Of youth, with wisdom maketh mid-life rich,

And fills with quiet tears the eye of age.”

Cats’ works used to occupy in Dutch households the position of the “Pilgrim’s Progress” and Fox’s “Book of Martyrs” in old-fashioned English ones. He is still popular, not only among his Protestant countrymen, but even in Belgium, and a complete edition of his works has lately been issued at Antwerp. It includes a large collection of proverbs, some of the quainter ones being given in the text. A translation of some of his “Zinne-Beelden” was published, under the title of “Moral Emblems,” by Richard Pigott, in 1860, in a large and handsome volume, with reproductions of the original woodcuts.

Cremer, Jacobus Jan, born at Arnheim in 1827, is now living at the Hague. He devoted himself for a time to painting, but in time entirely abandoned the pencil for the pen. He is most successful in his village stories, the best being located in his native “Betuwe,” which he calls “The Paradise of Holland.” The list of his works, which include novels, short stories, and sketches (published in serial collections), and plays, is far too long to reproduce. Like Dickens, he was at one time conspicuously successful in giving readings and recitations from his own works.

Dekker, Edward Douwes, best known by the pseudonym of Multatuli, was born at Amsterdam, March 2, 1820. He went to Java in 1840 or 1841, with his father, the captain of a vessel, and shortly afterwards obtained a Government clerkship. After a succession of appointments in different places, at one of which he made the acquaintance of the lady who afterwards became his first wife,[[47]] he became “Assistant Resident” at Lebak,—a post which he threw up in 1856, because the Governor-General would not listen to his representations with regard to the extortion and tyranny practised by the native chiefs, and (indirectly) by the Dutch Government. Coming home, he embodied his opinions and experiences in the novel of “Max Havelaar,” which, crude and formless as a literary production, startled the reading public with its origin and audacity, and, having regard to the effect it produced, may fitly be called the Dutch “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” For some time after landing in Holland he and his family were in the greatest distress, as through his hasty resignation he had forfeited the pension which would have been due to him in another year or two. He obtained some grudging help from his wife’s relations, who offered to provide for her entirely if she would leave him, and were righteously indignant at her refusal. With the appearance of “Max Havelaar” his success as a literary man was assured, and from thenceforth he was able to live by his pen, though continually harassed by debts (he was careless, generous, and extravagant, and had a constitutional incapacity for accounts), controversies, and quarrels, well or ill founded, with friends or foes. After the death of his first wife, he was married a second time—to Mej. Schepeles—and made his home in the Rhineland, first at Niederingelheim, and then at Wiesbaden. He died at Mainz, in February 1887. Perhaps his best work is to be found in the Ideen (filling in the collected edition of his works some seven volumes). They are a kind of continuous rambling causerie, contributed to a Dutch daily, the Dageraad, and ranging over every possible topic, full of aphorism, paradox, epigram, and with an occasional story woven in here and there. The most important of these is the delightful fictitious biography of Wouter Pieterse, which, though certainly not an autobiography, incorporates many of the experiences of his childhood and youth. It was never finished, and proceeds in a most capricious manner, being frequently interrupted by digressions for dozens of pages together, and then suddenly taken up again. Some extracts are given from this and other parts of the Ideen. Most of his other works, except the dramas “The Bride in Heaven” and “The School for Princes,” are of a more or less occasional and fugitive character. But Multatuli’s position is not to be measured by the mere number and extent of his works. He is a distinct force in modern Holland, and a name to conjure with to the younger generation of Dutch readers.

Eeden, F. van, is the editor of the Nieuwe Gids, and author of novels, sketches, critical articles, &c., besides the poem “Ellen,” and some plays, including the comedy from which our quotation is taken, and a farce, “The Student at Home.”

Foore, Annie, is the pseudonym of Mevrouw W. J. F. Ijzerman, whose maiden name was Francisca J. J. A. Junius, daughter of a learned theologian, the minister of Tiel. She was born at the latter place in 1847, and married an engineer, at Padang, Sumatra, in 1873. Her principal works are the novels, “The Colonial and his Superior” (1877), “A Family Secret,” “Florence’s Dream,” and several volumes of short stories. The specimens in the present volume are taken from “Family Life in the East Indies.” She has great power of observation, a fine sense of humour, and an easy flowing style of narrative, though sometimes her stories are defective in construction. Her pictures of colonial life are admirable. For the translation of the story “Unbidden Guests,” I am indebted to Miss Margaret Farquharson, of Selkirk.

Huygens, Constantijn, born 1596, at the Hague. His godfathers were the Admiral Justinus von Nassau and the City of Breda; he was named after the “constancy” shown by the latter to the House of Orange. He enjoyed a singularly complete and brilliant education, studied law at Leyden, and became, in 1625, private secretary to Prince Frederick Henry. He was on friendly terms with Hooft, Cats, and the beautiful and talented daughters of Roemer Visscher,—Anna and Tesselschade. Like Cats, he had visited England (in 1618), where he made the acquaintance of John Donne, whose poems he afterwards translated, and whose influence is visible in his writings. He was knighted by James I. in 1622. He married in 1627, and the loss of his wife, ten years later, was the great affliction of his life. He had four sons, the second being the celebrated mathematician, Christian Huygens, and one daughter. He continued his political activity till 1672, when, being to a certain extent superseded on account of his advanced age, he devoted himself to literature and (like most Dutch gentlemen) to gardening at his villa of Hofwijk, near the Hague; he died there in 1687. His works are of various kinds,—didactic and descriptive poems (“Batava Tempe”), satires (“The Costly Request”), epigrams (we give a few translations), the frightfully coarse farce of “Trijntje Cornelis” (taste of the times again!), &c. His best poem is “Oogentrost” (Eye Comfort), dedicated, in 1647, to a friend, Lucretia van Trello, who feared she was going blind. He also wrote a Latin autobiography, under the title “De Vita Propria Sermones.” He published his collected poems under the title “Corn Flowers.” Personally he seems to have been in every way worthy of respect, and is described as “one of the most lovable men that ever lived.”

Keller, Gerard, born at Gouda, February 13, 1829. He was for some time stenographer to the Dutch parliament, and afterwards editor of the Arnheimsche Courant. He is a clever journalist, and voluminous writer of fiction, in which latter department he would appear to have been influenced by Dickens. His earliest novel, “The Tutor’s Family,” appeared in 1857; “Overkompleet,” the sketch from which our extract is taken, appeared in a volume with other short stories in 1871, but has been reprinted in a complete edition of his “Novellen,” of which three volumes have already seen the light. Among his other novels we may mention “The Mortgage on Wasenstein” (1866), “The History of a Halfpenny, and other Stories” (1872), “Off the Rails” (1872), &c. He is also the author of several volumes of travel-sketches, among which we may mention four illustrated quarto volumes, “Amerika in Beeld en Schrift,” and a lively description of a tour in Scotland (“Een Uitstapje naar de Schotsche Hooglanden”), which has appeared quite recently. Keller acted as a newspaper correspondent in France during the Franco-German War, and his experiences there resulted in two books, “Paris Besieged” and “Paris Murdered.” Besides all this he has written several comedies, and numerous contributions to periodical literature, and is now, we believe, the editor of the monthly magazine, Vreemd en Eigen, having previously edited, at different times, Kunst Kroniek and the Geldersche Almanach. His style has a lightness of touch, perhaps due to French influence, and conspicuously wanting in all but some of the most recent Dutch authors, with the exception of Multatuli.

Lamberts-hurrelbrinck, L. H. J., is a young writer, living at Leyden, who has published more than one collection of short stories, mostly dealing with the province of Limburg and its people. His first volume, “Limburgsche Novellen,” was reviewed, with perhaps undue severity, in De Gids for July 1890—a judgment which, it is said, was not altogether uninfluenced by party spirit. A later volume is “Van Limburg’s Bodem.” The sketch in the text appeared in Elsevier’s Maandschrift for September 1892, and is to a certain extent founded on fact.