Bohemia

“ We are fond of labels and catchwords, lightly casting away their implications. So it has come to pass that Bohemia—that dirty, hungry, lazy, noisy vale of youthful laughter and tears, so enchanting in prospect or retrospect, so uncompromising in actuality, which many had to pass through and most would have avoided—is looked on as the pleasant home of more or less artistic natures, that men of stable occupations, regular means, and fastidious temperaments may choose for a dwelling-place, just as they may choose a garden city. ”

“ The gods have appointed, for the kingdom of Bohemia, a Prince who shall sway its sceptre with justice and wisdom. The young cedar does not yet overtop the firm-set oaks; concealed among the trees of the forest it grows, encircled with ignoble shrubs; but soon it shall send forth branches to give shade to its roots; and its top shall touch the clouds. Choose a deputation, ye nobles of the people, of twelve honourable men from among you, that they hasten to seek out the Prince, and attend him to the throne. ”

“ We all have our illusion of Bohemia; all of us, that is to say, who study modern fiction and frequent the cinema. At the back of our mind there is a vivid picture of Bohemia as we would have it; an affair of half-lights and perfumes, and cushions and clinging draperies. ”

“ I was pleasantly disappointed on entering Bohemia. Instead of a dull, uninteresting country, as I expected, it is a land full of the most lovely scenery. There is every thing which can gratify the eye—high blue mountains, valleys of the sweetest pastoral look and romantic old ruins. ”

“ We Englishmen can hardly understand the magic of this joyous phrase, vingt ans; through French prose and poetry it sounds again and again like a tinkling silver bell calling those who have lived and loved in youth to hark back for a moment in passionate regret, in an ecstasy of remembrance. To think of Bohemia without that silver tinkle in one's ears is to do it a grave injustice, for Bohemia throbbed with it then as with a tocsin, as with a summoning bell to a joyous refectory in some transcendant Abbaye de Thélème. ”

“ The wooded mountains of Bohemia are entirely inhabited by a population whose industry, morals, hospitality, and kindliness of manners, do honor, not only to this rich and beautiful kingdom, but to the whole human race. They are pure Germans, not of Sclavish origin, and the German dialect alone is spoken. Unlike every other manufacturing district I have ever visited, they retain unimpaired all their rural and primitive virtues. ”

“ They approached him reverently, and the eldest among them opened his lips, and said: “The Duchess of Bohemia has sent us hither, and bids us signify to thee the will and purpose of the gods, that thou change thy plough with the throne of this kingdom, and thy goad with its sceptre. She selects thee for her husband, to rule with her over the Bohemians.” ”

“ Within Bohemia are many lesser states, and these I have roughly charted on my travels, so that, though I may have left some precincts unexplored, I know at least that these territories lying on my map are veritable provinces of this land of freedom and sincerity. On the shore of the magic Sea of Dreams, beyond whose horizon dances the Adventurous Main, lies the Pays de la Jeunesse, the country of Youth and Romance, a joyous plaisaunce free from care or caution, whose green, wide fields lie bathed in glamorous sunshine. ”

“ The history of Bohemia is perhaps one of the saddest in the world’s story. A country that for a time had been in the van of civilization became almost a desert, and suffered for centuries from political, national and ecclesiastical oppres- sion.
It is perhaps natural that those who belong to a small and little-known nation should consider it to a greater extent their duty to make their country known, than those who are citizens of a country that has world-wide fame. ”

“ Bohemia, in Roqueplan's words, must be continually renewed, for the old Bohemian is nothing but a legitimate object for ardent social reformers. So the Bohemians of 1830, some of whom made their names, while others remained obscure, were all youthful nobodies in the eyes of the world, perching in their attics like a colony of singing birds upon the topmost branches. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Though I have, perhaps, said more respecting the scenery of this part of Bohemia than was necessary, I cannot omit to mention, that from the brow of a hill which we ascended soon after our host quitted us, we obtained as glorious a view of a cultivated mountain district as the eye of man will probably rest upon in any quarter of the world. The abundant wood of this fine country gives, indeed, to all its landscapes, a charm which there needs but the presence of water to complete, and to the particular scene on which we now looked down, water happened not to be wanting. ”

“ When after the fall of the Bohemian Kingdom during the XVII Century the Bohemian intellectuals scattered into all corners of the earth it was the good fortune for the people to live in the heart of the Bohemian Lands as if forgotten and unheeded as to their culture. ”

“ The loves of Bohemia which gambol so trippingly in the tongue of France are ill at ease in our austerer medium, for our Northern spirit has ever refused to admit, as the French do with engaging candour, that man, particularly the artist-man, is naturally polygamous. ”

“ Although five centuries have passed since this Father of Bohemia lived—and since that time fearful storms and changes have come over the country—yet, at the present time, no one can travel over the land without meeting on every side works that perpetuate the name of Charles IV, rendering it dear to every Bohemian heart. ”

“ The proclamation which the Russian Generalissimo addressed to the Poles may be said to apply with equal force to the Bohemians: “The hour has sounded when the sacred dream of your fathers may be realized.... Bohemia will be born again, free in her religion, her language, and autonomous.... The dawn of a new life begins for you.... ”

“ We welcome these visitors .these ambassadors from a nation so ancient, so new. They confirm to us the spirit which we had already surmised in the soul of the whole Bohemian people. Never again, they say, and we believe, shall Bohemia return underground. Bohemia will have victory now, in the light of day, or , in the light of day, extermination. They are ruthless for their rights. But not one inch of German soil do they demand. Not one German right, even in Bohemia, do they ask us to extinguish.
Germans, in a minority, have existed in Bohemia for ages. ”

“ Until the fourteenth century the history of Bohemia is the history of wars against the Germans, while the history of the Southern Slavs records their struggles against the Turks. With the Czechs, the rôle of hereditary enemy was played by the Austro-Germans. Our earliest historical and literary documents, legends, customs, and traditions bear unmistakable traces of these struggles. Indeed, they colour our entire civilisation. ”

“ Intoxicated by their brilliant success, they determined to march home across Bohemia, without even asking permission of the ruler of that country. Very probably, they counted upon the favor of the fourteen lords who had been baptized in Ratisbon, for this was before the baptism of the Bohemian prince. The Bohemians, highly indignant that a hostile army dared cross their territory, hastily collected a large army, fell upon the Germans, and defeated them so that they fled, leaving rich spoils in the hands of the victors. ”

“ Bohemia is the projecting westward angle of the Slav world; its language is closely akin to Russian, Serbian, Polish and Bulgarian; within its boundaries there are more than three million Germans, and three-quarters of a million of Magyars, and its natural destiny seems to be that it should act as a region of exchange and interpretation between the Slavic world, Hungary and Turkey, and the world of Central and Western Europe. ”

“ Kings and warriors, who had done much to extend the prestige and power of Bohemia, are remembered mainly for their cruelty and oppression; while saints, who may in some degree have weakened the sense of Bohemian independence, are not merely honoured, but are even put forward as the symbols of distinctive national life. ”

“ I am thankful that Bohemia has under the power of Jesus Christ received so much good from the blessed land of England through your labours; and I do not wonder that while to some it is a savour unto death, yet to others it is a savour unto joy, because for many it is a savour unto life eternal. [4] For the enemy of man had sown tares [5] so widely in our kingdom that scarcely a grain or two of wheat appeared. The whole of man’s field had been so filled with nettles that the way of salvation could with difficulty be found. ”

“ It must be remembered that Bohemia is no insignificant part of the empire. It has an area of twenty thousand square miles and a population of more than six millions, and is rich in minerals and in manufactures. It is noted for glass works, Bohemian glass having a world-wide reputation. It has important textile industries also, and its agriculture has been carried to a high state of perfection. It has played a conspicuous part in the history of central Europe, is rich in heroes and possesses a strong national spirit. ”

“ There is much in Bohemian history that will appeal to the English reader. What Englishman could fail to find interest in the history of that nation which was once ruled over by the "Goode King Wenceslaus" of the old English carol and by the blind King John, the news of whose valiant death brought tears to the eyes of Edward III; of that nation which gave England one of her most popular queens—Queen Anne, wife of Richard II and daughter of the greatest of our Czech kings?
Bohemia, though one of the lesser nations, gave more than one man to the world," revered in all hearts that love light." ”

“ The Czechs [2] are the westernmost branch of the Slavs, their name being derived, according to tradition, from that of a noted ancestral chief. The term Bohemia was applied to the country probably during the Roman times and was derived, like that of Bavaria, from the Boii, who for some time before the Christian era occupied or claimed parts of these regions.
Nature has favored Bohemia perhaps more than any other part of Europe. Its soil is so fertile and climate so favorable that more than half of the country is cultivated and produces richly. ”

“ For I was to have told you that Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills. ”

“ AMUSEMENTS OF BOHEMIA THE pageant of 1830 has passed, and our gaze has been directed to its Bohemian ingredients with the purpose of noting the particular marks and qualities which distinguished Bohemia, and how their particular manifestations were conditioned and varied by the progress of the years. Looking out of the window of the present, we have been unable at any moment to call a halt, lest we should lose a comprehensive view of the main development. ”

“ In the beginning of the seventeenth century, the kingdom of Bohemia included Moravia, Silesia, and both Upper and Lower Lusatia. Thus, although the kingdom in regard to territorial extent was not to be despised, its political importance was greatly augmented by its being the center of government of the Austrian rulers, who, as kings of Bohemia, generally made Prague their capital, especially as most of them were also Kings of Hungary, and some Emperors of Germany. ”

“ Bohemians in the kingdom of Bohemia, according to all laws, indeed also according to the law of God and according to the natural order of things, should be foremost in all offices in the Bohemian kingdom; thus the French are so in the French kingdom, and the Germans in the German lands. ”

“ It is to me a subject of great satisfaction that a new edition of my Bohemia: An Historical Sketch—first published in 1896—should be required. The study of Bohemian history is very important, as that history is closely connected with the present political situation of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and with the demand for autonomy raised by the Bohemian people at the present time. ”

“ They, more than any other event, have brought Bohemia into prominence in European history; and it was chiefly as fighters that the Bohemians were known to the surrounding nations at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, early traditions, whether legendary or historical, never entirely lose their influence on the character of a nation.
The gentle figure of Libus̆a presiding over a peaceable community is a marked contrast to the figures of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table ”

“ The home, the nation, the Church, the West, the past, roots, origins—these are always wrong, always wicked: only the wilderness of the future promises salvation. The poet has retreated to that uniquely modern place invented in the early nineteenth century—the state of mind called Bohemia. ”

“ Mary ante Lætam Curiam, in the city of Prague. An Austrian by birth, a man of great learning and greater eloquence, he saw, when he came to Bohemia, all men given up to excesses, luxury in many respects exceeding all limits; and through his preaching so reformed the people that many put aside the vanities of the world, serving God with zeal. ”