1799:] 
employment, they further indulge a fond- 
neis or attachment to concerns which have 
no connection with their bufinefs, but ferve 
merely as amufement. Almoft every af- 
fluent Dutchman has fome fuch additional 
employment. One gratifies his taite by 
forming a cclleftion of famous and valua- 
ble paintings (which cofts him from 1000 
‘to 8000 florins), engravings, or even news- 
papers; another in gardening, hot-beds, 
flowers ; a third, in handfome furniture ; 
a fourth, in horfes famous for quick trot. 
ting (hard drawers) and fuperb carriages 
of various fhapes and kinds; a fifth, f- 
nally, ina library of modern as well as 
ancient literature, the ftudy of: which he 
purfues with delight to his old age, or in 
a cabinet of natural hiftory or medals. 
At prefent indeed politics are the univerfal 
amufement. 
This neceffity of relieving themfelves 
from the dull uniform reftraint of bufinefs 
principally by fetting their minds at eafe, | 
has produced that love of repofe, which, 
' pafling from the higher clafles, the mer- 
chants, to the other inhabitants, has 
fpread itfelf over all orders, and contri- 
buted highly to blunt the faculties. The 
proverb* ‘* Too much of one thing is 
good for nothing’? is here fomewhat 
ttrongly illuftrated in practice : but on the 
other hand it has produced folidity and 
perfeverance in works of art, and profun- 
dity in works of learning ; qualities which 
would be more valuable in the Hollander, 
if they did not appear too often in: his 
amufements, and degenerate into frivolity. 
But no one will accufe the Dutch of 
lazinefs, who has obferved only during 
one week, more particularly in good times, 
the crowding and driving in the ftreets 
of Amfterdam, the univerfal diligence and 
induftry in the counting-houles, ware- 
houfts, harbours, and on the docks. Du- 
ring the greater part of theday from eight 
in the morning till feven in the evening, 
no one is unemployed, and there is nothing 
which ftrangers, who vifit Amfterdam 
without butinefs, ‘* idle and inquifitive 
travellers,’ more complain of, than the 
want of perfons to converfe with. It is 
true, Dutch induftry bears a different 
ftamp from that of the fouthern nations ; 
but is it right to deny toa people the pof- 
feffion of a quality, and impute to them the 
contrary, becaule it appears among them 
in a form differing from ours? 
: The Hague, like moft feats of govern- 
ment, ts leaft qualified to give travellers 
correct notions concerning the induftry, 

* Gut Ding will weile haben, 
On the national Charaéer of the Dutelr 
697 
and, above all, the character of the nation: 
e{pecially fince the court has left it, by 
whom the greater part of the inhabitants 
were fupported. But the judicious tra- 
veller will. form his judgment, not from 
the town which is accidentally the feat of 
government, but from'the real metropolis 
of the country, the place where, from the 
mafs of its population, the. principal 
branches of national induftry are brought 
beneath his immediate notice. * 
From this predilection fer quiet, ne- 
ceflarily arifes an inclination to continue 
their old cuftoms,’ and adhere to their 
courfe of opinions. Hence, innovation 
in every department, in literature, and 
in fcience, in matters. of bufinefs, and 
in political» opinions concerning govern= 
ment, there, make: but a flow and late 
.plogrets. : 
In no refpeét is this more apparent than 
in the religious opinions of the Dutch, whe 
are now precifely at the point trom which 
they fet out two centuries ago, and where 
they were fixed by the fynod of Dort. All 
their religious opinions are orthodox in the 
higheft degree; all dogmas derived from 
the fyftems of the reformers, the Luther- 
ans, Mennonites, and Remonftrants, are 
held in abhorrence, under the epithet of 
Duit{ch vergit (German poifon), becaufe 
it is known they had moftly proceeded 
from German divines. “Ihe Lutherans at 
Amiterdam carried their zeal for immuta- 
ble uniformity of doétrine fo far, that, 
differing about the exiftence of the devil, 
they feparated into two churches, and even 
this fchifma awakened the toirit of party im 
a powerful degree. The Dutch Catholics 
are more bigoted than in fome Catholic 
countries. A negligent oblervation of 
lent would endanger the reputation of a 
young Catholic, juli eftabliflied in bufinefs, 
with thofe of his own te& 5 and, as their 
riches give them power, might impede his 
profperity. So that, from the time of their 
Vondels and Vatts, polite literature has 
fcarcely made any progrefs among them 5 
thefe in poetry, Grotzus in jurifpiudence, 

* Hence the very extravagant picture 
which Riem bas drawn in his Travels through 
Holland of the lazinefs of the higher orders. 
The rich Hollander is at his Buiten plaatfen 
from eight in the morning (when he rites, 
in the middle “of fummer, and never goes to 
bed before, twelve or one) in the open air, 
and {pends his time in walking, riding, or 
bufying himfelf either in fifhing, bunting, 
or enfnaring birds in the grafs. ’ Even in Hol- 
Jand it is not the cuftom for the rich to fi_.— 
Pauci dormientes rete trahunt. D. Eins. 
and 
