Page:The study of history in Holland and Belgium (IA studyofhistoryin00frrich).pdf/20

 and 150 portraits in oil of celebrated professors, such as Scaliger, Arminius, van der Palm and Thorbecke; and for the Flemings among the first masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries read the Latin inscriptions in gilt letters underneath these venerable heads: Walaeus Gandavensis, Bonaventura Vulcanius Brugensis, as well as others who found a refuge in the emancipated provinces of the North and brought there their talent and their science, to be irrevocably lost to us in consequence of the triumphs of Spain in Belgium.

After visiting these historic halls the stranger is taken to three or four old auditoriums, one of which has fine Gothic vaulting, supported by handsome pillars.

But evidently this building is too cramped and too old for the requirements of a university of the first order, such as Leyden always has been and still is. Where then are all the courses given which are enumerated in the Series lectionum in Universitate Lugduno-Batava?

Formerly each professor had a large room in his house where he gave his lectures. The custom is not yet wholly extinct, but various laboratories and auditoriums have been built in divers parts of the town. Many of the courses in the Facultv of Arts are given in a modest but spacious house near the university, opposite the ancient church of St. Peter, where Count MIT illiam of Holland, who was emperor of Germany in the 13th century, was baptized. In the Middle Ages Leyden was the capital and center of Holland, while Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague were only second in rank.

Professor Fruin keeps to the ancient custom, and gives his lectures at his house. A few moments before the hour stated in the program, the door of the house is left open and the students enter one by one, passing through the corridor and gliding unobtrusively into the lecture-room. This room is a very simple one, looking out upon an interior court, and having for furniture only four benches and a chair painted in light yellow. Before the lecture M. Fruin had received me in his parlor, and chatted with that distinguished simplicity