ume is the
book of national wisdom, the second Bible of the Dutch nation--a manual
which teaches how to live honestly and in peace. He has a word for
all--for boys as well as old men, for merchants as well as princes, for
mistresses as well as for maids, for the rich as well as for the poor. He
teaches how to spend, to save, to do housework, to govern a family, and to
educate children. He is at the same time a friend, a father, a spiritual
director, a master, an economist, a doctor, and a lawyer. He loves modest
nature, the gardens, the meadows; he adores his wife, does his work, and
is satisfied with himself and with other people, and would like every one
to be as contented as he is. His poems are to be found beside the Bible
in every Dutch house. There is not a peasant's cottage where the head of
the family does not read some of his verses every evening. In days of
sadness and doubt all look for comfort and find it in their old poet. He
is the intimate fireside friend, the faithful companion of the invalid;
his is the first book over which the faces of affianced lovers bend; his
verses are the first that children lisp and the last that grand-sires
repeat. No poet is so loved as he. Every Dutchman smiles when he hears his
name spoken, and no foreigner who has been in Holland can help naming it
with a feeling of sympathy and respect.

The last of the three, Bilderdijk, was born in 1756 and died in 1831: his
was one of the most marvellous intellects that have ever appeared in this
world. He was a poet, historian, philologist, astronomer, chemist, doctor,
theologian, antiquary, jurisconsult, designer, engraver--a restless,
unsettled, capricious man, whose life was nothing but an investigation, a
transformation, a perpetual battle with his vast genius. As a young man,
when he was already famous as a poet, he abandoned the Muse and entered
politics; he emigrated with the stadtholder to England, and gave lessons
in London to earn a livelihood. He tired of England and went to Germany;
bored by German romanticism, he returned to Holland, where Louis Bonaparte
overwhelmed him with favors. When Louis left the throne, Napoleon the
Great deprived the favorite of his pension, and he was reduced to
poverty. Finally he obtained a small pension from the government, and
continued studying, writing, and struggling to the last day of his life.
His works embrace more than thirty volumes of science, art, and
literature. He tried every style