CHARACTER.  
SIR,  
IN Answer to your last, wherein you desire me to give a Character of our Prince, I shall, as well as I can, satisfy you.  
As for his outward Accomplishments, I suppose you expect not that I should say any thing, you having seen him frequently when he was in England, and been a Witness of his excellent, noble, and Princely Deportment.  
Nor is it necessary to one of your Education and Learning, to have an Account of his Ancestors, or that you be told, that he is the principal Branch of a House famous in History for these many hundreds of years, and that his Veins flow, with the noblest Blood in the World. However accidental these Advantages are, yet Heaven was not pleased they should be wanting to a Personage it had consummated to be the Relief and Support of Christendom, and the Delight of Mankind.  
But 'tis his Mind, I know, of which you require a Character; and of that though 'twill be impossible for me to do him Justice, yet I will endeavour to inform you. He is, first, a Prince of exemplary Temperance and Sobriety, and this not because his Body cannot bear Excesses, his robust and healthy Constitution manifesting the contrary; but from the strong Impression the Beauty of these Virtues had early made and still continue upon his excellent Soul. Nor are they without their Companions, Modesty and Chastity, which few of bulkier Title do at all regard, and these practised to that height, that his Court is esteemed an Academy of good Manners, and his Courtiers, by his Example, as so many Professors of Ethics. Beside these, his benign Temper, his readiness to forgive Injuries, his tenacious Memory of Services done, and his incomparable Prudence, considered in opposition to the haughty Carriage, the implacable and cruel Resentments, the horrid Ingratitude, and the dull Unadvisedness of some of his Cotemporaries of the higher Style, render him still a fit Subject for the Love and Well-wishes of every honest and understanding man.  
And yet, that which adds still to the lustre of this fair train of Virtues, and which seems to have the fullest possession of him, is JUSTICE, not that he affects to be flattered with the Title of Just, as has been done by those who least deserved it, and who never practised it, except it were to serve some turn, and to preamble a Trepan; or to avoid some impending danger by a specious show of Restitution and Reparation; but he has made it the peculiar embellishment of all the Actions of his Life. Hence it was, that upon all the Successes with which his Arms and Conduct have been blest, he never was puffed up into a desire of having any addition so much as to his Title, not one City or Town in the Netherlands can complain of any Infraction upon their Immunities, or any Ravishing of their ancient Privileges, So that though it has frequently been in his power to have aggrandized himself, after the example of his ill Neighbours, (some of whose cursed Parasites have yet had the impudence to transcribe their Master's Follies of this fort into his History, as if he had been guilty of the like) yet he always sacrificed to Justice whatsoever Advantages his good Fortune put into his hands, and scorned to be great at the cost his Country; which from the low State wherein he found it when he was first set at the Head of the Commonwealth, deemed then by one of our best Politicians to have been upon the point of irrecoverable Declension, he has reasserted into so considerable a condition, that they seem able to redeem themselves from a Debt of a hundred years standing to our own Nation. This Heroical Principle it is, that has set him so high above his neighbouring Contenders for GLORY, as vile Flatterers call it, which is to be acquired by the depopulating of Countries, stripping Cities and Communities of their Rights and Privileges, and the enslaving and unmanning a great part of Mankind. This Contempt of Glory (other than what is raised upon an honourable and just Foundation) has in him ennobled the present Age with an Example for all succeeding Potentates in the World, by observing of which, they may avoid those Exorbitances which have made the foolish Affecters of Glory stink in Chronicle, and instead of achieving, forsooth, immortal Honour, have caused their Names to be ranged only in the higher Class of Robbers and Trouble-worlds': for he, unlike to them, seems to have made it the truly Glorious Design of his Life to set Mankind at Liberty; and he began early, when having scarce reached Manhood, he rescued his Country out of the Jaws of a rabid Tiger, or which is all one, a Popish Victor, who would have introduced upon her that slavery of Body and Soul which ever follows the successful Arms of a bigoted Idolatrous Conqueror: And, if men's Sins hinder not, and their selves be not wanting, why may they not hope to see this wondrous Blessing by Providence more diffusive, and not concluded within the narrow Boundaries of Belgium. The Theban Hero, not content to have asserted his Cradle, vindicated also the Nations round about; for beholding on one side a Tyrant overrunning and destroying all, to that degree, that he was fabled to feed his Horses with Man's Flesh; and on t'other side the Sea, another with like Title, Priestridden into the most abominable and inhuman Idolatry; he thought 'twas the Duty of a good man, though he were not a Party concerned, (which is sillily urged against our living Hero) to take up the Cause of Humanity, and to pull 'em down. It succeeded well; for he soon brought 'em both to Reason, and the grateful Pagans voted him a place among their Gods. And indeed they argued rightly, considering their want of, Divine Light; for what could they suppose to be liker God than he that for no advantage to himself, conferred upon them the most valuable Good in the World, even LIBERTY.  
A Branch of this Virtue of Justice he deems to be Moderation towards men of another Religion; and by this also he has always contradistinguished himself from his more dignified Brethren of the Elbow-Seat; for this he not only professed but practised always. Never was he known to be the undoing of a Family, because the Father of it could not be of his Mind. No man with him is Factious, or a Sectary, but he that troubles the Public Tranquillity. In the Disposal of his Rewards and Favours, regard is only had to the Honestest Man. Not but that he is well aware, that there is a Sect of Men in the World, who, be they never so generously principled by Nature, yet-their Religion (as they call it) obliging them to an implicit belief of and obedience to Persons of wicked Designs, he allows them with some discrimination a share in his Protection, but trusts them with great difficulty.  
I should now tell you somewhat of his Valour; but it is of a sort, more sublime than has yet appeared in the World, and far above my Pen. The Vigour, the Conduct, the Greatness, and the Evenness of his Mind, the steady Menage, the Resolution and Contempt of Danger, which are either Ingredients to it, or complicated with it, are as inimitable as not to be described. In fine, We have great reason to pray, That the Hand which has so exactly formed and finished this Prince for the Support and Joy of the Universe, would protect and assist him in bringing about those noble Designs for the Common Good which nothing less than a Divine Spirit prompts him to. Our Friend at Soestdyhe is pretty well again.  
Hague, Octob. 12. St. N. I am, SIR, Yours.  
ay, had forgot to instance to you the Exact Discipline he observes in his Army; but if ever you see them here or elsewhere, you will take his Officers and Soldiers for no other than well-bred Gentlemen and honest Citizens.   

Tota de Hague, gedruckt door Hans Verdraght, 1688.