When the time came to make the "Inquiry into the State of Polite
Learning" Leyden had to suffer. Goldsmith laid about him with no gentle
hand. "Holland, at first view, appears to have some pretensions to
polite learning. It may be regarded as the great emporium, not less
of literature than of every other commodity. Here, though destitute of
what may be properly called a language of their own, all the languages
are understood, cultivated and spoken. All useful inventions in arts,
and new discoveries in science, are published here almost as soon
as at the places which first produced them. Its individuals have the
same faults, however, with the Germans, of making more use of their
memory than their judgment. The chief employment of their literati is
to criticise, or answer, the new performances which appear elsewhere.

"A dearth of wit in France or England naturally produces a scarcity
in Holland. What Ovid says of Echo may be applied here,


----'nec reticere loquenti,
Nec prior ipsa loqui didicit'----


they wait till something new comes out from others; examine its merits
and reject it, or make it reverberate through the rest of Europe.

"After all, I know not whether they should be allowed any national
character for polite learning. All their taste is derived to them
from neighbouring nations, and that in a language not their own. They
somewhat resemble their brokers, who trade for immense sums without
having any capital."