The Yale expositor., 1910-09-23

mercial supremacy. to resist
the encroachment OF foreign
powers, the men of Holland
have endured many wars and achieved
great triumphs. The days of these
stubborn strifes have gone, for Hol-
land no longer has any pre-eminent
greatness to defend, no greedy as
saults to repel From centuries OF
strenuous effort she has drifted into
a quietly prosperous peace, her peo-
pie we'll content with the little which
they never lack, and bearing with
them a dignity and air OF simple we'll
being which are the tokens OF their
ancestry. Yet, unconcerned as they
may be with wars and rumors of wars
in the world of men, they are still
called to the daily exercise OF the high
courage of their race, for they have
ever at their gates foe never weary
of attack, and they know well that the
least relaxation of wariness will bring
destruction. The peril of the sea at
all seasons is a thing which no nation
knows as well as Holland knows 1t.
These men hold their land and bring
it to rich cultivation in the race OF
the great natural forces of the world.
Their country lies below sea-level, and
is preserved from ruin by great en-
bankments thrown up round the coast
and a vast system of canals which
make a veritable network of the land.
Herein lies the secret of the Dutch
mans greatness of character. He has
had no opportunity of becoming en-
feebled by security The unceasing
conflict with the sea has become knit
up into the very fibers of the national
spirit, and has given to it a strain
Of silent self-reliance that could have
been born of no other cause. Silent
for this warfare is not as the warfare
of man with man, accompanied by the
clash of, arms and blare of trumpets-
it is carried on from year to year in
grim uuietness against an enemy that
may be repulsed but that can never
be destroyed. 1t was by no mere
chance that the country's hero was
William the Silent.
The Dutch landscape reflects the
national character in singularly
vivid manner. Narrow roads set with
small red bricks, trinity ordered gar
dens, the little carts drawn by dogs,
the cottages with their little rows of
Furnished copper and brass pans and
bowls set outside to sweeten in the
sun, the poles erected to attract the
storks at nesting time, the miniature
windmills for domestic use, the people
themselves in their bright blouses and
aprons and white sabots, the scrupu-
lous tidiness that prevails everywhere.
all combine to make up the impress.
sion of toy country where everything
Is well ordered and mellow. Nowhere
is the traveller brought up in sudden
and breathless wonder before any
gorgeous spectacle, nowhere awed by
any sense of feverish activity. Desc
lation and grandeur are alike absent.
A beggar is hardly ever seen, ruin
never. The absence of these and of
all pomp of riches makes one forget
full of the inequality of things. And
then i'm the midst of all this pretty
unconcern is the everlasting symbol
of the Dutchmans strength-the sails.
There is nothing small about these.
They are liberal and workmanlike,
full of dignity. Greedy for every
breath of wind, they bear the heavily
laden barges, beautiful from water-line
to masthead, down the great canals
from sea to sea. They move with a
measured dignity which deepcns the
sense of calm which is over the whole
landscape, and adds to II strength and
nobility of character. Everything that
the Hollander does under the spell Of
the waters is informed by large and
generous spirit of power and fitness.
II he has to build house, he at
tempts to achieve beauty, and be-
comes ornate and wholly undisting
uished; but when he turns his hand
to the great windmills which grit the