ABSTRACT
Culture, which is the reasoned and informed appreciation of intellectual and æsthetic values, has a way of looking after itself. Its measure is the performance of its highest exponents. In the Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century many branches of culture remained outside communal life. Some arts like music or sculpture suffered as a result. Orthodox calvinism frowned upon the graven image, and sculpture was for the few. Trade continued to expand throughout the seventeenth century, but not fast enough to absorb all the resultant profits. Nor was there, in so small a country, enough land available for those who preferred that kind of investment. New land was created by reclamation, but still the profits from trade remained unabsorbed. Many housewives brushed and scrubbed from morning till night, and maintained in the home a permanent dampness that caused ill-health and especially rheumatism.
