) Looking into the new Roman
Catholic church at Groningen I found a little company of restless boys,
all eyes, from whom at regular intervals were detached a reluctant
and perfunctory couple to do the Stations of the Cross. I came as
something like a godsend to those that remained, who had no one to
supervise them; and feeling it as a mission I stayed resolutely
in the church long after I was tired of it, writing a little and
examining the pictures by Hendriex, a modern painter too much after
the manner of the Christmas supplement--studied the while by this
band of scrutinising penitents. I hope I was as interesting and
beguiling as I tried to be. And all the time, exactly opposite the
Roman Catholic church, was reposing in the library of the University
no less a treasure than the New Testament of Erasmus, with marginal
notes by Martin Luther. There it lay, that afternoon, within call,
while the weary boys pattered from one Station of the Cross to another,
little recking the part played by their country in sapping the power
of the faith they themselves were fostering, and knowing nothing of
the ironical contiguity of Luther's comments.
By leaving Groningen very early in the morning I gained another proof
of the impossibility of rising before the Dutch.
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