Holland and the Netherlands ought to be seen once, because no other country
is like them. Every thing is artificial. You will be struck with the
combinations of vivid greenery, and water, and building; but every thing is
so distinct and rememberable, that you would not improve your conception by
visiting the country a hundred times over. It is interesting to see a
country and a nature _made_, as it were, by man, and to compare it with
God's nature.[1]
If you go, remark, (indeed you will be forced to do so in spite of
yourself,) remark, I say, the identity (for it is more than proximity) of a
disgusting dirtiness in all that concerns the dignity of, and reverence
for, the human person; and a persecuting painted cleanliness in every thing
connected with property. You must not walk in their gardens; nay, you must
hardly look into them.
[Footnote 1:
In the summer of 1828, Mr. Coleridge made an excursion with Mr. Wordsworth
in Holland, Flanders, and up the Rhine, as far as Bergen. He came back
delighted, especially with his stay near Bonn, but with an abiding disgust
at the filthy habits of the people. Upon Cologne, in particular, he avenged
himself in two epigrams. See Poet. Works, vol. ii. p. 144.--ED.]
* * * * *
The Dutch seem very happy and comfortable, certainly; but it is the
happiness of _animals_. In vain do you look for the sweet breath of hope
and advancement among them. [1]In fact, as to their villas and gardens,
they are not to be compared to an ordinary London merchant's box.
[Footnote 1:
"For every gift of noble origin
Is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath."
_Wordsworth._]
_May 5. 1830._
RELIGION GENTILIZES.--WOMEN AND MEN.--BIBLICAL COMMENTATORS.--WALKERITE
CREED.
You may depend upon it, religion is, in its essence, the most gentlemanly
thing in the world. It will _alone_ gentilize, if unmixed with cant; and I
know nothing else that will, _alone_. Certainly not the army, which is
thought to be the grand embellisher of manners.
* * * * *
A woman's head is usually over ears in her heart. Man seems to have been
designed for the superior being of the two; but as things are, I think
women are generally better creatures than men. They have, taken
universally, weaker appetites and weaker intellects, but they have much
stronger affections. A man with a bad heart has been sometimes saved by a
strong head; but a corrupt woman is lost for ever.
* * * * *
I never could get much information out of the biblical commentators.
Cocceius has told me the most; but he, and all of them, have a notable
trick of passing _siccissimis pedibus_ over the parts which puzzle a man of
reflection.
The Walkerite creed, or doctrine of the New Church, as it is called,
appears to be a miscellany of Calvinism and Quakerism; but it is hard to
understand it.
* * * * *
_May_ 7, 1830.