Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/135

 KÖ LCSEY I2I Kölcsey, like other idealists, was rigid and un practical. He lived in the clouds, creating a world for himself, and carne more and more t o regard the activities of mortals with someth ing like contempt. His indignation as a patriot drove him to extremes of feeling which no other H unga rian poet had ever reached, even in his most embittered moments. I t was natural that such a m an should be profoundly consciaus of the gulf between the actual and the ideal. ln one of his poems, speaking in the character of Zrinyi, the poet tamented the decline of his country. He appeals to Fate to spare Hungary, or the hour of her doo m will soon strike. But Fate answers relentlessly: 11 My law must be fuifilled and the star of the H ungarian s will set because of their misdeeds. O n the banks of the Danube and the Tisza will ari se another nation, s peaking an other tongue, a better an d a happier people." We may imagin e the sufferi ngs of a sensitíve nature, driven to take such despairing views. And it was not merely his own co untry that Kölcsey eriticised so severel y; he was equally dissatistied with the whole of mankind, and yet he loved his fell aw men fervently. One of his poems, Vanilas Va nitatum, i s full of stoical spirit. 41 Here is the scripture ; read its pages, and you will find the truth taught by Solomon that all is vanity. Our earth is but an ant-bill and an evanescent phenomen o n. The events of history pass like a sigh. The heroism of the legions was as a hubble. The greatest of hattles is no more than a co ck-fight . Self-sacriticing virtue is but a dream. Th e death of Socrates, or Cato, or Zrinyi was a kind of insan ity. What are knowledge and phi losophy but systematic ignoran ce and chimera ? Faith and hope are mere illusions ; our life is but flame of a candle, and