I read what you wrote of your little protégé with great interest, and also what you said of the poor in Holland. I hear much of the misery of the poor there when winter comes. Poor, poor simple creatures! I correspond with a Frieslander; she tells me about conditions in Holland, especially in Friesland. In the winter time she has often sat down on the ground beside poor people who lived in little hovels of straw. The middle of winter, no work, nothing to eat, no fire, no clothes, no warm covering, and crying children. It is bitterly hard.
[1] Mevrouw de Booij-Boissevain.
[2] "Java; Geographisch, Ethnologisch, Historisch," 3 vols. Haraam 1875-80, by Professor Veth of Leyden.
[3] "Facts and Fancies about Java," by Augusta de Wit.
[4] For a description of the dance of the Princes at the court of Soerakarta, see "Un Séjour dans l'île de Java" by Jules LeClercq. Chap. 14, p. 169.
XXXIX
June 10, 1902.[1]
Dutch has always been my favourite study, and many people say that I am thoroughly at home in it. But heavens! fondness for a language is a very long way from knowledge of it. Next to languages I like geology. I also enjoy mathematics, but I am still struggling with the groundwork of history. Not that I do not like history; I think it is interesting and very instructive; but the manner in which it is set down in school-books has little charm for me. I should like to have a teacher who knew how to make the dry parts interesting. What I do think delightful, is ancient history; it is a pity that so little of it has come my way. I should love to study the history of the Egyptians, and of the old Greeks and Romans.
We do not wish to make of our pupils half Europeans or European Javanese. We want a free education, to make of the Javanese, above everything, a strong Javanese. One who will be blessed with love and enthusiasm for his own land and people, with a heart open to their good qualities and to their needs.[2]