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38 superficial between Donne's subtle mind and bizarre imagination and the fundamental simplicity of Huyghens' character. In poetry such as Huyghens' much depends upon the personality of the author, and it is the simplicity and freshness of his nature, combined with wide culture, insight, and a noble piety, which made Potgieter call him "one of the most lovable men that ever lived."

Huyghens' friend, the first of Zeeland poets, and for long the most popular of Dutch poets, Jacob Cats (1577-1660), is a difficult author for a foreigner to appreciate. He is the incarnation of all that is most bourgeois and practical in the Dutch character. He was, like Huyghens, a man of means. He grew rich by reclaiming "polders" from the sea, and was a sharp—at times, Huyghens affirmed, too sharp—business man. He acknowledges that—

"Het is een deftigh [difficult] werk en waert te zijn gepresen      Godtzalig en met een oock rijck te mogen wezen."

Cats was a learned man, and served his country as Raedpensionaris, visiting England twice as an