The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-09-15

'no wafer 10 PRACTICAL uses at every
turn. We are shaded by tall trees
that are set along either side of the
ROAD, and We know that we are in a
land or peace, where hurry and clamor
would be unseemly. And yet in all
this benign Quietude there is nothing
ietnargic, for always with us are the
great canals with their procession of
lie, quiet and slow, but resolute and
uny1eiding. For variety and richness
the English landscape is unanoroacb.
able, yet In this thing a contrast ia
not undressing. AS we go through
our highways and lanes and wood
lands we shall find all the beauty and
peace but the one thing that we shall
OFTEN miss Is movement and life which
is wholly in tune with the surround
ings and Is, so to speak. essential
10 the life Of the nation as a whole.
trains may be this last, but they de-
stroy the calm instead of emphasizing
It. Motorcars are both discordant
ana lnessential. Even the pleasure
Doats on a river lend a suggestion of
arunclality. A team on the plough-
lands. shepherd folding his sheen a
held OF lawmakers or reapers. only in
tnese do We find the life that is in
exact accord with the scene. and these
we can only find at intervals. In
Holland. on the other hand. in nIacas
the most remote from cities and the
sound OF markets and commerce. we
nno always the feeling of seclusion
ana restfulness heightened and
toucned to sense of vitality by the
canals and their full-sailed baryes
Inese canals triumphantly redeem
the physical characteristics of the
country from the charge of dullness
holland In its general features is up.
deniably quaint, but quaintness has a
charm which Is not enduring. After
while we begin to tire of the square
ness and orderliness. and to Iook unon
what appeared to be individuality Of
nrst as eccentricity. We grow q IjttIa
uncomfortable in the land of Lilliput.
and fret for change and some patch
OF wildness. But of the canals we
never weary, for in them we see the
expression of a nations character
nodded through centuries of stirring
and honorable history. We remember
the Dutch proverb: God made the
sea, we made the Shore" and we feel
that these waterways are not only
beautiful and charged with color and
atmosphere, but symbolical of a peo-
pies greatness.
The Dutch painters. through whor,
the national genius has found its most
forcible and enduring expression. have
realized very completely this strange
blend or calm and strength. To look
at one OF their portrait groups of saw
body of hospital governors. is IN
understand at once that these mon
conducted their business tborouqbIv
and well, but scornful of undignified
haste, and for untroubled repose Van
der Meer's picture of Delft in the gal.
lery at The Hague could not well ha
surpassed. In the great Dutch paint.
ings we do not find the tranouillitv NJ
the open places and luxuriant baunts
or nature, but the deep calm of strong
fe. sober and not highly imaginative
out entirely satisfying in its degree.
TIE rise and fall of nations Is
phenomenon still unaccounted for and
constantly recurring. We know that
Rome step by step rose to a splendor
the glory of which is immortal but
we cannot grasp the secret OF this
splendors decay or of the decline of
the other great civilizations of the
world. We can but accept the fact
and wonder at the ruined end vet
noble monuments of their greatness
that still stand as at once a memory
and an inspiration. When the time
comes that the peoples of western
Europe have also passed into the
shadow of dead glories, we too shall
leave something of our works to bear
witness to greatness that has gone
But Holland will be but a recorded
history TO the new nations of far-ofY
ages. The sea will have prevailed
and the great canals, which are "a
truly the essential expression of a res
olute and heroic people as are the
palaces of Venice or the Acropolis of
the Greeks, will have persisted and
will bear no testimony
JOHN DRINKWATER.