of Quakers to their meeting-houses--even to the retention of hats. But
whereas it is reasonable for a Quaker, having made for himself as
plain a rectangular building as he can, to attach no sanctity to it,
there is an incongruity when the same attitude is maintained amid
beautiful Gothic arches. The result is that Dutch churches are more
than chilling. In the simplest English village church one receives
some impression of the friendliness of religion; but in Holland--of
course I speak as a stranger and a foreigner--religion seems to be
a cold if not a repellent thing.

One result is that on looking back over one's travels through
Holland it is almost impossible to disentangle in the memory one
whitewashed church from another. They have a common monotony of
internal aridity: one distinguishes them, if at all, by some accidental
possession--Gouda, for example, by its stained glass; Haarlem by its
organ, and the swinging ships; Delft by the tomb of William the Silent;
Utrecht by the startling absence of an entrance fee.

At Haarlem, as it happens, one is peculiarly able to study cause and
effect in this matter of Protestant bleakness, since there stands
before the door of this wonderful church, once a Roman Catholic
temple, drenched, I doubt not, in mystery and colour, a certain
significant statue.

To Erasmus of Rotterdam is generally given the parentage of the
Reformation. Whatever his motives, Erasmus stands as the forerunner
of Luther. But Erasmus had his forerunner too, the discoverer of
printing. For had not a means of rapidly multiplying and cheapening
books been devised, the people, who were after all the back-bone of
the Reformation, would never have had the opportunity of themselves