thrust upon them from their exposed position is largely due the comparative decline of these once all-powerful and wealthy provinces.

At first glance it seems strange that under such conditions the Netherlands ever secured a foothold among the powers of the earth. But before the invention of gunpowder revolutionized the art of war, the subject of national defence was a quite different one from that presented in later days. The fact is, that the absence of natural barriers and mountain retreats became one main cause of the power and prosperity of the people of this country during and at the close of the Middle Ages. Men for whom nature or fortune has done much, even in the way of protection against their enemies, are too often inclined to rely on these advantages rather than on themselves. Here, however, where nature had done nothing, the men became self-reliant. They built their own fortresses, covering the land with walled towns which developed into great cities, where each man, whether an artisan or gentle-born, was trained to the use of arms. To the existence of these towns, and to the formation of the country, the Netherlands owed their peculiar exemption from the blighting influence of the feudal system, which checked civilization in so great a part of Europe. The cities with their narrow, tortuous streets, and a country the soil of which was largely a morass, and all intersected by canals, arms of the sea, and rivers, afforded little scope for the movements of mounted knights and their retainers.

Still greater has been the influence of another feature of their geographical position. Manufactures and commerce brought wealth, and with it luxury, love of art, and learning, but, especially in Holland, little of the enervation which usually follows in their train. In most

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lands accumulated wealth has bred a disinclination to labor, fostering a leisured class, the great curse of a community. But here the time has never come when men could sit down and say their work was finished, and that they would enjoy life in ease. Before them has ever stood the sea, daily and hourly threatening their existence. Their fathers made the land, but they, have preserved it only by incessant labor. A little crevice in their dikes, unnoticed for a few hours, might devastate a district. Even with the most watchful care, no man can go to bed at night assured that in the morning he will find his possessions safe.

These conditions of life in the Netherlands must always be remembered if we would understand their history. The constant struggle for existence, as in all cases when the rewards are great enough to raise men above biting, sordid penury, strengthens the whole race, mentally, morally, and physically. Again, labor here has never been selfish and individual. To be effective it requires organization and direction. Men learn to work in a body and under leaders. A single man laboring on a dike would accomplish nothing; the whole population must turn out and act together. The habits thus engendered extend in all directions. Everything is done in corporations. Each trade has its guild, elects its own officers, and manages its own affairs. The people are a vast civic army, subdivided into brigades, regiments, and companies, all accustomed to discipline, learning the first great lesson of life, obedience.

On the other hand, this daily contest with nature, the regularity of life thus enforced, and the attention to minute details essential to existence, crush out the romantic spirit which makes some nations so picturesque. We find among them none of the wild chants of other

Northern people. No poet sings to them of goblins and fairy sprites. Their world is inhabited by actualities, and not by witches or the spirits of dead heroes. Hence they were never highly poetical, as the English were until after the time of Shakespeare, when they too became a race of manufacturers and merchants. They are not contemplative philosophers, like the Germans; they dwell in no abstractions and indulge in little sentiment. Life here below has been their study: how to improve the condition of man on this planet; how to make the home attractive by art, music, flowers, and social recreations; how to dispense justice to rich and poor alike, relieve the unfortunate, and give every one an equal chance in life; how to protect the oppressed from other lands, keeping the conscience as well as the body free; how to teach the world that men can be rich without insolence, poor without discontent, learned without pride, artistic without corruption, earnest in religion without bigotry. This is honor enough. Had these people also produced a Homer, a Dante, or a Shakespeare, they would have been a miracle and not a growth.

But there is something more than soil, climate, and natural surroundings which determine a nation's history. All men under the same conditions will not reach the same result. Great is the influence of environment, but great also is the mysterious influence of race. Place a people of one blood on the American continent, and they remain wandering tribes of painted hunters. Replace them with men of another breed, and the land in less than three centuries is covered with cities, fretted with railroads, and groaning under the wealth of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. The natural conditions are the same; it is only the human factor which has been changed.

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In the history of the Netherlands this human factor forms an interesting study. It is evident that upon such a soil none of the weak and puny races of the earth could ever have gained a foothold. Once there, and settled in their habitations, they would be greatly moulded by the natural surroundings; but the first struggle required the foremost blood which the world has ever known. Even beyond this, the influence of race is so persistent that we shall find it all through their history, shaping the character and institutions of this people; so that when at last, after fifteen centuries, the seventeen provinces, living under much the same conditions, are divided into two equal parts, differing in religion and form of government, the line of cleavage follows nearly that of the earliest race divisions noticed by the Romans.

Who, then, were the people that wrested this land from the ocean and gave it fertility and wealth? What amphibious race, half beaver, half man, first occupied the primeval morasses which now compose the Netherlands. we do not know. Our earliest account of the country is derived from Cæsar, and it is supplemented by that of Tacitus, who seems to have been particularly interested in its people. According to tradition, the aborigines had been swept away about a century before our era. However this may be, the historic scene opens with the advent of the Romans, and at that time the face of the country was almost unchanged by the hand of man. To us, therefore, the races which the Romans found in occupation may stand as the first occupants; and when we come to see their character, we shall comprehend the second great factor in the history of their descendants.

When Julius Cæsar swept over Western Europe on his meteoric career of conquest, he found this land occupied by tribes whose peculiar valor historians and

poets have made immortal. The Rhine formed nearly the division boundary between those of Gallic and those of Germanic blood. On its southern bank dwelt the Belgæ, whom he named the bravest of the Gauls. There he "overcame the Nervii," who died, but would not surrender. He annihiliated them in a battle memorable in his marvellous campaigns-a battle where he himself fought like a common soldier in the ranks.

North of the Rhine, or rather on an island formed by two of its branches, he found a tribe of Teutonic origin, even more illustrious. These were the Batavians, whom Tacitus called the bravest of the Germans. The other barbarians were conquered and paid tribute to Rome; they simply became her allies, the tax-gatherer never setting foot upon their island, which now forms the heart of Holland.* As allies they earned an historic Cæsar cherished their cavalry as his favorite troops, and with them turned the tide of battle at Pharsalia. For over a century after his murder, the Batavian legion formed the imperial body-guard, making and unmaking emperors, and the Batavian island the base of operations against Britain, Gaul, and Germany.t

name.

The Gallic and Germanic tribes who occupied respectively the southern and the northern, portions of the Netherlands, now Belgium and Holland, differed widely in their characteristics. The men of either race were of gigantic stature, muscular, and inured to war; but there the resemblance largely ceased. The Gaul loved ornaments, decked himself in gay colors, and wore his yellow hair floating in the breeze. He liked society,

* Tacitus, "Germania," §§ 29, 30.

+ Grattan's "Hist. of the Netherlands," p. 18; Motley's "Dutch Republic," i. 1–5.