Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/94

 80 his reflections upon their habits and laws. Bessenyei wrote a novel of this kind, The Travels of Tarimenes. The country visited is the empire of Maria Theresa, which the author praises as the realm of happiness. In the book we meet Maria Theresa and her enemy Frederick the Great, whose army is vanquished by that of the Empress. Voltaire had flattered Frederick the Great. Bessenyei exalted that monarch's adversary, Maria Theresa.

Voltaire was the first author who dealt successfully with the history of civilisation, and Bessenyei followed him along that line also. He studied English literature as well as French, and translated, though crudely, Pope's Essay on Man, while his brother, Alexander Bessenyei, translated Milton's Paradise Lost. Alexander had also been enlisted to serve in the Lifeguards, but the gigantic and powerfully-built man had to leave the service because no horse could be found strong enough to carry him.

One of George Bessenyei's merits was his strong advocacy of the foundation of a Hungarian theatre, and of a scientific academy.

There was a certain intellectual restlessness in Bessenyei's life, and his ideas fluctuated unaccountably. At first he determined to use his influence at Court on behalf of the Hungarian Reformation, then suddenly he became a Roman Catholic. This was, of course, highly appreciated by Maria Theresa, who rewarded him with a sinecure. After her death, however, she was succeeded by her son, Joseph II., and it is one of life's little ironies that this eminent and enlightened ruler deprived the apostle of rationalism of the post which he had gained more by his apostasy than by his activity and merits. What could Bessenyei do now, disgraced by his monarch, and an object of suspicion in the eyes of his fellow