Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/283

 TOLDY ficiality of Jókai in the psychological conception of his characters was seriously reproved by Péterfy. Among his essays on foreign autbors the best are those on Dante and Aristophane:;. Florence and Athens were the two cities he admired and loved most, not merely as a poetical idealist ·but as a· psychologist interested in every aspect of life. The first writer who worked seriously at the history of literat ore in Hungary was FRANCIS TOLDY (x8os- x875). He·colleeted and arranged a vast amount of material and published in German a work entitled Ha ndbuch det tmga rischen Poesie in 1828. His reason for writing in German was that he wished to give some idea of the treasures of Hungarian literatore to other nations. He worked very hard, and towards the middle of the century, wrote a more elaborate history of Hungarian literatore chiefly ernbodying the resolts of his own thorough studies and painstaking investigations. ln Toldy, untir­ ing industry was united with vast knowledge and fervent patriotism. He was the good genius of Hungarian literatore for half a century. The country is indebted to Toldy for a mass of historical details concerning autbors and their works, but for a eritical estimate of the literatore of the past, it is indebted to Paul Gyulai, who su cceeded Toldy in the chair at .the University. The H ongarian philosophers who treated of aesthetics based their work upon the same foundation as the Germans, chiefly follawing Hegel, but differing from their German models in their pursuit of nation al aims. ln small nations criticism does not develop readily, for with them literatore requires to be encouraged rather than severely criticised. The first real criticism contain-