Page:Bohemia; a brief evaluation of Bohemia's contribution to civilization (1917).pdf/59

 When the beneficent period of enlightenment preceding the French Revolution covered all Europe, even the autocratic Austria came under its influence. Two benefits principally it conferred upon the many races of Austria, which had a far-reaching influence upon the Czech nation: The edict of toleration permitting a certain amount of religious freedom, and the liberation of the peasants from the most galling wrongs of serfdom.

These two concessions created the initial impulse which set into play the great forces by which the nation awakened to a new life. When conscience was no longer violated, as it had been for the past two hundred years, when men could exercise their intelligence upon religious and philosophical questions, it was to be expected that the new generation would not have the souls of slaves or of hypocrites created invariably by fanatic persecutions. At the same time the peasant released from slavery to his feudal lord, breathed more ,freely after centuries of severe oppresion and became conscious that he was a man; the indifference and ignorance of serfdom gave place to a recognition of duties to the nation. All over the lands of the Bohemian crown, as persecution and oppresion were lifted, powers that had been lying dormant came to life and sap began after a long winter to circulate in the body of the nation.

On top of that came a sudden blow. The same Emperor who had loosened the spiritual and material bonds of his subjects, the enlightened Joseph II., planned like the benevolent despot he was, to forcibly make over the various races of his monarchy into Germans. He wanted to take from the Czechs the most essential part of their Slav Nationality—their tongue. And then the abiding vitality of the Bohemian people, persisting in spite of long lasting oppresion came to the surface. Men came forward in great numbers animated by the conviction that they must work hard to preserve the people’s language. The awakening of the nation began with the defense of the Czech language. Joseph Dobrovský, the gifted linguist, defined first the laws governing the correct use of the Bohemian language and gave the initial impulse for its further cultivation. So the old speech was saved,