Page:Bohemian poems, ancient and modern (Lyra czecho-slovanska).djvu/23

Rh the noonday sun, while all around was enveloped in the gloom of ignorance or inactivity.’

Such was Bohemia before the fatal battle of the White Mountain in 1620, as described by one of her present faithful children, and certainly, when we consider the splendid reigns of Přemysl Ottokar II. King of Bohemia, and Charles IV. Emperor of Germany, the learning and courage of Huss and his followers, and the dauntless heroism of the unconquered Ziska, who, though blind, was never defeated, we cannot accuse him of overcolouring his picture, or speaking in terms too glowing of the glories of his country's former history. It may also perhaps be not uninteresting to the student of physical science to remark, that the first Herbarium printed in Europe, was a Bohemian production in the Bohemian language, and in spite of the general destruction of Bohemian literature by the Jesuits, is now in existence in the National Museum at Prague, and is adorned with woodcuts of unusual excellence. I now proceed to contrast with the above, a description of what the country and nation became after a short period of Jesuit tyranny, also from the pen of a Bohemian.

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