too, of women in the commonwealth proved a high degree of civilization.
They are described as virtuous, well-educated, energetic, sovereigns
in their households, and accustomed to direct all the business at home.
"It would be ridiculous," said Donato, "to see a man occupying himself
with domestic house-keeping. The women do it all, and command
absolutely." The Hollanders, so rebellious against Church and
King, accepted with meekness the despotism of woman.

The great movement of emancipation from political and ecclesiastical
tyranny had brought with it a general advancement of the human intellect.
The foundation of the Leyden university in memory of the heroism
displayed by the burghers during the siege was as noble a monument
as had ever been raised by a free people jealous of its fame. And the
scientific lustre of the university well sustained the nobility of its
origin. The proudest nation on earth might be more proud of a seat of
learning, founded thus amidst carnage and tears, whence so much of
profound learning and brilliant literature had already been diffused.
The classical labours of Joseph Scaliger, Heinsius father and son the
elder Dousa, almost as famous with his pen in Latin poetry as his sword
had made him in the vernacular chronicle; of Dousa the son, whom Grotius
called "the crown and flower of all good learning, too soon snatched
away by envious death, than whom no man more skilled in poetry, more
consummate in acquaintance with ancient science and literature, had ever
lived;" of Hugo Grotius himself, who at the age of fifteen had taken his
doctor's degree at Leyden who as a member of Olden-Barneveld's important
legation to France and England very soon afterwards had excited the
astonishment of Henry IV. and Elizabeth, who had already distinguished
himself by editions of classic poets, and by original poems and dramas in
Latin, and was already, although but twenty-six years of age; laying the
foundation of that magnificent reputation as a jurist, a philosopher, a