VAN DER PALM AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN HOLLAND.

BY NICOLAAS BEETS, D. D.

MEMOIR.

JOHN HENRY Van der Palm was born in Rotterdam July 17, 1763, in the house of his father Kornelis Van der Palm, who kept there, and afterward at Delfthaven, a very flourishing Dutch and French boarding-school, or institute. His father was a man of ability and learning, an accomplished linguist, and poet, and as such received several coronations for his special performances. He was one of the founders of the Rotterdam Society, a social literary club, of which his son was made a member at the age of sixteen. In his father's school the son was trained till the age of ten, when he passed into the Erasmian Grammar school, of which Henricus Dreux was Rector. Here he won several prizes in the competitions of the several classes-his themes foreshadowing the labors of his future life-Diligence (In Laudem Diligentia)' and 'A Sound Mind in a Sound Body-de Sano Mente in Corpore Sano'-robust, cheerful health being with him the normal condition of the human being, which, he inculcated, could only be secured by diligent and regular occupation, in which head, heart, and body were associated. His father's school and methods, and his home life were the ideals which the son held up for the instruction of teachers and school officials.

At the age of fifteen, young Van der Palm began his university studies at Leyden, where he continued in hard study for six years. Of this period of his life, his biographer, Dr. Beets, remarks:

The years spent by Van der Palm at the University of Leyden fell in one of the most flourishing periods of that institution. Three years before his matriculation, the bi-centenary of its existence had been magnificently celebrated. The recollection of its foundation and princely founder, joined to the remembrance of the ancient famous occurrences which gave rise to its establishment; the rapid but deliberate review of its history, which brought before the mind such an extensive and estimable series of great men as had ever been its ornaments; all this gave a new stimulus to resort to this seat of learning. The professorial chairs were filled by the most celebrated men in all departments of knowledge and science. Besides not a few English, the concourse of Netherland youth was greater than ever; and of these were formed in that period a great multitude of men who were destined to become eminent in every branch of learning and literature, and to be in different relations ornaments to Church and State. Among these, without contradiction of any, Van der Palm was to

occupy a most prominent position; and of this his first instructors, Valckenaar, Ruhnkenius, Van de Wijnpersse, and especially Hendrik Albert Schultens, were quickly convinced. To the instruction of these lights, which he improved with the greatest conscientiousness and with the most ardent zeal, was soon added that of Pestel, to whose lectures on the fundamenta jurisprudentiæ naturalis he attached great importance. In theology, he afterward heard Hollebeek, the reformer of the Netherland style of preaching, Gillissen, Scholten, Boers, and Rietveld; to the lectures of the last mentioned, he seems to have applied himself with special diligence. Of Schultens, his biographer Wijttenbach remarks: 'He had received from nature the rare gift of appearing to be what he really was. Uprightness of heart, greatness of mind, and benevolence were expressed in his countenance; yea, all that is praiseworthy. His bearing, gestures, movements, were most graceful. Add to this the finest perception of the beautiful and the true, an uncommon familiarity and affability, and the greatest agreeableness of speech and expression; and all this entirely natural, without the least affectation. Few therefore were, whether teaching or speaking, listened to with greater pleasure, or with greater confidence in their ability; and few there were whose society and intercourse were more sought in social life.'

On this high model Van der Palm formed his own ideal. Schultens was not only his favorite instructor, who imbued him with that genuine taste for Oriental languages and literature which was so peculiar to him, but he was also the man after whom he entirely formed himself; the man to whom he was indebted for that high refinement by which he was so peculiarly distinguished; the man whom he proposed to himself as his model in all things, and whose entire being he endeavored to express in his own, when he was afterward called to fill the same professorial chair himself.

The image of Schultens lived in his heart during the whole of his long life. His name sounds through all his writings; he denominates it a name 'which humanity in its highest nobility claims as its own.' After Schultens he named one of his sons; and of Schultens he spoke, as long as his strength permitted him to speak of any one, and his spirit roamed through the past. How high this man placed the youthful Van der Palm we can easily conceive, if we can represent to ourselves how agreeable it is to exercise influence over a gifted youth, to infuse our spirit into a susceptible breast, and to see our youth renewed as it were in another. He was the apple of his eye, his glory, his hope. He saw him daily at his own house, and saw no one more gladly; and when, after five years' instruction and intercourse, he parted with his beloved pupil, his eye followed him in his course, and up to his death he cherished him in his heart.

Van der Palm's collegiate life was of an exceptional high and pure character, which both his teachers and his fellow students unite in lifting into the region of the ideal. The professors, on whose instruction he attended during his six years connection with the university, vie with one another in extolling his eminent gifts, and his rare improvement of opportunities. It does not often happen that we send forth from our seminary a youth so thoroughly versed in all polite literature, and so far advanced in sacred learning.'

At no period of its history was the attendance of studious and talented young men larger in the different faculties of the university, or their mutual intercourse lively or more intimate. Schimmelpenninck, Brugmans, Nieuwland, Bilderdijk, were all his friends. Besides these were Jan Willem Bussingh, already mentioned, were Henricus van Roijen, Jacobus Kantelaar, Cornelis Fransen van Eck, Jacobus van Heusden, Johannes Stolk, Thomas Hoog, and particu

larly Ewaldus Kist. How much he was attached to the last appears from the Dedication of the second volume of his Sermons, in which he recalls, with the greatest delight, the six years spent in daily intercourse with this friend. He mentions there that they as an inseparable pair were accustomed to walk together the streets of Leyden and its circumjacent lanes, and were in all things each other's confidants. We strengthened each other in our taste for, and knowledge of the best Greek and Latin writers; we stimulated each other in our diligent study of the speculative parts of philosophy; we roamed together through the fields of theology, rejected, again accepted, and formed for ourselves those fixed principles which to this moment have not failed us; together we chose our modern reading, and by no means neglected this means of enriching our minds; and we went together to the beloved house of our great and never to be forgotten Schultens, to gather up lessons on the knowledge of the world and on polite intercourse. But whilst all these advantages were naturally reciprocal, there is one thing for which I am wholly indebted to you, without knowing that I ever rendered you an equivalent for it. I mean the refinement and elevation of my taste by the influence of music. Still, it seems to me, I am seated in my apartment, and the transporting tones of your harpsichord are sounding in my ears; still, it seems to me, I close my books, leave my room, go to yours, give you a wink as I enter, to proceed undisturbed, place myself behind you, turn over for you the pages of your music, and leave you not, till the concert of Jourdany or Bach has been played to its close; and, attuned to the perception and appreciation of the humane and the beautiful, I return to my old books, to search in them especially for what is humane and beautiful in sentiment and expression.'

With Ewaldus Kist and a few of the other friends above mentioned, Van der Palm held a stated weekly conference, in which each in his turn read a composition of his own, and in which the criticism, both on that which had been read and on what might be further discussed, was free and informal. The youthful Van der Palm was lively, fond of visiting, of walking, of bodily exercises, of the theater,* of sports, and especially of playing at golf, which he did almost daily, and at which he was very expert. Though he

He resorted to it, so far as the opportunity was afforded in Leyden, somewhat frequently, especially when the great Corver was still on the stage. fle testified that he, in the part of the Notary in The Indigent of the Mereier, first caused him to feel the nature of external eloquence, the idea of which was afterward fully developed in him by Bellamy.

† Fondness for social recreations continued with Van der Palm even to advanced age, and it was doubtless very beneficial to him both as to mind and body. He was particularly fond of relaxing

knew how to allow himself abundant time for these pleasures, he did not, however, on their account, neglect his studies.

It was frequently matter of surprise,' he used to tell me, 'that I was seen playing the whole afternoon at golf in the Fountain, and in the evening at ombre, and yet was prepared the next morning to answer promptly on all the lectures; but it was not known that at three o'clock in the morning I was already washing myself in the States-basin, as the States-College was called.'

On Oriental languages and literature, his principal study, he read all the ancient and modern authors. The Schultenses, his favorites, lay ever at hand. Michaëlis, Lowth, Dathe, Herder, were his most confidential friends. How highly he esteemed the last appears from his writings. He assiduously pursued the Greek and Latin classics, and with what fruit is, among others, shown by his Memorial of the Restoration of the Netherlands, so entirely in the spirit of Sallust, and yet so entirely original and Dutch. Modern literature, we saw it recorded in his own recollections of Kist, he by no means neglected, especially the study of our national language and literature, early inculcated on him by his gifted father. With the best French writers he was familiar, and of the Germans he read Kleist, Haller, and Klopstock. With the rest he first became acquainted at a later period under the guidance of Bellamy, who knew how to inspire him with a predilection for Hölty, which he ever after retained. Of the English, he preferred the humorists,-Swift, Smollett, Fielding, especially Sterne. There was also in his own nature a humorous element, which even in old age was still very apparent in his relations and conversations, and also here and there in his writings directed the mode of expression. 'Tristram Shandy' was his favorite at the univerity, and remained so to his hoary days.

As a student mutual study was very agreeable to him. With a couple of select friends, to study together at the tea-table a lecture to which they had listened, in order that they might the next day answer on it more readily, was very much to his mind; and for those who were of this triumvirate (Van Roijen and Kist) this was, especially by means of his presence, and as it were under his presidency, very instructive.

When he approached theology proper, he did not allow his Oriental studies to repose, but prosecuted them zealously under the guidance and in the enjoyment of daily intercourse with Schultens. himself by (sedate) card-playing, especially ombre, whist, and tre sept, in which plays he was eminently skilled. The first he played in the family circle almost every winter evening after leav ing his study, though seldom much longer than half an hour. He regarded the play, 'used as a moderate and not too long continued recreation, as neither unbecoming nor entirely useless.'

About this time he began the first work with which he was to apbear before the public,-the 'Philological and Critical Elucidation of Ecclesiastes.' He completed it at the close of the year 1783, and defended it publicly the 31st January, of the following year, under the presidency of his beloved teacher, and in the presence of a great concourse. The first production of Van der Palm excited general admiration. It afforded evidence not only of his acute intellect, but also of his independent judgment, (as he had ventured to differ on some points even from Schultens,) and of the rarest learning for one at his period of life. It established his reputation as an Orientalist both at home and abroad, and is still regarded as one of the best works on its subject.

Meanwhile the time had arrived for Van der Palm to begin to give proof of that eloquence which, during half a century, has enjoyed the almost undivided admiration of our nation. He preached two or three trial sermons. The result of the first was, according to the assurance of contemporaries, a general consternation among the theological students. Great was the interest felt to hear him at each successive time; but however high expectations were raised, they were still surpassed, both by the beautiful assemblage of his external gifts, melodious voice, bearing, and gestures, and by what was at that time especially worthy of admiration, the beauty of the style, the simplicity and captivating power of presentation, and the appropriate and edifying treatment. The seats were crowded, even more than at an ordinary church service.

On the 5th of January, 1784, Van der Palm procured his dismission from the States-College, and on the 1st of November, following, he, together with J. J. van Steenbergen, and J. Stolk, his former school-fellow and faithful university friend, was, after previous examination, received as candidate by the Classis of Leyden and the Lower Rhine. Here his success was great and immediate, and within a year he received overtures for an appointment as Professor of Theology, and Oriental languages at Lingen. He did not encourage the overtures, but labored on in his own vocation until 1787, when siding with the 'patriotic party,' he left Maartensdijk, precipitately on the approach of the Prussian army-and did not return. On the 14th of November, 1786, he married Miss Alida Bussingh, the daughter of his deceased paternal friend, the Delfthaven minister: a young, lovely, eminently beautiful and graceful woman, who was devotedly attached to him, and with whom he lived forty-nine years in the enjoyment of the highest connubial felicity.