“You do not expect enough from Holland. It is a marvellous country in itself, in its history, and in the men and works which it has produced. The very existence of the country is at once a natural and a moral phenomenon. Mountaineer as I am, I expect to feel more in Holland than in Switzerland. Instead of climbing mountains, we shall have to ascend church towers. The panorama from that at Harlaem is said to be one of the most impressive in the world. Evening is the time for seeing it to most advantage.
“I have not yet forgotten the interest which Watson’s Histories of Philip II. and III. excited in me when a school-boy. They
are books which I have never looked into since; but I have read largely
concerning the Dutch war against the Spaniards, on both sides, and there is no
part of Europe which could be so interesting to me as historical ground.
Perhaps my pursuits may have made me more alive than most men to associations
of this kind; but I would go far to see the scene of any event which has made
my heart throb with a generous emotion, or the grave of
| 212 | LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE | Ætat. 50. |
“My translatress, Katharina Wilhelmina Bilderdijk, is old enough to be your mother. She dedicates her translation to me in a very affecting poem, touching upon the death of her son, whom she lost at sea, and in what manner, before she knew his death, she had applied certain passages in Roderick to herself. . . . .
“God bless you!
