaters who institute public
+races for prizes. Stakes and flags are set up all along the canals,
+railings and stands are raised; immense crowds come from the villages
+and the country-side. Bands play; the elite of the town are present.
+The skaters present themselves dressed in a peculiar costume, the
+women wearing pantaloons. There are races for men and races for women;
+then both men and women race together. The names of the winners are
+enrolled in the annals of the art and remain famous for many years.
+
+In Holland there are two different schools of skating, the so-called
+Dutch school and the Frieslander school, each of which uses a peculiar
+kind of skate. The Frieslander school, which is the older, aims only
+at speed; the Dutch school cultivates grace as well. The Frieslanders
+are stiff in their motions; they throw their bodies forward, and hold
+themselves very straight, looking as though they were starched, and
+keeping their eyes fixed on the goal. The Dutch skate with a zigzag
+movement, swaying from left to right and from right to left with an
+undulating motion of the body. The Frieslander is an arrow, the
+Dutchman a rocket.
+
+The women prefer the Dutch school. The ladies of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and
+the Hague are, in fact, the most fascinating skaters in the Netherlands.
+They begin to skate as children, continue as girls and wives, reaching the
+height of beauty and the summit of art at the same time, while their
+skates strike out sparks from the ice which kindle many fires. It is only
+on the ice that Dutch women appear light-heeled. Some attain a marvellous
+perfection. Those who have seen them say that it is impossible to imagine
+the grace of movement, the bows, the glides, the thousand pretty delicate
+arts that are displayed. They fly and return like swallows and
+butterflies, and in this exercise they grow animated and their placid
+beauty is transformed. But all are not so skilled: many dare not show
+themselves in public, for those who would be considered prodigies with us
+are scarcely noticed there, to such perfection has the art been carried.
+The men, too, perform all kinds of tricks and feats, some writing words of
+love and fantastic figures in their twirls, others making rapid
+pirouettes, then gliding backward on one leg for a long distance; others
+twist about, making numbers of dizzy turns in a small space, sometimes
+bending down, then leaning to one side, then skating upright or crouching
+like india-rubber figures moved by a secret spring.
+
+The first day that the canals and small docks are covered with ice
+strong enough to bear the skaters is a day of rejoicing in the Dutch
+towns. Skaters who have made the experiment at break of day spread the
+news abroad; the papers announce it; groups of boys about the streets
+burst into shouts of delight; men and women-servants ask permission to
+go out with the determined air of people who have decided to rebel if
+refused; old ladies forget their age and ailments and hurry off to the
+canal to emulate their friends and daughters. At the Hague the basin,
+which is in the middle of the city, near to the Binnenhof, is invaded
+by a mingling crowd of people, who interlace, knock against each
+other, and form a confused giddy mass. The flower of the aristocracy
+skates on a pond in the middle of the wood, and there in the snow may
+be seen a winding and whirling maze of officers, ladies, deputies,
+students, old men, and boys, among whom the crown prince is sometimes
+to be seen. Thousands of spectators crowd around the scene, music
+enlivens the festival, and the enormous disk of the Dutch sun at
+sunset sends its dazzling salutation through the gigantic beech trees.
+
+When the snow is packed hard the turn of the sleigh comes. Every
+family has a sleigh, and at the hour the world goes out walking they
+appear by hundreds. They fly past in long rows two or three abreast.
+Some are shaped like shells, others like swans, dragons, boats, or
+chariots. All are gilded and painted in various colors; the horses
+which draw them are covered with handsome furs and magnificent
+trappings, their heads ornamented with plumes and tassels, and their
+harness studded with glittering buttons. In the sleighs sit ladies
+clothed in sable, beaver, and blue fox. The horses toss their heads,
+enveloped in a cloud of steam which rises from them, while their manes
+are covered with ice-drops. The sleighs dart along, the snow flying
+about them like silver foam. The splendid uncurbed procession passes
+and disappears like a silent whirlwind over a field of lilies and
+jessamine. At night, when the torches are lit, thousands of small
+flames follow each other and flit about the silent town, casting lurid
+flashes of light on the ice and snow, the whole scene appearing to the
+imagination like a great diabolical battle over which the spectre of
+Philip II. presides from the top of the Binnenhof Tower.
+
+[Illustration: Main Drive in the Bosch, The Hague.]
+
+But, alas! everything changes, even the winter, and with it the art of
+skating and the use of sleighs. For many years the severe winters of
+Holland have been followed by such mild ones that not only the large
+rivers, but even the small canals in the towns, do not freeze. In
+consequence the skaters who have been so long out of practice do not
+risk giving public exhibitions when the occasion presents itself; and
+so, little by little, their number becomes smaller, and the women
+especially are forgetting the art. Last winter they hardly skated at
+all, and this winter (1873) there has not been a race, and not even a
+sleigh has been seen. Let us hope that this deplorable state of
+affairs will not last, and that winter will return to caress Holland
+with its icy bear's paw, and that the fine art of skating will once
+more arise with its mantle of snow and its crown of icicles. Let me
+announce meanwhile the publication of a work called "Skating," upon
+which a Dutch legislator has been employed for many years--a work that
+will be the history, the epic, and code of this art, from which all
+European skaters, male and female, will be able to draw instruction
+and inspiration.
+
+While I remained at the Hague I frequented the principal club in the
+town, composed of more than two thousand members. It is located in a
+palace near the Binnenhof, and there it was that I made my observations
+upon the Dutch character.
+
+The library, the dining-room, and the card-room, the large drawing-room
+for conversation, and the reading-room were as full as they could be from
+four o'clock in the afternoon until midnight. Here one met artists,
+professors, merchants, deputies, clerks, and officers. The greater number
+come to drink a small glass of gin before dinner, and return later to take
+another comforting sip of their favorite liquor. Nearly all converse, and
+yet one hears only a light murmur, so that if one's eyes were shut one
+would say that about half of the actual number was present. One can go
+round the rooms many times without seeing a gesture of excitement or
+hearing a loud voice: at a distance of ten steps from the groups one would
+not know that any one was speaking, except by the movement of his lips.
+One sees many corpulent gentlemen with broad, clean-shaven faces and
+bearded throats, who talk without raising their eyes from the table or
+lifting their hands from their glasses. It is very rare to see among these
+heavy faces a lively, piquant physiognomy like that of Erasmus, which many
+consider the true Dutch type, though I am not of their opinion.
+
+The friend who opened the door of the club to me presented me to several
+of its habitues. The difference between the Dutch and the Italian
+character is especially evident in introductions. On one occasion I
+noticed that the person to whom I was introduced scarcely bowed his head,
+and then remained silent some moments. I thought my reverend face had not
+pleased him, and felt an echo of cordial dislike in my heart. In a little
+while the person who had introduced me went away, leaving me tete-a-tete
+with my enemy. "Now," thought I, "I will burst before I will speak, a word
+to him." But my neighbor, after some minutes of silence, said to me with
+the greatest gravity, "I hope, if you have no other engagement to-day, you
+will do me the honor of dining with me." I fell from the clouds. We then
+dined together, and my Amphytrion placidly filled the table with bottles
+of Bordeaux and champagne, and did not let me depart until I had promised
+to dine with him again. Others, when I would ask information about various
+things, would hardly answer me, as if they were trying to show me that I
+was troublesome, so that I would say to myself, "How contemptible they
+are!" But the next day they would send me all the details neatly and
+clearly written out, and minute in a higher degree than I desired. One
+evening I asked a gentleman to point out to me something in that ocean of
+figures that goes by the name of _Guide to European Railways_. For some
+moments he did not answer, and I felt mortified. Then he took the book,
+put on his spectacles, turned over the leaves, read, took notes; added and
+subtracted for half an hour, and when he had finished he gave me the
+written answer, putting his spectacles back into their case without
+speaking a word.
+
+Many of those with whom I passed the evening used to go home at ten
+o'clock to work, and to return to the club at half-past eleven, after
+which they would remain until one o'clock. When they had said, "I must
+go," there was no possibility of changing their minds. As the clock
+struck ten they left the door; at half-past eleven they stepped over
+the threshold. It is not surprising that with this chronometrical
+precision they find time to do so many things, without doing anything
+in haste; even those who do not depend on their studies for their
+livelihood have read entire libraries. There is no English, German, or
+French book, however unimportant, with which they are unacquainted.
+French literature especially they have at their fingers' ends. And
+what is said of literature can be said with more reason of politics.
+Holland is one of the European countries in which the greatest number
+of foreign papers are to be found, particularly those that deal
+principally with national affairs. The country is small and peaceful,
+and the news of the day is soon exhausted; consequently it frequently
+happens that after ten minutes the conversation has passed beyond the
+Rhine and deals with Europe. I remember the astonishment with which I
+heard the fall of the ministry of Scialoia and other Italian matters
+discussed as if they were domestic affairs.
+
+One of my first cares was to sound the religious sentiment of the people,
+and here I found, to my surprise, great confusion. As a learned Dutchman
+most justly wrote a short time ago, "Ideas subversive of every religious
+dogma have made much way in this land." It is quite a mistake, however, to
+believe that where faith decreases indifference enters. Such men as
+appeared to Pascal monstrous creatures--men who live without giving any
+thought to religion, of whom there are numbers in our country--do not
+exist in Holland. The religious question, which in Italy is merely a
+question, in Holland is a battle in which all brandish their arms. In
+every class of society, men and women, young and old, occupy themselves
+with theology and read or listen to the disputes of the doctors, besides
+devouring a prodigious number of polemical writings on religion. This
+tendency of the country is shown even in Parliament, where the deputies
+often confute their opponents with biblical quotations read in Hebrew, or
+translated and commentated, the discussion degenerating into very
+disquisitions on theology. All these conflicts, however, take place in the
+mind rather than in the heart; they are devoid of passion, and one proof
+of this is that Holland, which of all the countries in Europe is divided
+into most sects, is also the country in which these sects live in the
+greatest harmony and where there is the greatest degree of tolerance. If
+this were not the case, the Catholic party would not have made such
+strides as it has made, protected from the first by the Liberals against
+the only intolerant party in the country, the orthodox Calvinists.
+
+I did not make the acquaintance of any Calvinists, and I was sorry on
+that account. I never believed all that is recounted of their extreme
+rigour; for example, that there are among them certain ladies who hide
+the legs of the tables with covers, for fear that they might suggest
+to the minds of visitors the legs of the mistress of the house. But
+there is no doubt that they live with extreme austerity. Many of them
+never enter a theatre, a ball-room, or a concert-hall. There are
+families who on the Sabbath content themselves with eating a little
+cold meat, so that the cook may rest on that day. Every morning in
+many houses the master reads from the Bible in the presence of the
+family and servants, and they all pray together. But, nevertheless,
+this sect of orthodox Calvinists, whose followers are almost all
+amongst the aristocracy and the peasantry, does not exert a great
+influence in the country. This is proved by the fact that in
+Parliament the Calvinists are inferior in numbers to the Catholic
+party and can do nothing without them.
+
+I have mentioned the theatre. At the Hague, as in the other large
+Dutch cities, there are no large theatres nor great performances. They
+generally produce German operas sung by foreign singers, and French
+comedies and operettas. Concerts are the great attraction. In this
+Holland is faithful to its traditions, for, as is well known, Dutch
+musicians were sought after in all the Christian courts as early as
+the sixteenth century. It has also been said that the Dutch have great
+ability in singing in chorus. In fact, the pleasure of singing
+together must be great if it is in proportion to the aversion they
+have to singing alone, for I do not ever remember hearing any one sing
+a tune at any hour or in any part of a Dutch town, excepting street
+urchins, who were singing in derision at drunken men, and drunkards
+are seldom seen excepting on public holidays.
+
+I have spoken of the French operettas and comedies. At the Hague not only
+the plays are French, but public life as well. Rotterdam has an English
+imprint, Amsterdam is German, and the Hague Parisian. So it may truthfully
+be said that the citizens of the large Dutch towns unite and temper the
+good qualities and the defects of the three great neighboring nations. At
+the Hague in many families of the best society they speak French
+altogether; in others they affect French expressions, as is done in some
+of the northern towns of Italy. Addresses on letters are generally written
+in French, and there is a small branch of society, as is frequently the
+case in small countries, that professes a certain contempt for the
+national language, literature, and art, and courts an adopted country
+beyond the Meuse and the Rhine. The sympathies, however, are divided. The
+elegant class inclines toward France, the learned class toward Germany,
+and the mercantile class toward England. The zeal for France grew cold
+after the Commune. Against Germany a secret animosity has arisen,
+generated by the fear that in her acquisitive tastes she might turn toward
+Holland. This feeling still ferments, though it is tempered by community
+of interest against clerical Catholicism.
+
+When it is said that the Hague is partly a French city, it must be
+understood that this relates to its appearance only; at bottom the
+Dutch characteristics predominate. Although it is a rich, elegant, and
+gay city, it is not a city of riot and dissipation, full of duels and
+scandals. The life is more varied and lively than that found in other
+Dutch towns, but not less peaceful. The duels that take place in the
+Hague in ten years may be counted on the five fingers of one's hand,
+and the aggressor in the few that take place is usually an officer.
+Notwithstanding, to show how powerful in Holland is this "ferocious
+prejudice that honor dwells on the point of the sword," I recall a
+discussion between several Dutchmen which was raised by a question of
+mine. When I asked whether public opinion in Holland was hostile to
+duels, they answered all together, "Exceedingly hostile." But when I
+wanted to know whether a young man in good society who did not accept
+a challenge would be universally praised, and would still be treated
+and respected as before--whether, in short, he would be supported by
+public opinion so that he would not repent his conduct--then they all
+began discussing. Some weakly answered, "Yes;" others resolutely,
+"No." But the general opinion was on the negative side. Hence I
+concluded that although there are few duels in Holland, this does not
+arise, as I thought, from a universal and absolute contempt for the
+"ferocious prejudice," but rather from the rarity of the cases in
+which two citizens allow themselves to be carried by passion to the
+point of having recourse to arms; which is a result of nature rather
+than of education. In public controversies and private discussions,
+however violent, personal insults are very rare, and in parliamentary
+battles, which are sometimes very vigorous, the deputies are often
+exceedingly impertinent, but they always speak calmly and without
+clamor. But this impertinence consists in the fact rather than in the
+word, and wounds in silence.
+
+In the conversations at the club I was astonished at first to note
+that no one spoke for the pleasure of speaking. When any one opened
+his mouth it was to ask a question or to tell a piece of news or to
+make an observation. That art of making a period of every idea, a
+story of every fact, a question of every trifle, in which Italians,
+French, and Spaniards are masters, is here totally unknown. Dutch
+conversation is not an exchange of sounds, but a commerce of facts,
+and nobody makes the least effort to appear learned, eloquent, or
+witty. In all the time I was at the Hague I remember hearing only one
+witticism, and that from a deputy, who speaking to me of the alliance
+of the ancient Batavians with the Romans, said, "We have always been
+the friends of constituted authority." Yet the Dutch language lends
+itself to puns: in proof of this there is the incident of a pretty
+foreign lady who asked a young boatman of the _trekschuit_ for a
+cushion, and not pronouncing the word well, instead of cushion said
+kiss, which in Dutch sounds almost the same; and she scarcely had time
+to explain the mistake, for the boatman had already wiped his mouth
+with the back of his hand. I had read that the Dutch are avaricious
+and selfish, and that they have a habit of boring people with long
+accounts of their ailments, but as I studied the Dutch character I
+came to see that these charges are untrue. On the contrary, they laugh
+at the Germans for their complaining disposition. To sustain the
+charge of avarice somebody has brought forward the very incredible
+statement that during a naval battle with the English the officers of
+the Dutch fleet boarded the vessels of the enemy, who had used all
+their ammunition, sold them balls and powder at exorbitant prices,
+after which they continued the battle. But to contradict this
+accusation there is the fact of their comfortable life, of their rich
+houses, of the large sums of money spent in books and pictures, and
+still more of the widespread works of charity, in which the Dutch
+people certainly stand first in Europe. These philanthropic works are
+not official nor do they receive any impulse from the government; they
+are spontaneous and voluntary, and are carried on by large and
+powerful societies that have founded innumerable institutes--schools,
+prizes, libraries, popular reunions--helping and anticipating the
+government in the duty of public instruction,--whose branches extend
+from the large cities to the humblest villages, embracing every
+religious sect, every age, every profession, and every need; in short,
+a beneficence which does not leave in Holland a poor person without a
+roof or a workman without work. All writers who have studied Holland
+agree in saying that there probably is not another state in Europe
+where, in proportion to the population, a larger amount is given in
+charity by the wealthy classes to those who are in want.
+
+It must not, however, be imagined that the Dutch people have no
+defects. They certainly have them, if one may consider as defects the
+lack of those qualities which ought to be the splendor and nobility of
+their virtues. In their firmness we might find some obstinacy, in
+their honesty a certain sordidness; we might hold that their coldness
+shows the absence of that spontaneity of feeling without which it
+seems impossible that there can be affection, generosity, and true
+greatness of soul. But the better one knows them, the more one
+hesitates to pronounce these judgments, and the more one feels for
+them a growing respect and sympathy on leaving Holland. Voltaire was
+able to speak the famous words: "Adieu, canaux, canards, canaille;"
+but when he had to judge Holland seriously, he remembered that he had
+not found in its capital "an idle person, a poor, dissipated, or
+insolent man," and that he had everywhere seen "industry and modesty."
+Louis Napoleon proclaimed that in no other European country is there
+found so much innate good sense, justice, and reason as there is in
+Holland; Descartes gave the Hollanders the greatest praise a
+philosopher can give to a people when he said that in no country does
+one enjoy greater liberty than in Holland; Charles V. pronounced upon
+them the highest eulogy possible to a sovereign when he said that they
+were "excellent subjects, but the worst of slaves." An Englishman
+wrote that the Dutch inspire an esteem that never becomes affection.
+Perhaps he did not esteem them highly enough.
+
+I do not conceal the fact that one of my reasons for liking them was
+the discovery that Italy is much better known in Holland than I should
+have dared to hope. Not only did our revolution find a favorable echo
+there, as was natural in a independent nation free and hostile to the
+pope, but the Italian leaders and the events of recent times are as
+familiarly known as those of France and Germany. The best newspapers
+have Italian correspondents and furnish the public with the minutest
+details of our affairs. In many places portraits of our most
+illustrious citizens are seen. Acquaintance with our literature is no
+less extended than knowledge of our politics. Putting aside the fact
+that the Italian language was sung in the halls of the ancient counts
+of Holland, that in the golden age of Dutch literature it was greatly
+honored by men of letters, and that several of the most illustrious
+poets of that period wrote Italian verses or imitated our pastoral
+poetry,--the Italian language is considerably studied nowadays, and
+one frequently meets those who speak it, and it is common to see our
+books on ladies' tables. The "Divina Commedia," which came into vogue
+especially after 1830, has been twice translated into rhymed triplets.
+One version is the work of a certain Hacke van Mijnden, who devoted
+all his life to the study of Dante. "Gerusalemme Liberata" has been
+translated in verse by a Protestant clergyman called Ten Kate, and
+there was another version, unpublished and now lost, by Maria
+Tesseeschade, the great poetess of the seventeenth century, the
+intimate friend of the great Dutch poet Vondel, who advised and helped
+her in the translation. Of the "Pastor Fido" there are at least five
+translations by different hands. Of "Aminta" there are several
+translations, and, to make a leap, at least four of "Mie Prigioni,"
+besides a very fine translation of the "Promessi Sposi," a novel that
+few Dutch people have not read either in their own language, in
+French, or in Italian. To cite another interesting fact, there is a
+poem entitled "Florence," written for the last centenary of Dante by
+one of the best Dutch poets of our day.
+
+It is now in place to say something about Dutch literature.
+
+Holland presents a singular disproportion between the expansive force
+of its political, scientific, and commercial life and that of its
+literary life. While the work of the Dutch in every other field
+extends beyond the frontier of the land, its literature is confined
+within its own borders. It is especially strange that, although
+Holland possesses a most abundant literature, it has not, as other
+little states, produced one book that has become European, unless we
+class among literary works the writings of Spinoza, the only great
+philosopher of his country, or consider as Dutch literature the
+forgotten Latin treatises of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Yet if there be a
+country which by its nature and history suggests subjects to inspire
+the mind to the production of such poetical works as appeal to the
+imagination of all nations, that country is Holland. The marvellous
+transformations of the land, the terrible inundations, the fabulous
+maritime expeditions,--these ought to have given birth to a poem
+powerful and original even when stripped of its native form. Why did
+not this occur? The nature of the Dutch genius may be adduced as a
+reason, which, aiming at utility in everything, wished to turn
+literature also to a practical end. Another tendency, the opposite of
+this, though, perhaps derived from it, is that of soaring high above
+human nature to avoid treading on the ground with the mass; a
+weariness of genius which gave to judgment the ascendency over the
+imagination; an innate love of all that was precise and finished,
+which resulted in a prolixity in which grand ideas were diluted; the
+spirit of the religious sects, which enchained within a narrow circle
+talents created to survey a vast horizon. But neither these nor other
+reasons can keep one from wondering that there should not be one
+writer of Dutch literature who worthily represents to the world the
+greatness of his country--a name to be placed between Rembrandt and
+Spinoza.
+
+However, it would be a mistake to overlook at least the three
+principal figures of Dutch literature, two of whom belong to the
+seventeenth and one to the nineteenth century--three original poets
+who differ widely from each other, but represent in themselves Dutch
+poetry in its entirety: Vondel, Catz, and Bilderdijk.
+
+[Illustration: The Vyver, The Hague.]
+
+Vondel, the greatest poet Holland has produced, was born in 1587 at
+Cologne, where his father, a hatmaker, had taken refuge, having fled
+from Antwerp to escape from the Spanish persecutions. While still a
+child the future poet returned to his country on a barrow, together
+with his father and mother, who followed him on foot, praying and
+reciting verses from the Bible. His studies began at Amsterdam. At
+fifteen years of age he was already renowned as a poet, but his
+celebrated works date from 1620. At the age of thirty he knew only his
+own language, but later he learned French and Latin, and applied
+himself with ardor to the study of the classics; at fifty he gave
+himself up to Greek. His first tragedy (for he was chiefly a
+dramatist), entitled "The Destruction of Jerusalem," was not very
+successful. The second, "Palamades," in which was delineated the
+piteous and terrible tale of Olden Barneveldt, a victim of Maurice of
+Orange, caused a criminal action to be brought against the author. He
+fled, and remained in concealment until the unexpectedly mild sentence
+was given which condemned him to a fine of three hundred florins. In
+1627 he travelled in Denmark and Sweden, where he was received with
+great honors by Gustavus Adolphus. Eleven years later he opened the
+theatre at Amsterdam with a drama on a national theme, "Gilbert of
+Amstel," which is still performed once a year in his memory. The last
+years of his life were very unhappy. His dissipated son reduced him to
+poverty, and the poor old man, tired of study and broken down with
+sorrow, was obliged to beg for a miserable employment at the city
+pawnbroker's. A few years before his death he embraced the Catholic
+faith, and, seized with fresh inspiration, composed the tragedy of
+"The Virgin" and one of his best poems entitled "The Mysteries of
+the Altar." He died at a great age, and was buried in a church at
+Amsterdam, where a century afterward a monument was erected in his
+honor. Besides tragedies he wrote martial songs to his country, to
+illustrious Dutch sailors, and to Prince Frederick Henry. But his
+chief glory was the drama. An admirer of Greek tragedy, he preserved
+the unities, the chorus, the supernatural, substituting Providence for
+Destiny, and demons and angels (the good and evil spirits of
+Christianity) for the angry and propitious gods. He drew nearly all
+his subjects from the Bible. His finest work is the tragedy of
+"Lucifer," which, notwithstanding the almost insuperable difficulties
+of stage setting, was represented twice at the theatre in Amsterdam,
+after which it was interdicted by the Protestant clergy. The subject
+of the drama is the rebellion of Lucifer, and the characters are the
+good and bad angels. In this as in his other plays there abound
+fantastic descriptions full of splendid imagery, passages of powerful
+eloquence, fine choruses, vigorous thought, solemn phrases, rich and
+sonorous verse, while here and there are gleams and flashes of genius.
+On the other hand, his work is pervaded by a mysticism which is
+sometimes obscure and austere, by a discord between Christian ideas
+and pagan forms. The lyrical element predominates over the dramatic,
+good taste is often offended, and, above all, the thought and feeling,
+though aiming at the sublime, rise too high above this earth, and
+elude the comprehension of the human heart and mind. Nevertheless,
+historical precedence, originality, ardent patriotism, and a noble and
+patient life have made Vondel a great and venerated name in his
+country, where he is regarded as the personification of national
+genius, and is placed in the enthusiasm of affection next to the first
+poets of other lands.
+
+Vondel is the greatest, Jacob Catz is the truest, personification of Dutch
+genius. He is not only the most popular poet of his nation, but his
+popularity is such that it may be affirmed that there is no other writer
+of any land, not excluding even Cervantes in Spain and Manzoni in Italy,
+who is more generally known and more constantly read, while at the same
+time there is perhaps no other poet in the world whose popularity is more
+necessarily limited to the boundaries of his own country. Jacob Catz was
+born in 1577 of a noble family in Brouwershaven, a town of Zealand. He
+studied law, became pensionary of Middelburg, went as ambassador to
+England, was Grand Pensionary of Holland, and, while he performed the
+duties of these offices with zeal and rectitude, he devotedly cultivated
+poetry. In the evening, after he had transacted affairs of state with the
+deputies of the provinces, he would retire to his home to write verses. At
+seventy-five years of age he asked to be released from further service,
+and when the stadtholder told him with appreciative words that his
+request had been granted, he fell on his knees in the presence of the
+Assembly of the States and thanked God, who had always protected him
+during the course of his long and exacting political life. A few days
+later he retired to one of his villas, where he enjoyed a peaceful and
+honorable old age, studying and writing up to the year 1660, when he died,
+in the eighty-first year of his life, mourned by all Holland. His poems
+fill several large volumes, and consist of fables, madrigals, stories from
+history and mythology, abounding in descriptions, quotations, sentences,
+and precepts. His work is pervaded with goodness, honesty, and sweetness,
+and he writes with frank simplicity and delicate humor. His volume is the
+book of national wisdom, the second Bible of the Dutch nation--a manual
+which teaches how to live honestly and in peace. He has a word for
+all--for boys as well as old men, for merchants as well as princes, for
+mistresses as well as for maids, for the rich as well as for the poor. He
+teaches how to spend, to save, to do housework, to govern a family, and to
+educate children. He is at the same time a friend, a father, a spiritual
+director, a master, an economist, a doctor, and a lawyer. He loves modest
+nature, the gardens, the meadows; he adores his wife, does his work, and
+is satisfied with himself and with other people, and would like every one
+to be as contented as he is. His poems are to be found beside the Bible
+in every Dutch house. There is not a peasant's cottage where the head of
+the family does not read some of his verses every evening. In days of
+sadness and doubt all look for comfort and find it in their old poet. He
+is the intimate fireside friend, the faithful companion of the invalid;
+his is the first book over which the faces of affianced lovers bend; his
+verses are the first that children lisp and the last that grand-sires
+repeat. No poet is so loved as he. Every Dutchman smiles when he hears his
+name spoken, and no foreigner who has been in Holland can help naming it
+with a feeling of sympathy and respect.
+
+The last of the three, Bilderdijk, was born in 1756 and died in 1831: his
+was one of the most marvellous intellects that have ever appeared in this
+world. He was a poet, historian, philologist, astronomer, chemist, doctor,
+theologian, antiquary, jurisconsult, designer, engraver--a restless,
+unsettled, capricious man, whose life was nothing but an investigation, a
+transformation, a perpetual battle with his vast genius. As a young man,
+when he was already famous as a poet, he abandoned the Muse and entered
+politics; he emigrated with the stadtholder to England, and gave lessons
+in London to earn a livelihood. He tired of England and went to Germany;
+bored by German romanticism, he returned to Holland, where Louis Bonaparte
+overwhelmed him with favors. When Louis left the throne, Napoleon the
+Great deprived the favorite of his pension, and he was reduced to
+poverty. Finally he obtained a small pension from the government, and
+continued studying, writing, and struggling to the last day of his life.
+His works embrace more than thirty volumes of science, art, and
+literature. He tried every style, and succeeded in all excepting the
+dramatic. He enlarged historical criticism by writing one of the finest
+national histories his country possesses. He wrote a poem, "The Primitive
+World," an abstruse, gloomy composition which is very much admired in
+Holland. He dealt with every possible question, confounding luminous
+truths with the strangest paradoxes. He even raised the national
+literature, which had fallen into decadence, and left a phalanx of chosen
+disciples who followed in his steps in politics, art, and philosophy.
+Holland regards him not only with enthusiasm, but with fanaticism, and
+there is no doubt that after Vondel he is the greatest poet of his
+country. But he was possessed by a religious frenzy, a blind hatred of new
+ideas, which caused him to make poetry an instrument of sects: he
+introduces theology into everything, and consequently he could not attain
+to that free serene region beyond which genius cannot obtain enduring
+victories and universal fame.
+
+Round these three poets, who represent the three vices of Dutch
+literature--of losing themselves in the clouds, of creeping on the ground,
+of entangling themselves in the meshes of mysticism--are grouped a number
+of epic, comic, satiric, and lyric poets, most of whom flourished in the
+seventeenth and a few in the eighteenth century. Many of them are renowned
+in Holland, but none possesses sufficient originality to attract the
+attention of the passing stranger.
+
+The present condition deserves a rapid glance. Criticism by stripping
+from Dutch history the veil of poetry with which the patriotism of
+writers had clothed it, has placed it on the wider and more productive
+plain of justice. Philological studies are held in high honor in
+Holland, and almost all the sciences are represented by men of
+European fame. These are facts of which no scholar is ignorant, and a
+bare mention of them is sufficient.
+
+In pure literature the most flourishing style is the novel. Holland
+has had its national novelist, its Walter Scott, in Van Lennep, who
+died a few years ago, a writer of historical romances which were
+received with enthusiasm by all classes of society. He was an
+effective painter of customs, a learned, witty writer, and a master of
+the art of dialogue and description, but, unfortunately, often prolix.
+He used old artifices, adopted forced solutions, and often was not
+sufficiently reticent. In his last book, "The Adventures of Nicoletta
+Zevenster," while admirably describing Dutch society at the beginning
+of this century, he had the unheard-of audacity to describe an
+improper house at the Hague. All Holland was in an uproar. His book
+was discussed, criticised, condemned, praised to the skies, and the
+battle still continues. Other historical novels were written by a
+certain Schimmel, a worthy rival of Van Lennep, and by a Madame
+Rosboon Toussaint, an accomplished author of deep study and real
+talent. Nevertheless, historical romance may be considered dead even
+in Holland. The modern novels of social life and the story meet with
+better fortune. Most prominent in this field is Beets, a Protestant
+clergyman and a poet, the author of a celebrated book entitled "The
+Dark Chamber." Koetsweldt is another of this class, and there are also
+some young men of great gifts who have been prevented from rising to
+any height by haste, the demon that persecutes the literature of
+to-day.
+
+Holland has still another kind of romance which is its own. It might
+be called Indian romance, since it describes the habits and life of
+the people of the colonies. Of late years several novels have been
+published in this style, which have been received in the country with
+great applause and have been translated into several languages. Among
+these is the "Beau Monde of Batavia," by Professor Ten Brink, a
+learned, and brilliant writer, of whom I should like to be able to
+speak at length to attest in some degree my gratitude and admiration.
+But _apropos_ of Indian romances, it is pleasant to notice how in
+Holland at every step one hears and sees something that reminds one
+of the colonies, as if a ray of the Indian sun penetrated the Dutch
+winter and colored the life. The ships which bring a breath of wind
+from those distant lands to the home ports, the birds, the flowers,
+the countless objects, like sounds mingled with faint music, call up
+in the mind images of another nature and another race. In the cities
+of Holland, among the thousands of white faces, one often meets men
+whose visages are bronzed by the sun, who have been born or have lived
+for many years in the colonies--merchants who speak with unusual
+vivacity of dark women, bananas, palm forests, and of lakes shaded by
+vines and orchids; young men who are bold enough to risk their lives
+amid the savages of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra; men of science
+and men of letters; officers who speak of the tribes which worship
+fish, of ambassadors who carry the heads of the vanquished dangling
+from their girdles, of bull and tiger fights, of the frenzy of
+opium-eaters, of the multitudes baptized with pomp, of a thousand
+strange and wonderful incidents which produce a singular effect when
+related by the phlegmatic people of this peaceful country.
+
+Poetry, after it lost Da Costa, a disciple of Bilderdijk, a religious
+poet and enthusiast, and Genestet, a satirical poet who died very
+young, had few champions in the last generation, and these are now
+silent or sing with enfeebled voice. The stage is in a worse
+condition. The untrained, ranting Dutch actors usually appear only in
+French or German dramas, comedies which are badly translated, and the
+best society does not go to see them. Writers of great talent, like
+Hofdijk, Schimmel, and Van Lennep, wrote comedies which were admirable
+in many ways, but they never became popular enough to hold the stage.
+Tragedy is in no better condition than comedy and the drama.
+
+From what I have said it would appear that there is not at present any
+great literary movement in Holland; but on the contrary, there is
+great literary activity. The number of books published is incredible,
+and it is marvellous with what avidity they are read. Every town,
+every religious sect, every society, has its review or newspaper.
+Besides this, there is a multitude of foreign books: English novels
+are in the hands of all; French works of eight, ten, and twenty
+volumes are translated into the national language. This is the more
+remarkable in a country where all cultivated people can read the
+originals, and it proves how customary it is not only to read, but to
+buy, although books are a great deal more expensive in Holland than
+elsewhere. But this superabundance of publications and this thirst for
+reading are precisely those elements which are injuring literature.
+Writers, in order to satisfy the impatient curiosity of the public,
+write in too great haste, and the mania for foreign literature
+smothers and corrupts the national genius. Nevertheless, Dutch
+literature has still a just claim to the esteem of the country: it
+has declined, but has not become perverted; it has preserved its
+innocence and freshness; what is lacking in imagination, originality,
+and brilliancy is compensated by wisdom, by the severe respect for
+good manners and good taste, by loving solicitude for the poorer
+classes, by the effective energy with which it advances charity and
+civil education. The literatures of other lands are great plants
+adorned with fragrant flowers; Dutch literature is a little tree laden
+with fruit.
+
+On the morning when I left the Hague, after my second visit to the
+city, some of my good friends accompanied me to the railway-station.
+It was raining. When we were in the waiting-room, before the train
+started, I thanked my kind hosts for the courteous reception they had
+given me, and, knowing that perhaps I should never see them again, I
+could not help expressing my gratitude in sad and affectionate words,
+to which they listened in silence. Only one interrupted me by advising
+me to guard against the damp.
+
+"I hope at least some of you will come to Italy," I continued, "if
+only to give me the opportunity of showing my gratitude. Do promise me
+this, so that I may feel a little consoled at my departure. I will not
+leave if some one does not say he will come to Italy."
+
+They looked into each other's faces, and one answered laconically,
+"Perhaps." Another advised me not to change French gold in the shops.
+At that moment the last bell rang.
+
+"Well, then, good-bye," I said in an agitated voice, pressing their
+hands. "Farewell: I shall never forget the glorious days passed at the
+Hague; I shall always recall your names as the dearest remembrance of
+my journey. Think of me sometimes."
+
+"Good-bye," they all answered in the same tone, as if they were expecting
+to see me the next day. I leaped into the railway-carriage stricken at
+heart, and looked out of the window until the train started, and saw them
+all standing there, motionless, silent with impassive faces, their eyes
+fixed on mine. I waved a last farewell, and they responded with a slight
+bend of the head, and then disappeared from my sight for ever. Whenever I
+think of them I see them just as they were when I left them, in the same
+attitude, with their serious faces and fixed eyes, and the affection that
+I feel for them has in it something of austerity and sadness like their
+native sky on the day when I last beheld them.
+
+
+THE END OF VOLUME I.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Holland, v. 1 (of 2), by Edmondo de Amicis
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