ld me that when the Messiah came, all the
ships, barks, and vessels of Holland should, by the power of certain
strange whirlwinds, be loosed from their anchors, and transported in
a moment to all the desolate ports and havens throughout the world,
wherever the dispersion was, to convey their brethren and tribes to the
Holy City; with other such-like stuff. He was a merry drunken fellow,
but would by no means handle any money (for something I purchased of
him), it being Saturday; but desired me to leave it in the window,
meaning to receive it on Sunday morning."

In an old book-shop at Leyden I bought from an odd lot of English
books, chiefly minor fiction for travellers, the _Colloquia
Peripatetica_ of John Duncan, LL.D., Professor of Hebrew in the
New College, Edinburgh. "I'm first a Christian, next a Catholic,
then a Calvinist, fourth a Paedo-baptist, and fifth a Presbyterian. I
cannot reverse the order," is one of his emphatic utterances. Here
are others, not unconnected with the country we are travelling in:
"Poor Erasmus truckled all his life for a hat. If he could only have
been made a cardinal! You see the longing for it in his very features,
and can't help regarding him with mingled respect and pity." Of
Thomas a Kempis, the recluse of Deventer: "A fine fellow, but hazy,
and weak betimes. He and his school tend (as some one has well said)
to make humility and humiliation change places." Finally, of the Bible:
"The three best translations of the Bible, in my opinion, are, in order
of merit, the English, the Dutch, and Diodati's Italian version. As
to Luther, he is admirable in rendering the prophets. He says either
just what the prophets _did say_, or that which you see at once they
_might have said_."

Leyden has two vast churches, St. Peter's and St. Pancras's. Both
are immense and unadorned, I think that St. Pancras's is the lightest
church I was ever in. St. Peter's ought to be filled with memorials of
the town's illustrious sons, but it has few. As I have said elsewhere,
I asked in vain for the grave of Jan Steen, who was buried here.

It was at Leyden that I saw my first Kermis, or fair, seven years ago,
and ate my first poffertjes and wafelen. Writing as a foreigner, in no
way concerned with the matter, I may express regret that the Kermis
is not what it was in Holland. Possibly were one living in Holland,
one would at once join the anti-Kermis party; but I hope not. In
Amsterdam the anti-Kermis party h