Page:Religious Thought in Holland during the Nineteenth Century James Hutton Mackay.djvu/34

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Switzerland, that Dutch writers trace to the evangelistic work of Robert Haldane in Geneva. In its original form it never spread widely in Holland. It was conﬁned almost entirely to certain aristocratic circles in Amster- dam and the Hague. In a somewhat modiﬁed form, coloured to a certain extent by the ethical school of Chantepie de la Saussaye, and as represented by the most popular writer of the century, Nicolaas Beets, it has had a perceptible inﬂuence down to the present day. The political circumstances of the time had no doubt something to do with the rise of this movement. Latterly the French domination had weighed on the Dutch like a veritable nightmare. Their ﬁnancial losses had been enormous, and the Dutch have had always a proper respect for the value of money. At the Restoration in 1813 there was a bound- less feeling ofjoy and relief. But this was soon fouowed by a period of disillusionment, and the minds of the people were further depressed by. the revolt of Belgium, after its short-lived unlon with Holland, and by a fruitless war. Transplanted to Dutch soil, it was not long