Page:Edvard Beneš – Bohemia's case for independence.pdf/91

Rh studies; Kollár was first to conceive the idea of Slav solidarity; Palacký is one of the most remarkable historians of Europe, and the importance of his work far surpasses the narrow boundaries of the history of a small Slav nation.

We have succeeded by assiduous labour in building our Czech house: though hindered continuously by the dynasty and the Germans, we have succeeded in making our country one of the richest territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, inasmuch as we practically feed and provide for all the other provinces. We have a right to be proud of our writers, men of letters and scientists of great reputation, worthy to be compared with those of any other civilised country. We have established a perfect system of primary and secondary instruction, and we have built up a flourishing University. We have in Bohemia succeeded in what no other nation except one has succeeded in, namely, in having practically no illiterates. Unfortunately our writers, such as Mácha, Němcová, Neruda, Vrchlický, Machar, Sova, Březina, whose works are in no wise inferior to those of the best-known foreign contemporary authors, are hardly known outside their own country, because they belong to only a small Slav nation, and because the hour of the Slavs has not yet struck.