Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/14

Rh non-resistance to evil anticipated the famous teachings of Tolstoy; KomenskỳKomenský [sic] (Comenius) the great humanitarian teacher of all nations and apostle of universal peace; the democratic king George of Poděbrad, who was bending his endeavours toward the same end; all these are men whose significance stretches far beyond the frontiers of their native country. PalackỳPalacký [sic], our greatest historian, rightly observed that the Czech Reformation contained the germ of all modern teachings and institutions; and, as M. Denis, the French historian of Bohemia, adds, it was at once the merit and happiness of Bohemia that its own cause was always bound up with the cause of humanity in general.

To the second edition of this book Count Lützow added a chapter dealing with Bohemian history subsequent to the year 1620, the date of the battle of White Mountain. It seemed to him that an history coming to an end in the darkness which at that time fell over Bohemia, and with it over all Europe, must leave in the reader a feeling of depression and disappointment. But at the time when he concluded this additional chapter the outlook seemed no better; he foresaw, indeed, very dark prospects for Bohemia—darker than they had been for many a year. "Dark clouds seem to surround the future of Bohemia," are his last words. It was not granted to Count Lützow to see how these dark clouds dispersed after the tempest of the War, a tempest which had already begun to gather when he wrote his book: it was not granted him to see the sun of freedom shine down once more upon the Czech and Slovak people, re-united in one free nation and claiming their part in the task of the regeneration of Europe and humanity.

It affords an interesting illustration of the conditions from which the Czecho-Slovak people escaped by their revolution against Austria-Hungary, to add that the Czech