Page:Bohemian poems, ancient and modern (Lyra czecho-slovanska).djvu/13

Rh I cannot in conscience conclude without expressing my thanks for many kindnesses to my friends in Bohemia and Moravia, especially to the members of the Citizens-resource in Prague, to Mr Hanka, Librarian of the National Museum, to Dr Tieftrunk and to his two nephews Vaclaw and Karel, my teachers, through whose well-directed assistance—although our only medium of communication was German, the language of all others least adapted to assist in the study of Slavonic—I was enabled to attain a considerable proficiency in Bohemian, and make the translations I now lay before the public, in the short period of a Cambridge Long Vacation. There is abundance in the Bohemian literature which is well worthy of attention, but the duties and avocations of my position prevent me for the present from increasing my selection from it; and indeed my translations may more fitly be called a selection from my own reading, than from the productions of the Bohemian Muse.

I have added at the end of the volume a