Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/169

 STE PHEN SZECHENYI ISS He also insisted on the fact that the cause of the national decadence lay not in the Goyernment, or in Vienna, but in the H ungarians themselves. N ot Austria, but their own indolence, wrong-doing, and obsolete institutions were at fault. Reform must begin with them­ selves. He understood how to inspire the people with faith in their own future. Before Széchenyi, people had thought that their glory was a thing of the past and that the present meant o nly stagnation and decay. Széchenyi gave them as a new motto " Hungary was not, but is to be." He concentrated men's thoughts upon the building up of a great future, greater in every respect than the past. He cured them of the melanch oly which had held the country' s best workers bound as if .by a spell, and braced them to earnest labour by his books, wh ich acted upon them like powerful electric shocks. His inftuence ' was so great because he expressed, with the voice of genius, the inarticulate feelings and longings of the people. Széchenyi's career as a reformer commenced with deeds, however, and not merely with words. Some persons were discussing and advocating, in his hearing, the creation of a scientific academy. Széchenyi stood up and offered a year's income Cb"sooo) towards the cost of the proj ect, a nd the Academy was founded. Then he e stablished horse races on the lines of those held in England, partly to encourage the breeding of horses, and partly to provide amusement at home for the wealthier classes so as to induce them to remain in Hungary instead of living abroad . In order to cultivate a social spirit he fo unded the first political and social clubs in Budapest on English models, and the country towns soon began to imitate the metropolis.