tion. In La Roche we fee an exemplification of that fublime happiness which refults from a faith in the Chriftian religion; with one eye we view the caufe and the effect, and the dependency of the latter upon the former is proved by fuch a natural feries of incidents, that we feem almost to realize the argument. In Father Nicholas the fame obfervations are applicable. The fatal confequences of play are fo ably proved, not by a chain of abftracted reafoning, but by practical demonftration, deduced from the life of a gamester, that we are unable to refift the conviction which accompanies it. The unaffected ftyle and interefting manner in which thefe fictions are related, together with the importance of the principles which they involve, infenfibly lead the reader to purfue them to their catastrophe. When we have finished them, we have not a doubt upon our minds. We forget that their author has been labouring for our good, and, by thinking lefs of the author, we dwell more upon his inftruction. Writing of this character requires a knowledge of the human heart, and an extenfive acquaintance with life and manners. It requires that general, and, I might almoft fay, unrestricted obfervation, which can only be made by a man of leifure, whofe difengagements from profeffional duty or commercial avocations, enable him to look around the world, and to investigate the various motives which actuate it. He must be fomething more than a mere merchant; for contracted indeed muft be that knowledge which is circumfcribed by a compting-room,

He must have read fomething elfe befides law books; otherwife he will be too technically and feverely learned for that liberal and polite fcience, which is too unlimited and too arbitrary ever to be thoroughly mastered. He must not be a mere politician; for politics are a fubordinate fyftem of canons, framed by man for the regulation of fociety, whereas the laws of human nature are a paramount fyftem, fabricated by God himself, and are coeval with his creation.

Who is there, then, fo fit to move in this important fphere as a Gentleman at large? by which I do not mean a ftreet loiterer, a tavern hunter, or a diffipated rake; in which opprobrious fenfes the term is oftentimes used. He must be a leifurely gentleman, but his leifure ought to be of that dignified defcription which never condefcends to idleness; and, if the two characters are reconcilable, I would add, that he fhould be a man of bufinefs, yet not that drudge or flave to his occupation as to preclude himself from the elegant purfuits of literature,

For the furtherance of his knowledge, he muft fometimes court the moft ungrateful scenes, and contemplate the lower conditions of humanity. He must not only liften to the profound leffons of the philofopher, but he muft alfo lend an ear to the senselefs prattle of the coxcomb. The prifon and the hofpital, as well as the drawing room and the festival hall, demand his attention.

By this time, I am afraid that my readers fufpect me of vanity, for having entered upon an undertaking, which, agreeable to my own confeffion, requires ability of

a very fuperior kind. To this charge I am ready to plead guilty, referving to myself the privilege of making a few remarks, by way of qualifying that plea. There is, indeed, no liberal profeffion, to become excellent in which, the greatest talents are not neceffary. Law, phyfic, and divinity, call for the fublinieft energies of genius, and even the mechanical arts are beyond the comprehenfion of an ordinary mind; yet it is not an uncommon thing to fee men, efteemed for their modefty, and beloved for their diffidence, engage in these arduous ftudies. To aim at excellence is by no means illaudable, and there is noth ing criminal in hoping for perfec

tion; but this excellence and this perfection are only attainable by acquirements, fmall and progreffive. The first efforts are, commonly, feeble, but they increafe in ftrength and beauty in proportion as they are aided by time and experience.

The GENTLEMAN AT LARGE, therefore, hopes that the public will recognize the justness of his claim upon their candour. This is his firft effay. They have a right to look for improvement. But they will please to consider that, with him, it is, now, the verna! feafon of authorship, and that it depends, in fome measure, upon them, whether the autumn fhall be fterile or productive.

indulge a fondnefs or attachment to concerns which have no connexion with their bufinefs, but ferve merely as amufement. Almoft every affluent Dutchman has fome fuch additional employment. One gratifies his tafte by forming a collection of famous and valuable paintings (which cofts him from 1000 to 8000 florins) engravings, or even news-papers; another in gardening, hot-beds, flowers ; a third, in handsome furniture ; a fourth, in horfes famous for quick trotting (hard drawers) and fuperb carriages of various fhapes and kinds; a fifth, finally, in a library of modern as well as ancient literature, the ftu

light to his old age, or in a cabinet of natural history or medals. At prefent indeed politics are the univerfally 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 repose, which, paffing from the higher claffes, the merchants, to the other inhabitants, has spread itself over all orders, and contributed highly to blunt the faculties. The proverb "too much of one thing is good for nothing," is here fomewhat ftrongly illuftrated in practice: but on the other hand it has produced folidity and per

feverance

feverance in works of art, and profundity 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 laziness, who has obferved only during one week, more particularly in good times, the crowding and driving in the streets of Amfterdam, the univerfal diligence and industry in the counting-houfes, ware-houfes, harbours, and on the docks. During the greater part of the day, from eight in the morning till feven in the evening, no one is unemployed, and there is nothing which ftrangers, who vifit Amfterdam without bufinefs, "idle and inquifitiye travellers," more complain of, than the want of perfons to converfe with. It is true, Dutch industry bears a different ftamp from that of the fouthern nations; but is it right to deny to a people the poffeffion of a quality, and impute to them the contrary, because it appears among them in a form differing from ours?

The Hague, like moft feats of government, is leaft qualified to give travellers correct notions concerning the induftry, and, above all, the character of the nation efpecially fince the court has left it, by whom the greater part

of the inhabitants were fupported. But the judicious traveller

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 industry are brought beneath his immediate notice.*

From this predilection for quiet, neceffarily arifes an inclination to continue their old cnftoms, and adhere to their course of opinions. Hence, innovation in every department, in literature, and in fcience, in matters of business, and in political opinions concerning government, there make but à flow and late progrefs.

In no refpect is this more apparent than in the religious opinions of the Dutch, who are now precifely at the point from which they fet out two centuries ago, and where they were fixed by the fynod of Dort. All their relig iqus opinions are orthodox in the highest degree; all dogmas derived from the fyftems of the reformers, the Lutherans, Mennonites, and Remonftrants, are held in abhorrence, under the epithet of Duitfch vergif (German poifon), because it is known they had moitly proceeded from German divines. The Lutherans at Amfterdam carried their zeal for immutable uniformity of doctrine fo far, that, differing about the exiftence of the devil, they feparated into two churches, and even this fchifm awakened the spirit of par

ty

The

ty in a powerful degree. Dutch Catholics are more bigoted than in fome Catholic countries. A negligent obfervation of lent would endanger the reputation of a young Catholic, juft established in bufinefs, with thofe of his own fect; 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; thefe in poetry, Grotius in jurifprudence, and the dry annalift Wagenar in, hiftory, are ftill their great pat terns. It is already known in what manner they have tranflated the Greek and Roman claffics, and which, in fpite of the examples of Hemfterhuis, Rhunkens, and Wyttenbachs, confift rather of a la borious attempt to acquire certain words, forms of expreffion, and fentences, than deeply to enter into the fenfe and spirit of the ancients, and accurately comprefs, them together into one whole.

It was not fo much a convic tion of the want of national conftitution, or of the truth of their political opinions, which, fince the year 1789, has procured the French fo many friends and partizans in Holland; as the hope by the af fiftance of that nation to crufh the detefted Orange party: And it was not in the leaft confidered, that with that was neceffarily connected the entire change of the political union, and the introduction of a new order of things, which might break the chains of their former habits. The Dutch had too high an opinion of the power and confequence of the republic, to reflect that the great republic, after its conquefl, would

retain a direct or indirect author ity over its protected fifter. During the conteft of parties in France, the partiality of the Dutch patriots was unchanged, and their applaufe followed the victorious party, whoever they were. When it became neceflary, after the abolition of the Stadtholder's authority, to new-model the constitution, then the attachment to this fyftem fhewed itself on alk fides.

There are cuftoms and forms which bufinefs indeed generally promotes, lefs attachment to which and more boldness of speculation may be the caufe why in Holland there are more examples of English, Germans, and French, who, have fettled there, gaining rapid fortunes, than of the native Hollanders. The rich Dutchman has inherited the greatest part of his fortune, and on that account ftrives with lefs difficulty to in-. creafe his patrimony, by the ac-. cuftomed means.

With this inclination to preferve favourite customs, is connected a certain obftinacy and ftubbornnefs, which are found as well in individuals, and even in, children, as in the national character.

There are no people who, adhere more pertinaciously to, their firft impreflions of diflike or efteem than the Hollanders. Their cold blood runs too flowly to permit thofe hafty changes of fenti ment, and that rapid adoption of every external impreffion which pafles over them, for which more fouthern nations are indebted to their warm imaginations, their more fufceptible and irritable fenfes, and to the inconftancy of their tempers. Even this cold

nefs

nefs of temperament promotes conftancy, by preventing thofe paffionate excelles of fenfibility, which are fo injurious to the amiable. What other nations effect by the strength of their paffions and their conftitutional energy, the Dutch are able to attain by the permanence of their feelings. And no other people, fcarcely,

could have maintained with fuch undaunted firmnefs their long struggle against their Spanish oppreffors.

In the mean while, the Dutch are in this respect like all other perfons of limited knowledge, and without principles; that what they fancy they know, what they have received upon credit as just and true, and through custom and habit have maintained; or what flatters their habitual and power ful feelings, are fo deeply rooted in them, that the most cogent arguments cannot convince them to the contrary. On the other hand, on fubjects which they do not profefs to understand, where they are not governed by habit, cuftom, or fashion, and particularly where it respects propriety in their ordinary conduct; they easily and contentedly fuffer themfelves to be directed by others. With this limitation, what Riem, p. 373, fays of the Dutch, may be perfectly true, that of all people they are the most tractable: But when it is confidered, how few things there are which men do not believe they understand, and how few cafes can occur in this country, over which custom and habit have not complete authority; this general docility finks almoft to nothing. Alfo in matters of fentiment, where the female fex is

fo much fuperior to ours, a Dutchman will more readily be guided by his wife; and flanderers even affert of many a one, that in the totally new character of a reprefentative he has become only her echo.

The Hollander's fenfe of freedom, at least at prefent, is for the moft part the love of eafe. The true love of liberty, which once prevailed in Greece and Rome, is no where in modern Europe in fo great a perfection as in England: But the Englishman, when he confiders liberty to confift in the freedom of his native country from foreign power, and the fecurity of individuals against the government, patiently fubmits to the inconveniences which flow from it, because the removal of them would occafion more effential injury; and he fhuns no facrifice to maintain this liberty in its original purity. On the other hand, the Dutchman by this word means only a perfect exemption from every thing that might interfere with his ordinary habits, that might compel him to make any facrifice, or fubmit to any reftraint, or that might hinder the gratification of his avarice. "Our governors," say they, "must be mild and gentle;" but by this they mean only, that their rulers muft be impotent and afleep. When their ancient, inveterate and stubborn hatred against the houfe of Orange had broken out afresh, they never laboured to reform their ftrange federal conftitution, according to which there were in this little republic nearly as many ftates which were independent, and whofe jurifdiction was confined to a single town, as