Page:Bohemian poems, ancient and modern (Lyra czecho-slovanska).djvu/29

Rh nation. No sooner had the Emperor Joseph II.—an Emperor, however, whose memory is still cherished by the people because of the helping hand he lent to relieve them from the feudal privileges of an oppressive and unsympathizing aristocracy, and an equally tyrannizing clergy—by the ordinance of the 30th October, 1785, enjoined, that only such children as had learnt German should be permitted to frequent the Latin schools, and by that of 22nd Aug. 1789, that no children should be apprenticed to any trade, until they had spent two years at a normal school, i. e. one where German was taught,—no sooner had this home-thrust been aimed at the mother tongue of the nation, than the voice of the patriot was raised on behalf of the language of his childhood, and the studies of the philologer were directed to the investigation of the language and literature of his ancestors. As time advanced, it became more and more evident, that the civilization of the country could only be accomplished by means of the native language, partly because of an unconscious instinct in the mind of the people, which led them to distrust and reject whatever was forced upon them in the detested foreign garb, partly owing to a psychological fact, which was formerly recognized by as few, as now venture to dispute it, viz., that