Page:Bohemian poems, ancient and modern (Lyra czecho-slovanska).djvu/19



ATIONS do not perish, Long as their language lives. Such is the import of the words which I have chosen to be the motto of the present work, nor do I think I could have selected any thing more appropriate to indicate the nature of the reappearance of the Bohemian people among the nations of the world, and the means by which so unexpected, and to many so startling, a phenomenon has been produced. For a long time the possibility of crushing and annihilating the nationality and being of a people has been the current belief of the psychologist, and when he was in want of an example to prove his point, the finger of scorn was always directed towards Bohemia; Bohemia, as such, had utterly perished from the face of the earth, and was now a mere geographical subdivision of Germany or Austria. And yet the few last years have developed in Bohemia an individuality and nationality beyond comparison in history—beyond comparison, because along with, or rather causative of, the political striv-