A PRACTICAL DUTCH CHARITY. 103 



to contemplate ; and it is some feeling of this kind that has sustained 

 martyrs and has incited men of all ages and all faiths to suffer and 

 endure, and die for what they believe. — Translated for the Popular 

 Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes. 



A PKACTICAL DUTCH CHARITY. 



By J. H. GOEE. 



HOLLAND, Scotland, and Switzerland, quite unlike physically, 

 have in their institutions many points of similarity, and the 

 impulses and character of their people are almost identical. In re- 

 ligious matters the resemblance is also striking, even though the 

 creed professed be known by different names. 



In Scotland the struggle for existence demands something more 

 assertive than the doctrine of laissez faire; the terrible sweep of 

 the avalanche in Switzerland, without any apparent cause for its 

 starting, suggests an acceptance of the belief that " it is, because it 

 must be "; while Holland, in its incessant war with the sea, is con- 

 tinually bidding defiance to natural laws, and protesting against their 

 unrestrained action. 



Calvinism found its strongest adherents in the two countries first 

 named, and the faith of Luther answering to the active instincts of 

 the Batavian race was at once adopted by it. In Holland as well 

 as in Switzerland man is ever reminded of life's realities by the 

 watchful care necessary for his very existence, and the material 

 obstacles which must be conquered at every step. Patriotism never 

 becomes dormant because the face of the land shows in its scars its 

 history, and love for home grows with each reckoning of the cost of 

 its retention. The possessions of one day are in many instances no 

 guarantee of the wealth of the next, and the hand now extended in 

 giving assistance may on the morrow be held out to receive. Thus 

 we find the charitable instincts always awake, and societies for the 

 relief of the needy thoroughly organized. 



The conditions under which Holland began its geographic 

 formation and the processes afterward employed to hold or en- 

 large her boundaries, together with the social unrest of the time, 

 caused thoughtful men to put in operation every agency that could 

 direct the innate desire to do good and to give direction to the forces 

 within the kingdom, as well as those which came from without. In 

 Holland, therefore, we find numerous societies for the relief of suf- 

 fering humanity, and people ever ready to give due attention to 

 the complaints and necessities of the laboring classes. No other coun- 



