“ NATIONS do not perish, Long as their language lives. Such is the import of the words which I have chosen to be the motto of the present work, nor do I think I could have selected any thing more appropriate to indicate the nature of the reappearance of the Bohemian people among the nations of the world, and the means by which so unexpected, and to many so startling, a phenomenon has been produced. ”

“ And yet the few last years have developed in Bohemia an individuality and nationality beyond comparison in history—beyond comparison, because along with, or rather causative of, the political strivings of the people, a literature has also sprung into existence, bearing unmistakeable marks of originality, and bidding fair to assume no inconsiderable position, and to exert no inconsiderable influence in Europe. ”

“ Who thinks thus after me!’
(Says Weston) ‘after me the man,
Who thirsteth painfully!’
But leaping up doth Wratislaw
Like a young bull arise,
And by the arm he seizes him,
And thus to Weston cries:
‘Thou traitor! everlasting shame
Of men that Christians be!
And wilt thou to destruction bring
A people good and free?
Mercy from God ’tis meet to seek,
But not in slavery
‘From Tatars wild. ”

“ Does the language begin to be corrupted, the national existence also suffers detriment; each weakening or crippling of the language is a step of the nation towards degeneracy. With each alteration of the language arises also an alteration of the nation; and were a nation to disown and fling aside its language, it must first have lost and transformed all its inborn qualities, it must with the new language have become also a new nation. ”

“ What the end of these things will be, what influence will be exercised upon human, and especially upon European, civilization by the Slavonians, is known for certain to God alone; my own belief is, that Bohemia is the point of contact and mingling of the two streams of civilization, which have issued, the one from Rome, the other from Constantinople; that through her and her literature the latter will be affected, modified, strengthened, and improved by the former; that she will be the chief agent in the cultivation and moral elevation of the countless Slavonic multitudes in the east of Europe ”

“ Towards Olmütz march in ordered ranks,
And high their banners wave.
Their heavy swords beside them hang,
Full quivers rattling sound
Upon their hips, their valiant heads
With helmets bright are crown’d,
And underneath the riders’ weight
The swift steeds prance and bound.
The wood-horns hoarsely bray, the roll
Of drums resounds afar,
The hosts upon each other rush,
And close in dreadful war.
A cloud arises from the dust,
And hangs the armies o’er ”

“ That is especially schools, particularly schools for that portion of the youth, which, with but little elementary knowledge, must adapt itself, like pliant twigs, to the manifold forms of life, and yet is expected at last to grow into a firm and self-dependent tree. Schools without the national language are utter waste of time, and mere places of torture. ”

“ It is impossible to annihilate the nationality of the Bohemians; it must be recognized and dealt with as an element of the country, and as such must enter largely into the considerations of the statesmen, whom the working of God’s Providence has called to the difficult task of arranging and reconciling the conflicting interests of the many nations of the Austrian Empire. ”

“ The defenders of the Bohemian language became more numerous and more earnest, the common people themselves began to waken up and take an interest in the inheritance of their forefathers, which the hand of power was endeavouring to wrest from their possession, and all this in spite of the influence of the aristocracy, in spite of the oppressive tyranny of fashion. ”

“ It cannot be denied that there were amongst the Jesuits many individuals possessed of literary and scientific accomplishments, but their principle being, that the people should not be enlightened, but rather kept in darkness, they imparted to their pupils only the outward shell of knowledge, retaining the kernel for themselves ”

“ The Tatars make their home
In Poland, all things devastate,
And near and nearer come.
And now the savage heathen press
To Olmütz; cries of woe
Arise in ev’ry district; nought
Is safe before the foe. ”

“ I venture also to assert, for the sake of those interested in the study and comparison of languages, as such, that the different Slavonic dialects, as languages—I do not speak of their literature, which is still in course of development—are far more beautiful and philosophical than the German, or other modern languages at present considered necessary to a complete education. ”

“ It seems, in short, that this long sleep of the Bohemian people was ordained by God’s Providence, in order that all Slavonic [1] nations might awake to self-consciousness and arise together, to assume that position in the world, of which their natural capacity and activity is undoubtedly capable, and towards which I believe them to be as undoubtedly hastening [2] . ”

“ As time advanced, it became more and more evident, that the civilization of the country could only be accomplished by means of the native language, partly because of an unconscious instinct in the mind of the people, which led them to distrust and reject whatever was forced upon them in the detested foreign garb, partly owing to a psychological fact, which was formerly recognized by as few, as now venture to dispute it, viz., that the mind of every nation is cast in a mould corresponding to its mother tongue. ”

“ I’LL tell to you a glorious tale
⁠Of struggles and of war;
Come, listen, and collect yourselves,
The mighty deeds to hear.
Far in the land where Olmütz reigns,
Rises a hill, not high;
’Tis Hostajnow; God’s Mother there
Works marvels wondrously. ”

“ For a long time the possibility of crushing and annihilating the nationality and being of a people has been the current belief of the psychologist, and when he was in want of an example to prove his point, the finger of scorn was always directed towards Bohemia ”

“ And, gradually, members of the noblest families began to sympathize with the tillers of their ground, and to recognise their right, as men, to the education which alone could elevate or civilize them, an education conducted through the medium of their own Slavonic language ”

“ I now proceed to contrast with the above, a description of what the country and nation became after a short period of Jesuit tyranny, also from the pen of a Bohemian.
‘Under the reign of Ferdinand II.,’ says Pelzel, a Roman Catholic writer, ‘the whole of the Bohemian nation was entirely changed and recast. It is scarcely possible to find in history another instance of a whole nation so much changed in a space of about fifteen years. ”

“ The fruitful fields to smite,
E’en so was heard the Tatar foe,
Thick swarming for the fight.
With speed do the Hungarians
Collect in companies,
With speed they arm themselves, and go
To meet their enemies. ”

“ It should also be observed, that at this time the greater portion of the old Bohemian aristocracy became extinct, many individuals suffering death upon the scaffold, and many families being driven into exile. ”

“ The sun doth glorious rise;
And thus was Hana [1] freed again
From Tatar enemies.
↑ Hana is a district in Moravia in the neighbourhood of Olmütz.
⁂It should be remarked that Weston, who appears, alas! to have been an Englishman, was guilty of a similar piece of treachery at Jerusalem. ”