now at his post again, and cheered by prospects of success. The Greeks still under Turkish rule are more accessible; but little has been done amongst them. others, are just the people who have the | Researches." Protestant teachers were releast power of transmitting their acquisitions. ceived with confidence, and Bibles circulated The Englishman is reserved and taciturn; by thousands. That hope was disappointed; there is something peculiar and insular in his and the mission became a wreck, so soon as way of doing and conceiving things; he can- the Greek priests found out what Protestants not sufficiently put himself in the place of and what the Bible really meant. Unfortuforeigners to win their sympathies, and, even nately, the people heartily concur in the when he has excited admiration, he does not opposition of the priests. That confusion of readily elicit imitation. Those very charac- the religious and the national characters to teristics of our civilization which have given which we have already alluded as a feature it a mighty power of resistance to foreign of all the Eastern Churches, leads the highinfluences, render it less capable of aggres- spirited Greek to resent every attempt at sion. In this respect the French enjoy an foreign proselytism as an outrage upon his immense advantage over us. Such is the nationality; so that the Constitution of 1843, power of insinuation and attraction possessed which gave the people more control over the by that eminently sociable people, that it Government, was the signal for increased would seem as if ideas must pass into France, hostility and violence towards Protestant and be elaborated there, in order to their missionaries. The American missionaries being communicated to the rest of Europe. have persevered for years, though their perThe idea is popularized there, humanized, so sons were ill-treated. Twice the veteran Dr. to speak, stripped of its peculiar national en- King had to withdraw from Athens; but he velope, and made fit for universal currency. is This is one of the reasons why President Jefferson used to say that every educated man in the world had two countries, his own and France; and Bunsen gives his opinion, in the preface to the German edition of his Hippolytus, that, but for the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, France would have occupied the first rank among modern nations. In the Levant, as well as everywhere else, French ideas are more easily assimilated than English ones; that is to say, the human side of modern civilization, without the divine salt that can alone hinder its corrupting. Our literature is absolutely unknown, while that of France circulates freely. Thus, in the Principalities of the Danube, the Boyard and the Rouman of independent fortune read Voltaire, and criticise the last immoral feuilleton, as commonly as they drink champagne; and the great object of their ambition is, to spend a winter with their family in Paris, which they do by hundreds. However, notwithstanding our lack of sociableness, and of the talent of making ourselves popular, English influence is doing something; our power and national character are respected; every season adds a new link to a chain of commercial and material interests, connecting us with those populations; and the British steamers of the Levant and the Black Sea scatter abroad in the air other elements than the smoke of their chimneys. A last item, and one which ought to be the most important, is the direct agency of evangelical missions. There was a moment of great hope for liberated Greece, when the late Mr. Hartley wrote his "Missionary The minor Christian sects present a more encouraging prospect. The labors of the Americans among the Nestorians have already been productive of much good, and promise more. Their chief centre of activity is among the Nestorians of the plain at Urumiah, within the Persian frontier. The great religious movement among the Armenians, however—the formation and rapid spread of an evangelical Armenian Church-is the most cheering symptom in the moral state of the East. The first Protestant Armenian community was organized at Constantinople in 1846. They underwent the most atrocious persecutions from the priesthood of the Church they had abandoned, until the instances of the British Ambassadors procured them the protection of the Turkish Government, and withdrew them from under the sort of political authority which the Turks allow the Armenian priests to exercise over their co-religionists. Converts to Protestantism are now treated with marked favor and respect by the Turks; and the Firman signed by Reschid Pacha on the 15th of November, 1847, not only guarantees complete toleration and security to the Protestant Armenians, but to all Rayahs whatever who become Protestants. There were at that time but a thousand converts who had formally declared themselves; but the influence of even that little number, who had braved all manner of obloquy and suffering, was very great indeed. The Ame rican missions in Syria and among the Jacobites of Mesopotamia are also promising. By the last Report of the American Board of Foreign Missions, it appears that there are 46 missionaries laboring among the degenerate Christian churches in Asiatic and European Turkey; and, reckoning the female aids and native missionaries, there are in all 177 persons employed by the Board. Funds for 12 more were voted last spring, and will be applied as soon as men willing and capable for the work are forthcoming. Seven regularly-constituted churches had been formed at Constantinople, Erzeroum, Trebisonde, comedia, Broussa, Aintab, and Adalazar. There were little groups of pious Armenians in all the principal towns of Asia Minor; and wherever the missionary penetrated, he found friends waiting to receive him, and already furnished with tracts and Bibles. As has been previously stated, the Armenians are scattered, like the Jews, over the East, and therefore eminently fitted to be a people of missionaries. No population of the same numerical strength, if animated by the spirit of the gospel, could be more useful in its propagation; and the unexpected breath from heaven that has blown upon those dry bones, seems an earnest of divine assistance on a greater scale than a few years ago we should have dared to hope. There are fewest Armenians among the Christian populations north of the Bosphorus, whom we should be most anxious to evangelize, and who will apparently be earliest emancipated; but when ever that day comes in which Turkish power shall be so far humbled, or Mohammedan fanaticism so far spent, as to allow the Moslem to change his religion without martyrdom, the position occupied by the Armenians may then prove of immense importance. Even as matters stand, were a dismemberment of Turkey to take place at present, there are Protestants enow in the Empire to justify the Protestant powers in insisting upon complete religious liberty, in the new order of things, just as the existence of a few Roman Catholics in Greece was motive sufficient to have religious liberty and equality stipulated for them, in the Protocol of London, February 24th, 1830. nor by America adequately. Moreover, nothing has been done for the basin of the Danube, with its nine millions of nominal Christians. Who amongst us so much as thinks of Bulgaria? Yet, from the eighth to the sixteenth century, that country, and the valleys of the Hamus especially, was the asylum of the Paulicians,-a sect which in some respects anticipated the Reformation, and had to do with the origin of the French Albigenses, so cruelly exterminated in the thirteenth century. The degree of Christian truth held by the Paulicians was spoiled by their Ni-half-savage manners, and by the Manichean doctrines, which, perhaps, more than any external persecution, contributed to their decay and extinction in the East. Still, that name Bulgarian," which, from the Balkan to the Pyrenees, was used to stigmatize the rebel against dominant sacerdotal systems, ought to arouse the sympathies of every evangelical Protestant. There seems, indeed, to prevail among us and our transatlantic brethren a strange ignorance or apathy, wherever the Sclavonic race is concerned. Let it just be remembered, that Europe is ethnologically divided into three great groups of peoples, nearly equal in number. There are eightyeight millions of Celto-Romans, among whom Catholicism predominates; eighty-two millions of Germanic race, or civilization, among whom Protestantism predominates; seventynine millions of Sclavonians, among whom the Greek religion predominates. Now, will it not seem strange to a future age, that the world has reached the year 1853 without British or American Christians doing any thing whatever to enlighten this third of the population of Europe, distinguished by a marked national religiousness, and destined to act a far more important part in the world's future history than it has hitherto done? Truly, the fifty-three millions of Russian Sclavonians, and the seventeen millions of Austrian, are out of our reach; but there are two millions between Prussian Poland, part of Silesia, Prussian and Saxon Lusatia ; and there are nearly seven millions under Turkish rule. Moreover, there exist at the present time facilities for evangelizing the latter, which may soon cease; for the Turk respects Protestantism, and will protect the Protestant missionary; while, if those provinces should fall to the lot of Russia, there may be an end for a long season to all thoughts of gaining a footing within them for evangelical religion; and even independence, in their present state of development, would present very unfavorable conditions, as the example It is deeply interesting to see the sons of England returning from a new world to carry the life that now is, and that which is to come, back to the very cradle of humanity, -to those sources of the Euphrates and the Tigris from whence issued the earliest pilgrim fathers, ancestors of all races of men. But the work is not supported by England at all, 1854.] CHRISTIAN POPULATIONS OF TURKEY. It is a mistake to supof Greece shows. pose there are no Sclavonic Protestants; we may count some thousands in Carinthia, 130,000 Lusatians, about 140,000 Bohemians, or Moravians, 440,000 Poles, and 800,000 Austrian Slovacks,-in all, a million and a half,—sunk, indeed, in rationalism and indifference; yet men might, perhaps, be found among them, able and willing to preach the gospel to their fellows in Turkey. Difference of language, at least, would not be the great obstacle; for, such is the affinity between the Sclavonic dialects, that, according to Count Krasinski, the fishermen of Archangel can understand those of the Adriatic. But, so far from searching out men qualified to carry the good tidings to these neglected multitudes, we have not even given help or countenance to those who have presented themselves unsought. We have left Czerski and his fellow-laborers in Prussian Poland to struggle with all sorts of privations; while their humble congregations are impoverished by the exactions of the Prussian authorities, because they persist in maintaining a position of ecclesiastical independence. The kingdoms of the world belong to our Lord and His Christ, and the great empire of all the Russias among the number: then, when and whence shall it learn allegiance? Liberal Sclavonians sometimes rest their hopes of the future emancipation of Russia upon thereaction to be effected by foreign and minor kindred tribes, when free institutions shall have been developed among them. Such a hope is suggestive. Shall the South once more accomplish the spiritual conquest of the North? Shall Russia learn Christianity more perfectly from those same regions from which she received it centuries ago? The answer to the question depends, apparently, upon the supineness or the activity of British Christians during that period, of very uncertain length, in which the integrity of the Ottoman empire leaves free access to its Sclavonian subjects. It is remarkable, that the interests of the remains of some of the oldest races in the From Frazer's Magazine. LIGHTS OF DUTCH LITERATURE. On the shores of the Zuyder Zee, a few miles to the east of Amsterdam, is situated the little town of Muiden, commanded by the old castle to which, in our former paper, we promised to introduce the reader, as the stronghold of Dutch literature in its palmy days.. A more unpromising - looking place is scarcely to be imagined. The town itself, containing some five thousand inhabitants, is mean and meagre in the extreme; the surrounding country flat, marshy, and unattractive; the ancient edifice to which we more particularly direct our attention, sombre, ruinous, and deserted. In fact, the "Dutch Parnassus," as it has been termed, is in appearance about the least picturesque and most unpoetical place possible, though, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was to Holland what the court of Weimar was to Germany, in those days when the brightest stars of the literary world were there assembled. The Castle of Muiden was founded in the thirteenth century, and sadly inaugurated by the imprisonment and murder of Count Floris V.: in later times it became the seat of the Drost, or bailiff, and civil and military governor of the town and circumjacent districts, and witnessed the average number of sieges and assaults, in days of civil strife and endless broils; it was also, for a period, the residence of Charles the Bold, who bequeathed it to his daughter, Mary of Burgundy; and Leicester, when in the Netherlands, had formed a plan of seizing on the stronghold, but was defeated by the resolute conduct of the inhabitants of the little town. In the year 1609, the dignity of Drost of Muiden was vested in the person of Peter Corneliusson Hooft, who took up his residence in the ancient towers of the castle, which he partially restored and greatly beautified, and to him and his illustrious literary friends we are about to present the reader. Hooft was styled by his contemporaries (and posterity has confirmed the titles) "the Dutch Tacitus" and "the Dutch Petrarch;" and a man gifted with such widely-differing talents as those of the Roman historian and the Italian sonnetteer, claims a prominent place in our rude sketch of the literature which he so greatly promoted by his own works, and so munificently patronized in others. Hooft was born at Amsterdam, in the year 1581. His father, burgomaster of that capital, was a wealthy and worthy man, uniting the capacities of the statesman with all the inflexible integrity of the true patriot. He was honored with the title of the Dutch Cato, (we are moving in the days of sonorous epithets,) and one of the race of those proud citizens who, to the sneering question of a foreign ambassador, "if they were nobles?" returned the haughty answer, "We are more, we are kings!" Happy in such a father, young Hooft received a liberal education, in every way fitted to develop those rare gifts of which Nature had been so prodigal to her favorite. In his nineteenth year, after having already given proofs of his poetic genius, and having completed his studies at the Leyden University, where he was the pupil of that rare old pedant, Joseph Scaliger, he set out on his travels through Germany, France, and Italy. Altogether he was about three years absent from home, and it is remarkable that the travels of a youth of his age should have sufficed to give a new impulse to, and introduce an entirely new element into, the literature of his native country. He had set out on his journey deeply impressed with the idea, so prevalent in those days, that the language of Rome was the only one in which it was possible to excel in the higher branches of poetry, or in which to treat in a worthy manner those sublime themes which have, in all ages, inspired the philosopher and the historian. On the banks of the Arno, admitted to the court of the Grand-Duke and the society of the Della Cruscans, he was undeceived; and, as he became acquainted with the higher productions of the Italian school, and saw * how Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, and Petrarch had are massively carved in oak, with gilt ornaformed their native language and literature, ments; the windows Gothic, with small diaand expressed in a modern tongue what mond panes of plate glass, set in lead. On hitherto had only been successfully attempted | one side they offer a view of the Zuyder Zee in a dead one in Holland, his youthful ardor and the distant steeples of Amsterdam; on was inflamed, and he determined on under- the other side, we overlook the large oldtaking the same gigantic task for his own fashioned pleasure-grounds belonging to the country. The first proof of his enthusiasm castle. was an epistle in verse to the Chamber of Rhetoricians at Amsterdam, a crude attempt, displaying, together with much vigor of thought and conception. all the faults of the already degenerate Italian school then in vogue. The pernicious influence of Marini's Concetti is particularly evident in this epistle, and in some of Hooft's later works, but he always managed to steer pretty clear of the swollen style and hyperboles, so copiously made use of by Spanish writers, and which the Spanish tyranny had rendered fashionable among a certain class in the Netherlands. On his return from his travels, in 1602, Hooft carefully abstained from all interference in affairs of state, and contented himself with cultivating the friendship of men of letters and artists, whose tastes were congenial with his own, although some of them widely differed from him in religious and political opinions. He was thus already the leader of a chosen band of literary friends, when, in the year 1609, he repaired to the old Castle of Muiden, where he passed the rest of his days in literary labor and elegant repose, only varied by the not very burdensome duties of his office. Let us now enter his study, in one of the old towers of the castle, and try to trace the portraits of those remarkable characters who once frequented the now deserted halls. The chamber is large and airy, the walls covered with richly-gilt leather hangings, the floor inlaid with checkered marble, and strewn with thick soft mats under the tables and before the fireplace. There are heavy brass chandeliers and candelabra hanging from the walls and ceiling; the doors and wainscoting Even many years later, the prejudice against the use of the vernacular language was so strong, that Van Baarle, one of Hooft's friends, addressed the following pithy remonstrance to a couple of young poets, whose patron he was: "What tongue do we Netherlanders speak? One composed of words taken from a foreign language! We ourselves are nothing but a wandering troop of Catti, driven by chance to the mouth of the Rhine. Why not thus rather adopt the sacred language of Rome? The mighty descendants of Romulus once encamped in these plains." We shall have occasion to say a few words more in the text on the subject of this fine old Trojan. The furniture is in the style of the seventeenth century: high stiff-backed chairs with leather cushions; one fine old arm-chair, with the Drost's arms carved on the back; there are besides spacious book-shelves, containing a most valuable library, pictures of the contemporary Italian and Flemish schools, statuettes and ornaments of all kinds, and a large Venetian mirror, opposite the marble mantel-piece.* A more spacious room in the castle was furnished, with the exception of the bookcases, in a similar manner; its chief ornaments were a large round table in the centre, on which generally stood a massive silver salver, with a number of quaint Venetian drinking-glasses, bearing devices, very artistically cut with a diamond, the work of the ladies who frequented the castle, or the "high house," as it was called by the visitors; and a harpsichord and lute, the favorite instruments of the fair Tesselschaede and the more euphoniously named, but less renowned, Francisca Duarte. We must not forget to mention that the mantel-piece was adorned with an inscription, taken from Lucan: Semper nocuit differre paratis ; and a picture representing the death of Nessus decorated one of the walls. But we must turn from the inanimate to the living illustrations of the place, to the "galaxy of distinguished visitors," as the newspapers would say, who, during Hooft's long residence at the castle, from 1609 till the period of his death, 1647, constantly filled his hospitable mansion. In the first place we offer a portrait of the illustrious host himself, traced by the hand of a contemporary: The Drost-for 1 must endeavor to draw his likeness in words, and give the reader, if possible, a fair sketch of his mind and body, at the same time was tall and spare in person and feature, with pleasant brown eyes, that seemed to reflect the ingenuousness of his soul. His hair and * We have taken these and the following details from several writers of the last and present century, among the latter of whom we mention Scheltema and Molster, Koning, de Clercq, and Prof. Visscher, of the University of Utrecht. |