Chapter VIII - The Libraries of Holland, Switzerland, and Belgium

Summary

The standard of culture in The flourishing cities of The United Provinces was elevated, compared with that observed in many parts of Europe. The children of The wealthier classes enjoyed great facilities for education in all The great capitals. ..... Nor was intellectual cultivation confined to The higher orders. .. It was diffused to a remarkable degree among The hardworking artisans and handicraftsmen of The great cities. For The principle of Association had not confined itself exclusively to Politics and Trade.

MOTLEY, (The Rise of The Dutch Republic,i, 77.)

§ I. The LIBRARIES of HOLLand.

The Dutch Libraries, I think, present an appropriate illustration both of The justice and of The limitation of that remark of The recent historian of The NeTherlands which heads this page. They are many in number; popular in character; but They are also, not infrequently, fluctuating and insecure in Their means of support. The “principle of Association” has been too exclusively relied upon. Libraries have not as yet been sufficiently regarded as public objects, in which The whole community,—not mere associated sections of it,—should have a common interest.

No Dutch collection can, in point of extent, take rank in The first or even in The second class of European Libraries. But The Royal Library of The Hague, are fine collections; and The second of Them, especially, has a grand history. It dates from that memorable siege in which The famishing and pestilence-stricken population of one poor town, resisted The whole might of The Spanish Empire. It was part of that befitting memorial of Their patriotism, Their perseverance, and Their religious endurance, which The Citizens of Leyden preferred to receive in The shape of an University, to be founded in Their midst, raTher than in that of The proffered relief from The burdens of taxation for ever.

Leyden University has proved itself worthy of such an origin, and its Library is justly celebrated throughout Europe for The many valuable specimens of Greek and Oriental literature with which it abounds. To it Joseph Scaliger bequeaThed his fine collection of Hebrew books; and it was furTher enriched by The learned Golius, on his return from The East, with many Arabic Turkish, Persian, and Chaldaic manuscripts.