Page:Bohemian poems, ancient and modern (Lyra czecho-slovanska).djvu/20

xvi ings of the people, a literature has also sprung into existence, bearing unmistakeable marks of originality, and bidding fair to assume no inconsiderable position, and to exert no inconsiderable influence in Europe. It seems, in short, that this long sleep of the Bohemian people was ordained by God’s Providence, in order that all Slavonic nations might awake to self-consciousness and arise together, to assume that position in the world, of which their natural capacity and activity is undoubtedly capable, and towards which I believe them to be as undoubtedly hastening.

It is a strange thing, that the European nation, which, of all others not in immediate geographical juxta-position, has in former ages had the greatest connection with Bohemia, and exercised the greatest influence upon her, (I allude particularly to the effect produced by the writings of Wicliffe upon the