Page:Dr. Miroslav Tyrš, the founder of the Sokol Union (1920).pdf/12

 He firmly believed in their mission to propagate the principles of freedom, equality and brotherhood among men. His idealism was powerful and Confident. He neither despaired nor gave up his work, even when his feeble body refused to bear the strain of his duties. Tyrš was convinced of the high importance and everlasting value of work and persevering activity. He was always on his guard to keep the Sokol-organisation from corruption and inner discord. – The original gymnastic methods and the pithy terminology of the Sokols are his own work. He edited a journal and watched over the evolution of the organisation. How happy he was in 1882, on the occasion of a Jubilee festival of the Sokol-union in Prague when leading 76 unions with 1600 members each – hailing from Bohemia, Moravia, America, Lublaň, Zagreb and Vienna – to the island of Střelecký where thousands of rejoicing people had assembled! Tyrš’s articles, published soon afterwards in the „Sokol“, show the contentment of the happy leader. He has not worked in vain! The idea for the realisation of which he has sacrified many a day and night will live in the future!

SeingSeeing [sic] his „cause standing on firm foundations“, he decided to concentrate his forces on a new aim.

He invariably paid great attention to aesthetics. Thanks to his profound studies and long travel in foreign countries he was thoroughly versed in aesthetical matters. Having been a second time refused admission to the University of Prague by a clique of German professors, he became a lecturer on the history of art at the Czech polytechnic school. Although in the years 1860 to 1870 he wrote but articles on Sokol-matters, he published in 1870 many critical and aesthetic essays on the conditions of evolution and success in artistic creation (1873), a translation from Taine (1873); on the laws of composition in plastic arts 1873 (unfinished); on the reform of Czech artistic life (1879), and on the law of convergence in artistic creation (1880). In these essays he treated the genesis of the works of art which appeared to him the original expression of national creative forces. According to Tyrš it is every nation’s duty to care for the education of its artists and its public. (This educational aim also led to his activity in „Umělecká Beseda“, an artististic association.) Art must be national and characteristical. He studied the laws of genius, and showed how to understand works of art. He laid down five conditions of beauty, yet, above all, he valued the characteristic qualities of artistic works.

He was the first Czech critic of his time and fully conscious of the seriousness of his task. (His articles were published in the journals: Osvěta, Světozor, Nár. Listy, and Zlatá Praha.) Having