What charmed them most was the
union in his style of Genevese zeal and earnestness with southern ardor,
and especially those solemn prayers, with which he loved to close his
discourses. Saurin displayed in these petitions strains of supplication
which up to this time among the Hollanders had never been observed in
any other preacher.
All the branches of human learning were advanced in Holland by the
Protestant Frenchmen. Here no fetters on genius, no secret censorship or
persecution, existed. The boldest democratic theories, with the most
daring philosophic systems, were freely discussed, and the refugees
promoted this spirit of investigation. They also increased the commerce
and manufactures and agriculture of the Netherlands, and rendered
Amsterdam one of the most famous cities of the world. Like the ancient
city of Tyre, which the prophet named the 'perfection of beauty,' her
merchant princes traded with all islands and nations. Macpherson, in his
Annals of Commerce, estimates the annual loss to France, caused by the
refugees establishing themselves in England and Holland, was not less
than 3,582,000 pounds sterling, or about ninety millions of francs.
Until the close of the eighteenth century, the descendants of the
Huguenots in Holland were united among themselves, by intermarriage and
the bonds of mutual sympathies.
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