Here the Dutch slumber, the French chatter, and
the English play at cards. Any man who likes company may have them to
his taste. For my part I generally detached myself from all society,
and was wholly taken up in observing the face of the country. Nothing
can equal its beauty; wherever I turn my eye, fine houses, elegant
gardens, statues, grottos, vistas, presented themselves; but when
you enter their towns you are charmed beyond description. No misery
is to be seen here; every one is usefully employed.
"Scotland and this country bear the highest contrast. There hills and
rocks intercept every prospect: here 'tis all a continued plain. There
you might see a well-dressed duchess issuing from a dirty close;
and here a dirty Dutchman inhabiting a palace. The Scotch may be
compared to a tulip planted in dung; but I never see a Dutchman in
his own house but I think of a magnificent Egyptian temple dedicated
to an ox. Physic is by no means here taught so well as in Edinburgh:
and in all Leyden there are but four British students, owing to all
necessaries being so extremely dear and the professors so very lazy
(the chemical professor excepted) that we don't much care to come
hither."
When the time came to make the "Inquiry into the State of Polite
Learning" Leyden had to suffer.
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