Recovering rapidly from the devastations of war, the Dutch Republic became, in the seventeenth century, the first sea-power and first money-power in the world.

She gave a king to England and put a bridle in the mouth of France.

She established colonies in America and in the East Indies.

With her celebrated new university of Leyden, with {276} publicists like Grotius, theologians like Jansen, painters like Van Dyke and Rembrandt, philosophers like Spinoza, she took the lead in many of the fields of thought.

Her material and spiritual power, her tolerance and freedom, became the envy of the world.
[1] The guilder, also called the "Dutch pound," at this time was worth 40 cents intrinsically.